Goldstein Methods

1. Culture

1.1. "Culture of poverty"

1.2. She believes it's possible to capture something distinct about the lives of others and to represent those cultures to speak and be heard

2. Humor

2.1. Despite all of the hardship she witnessed, she always heard laughter

2.2. "Such laughter became a challenge, an interpretive method for beginning to unravel the complex ways in which people comprehend their own lives and circumstances"

2.3. "Unable to revolt, the use their laughter to oppose official Brazilian racial, class, and gender ideology. Laughter reveals the fault lines in social relations"

2.3.1. Humor comes from sorrow not joy

2.3.2. "Weapon of the weak"

3. Struggle

3.1. Class divides = dramatic differences

3.2. Illness, discomfort, hunger, violence, abandonment, imprisonment

4. Interviews

4.1. Observes the normal routines of life

4.2. Asks questions about everything

4.2.1. Lives, relationships, money, feelings, family

4.3. Keeps identities anonymous

4.4. Talks to/observes both adults and children

5. Economic/Political History

5.1. Slave trade, sugar, coffee, civil servants, trade

5.2. Lack of land reform resulted in class divides

5.3. Speaking about political/economic structures in the abstract detaches the collective reality of the process

5.3.1. Thick description is still useful

5.4. A political economy perspective can remind us about how the broader constraints of the system limit both the desires and the agency of the dominating classes