Non-Ideal Theorizing, Social Groups, and Knowledge of Oppression: A Response

Hypatia ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 177-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa H. Schwartzman
Keyword(s):  
Social Groups ◽  
Ideal Theory ◽  
Standpoint Theory ◽  
Social Hierarchies

In responding to Anderson, Tobin, and Mills, I focus on questions about non-ideal theory, normative individualism, and standpoint theory. In particular, I ask whether feminist theorizing can be “liberal” and yet not embody the problematic forms of abstraction and individualism described in Challenging Liberalism. Ultimately, I call for methods of theorizing that illuminate and challenge oppressive social hierarchies.

A Feminist Defense of Political Liberalism

John Rawls ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 249-262
Author(s):  
Christie Hartley ◽  
Lori Watson
Keyword(s):  
Social Power ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Basic Structure ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
Internal Resources ◽  
Substantive Equality ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Subordination ◽  
Equal Citizenship

Some feminists claim that liberal theories lack the resources necessary for fully diagnosing and remedying the social subordination of persons as members of social groups. Part of the problem is that liberals focus too narrowly on the state as the locus of political power. However, equal citizenship is also affected by systems of power that operate in the background culture and that construct social hierarchies in which persons are subordinated as members of social groups. This chapter argues that political liberalism, properly understood, entails a commitment to substantive equality such that it has the internal resources to address the kinds of inequality produced by unjust forms of social power. Although some will claim that if the basic structure is the subject of justice, political liberalism will still fall short of securing gender justice, we explain why this worry is misplaced.

Behavioural consistency and group conformity in humbug damselfish

Behaviour ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 154 (13-15) ◽  
pp. 1343-1359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alicia L.J. Burns ◽  
Timothy M. Schaerf ◽  
Ashley J.W. Ward
Keyword(s):  
Dominance Rank ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Null Model ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Absolute Size ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
Behavioural Type ◽  
Level Of Activity ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Dascyllus Aruanus

Abstract Humbug damselfish, Dascyllus aruanus, are a common coral reef fish that form stable social groups with size-based social hierarchies. Here we caught whole wild groups of damselfish and tested whether social groups tended to be comprised of animals that are more similar to one another in terms of their behavioural type, than expected by chance. First we found that individuals were repeatable in their level of activity and exploration, and that this was independent of both absolute size and within-group dominance rank, indicating that animals were behaviourally consistent. Secondly, despite the fact that individuals were tested independently, the behaviour of members of the same groups was significantly more similar than expected under a null model, suggesting that individual behaviour develops and is shaped by conformity to the behaviour of other group members. This is one of the first studies to demonstrate this group-level behavioural conformity in wild-caught groups.

Power

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfonso Troisi
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Ecological Condition ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
Agricultural Revolution ◽  
Personality Correlates ◽  
Health And Disease ◽  
The Impact

This chapter focuses on social control obtained through coercion. To answer the question of why some people strive for power, evolutionary behavioral biologists look at the phylogeny of dominance systems. Sociophysiology has unveiled the physiological correlates, such as levels of serotonin and testosterone, of dominant and subordinate status in monkeys and humans, and comparative studies have shown the impact of social hierarchies on health and disease vulnerability. Unlike most human societies that arose after the agricultural revolution of 12,000 years ago, groups of hunter-gatherers actively ostracized any individual attempt to attain dominant status. This ecological condition was wiped out by the agricultural revolution, and the more primitive predisposition toward hierarchical relationships re-emerged in human societies. The final section of the chapter illustrates recent data from psychological studies showing the personality correlates of two types of power that coexist in contemporary social groups: power based on intimidation and oppression, and power based on prestige and self-esteem.

The semiotic dimensions of vertical social (self)classification

Semiotica ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 (205) ◽  
pp. 243-260
Author(s):  
Ágnes Kapitány ◽  
Gábor Kapitány
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Social Self ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
Foreign Culture ◽  
Sign System ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
The Empirical Analysis ◽  
Linguistic Usage

AbstractThrough the empirical analysis of a concrete phenomenon (the traveler’s encounter with another culture), the authors attempt to describe what criteria people apply in everyday life to determine the place of a particular culture (their own culture and the foreign culture) within a (subjective) hierarchy. They distinguish nine dimensions of classification: according to their hypothesis travelers used a combination of these criteria to create their subjective notion of the hierarchy of different cultures. The authors find that we also use these same criteria for the formation of a vertical hierarchy in other areas of (socio)semiosis (for example, in forming the hierarchy of foods, or of social groups that distinguish themselves from each other on the basis of differences in linguistic usage). The authors assume that the analytical dimensions proposed can be applied uniformly in all cases when sociosemiotics wishes to describe the sign system of social hierarchies, vertical classifications, and self-classifications.

scholarly journals Prestige and dominance based hierarchies exist in naturally occurring human groups, but are unrelated to task-specific knowledge

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Olivia Brand ◽  
Alex Mesoudi
Keyword(s):  
Model Comparison ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
High Status ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Comparison Approach ◽  
Specialist Knowledge ◽  
Group Members

Prestige and dominance are thought to be two evolutionarily distinct routes to gaining status and influence in human social hierarchies. Prestige is attained by having specialist knowledge or skills that others wish to learn, whereas dominant individuals use threat or fear to gain influence over others. Previous studies with groups of unacquainted students have found prestige and dominance to be two independent avenues of gaining influence within groups. We tested whether this result extends to naturally-occurring social groups. We ran an experiment with 30 groups of 5 people from Cornwall, UK (n=150). Participants answered general knowledge questions individually and as a group, and subsequently nominated a team representative to answer bonus questions to win money on behalf of the team. Participants then rated all other team-mates anonymously on scales of prestige, dominance, likeability and influence on the task. Using a model comparison approach with Bayesian multi-level models, we found that prestige and dominance ratings were predicted by influence ratings on the task, replicating previous studies. However, prestige and dominance ratings did not predict who was nominated as group representative. Instead, participants nominated team members with the highest individual quiz scores, despite this information being unavailable to them. Interestingly, team members who were initially rated as being high status in the group, such as a team captain or group administrator, had higher ratings of both dominance and prestige than other group members. In contrast, those who were initially rated as someone from whom group members would like to learn had higher prestige ratings, but not higher dominance ratings, supporting the claim that prestige reflects social learning opportunities. Our results suggest that prestige and dominance hierarchies do become established in naturally occurring human social groups, but that these hierarchies may be more domain-specific and less flexible than we anticipated.

scholarly journals Tendencias de desarrollo del ayllu peruano (siglos XIV-XX)

1972 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 259-288
Author(s):  
Jan Szemiński
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Land Ownership ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Individual Ownership

The Ayllu is an Andean societal model. Jan Szemiński reconstructs the ayllu in the pre-Incan and Tawantinsuyu periods. He investigates the social hierarchies, relations between social groups and land ownership issues of the pre-Columbian ayllu. He then describes the transformations of the ayllu and related cultural continuities of the Colonial period. In the independent Peru period collective land ownership was combated by Peruvian elites to facilitate individual ownership among the indigenous. Despite such policies, many indigenous communities practicing collective land ownership survived to the 20th Century.

scholarly journals Rank Change and Growth Within Social Hierarchies of the Orange Clownfish, Amphiprion Percula

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy M Fitzgerald ◽  
Hugo B Harrison ◽  
Darren J. Coker ◽  
Pablo Saenz-Agudelo ◽  
Maya Sriniva ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Group Dynamics ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Fish Population ◽  
Subject Area ◽  
Model Organisms ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
Amphiprion Percula ◽  
Distribution Of Resources ◽  
Valuable Characteristic ◽  
Host Anemone

Abstract Social hierarchies within groups define the distribution of resources and provide benefits that support the collective group or favor dominant members. The progression of individuals through social hierarchies is a valuable characteristic for quantifying population dynamics. On coral reefs, a number of small site-attached fish maintain size-based hierarchical communities where individuals queue through social ranks. The cost of waiting in a lower-ranked position is outweighed by the reduced risk of eviction and mortality. Clownfish exist in stable social groups with subordinate individuals queuing to be part of the dominant breeding pair. Site attachment to their host anemone, complex social interactions, and relatively low predation rates make them ideal model organisms to assess changes in group dynamics through time in their natural environment. Here, we investigate the rank changes, and isometric growth rates of individual orange clownfish, Amphiprion percula, from 247 naturally occurring social groups in Kimbe Island, Papua New Guinea (5°12’13.54” S, 150°22’32.69” E). We use DNA profiling to assign and track individuals over an eight-year time period in 2011 and 2019. Over half of the individuals survived alongside two or three members of their original social group, with twelve breeding pairs persisting over the study period. Half of the surviving individuals increased in rank and experienced double the growth rate of those that maintained their rank. Examining rank change over a long-term period in a wild fish population gives new insights and highlights the complexity and importance of rank and social hierarchy in communal site-attached reef fish.Subject Area: behavior, ecology, evolution

The Balaiada War, 1838–1841

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Barreto de Souza
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
Common People ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
Pedro I ◽  
African Slaves ◽  
Northern Brazil ◽  
Historical Accounts

Between 1831 and 1840, the Brazilian Empire was ruled by regents. Pedro I, who became Brazil’s first emperor in 1822 on the occasion of the country’s independence, was forced by a popular political movement to abdicate his throne on April 7, 1831. This episode set off a series of revolts that involved broad segments of society: slaves, Indians, the urban and rural poor, liberal professionals, and large and small landholders. Not all of the revolts, however, counted such diverse social groups among their ranks, and fewer still included common people in leadership roles. The Balaiada War, or simply the Balaiada, waged in the provinces of Maranhão and Piauí, was one such revolt. Albeit in different phases, this multifaceted movement drew in landholders, slaves, and quilombolas (members of a community formed by escaped African slaves and their descendants, usually in inaccessible regions of the forest or backlands), and was led by caboclos (a term used in northern Brazil to refer to those who work the fields and forests) and a black leader who headed an army of more than 3,000 quilombolas. These men fought their freedom and civil rights, values widely invoked by the literate elite since the time of Brazil’s independence. The successful repression (“pacification”) of this movement, beginning in 1840, employed two strategies: by sowing intrigue, it sought to relegate each group to its original place in society and reconstruct social hierarchies; and at a symbolic level, it sought to disparage the war and its leaders, portraying the movement in historical accounts as one of vicious and bloodthirsty barbarians.

scholarly journals Children expect leaders to oust intruders, to refrain from aggression, but do not expect leaders to be generally more prosocial

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley J Thomas ◽  
Emily Sumner ◽  
Barbara Wiseheart Sarnecka
Keyword(s):  
Social Groups ◽  
Social Rank ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
High Ranking

Humans in every society find themselves in social hierarchies, but there is more than one way to attain social rank. Sometimes people attain rank through force—by being stronger or more aggressive than others. Other times, people attain rank by providing benefits such as protection or resources to others. The present studies asked whether children ages 4 to 8 expect the behaviors of high-ranking and low-ranking people reflect these ways of attaining rank. In Studies 1 and 2 (n = 344), children heard stories about social groups that consisted of a leader and three subordinates. Then the children were told about an action, and they guessed who had done it—the leader or a subordinate. When asked who pushed someone down, most older children guessed that a subordinate had done the pushing, while younger children seemed to consider leaders and subordinates about equally likely to push someone. When asked who kicked out a hostile intruder, children of all ages chose the leader more often than a subordinate. Study 3 (n = 216) tested whether children expect leaders to put themselves in harm’s way to protect subordinates and to be actively prosocial. Here, children in both age groups did not think leaders would put themselves in harm’s way to protect subordinates and thought the leader was less likely than a subordinate to perform prosocial actions such as helping someone up or sharing a cookie. It appears that children see leaders as providing certain benefits (such as expelling hostile intruders), but they don’t necessarily expect leaders to be more prosocial than other people overall.

scholarly journals Prestige and dominance-based hierarchies exist in naturally occurring human groups, but are unrelated to task-specific knowledge

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 181621 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. O. Brand ◽  
A. Mesoudi
Keyword(s):  
Model Comparison ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
High Status ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Comparison Approach ◽  
Specialist Knowledge ◽  
Group Members

Prestige and dominance are thought to be two evolutionarily distinct routes to gaining status and influence in human social hierarchies. Prestige is attained by having specialist knowledge or skills that others wish to learn, whereas dominant individuals use threat or fear to gain influence over others. Previous studies with groups of unacquainted students have found prestige and dominance to be two independent avenues of gaining influence within groups. We tested whether this result extends to naturally occurring social groups. We ran an experiment with 30 groups of people from Cornwall, UK ( n = 150). Participants answered general knowledge questions individually and as a group, and subsequently nominated a representative to answer bonus questions on behalf of the team. Participants then anonymously rated all other team-mates on scales of prestige, dominance, likeability and influence on the task. Using a model comparison approach with Bayesian multi-level models, we found that prestige and dominance ratings were predicted by influence ratings on the task, replicating previous studies. However, prestige and dominance ratings did not predict who was nominated as team representative. Instead, participants nominated team members with the highest individual quiz scores, despite this information being unavailable to them. Interestingly, team members who were initially rated as being high status in the group, such as a team captain or group administrator, had higher ratings of both dominance and prestige than other group members. In contrast, those who were initially rated as someone from whom others would like to learn had higher prestige, but not higher dominance, supporting the claim that prestige reflects social learning opportunities. Our results suggest that prestige and dominance hierarchies do exist in naturally occurring social groups, but that these hierarchies may be more domain-specific and less flexible than we anticipated.

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