Social Change, Social Problems, and Demands for Knowledge

2012 ◽  
pp. 292-314
Author(s):  
Neil J. Smelser ◽  
John S. Reed
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Social Problems

scholarly journals Exhaustion and possibility. The wor(l)dlyness of social work in (G)local environment worlds during a pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 54-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mona B Livholts
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Life Writing ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Writing Genres

Exhaustion is not about being tired. It is an intense feeling of restlessness, of insomnia, and awakening when I ask myself: have I exhausted all that is possible? Such a state of restlessness and wakefulness represents a turning point for having enough, and opens for new possibilities to act for social change. This reflexive essay departs from the notion that the language of exhaustion offers a wor(l)dly possibility for social work(ers) to engage in critical analytical reflexivity about our locations of power from the outset of our (g)local environment worlds. The aim is to trace the transformative possibilities of social change in social work practice through the literature of exhaustion (eg. Frichot, 2019 ; Spooner, 2011 ). The methodology is based on uses of narrative life writing genres such as poetry, written and photographic diary entrances between the 4th of April and 4th of June. The essay shows how tracing exhaustion during the pandemic, visualises a multiplicity of forms of oppression and privilege, an increasing attention and relationship to things, and border movements and languages. I suggest that social work replace the often-used terminology of social problems with exhaustive lists to address structural forms of racism, sexism, ableism, ageism, which has been further visualized through death, illness, violence, and poverty during the pandemic. I argue that the language of exhaustion is useful for reflexivity and action in social work practice through the way it contributes to intensified awareness, attention, engagement, listening, and agency to create social justice.

FROM ELIZABETH GASKELL’S MARY BARTON TO HER NORTH AND SOUTH:PROGRESS OR DECLINE FOR WOMEN?

2000 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 345-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pearl L. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Social Conflicts ◽  
Social Purpose ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mature Work ◽  
North And South

ASSESSMENTS OF ELIZABETH GASKELL’S two novels of social purpose typically conclude that North and South, published in 1855, is a more mature work stylistically and ideologically than Mary Barton, published in 1848. North and South is said to integrate the narrative modes of romance and realism more effectively than Mary Barton (Felber 63, Horsman 284), and to provide a more complicated narrative structure (Schor, Scheherezade 122–23), a more complex depiction of social conflicts (Easson 59 and 93) and a more satisfactory resolution of them (Duthie 84, Kestner 170). North and South is also said to deal with “more complex intellectual issues” (Craik 31). And the novel’s heroine, Margaret Hale, has been seen as Gaskell’s most mature creation — a woman who grows in self-awareness as she adapts to an alien environment (Kestner 164–166) and, unlike Mary Barton, becomes an active mediator of class conflicts (Stoneman 120), the central consciousness that brings together “the lessons of social change and romance” (Schor, Scheherezade 127).1 The reconciliation of these conflicts she inspires through her influence over both mill owner and worker has been praised as a more effective and credible narrative resolution to the social problems depicted in the novel than the reconciliation between mill owner and worker in Mary Barton (David 36).

Examining Change

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Whitney Sanford
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Raw Milk ◽  
Intentional Communities ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Risk Regulation ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Us ◽  
Social Tensions ◽  
Community Ties

Examining change explores some of the social tensions around aging, food, and consumerism that contemporary intentional communities address. The chapter offers a brief historical overview of social change in the US, but focuses on contemporary anxieties that have motivated the formation of more recent intentional communities. While independence is a critical American value, many people crave stronger community ties, especially as they age. Similarly, a newly food-aware U.S. public wants the freedom to experiment with foods such as raw milk, but demands the safety that accompanies regulated foods, demonstrating tensions between risk, regulation, and authority. This chapter outlines why some people want change and how intentional communities are testing solutions to social problems.

scholarly journals Social Entrepreneurship and Sport in Romania: How Can Former Athletes Contribute to Sustainable Social Change?

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 4688
Author(s):  
Pompiliu-Nicolae Constantin ◽  
Rares Stanescu ◽  
Monica Stanescu
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Social Entrepreneurship ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Social Entrepreneur ◽  
Former Athletes ◽  
The Status ◽  
Societal Level ◽  
Common Action

Social entrepreneurship is an underrated subject in the field of sports. For Romanian society, the fall of communism opened up new opportunities in the entrepreneurial domain. At the same time, entrepreneurship began to intersect with sports, and the results were often productive. Sport is seen as a domain that could inspire entrepreneurship through its principles. The similarities between these two fields have created the perspective of common action in sport and entrepreneurship, and this coexistence has improved during times of social change. After 1989, Romania was confronted with many challenges at the societal level, and sport offered a way to address and to tackle social problems. Through sport, some athletes decided to contribute to issues of individuals or communities. They assumed the status of a social entrepreneur, and developed activities that could inspire others. This paper intends to gather examples of such social entrepreneurship from Romania, and to identify the elements that lead to success. The research takes into consideration case studies from various domains, and this diversity helps us to better understand the challenges of Romanian sport when it interacts with social entrepreneurship.

Social policy and social change – explanations of the development of social policy

1973 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 209-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Carrier ◽  
Ian Kendall
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Recent Analysis ◽  
General Observation ◽  
Founding Fathers ◽  
The Subject

The resources of sociology do not appear to have been extensively or systematically utilized in the study of social policy and administration. One source of evidence for this statement is the absence of explicit references to sociological theories in some of the most well known general texts on British social policy and administration. Pinker's recent analysis of social theory and social policy also lends support to the view that there has been, and still remains, something of a division between sociologists and students of social policy and administration. He concludes that the ‘founding fathers’ of sociology (Marx, Durkheim, Weber and Spencer) had a tendency to be ‘not greatly interested…(in)…remedies for social problems’, and makes the general observation that ‘sociologists have been oddly diffident about the subject-matter of social administration’, possibly because of the latter's atheoretical nature.

Social Change and Social Problems. James H. S. Bossard

1940 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 396-396
Author(s):  
F. M. Warner
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Social Problems

Adolescent sexuality—changing needs and values

1978 ◽  
Vol 10 (S5) ◽  
pp. 249-254
Author(s):  
Manuel Carballo
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Adolescent Sexuality ◽  
Sexual Interaction ◽  
The Impact

Concern about the health of adolescents, their patterns of social and sexual interaction as well as the ways in which they ultimately are able to adapt to the outcomes of their interaction is a relatively recent development (Carballo & Engstrom, 1975). In no small way the concern currently being addressed to this issue is indicative of a much broader preoccupation with the impact of social change on individual and community health in general. For while adolescents, because of their particular position in modern and modernizing societies, have possibly presented more socially dramatic manifestations of the effects of a new environment on lifestyle and behaviour, they have not been alone in experiencing these social change influences. Many of the ambiguities, stresses and needs of modern society have produced, in one way or another, health and psycho-social problems among other age groups too.

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