scholarly journals On the assumption of self-reflective subjectivity

2021 ◽  
pp. 095269512110328
Author(s):  
Christoforos Bouzanis
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Rule Following ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Social Theories ◽  
Discursive Participation ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Contemporary Social Theory

Contemporary social theory has consistently emphasized habitual action, rule-following, and role-performing as key aspects of social life, yet the challenge remains of combining these aspects with the omnipresent phenomenon of self-reflective conduct. This article attempts to tackle this challenge by proposing useful distinctions that can facilitate further interdisciplinary research on self-reflection. To this end, I argue that we need a more sophisticated set of distinctions and categories in our understanding of habitual action. The analysis casts light on the idea that our contemporary social theories of self-reflection are not consistent with everyday notions of agential knowledgeability and accountability, and this conclusion indicates the need to reconceptualize discourse and subjectivity in non-eliminative terms. Ultimately, the assumption of self-reflective subjectivity turns out to be a theoretical necessity for the conceptualization of discursive participation and democratic choice.

Rule-Following and Social Theory

2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 50-55
Author(s):  
Valery A. Surovtsev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Rule Following ◽  
Social Theories

The article contains some considerations on influence of Wittgenstein’s Problem of Rule-Following to Social Theories, especially as it is analyzed in the text of K.A. Rodin. I consider “skeptical decision” of S. Kripke, and demonstrate that in some new situation’s theory of G. Baker and P. Hacker are preferable.

scholarly journals Deset let poté: Vědecký odkaz arabského jara

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Jaroslav Weinfurter
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Scientific Development ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Middle Eastern Politics

The purpose of this article is to outline some of the key changes and advancements in social theory and research methodology that were triggered during the period of scientific self-reflection after the events of the so-called Arab Spring. The ongoing turn towards decidedly micropolitical and anthropological approaches has had a significant impact especially on macropolitical and universalist disciplines which, much like their regional counterparts, were largely caught off guard by the Middle Eastern developments from the turn of the last decade. These changes represent a very welcome corrective detour to the established trajectories of scientific development, especially so with regard to the existing and prolonged issues surrounding interdisciplinary research that have historically plagued the research in Middle Eastern politics and for which new possibilities of resolutions are hereby opened.

The Destruction of Trust

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Hall
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Social Life ◽  
The State ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
State Behavior ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Central Focus ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Contemporary Social Theory

This chapter shows how the state can undermine civility by destroying cooperative relations in society. The analysis of trust has become a central focus in contemporary social theory. This is wholly to be welcomed, for it takes but a moment to realize that social life depends on trust. Cooperative relations in general depend on trust, on the expectation that agreements will be honored. So civility rests on trust. State behavior can destroy trust, thereby undermining civility. Majorities can threaten minorities, but elites can repress and divide majorities into suspicious and warring groups. Accordingly, it is best to see democracy as a necessary condition for civility in modern times, even though sufficiency to that end requires the creation and maintenance of a civil political culture.

The Social Life of Measures: Conceptualizing Measure–Value Environments

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Mubi Brighenti
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
Contemporary Social Theory

Issues of measure and measurement, and their relation to value and values, are of concern in several major threads in contemporary social theory and social research. In this article, the notion of ‘measure–value environments’ is introduced as a theoretical lens through which the life of measures can be better understood. A number of points are made which represent both a continuation and a slight change in emphasis vis-à-vis the existing scholarship. First, it is argued that the relation between measure and value is necessarily circular – better, entangled. Second, a conceptualization of measures as territorializing devices is advanced. Third, importance is given to the fact that measures are not simply tools in our hands, they are also environments in which we live. Fourth, attention is drawn to the fact that the unit ( n = 1) is not just a quantitative happening among others, but is qualitatively distinct.

Feminist Perspective in Shashi Deshpande's “That Long Silence”

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 8
Author(s):  
Mohammad Ahashan ◽  
Dr. Sapna Tiwari
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equity ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Feminist Movement ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Simone De Beauvoir ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Key Aspects

Man has always tried  to determine  and tamper the image of woman and especially her identity is manipulated and orchestrated. Whenever a woman is spoken of, it is always in the relation to man; she is presented as a wife , mother, daughter and even as a lover but never as a woman  a human being- a separate entity. Her entire life is idealized and her fundamental rights and especially her behaviour is engineered by the adherents of patriarchal society. Commenting  on the Man-woman relationship in a marital bond Simone de Beauvoir wrote in her epoch-making book entitled The Second Sex(1949): "It has been said that marriage diminishes man,  which is often true , but almost always it annihilates women". Feminist movement advocates the equal rights and equal opportunities for women. The true spirit of feminism is into look at women and men as human beings. There should not be gender bias or discrimination in familial and social life. To secure gender justice and gender equity is the key aspects of feminist movement. In India, women writers have come forward to voice their feminist approach to life and the patriarchal family set up. They believe that the very notion of gender is not only biotic and biologic episode but it has a social construction.

How Not to Go Beyond Marx: A Reply to Worrell and Krier

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Capitalist Society ◽  
Critical Social Theory ◽  
Sociological Analysis ◽  
General Direction ◽  
Fatal Flaw ◽  
The Right ◽  
Political Imaginary

Worrell and Krier’s ‘Atopia Awaits! A Critical Sociological Analysis of Marx’s Political Imaginary’ raises serious issues regarding Marx’s legacy. They hold that a fatal flaw in Marx’s framework can be detected in his account of a post-capitalist society, which reveals a theoretically impoverished and politically dangerous neglect of essential features of social life. I argue that there are good reasons to reject Worrell and Krier’s thesis that Marx got immensely important things horribly wrong. Marx’s limited remarks on post-capitalist society are certainly inadequate in numerous respects. However, they point in the right general direction, and Worrell and Krier fail to offer a satisfactory alternative. The prospects for a critical social theory adequate to the immense challenges of the 21st century would be harmed if their readers agreed with the paper’s main thesis.

scholarly journals Social processes at the beginning of the 20th сentury in understanding of the Dnipro Ukraine’s intellectuals

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 80
Author(s):  
Yaroslav Platmir
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Limited Range ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Common People ◽  
Public Figures ◽  
National Ideology ◽  
Political Conditions ◽  
The Common ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
New Generation

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries Ukraine did not have a national state, was divided into two large regions, which were part of the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires. Therefore, Ukrainian intellectuals had to live and work in difficult political conditions, often going to very substantial compromises with imperial forces, represented by both Russian officials and comparatively more numerous Russian intellectual circles. This had a significant impact on the nature and tasks of the Ukrainian movement, substantially corrected both tactical steps and a general strategic course towards its own autonomy and statehood. It is important to note that the evolution of Ukrainian national ideology took place under the influence of European ideas. They, however, captured the thoughts of very narrow circles of humanitarians, most of whom engaged in the study of ethnographic and folklore spheres of peasant life, and therefore, were concerned about a relatively limited range of issues. At the same time, the comprehension of the past and present problems took place against the background of the involvement of a new generation of public figures in the movement. In the territory of Naddniprianshchyna, it was formed in conditions of rapid modernization, while maintaining the imperial (autocratic) system of power. After analyzing all the key aspects of the proposed problem, the author came to the conclusion that in relation to social processes (realities) at the beginning of the 20th century in the Naddniprianshchyna, the Ukrainian intelligentsia focused on socio-cultural, national, regional, and, to a lesser extent, economic and social life. The choice between "culture and politics" was too limited. In a situation, where many forces needed to solve internal (party, interpersonal, etc.) problems, such a local orientation significantly weakened the influence of intellectual circles on society, particularly the peasantry. At that time, when the Ukrainian intelligentsia claimed to be the main driving force of national affirmation, the establishment of ties between the Western (sub-Austrian) and the Eastern (sub-Russian) communities, it did little to its influence among the general population, the common people, that was a gross mistake in the new historical conditions.

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