scholarly journals Autoanalysis, with particular reflections on sociology

2021 ◽  
pp. 1468795X2110324
Author(s):  
Bridget Fowler
Keyword(s):  
Social Transformation ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Sociology Of Knowledge ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Secular Culture ◽  
The North ◽  
Raymond Williams ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Sexuality And Disability

This article aims to contribute to a sociology of knowledge via an autoanalysis of a marginalised member of the British upper-middle class, who moved first from the South to the North of England and then from England to Scottish society as an immigrant: a ‘stranger who stayed’. Written in the first person, Bridget Fowler’s reflections move between different religious and political worlds, focusing especially on her reception of conflicting sociological theories and her own development through these. Influenced by five exceptionally learned and lucid sociologists – John Rex, Herminio Martins, Raymond Williams, Pierre Bourdieu and Terry Lovell – she has spent her sociological career contributing to the demystification of power in various forms. In particular she has focused on the significance of secular culture – notably literature – in creating hegemonic domination. She has also analysed the role of symbolic revolutions in social transformation, avoiding in this respect falling either into idealism or simplistic class reductionism. Arguing that sociological theory still needs to teach Marx, Weber and Durkheim, these founding figures should not be seen as creating – in social scientific terms – a unified architectural construction, but should be read with and against one another; further, they need also to be combined with other, more contemporary, influences. Finally whilst noting the existential salience of movements around identity – nation, gender, sexuality and disability – she argues that the discipline must continue to reach out ‘beyond the fragments’, to address social totalities more broadly, including wider issues of social space and structures of power.

scholarly journals ‘The secret garden’: Artists, bohemia and gentrification in the Ouseburn Valley, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 318-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Whiting ◽  
Kevin Hannam
Keyword(s):  
Social Space ◽  
Local State ◽  
Creative Class ◽  
Property Development ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Creative City ◽  
The Secret Garden ◽  
Newcastle Upon Tyne

Research has pointed to the importance of artists in the early stages of gentrification; however, few studies have examined specifically the meaning of gentrification and place-change from the perspective of artists themselves, and few studies have investigated the role of ‘creative city’ policies as unintended drivers of gentrification processes. This study generates insights into artists’ own views of gentrification processes within the gentrifying bohemia of the Ouseburn Valley in Newcastle upon Tyne in the North East of England. We stress that gentrification in this area cannot solely be understood as a process of displacement, but is also clearly linked to the growth of modes of regulation and commercialisation within social space. Increasing regulation, brought about by greater local state focus on ‘creative districts’, has impacted the Valley. Alongside this, projects of property development as well as a general growth in the popularity of the Valley as a nightlife consumption district and area of production for commercially-orientated creative class workers have challenged artists’ values of the area as a ‘secret garden’ where romantically inflected values of self-expression, autonomy, spontaneity and non-instrumental artist cooperation can be found.

scholarly journals Navigating by the North Star: The Role of the ‘Ideal’ in John Stuart Mill's View of ‘Utopian’ Schemes and the Possibilities of Social Transformation

Utilitas ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen McCabe
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Individual Property ◽  
Social Reforms ◽  
Contemporary Debate ◽  
Property Relations ◽  
The North ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Ideal

AbstractThe role of the ‘ideal’ in political philosophy is currently much discussed. These debates cast useful light on Mill's self-designation as ‘under the general designation of Socialist’. Considering Mill's assessment of potential property-relations on the grounds of their desirability, feasibility and ‘accessibility’ (disambiguated as ‘immediate-availability’, ‘eventual-availability’ and ‘conceivable-availability’) shows us not only how desirable and feasible he thought ‘utopian’ socialist schemes were, but which options we should implement. This, coupled with Mill's belief that a socialist ideal should guide social reforms (as the North Star guides mariners), reveals much more clearly the extent of his socialist commitments (even if he thought political economists would be concerned with forms of individual property for some time to come). Moreover, this framework for assessments of ‘ideal’ institutions makes a useful contribution to an ongoing contemporary debate.

Gramsci: Power, culture & education

2020 ◽  
pp. 23-45
Author(s):  
Peter Mayo
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Production ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Cultural Work ◽  
Intellectual Activity ◽  
Cultural Workers ◽  
Stuart Hall ◽  
Raymond Williams ◽  
Culture Education

This paper traces the connection between cultural work and power in the thinking and writing of Italian socio-political theorist and strategist, Antonio Gramsci. His rootedness in Marxism and a deep humanistic culture are emphasised as well as how his main conceptual tools (e.g. Hegemony, Intellectuals, ‘Popular Creative Spirit’, Critical Appropriation and ‘National-Popular’) are central to his analyses of different forms of cultural production, intellectual activity and educational developments in his time. The paper dwells on his musings on the ever so pertinent issue of Migration as it found expression in the literature of his time and their implication for reflection on the same issue in more recent times.  Importance is given to the role of political and artistic movements of the period such as Futurism and their legacy for present day life. Parallels are drawn between Gramsci’s cultural views and those of later thinkers such as Raymond Williams, Stuart Hall and Henry A. Giroux who often adopt a Gramscian lens in their economic-social-cultural analysis. The core theme of this paper is the influence of culture and cultural workers/intellectuals in the process of social transformation.

Imagining Social Transformations: Territory Making and the Project of Radical Pragmatism

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 361-381
Author(s):  
Philipp Dorstewitz
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Inquiry ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
Global Trends ◽  
Hull House ◽  
Social Scientific

Saskia Sassen today and Jane Adams more than 100 years ago are both social scientists and public philosophers of reconstruction. Both offer defining contributions to a philosophical tradition that will be identified here as “radical pragmatism”. Sassen’s theoretical stance “before method” serves as a key to understand Addams’s locally embedded urban activist projects as a form of social scientific inquiry. Sassen introduces the concept of “territory making” as a spark of hope against rampant and destructive global trends of “expulsions”, which her approach reveals. In this article this concept of “territory making” will be explored in various contexts and with particular attention to Addams’s Hull house project. It will be shown how a pragmatist brand of human imagination is critical in “territory making”. This leads to reconsidering the role of art in social transformation projects.

The Inherited Past of the Broch: On Antiquarian Discourse and Contemporary Archaeology

2002 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDREW BAINES
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Academic Language ◽  
Contemporary Archaeology ◽  
The North

In reading archaeological texts, we expect to be engaged in a characteristically archaeological discourse, with a specific and recognisable structure and vocabulary. In evaluating the published work of 19th Century antiquarians, we will inevitably look for points of contact between their academic language and our own; success or failure in the identification of such points of contact may prompt us to recognise a nascent archaeology in some writings, while dismissing others as naïve or absurd. With this point in mind, this paper discusses the written and material legacies of three 19th Century antiquarians in the north of Scotland who worked on a particular monument type, the broch. The paper explores the degree to which each has been admitted as an influence on the development of the broch as a type. It then proceeds to compare this established typology with the author's experiences, in the field, of the sites it describes. In doing so, the paper addresses wider issues concerning the role of earlier forms of archaeological discourse in the development of present day archaeological classifications of, and of the problems of reconciling such classifications with our experiences of material culture.

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.

Training of Village Teachers in Vilna Educational District in the 1860s and 1870s

2020 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 181-192
Author(s):  
Anna A. Komzolova
Keyword(s):  
Educational Reform ◽  
Rural Teachers ◽  
Cultural Brokers ◽  
The North ◽  
Central Russia ◽  
Russian Intelligentsia ◽  
Trained Teachers ◽  
The Village ◽  
North Western

One of the results of the educational reform of the 1860s was the formation of the regular personnel of village teachers. In Vilna educational district the goal was not to invite teachers from central Russia, but to train them on the spot by establishing special seminaries. Trained teachers were supposed to perform the role of «cultural brokers» – the intermediaries between local peasants and the outside world, between the culture of Russian intelligentsia and the culture of the Belarusian people. The article examines how officials and teachers of Vilna educational district saw the role of rural teachers as «cultural brokers» in the context of the linguistic and cultural diversity of the North-Western Provinces. According to them, the graduates of the pedagogical seminaries had to remain within the peasant estate and to keep in touch with their folk «roots». The special «mission» of the village teachers was in promoting the ideas of «Russian elements» and historical proximity to Russia among Belarusian peasants.

Peranan Ombudsman Republik Indonesia Perwakilan Sumatera Utara Dalam Pengawasan Pelayanan Dinas Kependudukan dan Catatan Sipil Kota Medan

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Putri Ananda Sari ◽  
Abdul Kadir ◽  
Beby Mashito Batu Bara
Keyword(s):  
Service Provider ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
First Report ◽  
The North ◽  
Supervision Process ◽  
The Republic ◽  
North Sumatra

This study aims to determine the role of the Ombudsman of the Republic of Indonesia in North Sumatra Representative in the Supervision of Population and Civil Registry Service in Medan City. This study uses a qualitative approach with descriptive methods describing information about the data obtained from the field in the form of written and oral data from the parties studied. Data is collected based on interviews and documentation. The results of this study indicate that the role of the Ombudsman of the Republic of Indonesia in North Sumatra was carried out in the form of external supervision. External supervision is supervision carried out by the Ombudsman of the Republic of Indonesia Representative of North Sumatra to the Medan Population and Civil Registry Service. Actions taken in the supervision process are incoming reports, follow-up of the first report and follow-up of the report. Based on the research that has been carried out, it has been concluded that the role of the Ombudsman of the Republic of Indonesia in the North Sumatra Representative in supervising the service provider of the Population and Civil Registry services is carried out in the form of external supervision. In supervising the handling of public reports of alleged poor service in the area of population administration, it has been effective, with several efforts to handle reports such as: (1) Clarification; (2) Investigation; (3) Recommendations; (4) Monitoring.

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