No such thing as sociological excuses? Performativity, rationality and social scientific expertise in late liberalism

2021 ◽  
pp. 136843102110189
Author(s):  
Jana Bacevic

This article examines a frequent assumption of sociological accounts of knowledge: the idea that knowledge acts. The performativity of knowledge claims is here analysed through the prism of ‘sociological excuses’: the idea that sociological explanations can act as ‘excuses’ for otherwise unacceptable behaviour. The article builds on Austin’s distinction between illocutionary and perlocutionary effects to discuss the relationship between sociological explanation, sociological justification and sociological critique. It argues that understanding how (and if) sociological explanations can act requires paying attention to social and political conditions of performativity and their transformation in late liberalism.

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Mhd Alfahjri Sukri

This research was conducted to see how Mohammad Natsir thought about the relationship between Islam and Pancasila. This study also explains the causes of Natsir's change of mind which initially supported Pancasila as part of Islam and later turned into an opponent of Pancasila in Konstituante on 11 November to 6 December 1957. The methodology used was a qualitative method by describing the results of the analysis carried out. The research data is obtained through a review of documents and scientific literature. The results of the study show that Mohammad Natsir's change of mind regarding the relationship between Islam and Pancasila was influenced by Mohammad Natsir's political socialization which began from Natsir's view of Islam influenced by the childhood environment (conditional and socio-cultural) in Minangkabau; direct influence from national figures such as Ahmad Hassan, H. Agus Salim, Sheikh Ahmad Syurkati and H. O Tjokroaminoto; the indirect influence of international figures throughout reading book such as Hassan Al-Banna, Amir Syakib Arselan, Rashid Ridha and Muhammad Abduh; the influence of Natsir's organization and political parties, namely Jong Islamieten Bond (JIB), Islamic Unity (Persis), and Masyumi political parties; and the influence of the political conditions at that time which made Natsir's views change, which initially accepted Pancasila and then became an opponent of the Pancasila. This research shown there are two patterns of Natsir's relationship with Pancasila, namely (1) Natsir accepted Pancasila and, (2) Natsir opposed Pancasila.


2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurie E. Paarlberg ◽  
Rebecca Nesbit ◽  
Richard M. Clerkin ◽  
Robert K. Christensen

This article integrates parallel literatures about the determinants of redistribution across place. Using regression-based path analysis, we explore how tax burden mediates the relationship between political conditions and charitable contributions. Our analysis indicates that counties with a higher proportion of people voting Republican report higher charitable contributions, and tax burden partially mediates this relationship. However, the effect of political ideology on charitable contributions is nonlinear. As the proportion voting Republican in non-Republican-dominated counties increases, the predicted levels of charitable giving actually decreases. In contrast, as the proportion voting Republican increases in Republican-dominated counties, charitable contributions increase. Higher levels of political competition decrease charitable giving, again with partial mediation by tax burden. We also find that the “crowding in” effect of lower tax burdens on charitable giving only partially compensates for the loss of public revenue. Ultimately, total levels of redistribution—both private and government—are higher in Democratic-leaning counties.


Author(s):  
John D. Skrentny ◽  
Natalie Novick

This chapter details the historical developments that have gradually obviated any perceived need for a nuanced causal theory of the relationship between scientists and national performance. Contemporary political rhetoric expressing a faith in a hypothesized (yet little understood) causal connection between scientific expertise and jobs and wealth creation has roots in Progressivism. It also marks a significant transformation of the Progressive vision of how the federal government should use the natural sciences. Even as Progressives embraced vague and sometimes contradictory impulses and beliefs, Progressive governance sought social betterment primarily through the use of existing scientific expertise to achieve specific, identified goals. The Progressives' typical use of science was to develop standards and measures (for example, to ensure safe food). Recent decades, however, have seen the rise of vaguer measures of success—the overall number of scientists and engineers, working in any field, or the overall number of federal dollars allocated to research.


Author(s):  
Brunilda Pali ◽  
Robert Mackay

This paper explores the practice of the blood feud refracted through the prism of Ismail Kadare’s Broken April (1978), which is set in early 20th century Albania. Analysis of emerging themes reveals some important insights for Law and Literature. We examine the relationship of the blood feud with a number of themes, which fall under the structural headings of socio-political conditions, social ethos and values, and mechanisms of conflict management. Situating the author’s agenda within a perspective of historical imagination, between history and epic, past and present, suggests the perspective of la longue durée in relation to customary laws and feuding. That insight in turn prompts reflections about the survival and continuation of blood feuding as a form of life in contemporary societies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  

In the midst of dangerous circumstances and events and the thorny relations between Syria and Lebanon ,the issue of Syrian – Lebanese economic relations 1958 – 2000 came to confirm the depth of the relationship between the two counties and indicate the political tensions and the shadows it casts on economic relations. Perhaps the Syrian – Lebanese relations are among the strangest relations that exist between two countries or Even between two peoples , although it brings together a lot of special circumstances that are difficult to find in other countries , any event , even if it is fleeting , can be exploited in a way that harms the essence of the relationship in which interests may intersect between two ordinary countries that do not have any connection of historical weight or A specific geography , the Syrian – Lebanese relationship is , by virtue of history , concurrent with the emergence of the two states as political entities . This reason and others prompted me to choose this topic , which embodies the volume of trade and economic exchange between the two countries and clearly embodies the repercussions of the relationship , which passes from one period to another in a state of ebb and flow . This study sheds light on the economic relations between the two countries , although it is difficult to ignore the impact of the political conditions on them , as they are the main engine , and the decline in economic relations is only a reaction to the crisis policy in many cases . in writing this research , the researcher used the descriptive method of history , and he used an important number of sources that enriched the subject , such as the Lebanese – Syrian relations of the authors Antoine AL-Nashef and Khalil AL-Hindi , as well as the Lebanese – Syrian relations1985 -1943 issued by the Lebanese Documentation and Research Center and last but not least l hope this study will be successful in terms of providing information and facts to the lraqi offices and contributing to their enrichment and providing assistance to the lraqi researcher .


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-86
Author(s):  
Charlotte Nunes

This article examines how P.E.N., an organisation born in imperial Britain, endeavoured in some cases and floundered in others to create conditions for collaboration between Indian and British writers. Drawing on the P.E.N. archives at the Harry Ransom Center (HRC), I examine communication among and between Indian and British writers in P.E.N.'s orbit during the World War II era and leading up to the Indian Independence Act of 1947. As a forum for collaboration among writers internationally not only to develop writing and editing projects together, but also to forge a unifying conception for the modern era of the relationship between literature and political freedom, P.E.N. aimed to create opportunities for exchange among Indian and British writers. Analysing Indian writers' articulation of the necessary conditions for cross-imperial collaboration, I consider how mutuality was compromised under political conditions of imperialism hinging on hierarchal notions of culture.


2011 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 1447-1469 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN G. GUNNELL

AbstractThe turn to the philosophy of scientific realism as a meta-theory for the study of International Relations manifests a reluctance to confront the basic problem of the relationship between philosophy and social scientific inquiry. Despite the realists' rejection of traditional empiricism, and particularly the instrumentalist account of scientific theory, the enthusiasm for realism neglects many of the same problems that, more than a generation earlier, were involved in the social scientific embrace of positivism. One of these problems was a lack of understanding regarding the character and history of the philosophy of natural science and its relationship and applicability to the study of social phenomena. Proponents of realism have also neither adequately articulated and defended realism as a philosophical position, and distinguished it from other perspectives, nor confronted the fundamental challenge to realism and other foundationalist philosophies which has been mounted by the contemporary critique of traditional representational philosophy.


2008 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
PATRICK THADDEUS JACKSON

AbstractWhile the recent proliferation in philosophical discussions in International Relations indicates a welcome increase in the discipline’s conceptual sophistication, a central issue has gone relatively unremarked: the question of how to understand the relationship between scholarly observers and their observed objects. This classical philosophical problem has a number of implications for the conduct of inquiry in the discipline, and raises particular challenges for the status of knowledge-claims advanced by constructivists. I clarify these issues and challenges by distinguishing between ‘dualist’ and ‘monist’ ontological standpoints, in the hope of provoking a more focused philosophical discussion.


2003 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
G.J. Volschenk

The relationship between land tenancy and social struc-ture of Palestine in the Herodian eraThe article describes the relationship between land tenancy and social structure of Palestine. Secondly it describes the conflicting percep-tions of land tenancy within the social structure of Palestine. The conflicting perceptions of land tenancy led to conflict between the elite and the peasants. This conflict was intensified by the hierarchical social structure of Palestine. The article concludes that the use of the social scientific model of the social structure of Palestine prevents anachronism and reductionism in the interpretation of biblical evidence regarding land tenancy.


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