scholarly journals The resistance of the social landscape: “barbarism” and “civilization” in the social space

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-22
Author(s):  
Dmitry O. Trufanov
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Social Exchange ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Normative Structure ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Landscape ◽  
Multiple Alternative ◽  
Peripheral Areas

This article discusses the concept of “social landscape” and studies the structure of the social landscape and its elements’ functions. The author analyzes the relationship between the concepts of “geographical landscape”, “socio-cultural landscape”, and “social landscape”. The defining feature of the social landscape is the value-normative structure that regulates the social relations of actors who act in the social space of a particular location. Changing this structure leads to the movement of the social landscape and its transition from one state to another. In the social landscape, the author identifies such structural elements as the center and the periphery, where the center is associated with the value-normative institutions of the state, and the periphery is expressed in the form of multiple alternative value-normative structures and identities that are formed in local communities. From the position of state-centered discourse, the center of the social landscape is associated with civilization and civilizational development, while the periphery is associated with barbarism in its modern interpretation. Barbarism in social space is a set of practices of social behavior caused by alternative value-normative structures that go beyond state institutions. Areas of barbarism in the social landscape are associated with an increased level of deviation, weakened social control, and weak penetration of state norms and values. Such areas carry risks of destruction of value-normative structures of the center of the social landscape. The resistance of the social landscape is a barrier of communication that prevents the penetration of value-normative structures of the center in the peripheral areas. Barriers are associated with the existence of alternative state value-normative structures and identities. The areas of barbarism and civilization in the social landscape are in a relationship of complementarity and perform a number of necessary functions in relation to each other. Such functions are the formation and maintenance of socio-cultural identity, strengthening and development of forms of social control, and the function of social exchange.

The Social Specificity of Societal Nature Relations in a Flexible Capitalist Society

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Eversberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Relationships ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Capitalist Society ◽  
Ideal Types ◽  
Mutual Dependency ◽  
The Social ◽  
People’S Perceptions

Based on analyses of a 2016 German survey, this article contributes to debates on ‘societal nature relations’ by investigating the systematic differences between socially specific types of social relations with nature in a flexible capitalist society. It presents a typology of ten different ‘syndromes’ of attitudes toward social and environmental issues, which are then grouped to distinguish between four ideal types of social relationships with nature: dominance, conscious mutual dependency, alienation and contradiction. These are located in Pierre Bourdieu’s (1984) social space to illustrate how social relationships with nature correspond to people’s positions within the totality of social relations. Understanding how people’s perceptions of and actions pertaining to nature are shaped by their positions in these intersecting relations of domination – both within social space and between society and nature – is an important precondition for developing transformative strategies that will be capable of gaining majority support in flexible capitalist societies.

Affective meanings and social relations: identities and positions in the social space

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Ambrasat ◽  
Christian von Scheve
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Conceptual Knowledge ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Occupational Status ◽  
Regional Culture ◽  
The Social ◽  
Affective Meanings ◽  
Affective Relations

Ever since Georg Simmel’s seminal works, social relations have been a central building block of sociological theory. In relational sociology, social identities are an essential concept and supposed to emerge in close interaction with other identities, discourses and objects. To assess this kind of relationality, existing research capitalises on patterns of meaning making that are constitutive for identities. These patterns are often understood as forms of declarative knowledge and are reconstructed, using qualitative methods, from denotative meanings as they surface: for example, in stories and narratives. We argue that this approach to some extent privileges explicit and conceptual knowledge over tacit and non-conceptual forms of knowledge. We suggest that affect is a concept that can adequately account for such implicit and bodily meanings, even when measured on the level of linguistic concepts. We draw on affect control theory (ACT) and related methods to investigate the affective meanings of concepts (lexemes) denoting identities in a large survey. We demonstrate that even though these meanings are widely shared across respondents, they nevertheless show systematic variation reflecting respondents’ positions within the social space and the typical interaction experiences associated with their identities. In line with ACT, we show, first, that the affective relations between exemplary identities mirror their prototypical, culturally circumscribed and institutionalised relations (for example, between role identities). Second, we show that there are systematic differences in these affective relations across gender, occupational status and regional culture, which we interpret as reflecting respondents’ subjective positioning and experience vis-à-vis a shared cultural reality.

scholarly journals Dzielenie przestrzeni, praktyki graniczenia. Parkowanie, własność i przynależność na polskich osiedlach mieszkaniowych

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 143-167
Author(s):  
Karol Kurnicki
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Social Differentiation ◽  
Spatial Practices ◽  
Social Divisions ◽  
Everyday Practices ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Creation

Space gains significance through processes of social differentiation and bordering, and in consequence is connected with the creation and maintenance of social divisions. The author seeks confirmation of this fact at the level of everyday practices in housing settlements, tracking the mechanisms used by people in situations of contact and confrontation with others in the social space. He sets himself several aims: (1) he attempts to analyze selected spatial practices (parking within the settlement, the creation of belonging), reflecting the internal structuring strategies of housing settlements; (2) he points to the causes of that structuring, that is, the main contexts in which these practices occur and are strengthened; (3) he highlights the important role of space in processes of bordering and differentiation. Practices connected with parking and the creation of belonging, although apparently disparate and deriving from contrary spheres of social life make it possible to hypothesize that the striving for separation and the increased importance of space determine the organization of borders, divisions, and social relations in housing settlements.

scholarly journals UNDERSTANDING STIGMA – THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL APPROACHES

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 1529-1535
Author(s):  
Rumiana Budjeva
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Hiv And Aids ◽  
People Living With Hiv ◽  
Stigma And Discrimination ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Living With Hiv ◽  
Hiv Aids

Stigma is a powerful tool for social control. It can be used to differentiate, exclude or exert pressure on certain individuals or groups of people who have certain characteristics. Stigma does great harm to both the individual and society as a whole. The main objective of stigma is to maintain visible the negative qualities of the individual in order to place them in a disadvantaged position and lasting social and psychological isolation. However, stigma goes beyond the level of the individual and becomes a social problem when it affects wider categories of people. The main purpose of the report is to seek adequate scientific approaches and methods to understanding and study of the phenomenon social stigma. Stigmatized people are often subject to rejection and social exclusion. In its extreme forms stigma turns into discrimination which directly violates their civil and human rights. Stigma and discrimination, seen as violations of fundamental human rights, can occur at different levels: political, economic, social, psychological and institutional. As social processes through which social control is created and maintained, generating, legitimizing and reproducing social inequality, stigma and discrimination are at the heart of the vicious circle in which some groups of people are underestimated and others feel superior and untouchable. To illustrate the process of stigmatization, we will use the example of people living with HIV / AIDS. Theory of stigmatization plays an important explanatory role in the experience of a comprehensive understanding of the social relations of phenomena such as HIV / AIDS. The deep understanding of the mechanisms by which stigma and discriminatory attitudes affect the overall life of people living with HIV / AIDS will help us not only to treat adequate them, but to form a workable and effective action against the spread of the disease. From the moment when scientists are confronted with HIV and AIDS, the social response to fear, denial, stigma and discrimination has accompanied the epidemic. It can be said that HIV and AIDS are more of a social phenomenon than a pure biological or medical problem. It leads to an unfounded sense of shame and guilt and a sense of futility. Stigma incites depression and despair, causes lack of self-esteem. It pushes people to mental and social isolation and deprives them of support and care, increasing their vulnerability. In this way, stigma exacerbates the negative impact of the disease and increases the risk of its spread.

scholarly journals SOCIOCULTURAL DETERMINANT OF THE SYMBOLIC VIOLENCE PHENOMENON

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-8
Author(s):  
Yuriі Boreiko
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Symbolic Violence ◽  
Collective Consciousness ◽  
Historical Discourse ◽  
Symbolic Space ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Individual

The article analyzes the sociocultural basis of constituting the symbolic space, the content of the symbolic violence phenomenon, the cultural and symbolic potential of the toponymics objects. It is established that practices of symbolic violence consist in constructing a system of subjective coordinates by imposing rules, senses, meanings, values that become self-evident. Symbolic space encompasses the collective consciousness of the socio-cultural community and has the ability to form a system of subjective coordinates where the individual's life activity unfolds. The intelligibility of symbolic space is conventionally established, which is provided by the process of socialization. Pursuing the goal of domination, hegemony, coercion, symbolic violence moves the real confrontation into a symbolic environment, directing the influence on the mental structures of the social subject. Giving to senses and meanings a legitimate character is a way to explain and substantiate social relations, their cognitive and normative interpretation. Accumulating the experience of community coexistence throughout its history, habitus is a set of dispositions that motivate an individual to a certain reaction or behavior. Habitus, which generates and structures practices, combines the individual tendency of the actor to act adequately to the situation, the interaction of actors in the community, and the interaction of the community and each of its members with reality. As a historically changing phenomenon, habitus determines the nature of interactions between individuals whose communication skills are consistent with the functioning of social institutions. An important component of the symbolic space and part of the cultural and historical discourse are the objects of toponymics, which explains the constant ideological and political interest in this segment of socio-cultural life. Objects of toponymics act as a marker of ordering social space, a tool for including the subject in socio-spatial landscapes. The renaming of toponyms demonstrates the connection between the social conditions in which it takes place and the reaction of the social relations entity to changes in the toponymic space.

Prostitution indendørs. Massageklinikken som socialt rum

2007 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Alzaga
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Work Experiences ◽  
Life World ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
The Social ◽  
Working World

Cristina Alzaga: Indoor Prostitution: The Parlour as a Social Space This article presents a sociological hermeneutic analysis of the lived everyday working world of Danish indoor prostitutes. It draws upon observations and interviews, as well as documentary and experiential data, produced during a six-month period of ethnographic fieldwork at a Copenhagen massage parlour, where the author served as “telephone lady“. The article uncovers the social order (nomos) of this life world, its social relations and shared interpretations as well as organizational traits and practical-corporeal terms. It also discusses the variety and multidimensionality of the relations between prostitutes and clients. The article seeks to uncover the meanings of the distinct experiential dynamics and work experiences that take form within this particular working universe, and examines their contradictory relations to the dominant views and accounts of prostitution in the outside world, including the views pre¬sented by mainstream research on prostitution.

The Effect of Interpersonal Spending Pressure on Intention to Smoke among Low-Income People in China

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 967-988
Author(s):  
Bai Rui ◽  
Pan Weiyu ◽  
Li Chao ◽  
Zhong Yu ◽  
Xu Juan
Keyword(s):  
Social Exchange ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Threshold Model ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Sustainable Growth ◽  
Human Relationship ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship

Objectives: Test the effect of capital on household human relationship expenditure and thus examine the effect on the willingness to smoke. Methods: Threshold model and Critical theory of capital. Results: China is a large consumer of tobacco, and tobacco account for a significant proportion of interpersonal spending in China. It is found that the percentage of social spending of low-income families is much higher than that of high-income families. In recent years, the social expenditures of extremely low-income people have far exceeded their income. At the same time, the types of urban and rural areas, traditional customs, business management, social exchange, and education level significantly impact the family’s human relationship expenditure. Conclusion: This paper shows that, unlike in Western countries, cigarettes present a huge advantage in interpersonal interactions in China, hence the phenomenon that the richer one is, the more one consumes tobacco. Social poverty has become a significant obstacle to the sustainable growth of low-income people’s income. Under the effect of capital, the relationship between people is deeply reflected as the relationship between human and material, and then presents the characteristics of materialization. The reason why people accept this way of interaction lies in the domination of rational principles. To control the materialized social relations, we need the construction of timely theory and the formation of values free from capital control to alleviate the social poverty.

A Substrate Approach in the Study of Digital Culture

2021 ◽  
pp. 68-75
Author(s):  
Elena V. Gryaznova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Digital Culture ◽  
Structural Elements ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Second Stage ◽  
The Social ◽  
Third Stage ◽  
Analytical Review ◽  
The Universe

The aim of the article is to substantiate the need for a substrate approach in the study of the nature and essence of digital culture. The main research methods were those of analysis, comparison, communication, dialectics, and the substrate approach. The study was conducted in several stages. At the first stage, the author made an analytical review of domestic and foreign publications on the use of the substrate approach in the study of the nature and essence of digital culture. At the second stage, the author compared and generalized the results. At the third stage, the author substantiated the need to build a model of digital culture based on the substrate approach. In the course of the study, the author came to the conclusion that for a holistic analysis of the new cultural phenomenon of digital culture, along with the structural and functional approach, it is necessary to apply the substrate approach. It will allow identifying three main substrates of digital culture: civilizational, social and anthropological. Each substrate gives digital culture appropriate attributes and modes. The civilizational substrate defines such attributes of digital culture as digital technologies, digital social relations and institutions, digital potential (needs and abilities). The social substrate makes all types of digital activities, including its structural elements (pedagogical, managerial, economic, environmental, scientific, medical, physical and artistic), attributes of digital culture. The anthropological substrate generates new digital forms of generic human qualities – language, activity, communication and consciousness. Knowledge of the generic and acquired qualities of digital culture will reveal patterns of its development, and, consequently, possible consequences for the development of civilization, society and people. The substrate model of digital culture will allow systematizing the formulation of problems that require understanding and solution at different levels of the universe. At the level of civilization, it is the formation of new forms of social relations and institutions, the development and implementation of the digital potential of humanity, the laws of transition to a new high-quality civilizational development. At the level of society, it is the laws of interaction and integration of digital forms of activity, the laws of the birth and existence of new forms of subjectivity, the laws and principles of the existence of digital reality and digital social space. The anthropological level reveals the regularities of development and qualitative changes in the system of generic qualities of people, and therefore of people themselves.

Claiming Social Identities in the Mortuary Landscape of the Late Bronze Age Communities of Macedonia

2020 ◽  
pp. 171-197
Author(s):  
Sevi Triantaphyllou ◽  
Stelios Andreou
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Dead

Burial practices in Late Bronze Age Macedonia do not manifest particularly elaborate traits in terms of grave architecture and prestigious items accompanying the dead. In contrast to practices in the southern mainland, local communities adopted subtler and less homogeneous forms of treating the deceased in an attempt to signify their particular identities in the cultural, political, and symbolic landscape. Recent research has established a special focus on descent in extramural cemeteries, such as the cist grave cemetery with multiple burials at Spathes on Mount Olympus, the tumuli of Western Macedonia and Southern Pieria, the burial enclosures of Faia Petra, and the tumuli at Exochi and Potamoi in Eastern Macedonia. In Central Macedonia, on the other hand, where tell settlements dominate the natural and symbolic landscape, burial practices possess a less prominent place in the social space. The dominant trait here seems to be the absence of formal mortuary practices. Burials may occur within the settlement without special care regarding the treatment of the dead, but with a desire to mark out the links of the deceased with particular residential groups. The handling of death in Late Bronze Age Macedonia emerges therefore as a powerful practice, which was manipulated in different modes by the living communities in order to claim a diverse set of social identities and significant properties in the diverse cultural landscape and the varied political scenery of the area.

Moral Regulation: A Reformulation

1997 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannu Ruonavaara
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Historical Sociology ◽  
Marxist Theory ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Ruling Elite ◽  
Moral Regulation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Foucauldian Analysis

Philip Corrigan and Derek Sayer introduced the concept of moral regulation to contemporary sociological debate in their historical sociology of English State formation, The Great Arch (1985). In their work they fuse Durkheimian and Foucauldian analysis with a basic Marxist theory. However, this framework gives too limited a perspective to their analysis. I suggest that moral regulation should not be seen as a monolithic project, as merely action by and for the State, nor as activity by the ruling elite only. It should be seen as a form of social control based on changing the identity of the regulated. Its object is what Weber calls Lebensführung, which refers to both the ethos and the action constituting a way of life. The means of moral regulation are persuasion, education, and enlightenment, which distinguishes it from other forms of social control. Analyzing the social relations of moral regulation provides a useful perspective on this form of social action.

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