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Article 1: Cieslik, M. (2014). “Not smiling but frowning”: Sociology and the “problem of happiness.” Sociology, 49(3), 422-437. doi:10.1177/0038038514543297

Abstract: Mainstream British sociology has curiously neglected happiness studies despite growing interest in wellbeing in recent years. Sociologists often view happiness as a problematic, subjective phenomenon, linked to problems of modernity such as consumerism, alienation and anomie. This construction of ‘happiness as a problem’ has a long history from Marx and Durkheim to contemporary writers such as Ahmed and Furedi. Using qualitative interview data, I illustrate how lay accounts of happiness suggest it is experienced in far more ‘social’ ways than these traditional subjective constructions. We should therefore be wary of using crude representations of happiness as vehicles for our traditional depictions of modernity. Such ‘thin’ accounts of happiness have inhibited a serious sociological engagement with the things that really matter to ordinary people, such as our efforts to balance suffering and flourishing in our daily lives.

Article 2: Lahman, M. K. E., Mendoza, B. M., Rodriguez, K. L., & Schwartz, J. L. (2011). Undocumented research participants: Ethics and protection in a time of fear. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 33(3), 304-322. doi:10.1177/0739986311414162

Abstract: President Obama characterized Arizona’s recent immigration law as undermining “basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans.” The authors’ extend the national discussion regarding immigration to ethics and research. Therefore, the purpose of this methodological article is to advance areas for ethical consideration when researching undocumented participants. Undocumented participants have been described as vulnerable and in need of protection when researched. The authors contend that undocumented participants are capable, competent, yet vulnerable simultaneously. Characterizing these participants as wholly vulnerable is a form of Otherization. The authors present a literature review of Other, vulnerable participants, illegal participants, and undocumented persons/participants. Authors have been ethics reviewers and/or researchers of undocumented participants. Drawing on these experiences throughout the article, they provide reflexively composed narrative interludes. Methodological and ethical considerations and strategies in the areas of Culturally Responsive Relational Reflexive Ethics (CRRRE) oriented research, anonymity/confidentiality, and consent are advanced.