The Everyday Production of Modern Subjectivity in World Society: Global Structures Meet Local Practices in Palestine

AbstractWhereas Michael Lambek situates the exploration of the significance of ‘ordinary ethics’ in the everyday as the study of ‘the ethical in the conjunction or movement between explicit local pronouncements and implicit local practices and circumstances’, this article takes the opposite view by drawing attention to special events that appear to engage – or provide space for – extraordinary ethics. Special events and their extraordinary ethics bring into relief the implicitness of the ordinary in everyday ethics. Weddings in Botswana are moments in the social life of the individual, the family and the community that produce such event ethics. On one level, the event ethics relate to the execution of these highly stylized weddings in terms of concerns about their performance and marital arrangements. On another level, the event ethics can have tacit dimensions that belong to the special nature of the occasion. This article argues not only that ‘ordinary ethics’ may be privileged through the study of what is tacit in social interactions, but that ‘event ethics’ also demonstrate the importance of the tacit.

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Regional Variations of and Regional Variations within Functional Differentiation – The Middle East and World Society

Soziale Systeme ◽

10.1515/sosys-2018-0008 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 23 (1-2) ◽

pp. 135-150

Author(s):

Mathias Albert ◽

Stephan Stetter

Keyword(s):

Middle Eastern ◽

Functional Differentiation ◽

World Society ◽

Second Step ◽

Regional Variations ◽

World Regions ◽

Local Practices ◽

Specific Variation ◽

Variation Of Functional ◽

Argument Proceeds

Abstract This article highlights the territorial and functional embedding of world regions within a functionally differentiated world society, as well as the heterogeneity between different (local) practices of functional differentiation within world regions. Its argument proceeds in two steps. In a first step, it discusses the distinction between regional variations of functional differentiation versus regional variations within functional differentiation as an important tool in order to characterize specific variations of structural patterns. In a second step it turns to the Middle Eastern case, arguing that while at first glance this may be a candidate for a regional variation of functional differentiation, a closer look reveals that it has been characterized by a very specific variation within functional differentiation for quite a while. The article concludes by using these observations for some thoughts on the functional differentiation of world society more generally.

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(Ir)reconcilable differences? Local reactions to provincial neoliberal educational reform

Promotion & Education ◽

10.1177/10253823050120030114x ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 12 (3_suppl) ◽

pp. 35-38 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Jean Shoveller ◽

Danielle Elliott ◽

Joy Johnson

Keyword(s):

School Districts ◽

Educational Reform ◽

Day School ◽

Youth Health ◽

Local Practices ◽

The Everyday ◽

Everyday Realities ◽

Saving Measure ◽

And Control

In this case study, we explore the intersections of neoliberal educational reform and the everyday experiences of people living in a rural region in northern British Columbia, Canada. Reflecting on the provincial Ministry of Education's Strategic Plan, we explore one region's responses to a set of provincial promises, which include providing regional school districts with more autonomy and control over the delivery of education services and a mandate for a balanced budget. The region faced declining student enrolments and funding shortfalls. As a cost-saving measure, the local school district in the region launched a four-day school week. We used ethnographic fieldwork techniques to examine a set of local practices and consequences that arose following the implementation of this measure. The findings demonstrate how provincial promises of educational reform can conflict with local educational needs and create a set of problematic everyday realities with repercussions on youth health, amplifying health inequalities that are irreconcilable with the purported goals of advancing the interests of students and society.

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Looking local, finding global: paradoxes of gender mainstreaming in the Scottish Executive

Review of International Studies ◽

10.1017/s0260210509990507 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 36 (1) ◽

pp. 51-76 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

AMANDA WITTMAN

Keyword(s):

Gender Equality ◽

Institutional Ethnography ◽

Local Level ◽

Gender Mainstreaming ◽

Global Level ◽

Working Lives ◽

Local Practices ◽

The Everyday ◽

Scottish Executive

AbstractGender mainstreaming is portrayed as the next step in the global gender equality landscape and has been widely adopted internationally in a variety of governments and political organisations. However, the radical potential of gender mainstreaming to transform organisations has not been fulfilled. In this article, I explore three paradoxes which are inherent in the intent, implementation and institutionalisation of gender mainstreaming. I argue that we cannot fully understand these global paradoxes without a better understanding of local experiences which underpin them in the everyday working lives of those people involved in advocating gender mainstreaming. Using results from an institutional ethnography of the implementation of the Gender Equality Duty by gender mainstreaming advocates in the Scottish Executive, I show that bureaucratic practices, fossilised norms and the continued reliance on soft measures to promote mainstreaming are reflections at the local level of barriers to the advancement of global gender mainstreaming. By taking seriously the local practices and knowledge of those who do gender mainstreaming, we can reflect on the inherent tensions within gender mainstreaming that prohibit its ability to truly transform the gender landscape at both the local and global level.

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Video Games and Emotion Regulation

GeroPsych ◽

10.1024/1662-9647/a000196 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 31 (4) ◽

pp. 205-213 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Kathryn L. Ossenfort ◽

Derek M. Isaacowitz

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Emotion Regulation ◽

Video Games ◽

Age Differences ◽

Interactive Media ◽

Age Groups ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Media Usage ◽

The Everyday ◽

Media Preferences

Abstract. Research on age differences in media usage has shown that older adults are more likely than younger adults to select positive emotional content. Research on emotional aging has examined whether older adults also seek out positivity in the everyday situations they choose, resulting so far in mixed results. We investigated the emotional choices of different age groups using video games as a more interactive type of affect-laden stimuli. Participants made multiple selections from a group of positive and negative games. Results showed that older adults selected the more positive games, but also reported feeling worse after playing them. Results supplement the literature on positivity in situation selection as well as on older adults’ interactive media preferences.

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