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Shame and the Experience of Ambivalence on the Margins of the Global: Pathologizing the Past and Present in Romania's Industrial Wastelands
Author(s) -
Friedman Jack R.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
ethos
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.783
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1548-1352
pISSN - 0091-2131
DOI - 10.1525/eth.2007.35.2.235
Subject(s) - shame , ambivalence , socioeconomic status , situated , sociology , feeling , context (archaeology) , politics , social psychology , gender studies , psychology , political science , history , law , population , demography , archaeology , artificial intelligence , computer science
This article examines shame in a context of political—economic decline (Jiu Valley, Romania). I argue that shame, which is traditionally associated with a "shrinking" feeling and social control, can take on a dual resonance for people situated in socioeconomic conditions of moral disorder. Shame can act as both a personal experience of self‐defeat as well as acting as a medium for critiquing the very system of socioeconomic norms and cultural values that work to make one feel ashamed. Using data drawn from research among coal miners in post‐state socialist Romania, this article illustrates how discourses associated with shame can be viewed as a critical understanding of the culturally meaningful experience of marginalization from and the ambivalence of global processes.