Making Things Possible

2020 ◽  
pp. 004912412092620
Author(s):  
Gabriel Abend
Keyword(s):  
Research Question ◽  
Social World ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Social Phenomenon ◽  
Causal Relationships ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
The Social ◽  
Good For ◽  
Important Kind

I argue that what-makes-it-possible questions are a distinct and important kind of sociological research question. What is social phenomenon P made possible or enabled by? Results won’t be about P’s causes and causal relationships, but about its enablers and enabling relationships. I examine the character of what-makes-it-possible questions and claims, how they can be empirically investigated, and what they’re good for. If I’m right, they provide a unique perspective on social phenomena, they show how the social world doesn’t come ready-made, and they open up new avenues for research.

What Makes a Hero? Theorising the Social Structuring of Heroism

Sociology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristian Frisk
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Social Phenomenon ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Social Structuring ◽  
The Relationship

The article discusses four dominant perspectives in the sociology of heroism: the study of great men; hero stories; heroic actions; and hero institutions. The discussion ties together heroism and fundamental sociological debates about the relationship between the individual and the social order; it elucidates the socio-psychological, cultural/ideational and socio-political structuring of heroism, which challenges the tendency to understand people, actions and events as naturally, or intrinsically, heroic; and it points to a theoretical trajectory within the literature, which has moved from very exclusive to more inclusive conceptualisations of a hero. After this discussion, the article examines three problematic areas in the sociology of heroism: the underlying masculine character of heroism; the presumed disappearance of the hero with modernisation; and the principal idea of heroism as a pro-social phenomenon. The article calls for a more self-conscious engagement with this legacy, which could stimulate dialogue across different areas of sociological research.

scholarly journals Putting graphic elicitation into practice: tools and typologies for the use of participant-led diagrams in qualitative research interviews

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 506-523 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Bravington ◽  
Nigel King
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Social World ◽  
Visual Methods ◽  
Common Elements ◽  
The Social ◽  
Research Interviews ◽  
The Common ◽  
Year 2000

The use of diagrams to stimulate dialogue in research interviews, a technique known as graphic elicitation, has burgeoned since the year 2000. Reviews of the graphic elicitation literature have relied on the inconsistent terminology currently used to index visual methods, and have so far drawn only a partial picture of their use. Individual diagrams are seen as stand-alone tools, often linked to particular disciplines, rather than as images created from a toolbox of common elements which can be customized to suit a research study. There is a need to examine participant-led diagramming with a view to matching the common elements of diagrams with the objectives of a research project. This article aims to provide an overview of diagramming techniques used in qualitative data collection with individual participants, to relate the features of diagrams to the aspects of the social world they represent, and to suggest how to choose a technique to suit a research question.

Labor Issues in Sociological Research into the Social Aspects of Industrialization: The Circle of Kazimierz Dobrowolski

2020 ◽  
Vol 134-135 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 11-24
Author(s):  
Piotr Górski
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Work Experience ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Nineteen Sixties ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Work Culture ◽  
Cultural Conditions ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact

The objective of this article is to present one of the lineages of human resource management in Poland—industrial sociology. It was within the framework of this subdiscipline that research devoted to the social aspects of industrialization was carried out in the nineteen–sixties and seventies. Studies conducted within the circle of the Cracovian sociologist, Kazimierz Dobrowolski, looked at the industrial centers of Lesser Poland. The primary research question involves the process of the shaping of industrial company personnel in connection with the migration of rural population to industrial centers. The research demonstrated the social and cultural conditions behind this process, not only the impact of the culture of rural communities on shaping work culture in companies, but also the influence of industrial work experience on the life and cultural aspirations of rural communities.

Further Reflections in the Social World

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 257-284
Author(s):  
Margaret Gilbert ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social World ◽  
Joint Commitment ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
The Social ◽  
Collective Beliefs ◽  
The Individual

This discussion responds to a collection of papers that relate in one way or another to the author’s work in the philosophy of social phenomena. It focuses on those passages that deal most directly with that work. After making some general points that respond to remarks in several of the papers, it turns to the individual papers. The subjects discussed include coordination, conversation, collective beliefs and emotions, joint commitment, obligations and rights, patriotism, promises, the pronoun “we”, and what it is to tell someone something.

scholarly journals Self-Identification in Mixed Ethnic Family

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4.38) ◽  
pp. 546
Author(s):  
Dina Kabdullinovna Tanatova ◽  
Ivan Vladimirovich Korolev ◽  
Tatyana Nikolaevna Yudina ◽  
Svetlana Viktorovna Koroleva ◽  
Evgeny Aleksandrovich Lidzer
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Family Relations ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One ◽  
Identification Processes ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Specific Identity

The article analyzes self-identification processes in mixed ethnic families. Despite the existing opinion that ethnic meaning of many social phenomena gradually disappears from the social context, ethnic identity and self-identification still play a significant role in the organization of everyday life, in the interaction of various social groups. The problem of ethnic identity is manifested in various spheres of human life, including the sphere of family and family relations. On the one hand, in mixed ethnic families, parents can translate the originality of different cultures, traditions, and values to children. On the other hand, some may form ethnic hostility, self-isolation, fears and concerns in them. Moreover, a mixed ethnic family is able to form ethnic marginality among its members. The results of the authors’ sociological research led to the conclusion about the specific identity of children in mixed ethnic families living in Russia, where one of the parents is Russian.   

The Case of Black Millennials

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 478-485
Author(s):  
Shaonta’ E. Allen ◽  
Ifeyinwa F. Davis ◽  
Maretta McDonald ◽  
Candice C. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Collective Behavior ◽  
Social World ◽  
Social Experiences ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Significant Research ◽  
Presidential Session

Sociologists have queried over the utility and effectiveness of generational analysis for some time. Here, the authors contend that intragenerational analyses are needed to critically and comprehensively make sense of the social world. Drawing on four presentations during the presidential session titled, “#NextGenBlackSoc: New Directions in the Sociology of Black Millennials,” the authors use Black Millennials as a case to illustrate how racializing generational studies can strengthen sociological research in four particular subdisciplines: Collective Behavior and Social Movements, Religion, Gender and Sexuality, and Family. They ultimately argue new analytic approaches are necessary to produce significant research on individuals and groups with complex intersectional identities and the particularities of their social experiences.

scholarly journals From methodology to methodography?

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 205979912097699
Author(s):  
Martyn Hammersley
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Practical Reasoning ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Qualitative Approaches ◽  
The Social

This article examines the character of a small but detailed observational study that focused on two teams of researchers, one engaged in qualitative sociological research, the other developing statistical models. The study was presented as investigating ‘the social life of methods’, an approach seen by some as displacing conventional research methodology. The study drew on ethnomethodology, and was offered as a direct parallel with ethnographic and ethnomethodological investigations of natural scientists’ work by Science and Technology Studies scholars. In the articles deriving from this study, the authors show how even the statisticians relied on background qualitative knowledge about the social phenomena to which their data related. The articles also document routine practices employed by each set of researchers, some ‘troubles’ they encountered and how they dealt with these. Another theme addressed is whether the distinction between quantitative and qualitative approaches accurately characterised differences between these researchers at the level of practical reasoning. While this research is presented as descriptive in orientation, concerned simply with documenting social science practices, it operates against a background of at least implicit critique. I examine its character and the closely associated criticism of social research methodology and conventional social science.

scholarly journals Conceptualization of serious play in modern sociocultural reality

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 31-39
Author(s):  
Tatiana V. Fanenshtil ◽  
◽  
Irina V. Sadykova ◽  
Sofya Y. Sukhanova ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Process ◽  
Social World ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Social Philosophy ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Theory Of Practice ◽  
The Social

In the conditions of transformation of sociocultural reality, its processes, levels, spheres, and new integrative social phenomena emerge, the meaning and role of which in the modern world have yet to be clarified. One of such phenomena is serious play. Traditionally, the playful and the serious, at the intersection of which serious play arises, are positioned as independent and mutually exclusive elements of the social world. We examine what changes in the social reality, in the relations of the playful and the serious, in the position of man in modern social processes make serious play possible and how serious play redetermines the conditions of its occurrence. For this, we used methods of philosophical analysis and hermeneutics: interpretation, conceptualization, comparative analysis. As a theoretical and methodological basis, we used the categorical apparatus of social philosophy, theory of practice, pragmatism, and social epistemology. As a result, we found that serious play is thought of as a social process in the range from an individual to global scale. In serious play, the subject, through the generation of meanings, performs both the production and reproduction of culture in predetermined ontoaxiological bases, and constructs these bases, while realizing the degree of his freedom, responsibility and immersion in the world he creates through his practices. The significance of the results of our research lies in the fact that the concept of serious play at the intersection of serious and game relations reveals the potential of serious play as an element of sociocultural reality. Serious play reflects the level of complexity of modern reality and ensures that a person adapts to the ever-increasing dynamics of this complexity. The trend of gamification registers this in the space of higher education, which causes a change in the role of the university in the modern social world. Serious play redefines the position of a person in the modern, dynamic and individualized social world. For the first time, serious play is conceptualized at the intersection of the playful and the serious as independent and mutually exclusive elements of sociocultural reality and is analyzed in the trend of the gamification of higher education.

Poets and Prostitutes: Sexual Morality in Malawian Poetry

Imbizo ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Junior Lipenga
Keyword(s):  
Human Subjects ◽  
Illocutionary Force ◽  
Sexual Morality ◽  
Social Phenomenon ◽  
Sociological Perspective ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Female Prostitute

The social phenomenon of prostitution is to be found throughout the world. Malawi is no exception. Rather than reading it from a sociological perspective, however, this article examines the representation of the prostitute in Malawian poetry. This position is informed by the contention that literature has an illocutionary force that offers a novel view of social phenomena, in some instances permitting a closer, more intimate engagement with the human subjects at the centre of the text, with the aim of enabling fresh conceptions of that subject. In the past few decades, the figure of the female prostitute has arisen occasionally in the verse of several male Malawian poets. It is the opinion of this article that, in their representation of this individual, the poets seek to expose the prostitute’s humanity, in opposition to the overriding denigration of her as a harbinger of disease and immorality. The exercise proceeds by examining eight poems written by well-known Malawian poets: Jack Mapanje, Steve Chimombo, David Rubadiri, Felix Mnthali, John Lwanda and Stanley Onjezani Kenani. In several of the poems, the writers address the women by specific names—Fiona, Tamara, Antonina—as an attempt to humanise them, to cleanse them of the appellation of monstrosity that has often been directed at the prostitute. It is an attempt to re-centre a figure that has existed on the margins of Malawian society, by according them agency and sympathy.

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