The x and society syndrome

2021 ◽  
pp. 053901842110396
Author(s):  
Volker H. Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Direct Consequence ◽  
Pertinent Literature ◽  
Middle Range ◽  
The Social ◽  
Law And Science ◽  
Oriented Research

Half a century of behavioral, practice-oriented research in fields as diverse as politics, economy, law, and science has generated insights that improve our understanding of these fields’ workings considerably. Surveying the pertinent literature, however, also leads to a baffling finding: the social that this research sought to vindicate is not there. And this, the article shows, is no coincidence. Rather, it is a direct consequence of the middle range approach of theorizing this research both adopts and reflects; an artefact of a mode of analysis which makes the social into a derivative of an essential other: the topic under investigation. As a result, its meaning changes every time the analysis switches to a new field, to some other ‘x’. A proposal is made to fix this problem by drawing on general sociological theory, with whose help it can be easily avoided.

Conceptual foundations for the development of J.G.Turner’s general sociological theory: Metatheoretical ideas, basic concepts and analytical scheme

2019 ◽  
pp. 40-60
Author(s):  
Volodymyr Reznik
Keyword(s):  
Social Evolution ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Analytical Scheme ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
The Social ◽  
Production Distribution ◽  
Basic Concepts ◽  
Conceptual Foundations

The article discusses the conceptual foundations of the development of the general sociological theory of J.G.Turner. These foundations are metatheoretical ideas, basic concepts and an analytical scheme. Turner began to develop a general sociological theory with a synthesis of metatheoretical ideas of social forces and social selection. He formulated a synthetic metatheoretical statement: social forces cause selection pressures on individuals and force them to change the patterns of their social organization and create new types of sociocultural formations to survive under these pressures. Turner systematized the basic concepts of his theorizing with the allocation of micro-, meso- and macro-levels of social reality. On this basis, he substantiated a simple conceptual scheme of social dynamics. According to this scheme, the forces of macrosocial dynamics of the population, production, distribution, regulation and reproduction cause social evolution. These forces force individual and corporate actors to structurally adapt their communities in altered circumstances. Such adaptation helps to overcome or avoid the disintegration consequences of these forces. The initial stage of Turner's general theorizing is a kind of audit, modification, modernization and systematization of the conceptual apparatus of sociology. The initial results obtained became the basis for the development of his conception of the dynamics of functional selection in the social world.

Value-driven issues throughout the development of sociological theory

2020 ◽  
pp. 147-160
Author(s):  
Gulbarshyn Chepurko ◽  
Valerii Pylypenko
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social System ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Social Sphere ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Different Levels

The paper examines and compares how the major sociological theories treat axiological issues. Value-driven topics are analysed in view of their relevance to society in times of crisis, when both societal life and the very structure of society undergo dramatic change. Nowadays, social scientists around the world are also witnessing such a change due to the emergence of alternative schools of sociological thought (non-classical, interpretive, postmodern, etc.) and, subsequently, the necessity to revise the paradigms that have been existed in sociology so far. Since the above-mentioned approaches are often used to address value-related issues, building a solid theoretical framework for these studies takes on considerable significance. Furthermore, the paradigm revision has been prompted by technological advances changing all areas of people’s lives, especially social interactions. The global human community, integral in nature, is being formed, and production of human values now matters more than production of things; hence the “expansion” of value-focused perspectives in contemporary sociology. The authors give special attention to collectivities which are higher-order units of the social system. These units are described as well-organised action systems where each individual performs his/her specific role. Just as the role of an individual is distinct from that of the collectivity (because the individual and the collectivity are different as units), so too a distinction is drawn between the value and the norm — because they represent different levels of social relationships. Values are the main connecting element between the society’s cultural system and the social sphere while norms, for the most part, belong to the social system. Values serve primarily to maintain the pattern according to which the society is functioning at a given time; norms are essential to social integration. Apart from being the means of regulating social processes and relationships, norms embody the “principles” that can be applied beyond a particular social system. The authors underline that it is important for Ukrainian sociology to keep abreast of the latest developments in the field of axiology and make good use of those ideas because this is a prerequisite for its successful integration into the global sociological community.

Book Review: Toshchenko Zh.T. Trauma Society: Between Evolution and Revolution (The Experience of Theoretical and Empirical Analysis). Moscow: Ves’ Mir, 2020

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 152-159
Author(s):  
Vladimir V. Krivosheev
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Trauma Society ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Research ◽  
Further Development

The review reveals the basic conceptions elaborated by one of the major Russian modern sociologists Zh.T. Toshchenko in his new research. The reviewer argues that the book’s author thoroughly examines the various methodological grounds for identifying the essential characteristics of social dynamics. At the same time, the reviewer focuses on the further development of the theory of modern society, proposed by the book’s author. Thus, Zh.T. Toshchenko, who spent many years researching social deformations, formulates an important concept – the concept of a society of trauma as the third modality of social development along with evolution and revolution. The book offers a fundamentally new view of social life, there is a holistic, systematic approach to all its processes and phenomena. The reviewer concludes that the new book of the social theorist Zh.T. Toshchenko is a significant contribution to sociological theory, since it develops ideas about the state and prospects of Russian society, gives accurate assessments of all social processes.

Comparative Area Studies

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Köllner ◽  
Rudra Sil ◽  
Ariel I. Ahram
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
Middle Range ◽  
The Social ◽  
Small N ◽  
Scholarly Discourse ◽  
Science Disciplines

Two convictions lie at the heart of this volume. First, area studies scholarship remains indispensable for the social sciences, both as a means to expand our fount of observations and as a source of theoretical ideas. Second, this scholarship risks becoming marginalized without more efforts to demonstrate its broader relevance and utility. Comparative Area Studies (CAS) is one such effort, seeking to balance attention to regional and local contextual attributes with use of the comparative method in search of portable causal links and mechanisms. CAS engages scholarly discourse in relevant area studies communities while employing concepts intelligible to social science disciplines. In practice, CAS encourages a distinctive style of small-N analysis, cross-regional contextualized comparison. As the contributions to this volume show, this approach does not subsume or replace area studies scholarship but creates new pathways to “middle range” theoretical arguments of interest to both area studies and the social sciences.

Professional judgements of risk and capacity in situations of self-neglect among older people

2010 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 1055-1072 ◽  
Author(s):  
SHANNON MCDERMOTT
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Older People ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Medical Illness ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Professional Intervention ◽  
Sydney Australia

ABSTRACTOver the past 50 years, self-neglect among older people has been conceptualised in both social policy and the academy as a social problem which is defined in relation to medical illness and requires professional intervention. Few authors, however, have analysed the concept of self-neglect in relation to critical sociological theory. This is problematic because professional judgements, which provide the impetus for intervention, are inherently influenced by the social and cultural context. The purpose of this article is to use critical theory as a framework for interpreting the findings from a qualitative study which explored judgements in relation to older people in situations of self-neglect made by professionals. Two types of data were collected. There were 125 hours of observations at meetings and home assessments conducted by professionals associated with the Community Options Programme in Sydney, Australia, and 18 professionals who worked with self-neglecting older people in the community gave in-depth qualitative interviews. The findings show that professional judgements of self-neglect focus on risk and capacity, and that these perceptions influence when and how interventions occur. The assumptions upon which professional judgements are based are then further analysed in relation to critical theory.

scholarly journals Sociology, Ecology and a Global Economy

2011 ◽  
pp. 97-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Marchak
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Social Activity ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
Proper Understanding ◽  
The Social ◽  
Current Practices

Summary This paper presents the main approaches and issues of Anglo-canadian sociology of the last forty years, showing their limits and their theoretical inadequacies. It discusses the current practices of sociologists and asks the question: which social dimensions should be taken into account to strenghten sociological theory. It emphasizes the necessity to go beyond the framework of the social sciences to build a proper understanding of humanity and social activity.

scholarly journals EL PAPEL DE LAS CONVENCIONES SOCIALES. NOTAS PARA EL ESTUDIO DE LAS ORGANIZACIONES BUROCRÁTICAS

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
pp. 128
Author(s):  
Alma Isunza Bizuet
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Related Research ◽  
Bureaucratic Organization ◽  
Social Conventions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Servant ◽  
The Social

En este artículo analizo la propuesta de cambio de paradigmas de las organizaciones burocráticas que busca mejorar la calidad de los servicios públicos ofrecidos a los ciudadanos. El paradigma posburocrático implica una corriente de cambio que cuestiona la figura del «servidor público» y concede mayor importancia a los empleados; se considera el peso y la importancia de las instituciones y su relación con las convenciones sociales que le imprimen una identidad característica a cada organización burocrática particular, por ello examino las aportaciones de la teoría sociológica para comprender la vinculación entre la acción social y las convenciones e instituciones sociales con el fin de documentar la importancia de las convenciones sociales sobre las que descansa el funcionamiento cotidiano de la burocracia, y proponer proyectos de investigación relacionados.   ABSTRACTThis paper analyses changes occurred within paradigms in bureaucratic organizations, aiming at proving the quality of the services offered to the citizens. The posbureaucratic paradigm implies a course change that questions from the own conception the figure of the «public servant» and grants the major importance to the employees, it considers the influence and the importance of the institutions and its relation with the social conventions that imprints a characteristic identity to each particular bureaucratic organization, for that reason the contributions of the sociological theory are examined to understand the entailment between the social action and the social conventions and institutions, to illustrate the importance of the social conventions on which the daily operation of the bureaucracy rests; in order to propose related research projects.

scholarly journals Social Progress Index for Urban and Rural Areas of a Region: Evidence from Peru

2021 ◽  
Vol 101 (4) ◽  
pp. 422-435
Author(s):  
Maylee Inga-Hancco ◽  
Adamari Indigoyen-Porras ◽  
Sergio Parra-Alarcón ◽  
Juan Cerrón-Aliaga ◽  
Wagner Vicente-Ramos
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Progress ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
Middle Range ◽  
The Social ◽  
Global Organization ◽  
Urban And Rural Areas

The present study describes the methodological process proposed by the Social Progress Imperative Global Organization to calculate the Social Progress Index in urban and rural areas of the province of Huancayo, Peru, in 2020. The survey was based on 229 observations regarding basic human needs, foundations of well-being and opportunities. The result produced an index of 56.04 for urban areas and 53.98 for rural areas; results that are in the low and low middle range respectively, identifying deficiencies in the quality of economic policies, with respect to the sanitation service, where more than 30% do not have access to drinking water, and others. It was concluded that the index showed no improvement with respect to 2019, likewise the social gaps still persist and the well-being of the aforementioned population was not increased.

scholarly journals Srebrenica is not a Metaphor

2021 ◽  
pp. 54-64
Author(s):  
Sarina Bakić
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
Temporal Dimensions ◽  
Further Development

The author will emphasize the importance of both the existence and the further development of the Srebrenica - Potočari Memorial Center, in the context of the continued need to understand the genocide that took place in and around Srebrenica, from the aspect of building a culture of remembrance throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). This is necessary in order to continue fighting the ongoing genocide denial. At first glance, a culture of remembrance presupposes immobility and focus on the past to some, but it is essentially dynamic, and connects three temporal dimensions: it evokes the present, refers to the past but always deliberates over the future. In this paper, the emphasis is placed on the concept of the place of remembrance, the lieu de memoire as introduced by the historian Pierre Nora. In this sense, a place of remembrance such as the Srebrenica - Potočari Memorial Center is an expression of a process in which people are no longer just immersed in their past but read and analyze it in the present. Furthermore, looking to the future, they also become mediators of relations between people and communities, which in sociological theory is an important issue of social relations. The author of this paper emphasizes that collective memory in the specific case of genocide in and around Srebrenica is only possible when the social relations around the building (Srebrenica - Potočari Memorial Center) crystallize, which is then much more than just the content of the culture of remembrance.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document