The Copernican Turn in the Study of Religion

2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard King

Abstract Contemporary theoretical debates within the study of religion reflect the impact of a range of critical theories inspired by feminist, poststructuralist, postcolonial and “queer” perspectives on the field. Much of this work reflects a radicalization of a post-Kantian notion of the social construction of reality. It is argued that such theories represent an unfolding of the social and cultural implications of the Kantian epistemological project and reflects a similar “Copernican Turn” involving the recognition that the object of study—“religion,” is a construct reflecting the methodological and theoretical assumptions of the researcher. The article then offers a postcolonial critique of mainstream “secularist” historiographies of the field and argues for an alternative model for understanding the history and future of the field of the comparative study of religion, grounded in the practice of comparative cultural critique and commentary on dominant models of modernity.

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 371-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Achyut Telang ◽  
Amruta Deshpande

Abstract Many organizations, at some point or another, have to face a crisis situation. In that scenario, the way in which the organization communicates makes or breaks the organization’s success in dealing with the crisis. Especially after the emergence of the social media, the impact of crisis communication on the process of successful crisis management has become even greater than before. Organizations have to take the initiative, to be proactive and create a plan for crisis communication. This paper is focused on the comparative study of the communication approaches followed by Cadbury and McDonalds during a period when the companies were dealing with a crisis. The findings of the content analysis show that a company should respond to the crisis as quickly as possible to avoid loss in terms of sales. The initial statement of the companies during a crisis should be clear, positive and through the right channel to help the company regain its reputation on the market. Advertising is the best way to convey the message across the world because the crisis situation that has come up in one market can soon catch-up in the other markets where the company operates. The company has to connect with the consumers on emotional grounds because the crisis breaks down the faith of the consumers in the company. The recovery actions that support the statements also play an important role during the crisis situation. By following the above-mentioned communication strategies, organizations can achieve damage control as well as turn the crisis into an opportunity to grow.


2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 60-70
Author(s):  
Jose Elenilson Cruz ◽  
Rafael Barreiros Porto

Corporate social performance can be understood as a way to measure the efficiency of interactions between companies and their main stakeholders. This evaluation has led to some steps forward in research and management implications. One of its main issues, which is the study of the relationship between social and financial performance, focuses on traditional joint-stock companies. This fact reveals a gap concerning the object of study in the literature of the area. The importance of investigating small and medium companies (SMCs) lies in their social and economic relevance and also in new evidences these studies may provide. After the theoretical discussion, this study presents a conceptual model composed of research propositions to be tested by future empirical studies that wish to answer the following question: in small and medium companies there are relations of cause and effect between social and financial performance? The test of the proposals suggested can reveal, among other results, the categories of social performance of SMCs most affected by a higher financial performance, as established by the premises of theoretical slack-resources; if the impact of these categories on the financial performance is qualified by way of management, confirming assumptions of the theory good management, or if there are no significant differences between the social performance of SMEs with higher financial performance and SMEs with low financial performance, revealing the existence of non-financial factors also influence social performance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-190
Author(s):  
Alfredo Blanco Martínez ◽  
Mercedes González Sanmamed

El presente trabajo tiene por objeto analizar una experiencia didáctica e innovadora, y reflexionar sobre sus implicaciones en el marco de las ecologías de aprendizaje. Se describe cómo un docente de Secundaria, de la especialidad de Lengua castellana y Literatura, transforma y enriquece sus prácticas educativas y, al mismo tiempo, propicia nuevos formatos de aprendizaje de los estudiantes en escenarios alternativos al aula física. En este caso, cobran sentido y relevancia la utilización del teatro como herramienta potencialmente pedagógica, junto con la red social Tiktok, la cual se erige como un entorno virtual que ofrece nuevas oportunidades formativas. Para ello, se ha empleado una metodología cualitativa que, por medio de la observación y el análisis de documentos, ha posibilitado conocer en profundidad el objeto de estudio, la realidad educativa del fenómeno y sus implicaciones desde la perspectiva de las ecologías de aprendizaje. La exposición de los resultados pone de manifiesto, por un lado, el valor que adquieren los aprendizajes en la trayectoria de vida, tanto del docente como de los participantes, así como el impacto de la experiencia en sus identidades como formador y aprendices, respectivamente. Por otra parte, subraya la necesidad de incorporar a las aulas recursos de la sociedad de la información, como Tiktok, para facilitar experiencias de aprendizaje que estén en sintonía con las necesidades socioculturales de los individuos y que favorezcan el enriquecimiento de los currículos, posibilitando la formación integral y expandida a todos los niveles. This paper aims to analyse a didactic and innovative experience and to reflect on its implications within the frame of learning ecologies. We will be describing how a Spanish Language and Literature Secondary school teacher transforms and enriches his educational practices while fostering new learning formats outside the physical classroom. In this case, the use of theatre makes sense as a potentially pedagogical tool together with the social network TikTok, the latter becoming a virtual environment offering new educational opportunities. A qualitative methodology based on observation and document analysis was used for this purpose, allowing us to gain a deep understanding of the object of study, its educational reality and its implications from the perspective of learning ecologies. Results show the value of long-life learning experiences, both for the teacher and for the participants, together with the impact on their identities. There is an evident need to use ICT resources such as TikTok in the classroom. These resources may encourage learning experiences, consistent with the sociocultural needs of the individuals, fostering curriculum enrichment, and stimulating a comprehensive and expanded idea of education in all levels.


Author(s):  
Valentina Kurganskaya ◽  
Vladimir Dunaev

The article analyzes new forms of social stratification generated by the processes of digitalization of all aspects of modern society. The article describes the ontology, ideology, and mythology of the digital society. The mechanism and immanent logic of the impact of digitalization processes on the social structure of society are analyzed. The article considers the specifics of a number of new social strata that arise as a result of the implementation of digital technologies in the processes of social construction of reality. Various models of social stratification are discussed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 47-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Buell Hirsch

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to point to some emerging workplace issues relating to the increasing collaboration between human and robot workers. As the number of human workers shrinks and that of robots increases, how will this change the dynamics of the workplace and human worker motivation? Design/methodology/approach The approach of this paper is to examine recent academic, business and media writings on the subject of artificial intelligence and robotics in the workplace to identify gaps in our understanding of the new hybrid work environment. Findings What the author has found is that although there are numerous voices expressing concerns about the replacement of human workers by robots, there has not as yet been a substantive study of the impact on human workers of sharing their work life with robots in this environment. Research limitations/implications The findings in this paper are limited by the fact that they are drawn from a review of the secondary literature rather than from primary research and are therefore speculative and anecdotal. Practical implications The practical implications of the findings are to suggest that it is time to establish a systematic and standardized method for analyzing and measuring the impact on human workers of operating in an environment increasingly populated by automated co-workers. Social implications The author suspects that the social implications will be to suggest that as a human society we will need to establish psychologically and culturally valid means for coping with this new work environment, and the author believes some of the findings may well prove counter intuitive within the social context of work. Originality/value The author does not believe there is any substantial work addressing the social, psychological or cultural implications of humans working besides robots on a daily basis.


1971 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Bradley

SummaryThe first part of this paper is a discussion of the basic pattern of land use on the South Downs from the Middle Bronze Age to the early Pre-Roman Iron Age. In the second part, the impact upon this pattern of a group of Bronze and Iron Age stock enclosures is considered, and it is argued that these developed directly into a number of small hill forts. A contemporary group of larger, early Iron Age, hill forts is also defined, and it appears that these too grew up upon an economic basis of stock raising. The social and cultural implications of these developments are discussed, and tentative contrasts are drawn with the nature of later hill forts in the region.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Cohen ◽  
Jane Kassis-Henderson

In research on international business (IB) and management, a narrow view of language and culture has given way to a greater understanding of the complexity of the interplay of language- and culture-related issues in today’s world. The “linguistic turn” in the social sciences along with the more recent unravelling of the deterministic cultural dimension has led to reexamining the importance of language and culture in the social construction of reality. The key role played by multicultural, multilingual teams in organizations operating on a global scale has spawned much research on the impact of language and cultural diversity within teams. Some scholars have focused on the negative aspects of diversity implying that language standardization, through the adoption of lingua franca policies and practices, is the most appropriate strategy for collaboration across languages and borders. Others have uncovered the positive side of this diversity; they argue the case for the coexistence of different working languages together with communication practices that facilitate the contextualization necessary for sense-making processes in multilingual teams. This has led a growing number of scholars within different research fields to take the “multilingual turn” exploring novel ideas and concepts emerging around the phenomena of multilingualism, thereby advancing the discussion in IB and management studies. Applying these emerging notions to a study of a multilingual team in an international organization, we question the widely held assumptions about language, culture, and identity and show the need to refresh the way in which these concepts are framed when examining team performance.


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 37-60
Author(s):  
Dilbar Alieva

The paper is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the edition of Berger and Luckmann’s The Social Construction of Reality. It was the occasion to convince about a real impact of this famous book, that was translated into Czech in 1999, on the thinking and the vocabulary of Slovak and Czech sociologists. But after initial interest in this book the sociological public gradually stopped at its formal recognition. However, even those sociologists who expressed interest in the theory of Berger and Luckmann, did not taken it as a theoretical whole, with own particular philosophical program. They are satisfied by choosing from social constructivism some original concepts, that as well as „symbolic universe“ must roofed their own account. It seems, that sociologists are afraid of social constructivism for its epistemological position, which is constant challenge to the realistic approach in sociology. However, these issues may be best resolved through discussions on philosophical and epistemological topics. We note three epistemological positions, each of which was a serious challenge to the idea of social construction. The first is the position of the classical epistemological realism. The second is the principle of philosophical apriorism, which is a prerequisite for any constructivism. The third position is presented by the theory of objectivation. This principle is a component of the social constructivism. We present each of these epistemological principles as one side of an imaginary triangle. The theory of social construction of reality is closed inside this triangle. This theory is the object of the philosophical influence of the three aforementioned teachings. They embody for it the pattern of philosophising, because they state the criteria of its philosophical competence. Therefore our proposed imaginary „epistemological triangle“ was used as a test tool for to ascertain the impact of various philosophical doctrines on ideological profile of social constructivism. The use of this triangle helped us to look deeper into the philosophical foundations of social constructivism and to verify their authenticity. It also helped us to dispel fears of social constructivism and of its allegedly excessive subjectivism.


2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (4 (178)) ◽  
pp. 49-70
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Trąbka ◽  
Iga Wermińska-Wiśnicka

Ambiguous impact of Brexit on young Poles living in the United Kingdom The paper aims to analyse the impact of Brexit on the social anchoring of young Poles in the United Kingdom in four spheres of their lives: decision and return plans; application for British citizenship; buying properties; well-being and life satisfaction. The article is based on research conducted within the project „CEEYouth: The comparative study of young migrants from Poland and Lithuania in the context of Brexit”. We also handle statistics data from the Office for National Statistics as well as qualitative data from three waves of Qualitative Longitudinal Research of 41 young (aged 19–34) Polish post-accession migrants in the UK. We find that it is hard to unambiguously assess the impact of Brexit on the mentioned spheres of young Poles’ lives. Firstly, it is caused by the fact that different sources of data show results which are contrasting and secondly, the reactions of people are dynamically changing within the lapse of time. Therefore, it could be surely said that Brexit has impacted the lives of young Polish migrants, but it has caused neither mass return, nor the general willingness to naturalise. Although the results of the Brexit referendum have caused disturbance amid many Poles, it has not impacted their life decisions or, according to statistics, their well-being.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 521-541
Author(s):  
Paweł Felis ◽  
Joanna Szlęzak-Matusewicz ◽  
Henryk Rosłaniec

The paper addresses differences in financial effects of local tax policy. Its aim was to examine the effects of decisions taken within the realm of tax authority in a country which applies area-based property taxation. The paper validates the hypothesis, according to which the impact of local tax policy upon tax revenues of local units depends on the social and economic potential of regions (in Poland called “voivodeships”). We believe that municipalities (called “gminas” in Polish) are more active in pursuing local tax policy (i.e., in reducing property tax rates) in regions whose social and economic position is weaker. Statistical and econometric analyses confirmed our theoretical assumptions and provided the evidence that the hypothesis is correct. By using econometric models, in this paper we also succeeded in identifying variables which help in explaining the real scale of reductions of property tax rates.


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