Collecting the 'Thick Descriptions': A Pandemic Ethnography of the Lived Experiences of Covid-19 Induced Stigma and Social Discrimination in India. Issue 3 (3rd April 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: S., Sumesh S.; Gogoi, Nitish
• Is Part Of: Journal of loss and trauma. Volume 27:Issue 3(2022)
• Page Start: 271
• Page End: 284
• Publication Date: 2022-04-03
• Subjects: Pandemic Ethnography -- lived experiences -- Covid-19 -- stigma -- social discrimination -- victims -- India; Loss (Psychology) -- Periodicals; Adjustment (Psychology) -- Periodicals; Life change events -- Periodicals; Interpersonal relations -- Periodicals; 154.4
• DOI: 10.1080/15325024.2021.1947019
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1532-5024

Abstract

Abstract: This ethnographic study investigates the lived experiences of stigma and social discriminations in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic in India and explored three specific themes that emerged during the pandemic: body in quarantine and manifestations of stigmas; social processing of stigmas; and embodied reflections of stigmas. These themes show the intersections of perceived, experienced and internalized stigmas among the stigmatized and produced the concept of "being-in-the-struggle, " which indicates the complexities, challenges, and hurdles created by the Covid-19 induced stigma and social discrimination among the stigmatized. Thus, this study demonstrates how the social processing of stigma becomes a reality on its own and affects the victims' everyday social as "being in the struggle". Furthermore, we propose "pandemic ethnography" to uncover the everyday social of a person or group affected by a pandemic like Covid-19 and urge social science researchers to rethink ethnographies with emerging epistemological and methodological challenges posed by the pandemic.