Highlighting the chameleon nature of power

2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-354
Author(s):  
Edythe Weeks
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Black African ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Social ◽  
Racist Ideology ◽  
System Power ◽  
Race Analysis

This essay uses a poststructural/critical race analysis, and provides a specific example of how the social practice of labeling serves to create major ideological effects, which produce and reproduce unequal race-based power relations. Certain U.S. citizens are ascribed/branded with the seemingly politically correct label, “African-American”. Many believe that the shift from “Black” to “African-American” in 1988 was the result of Blacks exercising political power and achieving a hard-won right to change their identity. Also many view the new label as the common sense preferred alternative to “Black”. This article deconstructs the term “African-American” and views it within the context of the macro and micro interactive forces of politics, economics, sociology, history and socio-cultural phenomena. Instead of the intended purpose of fostering a sense of self-esteem, the label has also served to reinforce the socially constructed binary dualisms characterizing “Blacks” as being fundamentally different from “Whites”. Moreover, the notion of Black pride, self-esteem and heritage are concepts with the power to shift culpability and blame onto the victims of a race-based system. Power appeared to have been exercised by Black/African-Americans. However, the shift to African-American was not the result of autonomous thinking. It was a “reflex without reflection” (Billig 1991:8). It “echoed” dominating ideological structures of power. The “new” label unwittingly serves to further perpetuate racist ideology inherited from a foundational institution of slavery. America can enjoy the image of having a culture of freedom, equality and egalitarianism, while maintaining justifiable race-based political, social and economic inequality gaps.

Racial/Ethnic Socialization and Faith

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-274
Author(s):  
Stephanie Boddie ◽  
Eric Kyere
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Black Church ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
African American Youth ◽  
Ethnic Socialization ◽  
Positive Development ◽  
Black African ◽  
Racial Ethnic

Although racial-ethnic socialization (RES) within the African American communities includes faith/spirituality, Christian social workers have not explored this relationship in ways that explicitly integrate the two. As a result, we have limited understanding of how Christian social workers can foster a holistic sense of self that integrates Christian and racial/ethnic identities to foster empowerment and liberation possibilities among black/African American youth. Drawing on literature related to RES and faith/spirituality, we argue that Christians social workers can integrate the process of faith development, with an explicit focus on Black liberation theology, with RES to promote psychological and spiritual liberation to foster self-worth and dignity of black youth to promote their positive development. This paper provides a review of the literature on racial/ethnic socialization. A discussion of how the Black church and liberation theology along with black history positively shapes racial identity and preparation to resist racism. We conclude with some practice and research recommendations      

The Social Realities of Honor

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Paul Churchill
Keyword(s):  
Social Practice ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Individual Identity ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Honor Killings ◽  
The Social ◽  
Honor Killing ◽  
And Gender

This chapter examines the cultural and social contexts in which honor killings occur. Honor killing is a social practice in which complex psychological, interpersonal, and social dynamics are unified and replicated over time. The chapter first illuminates the general features of social practices, then analyzes features critical for honor killing as a social practice, beginning with the salience of norms of honor and shame in what are called honor–shame communities. The chapter analyzes sharaf, an important general honor concept, and ‘ird or ‘ard, the conception of honor relating to sex and gender behaviors, and most important when concerns about honor offenses arise. The latter pertain to the chastity and obedience of females and male responsibilities as guardians of females and as enforcers of communal honor norms. The constitutive features of honor–shame communities are identified, and the interrelationship between collective social elements and individual identity and self-esteem are discussed.

The Social Account of Humour

2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-93
Author(s):  
Daniel Abrahams
Keyword(s):  
Social Practice ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Social Account

AbstractPhilosophical accounts of humour standardly account for humour in terms of what happens within a person. On these internalist accounts, humour is to be understood in terms of cognition, perception, and sensation. These accounts, while valuable, are poorly situated to engage the social functions of humour. They have difficulty engaging why we value humour, why we use it define ourselves and our friendships, and why it may be essential to our self-esteem. In opposition to these internal accounts, I offer a social account of humour. This account approaches humour as a social practice. It foregrounds laughter and participation, and thereby gives an account of humour that helps to understand why we value humour, why we use it as we do, and why we use it to define our relationship to the world.

Our Sense of Self

2019 ◽  
pp. 159-178
Author(s):  
E. Tory Higgins
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Significant Others ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Shared Reality ◽  
Shared Beliefs ◽  
Political Group ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
What Matters

Of all the objects you know and have beliefs about, you are the object you pay most attention to and want to know best. And, when it comes to sharing beliefs and opinions about the world with others, you are the object in the world that you most want your significant others to share your beliefs and opinions about who you are. How do individuals learn to know who they are? It begins with children learning what it is about themselves and what they do that determines how others respond to them as an object in the world (shared social contingent self). They share with others what is relevant about them, what matters. They share what to expect of themselves in terms of their skills and abilities (shared expectant self). They share with others what goals they should pursue and what standards they should use to evaluate themselves (shared monitored self). Depending on whether their shared goals and standards are promotion or prevention, people inflate or deflate their self-esteem to maintain their eagerness or vigilance, respectively. And they are motivated to verify the truth of shared beliefs about themselves for both positive and negative self-attributes. And a big part of our sense of self are the social identities that we embrace. Individuals create a shared reality we with groups that is so powerful that they will die for it. Like a “band of brothers,” there can be a social fusion with a political group that has the power of family.

The Social Construction of Self-Esteem

2009 ◽  
pp. 216-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
John P. Hewitt
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Social Comparison ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Individual Action ◽  
Negative Experiences ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Evaluation Of Performance ◽  
Future State ◽  
The Social ◽  
Construction Of Self

Self-esteem is examined here as an object of cultural discourse and as a socially constructed emotion grounded in mood. Scientific and popular conceptions of self-esteem share an emphasis on the person's acceptance by self and others, the evaluation of performance, social comparison, and the efficacy of individual action as the important roots of self-esteem. The present analysis deconstructs these elements, treating them not as psychological universals but rather as deeply rooted in the competing themes of American culture. The discourse of self-esteem translates these themes into personal terms, enabling the person's understanding of where he or she stands in relation to such contradictory emphases as individuality versus community, striving for success versus self-acceptance, or the quest for happiness as a future state versus contentment with one's present lot. The socially constructed, discursive nature of self-esteem does not preclude an examination of its underlying psychological reality, which is here conceived as mood. Self-esteem provides a way of experiencing and interpreting mood, which functions to encourage and inhibit conduct in various situations depending upon the individual's ongoing experiences. Mood is a universal response to positive and negative experiences; self-esteem is a particular construction of mood fitted to a culture and its dominant and competing themes. The analysis considers how self-esteem binds the person to particular cultural emphases and examines the limitations of the contemporary self-esteem movement.

scholarly journals Prevalence Of Sexual Harassment Among Sportswomen In Pakistan

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 201-216
Author(s):  
Shagufta Jahangir ◽  
Asma Manzoor
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Sampling Method ◽  
Team Sports ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Probability Method ◽  
Interview Schedule ◽  
Psychological Issues ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Social ◽  
Women In Sports

Sexual harassment (SH) in sports is present in all over the world due to socially constructed values, myths and norms. Harassment is faced by large number of women in sports and it is present in all individual and team sports. The ratio is less in South Asian region as compared to western countries and it is also present in Pakistan. The objective of the research is to explore the social behaviors with the victimized sports women of SH in the Pakistani society. The researcher has used non-probability method in which purposive sampling method is used to collect data through interview schedule from 210 sports women residing in different places of Pakistan. Findings of the study highlights that sport women face SH. According to sports women they are harassed or abused by their male counterparts, i.e. which are their trainers, coaches and lower staff even during travelling for their sports seasons. The results of SH showed that women left sports due to the social norms of the society. Women hide such incidents due to the sake of self-respect, self-esteem and family honor. It is observed that women who faced SH usually attempt suicide to protect their honor. As a result, these women fear and hate men and they face psychological issues. This article aims to describe that SH is present in sports in Pakistan like other countries and females are aware about it, because usually in Pakistani society such cases are kept hidden. The importance of this study is to aware women about SH so that they can safeguard themselves.

Transformations of work and democratic decay

2021 ◽  
pp. 147488512110354
Author(s):  
Johan Andreas Trovik
Keyword(s):  
Social Practice ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Conceptual Scheme ◽  
Practice Model ◽  
Plausible Account ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Privileged Site

Democracies worldwide are under stress. Two distinct families of explanation can be identified by the relative emphasis they place on the cultural versus the economic. Protesting against this dichotomy, there are those who insist that economic and cultural grievances interact. A conceptual scheme which ties together the economic and the cultural through interaction, however, rests on a prior separation. In this article, a richer and more plausible account of the relationship between transformations of work and contemporary democratic decay is developed. This account is based on a social practice model of work, in which the economic and the cultural are entirely intertwined. The social practice of work is among other things a privileged site for the realisation of certain ‘goods of work’. These include self-respect, self-esteem and self-realisation. It is by altering expectations about the realisation of the goods of work that transformations of work have contributed to an environment within which democracies are under stress.

A Study of the Construction of Female Identity: John Fowles’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 321
Author(s):  
Narjes Tashakor Golestani
Keyword(s):  
Gender Roles ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Judith Butler ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
John Fowles ◽  
Construction Of Identity ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Social

The issue of identity and female consciousness as one of the major concerns of feminists has always been polemical, for there are different attitudes in formulating gender identity and consequently defining what a woman is. As its theoretical framework, this study relies on Judith Butler’s theory of gender and sexuality and studies the construction of identity in the female characters of John Fowles’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman. Judith Butler, a feminist constructivist, stresses the effect of socially constructed gender roles on creating gender identity and proposes her performative theory of gender and sexuality. In her theory Butler argues that gender is not what one is but what one does. In this sense, gender is not a stable identity from which various acts proceed; rather it is an identity constituted through a stylized repetition of normative gender roles and performances. Regarding gender as performative reveals that, what is taken as an internal essence of gender is actually fabricated through the regulatory frame of interacting discourses. It has an imitative structure which can be deconstructed. The study, thus, focuses on the effect of prescribed gender roles and norms in the process of identity formation, and examines Ernestina Freeman as a conformist character who constitutes her identity by taking on the ideal gender norms of the era and Sarah woodruff who tries to renegotiate and reenact those roles and constructs a sense of self which transcends constraints of the social and cultural hegemonic frame.

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