scholarly journals The ‘Selfish Element’: How Sperm and Egg Donors Construct Plausibly Moral Accounts of the Decision to Donate

Sociology ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 003803852110331
Author(s):  
Leah Gilman

Multiple sociological studies have demonstrated how talk of ‘good’ motives enables people to maintain the presentation of a moral self in the context of stigmatised behaviours. Far fewer have examined why people sometimes describe acting for the ‘wrong reasons’ or choose to qualify, or reject, assumptions that they are motivated by a desire to ‘do good’. In this article, I analyse one such situation: sperm donors who describe being partially motivated by a ‘selfish’ desire to procreate, a motive which these same men frame as morally questionable. I argue that such accounts are explicable if we consider the (gendered) interactional and cultural contexts in which they are produced, particularly the way interactive contexts shape the desirability and achievability of plausibility and authenticity. I suggest that analysis of similar social phenomena can support sociologists in better understanding the complex ways in which moral practices are woven into social interactions.

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Erez Freud ◽  
Andreja Stajduhar ◽  
R. Shayna Rosenbaum ◽  
Galia Avidan ◽  
Tzvi Ganel

AbstractThe unprecedented efforts to minimize the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic introduce a new arena for human face recognition in which faces are partially occluded with masks. Here, we tested the extent to which face masks change the way faces are perceived. To this end, we evaluated face processing abilities for masked and unmasked faces in a large online sample of adult observers (n = 496) using an adapted version of the Cambridge Face Memory Test, a validated measure of face perception abilities in humans. As expected, a substantial decrease in performance was found for masked faces. Importantly, the inclusion of masks also led to a qualitative change in the way masked faces are perceived. In particular, holistic processing, the hallmark of face perception, was disrupted for faces with masks, as suggested by a reduced inversion effect. Similar changes were found whether masks were included during the study or the test phases of the experiment. Together, we provide novel evidence for quantitative and qualitative alterations in the processing of masked faces that could have significant effects on daily activities and social interactions.


2021 ◽  
pp. 146879762110358
Author(s):  
Emmanuelle Peyvel

Using a post-socialist framework, this article analyzes recreational communism, that is, the commodification of communism through commercial places that use Bao Cấp (subsidy period in Vietnam) for tourism and leisure. These places include cafés, restaurants, souvenir shops, art galleries, or flea markets. Why do places dedicated to pleasure make use of such a painful period? I propose to go beyond this paradox by focusing not only on the economic, but also the emotional, political, and memorial value of Bao Cấp, both in the way they are designed by their owners and practiced by customers. The visual descriptions and interviews I accumulated since 2006 allow me to address the dynamics of social interactions between people, place, and space. The spatial analysis of this material explores recreational communism as a practice of social distinction in the sense that it involves upper classes within the most globalized cities of the country.


Semiotica ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 (211) ◽  
pp. 165-186
Author(s):  
Massimo Leone

AbstractPresent-day economically developed societies devote unprecedented attention to food. The culinary discourse, in all its facets, gains increasing centrality in cultures. Institutions, media, and common people are obsessed with what they eat. In Italy, a country already aware of itself with regards to food, gastronomy turns into the main concern, the most debated and cared of system of norms. Social phenomena like Slow Food and Zero Kilometer originate in Italy and then conquer the world, claiming that improving the quality of food is the way for a better planet. But what is the deep cultural meaning of this massive trend? What lies behind the culinary reason? Aesthetic neutralization of socioeconomic conflicts, chauvinistic marketing of stereotypes, and anti-intellectual subversion of sensorial hierarchies, the article contends.


2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 831-852
Author(s):  
Laura Halcomb

This paper examines how gender beliefs are embedded in the organizational practices of the reproductive market. Third party reproduction blurs boundaries between familial and non-familial members, making gamete banks and donation agencies important sites for studying the construction of family. Cultural beliefs about gender are implicated in the discourses and practices of these organizations, which shape and constrain the experiences and options for both gamete donors and recipient families. To evaluate this process, I conducted qualitative analyses on the recruitment materials of all of sperm banks, egg banks, and egg donation agencies in the United States. My analysis demonstrates that the reproductive market still relies on heteronormative assumptions of family. However, the extent to which these organizations facilitate participation in new, non-normative family forms breaks down along gendered lines, where sperm donors have more freedom, status, and potential to create relationships with recipient families than egg donors.


2005 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 710-728 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Hart

In the context of the take-over by a global corporation (Royal Doulton) of a family-owned and run pottery factory in Longton Stoke-on-Trent, known as ‘Beswick’, and the subsequent re-structuring of production, this paper explores the way in which women pottery workers make social distinctions between the ‘rough’ and ‘posh’, ‘proper paintresses’ and ‘big heads’ which cut into and across abstract sociological notions of class. Drawing on ethnographic data I show that for these working class women, class as lived is inherently ambiguous and contradictory and reveal the ways in which class is gendered. I build on historical and sociological studies of the pottery industry, and anthropological and related debates on class, as well as Frankenberg's study of a Welsh village, to develop my argument and draw analogies between factory and village at a number of levels. My findings support the view that class is best understood not as an abstract generalising category, but in the local and specific contexts of women's working lives. I was the first one in our family to go in decorating end and they thought I was a bit stuck-up. My sister was in clay end as a cup-handler and I had used to walk off factory without her, or wait for her to leave before I left, though she said, ‘If it wasn't for me you wouldn't have anything to paint!’ They were much freer in the clay end – had more to do with men – we thought we were one up. 1


2002 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nils Zurawski

This article examines the special role of non-technological, everyday surveillance in Northern Ireland, and its meaning for life in the conflict laden province. It looks at the dimensions of people watching other people and how it is that the culture of conflict, which undoubtedly still exists in Northern Ireland, also produces a culture of surveillance. This culture then affects the way in which other forms of surveillance are viewed: with the introduction of CCTV into Northern Ireland, it becomes clear that many issues connected to this technology differ in comparison to other locations and cultural contexts, particularly with regard to issues of trust


Author(s):  
Deviana Mayasari

Abstrak: Masyarakat memandang tradisi merariq ini sebagai sebuah warisan yang harus mereka jaga dan lestarikan, karena di dalamnya mengandung makna yang menurut mereka patut untuk dipertahankan, meski sudah mengalami sedikit pergeseran di dalam tata caranya, akan tetapi tradisi ini tetap dijalankan oleh masyarakat. Hal inilah yang menarik untuk diteliti dari merariq  yaitu bagaimana konsep tata  cara dalam adat merariq yang dapat mengatur sedemikian rupa konsep berpikir masyarakat untuk masih mempertahankan adat merariq.Fokus dalam penelitian ini bagaimana prosesi pelaksanaan adat merariq, apa makna adat merariq bagi masyarakat Batunyala dan apa yang menyebabkan tradisi ini masih dilakukan oleh warga masyarakat yang ada di desa Batunyala. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode kualitatif dengan jenis deskriptif, yang menggambarkan atau menjelaskan fenomena sosial yang terjadi di tempat penelitian. Tekhnik pengumpulan data yang dilakukan yaitu melalui observasi, wawancara dan dokumentasi.Adapun hasil  penelitian yang didapatkan yaitu adapun prosesi pelaksanaan dalam adat merariq yang dimulai dari melakukan merariq, sejati/selabar, mbait wali,nikahang, mbait janji, sorong serah, nyongkolan dan yang terakhir dilakukan dengan upacara balik lampak nae. Tradisi merariq mempunyai berbagai macam makna yaitu: mempunyai nilai untuk mengistimewakan perempuan, memiliki pesan sosial, memiliki pesan untuk saling menghargai dan bersyukur, memiliki pesan untuk mendidik, memiliki pesan moral, menunjukkan sikap pemberani dan betanggung jawab. Kemudian dalam penelitian ini adapun yang menyebabkan masyarakat di desa Batunyala masih melakukan tradisi merariq sampai sekarang yaitu karena : (1) Faktor adat, (2) Faktor Orang tua, (3) Faktor Agama, (4) Faktor Ekonomi (biaya), dan (5) Faktor kemauan dari yang perempuan. Abstract : The communities regard this tradition as an heritage from ancestor that must be kept and preserved, because in this culture there is point must be keeping, so the younger’s in this village follow up this merariq tradition, although have been  moving in this custom a little, but this tradition keep moving by the society. This is special thing that interesting to get research from merariq tradition that is how the custom concept organizing the community thinking concept to preserving and receiving merariq compared with the developing situation now.The focus in this research is how the custom or tradition of merariq is done, what is the meaning of custom of merariq by Batunyala’s communities and what caused this tradition have been doing by Batunyala’s communities.. The method is used in this research is qualitative and using descriptive type to describe the social phenomena is happened in the site of research. The data collecting technique’s are used like observation, interview, and documentation.The results of this research are got is the ceremonials of custom of merariq are started with doing merariq, sejati/selabar, mbait wali, nikahang mbait janji, sorong serah, nyongkolan, and the last is balik lampak nae ceremony by community. The merariq tradition have much meaning that is: merariq have the value to make special for woman, have social messages, have messages to respect one another and grateful to god, have message to educate, and moral messages, merariq is the way to show brave and responsibility attitudes. And then, in this research, the communities factors are cause the preserving of merariq tradition are: 1) custom factors, 2) parent factors, 3) religion factors, 4) economic factors (fee), and 5) willing factors from the woman.


Author(s):  
Patricia Dickenson ◽  
Martin T. Hall ◽  
Jennifer Courduff

The evolution of the web has transformed the way persons communicate and interact with each other, and has reformed institutional operations in various sectors. Examining these changes through the theoretical framework Connectivism, provides a detailed analysis of how the web impacts individuals' context within communities as well as the larger society. This chapter examines the evolution of the web and the characteristics of various iterations of the web. A discussion on the emergence of participatory media and other participatory processes provides insight as to how the web influences personal and professional interactions. Research on how the web has changed cultural contexts as well as systems such as education, governments and businesses is shared and analyzed to identify gaps and provide direction for future research.


Author(s):  
Philippe D’Iribarne ◽  
Sylvie Chevrier ◽  
Alain Henry ◽  
Jean-Pierre Segal ◽  
Geneviève Tréguer-Felten

The content of expected procedures, their precision, the more or less strict compliance requested, and the way their implementation is audited, depend on cultural contexts. The first part of the chapter depicts a Cameroonian company in which the expectations for detailed procedures manuals to be applied literally are high. Such a use of procedures can be explained by the need to ward off the underlying fear that personal relationships outweigh the objectivity of the rules. Conversely, the second part shows that, in France, detailed operating procedures in the automotive and nuclear sectors contradict the quest for autonomy, associated with the importance of mastering one’s profession. A comparison with the nuclear sector in the United States shows that there the stakes are again different. This chapter deals with the way procedures are articulated with the expectations and fears, specific to each universe of meaning, which are generally ignored.


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