Wave Theory ~ Social Theory

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-326
Author(s):  
Stefan Helmreich
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Wave Theory ◽  
Social Revolution ◽  
Social Body ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries ◽  
Social Agencies ◽  
Sociological Explanation

This article offers a history of the wave metaphor in social theory, examining how waves became rhetorical forms through which to think about the shape of social change. The wave analytic—“waves of democratization,” “waves of immigration,” “waves of resistance”—wavers between high theory and popular model, between objectivist sociological explanation and hand-waving sociobabble, between vanguardist predictions of social revolution and conservative prognoses of political inevitability, between accountings of formal change and claims about material transubstantiation. The article examines usages in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, arguing that techniques of inscription—graphical, numerical, diagrammatic—have produced formal claims about rising and falling tendencies in the social body. It argues, too, that in such deployments, waves are either (1) overpowering forces of social structuration or (2) signs of the animating effects of world-transforming collective social agencies. The “wave” thus generates questions—and uncertainties—about the relation of structure to agency.

scholarly journals Monsters, Disaster, and Organic Balance: Digesting History Through Oral Traditions

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-81
Author(s):  
Thierry Veyrié
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Great Basin ◽  
Social Experiences ◽  
The Body ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Social Body ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

Abstract This paper examines “Coyote, Whirlwind, and Ravine,” a long tale told in the Northern Paiute language by McDermitt storyteller Pete Snapp and recorded by folklorist Sven Liljeblad in the early 1960’s. It weaves in traditional episodes of western Numic folklore to narrate the history of the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone community as witnessed by an elder born shortly after the beginning of the colonization of this area of the Northwestern Great Basin in the western United States. This paper explores how the bodies of certain characters who emanate from landscape, mainly monsters, are tools for the narrative expression of social change, for the telling of history, and the expression of Indigenous spiritual frameworks. It places the experience of the Indigenous social body, embodied by Coyote, through the grinds of the ultra-material Ravine and confronts it to ethereal nefarious powers. Poetics of materiality applied to the body of Coyote operate a structural transformation. Mythical turmoil expresses social experiences and change in the colonial context, but also makes manifest the transformation of the social body that result in the contemporary form of the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone community.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan E. Whyman
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Economic Change ◽  
History Of The Book ◽  
Formal Schooling ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Literate Society

The introduction shows the convergence and intertwining of the Industrial Revolution and the provincial Enlightenment. At the centre of this industrial universe lay Birmingham; and at its centre was Hutton. England’s second city is described in the mid-eighteenth century, and Hutton is used as a lens to explore the book’s themes: the importance of a literate society shared by non-elites; the social category of ‘rough diamonds’; how individuals responded to economic change; political participation in industrial towns; shifts in the modes of authorship; and an analysis of social change. The strategy of using microhistory, biography, and the history of the book is discussed, and exciting new sources are introduced. The discovery that self-education allowed unschooled people to participate in literate society renders visible people who were assumed to be illiterate. This suggests that eighteenth-century literacy was greater than statistics based on formal schooling indicate.

Glocalising the theory of generations: The case of Spain

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 333-357
Author(s):  
Manuela Caballero ◽  
Artemio Baigorri
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
American Society ◽  
A Current

This work poses difficulties in the use of the generation concept as a social research instrument, due to its complex and multidimensional nature. A complexity by which is not a concept widely used in a current Sociology that focuses more on the mathematisation. But some social processes cannot be reduced to algorithms. For the theoretical review we have used contributions from Sociology, Philosophy and History, because it is of a transversal disciplinary nature, and we have applied it to the identification of Spanish generations in the 20th century. Inspired by Ortega’s theses and Strauss and Howe empirical development implemented for American society, the resulting model presents six generations with different collective identities that reflect the social changes in the history of Spain during the last century. A model that, after being tested in sectorial investigations, may constitute a useful new tool for the analysis of social change.

The Constitutional Crisis in Austria

1930 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 144-157
Author(s):  
Malbone W. Graham
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Stress And Strain ◽  
Social Revolution ◽  
Party Organization ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Parliamentary Supremacy ◽  
The Government

Constitutionalism, in Austria, is not a new slogan. It was a phrase to conjure with during the entire lifetime of Francis Joseph, though in practice the whole history of the country down to the revolution of 1918 was its virtual negation. Only in the latter days of the monarchy, when the scepter passed from the hands of Francis Joseph to the inexperienced young emperor Karl, was a modicum of popular expression allowed to supplant the personal autocracy of the sovereign. The old Austria passed out of existence in 1918 without the successful implantation of a régime of liberal legality in any of its parts.The young Austrian Republic, coming into existence in the hour of the Empire's dissolution, thus inherited a legacy of unconstitutional government, and only the solidity of socialist and clerical party organization, bred of the stress and strain of clashing conceptions of the social order, gave support to the government in the days when social revolution swept almost to the doors of Vienna. It was under such circumstances that Austria entered, in 1918, upon the way of constitutionalism and sought, through her provisional instruments of government, to avoid the autocratic excesses of the past and avert the impending perils of a proletarian dictatorship.In a series of revolutionary pronouncements and decisions of her provisional assembly, she discarded, under socialist leadership, the arbitrary régime attendant on the monarchy, and, establishing a unitary democratic republic with far-reaching local self-government as a stepping-stone toward union with Germany, inaugurated a régime of unquestioned parliamentary supremacy, strict ministerial responsibility, virtual executive impotence, and extensive socialization.

scholarly journals Understanding Language Death in Czech-Moravian Texas

2007 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 147-163
Author(s):  
Kevin Hannan
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Wave Theory ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Language Death ◽  
Symbolic Function ◽  
Linguistic Model ◽  
Personal Interaction ◽  
The Social

Based on several decades of personal interaction with Texas speakers of Czech, the author’s article attempts to correlate social change with some specific stages of language obsolescence and language death. Many instances of language change in that community, as well as cultural and social change, may be explained by the linguistic model known as the wave theory. One hundred and fifty years passed between the introduction of Czech and the death of that language in Texas. From the mid-nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century, the Czech-Moravians represented a closed community in which individuals defined their identity primarily by the Czech language, ethnicity, and culture. In the final five decades of the twentieth century, as the social template representing Texas speakers of Czech disintegrated, spoken Czech ceased to function as a living language, and much of the ancestral culture connected with the language was lost. Today some among the elderly, described as semi-speakers, terminal speakers, or ‘‘rememberers’’ of language, retain a limited knowledge, but the ancestral language now has only a symbolic function.

Problems, Crises, Events and Social Change: Theory and Illustrations

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 137-146
Author(s):  
Constance A. Nathanson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Change Theory ◽  
Sociological Analysis ◽  
History Of Public Health ◽  
Charles Tilly ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Social Change Theory

This paper proposes a theory-based approach to the understanding of social change and illustrates that theory with examples from the history and politics of public health. Based in large part on the work of anthropologist Marshall Sahlins (see in particular his Islands of History published in (1985) William Sewell Jr. has proposed an ‘eventful sociology.’ In this work ‘event’ is a term of art meaning occurrences in human affairs that result in social change. Sewell's approach and that of Charles Tilly are in many respects complementary, a major difference being Sewell's far greater emphasis on meaning and interpretation by engaged actors as essential to understanding of how historical processes unfold. In this paper I further elaborate Sahlins’ and Sewell's ideas, first by showing their connection with concepts that may be more familiar to sociologists and, second, by examining the contingent character of social change. Drawing on my own research on the history of public health, I argue that the transformation of ‘happenings’ into events and of events into meaningful social change are highly contingent on the social and political context within which these events occur. More generally, I hope to show that ‘eventful’ sociology is an exciting and productive approach to sociological analysis.

scholarly journals The Foundations of N.K. Mikhailovsky's Theory. Formation of “Subjective Sociology”, Late 1860s – mid-1870s

2021 ◽  
Vol V (2) ◽  
pp. 55-78
Author(s):  
Andrey Teslya
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
The Public ◽  
Special Analysis ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
The One

Nikolai Konstantinovich Mikhaylovsky (1842–1904) is one of the most well-known and influential Russian publicists of the last third of the 19th and the beginning of 20th century, ideologist of the Narodniki movement, the author of the conception known as “subjective sociology” and the editor of journal Russian wealth at the end of his life. Yet, while his role in the history of Russian social movement or literary-aesthetic views have been quite fully studied, his social theory has rarely become the object of the special analysis during the last century. On the one hand, it was shadowed by the theories which appeared earlier and had more influence even abroad (outside the Russian empire) as, for example, the ideas of Herzen, Bakunin, Chernyshevsky, Lavrov. On the other hand, Mikhaylovsky, who was severely criticized by Russian social democrats in 1894–1901, was perceived as a rather weak theorist. In this article, we demonstrate the essential differences between the early conceptual advances of Mikhaylovsky and P.L. Lavrov and assert that the conception of the former was influenced both by the rethinking of the Darwinism from a viewpoint of understanding of nature and by the conclusions for social theory. Unlike Lavrov, Mikhaylovsky, as well as Herzen, was an advocate of non-teleological understanding of progress and favored the interpretation of history as logical yet free from strict determinism. In conclusion, Mikhaylovsky’s opinion about the society, which was formed at the end of 1860s – first quarter of 1870s, appears as a quite consistent and elaborated system, an answer to the theoretical challenges. Firstly, on the part of the Darwinism and the attempt to apply it to the analysis of the society. Secondly, on the part of the organicism. Lastly, we give an interpretation to the decline of the public interest to the social theory of Mikhaylovsky at the end of the 19th – beginning of 20th century.

scholarly journals Sekularisasi, Kultur Digital dan Geliat Agama: Tantangan dan Sketsa Berteologi Digital di Indonesia

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bobby Daniel Nalle
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Digital Culture ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
The Real ◽  
Church Mission ◽  
Digital World ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

Secularization and digital culture are the influencing aspects that define the characteristics of religious societies in the 21st century. As a formation of the history of social change, these two elements greatly determine the efforts of religion, in doing theology and church services at the present, in the term of digital theology. Indeed, It is determined by the surprising rise of the COVID-19 pandemic which forces religious efforts to deal with digital things. As a new experience, digital theology seeks a form as to how the social change made it. Elements such as secularization,  digital culture, and church formation become the important aspects to determine the direction of doing theology. Based on these new experiences, this paper will describe a sketch of how to doing digital theology in Indonesia, especially in the case of GMIT. With the theology of incarnation as the frame, digital theology puts the relational substance (God-human, among human relationships and between the real and digital world. As the digital world as a locus, digital theology therefore over a liquid digital church and the presensia-accompaniment model of a church mission to be the sketch of doing theology in the digital context in Indonesia.AbstrakSekularisasi dan kultur digital adalah dua elemen yang berpengaruh dalam ciri keberagamaan masyarakat religius di abad ke 21. Sebagai bentukan dari sejarah perubahan sosial, kedua hal ini sangat menentukan upaya  beragama, berteologi dan bergereja  dalam konteks kekinian.  Salah satu istilah yang dikedepankan adalah teologi digital. Bentuk berteologi digital saat ini justru didorong oleh situasi pandemi COVID-19. Sebagai sebuah pengalaman dadakan dan baru berteologi secara digital menjadi upaya mencari bentuk mengikuti perubahan sosial` Elemen seperti sekularisasi dan kultur digital dan geliat beragama menjadi aspek yang menentukan arah berteologi. Dengan berpatokan pada pengalaman baru inilah tulisan ini berkenan memberikan gambaran sketsa berteologi digital di Indonesia melalui pengalaman bergereja di GMIT. Payung teologi inkarnasi yang dipakai sebagai usulan berteologi, mendasari keterkaitan relasional baik antara Allah dan manusia, antar-manusia maupun antara  dunia real dan digital. Dalam memaknai ruang digital menjadi locus berteologi, maka sketsa gereja cair digital, dan model kehadiran digital presensia dan accompaniment menjadi sebuah tawaran bergereja dan bermisi dalam konteks digital di Indonesia.

The Development of “Lands of Recent Settlement”

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristian A. Harris
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
National Identity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Factor Endowments ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries ◽  
Frontier Development ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
European Migration

Lands of recent settlement refers to countries settled predominantly by European migration during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, such as the United States, Canada, Argentina, Uruguay, Australia, and New Zealand. Current scholarship on the lands of recent settlement reveals a very active agenda of comparative studies covering a broad range of areas and issues: culture, institutions, gender, ethnicity, labor, national identity, geography, ecology, environment, noneconomic factors of growth, and transnationalization and globalization. In explaining the different levels of development between lands of recent settlement and the rest of the world, traditional explanations pointed to propitious external factors and factor endowments. These explanations include the analysis of the history of the United States based on the notion of “frontier development” and the staple theory of growth. Meanwhile, recent works debate whether institutions, culture, or geography plays a crucial role. These works focus on the social, domestic, geographic, and biological elements of development, the cultural and institutional legacy of colonialism, as well as questions on gender, ethnic, and national identity. Although they do not reject the importance of foreign demand, capital, and labor in explaining the development of the lands of recent settlement, they question the adequacy of interpretations based solely on economic factors. Ultimately, the most important contribution of the study of development of lands of recent settlement is in the area of an analysis of transnational networks and globalization.

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