Expressive Law, Social Norms, and Social Groups

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (01) ◽  
pp. 60-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janice Nadler

To understand how law works outside of sanctions or direct coercion, we must first appreciate that law does not generally influence individual behavior in a vacuum, devoid of social context. Instead, the way in which people interact with law is usually mediated by group life. In contrast to the instrumental view that assumes law operates on autonomous individuals by providing a set of incentives, the social groups view holds that a person's attitude and behavior regarding any given demand of law are generally products of the interaction of law, social influence, and motivational goals that are shaped by that person's commitments to specific in-groups. Law can work expressively, not so much by shaping independent individual attitudes as by shaping group values and norms, which in turn influence individual attitudes. In short, the way in which people interact with law is mediated by group life.

Jurnal KATA ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Febrina Zulmi

<p><em>Media bias will always be an interesting topic to be examined. Media plays some important roles in society. One of its roles is building public opinions. In this case, media has been assumed to be biased as it might take some advantages from its position. This study aims at investigating The Jakarta Post’s bias towards the environmental preservation issues (an ecolinguistic study). The method used in this study is qualitative descriptive method by applying Van Dijk’s model of critical discourse analysis. This research model does not only analyze the aspect of text structure but also social cognition and social context. The object for this study is the news texts taken from The Jakarta Post Online. The result of the study showed that The Jakarta Post showed its bias towards environmental preservation issues by positioning itself as a pro’s side . In the text structure level, its bias can be identified with the way it chose the theme, topics, schemes and lexical choices which were in accordance with environmental ethics principles. In the social cognition level, its bias can be identified with the nature of the knowledge involved in showing its position in accordance with environmental preservation mission. In the social context level, its bias can be identified with the social values reflected from the news and certain group domination involved in the Jakarta Post’s news report which was in accordance with pro-environmental preservation. Generally, The Jakarta Post showed its progressive attitude or tendency to the change by intensely discussing environmental issues which implied the ideas of improving the way people should preserve their environment.</em></p><p> </p><p><em>Keberpihakan media akan selalu menjadi bahan yang menarik untuk diteliti. Media memainkan peran penting dalam masyarakat. Salah satu peran media adalah membangun opini publik. Dalam hal ini, media telah diasumsikan memiliki keberpihakan karena media dapat mengambil keuntungan dari posisinya tersebut. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk melihat keberpihakan The Jakarta Post terhadap isu pelestarian lingkungan hidup (sebuah kajian ekolinguistik). Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode deskriptif kualitatif dengan menggunakan analisis wacana kritis model Van Dijk. Model penelitian ini tidak hanya menganalisis aspek struktur teks, melainkan juga kognisi sosial dan konteks sosial. Objek penelitian ini adalah teks berita yang diambil dari media berita online The Jakarta Post. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa The Jakarta Post menunjukkan keberpihakannya terhadap isu pelestarian lingkungan hidup dengan meposisikan dirinya sebagai pihak yang mendukung. Dalam tataran struktur teks, keberpihakannya dapat diidentifikasi dari tema, topik, skema wacana dan pilihan kata yang digunakan yang sesuai dengan prinsip-prinsip etika lingkungan. Dalam tataran kognisi sosial, keberpihakannya dapat diidentifikasi dari sifat pengetahuan yang dilibatkan yang menunjukkan posisinya yang sejalan dengan misi pelestarian lingkungan hidup. Dalam tataran konteks sosial, keberpihakannya dapat diidentifikasi dari nilai-nilai sosial yang tercermin dari berita dan dominasi kelompok yang dilibatkan dalam pelaporan berita yang ditulis The Jakarta Post yang berada pada posisi pro-pelestarian lingkungan hidup. Secara umum, The Jakarta Post menunjukkan sikap progresif atau cenderung kepada perubahan dengan mengulas secara intens isu-isu pelestarian lingkungan hidup yang secara tersirat menyarankan perlu adanya peningkatan terhadap upaya-upaya pelestarian lingkungan hidup.</em><em></em></p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-124
Author(s):  
Larisa Orlov Vilimonović

This paper deals with the ideas of queer experiences in the Early Christian movement, seen through early Christian epistemologies of gender and patristic thought focused on sex differences. The lives and passions of transgender nuns are used in discussing various aspects of gender fluidity in early Christianity. Theoretically, the paper rests on the idea of the performativity of gender, that is, on the ways gender was constructed and how body modifications enabled renegotiation of gender categories. It also focuses on the social context of queer experiences in the late antique period with regard to Roman social norms.


Author(s):  
Robert Stern

This chapter covers Chapters 3 and 4 of The Ethical Demand. In these chapters, Løgstrup adds to his characterization of the demand by claiming that it is ‘radical’. He explains this radicality in terms of various further key features, including the way it may intrude on our lives and pick us out as individuals, while even the enemy is included in the requirement on us to care. At the same time, Løgstrup argues that we do not have the right to make the demand, while also denying that it is ‘limitless’. The features of the demand that make it radical distinguish it from the social norms, while the unconditional and absolute nature of the demand contrasts with the variable character of such norms, a contrast which he uses to respond to the challenge of relativism.


One aspect of profiling to enhance teaching and learning involves the various contexts in which learners will engage, such as particular social media ecosystems and their attendant microcultures (the social norms and common practices in these spaces), particularly if learners will be engaging with individuals outside of the formal classroom. Understanding the larger online social context helps define the affordances and constraints of what can be effectively taught and learned. This involves profiling the current user base of the online social spaces where the learners will be engaging and interacting and co-creating knowledge.


2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (12) ◽  
pp. 1585-1601 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriele Chierchia ◽  
Blanca Piera Pi-Sunyer ◽  
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore

Adolescence is associated with heightened social influence, especially from peers. This can lead to detrimental decision-making in domains such as risky behavior but may also raise opportunities for prosocial behavior. We used an incentivized charitable-donations task to investigate how people revise decisions after learning about the donations of others and how this is affected by age ( N = 220; age range = 11–35 years). Our results showed that the probability of social influence decreased with age within this age range. In addition, whereas previous research has suggested that adults are more likely to conform to the behavior of selfish others than to the behavior of prosocial others, here we observed no evidence of such an asymmetry in midadolescents. We discuss possible interpretations of these findings in relation to the social context of the task, the perceived value of money, and social decision-making across development.


Modern China ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 339-371
Author(s):  
Liping Wang

Early twentieth-century China, as with other post-imperial states, faced the challenge of creating a nation encompassing different social groups and cultures. How to identify ethnic groups living in the borderlands and generate nationwide social cohesion became a fundamental question that concerned multiple intellectual communities. This article traces the formation of two approaches to ethnicity—ethnology and sociology—at that time. These two approaches, configuring “ethnic differences” in dissimilar ways, were received differently by the public. In the end, the ethnological approach prevailed and the sociological approach was marginalized. This outcome exemplifies a possible hierarchy of knowledge, but also involves the politics of knowledge. This article shows that the disparate visions of “ethnic others” were produced by intellectuals differently positioned within the social context of post-imperial China. The positionalities of these disciplines explain much of their intellectual alignment.


1997 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Kerr ◽  
Sarah Cunningham-Burley ◽  
Amanda Amos

In this paper we examine new genetics professionals' accounts of the social context of their work. We analyse accounts given in interview by an ‘elite’ group of scientists and clinicians. Drawing on the work of Gilbert and Mulkay (1984), we consider interviewees' discourse about knowledge, exploring the way in which they separate science from society through the use of what we have called the ‘micro/macro split’. We then go on to consider the reasons for such a discursive boundary, exploring the interviewees' wider discourse about expertise and responsibility for the social implications of the new genetics. We argue that interviewees' discursive boundaries allow them to appeal variously to their objectivity, to dismiss bad science and to characterize the public as ignorant. However, these discursive boundaries are permeable and flexible, and are employed to support the new genetics professionals' role in guiding education and government policy, whilst at the same time deflecting ultimate responsibility for the use of knowledge on to an abstract and amorphous society. Responsibility is flexibly embraced and abrogated. These flexible discursive boundaries thus promote rather than challenge the cognitive authority of new genetics professionals as they engage in debates about the social implications of their work. We end by challenging the replication of these discursive boundaries, noting some of the implications of such a critique for evaluation of the new genetics.


2005 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 360-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lesley Newson ◽  
Tom Postmes ◽  
S. E. G Lea ◽  
Paul Webley

As societies modernize, they go through what has become known as “the demographic transition;” couples begin to limit the size of their families. Models to explain this change assume that reproductive behavior is either under individual control or under social control. The evidence that social influence plays a role in the control of reproduction is strong, but the models cannot adequately explain why the development of small family norms always accompanies modernization. We suggest that the widening of social networks, which has been found to occur with modernization, is sufficient to explain the change in reproductive norms if it is assumed that (a) advice and comment on reproduction that passes among kin is more likely to encourage the creation of families than that which passes among nonkin and (b) this advice and comment influence the social norms induced from the communications. This would, through a process of cultural evolution, lead to the development of norms that make it increasingly difficult to have large families.


2005 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 756-772 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leon A Roper

Although much has been written about the Book of Job, no consensus exists among scholars with regard to issues such as the dating and origins of this book. In this article the controversies surrounding the social context of the book of Job are discussed. This is followed by an attempt to reconstruct a possible socio-theological context for this book. In doing this, special attention will be given to the writer’ s possible relationship with the mainstream theological tradition of his day. This will be done by considering the possible aim of the “implied” author in constructing the book as well as the ways in which he has gone about achieving this aim. It is concluded that the implied author aimed to critically comment on the way in which the orthodox wisdom teachers of his time had clung to the traditional dogma of divine retribution. In doing this, this author seems to have employed various indirect techniques such as the use of a dramatic narrative to convey his message.


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