Leading Law into the Abyss: What (If Anything) Has Sociology Done to law?

1994 ◽  
Vol 19 (03) ◽  
pp. 609-624
Author(s):  
Austin Sarat
Keyword(s):  
Social Good ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Do So

Every age must find its own particular meaning for the biblical admonition, “With much wisdom comes much sorrow.” Every age must come to terms, in its own way, with the fact that the quest for knowledge is not an unproblematic social good, that the world is neither ours to be known nor, through knowledge, mastered. How our age learns these lessons, and whether it will do so at all, is the question that animates Marianne Constable's “Genealogy and Jurisprudence: Nietzsche, Nihilism, and the Social Scientification of Law.”.

Why social scientists still need phenomenology

Thesis Eleven ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 072551362110643
Author(s):  
Christopher Houston
Keyword(s):  
Social Scientist ◽  
Pierre Bourdieu ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Natural Attitude ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Suspension Of Disbelief ◽  
Do So ◽  
Critical Science

Pierre Bourdieu famously dismissed phenomenology as offering anything useful to a critical science of society – even as he drew heavily upon its themes in his own work. This paper makes a case for why Bourdieu’s judgement should not be the last word on phenomenology. To do so it first reanimates phenomenology’s evocative language and concepts to illustrate their continuing centrality to social scientists’ ambitions to apprehend human engagement with the world. Part II shows how two crucial insights of phenomenology, its discovery of both the natural attitude and of the phenomenological epoche, allow an account of perception properly responsive to its intertwined personal and collective aspects. Contra Bourdieu, the paper’s third section asserts that phenomenology’s substantive socio-cultural analysis simultaneously entails methodological consequences for the social scientist, reversing their suspension of disbelief vis-à-vis the life-worlds of interlocutors and inaugurating the suspension of belief vis-à-vis their own natural attitudes.

Cycle of Poverty in Developing Countries

2021 ◽  
pp. 126-139
Author(s):  
Opeyemi Idowu Aluko
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Economic Situation ◽  
Economic Cycle ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Cycle ◽  
The World ◽  
The Developed Countries ◽  
Cycle Of Poverty ◽  
Do So

Poverty is no longer fashionable even in the less developed countries of the world. The world has deemed poverty-ridden regions of the world as ‘anathema', forbidden, and ignoble. At the same time ways to get out of the menace are regularly strategised over a period of time. The developed countries of the world had been able to nip poverty to the bud significantly, but the developing countries still have a lot to do so as to overcome the menace. Poverty in the developing countries operates in a cycle of repetitions. This makes it difficult to curtail. How can poverty be reduced in the developing countries? This study reveals the reason while poverty has become a domestic phenomenon in developing countries and the way forward. The theory on poverty is evaluated alongside the present economic situation in Africa. The cycle of poverty, which includes the social cycle of poverty (SCP), political cycle of poverty (PCP), and the economic cycle of poverty (ECP), are examined. This study analyses the strategies to break the cycle of poverty in Africa and other developing countries.

Global Digital Divide, Global Justice, Cultures, and Epistemology

2011 ◽  
pp. 37-50
Author(s):  
Soraj Hongladarom
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Digital Divide ◽  
Social Epistemology ◽  
Global Justice ◽  
Internet Access ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Social Good ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Global Digital Divide

The problem of global digital divide, namely disparity in Internet access and use among the various regions of the world, is a growing concern. Even though, according to some reports, the gap is getting narrower, this does not mean that the problem is disappearing, because the problem does not just consist in getting more people to become “wired,” so to speak. This chapter investigates the various relationships among the global digital divide, global justice, cultures and epistemology. Very briefly stated, not getting access to the Internet constitutes an injustice because the access is a social good that can lead to various other goods. Furthermore, as information technology is a second-order technology, one that operates on meaning bearing symbols, access to the technology is very much an issue of social epistemology, an attempt to find out the optimal way to distribute knowledge across the social and cultural domains.

scholarly journals Catechesis of Seniors in the Context of Their Activity

2020 ◽  
Vol 57 ◽  
pp. 265-282
Author(s):  
Kazimierz Skoczylas
Keyword(s):  
Good Health ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
Third Age ◽  
Social Good ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
Religious Tourism ◽  
The World ◽  
The Church

Modern seniors who are characterized by good health at the end of their professional activity engage in new forms of activity. Some of them are involved in the activities of universities of the third age, belong to the Family of Radio Maryja, are volunteers or use various forms of religious tourism and pilgrimages. Many manifestations of their activity come from the religiosity of seniors. The growing religiosity of seniors requires a systematic catechesis that helps them in its development. The church emphasizes that this catechesis should be adapted to the situation of a senior. Catechesis helps to read the religious meaning of this stage of life and to strengthen the motivation for Christian presence in the family and environment. Therefore, this catechesis should strengthen religious interest in faith, shape and sustain the motivation of Christian activity, in the Church and in the world. This is reflected in the Christian involvement in family upbringing, in the ecclesial community, for the social good and also in an attractive way of spending free time.

Introduction. An Introduction to Research Methods in the Social Sciences

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Ece Özlem Atikcan ◽  
Jean-Frédéric Morin ◽  
Christian Olsson
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Easy Task ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Scientific Truth ◽  
Do So

Introducing research methods in the social sciences is not an easy task given how complex the subject matter is. Social sciences, like all sciences, can be divided into categories (disciplines). Disciplines are frequently defined according to what they study (their empirical object) and how they study it (their particular problematization of the object). They are, however, by no means unitary entities. Within each discipline, multiple theories typically contend over the ability to tell provisional truths about the world. They do so by building on specific visions of the nature of the world, reflections on how to generate scientific truth, systematic ways of collecting and analyzing data (methods) and of justifying these methods as part of a coherent research design (methodologies).

Global Digital Divide, Global Justice, Cultures and Epistemology

2008 ◽  
pp. 3217-3230
Author(s):  
Soraj Hongladarom
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Digital Divide ◽  
Social Epistemology ◽  
Global Justice ◽  
Internet Access ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Social Good ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Global Digital Divide

The problem of global digital divide, namely disparity in internet access and use among the various regions of the world, is a growing concern. Even though, according to some reports, the gap is getting narrower, this does not mean that the problem is disappearing, because the problem does not just consist in getting more people to become ‘wired’, so to speak. This paper investigates the various relationships among the global digital divide, global justice, cultures and epistemology. Very briefly stated, not getting access to the Internet constitutes an injustice because the access is a social good that can lead to various other goods. Furthermore, as information technology is a second-order technology, one that operates on meaning bearing symbols, access to the technology is very much an issue of social epistemology, an attempt to find out the optimal way to distribute knowledge across the social and cultural domains.

Getting Incentives Right

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert D. Cooter ◽  
Ariel Porat
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Tort Law ◽  
Contract Law ◽  
Standards Of Care ◽  
Private Regulation ◽  
Social Good ◽  
Change Behavior ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Do So

Lawyers, judges, and scholars have long debated whether incentives in tort, contract, and restitution law effectively promote the welfare of society. If these incentives were ideal, tort law would reduce the cost and frequency of accidents, contract law would lubricate transactions, and restitution law would encourage people to benefit others. Unfortunately, the incentives in these laws lead to too many injuries, too little contractual cooperation, and too few unrequested benefits. This book explains how law might better serve the social good. In tort law, the book proposes that all foreseeable risks should be included when setting standards of care and awarding damages. Failure to do so causes accidents that better legal incentives would avoid. In contract law, the book shows that making a promise often causes the person who receives it to change behavior and undermine the cooperation between the parties. It recommends several solutions, including a novel contract called “anti-insurance.” In restitution law, people who convey unrequested benefits to others are seldom entitled to compensation. Restitution law should compensate them more than it currently does, so that they will provide more unrequested benefits. In these three areas of law, the book demonstrates that better law can promote the well-being of people by providing better incentives for the private regulation of conduct.

scholarly journals Digital pedagogies and biotechnical realities: Education and life after the COVID-19 pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Alexios Brailas
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Direct Contact ◽  
Web Technologies ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Emotional Distancing ◽  
Do So ◽  
Digital Pedagogies

What would have taken years to change in the world we knew, took just a few months during a global pandemic. Millions of teachers, therapists, and other practitioners around the world whose work requires direct contact with people, dived into every synchronous and asynchronous platform they could find. They had to in order to continue their work with students or clients, to maintain connections, to empower people during the crisis, to ensure that nobody felt alone, to protect and strengthen life, and to resist a vicious invisible threat. All these practitioners struggled to ensure physical distancing did not result in social or emotional distancing, and managed to do so through web technologies and digital media. The social pattern of life, the very pattern that allowed coronavirus to threaten humanity, is the same pattern helped maintain life during lockdown by taking advantage of digital media.

Education as Relational Process

2020 ◽  
pp. 26-49
Author(s):  
Kenneth J. Gergen ◽  
Scherto R. Gill
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Social World ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Assessment Orientation ◽  
Ways Of Life ◽  
Do So ◽  
Relational Process

Replacing the assessment orientation requires an alternative to the idea of schools as sites of production. To do so, the authors challenge the conception of schools as composed of individual actors whose performance can be measured independently of their lodgment in the social world. They argue that our understandings of the world, along with our ways of life, come about within a process of relating. It is out of coordination among participants that beliefs, values, and meaningfulness of actions originate. Thus the process of co-creation is essential to knowledge, understanding, and learning. Significant distinctions are drawn among various forms of relational process, with contrasts between conventional conversations (valuable in sustaining tradition) degenerative interchange (leading to the destruction of meaning-making) and generative relating (that inspires innovation and enriches relationship). Measurement-based assessment practices in education foster alienation, suspicion, self-centeredness, and an instrumental orientation to relating. Vitally needed is the development of a relationally enriching orientation to evaluation.

scholarly journals We are creative – are you?

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Caroline Dickson ◽  
◽  
Kate Sanders ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Care ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Care Services ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Social ◽  
Health And Social Care ◽  
The World ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Workplace Cultures ◽  
Do So

When thinking about this editorial, we knew we wanted to say something about creativity. Working creatively is a valuable means of accessing embodied knowledge and new insights about ourselves, our practice and our workplace cultures that can be used to inform development and transformation. However, being new to writing editorials, we first decided to have a look back through the journal’s editorial archives and seek the wisdom of previous authors. In doing so, it was interesting to see that our first Academic Editor, Professor Jan Dewing, had written an editorial about being creative back in May 2012; we encourage you to have a look. Jan began: ‘Yet again I recently heard someone saying they weren’t a creative person... ’and this is something we both experience when working with others. Is this because the word creativity is perceived to refer to the arts – for example, crafting, painting, movement and music – rather than a broader understanding, as suggested by the dictionary definition below: ‘The ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination ’(dictionary.com). Taking this more expansive perspective opens up the possibility for us all to perceive ourselves as inherently creative. It could be argued that this creativity has come to the fore as we have adapted to new ways of living and working during the Covid-19 pandemic. While this crisis has brought huge uncertainty and challenge right across the complex mix of health and social care services, what has been remarkable is the ability people have shown to change their ways of working, to seek solutions – and to do so at pace. We believe this reflects the creative nature of human beings/persons. Oliver (2009) argues that creativity is everywhere, as humans and the world are constantly engaged in a process of making. He contends that we should view creativity as ‘openness’, which is person-oriented (Massey and Munt, 2009). In this way, we create the possibility for participatory exploration of the social, cultural and embodied context, and for improvisation and transformation, by engaging in people’s ‘interests, curiosities and passions ’(Massey and Munt, 2009, p 305).

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document