In the Right Place at the Right Time: Electronic Tagging and Problems of Social Order/Disorder

2001 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 174-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Bloomfield

This paper explores the relationship between technology and problems of social order/disorder in the context of discussions of surveillance and ‘virtuality'. The emphasis is on understanding the connections between technology and social relations in areas where issues of social order/disorder are a prominent feature of concern and where one can identify the emergence of new regimes of virtual control which are directed at solving the (supposed) deficits in order or the threats posed to it. Rather than constituting a ‘technical fix’ for the problems of social order/disorder, it is argued that forms of virtual control both presuppose a reconstruction of social order and at the same time aim to effect a suppression of disorder. Focusing in particular on various manifestations of electronic tagging – from prisoners to babies, from retail goods to works of art, from television programmes to Personal Identification Numbers – the paper argues that these share a problematic which interrelates technology, order/disorder, subjects/objects, time, and space. It thus seeks to generalize the concept of electronic tagging, to regard it as a practice rather than a specific set of artefacts. Moreover, in contrast to the negative, panoptic reading of tagging technologies, the paper considers the active public participation in systems of surveillance and thereby the more positive or productive exercises of power which they may be taken to constitute.

Südosteuropa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 386-407
Author(s):  
Mladen Lazić ◽  
Jelena Pešić

AbstractBased on research data from 2003, 2012, and 2018, the authors examine the extent to which capitalist social relations in Serbia have determined liberal value orientations. The change of the social order in Serbia after 1990 brought about a radical change of the basis upon which values are constituted. To interpret the relationship between structural and value changes, the authors employ the theory of normative-value dissonance. Special attention in the analysis is paid to the interpretation of value changes based on the distinction between intra- and inter-systemic normative-value dissonance. In the first part of their study, the authors examine changes in the acceptance of liberal values over the period of consolidation of capitalism in Serbia, while in the second part they focus on the 2018 data and specific predictors of political and economic liberalism.


Sociology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Kivisto

Conservatism refers to one of the constituent political positions found in all contemporary democracies. It can be construed as a philosophy, an ideology, a political party, a movement, a disposition, a mode of discourse, performance style, and an emotional relationship to the political. Since the birth of modern democracies in the aftermath of the French Revolution, it has become commonplace to describe the range of political options available to the citizenry as occupying a spectrum from left to right, with a range of alternatives between the extreme poles, including a centrist position in the middle that straddles the divide. The left was associated with promoting challenges to established authorities and existing hierarchies, along with calls for increased economic equality and expanded social and political rights to all citizens, including the heretofore marginalized. This contrasts with the right, which was defined as defending inequalities and differential entitlements, concentrating matters involving rights around preserving property rights, shoring up public and social order, and promoting traditional values and conventional social relations. In this context, liberalism became a mark of political identity associated with the left, as did socialism, while conservatism, broadly construed, represented the right. This framing of politics also includes the possibility of underminings by extremism on both the left and right. For the former, the main threat since the Russian Revolution has been posed by revolutionary communism, while right-wing extremism has manifested itself in reactionary movements, including fascism and illiberal populism. Since liberalism and conservatism must be understood in relational terms, the spatial and temporal settings for the politics of opposition will vary considerably. It is impossible to do justice to the vast literature on conservatism in a bibliography such as this. What follows is a more delimited, and thus manageable examination of work on conservatism. First, it focuses on conservatism in the United States, and not elsewhere. Second, it is chiefly concerned with conservatism since the end of World War II. Third, it concentrates on the study of conservatism by sociologists and those working in cognate disciplines; while not all the authors are card-carrying sociologists, their works reflect a sociological character, although the exception to this third point is the overview section, which presents key readings by advocates of conservatism, and thus offers insider depictions of the meaning of conservatism. Fourth, this article does not concentrate solely on extremist right-wing movements; rather, in surveying the relevant literature on American conservatism broadly construed, it points to a growing consensus that the radical right wing has pushed mainstream conservatism increasingly further to the right.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-101
Author(s):  
Husnul Khotimah

Regarding Pancasila Values ​​in the Islamic View, the first and second precepts constitute the Metaphysical Fundation, the third and fourth precepts constitute the Instrumental Fundation, and the fifth precepts constitute justice. Therefore we must do: mahasabah (evaluation), murakabah (guarding / supervising), and muhawalah (getting around) Islam as a religion that upholds egalitarianism, which is an open concept of solidarity and social dependence (ta`awun). Islam recognizes the right of all humans to live properly in terms of health, clothing, food, housing and social efforts that are needed regardless of differences in background. Islam also emphasizes the right of everyone to social security at the time of unemployment, illness, disability, widow / widower, elderly or disadvantaged. This standard of living is only possible in a healthy social order, where individuals with individuals, individuals with groups, and groups with groups maintain strong social relations. This has become the spirit of Islam in being responsible and sacrificing one another in order to create a community that shares, helps and helps each other. The piety of the faithful as slaves to Allah (‘abd Allah) boils down to a direct impact on piety in social-horizontal relations. These two aspects characterize the balance of Islamic teachings. Therefore, what should be our thoughts together is that the values ​​of Pancasila are substantially not in conflict with or even in accordance with Islam.


Author(s):  
Alejandro Cerón

The relationship between public health practice and the fulfilment of the right to health is often assumed to be synergistic. With the goal of understanding how exactly this relationship happens, I studied the everyday practice of epidemiology in Guatemala, seeking to understand how it shapes and is shaped by the notion of health as a human right. Here I present findings from my ethnographic investigation of the Guatemalan Centro Nacional de Epidemiología (National Epidemiology Center), created in 2004 with the explicit mission of contributing to fulfilling the right to health for the inhabitants of Guatemala. While the relationship between epidemiological practice and the right to health is influenced by the specific configuration of local and transnational flows (bureaucratic, economic, ideological, political, scientific, social, and symbolic), epidemiologists also play an important mediating role. There are four intermediate social mechanisms that shape the relevance of epidemiological practice to fulfilling the right to health in Guatemala. Given how the country’s economic and social inequalities translate into enormous health inequities, an epidemiological practice committed to the right to health should aspire to transform, rather than reproduce, the social hierarchies underlying such inequalities. The mechanisms I identified shape how epidemiological practice contributes to the reproduction or transformation of such hierarchies. These mechanisms shape what I call ‘neocolonial epidemiology’, and include: institutional chaos, disciplinary conformism, global health international relations, and social relations at the national level.


2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
William Galston

The relationship between private and state power in a pluralist liberal democracy raises complex issues that this article explores, focusing on control over children’s education. While rights are the default vocabulary of liberal theory and practice, they do not suffice to characterize either the claims of children or the responsibilities of adults. While many theorists have followed Joel Feinberg in proposing that children have the right to an “open future,” there are good reasons to doubt that they do. Within limits, parents’ convictions appropriately enter into the content of their children’s education and instruction, and the integrity of civil associations supplements (without supplanting) the discourse of individual rights. John Stuart Mill points toward a triadic understanding of educational authority that coordinates three sets of interests—the developmental interests of children, the civil interests of the state, and the expressive interests of parents. To explicate expressive interests, the Article lays out a theory of “expressive liberty”—the value of being able to live in a manner consistent with our deepest understanding of what gives meaning and value to our lives. While raising children is an important aspect of parents’ expressive liberty, it is limited by the separateness of each child’s existence, the fact of human diversity, and the requisites of civil order. Nonetheless, in societies characterized by a deep diversity of moral and religious views, the requirements of both practicality and legitimacy point toward a social order that offers maximum feasible scope for different ways of life to find expression in the choices of parents and civil associations. The Article explores this thesis with particular reference to U.S. history and law.


2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-139
Author(s):  
Toomas Gross

This paper discusses the relationship between religious affiliation and the ways that the notion of ‘respect’ (respeto) is used in common discourse in rural Oaxaca. Drawing on the ethnographic example of indigenous Zapotec villages in the Sierra Juárez, I examine how Protestants and Catholics employ the term to justify their attitudes towards each other and towards the norms of communal life. Both consider ‘respect’ an important value in social relations, but in significantly different ways. Catholics conceptualise ‘respect’ mainly as a hierarchical value central to which is the villagers' subordination to the authority of customs and communal leaders. For most Protestants, however, respect is a horizontal notion that is associated with freedom of religion and the right of individuals to distance themselves from local traditions without being socially excluded or marginalised. The differences between these two perspectives are reconciled by a mutual acknowledgement of the need to ‘reciprocate’ respect.


F1000Research ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 111
Author(s):  
Buddhika TB Wijerathne ◽  
Geetha K Rathnayake

BackgroundThe relationship between handedness and digital dermatoglyphic patterns has never been investigated in the Sinhalese population. The goal of this study is to establish the above mentioned relationship, which would positively aid personal identification. FindingsOne hundred Sinhalese students (50 right-handed and 50 left-handed) were studied for their digital dermatoglyphic pattern distribution. The results show that a statistically significant correlation exists for digit 3 (P=0.002, Fisher’s exact test) of the right hand and digit 1 (P=0.002, Fisher’s exact test) and digit 2 (P=0.021, Fisher’s exact test) of the left hand. Further, whorl patterns are more common in right-handed than left-handed Sinhalese students.Conclusions Statistically significant differences in handedness and digital dermatoglyphic patterns were evident among Sinhalese people. Further study with a larger sample size is recommended.


2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph William Singer

AbstractMay a hotel owner that objects to same-sex marriage on religious grounds refuse to host a same-sex wedding in its ballroom or deny the couple the right to book the honeymoon suite? Do public accommodation laws oppress religious dissidents by forcing them to act contrary to their religious beliefs or does discriminatory exclusion threaten equal access to the market economy and deny equal citizenship to LGBTQ persons? Answering these questions requires explaining why one property claim should prevail over another and why one liberty should prevail when it clashes with another. And answering those questions requires analysis of the relationship between property and sovereignty.Sovereign power both creates and regulates the types of property rights that can be tolerated in a free and democratic society that values each person equally. Should we view sovereignty as a threat to property or property as a threat to sovereignty? Libertarians choose the first and liberals the second. But this is the wrong way to understand the relation between property and sovereignty. Property and sovereignty are not separate and independent concepts or spheres of social life that can be brought into relationship with each other. Rather, they are imbricated; they overlap like roof tiles. Our aspiration to live in a free and democratic society places certain constraints on both property and sovereignty. Such societies do not recognize absolute power, whether public or private. Free and democratic societies are committed to a substantive vision of both social relations and politics. We have fruitful debates about property and sovereignty and, in the end, must construct a legal system that effects an acceptable compromise between access and exclusion in the property regime.Our historic practices regarding racial and other forms of discrimination and our evolving norms suggest that public accommodation laws enable access to the marketplace without regard to invidious discrimination. Religious freedom cannot operate to deny equal citizenship or opportunity. For that reason, a same-sex couple should not have to call ahead to see if they are welcome to book the honeymoon suite. Public accommodation laws do not infringe on legitimate property rights or religious freedoms; rather, they define the legitimate contours of liberty and property in a society that treats each person with equal concern and respect.


2011 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 17-36
Author(s):  
Aušra Kristina Pažėraitė

Šio tyrimo tikslas – apčiuopti XX a. pabaigos–XXI a. pradžios popkultūroje, konkrečiai, kinematografijoje reiškinius, kuriuos galima interpretuoti kaip vykstantį normatyvinių, įsitvirtinusių religijų palaikomų religinių doktrinų, praktikų ir moralės normų perkonstravimą XIX a.–XX a. pradžios okultinių judėjimų mokymų, praktikų ir simbolikos pagrindu. Buvo parodyta, kad šie reiškiniai yra platesnių kultūrinių ir religinių procesų dalis, o būtent – kaip difuzija viešojoje, sekuliariojoje erdvėje to, kas šiame tyrime buvo formuluojama kaip „kairysis kelias religijose“. Viešojoje erdvėje vyksta procesai, atliekantys tam tikrą „vertybių perkainojimą“, t. y. viešpataujančios, įsitvirtinusios konkrečioje visuomenėje religijos, moralinės normos, tabu ir religinės tapatybės „perkainojamos“ kaip tam tikra prasme „destruktyvios“, sužlugdžiusios, esą, kažkada egzistavusias „tikrąsias“. Minėtiems procesams analizuoti šiame tyrime buvo sukonstruotas teorinis įrankis, čia vadinamas „kairiuoju keliu religijose“, kurį galima formuluoti taip: kairysis kelias religijose – tai elitistiniai religinio pobūdžio tekstai ir praktikos, kurie virš įsigalėjusios, daugumos palaikomos religinės praktikos, doktrinų ir diegiamų moralinių normų iškelia kitas doktrinas ir praktikas, kurios laikomos tinkamomis turintiesiems ypatingą iniciaciją. Būna, kad šios doktrinos ir praktikos nevengia normatyvinės moralės ir ritualinių tabu pažeidimų, nors ir neturi tikslo išstumti visuomenėje įsigalėjusios religijos suformuotas (ar bent patyrusias jos įtaką) moralės normas ir ritualinius tabu, kaip visuomenės daugumai priimtinus socialinei tvarkai užtikrinti. Buvo tyrinėti „kairiojo kelio“ termino vartojimo ypatumai moderniuose Vakarų okultiniuose judėjimuose, aptariami „kairiojo kelio“ tapimo „dešiniuoju keliu“ (kitaip tariant, difuzijos) niuansai šiuolaikinėje populiariojoje kultūroje (konkrečiai, XX a. pabaigos–XXI a. pradžios kinematografijoje), pateikiant jos klasifikaciją, išskiriant būtent šio tyrimo tikslus atitinkantį pogrupį.Pagrindiniai žodžiai: kairysis kelias religijose, okultiniai judėjimai, tapatybių perkūrimas, popkultūra.THE DIFFUSION AND TRANSFORMATIONS OF LEFT-HAND PATH RELIGIONS IN THE CONTEMPORARY POPULAR CULTUREAušra Kristina Pažėraitė SummaryIn this article some features of the present-day (late 20th–early 21st c.) pop-culture, concretely cinematography, are analyzed for phenomena which can be interpreted as an ongoing transformation of normative morality, religious doctrines and ritual taboos of established religions on the ground of doctrines, practices and symbolism of modern (late 19th–20th c.) occult movements. The author argues that these phenomena are part of wider cultural and religious processes, i.e. of diffusion in public, secular, and also new religious and spiritual movements of what in this study was formulated as the “left-hand paths in religions”, the processes that perform a “reevaluation of values” of given society, grounded in particular established religion and religious identity, reevaluation of established moral norms and ritual taboos as at certain extent “destructives”. To achieve this goal the author has formulated a theoretical tool for analysis of general phenomena in religions as “left-hand path in religions” on the basis of Andree Padoux’s descriptions of “lefthand path” in Hindu religions, and which can be formulated as follows: left-hand path in religions – are elitist religious texts and practices that are destined not to eliminate norms of morality and ritual taboos of established religion, as far as they are acceptable for society in general as the basis for social order, but to achieve some goals that this established religion is supposed incapable to help to achieve in established manner, and only knower and practitioner of doctrines, rituals and other practices (that sometimes transgress established ones) is able to achieve those goals. In this study the author has explored the usage and conceptions of the term “left-hand path” in some modern Western occult movements; also the author has classified present-day fantasy cinematography in five groups, each according to the relationship to various kinds of “paranormal” realities. One of the groups is composed of movies in which symbols, practices, doctrines of modern “Western” occult movements (i.e. of Thelema, Aleister Crowley, LaVey) are exploited. That results in the subversion of values and ritual taboos of established religions (most often Christianity, and especially Catholicism). The diffusion of the “left-hand path” in popular and secular area of society becomes in a certain degree the “right-hand path”. Keywords: left-hand path in religions, occult movements, creation of new identity, popular culture.


1972 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Parkin

David lockwood has drawn attention to two related but analytically distinct types of integration in society: social integration, referring to the relationship between groups—more especially classes or strata; and system integration referring to the degree of connectedness between institutional parts of the social order (i). The former type of integration concerns the social relations between actors, so that the problem of order in society is posed in terms of moral or normative categories. The second type of integration directs attention to the somewhat more technical or non-normative aspects of order, concerning as it does the degree of ‘fit’ or compatibility between various functionally connected institutions. Both types of integration are of course central to Marx's theory of social change. For Marx, the antagonisms stemming from weaknesses in social integration (exemplified in the extreme case by class polarization) plus the weaknesses in system integration (the contradiction between the forces of production and the relations of production) are understood to be the twin mechanisms responsible for social transformation. As many critics have pointed out, the exact nature of the link between these two different processes was never clearly specified by Marx. But it does seem apparent that system contradiction is regarded as causally prior to the cleavage, and ultimate conflict, between classes, since it's not until these contradictions in the system become irresolvable that the stage is set for the final showdown between contending classes.


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