Generally Speaking

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eviatar Zerubavel
Keyword(s):  
Social Contexts ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Mental Processes ◽  
Contextual Diversity ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Social Patterns ◽  
Cross Domain ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
Historical Periods

Defying the conventional split between “theory” and “methodology,” this book introduces a yet unarticulated and thus far never systematized method of theorizing designed to reveal abstract social patterns. Insisting that such methodology can actually be taught, it tries to make the mental processes underlying the practice of a “concept-driven sociology” more explicit. Many sociologists tend to study the specific, often at the expense of also studying the generic. To correct this imbalance, the book examines the theoretico-methodological process by which we can “distill” generic social patterns from the culturally, historically, and situationally specific contexts in which we encounter them. It thus champions a “generic sociology” that is pronouncedly transcontextual (transcultural, transhistorical, transsituational, and translevel) in its scope. In order to uncover generic, transcontextual social patterns, data need to be collected in a wide range of social contexts. Such contextual diversity is manifested multi-culturally, multihistorically, multisituationally, as well as at multiple levels of social aggregation. True to its message, the book illustrates generic social patterns by drawing on numerous examples from diverse cultural contexts and historical periods and a wide range of diverse social domains, as well as by disregarding scale. Emphasizing cross-contextual commonality, generic sociology tries to reveal formal “parallels” across seemingly disparate contexts. This book features the four main types of cross-contextual analogies generic sociologists tend to use (cross-cultural, cross-historical, cross-domain, and cross-level), disregarding conventionally noted substantive differences in order to note conventionally disregarded formal equivalences.

Exampling

2020 ◽  
pp. 23-36
Author(s):  
Eviatar Zerubavel
Keyword(s):  
Social Contexts ◽  
Contextual Diversity ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Social Patterns ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
Social Domains ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Methodological Practice ◽  
Historical Periods

This chapter examines the theoretico-methodological practice of “exampling.” After all, in concept-driven sociology, examples are the data, assuming the form of specific empirical illustrations of generic patterns. By using concrete “cases” yet disregarding their singularity, concept-driven researchers can empirically instantiate those abstract, initially difficult-to-grasp patterns. As this chapter demonstrates, a generic sociology calls for multicontextual data. In order to identify generic, transcontextual social patterns, one needs to encounter them in multiple social contexts, and the wider the range of contexts in which one collects one’s data, the more generalizable the patterns they reveal. Such contextual diversity is manifested multi-culturally (drawing on examples from diverse cultural contexts), multihistorically (using data from a wide range of historical periods), multisituationally (drawing on examples from diverse social “domains”), as well as at multiple levels of social aggregation (effectively disregarding scale).

scholarly journals Stigma and Exclusion in Cross-Cultural Contexts

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie Elizabeth Pohlman ◽  
Sol Rojas-Lizana ◽  
Maryam Hassan Jamarani
Keyword(s):  
Social Contexts ◽  
Verbal Abuse ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Social Worlds ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Exclusionary Practices ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Abuse And Neglect ◽  
The University

Discriminatory and marginalising discourses affect the cultural and social realities of people in all human societies. Across time and place, these discourses manifest in numerous tangible and intangible ways, creating stigma and forms of exclusion by means particular to their cultural, historical, political and social contexts. These discourses also manifest in varying degrees of harm; from verbal abuse and behavioural forms of exclusion, to physical abuse and neglect, and exclusionary practices at institutional, legal and regulatory levels. Such forms of stigma cause direct physical and mental harm and other forms of persecution. The papers in this special issue arise from a one-day symposium held at the University of Queensland in February 2013. The symposium, ‘Stigma and Exclusion in Cross-Cultural Contexts’, brought together researchers and community-based practitioners from across Australia and overseas to explore marginalization, discriminatory discourses and stigma in a wide range of historical and cross-cultural settings. By critically engaging with experiences of social, political and cultural exclusion and marginalisation in different contexts, we aimed to elucidate how discourses of stigma are created, contested and negotiated in cross-cultural settings. We also aimed to explore stigmatisation in its lived realities: as discourses of exclusion; as the fleshy reality of discrimination in social worlds; as part of the life narratives of individuals and groups; and as discourses of agency and counter-discourses in responding to stigma.

‘Hand-to-hand sports and the struggle for belonging’

Ethnography ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 146613812110428
Author(s):  
Dario Nardini ◽  
Giuseppe Scandurra
Keyword(s):  
Social Contexts ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Social Belonging ◽  
Community Belonging ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
National Local

This special issue on hand-to-hand sports aims to analyse how collective identities and forms of group and community belonging are defined, strengthened, built, imagined or even denied in the sportive and social contexts in which hand-to-hand combat or wrestling disciplines are practised. Considering the wide-ranging cross-cultural distribution of combat and wrestling practices in very different cultures and societies across the contemporary world, this issue intends to provide a (not-exhaustive) comparison of practices originating in highly heterogeneous geographical, social and cultural contexts. Indeed, comparisons focus on specific practices (combat and wrestling activities) and their relationship with belonging. The contributing scholars have studied and reflected on a particular style of wrestling or combat practice and its links to social belonging and identity, whether it be expressed on regional or national, local or global, social or ethnic, institutional or ‘counter-cultural’, symbolic or concrete levels.

Utopian and insular spaces in Chinese literature: An island approach

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gang Hong
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Literature ◽  
Oceanic Island ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Utopian Literature ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Relative Lack ◽  
Western Model ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Historical Periods ◽  
Scholarly Attention

In response to the relative lack of scholarly attention paid to the relationship between island utopia and Chinese literature, this paper studies the imagination of both island and insular geographies in Chinese ‘utopian’ literature using an island-sensitive approach. Employing an expanded and constructive conception of the island, the paper examines the heterogeneity of Chinese island and insular imaginaries in literary works from diverse historical periods, especially in relation to the dominant western model of the remote tropical oceanic island. Based on the finding that the alterity of Chinese island and insular imagination lies as much in its depiction of spatial ambiguities as in its mixing of diverse figures, I reflect further on the benefits and perils of adopting a west-inflected island approach in examining the imaginary landscapes of utopianism and insularity in Chinese literature. It is argued that Chinese island literature is more a reading effect enabled by an imported theoretical approach than any inherent tradition in itself. In the end, two paths for innovating island aesthetics and epistemologies in cross-cultural contexts are proposed.

Transnational

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Jay
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
Cultural Organization ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Cultural Experiences ◽  
Historical Periods

Both the shape and substance of literary studies have been dramatically transformed since the late 20th century by a growing interest in the transnational nature of literary production and circulation, and by explorations of how literature engages with forms of experience that transcend nation-state boundaries. During this period, the nation-state model for organizing literary studies has been augmented by a number of others, including comparative, multicultural, postcolonial, world, and global, that have dramatically transformed the geographical and cultural organization of the field. This shift has been accompanied by a wide range of theoretical work on the concept of the transnational. In addition, critical analyses of literary texts across a range of historical periods have paid increasing attention to the treatment of transnational and cross-cultural experiences in literature, so that the importance of the transnational as an organizing principle for scholarship and teaching has been matched by its emergence as a key subject of inquiry—and vigorous debate—in literary studies.

scholarly journals A Productive Expression Platform Derived from Host-Restricted Eilat Virus: Its Extensive Validation and Novel Strategy

Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 660
Author(s):  
Lu Tan ◽  
Yiwen Zhang ◽  
Xingxing Wang ◽  
Dal Young Kim
Keyword(s):  
Expression Vectors ◽  
Structural Genes ◽  
Host Restriction ◽  
Expression Platform ◽  
Mosquito Cells ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Restriction Property ◽  
Infected Cells ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
Novel Strategy

Most alphaviruses are transmitted by mosquitoes and infect a wide range of insects and vertebrates. However, Eilat virus (EILV) is defective for infecting vertebrate cells at multiple levels of the viral life cycle. This host-restriction property renders EILV an attractive expression platform since it is not infectious for vertebrates and therefore provides a highly advantageous safety profile. Here, we investigated the feasibility of versatile EILV-based expression vectors. By replacing the structural genes of EILV with those of other alphaviruses, we generated seven different chimeras. These chimeras were readily rescued in the original mosquito cells and were able to reach high titers, suggesting that EILV is capable of packaging the structural proteins of different lineages. We also explored the ability of EILV to express authentic antigens via double subgenomic (SG) RNA vectors. Four foreign genetic materials of varied length were introduced into the EILV genome, and the expressed heterologous genetic materials were readily detected in the infected cells. By inserting an additional SG promoter into the chimera genome containing the structural genes of Chikungunya virus (CHIKV), we developed a bivalent vaccine candidate against CHIKV and Zika virus. These data demonstrate the outstanding compatibility of the EILV genome. The produced recombinants can be applied to vaccine and diagnostic tool development, but more investigations are required.

Substance Use and Peers During Adolescence and the Transition to Adulthood

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan E. Patrick ◽  
John E. Schulenberg ◽  
Jennifer Maggs ◽  
Julie Maslowsky
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
Peer Relationships ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Transition To Adulthood ◽  
Peer Relations ◽  
Peer Groups ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Cigarette Use ◽  
Developmental Transitions ◽  
Wide Range

This chapter summarizes recent literature concerning the connection between peers and substance use (i.e., alcohol use, cigarette use, and illicit drug use) during adolescence and the transition to adulthood. The broad category of peers consists of a wide range of social relationships including best friends, peer groups, and crowds; important aspects include peer activities, relationships, and influence. Young people both select their friends (e.g., based on shared interests) and are influenced, or socialized, by their selected peers. When examining the dynamic periods of life that cover the transitions into, through, and out of adolescence and into the post-high school years, selection and socialization are especially important, given that many transitions involve changes in social contexts and peer relationships. The authors take a developmental perspective by focusing on the developmental transitions that occur during adolescence and the transition to adulthood and how they influence peer relations and substance use.

A dynamic Asian response to globalization in cross-cultural social work

2005 ◽  
Vol 48 (5) ◽  
pp. 593-607 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kam-shing Yip
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Cultural Sensitivity ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Travail Social ◽  
Trabajo Social

Authentization, indigenization, cultural sensitivity, cultural competence and globalization are controversial issues in cross-cultural social work. In this article, the writer tries to clarify all these related concepts. In terms of various Asian cultural contexts, a model of dynamic Asian response and exchange in the field of cross-cultural social work practice in Asian countries is suggested. French L'authentization, l'indigénisation, la sensibilité culturelle, la compétence interculturelle et la mondialisation sont des questions controversées en travail social interculturel. Dans cet article, l'auteur tend à clarifier ces concepts interliés et suggère une réponse et des échanges asiatiques dynamiques dans le contexte culturel diversifié des contrées de l'Asie. Spanish La autencización, la indigenización, la sensibilidad cultural, la competencia cultural y la globalización son asuntos controvertidos en el trabajo social transcultural. El autor trata de clarificar todos estos relacionados conceptos. Respecto a varios contextos culturales de Asia, el autor sugiere un modelo dinámico de intercambio y respuesta asiática a la práctica de trabajo social transcultural en países de Asia.

scholarly journals A Model for Analysing the Collective Dynamic Behaviour and Characterising the Exploitation of Population-Based Algorithms

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikdam Turkey ◽  
Riccardo Poli
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Dynamic Behaviour ◽  
Fitness Landscape ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Levels Of Abstraction ◽  
Collective Dynamic ◽  
Model Studies ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Multiple Levels

Several previous studies have focused on modelling and analysing the collective dynamic behaviour of population-based algorithms. However, an empirical approach for identifying and characterising such a behaviour is surprisingly lacking. In this paper, we present a new model to capture this collective behaviour, and to extract and quantify features associated with it. The proposed model studies the topological distribution of an algorithm's activity from both a genotypic and a phenotypic perspective, and represents population dynamics using multiple levels of abstraction. The model can have different instantiations. Here it has been implemented using a modified version of self-organising maps. These are used to represent and track the population motion in the fitness landscape as the algorithm operates on solving a problem. Based on this model, we developed a set of features that characterise the population's collective dynamic behaviour. By analysing them and revealing their dependency on fitness distributions, we were then able to define an indicator of the exploitation behaviour of an algorithm. This is an entropy-based measure that assesses the dependency on fitness distributions of different features of population dynamics. To test the proposed measures, evolutionary algorithms with different crossover operators, selection pressure levels and population handling techniques have been examined, which lead populations to exhibit a wide range of exploitation-exploration behaviours.

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