Freedom behind bars: the central role of emotions in naturalizing an analogy for social change

2021 ◽  
pp. 017084062110532
Author(s):  
Tomas Farchi ◽  
Danielle Logue ◽  
Pablo Daniel Fernandez ◽  
Roberto Vassolo

In this paper we examine how a socially innovative solution to a complex social problem is able to overcome entrenched disadvantage and division and sustain itself within an existing institution. We explore how a rugby team in a high-security prison in Argentina has become an organizational response that substantially transformed prisoners’ lives in and out of jail, allowing inmates to reclaim many critical aspects of their humanity and dramatically reducing recidivism. We examine rugby as an analogy for new models of behaviors and identities in the context of extreme disadvantage, and surface the specific emotional work required to make the analogy generative. The findings from our in-depth case study reveal three reinforcing mechanisms in the workings of an analogy - resonating, resignifying, and collective generativity - and in doing so provide a novel crescive model of how analogies may sustain change emotionally, cognitively and behaviorally over time, and ultimately achieve positive transformational effects in extreme social contexts.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 4023
Author(s):  
Silvia Marcu

Using the case study of Romanians in Spain, this article highlights how the COVID-19 crisis presents both challenges and opportunities when it comes to human mobility and sustainability. Drawing on in-depth interviews with mobile people during the period of lockdown and circulation restrictions, and in accordance with the objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the paper advances and contributes to the relevance of sustainability and its impact on people’s mobility in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. I argue that even in the midst of the crisis, sustainable ways may be found to promote and protect human mobility. The paper raises the way sustainability acts as a driver, gains relevance and influence, and contributes to the creation of new models of resilient mobility in times of crisis. The conclusions defend the respect for the SDGs regarding human mobility and emphasise the role of people on the move as sustainable actors learning to overcome distance and the barriers to their mobility during the pandemic.


2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 651-679 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl-Emanuel Dionne ◽  
Chantale Mailhot ◽  
Ann Langley

Public controversies have attracted increasing attention in the organization studies literature. They emerge when critical issues are not defined and understood in the same way by different stakeholders, influencing the way they evaluate the worth of other actors, objects, and situations. In this paper, we show how the “orders of worth” perspective of Boltanski and Thévenot may throw light on the evolution of an evaluation process occurring during a public controversy. In particular, we study the Quebec student conflict of 2011 and 2012 that followed a proposed major increase in higher education tuition fees. We conducted an in-depth case study based on media coverage of the actions and discourses of the major actors to examine how objects and actions associated with a controversy are successively defined, redefined, and evaluated over time through a series of tests of worth. Our article contributes to the organizational literature on public controversies by drawing attention to the role of six types of evaluative moves in situations of controversy, and by offering an abductively developed model for understanding the evaluation process as it evolves over time. We suggest that actors, through these evaluative moves, may displace the object of a test, and therefore the foci for evaluation, through actions intended to bolster their positions.


Author(s):  
Brandon Walsh

This article argues that the primary role of the instructor is to help students understand and work with the difficult emotional states that arise from struggling to learn. Drawing on Sianne Ngai’s theorization of “ugly feelings” and using his own experience with digital humanities instruction as a case study, the author offers ways to center emotional work, especially work involving frustration and anxiety, in the classroom. Asking students to develop failed prototypes and reflect on the process, for example, can provide them with a better sense of what it might mean to succeed. Giving the same exercise twice, with artificially imposed difficulties the second time, might help them learn concrete steps for working through mounting irritation. In short, frustration and anxiety are not things that emerge from time to time—they are ever-present. The author argues that it is the job of instructors to develop ways to prepare students not for the unexpected failure but for the inevitable frustration that comes even with success.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 185-190
Author(s):  
E. G. Zheludkova

The research features the speech stereotype at the stage of its formation. The author observes the way stereotype of socially approved behavior are formed with the help of speech stereotypes united by the concept of "product waste". An analysis of "gaspillage alimentaire" social advertising revealed some speech stereotypes, stereotyping mechanisms, as well as the way they influence the recipient of the social advertising discourse. The author states the key role of the speech stereotype that address the recipient to the existing models of behavior and in the formation of new models that are in demand in the French society. The results of the research contribute to a better understanding of the speech behavior in different cultures and can be used in the courses of cultural linguistics, French language stylistics, and discourse analysis. 


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 63-73
Author(s):  
Rahul Mehta

Purpose of study: The purpose of this conceptual study is to develop a more better understanding of hospitality One of the oldest profession known over time. Methodology: This article is based on a conceptual study of the various definitions and sectors of the hospitality sector. This article also presents the various studies by different researchers and presents how a variety of researchers have classified hospitality in their studies. Main Findings:  This study has provided a new understanding of the hospitality industry and the various sectors associated with it. Social Implications/Applications: This case study is a conceptual study done to define and understand the concept of hospitality in a much better perspective and it can help researchers from varied realms of hospitality to have much valuable insights of this term. Originality: Hospitality has been defined by many researchers in many perspectives. This study has been done with a rigorous literature review then defined the term in a combination which has all aspects related to it. The study has then been supported by a case study of an eco-friendly resort- The Karma Lakelands. This study has been done to understand, explore and extend the basic principles of hospitality and the role of interior designing in it.


Author(s):  
Wendy Pearlman

What role does religion play in mobilization in general, and in mobilization in conflict settings in particular? This chapter explores these questions through a case study of the Syrian uprising and war. Using published sources and original interviews, the author traces the role of religion and sect in Syria’s pre-2011 politics and then in successive stages of the subsequent conflict. She examines the role of religion in the motivations driving protest, the processes generating collective action, the militarization of mobilization, and the transformation of an uprising into war. It is argued that, while religion came to occupy an increasingly prominent place in mobilization over time, its role in the Syrian conflict has been less attributable to religion per se than to the ways religion is entwined with power, privilege, and the dynamics of violence itself. Where religion sometimes appeared significant, such as in the tendency of demonstrations to begin at mosques, the power of religion lay not in piety but in structural constraints. Though religion and sect became increasingly salient as the conflict escalated, this was primarily due to state repression and strategies of divide and conquer, and nothing particular to Islam. Scrutiny of the Syrian experience encourages us to critique assumptions about the distinctiveness of religion in driving protest and conflict in majority-Muslim societies, and instead to examine such mobilization using the same conceptual tools employed in cases of conflict across time and space.


2007 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 149
Author(s):  
Stacie D. A. Burke ◽  
Lawrence A. Sawchuk

Times of social disruption and change unsettle community equilibrium and represent important transition points. This research examines the 15-year border closure between Spain and Gibraltar and its subsequent reopening in 1985 in reshaping the community opportunity structure, particularly women’s employment, education, and housing. The study examines 3284 births which occurred in the community between 1960 and 1996, noting a general rise in premarital conceptions in the community. This research compares life course decisions among marital and premarital conceivers over time, stressing important changes in the community’s ecological setting and the powerful role of political disturbances in structuring those changes.


Author(s):  
Jim Isaak

While standards are issued by organizations, individuals do the actual work, with significant collaboration required to agree on a common standard. This article explores the role of individuals in standards setting as well as the way these individuals are connected to one another through trusting networks and common values. This issue is studied in the context of the IEEE POSIX set of standards, for which the author was actively involved for more than 15 years. This case study demonstrates that the goals and influence of individual participants are not just that of their respective employers but may follow the individual through changes of employment. It also highlights changes in the relative importance of individual and corporate influence in UNIX-related standardization over time. Better understanding of the interaction between individuals and organizations in the context of social capital and standardization can provide both a foundation for related research and more productive participation in these types of forums.


Author(s):  
Stephen Duhan ◽  
Margi Levy ◽  
Philip Powell

Resource-based theory suggests that firms develop idiosyncratic capabilities that contribute to sustainable competitive advantage when they are valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable. The successful use of information systems (IS) and information technology (IT) has been linked to improved firm performance. Recent literature suggests that a deeper understanding of what capability means in practice may be gained from a disaggregation into component competences and resources. A better understanding of the role of IS/IT in business level capability may be achieved through a fuller articulation, both of the capability itself, and the contribution of IS/IT, together with an evaluation of the effectiveness in delivering sustainable competitive advantage. A dynamic capabilities perspective explains the way firms adapt capabilities to changing market environments over time. This paper explores these propositions through an exploratory case study using a framework derived from a resource-based and systemic view of the firm. The analysis suggests a dynamic Capability Development Model through which the implications and potential for IS and IT over time may be understood. The paper addresses three issues. First, it offers a better articulation of what capability concepts mean in practice. Second, it takes a disaggregated understanding of capabilities, and third, it sheds light on the dynamics of capabilities.


2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 403-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Knight ◽  
Sotirios Paroutis

How do paradoxical tensions become salient in organizations over time? Ambidexterity and paradox studies have, thus far, primarily focused on how tensions inside organizations are managed after they have been rendered salient for actors. Using a longitudinal, embedded case study of four strategic business units within a media organization, we theorize the role of the top management team leader’s practices in enabling tensions to become salient for their respective lower-level managers when there are initial differences in how tensions are interpreted across levels. Our findings extend a dynamic equilibrium model of organizing by adding interpretive context as an enabling condition that shapes the emergence of salience through the provision of a constellation of cues that guide sensemaking. Informed by a practice-based perspective on paradox, we also contribute a conceptual model of leadership as practice, and outline the implications for ambidexterity studies.


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