View from the Fourteenth Floor

Author(s):  
Kai Erikson

This chapter considers one approach to the sociological perspective that has to do with looking at social life as if from afar even when one is positioned at arm's length from it. It explains how sociologists look at social life from a point of vantage similar to that gained at a fourteenth floor. It suggests that sociologists who speak of the social tend to be speaking of tides, forces, currents, pulls—something in the nature of social life that induces people to behave in fairly predictable ways at least part of the time. Human life is subject to social forces that help give it form and pattern. Sociologists tend to regard those forces as things. The chapter also considers the conflict and disorder that characterize the social world.

Author(s):  
Kai Erikson

This chapter considers a third approach to the sociological perspective, which has to do with viewing a wholly familiar social reality in the way a newcomer, a stranger, might. It may be assumed that sociologists know more about the lay of their land than most others do. After all, they spend a significant amount of time investigating various corners of the social world, and to that extent they can be thought of as seasoned, knowing, and experienced about human life. At the same time, however, sociologists can be viewed as strangers to the lands they study, for it is one of their tasks to look at the social world almost as if they were seeing it for the first time. The chapter explains how sociologists may be newcomers to the locations they study and discusses the ways that they deal with deviant behavior.


Author(s):  
Thomas B. Lawrence ◽  
Nelson Phillips

Across the social sciences, scholars are showing how people “work” on facets of social life that were once thought to be beyond human intervention. Facets of social life once considered to be embedded in human nature, dictated by God, or shaped by macro‐level social forces beyond human control, are now widely understood as socially constructed – made and given meaning by people through social interaction, and consequently the focus of efforts to change them. Studies of these efforts have explored new forms of work including emotion work, identity work, boundary work, strategy work, institutional work, and a host of other kinds of work. Missing in these conversations, however, is a recognition that these forms work are all part of a broader phenomenon driven by historical shifts that began with modernity and dramatically accelerated through the twentieth century. This book explores that broader phenomenon: we propose a perspective that integrates diverse streams of research to examine how people purposefully work to construct organizational life. We refer to these efforts as social‐symbolic work and introduce three forms – self work, organization work, and institutional work – that are particularly useful in understanding how actors construct organizational life. The social‐symbolic work perspective highlights the purposeful, reflexive efforts of individuals, collective actors, and networks of actors to construct the social world, and focuses attention on the motivations, practices, resources, and effects of those efforts. Thus, the social-symbolic work perspective brings actors back into explanations of the social world, and balances approaches that emphasize social structure at the expense of action or describe social processes without explaining the role of actors.


Author(s):  
Ruslan Rafisovich Hasanov

On the basis of the archetypic analysis of development trends of a conflictological paradigm the author’s model of minimization of conflict potential in modern society is offered. Institutional construction is the basis for model that is harmonized with a factor of societal identity.It is noted that the problems of social conflicts, according to data from monitor- ing studies of the Ukrainian school of archetype, are increasingly shifted into the sphere of interpersonal relations. It is stimulated by the progression in society of so-called self-sufficient personalities, the “subjectification” of the social space, and at the same time narrowing down to the solution of entirely specific situations in which there is a collision of the interests of two or more parties.Instead, in order to find the optimal solution for resolving the conflict, it is necessary to have interdisciplinary knowledge, in particular understanding of the deep nature of such conflicts. Collision of points of view, thoughts, positions — a very frequent phenomenon of modern social life. In order to develop the correct line of behavior in various conflict situations, it is important to adequately under- stand the nature of the emergence of the modern conflict and the mechanisms for resolving them in substance. Knowledge of conflict nature enriches the culture of communication and makes human life and social groups not only more calm, but also creates conditions for constructive development. It is proved that in modern life one can not but agree with the statement that an individual carries first re- sponsibility for his own life and only then for the life of the social groups to which he belongs. And while making decisions within the framework of modern mecha- nisms (consensus), the properties of human psychology such as extroversion, emo- tionality, irrationality, intuition, externality, and executive ability will not at least contribute to such a task.That is why in the author’s research attracted attention to the archetypal na- ture of the conflict — the primitive images, ideas, feelings inherent in man as a bearer of the collective unconscious.


Author(s):  
Ruslan Rafisovich Hasanov

On the basis of the archetypic analysis of development trends of a conflictological paradigm the author’s model of minimization of conflict potential in modern society is offered. Institutional construction is the basis for model that is harmonized with a factor of societal identity. It is noted that the problems of social conflicts, according to data from monitoring studies of the Ukrainian school of archetype, are increasingly shifted into the sphere of interpersonal relations. It is stimulated by the progression in society of so-called self-sufficient personalities, the “subjectification” of the social space, and at the same time narrowing down to the solution of entirely specific situations in which there is a collision of the interests of two or more parties. Instead, in order to find the optimal solution for resolving the conflict, it is necessary to have interdisciplinary knowledge, in particular understanding of the deep nature of such conflicts. Collision of points of view, thoughts, positions — a very frequent phenomenon of modern social life. In order to develop the correct line of behavior in various conflict situations, it is important to adequately understand the nature of the emergence of the modern conflict and the mechanisms for resolving them in substance. Knowledge of conflict nature enriches the culture of communication and makes human life and social groups not only more calm, but also creates conditions for constructive development. It is proved that in modern life one can not but agree with the statement that an individual carries first responsibility for his own life and only then for the life of the social groups to which he belongs. And while making decisions within the framework of modern mechanisms (consensus), the properties of human psychology such as extroversion, emotionality, irrationality, intuition, externality, and executive ability will not at least contribute to such a task. That is why in the author’s research attracted attention to the archetypal nature of the conflict — the primitive images, ideas, feelings inherent in man as a bearer of the collective unconscious.


2021 ◽  
pp. 004711782110214
Author(s):  
King-Ho Leung

This article offers a reading of Plato in light of the recent debates concerning the unique ‘ontology’ of International Relations (IR) as an academic discipline. In particular, this article suggests that Plato’s metaphysical account of the integral connection between human individual, the domestic state and world order can offer IR an alternative outlook to the ‘political scientific’ schema of ‘levels of analysis’. This article argues that Plato’s metaphysical conception of world order can not only provide IR theory with a way to re-imagine the relation between the human, the state and world order. Moreover, Plato’s outlook can highlight or even call into question the post-metaphysical presuppositions of contemporary IR theory in its ‘borrowed ontology’ from modern social science, which can in turn facilitate IR’s re-interpretation of its own ‘ontology’ as well as its distinct contributions to the understanding of the various aspects of the social world and human life.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 82-93
Author(s):  
Aleksandr Subetto

It is proved that the current era is characterized by many governments around the world as dictatorship of "appearance" or "simulation" of the most activities transforming politics, even the tragic events like local ecological catastrophes, local wars, "colour revolutions", the elections in a "theatre", "acting", on the background of market ecocide – really accelerating processes of the first phase of a Global Environmental Disaster, which, at the transition "point of no return" in the near future, may turn into a process of irreversible environmental destruction of all mankind. This dictatorship of "appearance" or simulation as a "curtain" market democracy, hiding the capitalism-led, process of dehumanization of man, is an indicator of the inadequacy of states and political "elites" imperative of survival of mankind, as the imperative out of the ecological impasse of history in market-capitalist format. There comes a reckoning for this departure into the " market-capitalist illusion of apparent prosperity. The societies of the world, including Rossiya, have faced a dilemma:either environmental destruction, or the Noosphere Breakthrough, which, in its essence, is a change in the social organization of social life and its reproduction – the transition from the dominance of capitalism and the market to the Noosphere Ecological Spiritual Socialism on the basis of scientific and educational society and the management of socionatural evolution.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
Ardhian Indra Darmawan ◽  
Shanti Wardhaningsih

Setiap manusia yang ada di dunia memiliki keyakinan yang dianut. Spiritual  adalah dasar dari kehidupan manusia dalam aktivitas kehidupan di dunia. Salah satu peristiwa yang terjadi dalam kehidupan adalah hubungan sosial antar manusia.  Perkembangan manusia dimulai dari bayi, balita, anak-anak, remaja, dewasa sampai lanjut usia. Masa remaja adalah fase transisi yang berada diantara fase anak - anakmenuju fase dewasa. Setiap fase perkembangan manusia dipengaruhi oleh beberapa faktor, salah satunya adalah faktor lingkungankeluarga dan spiritual. Abad 21 memberikan potensi adanya pergeseran nilai emosional dan sosial remaja ke arah negatif, seperti pergaulan bebas yang dilakukan oleh remaja. Data diambil  melalui PubMed, ProQuest, dan Google Cendekia menggunakan kata kunci: spiritual, sikap spiritual orang tua, perilaku sosial dan seksual remaja. Hasil dari delapan artikel yang diperoleh, diidentifikasi sebanyak empat tema, yaitu Spiritual dalam hubungan sosial, spiritual dalam perilaku dan kesehatan mental remaja, perilaku seksual berdasarkan budaya dan yang terkahir yaitu kontrol spiritual dalam perilaku dan pendidikan seksual. Hakekat dari nilai yang sosial yang terkandung dalam spiritual mampu memberikan dampak bagi kehidupan sosial remaja. Peran tingkat pengetahuan dan aplikasi nilai spiritual oleh orang tua dan lingkungan remaja tinggal mampu memberikan dampak bagi perilaku sosial remaja.  Perilaku sosial remaja yang didalamnya terdapat perilaku untuk memenuhi kebutuhan biologisnya yaitu perilaku seksual.  Remaja yang pengalaman hidupnya belum banyak, maka berisiko salah dalam mengambil keputusan untuk memenuhi kebutuhan dalam kehidupannya termasuk hubungan sosialnya. Meningkatnya pemahaman nilai spiritual akan mampu mengontrol perilaku yang dilakukan oleh remaja untuk memenuhi kebutuhan sosialnya. Kata kunci: peran spiritual, perilaku sosial dan seksual, remaja SPIRITUAL ROLE DEALING WITH SOCIAL AND SEXUAL BEHAVIOR OF YOUTH ABSTRACTEvery human being in the world have adopted beliefs. Spirituality is the foundation of human life in the world's life activity. One of the events that happen in life is the social relationships between people. Human development begins from infants, toddlers, children, teenagers, adults to elderly. Adolescence is a transitional phase that is between phases of a child - the child towards the adult phase. Each phase of human development is influenced by several factors, one of which is a spiritual family and environmental factors. The 21st century provides the potential for a shift in adolescent emotional and social values in the negative direction, such as promiscuity conducted by adolescents. Data retrieved via PubMed, ProQuest, and Google Scholar using keywords: spiritual, spiritual attitudes of parents, social behavior and sexual. Results from the eight articles obtained, four themes were identified, namely spiritual in social relationships, spiritual behavior and mental health of adolescents, sexual behavior based on culture and finally spiritual control in sexual behavior and education. The nature of the social values contained in the spiritual can provide an impact on the social life of adolescents. The role of the level of knowledge and application of spiritual values by parents and the environment of adolescents living is able to have an impact on adolescent social behavior. Adolescent social behavior in which there is behavior to meet biological needs, namely sexual behavior. Teenagers, whose life experiences are not many, then risk making the wrong decision to meet the needs in their lives, including social relationships. Increased understanding of spiritual values will be able to control the behavior carried out by adolescents to meet their social needs. Keywords: spiritual behavior, adolescents, adolescent sexual behavior 


In trying to show you the character of social anthropology as an academic discipline, I might try to sketch some substantive and perhaps intriguing findings in the field, or the history of its development, or some of its major intellectual problems today. I have chosen the last of these alternatives, because by showing the general problems we are grappling with I hope to reveal to you, in part no doubt inadvertently, the ways that anthropologists think, and also how our difficulties in part arise from the character of the social reality itself, which we confront and try to understand. The fundamental questions which social anthropology asks are about the forms, the nature, and the extent of order in human social life, as it can be observed in the different parts of the world. There is no need to prejudge the extent of this order; as members of one society we know how unpredictable social life can be. But concretely, human life varies greatly around the world, and it seems possible to characterize its forms to some extent. We seek means systematically to discover, record and understand these forms.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 44-47
Author(s):  
Siti Karomah ◽  
Agus Hermawan

Abstract— Literary work, directly or indirectly, is the realization and imagination of the author as a reflection and the reality that the author gets from society. Literary works can be found through the life forms of society. Thus, literary works cannot be separated from the elements around them. Literary work along its journey always implicate man, humanity, life, and life. In essence, literary works are born for the surrounding community. Literary works are the products of authors who live in the social world. That way, short story literary works in the form of fairy tales are the author's imaginative world that is always related to social life. There are interesting things that are given to our children to change attitudes and daily ethics. Keywords—: Literary works; short stories; fairy tales.


KWALON ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thaddeus Müller

Beyond navel-gazing and narcissism.Ferrell’s auto-ethnography as part of ethnography Beyond navel-gazing and narcissism.Ferrell’s auto-ethnography as part of ethnography The labeling of auto-ethnography as navel-gazing does not do justice to the variety with which auto-ethnography is applied. A distinction should be made between emotional and analytical auto-ethnography. In the first form the central person of the researcher plays the central role, in the second auto-ethnography is applied to get a better understanding of the social world which is being studied. In this article the author discusses the second approach by using the work of Jeff Ferrell. Ferrell is a well-known cultural criminologist, who focuses critically on the cultural understanding of social life. By looking at how Ferrell applies auto-ethnography, insight is gained into the added value of this method for qualitative studies: (1) the integration of the personal experiences of researchers in texts in order to achieve a richer description of the social worlds they explore, (2) making explicit the role of the researcher in publications, and (3) developing new (more appealing) forms of representation.


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