scholarly journals Axiological Foundations of Social Pedagogy: Search Areas

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 35-43
Author(s):  
Mariusz Cichosz
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Social World ◽  
Social Pedagogy ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Common ◽  
Related Mode

The issue of values is of key importance in social sciences and thus in pedagogy. The process of education is strongly embedded and makes references to such aspects as models, templates and standards. In turn, they are interpreted axiologically and always receive the axiological interpretation. Every pedagogical sub-discipline tackles this issue in a specific and aspect-related mode. For social pedagogy, apart from the traditional cognitive and interpretative areas, such as the adopted concepts of man and social life, the area and the subject matter of principles on the basis of which the social world should be/ could be transformed is also of great importance. One of such principles is the principle of the common good. One may ask: to which traditions does social pedagogy refer in this respect, how does it interpret this principle and what are the present-day challenges related to it?

scholarly journals Przestrzenie lokalnej demokracji. Szkic z gdańskiej perspektywy

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-118
Author(s):  
Maria Mendel
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Research Report ◽  
Local Democracy ◽  
Local Dimension ◽  
Bond Forming ◽  
Social Pedagogy ◽  
Local Experience ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Common

This article is an expression of thinking about the spaces of local democracy, which was based on the research project “Gdańsk as a Shared Place” (2014–2015). Due to the fact that the theses and results of this ‘old’ project are updated in the light of the deepening crisis of the social in the pandemic conditions, I present in the article the content selected from the research report, hopefully emphasizing their impor- tance in shaping various, sometimes surprising forms and places of democracy. I am doing this, counting on the fruitful expansion of the field of understanding and practicing bond-forming, communal forms of social life. Thus, I follow the path that Professor Stanisław Kawula (1939–2014) pioneered in social pedagogy, tirelessly describing the social condition and – thus – updating the dimensions of democracy in various perspectives [for example, in relation to the diagnosed risks (2003; 2005 etc.)]. Hence, I dedicate this text to him, and choosing the horizon of local experience, I want to draw attention to the meaning of research descriptions of this local dimension, which is especially important today, in a social crisis condi- tion. I conclude with a reflection on the meanings of non-consensual democracy, inscribed in urbanity as a way of social life, and emphasize the importance of a neighborhood which – literally: having a place – locates democracy in a special way. Such a location allows us to capture its essential meanings and show the democratic productivity of everyday, neighborly production of commonality, that is the common good, constantly crumble and constantly arouse mutual attention and ask for care.

What Theology Should and Should Not Learn from the Social Sciences About the Common Good

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary L. Hirschfeld
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Social Thought ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Catholic Social Thought ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Common

There are two ways to answer the question, What can Catholic social thought learn from the social sciences about the common good? A more modern form of Catholic social thought, which primarily thinks of the common good in terms of the equitable distribution of goods like health, education, and opportunity, could benefit from the extensive literature in public policy, economics, and political science, which study the role of institutions and policies in generating desirable social outcomes. A second approach, rooted in pre-Machiavellian Catholic thought, would expand on this modern notion to include concerns about the way the culture shapes our understanding of what genuine human flourishing entails. On that account, the social sciences offer a valuable description of human life; but because they underestimate how human behavior is shaped by institutions, policies, and the discourse of social science itself, their insights need to be treated with caution.

scholarly journals The Social Life of the “Forever Chemical”

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 146-163
Author(s):  
Daniel Renfrew ◽  
Thomas W. Pearson
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
The Public ◽  
Toxic Event ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Polyfluoroalkyl Substances

This article examines the social life of PFAS contamination (a class of several thousand synthetic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) and maps the growing research in the social sciences on the unique conundrums and complex travels of the “forever chemical.” We explore social, political, and cultural dimensions of PFAS toxicity, especially how PFAS move from unseen sites into individual bodies and into the public eye in late industrial contexts; how toxicity is comprehended, experienced, and imagined; the factors shaping regulatory action and ignorance; and how PFAS have been the subject of competing forms of knowledge production. Lastly, we highlight how people mobilize collectively, or become demobilized, in response to PFAS pollution/ toxicity. We argue that PFAS exposure experiences, perceptions, and responses move dynamically through a “toxicity continuum” spanning invisibility, suffering, resignation, and refusal. We off er the concept of the “toxic event” as a way to make sense of the contexts and conditions by which otherwise invisible pollution/toxicity turns into public, mass-mediated, and political episodes. We ground our review in our ongoing multisited ethnographic research on the PFAS exposure experience.

scholarly journals On the subject matter of International Relations

2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 898-917 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathias Albert ◽  
Barry Buzan
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Social World ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject

AbstractThis article deals with the subject matter of International Relations as an academic discipline. It addresses the issue of whether and how one or many realms could legitimately be claimed as the discipline’s prime subject. It first raises a number of problems associated with both identifying the subject matter of IR and ‘labelling’ the discipline in relation to competing terms and disciplines, followed by a discussion on whether, and to what degree, IR takes its identity from a confluence of disciplinary traditions or from a distinct methodology. It then outlines two possibilities that would lead to identifying IR as a discipline defined by a specific realm in distinction to other disciplines: (1) the ‘international’ as a specificrealmof the social world, functionally differentiated from other realms; (2) IR as being about everything in the social world above a particularscale. The final section discusses the implications of these views for the study of International Relations.

Institutional Design for Collective Action: Tweaking the Rules of the Game for the Common Good

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heinz-Dieter Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Peer Review ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Institutional Design ◽  
The Social ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Urban Safety ◽  
The Common ◽  
Rules Of The Game

Abstract At present, institutional design is an under-theorized and underdeveloped part of the social sciences. In this paper I focus on designs for situations of collective action where the outcome is controlled by the choices of several self-interested actors. In those situations the goal of institutional design is to alter the rules of the game so that self-interested actors find it rational to cooperate. I explore the viability of that definition by considering two examples of institutional design: urban safety and academic peer review. I discuss the implications of my findings for our conception of rational self-interest and propose that three design principles – publicity, boundaries, and contiguity – can be inferred from the analysis.

‘Some of Our People can be the Most Difficult’. Reflections on Difficult Interviews

2004 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Sam Pryke
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Initial Response ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Complex Matter

This article questions the methodological convention in the social sciences that the interviewer must never disagree with a respondent in qualitative research. The issue arose during research on the British Serbian community when some participants sought to justify, exculpate or reject Serbian liability for atrocity. My initial response not to demur but to simply move onto the next question morally tainted the research, as it seemed to collud in a denial of Serbian responsibility for atrocity in an understanding of war (1991-99) in which the Serbs were always the victim. I discuss, through an extended excerpt from an interview conducted later in the research, my attempt to challenge respondents over this claim. I set the moral and methodological case to object to the denial of atrocity against the practical dangers present in doing so: the risk of a loosing track of the spine of a prepared script of questions as a fruitless argument develops and the intricacies of the subject matter are exposed. But I also allow for an interpretation that would suggest that my response was altogether too cautious. My conclusion, such as one can make one about such a complex matter, is that to object in such a kind of instance is legitimate.

The Spectrum of Frames and Disputes in the Umbrella Movement

2019 ◽  
pp. 74-99
Author(s):  
Wing Sang Law
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Social Mobilization ◽  
Symbolic Power ◽  
Democratic Reform ◽  
Direct Election ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Common

This chapter highlights the importance of how the key campaign groups of the Umbrella Movement contested each other through their efforts of “framing” the movement in different ways so as to realize their competing visions of social mobilization. The Umbrella Movement was basically not a battleground between old and new conceptions of identity; rather, the subject matter was, throughout the process, democratic reform. Having said that, no one can take the Umbrella Movement out of the bigger context of ideological contestation happening over the years and how these contestations affected the prodemocracy cause. The Umbrella Movement was indeed overshadowed by an intense struggle for symbolic power, which might not help to organize the movement in a conventional sense. In other words, underneath the common quest for genuine direct election, a battle of anti-elitism was played out according to the populist logic that allowed its adherents to always play taboo breakers, going against political correctness. Disputes over framing and strategies went hand-in-hand with a subterranean campaign against the elites alleged to be gaining personal benefits by being part of the social movement industry or political establishment. The elites were reframed to be worse enemies than the regime in power instead of someone holding different judgments about tactics and action choices. Such an anti-elitist battle deepened the “culture of distrust” in Hong Kong.

scholarly journals The Principle of Subsidiarity: Lessons from the Social Teaching of the Catholic Church

2018 ◽  
pp. 42-48
Author(s):  
Sergiy   Prysukhin
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Common ◽  
Proper Functions ◽  
The Catholic Church

The article by S. Prysukhin “The Principle of Subsidiarity: Lessons from the Social Teaching of the Catholic Church” analyzes the achievements of the Social Teaching of the Catholic Church, represented by the works of Leo XIII, Pius XI, Pius XII, John Paul II, revealing the meaningful characteristics of the concept of “the principle of subsidiarity”, its role and meaning in the system of Christian values. The principle of subsidiarity makes possible such relationships in social life, when the community of higher order does not interfere in the internal life of the community of the lower order, taking over the proper functions of that function; for the common good it gives it when necessary support and assistance, thereby coordinating its interaction with other social structures. The principle of subsidiarity guides social practice to the promotion of the common good in the human community. The spread and application of the principle of subsidiarity opposes the danger of "nationalization" of society and the most terrible manifestations of collectivism, restricts the absoluteization of power, bureaucratization of state and socio-cultural structures, becoming one of the guarantors of respect for the rights and freedoms of citizens of their country.

Introduction. An Introduction to Research Methods in the Social Sciences

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Ece Özlem Atikcan ◽  
Jean-Frédéric Morin ◽  
Christian Olsson
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Easy Task ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Scientific Truth ◽  
Do So

Introducing research methods in the social sciences is not an easy task given how complex the subject matter is. Social sciences, like all sciences, can be divided into categories (disciplines). Disciplines are frequently defined according to what they study (their empirical object) and how they study it (their particular problematization of the object). They are, however, by no means unitary entities. Within each discipline, multiple theories typically contend over the ability to tell provisional truths about the world. They do so by building on specific visions of the nature of the world, reflections on how to generate scientific truth, systematic ways of collecting and analyzing data (methods) and of justifying these methods as part of a coherent research design (methodologies).

scholarly journals The Common Good As A Social Debt and Patrimony of the Person

Lumen et Vita ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Ilboudo SJ
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Individual

Aristotle’s statement that the individual human being is a social or a political animal can be misguiding if we understand it as meaning that relationships between the individual and the society are natural and obvious. Individual’s dream of autonomy and ruthless struggle to access to scarce resources on one hand and liberal and competitive societies where there is no room for “lame ducks” on the other hand, can make relationships between the person and the society conflicting and violent. The consequences can be marginalization from the social order or rebellion against it.How can we strive to make person-society relationships more integrative and fecund? In other words, what skills, social ethics as a field of Christian theology and Catholic tradition does provide for the social integration of the person and the awakening of his or her social responsibility?  This paper would like to suggest and defend that the concept of the common good is a common ground for the person and the society mutual flourishing. The paragraph 26 of Gaudium et Spes defines the common good as “the sum of those conditions of social life which allow social groups and their individual members relatively thorough and ready access to their own fulfillment.” Interestingly also, Laudato Si’ builds up on the common good and defines it as “belonging to all and meant for all.” (Paragraph 23) In a more complex way, Thomas Aquinas elaborates the common good and locates it at the junction of distributive justice and piety as one’s love of his or her country. In the light of his thought, the common good as a dynamic interaction between the person and the society, becomes the cement of what Thomas Aquinas calls “civil communion.”

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