scholarly journals The society as a mimetic field: the dynamics of the social

Author(s):  
Aleksey I. Pavlovskij ◽  

The article discusses the feasibility and vistas of re-defining the concept «society» in an effort to make it fit for studying the current situation. The constant mobility of actors and the new virtual reality transcend the boundaries between social groups, which calls methodological capacity of any static and especially essentialistic understanding of the phenomenon called «society» into question. The author starts from defining society through communication acts, but at the same time distinguishes between them by the level of mutual understanding attained through communication, which makes it possible to scrutinize the internal structure of the term in question. Understanding of communication acts as a medium of memetic influence that shapes a person’s agency and ensures synchronicity between persons, adequate for a certain level of mutual understanding, enables the author to view society as a dynamic process, as a memetic field amid constantly changing and diverse challenges. The landscape contour of the challenges adds constant disturbing differentiations that guarantee continual social changes. By contrasting practical and discursive minds, the author discriminates non-reflexive mimetic processes of practical knowledge transfer from their reflexive comprehension. Thus, the author distinguishes two levels in social processes, incompatibility between which adds complexity to social dynamics. Using this understanding of the social, the author shows how in certain conditions a person may identify with a certain social group. In conclusion, the paper formulates three main practical questions the answers to which will let us assess the possibilities for further development of society.

2005 ◽  
pp. 365-381
Author(s):  
Maja Sokic

Contemporary Serbian society faces increasing social and economical problems as results of social crisis. Such problems reflect on the quality of life of all social groups. Problems of one of the social groups, rural youth, are particularly interesting, specially regarding to specifics of its social status, role they were (un)rightfully given and problems they are facing. The paper is focused on determinating dominant needs, values and aspirations of rural youth, as well as their social potential, willingness to take an active role in social changes. The sample the research was based on consists of young rural population of Sivac, third biggest settlement in the municipality of Kula. The research addresses 107 persons, age from 19 to 30 years, living in Sivac and deals with issues such as their opinions on social environment they are living in, family, spare time, religion, values and needs etc. Theoretical analysis of the problems is followed by empirical data collected by a questionnaire. Specific issues are being analyzed through the prism of dominant social processes and relations. The research was conducted in April 2004.


Author(s):  
V.N. Kurdyukov ◽  
◽  
A.I. Lebedev ◽  
A. Ademu ◽  
M. Hamdi ◽  
...  

The article examined different views on population with a view to identifying major trends. Social processes that impede the transition to sustainable development within existing governance mechanisms have been identified. It is noted that due to the high social dynamics, the exit from the "modernization trap" is to be sought both by territories with high natural growth of the population, and economically attractive regions with indicators of natural decline of the population. At the same time, social dynamics in different territories in modern conditions involve the risk of its use for the benefit of different social groups and can act as a manageable factor. In order to increase the sustainability of development, in resolving the contradictions of the existing socio-economic system, it is necessary to take into account the peculiarities of agricultural territories and to develop self-sufficient models of their development.


2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 152-159
Author(s):  
Vladimir V. Krivosheev

The review reveals the basic conceptions elaborated by one of the major Russian modern sociologists Zh.T. Toshchenko in his new research. The reviewer argues that the book’s author thoroughly examines the various methodological grounds for identifying the essential characteristics of social dynamics. At the same time, the reviewer focuses on the further development of the theory of modern society, proposed by the book’s author. Thus, Zh.T. Toshchenko, who spent many years researching social deformations, formulates an important concept – the concept of a society of trauma as the third modality of social development along with evolution and revolution. The book offers a fundamentally new view of social life, there is a holistic, systematic approach to all its processes and phenomena. The reviewer concludes that the new book of the social theorist Zh.T. Toshchenko is a significant contribution to sociological theory, since it develops ideas about the state and prospects of Russian society, gives accurate assessments of all social processes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 386
Author(s):  
Jennie Gray ◽  
Lisa Buckner ◽  
Alexis Comber

This paper reviews geodemographic classifications and developments in contemporary classifications. It develops a critique of current approaches and identifiea a number of key limitations. These include the problems associated with the geodemographic cluster label (few cluster members are typical or have the same properties as the cluster centre) and the failure of the static label to describe anything about the underlying neighbourhood processes and dynamics. To address these limitations, this paper proposed a data primitives approach. Data primitives are the fundamental dimensions or measurements that capture the processes of interest. They can be used to describe the current state of an area in a multivariate feature space, and states can be compared over multiple time periods for which data are available, through for example a change vector approach. In this way, emergent social processes, which may be too weak to result in a change in a cluster label, but are nonetheless important signals, can be captured. As states are updated (for example, as new data become available), inferences about different social processes can be made, as well as classification updates if required. State changes can also be used to determine neighbourhood trajectories and to predict or infer future states. A list of data primitives was suggested from a review of the mechanisms driving a number of neighbourhood-level social processes, with the aim of improving the wider understanding of the interaction of complex neighbourhood processes and their effects. A small case study was provided to illustrate the approach. In this way, the methods outlined in this paper suggest a more nuanced approach to geodemographic research, away from a focus on classifications and static data, towards approaches that capture the social dynamics experienced by neighbourhoods.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-76
Author(s):  
Salamah Eka Susanti

The Qur'an contains only a small number of detailed laws, while the sunna is limited to the cases that occurred in its time, so to solve new problems, ijtihad is required. In such a connection for a Muslim, new problems arising from the progress of science and technology, should not be confronted with confrontational passages, but must be solved by ijtihadi.Karena reality often occurs, that the development of society and public opinion faster the pace of the road from on the development of the law itself. The dynamics of people's lives are characteristic of change. Through the power of intention, power, and creativity, humans create cultural objects as a result of their creations. Changes that occur in society when observed can occur in various There are slow changes (evolution) and there are rapid changes (revolution). The social changes that occur in a society, directly or indirectly, affect institutions in various fields, such as government, economics, education, religion and so on. The continuation of an impact on the social system changes. When the law is faced with social change, it occupies one of its functions, which can function as a means of social control, and the law can serve as a means of social change. the characteristics of the law above is due to the inconsistency of social dynamics and the dynamics of law in the life of society. Unequaled dynamics of society and law, usually will bring social lag. From here, then comes a question whether Islamic law as a norm of God's determination can experience changes in accordance with the needs of the community? Ijtihad is an important factor for the development and development of Islamic law.Ijtihad done to answer the problems that arise in society that is not yet known legal status.ijtihad has a wide scope, the issues are not regulated explicitly dala m al-Qur'an and sunna can be done ijtihad. In order for humans to have breadth in determining its activities according to its ability, needs and environment. Therefore ijtihad in the field of Islamic law in anticipating the dynamics of society and social changes concerning the values, behavior patterns, and social system of a society is a concern in establishing Islamic law. Thus ijtihad is the third source in the development of Islamic law. Keywords: Social Change, Ijtihad, Law, Islamic.


Anduli ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 235-251
Author(s):  
Marta Pérez-Castro

Relationships among visual signs, society and memory reveal the dominant cultural order in a given context as well as the causes that maintain it (influence and imposition) and the effects on the population where it occurs (alienation and cultural resilience). Therefore, it is possible to identify deeper social processes with a purely visual and symbolic reading. Visual signs (two-dimensional), in addition to configuring the way space is understood (three-dimensional), reflect social and political dynamics (the time factor). To have a more complete vision of the moment and context, it is necessary to interrelate art with sociology and history. In the specific case of al-Andalus, there is a turning point at which there are changes in visuality that are mainly reflected in writing (Arabic and Latin), the use of symbols (the Mudejar, the cross) and the organization of the spaces designated for art (temples, museums, exhibition halls); hence, these changes function as visual indexes of social dynamics that reach to the present day. The visual supports the social and vice versa, configuring and maintaining a certain worldview. If there is visual continuity, there is continuity in the social sphere.


Author(s):  
Salvatore Caserta

This introductory chapter presents the main theoretical and methodological issues of the book. In terms of theory, the chapter explains that the book relies on the concept of de facto authority, according to which international courts become authoritative and powerful when their rulings are endorsed by relevant audiences in their practices. To complement this approach, the chapter explains that the book proposes five original analytical markers, which are central for analysing and explaining the social processes through which international courts, in general, and regional economic courts, in particular, gain or lose de facto authority. These are: (i) the nature of the political environment surrounding them; (ii) the timing of their institutional founding; (iii) the material and/or abstract interests of the agents interacting with them; (iv) the fundamental support of different social groups relating to them; and (v) the societal embeddedness in their operational context.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 333-357
Author(s):  
Manuela Caballero ◽  
Artemio Baigorri

This work poses difficulties in the use of the generation concept as a social research instrument, due to its complex and multidimensional nature. A complexity by which is not a concept widely used in a current Sociology that focuses more on the mathematisation. But some social processes cannot be reduced to algorithms. For the theoretical review we have used contributions from Sociology, Philosophy and History, because it is of a transversal disciplinary nature, and we have applied it to the identification of Spanish generations in the 20th century. Inspired by Ortega’s theses and Strauss and Howe empirical development implemented for American society, the resulting model presents six generations with different collective identities that reflect the social changes in the history of Spain during the last century. A model that, after being tested in sectorial investigations, may constitute a useful new tool for the analysis of social change.


2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 511-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
René Lindstädt ◽  
Ryan J. Vander Wielen ◽  
Matthew Green

While there is a substantial literature highlighting the presence of social dynamics in legislatures, we know very little about the precise processes that generate these social dynamics. Yet, whether social dynamics are due to peer pressure, frequency of interaction, or genuine learning, for example, has important implications for questions of political representation and accountability. We demonstrate how a recent innovation can be used to study the diffusion of behavior within legislatures. In particular, we study diffusion within the US House of Representatives by looking at the dynamic process underlying discharge petitions. The discharge procedure shares many characteristics with other forms of legislative behavior, yet it has one important advantage when it comes to studying social dynamics: we can observe when members decide to sign petitions. Based on data from 1995 to 2014, we find that the social dynamics underlying the discharge procedure tend to involve the rational evaluation of information conveyed by the behavior of previous petition signatories.


2011 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Harvey ◽  
Jon Press ◽  
Mairi Maclean

This examination of the social processes that inform cultural production asks how tastes are formed, transmitted, embedded, and reproduced across generations. These questions are explored through a study of William Morris, his working methods and products, and their impact on the decorative arts in Victorian Britain and beyond. Through the exercise of cultural leadership, Morris gave physical expression to the ideals and sentiments of Romanticism, and this in turn gave rise to a community of taste reaching across class boundaries and generations. Morrisian products and designs, through the agency of his disciples, became institutionally embedded, emblematic of refinement and good taste. A process model of taste formation is deployed to explore the economic and social dynamics at work in the Morris case and more generally.


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