Religion in an Old Age Home: Symbolic Adaptation as a Survival Strategy

1984 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haim Kazan
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Study Groups ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Survival Strategy ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
Religious Activity ◽  
Social Resource ◽  
Symbolic Manipulation ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship

ABSTRACTBased on an ethnographic study of an old age home in Israel, this essay presents an analysis of how religious activity is used as part of a survival strategy by elderly residents in an institution for the well-aged. The study describes the symbolic manipulation of religious symbols and the social meaning of religion in an old age home in terms of four behavioural levels: (a) the synagogue members and their study groups; (b) the rabbi's lack of identification with his congregants; (c) the relationship to the non-religious management of the home; and (d) the differentiation of categories of residents in terms of ‘proper functioning’. Religion in this context is thus seen as an important social resource used in interactions with the social structure of the institution.

‘It ain’t nothing like America with the Bloods and the Crips’: Gang narratives inside two English prisons

2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Coretta Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
Mutual Support ◽  
Narrative Interviews ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The Social ◽  
Male Prisoners

This article explores recent concerns about the emergence of gangs in prisons in England and Wales. Using narrative interviews with male prisoners as part of an ethnographic study of ethnicity and social relations, the social meaning of ‘the gang’ inside prison is interrogated. A formally organized gang presence was categorically denied by prisoners. However, the term ‘gang’ was sometimes elided with loose collectives of prisoners who find mutual support in prison based on a neighbourhood territorial identification. Gangs were also discussed as racialized groups, most often symbolized in the motif of the ‘Muslim gang’. This racializing discourse hinted at an envy of prisoner solidarity and cohesion which upsets the idea of a universal prisoner identity. The broader conceptual, empirical and political implications of these findings are considered.

Interpersonal exchange and freedom for resource acquisition

2013 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 480-481
Author(s):  
John Adamopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Resource Acquisition ◽  
Resource Theory ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
Social Resource ◽  
Psychological Resources ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThe relationship of climate and monetary resources to various freedoms can be enriched if the conceptual links – “psychobehavioral adaptations” – are conceptualized more broadly as reflections of a richer cultural context that involves multiple physical and psychological resources, as proposed by social resource theory and a number of models of the emergence of social meaning.

scholarly journals Fish Canning Industry and The Rhythm of Social Life in the Northeastern Adriatic

2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanja Petrović
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Work Conditions ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
Tertiary Sector ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Local Impact ◽  
Late Socialism ◽  
Canning Industry ◽  
The Relationship

The article discusses the social world formed around canneries in small coastal and insular towns in the northeastern Adriatic. Although associated with hard, unpleasant labor and demanding work conditions, the fish canning industry, particularly in the period of late socialism, offered a framework in which a meaningful social life was organized and lived. In this way, the local impact of canneries reached much beyond providing financial means to its employees. To understand the social meaning of fish canning in the Yugoslav Adriatic, the article focuses on the relationship between the now largely vanished local fish canning industry and tourism that is increasingly becoming the dominant (and the only) source of income for local communities. Lefebvre’s concept of rhythmanalysis proves to be a productive lens to view the complex and often ambiguous relationship between the two industries, and to narrate the history of fish canning through the senses – what was seen, heard, smelled, felt. These intense, embodied, sensorial memories caution us that the dominant claims and narratives which interpret the replacement of industry with tourism (and other tertiary sector activities) as a necessary, inevitable and desirable developmental step should not be taken for granted.

scholarly journals The relational responding task (RRT): a novel approach to measuring social meaning of language variation

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (s1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Rosseel ◽  
Dirk Speelman ◽  
Dirk Geeraerts
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
Implicit Attitude ◽  
Implicit Measure ◽  
Relational Responding ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
Attitude Measures ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractRecently, sociolinguistic attitude research has adopted a number of new implicit attitude measures developed in social psychology. Especially the Implicit Association Test (IAT) has proven a successful new addition to the sociolinguist’s toolbox. Despite its relative success, the IAT has a number of limitations, such as the fact that it measures the association between two concepts (e.g. ‘I’ and ‘skinny’) without controlling for the relationship between those two concepts (e.g. ‘I am skinny’ vs. ‘I want to be skinny’). The Relational Responding Task (RRT), a novel implicit attitude measure recently developed by social psychologists, makes up for exactly that limitation by presenting participants with full propositions expressing beliefs rather than loose concepts. In this paper, we present a study that explores the RRT as a novel implicit measure of language attitudes. We employ the method to investigate the social meaning of two varieties of Dutch: Standard Belgian Dutch and colloquial Belgian Dutch. In total 391 native speakers of Belgian Dutch took part in the study. A training effect in the data aside, our results show that the latter variety is associated with dynamism, while the former is perceived as prestigious.

Aging, Meaning, and Well-Being: Musings of a Cultural Historian

1984 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 329-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas R. Cole
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Social Values ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
Spiritual Journey ◽  
Old People ◽  
The Social ◽  
Last Stage ◽  
Cultural Historian ◽  
Cultural Dominance

The social integration and well-being of old people depends in part on a culturally viable ideal of old age. Growing out of widely shared images and social values, an ideal old age legitimates norms and roles appropriate to the last stage of life. This article discusses the “late Calvinist” and “civilized” models of old age that flourished in Protestant, middle-class America between 1800 and 1920. It argues that the growing cultural dominance of science and the accelerating pace of capitalist productivity undercut the essential vision underlying these models: the view of life as a spiritual journey. The result has been a serious weakening of social meaning in aging and old age.

Missionary Zeal and the Scholarly Stance: Policy and Commitment in Research on Old Age

1989 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gilbert Smith
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Policy Process ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Missionary Zeal ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship

ABSTRACTThere is a danger that the ‘missionary zeal’ exhibited by some social gerontologists in the interests of those members of society who are older than others, may endanger the subject's ‘scholarly stance’ and the potential contribution to social policy of research on old age. This paper discusses four facets of the matter: (1) the anticipated values underpinning policies of state welfare (2) personal feelings and values in the business of research (3) values and the kind of data we value and (4) the question of whose side we are on. The paper concludes with a theoretical model of the relationship between the social policy process and the social research process as framework for understanding exactly how values about ageing impact both research about ageing and the relationship between that research and relevant social policies.

scholarly journals Sociolinguistic Variation in Athenian Suburban Speech

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Theodoropoulou
Keyword(s):  
Social Factors ◽  
Prepositional Phrase ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
Sociolinguistic Variation ◽  
Northern Area ◽  
Friendship Group ◽  
Suburban Areas ◽  
Western Area ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship

This article focuses on the description and interpretation of the social meaning of sociolinguistic variation in Athenian suburban speech. A descriptive statistical and a Varbrul analysis of the syntactic variable Verb and presence or absence of Prepositional Phrase (V +/– PP), as it is used by native northern and western suburbanites of Athens, suggests that primarily the area (northern and western suburbia) and, to a lesser extent, the sex of the speakers are statistically significant macro social factors constraining variation. In an effort to tease out the social meaning of the variation, a further analysis of some micro factors within each area, including the group of speakers, the topic, and the stance towards the rivalry between the aforementioned suburban areas, suggests that variation in both areas is interactionally constrained, but in the northern area it tends to be more friendship group-constrained, while in the western area it is more education-constrained. In light of these findings, the sociolinguistic implications of the study translate into the analytical need to account for the relationship between interactional and social factors in the description of variable grammars.

scholarly journals Old Age and Poverty in Poland, 1945-1989: The Status Regarding Knowledge And Research Problems

2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-68
Author(s):  
Dariusz Jarosz
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Research Topic ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
Research Problems ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Old Age ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract The history of old age has only relatively recently become explored as a research topic in Poland. This sketch focuses on the relationship between old age and poverty in People’s Republic of Poland. Old age, however, was a significant object of interest of the PRL authorities in at least two aspects. The first was the social security system, particularly in relation to old age and disability pensions, and the second, social care for the aged.

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