scholarly journals Social Categories are Natural Kinds, not Objective Types (and Why it Matters Politically)

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodore Bach
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Natural Kinds ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Social Ontology ◽  
Essential Property ◽  
Ontological Category ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Similarity Class ◽  
Historical Essences ◽  
Objective Type

AbstractThere is growing support for the view that social categories like men and women refer to “objective types.” An objective type is a similarity class for which the axis of similarity is an objective rather than nominal or fictional property. Such types are independently real and causally relevant, yet their unity does not derive from an essential property. Given this tandem of features, it is not surprising why empirically-minded researchers interested in fighting oppression and marginalization have found this ontological category so attractive: objective types have the ontological credentials to secure the reality (and thus political representation) of social categories, and yet they do not impose exclusionary essences that also naturalize and legitimize social inequalities. This essay argues that, from the perspective of these political goals of fighting oppression and marginalization, the category of objective types is in fact a Trojan horse; it looks like a gift, but it ends up creating trouble. I argue that objective type classifications often lack empirical adequacy, and as a result they lack political adequacy. I also provide, and in reference to the normative goals described above, several arguments for preferring a social ontology of natural kinds with historical essences.

scholarly journals Three Conceptions of a Theory of Institutions

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 550-568 ◽  
Author(s):  
N.Emrah Aydinonat ◽  
Petri Ylikoski
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Game Theory ◽  
Natural Kinds ◽  
Social Ontology ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Social Institution ◽  
Unified Theory ◽  
Social Kinds

We compare Guala’s unified theory of institutions with that of Searle and Greif. We show that unification can be many things and it may be associated with diverse explanatory goals. We also highlight some of the important shortcomings of Guala’s account: it does not capture all social institutions, its ability to bridge social ontology and game theory is based on a problematic interpretation of the type-token distinction, and its ability to make social ontology useful for social sciences is hindered by Guala’s interpretation of social institution types as social kinds akin to natural kinds.

scholarly journals Funerary Practices as a Testimony of Ideology in Western Linearbandkeramik Culture

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 953-971
Author(s):  
Anne Augereau
Keyword(s):  
Protein Intake ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Funerary Practices ◽  
Symbolic Thought ◽  
The Social ◽  
Diverse Origin ◽  
Grave Goods

Abstract The Linearbandkeramik (LBK) is behind the spread of the Neolithic way of life in a large part of Western Europe. This period is often regarded as the beginning of social inequalities whose ideological frameworks deserve to be highlighted. According to social anthropologists, funerary practices are relevant for this debate as they reflect the symbolic thought in relation to death. In addition, as they are perpetuated by the living, funerary practices are pertinent in addressing the ideological values, symbolic systems, and thoughts that support social organisation. Whilst examining how grave goods are allocated amongst the LBK population, we have identified a small group of dominant men characterised by a specific burial kit (adzes, arrows, lighter set, and red deer antlers), a richer protein intake in diet, and their local origin. Comparing them to other social categories characterised by minor marking of identity in grave goods, poorer protein intake in diet, and of diverse origin, we aim to explore the ideological frameworks and values sustaining the social LBK system. LBK dominant ideology appears to revolve around hunting and exploits in warfare, manhood, and virility, in short around violent behaviours perhaps linked to a territorial competition.

Social inequality and access to social capital in microfinance interventions

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (7/8) ◽  
pp. 575-588
Author(s):  
Mudit Kumar Singh ◽  
Jaemin Lee
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Group Formation ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Credit Access ◽  
The Social ◽  
Unequal Access

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the inequality perpetuated through social categories in accessing the social capital generated through the microfinance interventions in India as the country has pronounced economic inequality by social categories like many developing stratified societies.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses survey data collected from 75 villages in rural India and tests whether the formation and maximization of social capital through self-help groups (SHGs) is dominated by social categories, e.g. high-caste groups, males and superior occupation classes. Using logistic regression framework, the study assesses the formation and maximization of social capital through multiple SHG membership.FindingsThe paper finds that the microfinance approach of empowering weaker sections is considerably limited in its success, in the sense that it provides them with the opportunity to the credit access and support through SHGs. But, the empirical model further indicates that social capital in form of these SHGs may fall prey to the dominant social categories, and thus, these institutions may potentially enhance inequality.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper is derived from the secondary data set, so it is unable to comment field reality qualitatively.Practical implicationsMicrofinance policy makers will have an improved understanding of inherent social inequalities while implementing group-based programs in socially stratified societies.Originality/valueSocial capital, if treated as an outcome accumulated in form of groups, provides with an important framework to assess the unequal access through the microfinance interventions. Overlooking the inherent unequal access will deceive the purpose of social justice in the group-based interventions. The microfinance and other welfare policies engaged in group formation and generating the social capital need to be more sensitive to the disadvantageous sections while focusing on multiple group access by disadvantaged social groups.

Post-Keynesian Economics, Critical Realism, and Social Ontology

2013 ◽  
pp. 161-174
Author(s):  
Stephen Pratten
Keyword(s):  
Critical Realism ◽  
Social Ontology ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Relevant Alternatives ◽  
Mainstream Economics ◽  
Keynesian Economics ◽  
Abstract Level ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Further Development ◽  
Central Social

Critical realism in economics is centrally concerned with demonstrating how an explicit focus on social ontology can help identify the nature of contemporary mainstream economics and promote the further development of more relevant alternatives. In examining the relationship between critical realism and post-Keynesian economics two issues are considered. First, this chapter addresses the question of how a project that is primarily concerned with social ontology can productively inform, or offer directionality to, a more substantive program such as that of post-Keynesian economics. Second, the chapter considers how post-Keynesian economics can provide certain important resources for those seeking to stake out a distinctive position in social ontology. The argument is that the two projects can be mutually supportive. Critical realism can clarify what post-Keynesianism is and how it relates to other projects. Post-Keynesian economics, meanwhile, through its accounts of central social categories, offers material with which to work to those critical realists seeking to focus on issues in social ontology at a less abstract level than has been typical in the project.

Queering Prison Masculinity

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 230-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Kristen Hefner
Keyword(s):  
Queer Theory ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Correctional Institutions ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Single Sex ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Sex And Sexuality ◽  
Male Inmates ◽  
Depth Interviews

Gender, sex, and sexuality are fluid, socially constructed aspects of social life that are organized differently based on the context in which individuals’ lives are situated. Of particular interest in this study is how gender, sex, and sexuality are constructed and organized in single-sex correctional institutions. Using in-depth interviews conducted with fourteen heterosexual male inmates, this research explores how sexuality is organized within the prison environment. Drawing on queer theory, this article problematizes the idea of a heterosexual/homosexual binary. Specifically, the study illustrates that inmates often blur the boundaries between male and female, heterosexual and homosexual, illustrating the flexibility and volatility of traditional binary gendered and sexualized social categories, providing a richer understanding of how social inequalities are created and maintained within the prison context.

The Movement for Reproductive Justice

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Zavella
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequalities ◽  
The United States ◽  
Coalition Building ◽  
Reproductive Justice ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Grassroots Organizing ◽  
Or Methodology ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Right

Working on behalf of women of color, the movement for reproductive justice incorporates intersectionality and human rights to advocate for women’s right to bear children free from coercion or abuse, terminate their pregnancies without obstacles or judgment, and raise their children in healthy environments as well as the right to bodily autonomy and gender self-identification. The movement for reproductive justice takes health advocacy further by pushing for women’s human right to access health care with dignity and to express their full selves, including their spiritual beliefs, as well as policies that address social inequalities and lead to greater wellness in communities of color. The evidence is drawn from ethnographic research with thirteen organizations located throughout the United States. The overall argument is that the organizations discussed here provide a compelling model for negotiating across differences within constituencies. This movement has built a repertoire of “ready-to-work skills” or methodology that includes cross-sector coalition building, storytelling in safer spaces, and strengths-based messaging. In the ongoing political clashes in which the war on women’s reproductive rights and targeting of immigrants seem particularly egregious and there are widespread questions about whether “the resistance” can maintain its cohesion, the movement for reproductive justice offers a model for multiscalar politics in opposition to conservative agendas and the disparagement of specific social categories. Using grassroots organizing, culture shift work, and policy advocacy, this movement also offers visions of the strength, resiliency, and dignity of people of color.

Separating kindhood from naturalness: Kinds are diverse in causal structure

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Noyes ◽  
Yarrow Dunham
Keyword(s):  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Predictive Validity ◽  
Real World ◽  
Natural Kinds ◽  
Causal Structure ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Psychological Essentialism ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Nominal Categories ◽  
Consistent Support

[UPDATED 3/11/2020] This paper proposes that the richness of a category (i.e., high inductive potential, non-accidental properties, and generalizable causal structure) is conceptually distinct from its being natural or socially constructed. To test this account, we explore beliefs related to the classic distinction between natural kinds and nominal categories. Specifically, we subjected these beliefs, across diverse categories, to exploratory factor analysis (Studies 1 and 2), examined the inferential connections between these beliefs using experimental manipulations of novel categories (Study 3), and tested the discriminant and predictive validity of these beliefs in the context of real-world social categories (Studies 4 and 5). We find consistent support that rich structure (kindhood) is conceptually distinct from that structure being natural or social (naturalness). We argue that ‘psychological essentialism’ is best understood as a circumscribed set of beliefs related to naturalness, and that referring to kindhood as a type of essentialist belief is inaccurate.

scholarly journals Folk Theories of Religious Identity- Evidence from Palestine and the United States

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mostafa Salari Rad ◽  
Jeremy Ginges
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Natural Kinds ◽  
The United States ◽  
Category Membership ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
West Bank And Gaza ◽  
Intergroup Conflicts ◽  
Role Of Religion

How do people understand what makes a person Muslim, Hindu, or Christian? Social categories are sometimes viewed as natural kinds, where category membership is believed to derive from an underlying biological essence. Current theorizing posits this tendency to be motivated by contextual features such as saliency of categories, or quality of intergroup relations. Accordingly, along with categories such as ethnicity or gender, religious categories may be susceptible to essentialism in contexts of violent conflict along religious lines. An alternative perspective, drawn from the literature that links the spread of aspects of religious cognition to the growth of large-scale cooperative societies, is that religious category membership could be perceived as especially transformable by context and practice. We investigated essentialist reasoning about religious categories heavily implicated in intergroup conflicts in two populations: Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, and citizens of the United States. In four experiments (N = 2578), we employed variations of the adoption task to compare how people reason about membership in religious and national categories. Results show that people are less likely to believe that one’s religion (compared to one’s nationality) is passed on through some type of biological mechanism and so is “fixed at birth”. Thus, religious categories seem particularly resistant to essentialist reasoning, even when the social context appears to motivate such reasoning. Implications for understanding essentialist reasoning and the role of religion in intergroup conflict are discussed.

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