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Cited by 8Historical Psychiatry and Medical PracticesAnthropological Studies and InsightsManagement and Organizational Studies

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 43 of the 43 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

“I was at the right place at the right time”: The neglected role of happenstance in the lives of people and institutions

Armstrong, Neil, Agulnik, Peter·2020·HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory
DOI 10.1086/711880
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Abstract

This paper presents coproduced ethnographic material concerning the development of mental healthcare services in Oxfordshire, UK. Our collaborative working method highlights arbitrary events and connections in both individual lives and in the lives of institutions. We introduce the analytic concept of happenstance to make sense of this. Happenstance helps us theorize how chance arises in particular social contexts, contains both randomness and patterning, and becomes entwined with agency. The notion of happenstance thus enables us to retain a sense that chance is social and makes links between individuals or institutions and their social surround independently of structuration or habitus. The anthropology of bureaucracy has focused on the clumsiness of institutional mechanisms and the strategies people adopt in response. We suggest a new angle, combining happenstance with Ian Hacking’s notion of “ecological niche” to suggest how an openness to happenstance might create a different kind of evolving institution.

Overview

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Crossref · 10.1086/711880

Cites

43 of 43 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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  • By not following defined strategies and protocols, the authors were able to respond more sensitively to the social world they were engaging with.

    “By not following defined strategies and protocols, we believe we were able to respond more sensitively to the social world we were engaging with”

    From Is it Still Ok to be Ok? Mental Health Labels as a Campus Technology (2023) · cites this paper as Armstrong and Agulnik 2020

Citations

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 19

  1. Belkin Aaron, 1898, Bring me men: Military masculinity and the benign façade of American empire
  2. Bourdieu Pierre, The Logic of practice
  3. Briggs Asa, 2001, Michael Young: Social entrepreneur. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
  4. Buber Martin, 1947, Between man and man. London and
  5. Cottam Hilary, Radical help
  6. du Gay Paul, 2000, London: Sage.
  7. Foucault Michel, The birth of biopolitics
  8. Graeber David, The utopia of rules. New York and
  9. Greenblatt Milton, 1971, Stone
  10. Hacking Ian, Mad travelers: Reflections on the reality of transient mental illness
  11. Latour Bruno, 1993, Aramis, or, the love of technology. Translated by Catherine Porter
  12. Lipsky Michael, Street level bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the individual in public services. Updated edition
  13. Mathur Nayanika, Paper tiger: Law, bureaucracy and the developmental state in Himalayan India
  14. McLean Stuart, Crumpled paper boat: Experiments in ethnographic writing
  15. Muller Jerry Z, The tyranny of metrics
  16. O’Neill Onora, A question of trust
  17. Pearce Steve, The theory and practice of democratic therapeutic community treatment. London and
  18. Strathern Marilyn, 2000, London: Routledge.
  19. Taylor Charles, A secular age

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Metadata

Authors
Armstrong, N., & Agulnik, P.
Affiliations
University of Oxford (GB)
ORCID
Armstrong, Neil
Venue
HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory
Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Published
2020-12-01
Volume
10
Issue
3
Pages
890-905
ISSN
  • 2049-1115 (ISSN-L)
  • 2575-1433
DOI
10.1086/711880
OpenAlex
W3090368544
Cited by
8
References
43
Citations by year
2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1
FWCI
0.60
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Hau Journal of Ethnographic Theory (publishedVersion)
  • Hau Network of Ethnographic Theory (University of Rochester) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices
  • Social Sciences › Anthropology › Anthropological Studies and Insights
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Management and Organizational Studies
Keywords
mental health services, Oxfordshire, co-production, chance, agency, ecological niche, Ian Hacking, institutional change, mental health service development

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