Race and the Epigenetics of Memory

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriela Soto Laveaga
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Dna Analysis ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Neural Function ◽  
Social Constructions ◽  
Race Science ◽  
The Social ◽  
Black Bodies ◽  
Dead Bodies ◽  
Lasting Change

In my brief response to Terence Keel’s essay “Race on Both Sides of the Razor,” I focus on something as pertinent as alleles and social construction: how we write history and how we memorialize the past. Current DNA analysis promises to remap our past and interrogate certainties that we have taken for granted. For the purposes of this commentary I call this displacing of known histories the epigenetics of memory. Just as environmental stimuli rouse epigenetic mechanisms to produce lasting change in behavior and neural function, the unearthing of forgotten bodies, forgotten lives, has a measurable effect on how we act and think and what we believe. The act of writing history, memorializing the lives of others, is a stimulus that reshapes who and what we are. We cannot disentangle the discussion about the social construction of race and biological determinism from the ways in which we have written—and must write going forward—about race. To the debate about social construction and biological variation we must add the heft of historical context, which allows us to place these two ideas in dialogue with each other. Consequently, before addressing the themes in Keel’s provocative opening essay and John Hartigan’s response, I speak about dead bodies—specifically, cemeteries for Black bodies. Three examples—one each from Atlanta, Georgia; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Mexico—illustrate how dead bodies must enter our current debates about race, science, and social constructions. 

Herds and Hierarchies: Class, Nature, and the Social Construction of Horses in Equestrian Culture

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kendra Coulter
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Constructions ◽  
Living Animal ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Nature And Culture ◽  
The Social ◽  
Class Nature

Abstract This study centers on equestrian show culture in Ontario, Canada, and examines how horses are entangled symbolically and materially in socially constructed hierarchies of value. After examining horse-show social relations and practices, the paper traces the connections among equestrian culture, class, and the social constructions of horses. Equestrian relations expose multiple hierarchical intersections of nature and culture within which both human-horse relations and horses are affected by class structures and identities. In equestrian culture, class affects relations within and across species, and how horses are conceptualized and used, as symbols and as living animal bodies.

The Social Construction of Social Facts

2007 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleanor Townsley
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Minority Populations ◽  
Social Constructions ◽  
Scientific Practices ◽  
Introductory Sociology ◽  
Social Facts ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Social Fact ◽  
The Social

This article describes an exercise that explores how race categories and classifications are socially constructed scientifically. In an introductory sociology setting, students compare their perceptions of the size of minority populations with counts from the U.S. Census. In a series of debriefing sessions, students analyze both their perceptions and Census counts as social constructions of the moral phenomena we call race. In the process, students are introduced to Census data and the Census web site as well as to historical and theoretical literature on the social construction of race. Students are then asked to reflect critically about the scientific practices in which race is constructed as a social fact, and in particular, to consider their own roles in these practices as users and subjects of race categories. The larger goal is to help students to develop a critical sociological imagination that productively engages the analysis of race in contemporary society.

Social Construction (Continued)

1995 ◽  
Vol 89 (2) ◽  
pp. 437-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert C. Lieberman ◽  
Helen Ingram ◽  
Anne L. Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Constructions ◽  
Policy Changes ◽  
Target Populations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Group Identities ◽  
Citizen Perceptions

In this Review in June 1993 Anne Schneider and Helen Ingram argued that the social construction of target populations is an important political and policy phenomenon. Robert Lieberman criticizes Schneider and Ingram's “circular” conceptualization of public policy and social construction. He proposes a “historical-institutional” framework for understanding the role of group identities in political change. Lieberman analyzes the dual experience of African-Americans in the American welfare state as an example of political institutions and policy changes' affecting changing group constructions. Ingram and Schneider respond that their purpose is to understand how social constructions shape policy designs, which in turn affect citizen perceptions and participation, and argue that Lieberman's ideas of institutions and history yield no analytic improvement. They provide their own analysis of the case of welfare to illustrate the advantages for future research of their conception of policy targets.

scholarly journals Social representations of sex and gender among trans people

2017 ◽  
Vol 70 (6) ◽  
pp. 1235-1243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaime Alonso Caravaca Morera ◽  
Maria Itayra Padilha
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Social Constructions ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Descriptive Research ◽  
Trans People ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Cognitive Construct

ABSTRACT Objective: To analyze the social representations of sex and gender among transsexual people, through their life histories. Method: Qualitative, multicenter and descriptive research. The participants were 70 transsexuals from Brazil and Costa Rica. Data were analyzed according to the technique of Content Analysis. Results: Two complementary representations related to sex were identified: “Sex as a natural categorical imposition sealed and acquired (irremediably) at birth” and “Sex as an element that labels, condemns and differentiates people.” Regarding gender, a single representation was associated with “synthetic-social constructions associated with (necro/bio) power, cisnormativity and culture.” Final considerations: The former absolute division of gender as social construction and of sex as considered as natural must be questioned in order to analyze both concepts as an interconnected dyad. In addition, it should be recognized that this dyad presents itself as an organizational and cognitive construct, mediated by the still prevalent cispatriarchal (necro/bio) power.

Dolls and Dead Babies: Victorian Motherhood in May Sinclair’s Life and Death of Harriett Frean

May Sinclair ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Beyer
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Marital Status ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Social Constructions ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
The Social ◽  
Maternal Affect ◽  
Cultural Constructions

This chapter examines representations of mothering, class, and maternal affect in May Sinclair’s 1922 novel Life and Death in Harriett Frean, paying particular attention to the critique of social constructions of motherhood articulated in the novel. The discussion focuses specifically on social and cultural constructions of femininity and class and the portrayal in Sinclair’s novel of mothering practices and the (in)visibility of maternal figures. As part of my investigation of Sinclair’s critique of the social construction of motherhood, I examine her portrayal of the maternal in relation to class and marital status. Here, my chapter focuses on what I see as Sinclair’s couched portrayal of the controversial practice of baby-farming. I argue that baby farming is implicitly referred to in Sinclair’s Life and Death of Harriett Frean, through the figure of Harriett’s maid, Maggie, and the fate of her baby born outside wedlock. My chapter demonstrates that Sinclair’s portrayal of this topic foregrounds the hypocrisy at the heart of Victorian constructions of femininity and motherhood, and forms a central part of her critique of class and social inequality for women.

scholarly journals COVID-19 and Numeracy: How about Them Numbers?

Numeracy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Best
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Social Constructions ◽  
Social Patterns ◽  
The Social

Quantitative efforts to understand the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic need to be viewed through the lens of social construction. I begin by comparing the efforts to quantitatively measure the plague in London in 1665. Then I develop five propositions for studying the social construction of statistics: (1) facts are social constructions; (2) measuring involves making decisions, (3) counting is not straightforward; (4) all comparisons involve choices; and (5) social patterns shape numbers. After examining how these propositions affect what we know about COVID-19, I consider their implications for moving beyond mathematics when approaching numeracy.

scholarly journals A Constructivist Perspective of Rape as a Military Strategy: A Comparative Analysis of the Rwandan Genocide and the Bosnian War

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Ashley Schoenfeld
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Military Strategy ◽  
Coercive Power ◽  
Social Constructions ◽  
Rwandan Genocide ◽  
The Social ◽  
Bosnian War ◽  
Constructivist Perspective ◽  
And Gender

This paper explores how the social construction of a peoples’ ethnic or national identity can influence the use of rape as a military strategy. In exploring this concept, the Rwandan genocide and Bosnian War will be used as case studies. It is argued that rape as a military strategy derives coercive power from social constructions of ethnicity, nationality and gender in patriarchal societies. In presenting this argument, the constructivist school of thought is used to analyze the processes that led to social constructions of ethnicity, nationality and gender. This paper considers the subsequent social environment that allowed rape to be used as an effective military strategy in both Rwanda and Bosnia.

scholarly journals Triple Social Nutrition Construction

Discourse ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-95
Author(s):  
Junkai Jin
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Institutional Design ◽  
Social Process ◽  
Social Engineering ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Material Objects ◽  
Environment Interaction ◽  
Social Constructions ◽  
Social Construction Of Reality ◽  
The Social

Introduction. The purpose of the paper is analysis of the humanity perception of material objects that are used as food, from the point of view of sociology, and analysis of material relations of entry-level (people and material objects recognized as the food), in which the social construction and impact of social engineering to limit the actions of people in public life. The novelty of the author’s approach is to allocate reverse the effects of nutrition on human behavior as a factor of social process.Methodology and sources. In this paper, for the analysis of social practices of nutrition as a social process used to conceptual design of “social construction” from the point of view of the sociology of things the sociology of knowledge and sociology of nutrition. The analysis of the authors’ works that address issues of social construction (Durkheim, Latour, Berger, Luckmann, Schütz, etc.).Results and discussion. According to the study author proposes a classification, according to which the social construction of power is divided into three types (levels). Nominative type is elementary awareness of the substances. Measurement type is further systematization of knowledge about food and the actions relating thereto (the distinction between substances on the basis of edibility, the establishment of various foundations products or their social attributes, defining the main ways of making food). Institutional type is determining in what form to carry out actions with the products and everything associated with them (the emergence of order meals and nutrition, the overcoming of primitive naturalism in power).The hypothesis is expressed and investigated that each level of the design is conditioned by the social and structural environment interaction of the actors.Conclusion. It is stated that in the modern system of nominative power, and measuring the types of institutional design are in a state of complex interdependence, since over time a system of knowledge, constructed by the forerunners, turned into a “cash knowledge” with the result that subsequent generations gradually ceased to distinguish between the complexity of multilevel social constructions of reality.Formulated thesis is that the analysis of the social construction of reality should help to better understand the social nature of food, in particular, to answer the question: how do food products are social constructions, as they are created by our consciousness under the influence of the existing “cash” system of knowledge as constructed, their properties (their tastes), which, as it turns out, are not so much biological, but also socio-cultural properties.

Social Constructions of Children and Youth: Beyond Dependents and Deviants

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
MARY ELIZABETH COLLINS ◽  
MICHELLE MEAD
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Children And Youth ◽  
Social Constructions ◽  
Positive Outcomes ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Target Populations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Outcomes For Children ◽  
Scholarly Attention

Abstract Schneider and Ingram’s (1993) theory of social construction of target populations has received extensive scholarly attention. It has rarely been applied to populations of children and youth, however. In this article we: (1) describe the original framework; (2) apply each of Schneider and Ingram’s four categories to examples relevant to children and youth; (3) identify adjustments to the model to guide further understanding of young people’s policy treatment; and, (4) discuss how these observations might inform policies targeted toward children and youth. By providing a more focused analysis of this theory’s application to the social construction of children and youth, we aim to contribute to the scholarly understanding of policymaking and inform potential policy design strategies that may result in positive outcomes for children and youth.

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