scholarly journals Political Persona 2016 - an Introduction

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. David Marshall ◽  
Neil Henderson
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Political Event ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Human World ◽  
The Individual

It seems politics invades everything. We can rarely think of any activity, any building, any human-to-human interaction and not see some political dimension infiltrating and shaping it. And this very interpretation, in its language of invasion and infiltration, implies that politics’ ubiquity is not necessarily a wanted accomplice in our human world. Nonetheless, its presence is expected, its strategic intentions acknowledged and negotiated.What is interesting is that persona—at least as it has been explored and defined in Persona Studies so far—always has a political dimension. It has been identified as a strategic identity, a form of negotiation of the individual in their foray into a collective world of the social (Marshall and Barbour). Persona is a fabricated reconstruction of the individual that is used to play a role that both helps the individual navigate their presence and interactions with others and helps the collective to position the role of the individual in the social. Persona is imbued with politics at its core.In this issue of Persona Studies, we explore political persona, a characterisation roiled in redundancy if our definitions above are adopted. The essays gathered in this collection debate these definitional affinities, and augment and nuance many other dimensions that help delineate what constitutes political persona. In this introductory essay, we will use the collected work on political persona that is developed in this issue to better define political persona. But before we evaluate and identify the intersections of our contributors’ work, we want to begin our exploration with what makes political persona constitutively different today than in the past. Can we identify through some of the most prominent political personas—Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders in the United States’ 2016 Presidential campaign, for example—and through a study of a major political event—Brexit in 2016 in the U.K.—whether something has shifted and changed in these cultures?

scholarly journals Poverty

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice O'Connor
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Public Intervention ◽  
The Public ◽  
Scientific Experts ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Cycle Of Poverty

This paper discusses the role of social scientific expertise in the emergence of poverty as a problem and a priority for public intervention in the United States during the 1960s. That the social scientific experts defined “the poverty problem” narrowly, as a problem of individuals lacking income or otherwise caught in a “cycle of poverty,” can be understood in terms of a series of historical transformations that played out in overlapping processes of disembedding: of social science from social reform; of economic from social and political knowledge; and of poverty from the study of structured patterns and experiences of stratification and inequality. The structurally disembedded, individualized concept of poverty that emerged from these transformations presented Great Society liberal reformers with a legible problem that they could fix without recourse to major reforms. It would eventually be recast by neoliberal reformers to justify a more ideological form of disembedding that shifted the boundaries of responsibility for dealing with poverty from the social and the public to the individual and personal.

Behavioural consequences of the genetic selection for health and fertility or ‘robustness’ in dairy cows: responsiveness to novelty and human interaction

2007 ◽  
Vol 2007 ◽  
pp. 42-42
Author(s):  
J. Gibbons ◽  
R. Donald ◽  
R. Turl ◽  
L. Maggs ◽  
E. Wall ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dairy Cows ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
Genetic Selection ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social And Physical Environment ◽  
Selection For ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Body Energy

Modern dairy cows appear to be less ‘robust’ or adaptable than in the past, as typified by high involuntary culling and poorer health. This could be addressed by the use of broader breeding goals and breeding indices that include traits that are likely to improve fertility and health. Body energy balance and growth rate in the first lactation are traits that are likely to underlie health and fertility and have been included in an index of robustness (Wall et al., 2006). However, we need to ensure that the inclusion of these new traits does not have any unforeseen effects on animal behaviour, which may reduce the welfare of the individual or the group she is housed in. Selection to improve body condition may mean that the animals seek increased access to feed. It may be hypothesised that this could lead them to be more aggressive at the feed-trough. Alternatively, they may increase their feed intake by becoming unresponsive to the social and physical environment, and feeding outwith the peak feeding period. This could mean that they become less responsive to their environment and possibly become harder to handle. The aim of this experiment was to compare the behaviour of daughters of bulls which scored high on the functionality sub-index of the robustness index (‘high functionality’ bulls) with daughters of bulls which scored low (‘low functionality’ bulls) on this sub-index. Specifically, we investigated the responsiveness to the environment, by assessing reactions to a novel object and to an unfamiliar person.

The Need to Refocus on the Group as the Site of Radicalization

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura G. E. Smith ◽  
Leda Blackwood ◽  
Emma F. Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Group Processes ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Socialization Process ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Individual

The past decade has witnessed burgeoning efforts among governments to prevent people from developing a commitment to violent extremism (conceived of as a process of radicalization). These interventions acknowledge the importance of group processes yet in practice primarily focus on the idiosyncratic personal vulnerabilities that lead people to engage in violence. This conceptualization is problematic because it disconnects the individual from the group and fails to adequately address the role of group processes in radicalization. To address this shortcoming, we propose a genuinely social psychological account of radicalization as an alternative. We draw on recent developments in theory and research in psychological science to suggest that radicalization is fundamentally a group socialization process through which people develop identification with a set of norms—that may be violent or nonviolent—through situated social interactions that leverage their shared perceptions and experiences. Our alternative provides a way of understanding shifts toward violent extremism that are caused by both the content (focal topics) and process of social interactions. This means that people’s radicalization to violence is inseparable from the social context in which their social interactions take place.

scholarly journals Opinião Pública e Política Externa: Do Consenso de Almond-Lippmann às Redes Sociais l Public Opinion and Foreign Policy: From The Almond-Lippmann Consensus to Social Media

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. e58702
Author(s):  
Gustavo Jordan Ferreira Alves
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
The United States ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Traditional Media ◽  
The Social ◽  
Qualitative Methodologies

Neste artigo apresento uma linha cronológica que debate a relação entre opinião pública e temas de política externa ao longo das décadas. Demonstro as teorizações que trabalham com o consenso de Almond-Lippmann até as mais recentes teorias sobre opinião pública na era das redes sociais. Utilizando metodologias quantitativas e qualitativas, principalmente através de uma revisão da literatura já consolidada, apresento a conclusão de que em tal cronologia prevalece a perspectiva de que os eleitores de democracias como os Estados Unidos ou Brasil são majoritariamente desatentos a temas internacionais, mas não necessariamente irracionais em tais assuntos. Nesse sentido, no atual quadro de polarização política, em que mandatários como Donald Trump (2017-2021) e Jair Bolsonaro (2019-) utilizam massivamente redes sociais, surgem novos questionamentos nesse debate, desafiando o papel da mídia tradicional, especialmente depois da popularização dessas novas ferramentas de comunicação.Palavras-chave: Opinião Pública; Política Externa; Mídia.ABSTRACTIn this paper, it is presented a chronology that debates the relation between public opinion and foreign affairs subjects throughout the decades. I demonstrate theories starting from the Almond-Lippmann consensus until more recent ones discussing public opinion on the social media age. By using quantitative and qualitative methodologies, specially through reviewing the literature about public opinion and foreign policy that along the decades became reference in this realm, it is possible conclude that prevails the perspective that voters from democracies such as the United States and Brazil are mostly inattentive in international matters, however, they are not necessarily irrational. In this sense, the recent process of polarization in politics, where leaders such as Donald Trump (2017-2021) and Jair Bolsonaro (2019-) are constantly using social media, brings new questionings to this debate, challenging the role of the traditional media, especially after the popularization of those new communication tools.Keywords: Public Opinion; Foreign Policy; Media. Recebido em: 27/03/2021 | Aceito em: 17/08/2021. 

Value-driven issues throughout the development of sociological theory

2020 ◽  
pp. 147-160
Author(s):  
Gulbarshyn Chepurko ◽  
Valerii Pylypenko
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social System ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Social Sphere ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Different Levels

The paper examines and compares how the major sociological theories treat axiological issues. Value-driven topics are analysed in view of their relevance to society in times of crisis, when both societal life and the very structure of society undergo dramatic change. Nowadays, social scientists around the world are also witnessing such a change due to the emergence of alternative schools of sociological thought (non-classical, interpretive, postmodern, etc.) and, subsequently, the necessity to revise the paradigms that have been existed in sociology so far. Since the above-mentioned approaches are often used to address value-related issues, building a solid theoretical framework for these studies takes on considerable significance. Furthermore, the paradigm revision has been prompted by technological advances changing all areas of people’s lives, especially social interactions. The global human community, integral in nature, is being formed, and production of human values now matters more than production of things; hence the “expansion” of value-focused perspectives in contemporary sociology. The authors give special attention to collectivities which are higher-order units of the social system. These units are described as well-organised action systems where each individual performs his/her specific role. Just as the role of an individual is distinct from that of the collectivity (because the individual and the collectivity are different as units), so too a distinction is drawn between the value and the norm — because they represent different levels of social relationships. Values are the main connecting element between the society’s cultural system and the social sphere while norms, for the most part, belong to the social system. Values serve primarily to maintain the pattern according to which the society is functioning at a given time; norms are essential to social integration. Apart from being the means of regulating social processes and relationships, norms embody the “principles” that can be applied beyond a particular social system. The authors underline that it is important for Ukrainian sociology to keep abreast of the latest developments in the field of axiology and make good use of those ideas because this is a prerequisite for its successful integration into the global sociological community.

A market-based rationale for the privacy paradox

2021 ◽  
pp. 016344372110158
Author(s):  
Opeyemi Akanbi
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Market Structures ◽  
Media Companies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Privacy Paradox ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Privacy Risks ◽  
Social Collective

Moving beyond the current focus on the individual as the unit of analysis in the privacy paradox, this article examines the misalignment between privacy attitudes and online behaviors at the level of society as a collective. I draw on Facebook’s market performance to show how despite concerns about privacy, market structures drive user, advertiser and investor behaviors to continue to reward corporate owners of social media platforms. In this market-oriented analysis, I introduce the metaphor of elasticity to capture the responsiveness of demand for social media to the data (price) charged by social media companies. Overall, this article positions social media as inelastic, relative to privacy costs; highlights the role of the social collective in the privacy crises; and ultimately underscores the need for structural interventions in addressing privacy risks.

scholarly journals Society as Cause and Cure: The Norms of Transgender Social Medicine

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ketil Slagstad
Keyword(s):  
Social Medicine ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Therapeutic Regime ◽  
Trans People ◽  
The Social ◽  
In Trans ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Oral History Interviews

AbstractThis article analyzes how trans health was negotiated on the margins of psychiatry from the late 1970s and early 1980s. In this period, a new model of medical transition was established for trans people in Norway. Psychiatrists and other medical doctors as well as psychologists and social workers with a special interest and training in social medicine created a new diagnostic and therapeutic regime in which the social aspects of transitioning took center stage. The article situates this regime in a long Norwegian tradition of social medicine, including the important political role of social medicine in the creation of the postwar welfare state and its scope of addressing and changing the societal structures involved in disease. By using archival material, medical records and oral history interviews with former patients and health professionals, I demonstrate how social aspects not only underpinned diagnostic evaluations but were an integral component of the entire therapeutic regime. Sex reassignment became an integrative way of imagining and practicing psychiatry as social medicine. The article specifically unpacks the social element of these diagnostic and therapeutic approaches in trans medicine. Because the locus of intervention and treatment remained the individual, an approach with subversive potential ended up reproducing the norms that caused illness in the first place: “the social” became a conformist tool to help the patient integrate, adjust to and transform the pathology-producing forces of society.

The Human Factor of Cybercrime

2021 ◽  
pp. 089443932110115
Author(s):  
Benoît Dupont ◽  
Thomas Holt
Keyword(s):  
Human Factor ◽  
The United States ◽  
Complex Interplay ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Social ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Qualitative Methodologies ◽  
Societal Dimensions ◽  
Individual Human

This volume highlights the central role of the human factor in cybercrime and the need to develop a more interdisciplinary research agenda to understand better the constant evolution of online harms and craft more effective responses. The term “human factor” is understood very broadly and encompasses individual, institutional, and societal dimensions. It covers individual human behaviors and the social structures that enable collective action by groups and communities of various sizes, as well as the different types of institutional assemblages that shape societal responses. This volume is organized around three general themes whose complementary perspectives allow us to map the complex interplay between offenders, machines, and victims, moving beyond static typologies to offer a more dynamic analysis of the cybercrime ecology and its underlying behaviors. The contributions use quantitative and qualitative methodologies and bring together researchers from the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, Australia, and Canada.

scholarly journals Play! A Special Issue

Sexualities ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 136346072110136
Author(s):  
Caroline Bem ◽  
Susanna Paasonen
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Sexual Pleasure ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Sexuality Studies ◽  
The Past ◽  
Sexual Representation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sexual Play ◽  
Sex Toys

Sexuality, as it relates to video games in particular, has received increasing attention over the past decade in studies of games and play, even as the notion of play remains relatively underexplored within sexuality studies. This special issue asks what shift is effected when sexual representation, networked forms of connecting and relating, and the experimentation with sexual likes are approached through the notion of play. Bringing together the notions of sex and play, it both foregrounds the role of experimentation and improvisation in sexual pleasure practices and inquires after the rules and norms that these are embedded in. Contributors to this special issue combine the study of sexuality with diverse theoretical conceptions of play in order to explore the entanglements of affect, cognition, and the somatic in sexual lives, broadening current understandings of how these are lived through repetitive routines and improvisational sprees alike. In so doing, they focus on the specific sites and scenes where sexual play unfolds (from constantly morphing online pornographic archives to on- and offline party spaces, dungeons, and saunas), while also attending to the props and objects of play (from sex toys and orgasmic vocalizations to sensation-enhancing chemicals and pornographic imageries), as well as the social and technological settings where these activities occur. This introduction offers a brief overview of the rationale of thinking sex in and as play, before presenting the articles that make up this special issue.

The great Chinese surprise: the rupture with the United States is real and is happening

2020 ◽  
Vol 96 (2) ◽  
pp. 419-437
Author(s):  
Xiangfeng Yang
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Ample Evidence ◽  
Pendulum Swing ◽  
The Us ◽  
Methodological Problems ◽  
Trade War ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Individual

Abstract Ample evidence exists that China was caught off guard by the Trump administration's onslaught of punishing acts—the trade war being a prime, but far from the only, example. This article, in addition to contextualizing their earlier optimism about the relations with the United States under President Trump, examines why Chinese leaders and analysts were surprised by the turn of events. It argues that three main factors contributed to the lapse of judgment. First, Chinese officials and analysts grossly misunderstood Donald Trump the individual. By overemphasizing his pragmatism while downplaying his unpredictability, they ended up underprepared for the policies he unleashed. Second, some ingrained Chinese beliefs, manifested in the analogies of the pendulum swing and the ‘bickering couple’, as well as the narrative of the ‘ballast’, lulled officials and scholars into undue optimism about the stability of the broader relationship. Third, analytical and methodological problems as well as political considerations prevented them from fully grasping the strategic shift against China in the US.

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