scholarly journals Vandal Practices as a Psychological Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 452
Author(s):  
Olga V. Kruzhkova ◽  
Irina A. Simonova ◽  
Anastasia O. Ljovkina ◽  
Marina S. Krivoshchekova

Vandalism can be seen as a form of individual self-realization and expression of the individual and collective responses to change. In this paper, we intend to look at the meaning and motivations behind acts of vandalism. We also aim to classify cases of vandalism that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, we analyzed 80 cases of vandalism related to the COVID-19. The information was obtained from open online sources: publications in online communities and media found through the use of hashtags #COVID-19 and #vandalism. As a result, five categories of vandalism were identified: (a) vandalism as a mechanism of adaptation to change; (b) vandalism as a coping strategy; (c) vandalism as an unconscious defensive reaction to a threatening situation; (d) vandalism as resistance to change; and (e) vandalism as a reflection of the sense of social injustice. We found that vandalism during the pandemic was used mostly as a way of adaptation to change and as a coping strategy. Moreover, our findings have also demonstrated that social instability and transitivity in the crisis period stimulate people to rethink the current social order and search for new social forms, structures, and principles.

KronoScope ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-117
Author(s):  
Kai Wang

From the perspective of macro-politics, previous studies of Xunzi’s theory ofLi禮 (Rituals and Social Norms/Propriety/Rules of Proper Conduct) mainly concern the function and value ofLias a means of social control/governance that provides regulations and institutions (Dianzhang Zhidu典章制度). As a study of moral philosophy, this article adopts a micro-perspective to examine the individual agent [who practicesLi], and focuses on the dimension of individual self-cultivation throughLias discussed by Xunzi. This article argues that, based on the Confucian notion of moral community, even at the level of laws and institutions, the social stratification and social order established byLialso contain the value of “constructive morality.” The value foundation ofLilies not only in the propriety of external behavior but also in its performance of inner virtues. This article also points out thatLiis a notion of virtue precisely because it is the realization and expression ofYi. In addition,Li-performance is the cultivation and nourishing of the agents’ emotions and ethics in which natural emotion is elevated into moral sentiment. In short, according to Xunzi,Li-performance is a fundamental process and means of individual moral self-cultivation.


2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans G. Kippenberg

When in the 1960s religious congregations were suffering from diminishing membership, the sociology of religion turned away from the study of organized religion in order to study private religiosity, even though new social forms of religion were emerging. The article addresses first the impact of globalization on the place of religious communities in the fabric of national and transnational society. Labor migration severs the individual from his or her transmitted loyalties and places him or her amid the risks of the labor market. Parallel to this, the nation state conveys public tasks into private hands in the realms of education, health care, social welfare, and sometimes security. Both changes open up new opportunities for religious communities. Second, the paper addresses the subjective side of the shift, focusing on the Abrahamic religions. They claim the promise given to Abraham—that he and his descendants will be blessed and become a great nation—for their communities. When the factual history contradicts that expectation, prophetic and apocalyptic visions of a bright future keep alive that faith. They summon the believers to fight for the well being of their community, to assist and support each other, and to claim public recognition for their community, since it is beneficial to the entire society. The article argues that this model of religious communality enabled believers in the past to appropriate official legal and social forms for their community. Max Weber in his Economy and Society also argued that religious communality remains a powerful social order in modern society. According to him its strength derives from the subjective religious expectations of social actors and the positive or negative impact their practices exercise on other social orders such as economy, family, state, and law.


2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yue Xie

In response to worsening social instability in China, among grassroots communities in the poorer central and western provinces in particular, the Chinese central government has made budgetary arrangements, since 2003, to increase investment at the grassroots level to improve the capacity of local governments to maintain social order. However, this action by central government has created a dilemma for local cadres: how to perform their duty to maintain social stability while also balancing a heavy fiscal burden caused in part by the receipt of insufficient additional budgetary subsidies from higher government. This paper is an account of and an analysis of how local cadres in China perform their official duties when faced with this dilemma.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 55-61
Author(s):  
Yuliia Stepura

Abstract The article examines the nature and importance of using aesthetic and therapeutic concept and educational logotherapy, in particular, for creating a special emotionally comfortable socioeducational environment for primary education The author has represented inteipretation of foreign scholars' views (J. Bugental, V. Frankl, A. Maslow, R. May, J. Moreno, C. Rogers et al) on such terms as “communication ”, “aesthetotherapy ”, “educational logotherapy” etc. An attempt has been made to analyze the social coTitent of pedagogical activity in the context of using logotherapy in primary school based on an agogical paradigm. In the scope of the article, the specific of using the therapeutic metaphor in the educational environment of primary' school has been represented as well as the basic stages of its implementation have been determined. These stages are the following: description of the storyline, persuasion and binding. The author has defined the role of the “living metaphors” in organization of the therapeutic interaction between the teacher and primary' schoolchildren. Particular attention has been paid to formation of the humanistic competency among primary schoolchildren; this competency is to be based on their understanding of the following philosophical and pedagogical categories: a norm (as a means and a results of pupils' social activity), freedom (as a mean and a result of individual self-expression among primary schoolchildren) and happiness (as an individual self-expression among primaryr schoolchildren). The author has assessed the role of deflection method and paradoxical intention for the social development of the pupil and further formation of the individual. Additional attention has been paid to determination of the socioeducational and psychological and pedagogical potential of such leading method in logotherapy as “The Socratic dialogue” (or “The Socratic circle”): as well have been highlighted the main stages of its implementation: consent (search for what pupil may agree), doubt (an expression of doubts towards weak arguments of interlocutor) and arguments (the teacher must convey' one’s opinion, without any resistance from the child): have been represented different various algorithms of its realization: the method of “aquarium”, “panel method” and “questioning technique”.


Sociology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristian Frisk

The article discusses four dominant perspectives in the sociology of heroism: the study of great men; hero stories; heroic actions; and hero institutions. The discussion ties together heroism and fundamental sociological debates about the relationship between the individual and the social order; it elucidates the socio-psychological, cultural/ideational and socio-political structuring of heroism, which challenges the tendency to understand people, actions and events as naturally, or intrinsically, heroic; and it points to a theoretical trajectory within the literature, which has moved from very exclusive to more inclusive conceptualisations of a hero. After this discussion, the article examines three problematic areas in the sociology of heroism: the underlying masculine character of heroism; the presumed disappearance of the hero with modernisation; and the principal idea of heroism as a pro-social phenomenon. The article calls for a more self-conscious engagement with this legacy, which could stimulate dialogue across different areas of sociological research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. 3196-3201
Author(s):  
Enver Döşyilmaz ◽  
Ayhan Kayabaşi

Background and Aim: This study seeks to examine whether there is a difference between the level of relationship between teachers' individual innovativeness perceptions and their life satisfaction and whether there is a difference in terms of some demographic variables during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The research is a quantitative study and was carried out in relational screening model. The sample of the study consists of 335 teachers working in schools affiliated to the Kahramanmaras Central District National Education Directorates. The data of the research was analysed using the Jamovi 1.6.12 statistical software program. Results and Conclusion:: As a result of the research, it was seen that the majority of the teachers were in the questioning and pioneering groups based on the scores of the individual innovativeness scale,. Significant differences were found in the scores of the participants' individual innovativeness scale sub-dimensions in terms of gender, marital status, branch, and sports status. On the other hand, there were no significant differences in life satisfaction scale scores in terms of gender, marital status, and branch variables (p>0.05); It was found that there was a significant difference in terms of the variable of doing sports (p>0.05); In addition, no significant relationship was found between the sub-dimensions of resistance to change, opinion leadership, openness to experience, and risk-taking and life satisfaction. Keywords: COVID-19, Teacher, Individual innovation, Life satisfaction.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 91-101
Author(s):  
Saleha Ilhaam

The term strategic essentialism, coined by Spivak, is generally understood as “a political strategy whereby differences (within Group) are temporarily downplayed, and unity assumed for the sake of achieving political goals.” On the other hand, essentialism focuses that everything in this world has an intrinsic and immutable essence of its own. The adaption of a particular “nature” of one group of people by way of sexism, culturalization, and ethnification is strongly linked to the idea of essentialism. Mulk Raj Anand’s Bakha is dictated as an outcast by the institutionalized hierarchy of caste practice. He is essentialized as an untouchable by attributing to him the characteristic of dirt and filth. However, unlike other untouchables, Bakha can apprehend the difference between the cultured and uncultured, dirt and cleanliness. Via an analysis of Anand’s “Untouchable,” the present article aims to bring to the forefront the horrid destruction of the individual self that stems from misrepresentations of personality. Through strategic essentialism, it unravels Bakha’s contrasting nature as opposed to his pariah class, defied by his remarkable inner character and etiquette. The term condemns the essentialist categories of human existence. It has been applied to decontextualize and deconstruct the inaccurately essentialized identity of Bakha, which has made him a part of the group he does not actually belong to.


2003 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 73-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Bryant

This article is concerned with how employees talk about organisational change and focuses specifically on how employees discuss reactions and responses to change through the construction of narratives. Employees included in this study suggest that the use of voice as an attempt to inform managers of their discontent, or remaining silent and passive are the most common responses to organisational change. Within sociology and management literature, voice has been considered as a constructive response to change, providing invaluable feedback to managers about declining conditions or performance lapses. Alternatively, remaining silent or passive has been documented as a weak strategy in which the individual renounces control and forms a dependency relationship with powerful groups such as managers. The primary aim of this paper is to challenge the argument that voice is a constructive response to change and suggest that voice is likely to be perceived as destructive, thus leading to the removal of responsibilities and career opportunities. Furthermore, this paper argues that silence is the more constructive response to change, which is documented in this research as leading to the advancement of careers. Relationships between the way employees respond to organisational change and the type of narrative that they construct is also discussed. Those who report remaining silent construct ‘conversion stories’ suggesting that organisational change provided a turning point in which employees could embrace management practices and gain career advancement. Alternatively, those who reported using voice construct ‘atrocity tales’ in which change is associated with stories of workplace bullying, removal of career opportunities and workplace violence. These narratives suggest that the use of voice as a response to change is more complex than its original intent and explanation in the literature, providing challenges for researchers in understanding where voice as a constructive response ends and where resistance to change begins.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 930-949
Author(s):  
Marina Terkourafi

Indirectness has traditionally been viewed as commensurate with politeness and attributed to the speaker’s wish to avoid imposition and/or otherwise strategically manipulate the addressee. Despite these theoretical predictions, a number of studies have documented the solidarity-building and identity-constituting functions of indirectness. Bringing these studies together, Terkourafi 2014 proposed an expanded view of the functions of indirect speech, which crucially emphasizes the role of the addressee and the importance of network ties. This article focuses on what happens when such network ties become loosened, as a result of processes of urbanization and globalization. Drawing on examples from African American English and Chinese, it is argued that these processes produce a need for increased explicitness, which drives speakers (and listeners) away from indirectness. This claim is further supported diachronically, by changes in British English politeness that coincide with the rise of the individual Self. These empirical findings have implications for im/politeness theorizing and theory-building more generally, calling attention to how the socio-historical context of our research necessarily influences the theories we end up building.


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