scholarly journals Individualized religion and the theory of learning

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Claire Wanless
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Organizational Structure ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Personal Autonomy ◽  
Hierarchical Structures ◽  
Structural Instability ◽  
Top Down ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Do So

Individualized or postmodern religion, that prioritizes subjective experience and places ultimate authority with the individual, has increased in prevalence over recent decades. Secularization theory views individualized religion as a secularizing phenomenon, due to its supposed inherent structural instability. It is claimed that religious frameworks that locate authority within the individual cannot inspire commitment, create consensus or cohesion, or motivate evangelization, and are thus rendered unable to transmit their ideas, values and practices over time or to have significant impact on wider culture or society. Such a view assumes that effectively functioning religion requires a top-down, hierarchical organizational structure in which members are passive and obedient recipients of knowledge rather than being its active and dynamic co-creators. This article puts forward an alternative, arguably more plausible, way of theorizing individualized religion. Instead of hierarchical structures, individualized forms of religion tend to adopt unplanned and undirected rhizomatic networks of producer-consumers, which both result from and enable their culture of radical personal autonomy. Instead of transmitting values, ideas and practices down vertical lines, they do so horizontally, for example through the creation of spontaneously generated communities of practice. In this way, it is argued, these forms of religion are in principle at least able to transmit themselves effectively both within and between generations.

Imprinting Beyond the Founding Phase: How Sedimented Imprints Develop over Time

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 1579-1600
Author(s):  
Lien De Cuyper ◽  
Bart Clarysse ◽  
Nelson Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Process Model ◽  
External Environment ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Social Venture ◽  
Changes Over Time ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Do So

In this study, we build on the foundational observations of Selznick and Stinchcombe that organizations bear the lasting imprint of their founding context and explore how characteristics shaped during founding are coherently carried forward through time. To do so, we draw on an ethnography of a social venture where the entrepreneurs left soon after founding. In examining how an initial organizational imprint evolves beyond a venture’s founding phase, we focus on the actions and interactions of organizational members, the founders’ imprint, the venture’s new leadership, and the external environment. The process model we develop shows how the organizational imprint evolves as a consequence of the interplay between top-down and bottom-up forces. We first find that the initial imprint is transmitted through a bottom-up mechanism of imprint reinforcement, and second, that the venture is reimprinted after the founding period through two processes which we call imprint reforming and imprint coupling. The result of this is the formation of a sedimented imprint. Our findings further illuminate that, although the initial imprint sticks, its function and manifestation changes over time.

scholarly journals Experiences of Injuries and Injury Reporting among Swedish Skydivers

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mats Jong ◽  
Anton Westman ◽  
Britt-Inger Saveman
Keyword(s):  
Continuing Education ◽  
Human Factor ◽  
Hierarchical Structures ◽  
Initial Training ◽  
Recreational Activity ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Risk Of Injury ◽  
Safety Work ◽  
Injury Reporting ◽  
The Individual

The objective was to illuminate the experience of injuries and the process of injury reporting within the Swedish skydiving culture. Data contained narrative interviews that were subsequently analyzed with content analysis. Seventeen respondents (22–44 years) were recruited at three skydiving drop zones in Sweden. In the results injury events related to the full phase of a skydive were described. Risk of injury is individually viewed as an integrated element of the recreational activity counterbalanced by its recreational value. The human factor of inadequate judgment such as miscalculation and distraction dominates the descriptions as causes of injuries. Organization and leadership act as facilitators or constrainers for reporting incidents and injuries. On the basis of this study it is interpreted that safety work and incident reporting in Swedish skydiving may be influenced more by local drop zone culture than the national association regulations. Formal and informal hierarchical structures among skydivers seem to decide how skydiving is practiced, rules are enforced, and injuries are reported. We suggest that initial training and continuing education need to be changed from the current top-down to a bottom-up perspective, where the individual skydiver learns to see the positive implications of safety work and injury reporting.

Shaping and Being Shaped: How Organizational Structure and Managerial Discretion Co-evolve in New Managerial Roles

2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 619-658 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sukhbir Sandhu ◽  
Carol T. Kulik
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Structure ◽  
Managerial Discretion ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Organizational Configurations ◽  
Managerial Roles ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Sustainability Initiatives ◽  
Sustainability Program ◽  
Over Time

As new roles emerge in organizations, it becomes critical to understand how organizational structure can impede or enable the managerial discretion available to role incumbents. We leverage the rich context provided by the emergent role of sustainability managers to examine the interplay between the top-down forces of structure and the bottom-up influences of managerial discretion in shaping new organizational roles over time. We analyzed qualitative data collected from in-depth interviews with sustainability managers in 21 case study organizations in India and Australia, supplemented with archival and observational data. We identified three organizational configurations, with varying levels of top-down structural and bottom-up managerial discretion dynamics at play. Each configuration had different implications for the manager’s role. Our analysis suggests that the third configuration—with semi-structured formalization and a decentralized sustainability program—provided the most conducive conditions for managers to use their discretion to champion innovative sustainability initiatives. New managerial roles in the other configurations, however, do not have to be static. With the maturation of organizational programs and active championing by managers, the structuring of organizational functions and managerial roles can co-evolve. Our findings describe a process of “shaping and being shaped,” as structure and managerial discretion co-evolve over time.

scholarly journals Revealing the Academy

2019 ◽  
pp. 174-177
Author(s):  
Sally Stewart
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
School Teacher ◽  
Architectural Education ◽  
Change Over Time ◽  
Architectural Practice ◽  
Straight Line ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Student Mentor ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time

In what ways and to what extent can the individual shape the institution and thereby the architectural education it provides? How does this manifest itself in the formation and experience of the student on their journey towards establishing their own personal creative practice and agency? This paper attempts to explore the three-way relationship between school, teacher and student, with the aim of exposing the constant dynamic and flux as each acts on and is responsive to the others, while all aim to achieve a coherent and synthesised architectural education and entry to architectural practice. In this, the impact and agency of communities of practice are considers in counterpoint the charismatic individual. The paper also discusses the methods used to unearth aspects of our relationship between teacher and student, mentor and tyro, proto and mature practitioner, not as a set of dualities but as spectrum where the individual’s position, behaviours and dependences shift and change over time as they continue on a bespoke trajectory, more often a series of loops and knots than a straight line.

scholarly journals Identity Radicalization, Fragmentation and Re-assimilation

2006 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 41-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna M. Sorensen ◽  
Cynthia Siemsen
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Queer Theory ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Natural Progression ◽  
Bisexual And Transgender ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Do So

An examination of social movements shows that they change in structure over time, not remaining one stable and static identity politic. This is obvious within the structure of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender movement. Each change has come with dissent from both within and without the homosexual community, and yet the end result is the inclusion of said groups. Current social movement theory’s explanations of this change have centered on concepts of identity politics. We seek to answer the question of how social movements in general, and the GLBTQ movement in particular, structure and restructure themselves throughout time. To do so, we move John Kitsuse’s (1980) sociological theory of tertiary deviance from the level of the individual to the collective. Using historical analysis, we apply this theory to the GLBTQ timeline and conclude that among other things, each restructuring is vital to the sustainability of the movement. We further conclude that queer theory is the natural progression of the movement.

On the Individual

1999 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 205-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Magnusson
Keyword(s):  
School Psychologist ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Developmental Research ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Over Time

A description of two cases from my time as a school psychologist in the middle of the 1950s forms the background to the following question: Has anything important happened since then in psychological research to help us to a better understanding of how and why individuals think, feel, act, and react as they do in real life and how they develop over time? The studies serve as a background for some general propositions about the nature of the phenomena that concerns us in developmental research, for a summary description of the developments in psychological research over the last 40 years as I see them, and for some suggestions about future directions.

Geographical aspects of the diffusion of passive houses

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Kozma ◽  
E. Molnár ◽  
K. Czimre ◽  
J. Pénzes
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Energy Resources ◽  
Substantial Part ◽  
Renewable Energy Resources ◽  
Passive House ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Passive Houses ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Geographical Locations ◽  
Over Time

Abstract In our days, energy issues belong to the most important problems facing the Earth and the solution may be expected partly from decreasing the amount of the energy used and partly from the increased utilisation of renewable energy resources. A substantial part of energy consumption is related to buildings and includes, inter alia, the use for cooling/heating, lighting and cooking purposes. In the view of the above, special attention has been paid to minimising the energy consumption of buildings since the late 1980s. Within the framework of that, the passive house was created, a building in which the thermal comfort can be achieved solely by postheating or postcooling of the fresh air mass without a need for recirculated air. The aim of the paper is to study the changes in the construction of passive houses over time. In addition, the differences between the geographical locations and the observable peculiarities with regard to the individual building types are also presented.

Communicating moral reasoning in medicine as an expression of respect for patients and integrity among professionals

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauris Christopher Kaldjian
Keyword(s):  
Moral Reasoning ◽  
Moral Reasons ◽  
Moral Pluralism ◽  
Moral Integrity ◽  
Moral Beliefs ◽  
Moral Framework ◽  
Beliefs And Values ◽  
Moral Frameworks ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Do So

The communication of moral reasoning in medicine can be understood as a means of showing respect for patients and colleagues through the giving of moral reasons for actions. This communication is especially important when disagreements arise. While moral reasoning should strive for impartiality, it also needs to acknowledge the individual moral beliefs and values that distinguish each person (moral particularity) and give rise to the challenge of contrasting moral frameworks (moral pluralism). Efforts to communicate moral reasoning should move beyond common approaches to principles-based reasoning in medical ethics by addressing the underlying beliefs and values that define our moral frameworks and guide our interpretations and applications of principles. Communicating about underlying beliefs and values requires a willingness to grapple with challenges of accessibility (the degree to which particular beliefs and values are intelligible between persons) and translatability (the degree to which particular beliefs and values can be transposed from one moral framework to another) as words and concepts are used to communicate beliefs and values. Moral dialogues between professionals and patients and among professionals themselves need to be handled carefully, and sometimes these dialogues invite reference to underlying beliefs and values. When professionals choose to articulate such beliefs and values, they can do so as an expression of respectful patient care and collaboration and as a means of promoting their own moral integrity by signalling the need for consistency between their own beliefs, words and actions.

Personality change and environmental concerns

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher James Hopwood ◽  
Ted Schwaba ◽  
Wiebke Bleidorn
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Personality Change ◽  
Environmental Concerns ◽  
Big Five Personality ◽  
German Population ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Sustainable Behavior ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Over Time

Personal concerns about climate change and the environment are a powerful motivator of sustainable behavior. People’s level of concern varies as a function of a variety of social and individual factors. Using data from 58,748 participants from a nationally representative German sample, we tested preregistered hypotheses about factors that impact concerns about the environment over time. We found that environmental concerns increased modestly from 2009-2017 in the German population. However, individuals in middle adulthood tended to be more concerned and showed more consistent increases in concern over time than younger or older people. Consistent with previous research, Big Five personality traits were correlated with environmental concerns. We present novel evidence that increases in concern were related to increases in the personality traits neuroticism and openness to experience. Indeed, changes in openness explained roughly 50% of the variance in changes in environmental concerns. These findings highlight the importance of understanding the individual level factors associated with changes in environmental concerns over time, towards the promotion of more sustainable behavior at the individual level.

Earnings Management and Capital Resource Allocation: Evidence from China's Accounting-Based Regulation of Rights Issues

2004 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 645-665 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin C. W. Chen ◽  
Hongqi Yuan
Keyword(s):  
Resource Allocation ◽  
Earnings Management ◽  
Listed Companies ◽  
Return On Equity ◽  
Rights Issue ◽  
Rights Issues ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Do So

From 1996 to 1998, listed companies in China were required to achieve a minimum return on equity (ROE) of 10 percent in each of the previous three years before they could apply for permission to issue additional shares. As a result of this rule, there was a heavy concentration of ROEs in the area just above 10 percent. We show that the Chinese regulators appear to have scrutinized firms using excess amounts of nonoperating income to reach the 10 percent hurdle. In addition, their ability to do so seems to have improved over time, which allows them to be better able to identify firms that subsequently performed better. However, many firms were still able to gain rights issue approval through excess nonoperating income. We show that these firms subsequently underperformed other approved firms that did not use the same practice, indicating that the Chinese regulators' objective of guiding capital resources toward the well-performing sectors is partially compromised by earnings management.

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