University of Notre Dame
Browse

File(s) under permanent embargo

Profound Encounters: How Groups Cultivate Extraordinary Experiences of Social Realities

thesis
posted on 2011-07-21, 00:00 authored by Christopher John Hausmann
This dissertation investigates how groups cultivate profound experiences of their circumstances. Based upon ethnographic research at a religious college retreat and with a group of paranormal investigators, I illustrate how both groups disrupted actors' implicit expectations, leading actors to reinterpret who and what was in their midst. However, because these experiences were predicated upon thwarting actors' sense of anticipation, such experiences were necessarily short-lived. Thus, each group had to consistently reorganize themselves in order to achieve similar experiences across time. In particular, the ghost-hunters sought out new places to hunt, and the retreat recruited new cohorts of participants. Over time, these second-order efforts to secure resources for extraordinary experiences led to increasing social organization, and a sense of the groups' history. Because the capacity to anticipate specific events varied across the members of each group, actors who were more familiar with a specific event were well-positioned to strategically manage others' expectations. Such interactions provided motivations for involvement (such as gleaning status) that were largely decoupled from the central tasks of the group.

History

Date Modified

2017-06-05

Defense Date

2011-05-31

Research Director(s)

Omar Lizardo

Committee Members

Eugene Halton Rory McVeigh

Degree

  • Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Level

  • Doctoral Dissertation

Language

  • English

Alternate Identifier

etd-07212011-162255

Publisher

University of Notre Dame

Additional Groups

  • Sociology

Program Name

  • Sociology

Usage metrics

    Dissertations

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC