Historical Sociology in Poland: Transformations of the Uses of the Past

2021 ◽  
pp. 088832542110579
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Kolasa-Nowak ◽  
Marta Bucholc
Keyword(s):  
Social Transformation ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Historical Sociology ◽  
Marxist Theory ◽  
Third Wave ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
The Social ◽  
Symbolic Resource ◽  
Sociological Studies

The development of Polish institutional sociology since the 1920s reflects the combined effects of domestic political and cultural factors, along with international interdependencies. Historical sociology shares in the vicissitudes of the whole discipline. Although historical sociology was only weakly institutionalized before 1989, some of the best sociological studies produced in Poland under socialism display the keen use of historical imagination, inspired both by the pre-1939 domestic tradition and by Marxist theory. This article examines the path of historical sociology in Poland after 1989 and the connection between the sociological uses of history and the experience of post-communist transformation. We posit that the social transformation experience and how it was addressed by social science directly translate into the use of history in Polish sociology after 1989. We argue that the role of historical sociology in Poland since the end of the 1990s was a function of the potential of the past as a symbolic resource in the growing interdependence between Poland and Western Europe. However, the post-1989 research agendas of historical sociology were forged according to the mode of responsiveness to political agendas predating 1989. An overview of the development of Polish historical sociology demonstrates that the ahistorical transitological thinking after 1989 has been challenged by critical agendas in historical sociology, but it was, in the first place, a reaction to the increased potential of the past as a symbolic resource in political debates. Thus, the rationale for the passage to the third wave of historical sociology was primarily political.

scholarly journals Body pedagogics, culture and the transactional case of Vélo worlds

2021 ◽  
pp. 136843102199664
Author(s):  
Chris Shilling
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
The Body ◽  
Knowing How ◽  
Significant Growth ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cognitive Information ◽  
Sociological Studies ◽  
Ways Of Life

During the past two decades, there has been a significant growth of sociological studies into the ‘body pedagogics’ of cultural transmission, reproduction and change. Rejecting the tendency to over-valorise cognitive information, these investigations have explored the importance of corporeal capacities, habits and techniques in the processes associated with belonging to specific ‘ways of life’. Focused on practical issues associated with ‘knowing how’ to operate within specific cultures, however, body pedagogic analyses have been less effective at accounting for the incarnation of cultural values. Addressing this limitation, with reference to the radically diverse norms involved historically and contemporarily in ‘vélo worlds’, I develop Dewey’s pragmatist transactionalism by arguing that the social, material and intellectual processes involved in learning physical techniques inevitably entail a concurrent entanglement with, and development of, values.

Reflexivity and International Relations

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inanna Hamati-Ataya
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Science Studies ◽  
Ethical Problem ◽  
Research Process ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Intellectual Traditions ◽  
Institutional Contexts ◽  
Sociological Studies

Reflexivity has in the past few decades become a core concept and concern in the social sciences and has increasingly shaped (meta) theoretical debates in the field of International Relations (IR) since the 1980s. While there is no single understanding of what reflexivity (sometimes referred to as reflectivity or self-reflexivity) means or entails, a broad consensus identifies reflexivity as the capacity to reflect on one’s own epistemic situation and process, and how these affect the nature and meaning of the knowledge one produces. As such, there are different strands of reflexive or reflexivist scholarship in IR, based on how these different elements are envisaged and addressed. Expanding beyond mere “control against bias,” which was a core concern of American behavioralist scholars in the 1950s, reflexivity has turned from a standard for the pursuit of “objective” knowledge to a problematization of, and response to, the historicity and social-situatedness of knowledge. Discussions of reflexivity in IR are thus typically generated within self-labelled post-positivist intellectual traditions, wherein reflexivity becomes a fundamental epistemological, methodological, and/or ethical problem that requires constant engagement as an integral part of the research process, and that also affects other aspects of the scholarly vocation and practice, including pedagogy and public engagement. Within this broad literature, this annotated bibliography will cover works that have contributed to clarifying and promoting reflexivity as a metatheoretical standard for IR (i.e., reflexivity as a core question for epistemology, ontology, methodology, and ethics), but also works that have contributed to an empirical understanding of IR’s historical and social embeddedness. The reason for including the latter within reflexivist IR—in the broad sense of the term—despite the fact that many authors of such works have not necessarily self-identified as reflexivists, is that they in effect provide an important empirical basis upon which the problematization and clarification of the problem of reflexivity become possible in philosophical and praxical terms. Indeed, in most social sciences such empirical investigation of the embeddedness of knowledge within social structures and orders is provided by historiographical and sociological studies on the sociohistorical conditions of the “production” or “constitution” of knowledge. But IR scholars have in the past few decades developed an in-house historiographical and “science studies” agenda that has increased the whole community’s understanding of the specific sociopolitical and institutional contexts and factors that shape its nature and evolution. The two literatures are therefore conceptually and practically connected, and together contribute to whatever level of reflexivity IR as a field can now be said to enjoy.

A Search for Standards to Monitor Labor Conditions Worldwide - Monitoring International Labor Standards: Techniques and Sources of InformationNational Research Council Washington: National Academies Press, Paperback, 291 pages; ISBN: 0309091349, $43

2006 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-287
Author(s):  
S. Prakash Sethi
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Infrastructure ◽  
International Labor Standards ◽  
Strong Argument ◽  
Labor Conditions ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
The Past ◽  
International Labor ◽  
The Social

A strong argument can be made that globalization and the unrestricted flow of capital, goods, and services leads to the creation of wealth and prosperity among participating nations. Comparative advantage allows both the industrially advanced nations and developing countries to maximize their gains from trade and investments. The current wave of globalization is not the first, nor is it likely to be the last. There have been waves of globalization in the past: in the United States (1870–1890 and circa 1970), Western Europe (1890–1913 and 1950–1992), and Japan (1913–1938). They all eventually petered out because of their adverse impact on the social infrastructure of the countries involved.

The 2019 Social Protests in Latin America: Global Context and Ecuadorian Case-Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-43
Author(s):  
A. N. Pyatakov
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Third Wave ◽  
Social Sphere ◽  
Online Mode ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Protests ◽  
To Come

The paper examines the phenomenon of global social protests that spread in 2019 across more than 20 countries. The author considers the most striking manifestations of this phenomenon that occurred in the Middle East, North Africa, Western Europe, and Asia. The paper provides a periodization of several waves of anti-globalization movement in the 21st century, whereby the current global unrest represents the third wave. The author identifies specific features of each stage and outlines a growing trend towards politicization and exacerbation of violence. Particular emphasis is made on how the protests in Latin America developed in time and space, as they spread to at least eight states of the region: Haiti, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Columbia. In each country, protests were triggered by a peculiar set of internal factors which are not susceptible to easy generalization. In order to come nearer to the understanding of the new global phenomenon the author puts forward several socio-philosophical hypotheses. In particular, the possibility of internationalization of the French ‘yellow vests’ movement, its transfer and adaptation to other countries affected by protests, is noted. In that regard the paper outlines certain ‘channels’ for exporting the French protests to Latin America, including migration and cultural ties. The author stresses that although socio-economic explanations of the global protest phenomenon that focus on such issues as the growth of inequality and social polarization, are correct, they are insufficient for a comprehensive understanding of the new and complex phenomenon. As an alternative, the author suggests using the concept of ‘social singularity’. The paper considers the key features of this concept, including the idea that contemporary global social sphere is functioning in an online mode, allowing for increased speed of social interaction and communication on a global scale. Finally, the paper examines the causes and the development of the social unrest that broke out in Ecuador and served as a starting point for escalating the protest movement in Latin America in 2019.

Reproduction, Production, Social Science, and the Past: A Dissenting Review

1987 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. L. Cornell
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Social History ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Historical Sociology ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Past ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Definition Of

Social Scientists use historical data. Historians use social science concepts. The intersection of these two disciplines, history and social science, has been a vibrant source of research questions over the last fifteen years but also raises the issue of how they are to be interrelated. The search for an answer to this question has resulted in the publication of Theda Skocpol’s Vision and Method in Historical Sociology and Olivier Zunz’s Reliving the Past: The Worlds of Social History, which juxtapose the two words in different order. In Skocpol (1984) history modifies sociology; in Zunz (1985) social science modifies history. Both books are collections of articles. Skocpol’s volume contains nine reviews of the work of masters in this field along with an introduction and conclusion by the editor. Zunz’s has an introduction which reviews the literature of social history in five areas of the world: Western Europe, the United States, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and China. This review highlights the strength of Skocpol’s method and of Zunz’s commitment to analysis of non-Western societies but argues that both authors, in limiting their definition of the field to studies of production, ignore an equally vital topic for social analysis of the past, reproduction.

scholarly journals God Is Dying in Turkey as Well: Application of Secularization Theory to a Non-Christian Society

Open Theology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 192-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Volkan Ertit
Keyword(s):  
Social Transformation ◽  
Sexual Relationship ◽  
Popular Media ◽  
Family Structures ◽  
Traditional Family ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Muslim Majority ◽  
Christian Society ◽  
Do So

Abstract It has been stated in academic studies and popular media that Islam began its rise in dominance in Turkey with the accession of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to power in 2002 under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. However, contrary to claims of societal Islamization, in light of quantitative and qualitative studies this study argues that despite the AKP and its leader Erdoğan being in power, the following evidence has been observed in Turkey: praying rates have decreased, extramarital sexual relationship has become prevalent, the number of mosques per person has decreased, the belief in virginity is a point of honour for fewer people, people‘s clothes have become more flatteringly formfitting and more attractive, including women’s head-scarves; secular experts rather than religious officials are being sought for help concerning problems in daily life, homosexuality has become more socially acceptable visible, traditional family structures has been shattered. Therefore, it is claimed that AKP (or Erdoğan) has failed in efforts to Islamize Turkey over the past 15 years (2002-2017) despite having all the governmental means and opportunities to do so. This study argues that the classical theory of secularization, which claims that modernization leads to secularization, can still explain not only the social transformation seen in historically Christian and Western European countries and their offshoots, but also the social transformation of Turkey, a Muslim-majority country that has been governed for the past 15 years by a political party with clear Islamic sensitivities.

scholarly journals The Social Representation of Feminism within the On-line Movement “Women Against Feminism”

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
Oana Crusmac
Keyword(s):  
Social Representations ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
Third Wave ◽  
The Past ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
On Line ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Line Movement

The present paper aims to analyse the social representation of feminism within the “Women Against Feminism” (WAF) on-line movement that is based on a shared blog which gained significant coverage in the U.S. and U.K. media since the summer of 2014. Using the method of quantitative content analysis and the insights provided by social representations theory, the paper will disclose what lies behind the concept of ‘feminism’ for the group embracing the WAF movement and also aims to find whether the members of this on-line community can be described as postfeminists. The article will conclude that the social representation of feminism within the WAF on-line movement is not based on a lack of information, but rather on a stereotypical understanding of the concept and on a non-nuanced perspective upon the history of feminism and its current developments (in particular the difference between post-feminism and third wave feminism). Moreover, similar arguments raised against feminism have been also drawn in the past, WAF sharing similar arguments with the ‘80s media backlash against feminsim.

scholarly journals The Buryat Intellectual Migration to Western Europe from the Perspective of Friendship Connections and Foreign Languages Competencies

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-267
Author(s):  
Erzhen V. Khilkhanova
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Group Identification ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Family Status ◽  
Language Competence ◽  
The Social ◽  
Symbolic Resource ◽  
Language Strategies ◽  
High Level ◽  
Ethnic Migration

The article examines the Russian ethnic migration on the example of Buryat migrants in Western Europe. It is noted that this topic is poorly studied and that the group under investigation belongs to intellectual migration. The subject of the study is foreign language competence, peculiarities of the functioning of foreign languages in post-migration life, as well as the relationship between languages and the social communication circle of Buryat migrants. Based on the materials of interviews and ethnographic observations, a conclusion is made about the change in the nature of modern migration towards increased mobility and transmigration, the blurring of the boundaries between temporary, circular and other types of migration. This primarily affects young people, leading to the weakening of group identification strategies, including ethnic ones, and to the strengthening of individual as well as cosmopolitan tendencies. In communication with friends and partners a wide repertoire of Western and Eastern foreign languages is used, among which English certainly dominates. Multilingual linguistic competencies by Buryat migrants are closely related to their high level of education and are used as a symbolic resource to achieve professional and personal goals. Language strategies and practices vary widely, depending on migrants life plans, family status, and a number of other external and internal factors.

Uses of the Past: Archaeology in the Service of the State (1987)

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Don D. Fowler
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
New World ◽  
The State ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
The Past ◽  
Symbolic Resources ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Brave New World ◽  
Symbolic Resource

Nation states, or partisans thereof, control and allocate symbolic resources as one means of legitimizing power and authority, and in pursuit of their perceived nationalistic goals and ideologies. A major symbolic resource is the past. In this chapter I review three cases in which the past and, in particular, relevant archaeological resources were ‘used’ for such purposes, and I refer to several other well-known instances. The three cases discussed are Mexico from c.AD 900 to the present, Britain from c.AD 1500 to the present, and the People’s Republic of China since 1949. The implications of such uses in relation to archaeological theories and interpretations are discussed. In The Uses of the Past, Herbert Müller (1952) sought for ‘certainty of meaning’ in an analysis of the development of Western civilization. The only certainty he found was that the past has many uses. This chapter is concerned with some specific uses of the past: (1) how nation state rulers and bureaucrats have manipulated the past for nationalist purposes, both ideological and chauvinistic, and to legitimize their authority and power; (2) how nation states have used archaeological sites, artefacts, and theories for such purposes; (3) how these uses of the past relate to more general questions about the intellectual and socio-political contexts in which archaeology is conducted. The importance to the state of using or manipulating its past is neatly delineated in two great dystopian novels, George Orwell’s (1949) Nineteen Eighty-Four, and Aldous Huxley’s (1932) Brave New World. In the former, the Ministry of Truth totally revamps the past as needed to justify and lend ‘truth’ to the immediate requirements, actions, and policies of the state. In the latter, the past is blotted out. As the Resident World Controller for Western Europe, Mustafa Mond tells the Savage, ‘we haven’t any use for old things here’ (Huxley 1932: 200). In both cases, control and manipulation of the past or its complete denial is critical to state ideology and purposes.

Moral Regulation: A Reformulation

1997 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannu Ruonavaara
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Historical Sociology ◽  
Marxist Theory ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Ruling Elite ◽  
Moral Regulation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Foucauldian Analysis

Philip Corrigan and Derek Sayer introduced the concept of moral regulation to contemporary sociological debate in their historical sociology of English State formation, The Great Arch (1985). In their work they fuse Durkheimian and Foucauldian analysis with a basic Marxist theory. However, this framework gives too limited a perspective to their analysis. I suggest that moral regulation should not be seen as a monolithic project, as merely action by and for the State, nor as activity by the ruling elite only. It should be seen as a form of social control based on changing the identity of the regulated. Its object is what Weber calls Lebensführung, which refers to both the ethos and the action constituting a way of life. The means of moral regulation are persuasion, education, and enlightenment, which distinguishes it from other forms of social control. Analyzing the social relations of moral regulation provides a useful perspective on this form of social action.

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