Why Has the Critique of the Leisure Class Run out of Steam? Matters of Fact and Matters of Concern

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-52
Keyword(s):  
Economic Status ◽  
Temporal Structure ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Leisure Class ◽  
Stratified Diffusion ◽  
The Social ◽  
Patterns Of Behavior ◽  
Matters Of Concern ◽  
Time Specific ◽  
New Research

The article analyzes the conceptual and historical prerequisites for the transition from the classical theory of leisure to modern leisure studies. Its central question is what “matters of fact” and “matters of concern” have had the greatest impact on the formation of the new research agenda. The first part of the article reconstructs Veblen’s conceptualization of the leisure class, which is associated with extensive free time, specific types of leisure, demonstrative consumption of the output from productive work, and the elevated socio-economic status that a particular group attains by following the conventions of a “prestigious” lifestyle. It is argued that the focus on stable, reproducible patterns of behavior in the upper class neglected the distinction between newer leisure practices, as well as the stratified diffusion of leisure time. The author describes three exogenous factors that have undercut the traditional understanding of leisure in the social sciences: the transformation of the temporal structure of work and leisure as a result of the broad penetration of digital technologies; the blurring of the boundaries between workspaces and recreational areas; and the transformation of the resources for economic interactions and of the system for conversion to various types of capital in the labor market. Changes in the basic criteria for a leisure lifestyle have exposed problems with Veblen’s intuitions and have led to the emergence of new disciplinary coalitions. In conclusion, the article deals with the problem of how to describe the modern leisure class. This is a question of whether the emergence of alternative leisure practices provides a sufficient basis for the identification of new leisure groups and of what would constitute a necessary condition for revamping the sociology of leisure.

scholarly journals Diskurzivna neenakost in konstrukcija »govorno-jezikovnega primanjkljaja« deprivilegiranih družin in otrok

Šolsko polje ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol XXXI (1-2) ◽  
pp. 139-166
Author(s):  
Lucija Klun
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequality ◽  
Social Reproduction ◽  
Speech Therapy ◽  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Disadvantaged Children ◽  
Language Deficit ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Research

Discursive inequality in the construction of the »speech-language deficit« of deprived families and children In the second half of the 20th century, disciplines such as linguistics, sociolinguistics, and sociology were the first to inquire into the connection between the social position (of families) and the linguistic dispositions of children – these authors were also the ones who provided theoretical and methodological means to support the research. But the recent decades have seen a slow change in the ‘leading’ disciplines – with the greater role given to developmental psychology, speech therapy, pedagogy and neuroscience. This has brought some accompanying changes: the corpus of gathered data has rapidly grown and the correlation between socio-economic status and child development was given more focus (and was more concisely outlined) than ever before. And alongside that – the authors have shifted attention toward factors of early familial environments and their role in ‘social reproduction’: in the social inheritance of developmental deficits in disadvantaged children. But this growing body of data (gathered with standardized instruments and new technology) has allowed some theoretical “fluidity”. Previous models were replaced with less coherent descriptive categories. For example; the social class was transformed into “socio-economic index” or “status” and has lately dispersed to numerous descriptive remarks on the “quality” of familial environment and parenting strategies (of privileged/disadvantaged parents). Considering linguistic categories: authors have dropped attempts to study semantic, semiotic, and contextual aspects of language use and have focused solely on the lexical and syntactical attributes of particular environments and speakers. These changes have abruptly broken the line of causality that was developed by Bernstein and systemic functional linguistics. The “stream” of discursive reproduction of inequality has lost its previous interpretative power. But not only that – the new research has unforeseen consequences. For example, individualisation of social inequality; the blaming of (poor) parents for their seeming inability to provide enough linguistic stimulation. And lastly the reduction of complex relations of social inequality on some (calculable) developmental pathologies in disadvantaged children – that one can measure and “repair” thorough pedagogic/therapeutic means. Key words: discursive inequality, speech and language development, disadvantaged social groups, individualisation, social inequality, social reproduction

What is taken for granted in autism research?

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Ilana Friedner
Keyword(s):  
Research Methodologies ◽  
Communicative Practices ◽  
Autism Research ◽  
Autistic People ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Research

Abstract This commentary focuses on three points: the need to consider semiotic ideologies of both researchers and autistic people, questions of commensurability, and problems with “the social” as an analytical concept. It ends with a call for new research methodologies that are not deficit-based and that consider a broad range of linguistic and non-linguistic communicative practices.

New research frameworks in the study of chimpanzee and gorilla sociality and communication

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam G. B. Roberts ◽  
Anna Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Social Evolution ◽  
Social Complexity ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Strongly Correlated ◽  
The Social ◽  
Human Social Evolution ◽  
Research Frameworks ◽  
New Research ◽  
Large Groups

Group size in primates is strongly correlated with brain size, but exactly what makes larger groups more ‘socially complex’ than smaller groups is still poorly understood. Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) are among our closest living relatives and are excellent model species to investigate patterns of sociality and social complexity in primates, and to inform models of human social evolution. The aim of this paper is to propose new research frameworks, particularly the use of social network analysis, to examine how social structure differs in small, medium and large groups of chimpanzees and gorillas, to explore what makes larger groups more socially complex than smaller groups. Given a fission-fusion system is likely to have characterised hominins, a comparison of the social complexity involved in fission-fusion and more stable social systems is likely to provide important new insights into human social evolution

Book Review: Toshchenko Zh.T. Trauma Society: Between Evolution and Revolution (The Experience of Theoretical and Empirical Analysis). Moscow: Ves’ Mir, 2020

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 152-159
Author(s):  
Vladimir V. Krivosheev
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Trauma Society ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Research ◽  
Further Development

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.

Socio-Economic Status of Dalits Community in Sindhuli District

Patan Pragya ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 154-161
Author(s):  
Bed Prasad Neupane
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
Total Population ◽  
Economic Condition ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Social Awareness ◽  
Service Work ◽  
Level Of Education ◽  
Socio Economic Status ◽  
The Social ◽  
Traditional Occupation

This study is based on Kamalamai Municipality, Sindhuli District. There are 56 households of Dalit (Damai 29 and Kami 27) in this area. The census method was used in the study where, total population is 365 from 56 households. Among them, 172 were male and 193 were female. The general objectives of this study are to identify demographic and socio-economic status of Dalits and to find out causes of deprivation of Dalits people in the community. They worked as agricultural labour and service work. Their income is less than their expenditure. Most of them are uneducated but nowadays, the level of education has increased so that their children go to school and college. Only 39 percent were literate and only 7 percent Dalits have passed SLC and +2. They give priority on arrange marriage. Youth generation doesn't like the traditional occupation and skills. They use a lot of alcohol (Jaad and Raski) in the festivals and rituals ceremony however the economic condition of Dalit is poor so many children of them are forced to dropout from schools because their parents cannot afford their education fees. The social status of the females in the Dalit community is very low than the males in the society. After the father's death all the properties is transferred to the son. The main causes for degrading status of Dalits are due to poverty, lack of education and lack of social awareness. So far, there have not been any kinds of policies and plans to uplift the Dalit community in this area.

THE THE INDIGENOUS IDENTITY INTERPRETED AS A CATEGORY OF ANALYSIS IN POPULATION STUDIES

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (Especial) ◽  
pp. 105
Author(s):  
Dante Choque-Caseres
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Indigenous Identity ◽  
Critical Thought ◽  
Northern Border ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Government ◽  
New Research

In Latin America, based on the recognition of Indigenous Peoples, the identification of gaps or disparities between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous population has emerged as a new research interest. To this end, capturing Indigenous identity is key to conducting certain analyses. However, the social contexts where the identity of Indigenous persons are (re)produced has been significantly altered. These changes are generated by the assimilation or integration of Indigenous communities into dominant national cultures. Within this context, limitations emerge in the use of this category, since Indigenous identity has a political and legal component related to the needs of the government. Therefore, critical thought on the use of Indigenous identity is necessary in an epistemological and methodological approach to research. This article argues that research about Indigenous Peoples should evaluate how Indigenous identity is included, for it is socially co-produced through the interaction of the State and its institutions. Thus, it would not necessarily constitute an explicative variable. By analyzing the discourse about Aymara Indigenous communities that has emerged in the northern border of Chile, this paper seeks to expose the logic used to define identity. Therefore, I conclude that the process of self-identification arises in supposed Indigenous people, built and/or reinforced by institutions, which should be reviewed from a decolonizing perspective and included in comparative research.

Concluding Summary

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carrie Figdor
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
External Factors ◽  
Cognitive Capacity ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Conceptual Foundation ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Research ◽  
Internal And External Factors ◽  
Conceptual Confusion

Chapter 10 provides a summary of the argument of the book. It elaborates some of the benefits of Literalism, such as less conceptual confusion and an expanded range of entities for research that might illuminate human cognition. It motivates distinguishing the questions of whether something has a cognitive capacity from whether it is intuitively like us. It provides a conceptual foundation for the social sciences appropriate for the increasing role of modeling in these sciences. It also promotes convergence in terms of the roles of internal and external factors in explaining both human and nonhuman behavior. Finally, it sketches some of the areas of new research that it supports, including group cognition and artificial intelligence.

Disability and Work in South Asia and the United Kingdom

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Buckingham
Keyword(s):  
Low Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Low Socioeconomic ◽  
Disability History ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Indian Experience ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Western View

Historical analyses, as well as more contemporary examples of disability and work, show that the experience of disability is always culturally and historically mediated, but that class—in the sense of economic status—plays a major role in the way impairment is experienced as disabling. Although there is little published on disability history in India, the history of the Indian experience of caste disability demonstrates the centrality of work in the social and economic expression of stigma and marginalization. An Indian perspective supports the challenge to the dominant Western view that modern concepts of disability have their origins in the Industrial Revolution. Linkage between disability, incapacity to work, and low socioeconomic status are evident in India, which did not undergo the workplace changes associated with industrialization in the West.

scholarly journals Agency and the Successive Structure of Time-Consciousness

Erkenntnis ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camden Alexander McKenna
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Structure ◽  
Basic Structure ◽  
The Self ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Epistemic Status ◽  
Mental Attitude ◽  
Time Consciousness ◽  
Possibility Space ◽  
The Right ◽  
Wrong Sort

AbstractI argue for constraining the nomological possibility space of temporal experiences and endorsing the Succession Requirement for agents. The Succession Requirement holds that the basic structure of temporal experience must be successive for agentive subjects, at least in worlds that are law-like in the same way as ours. I aim to establish the Succession Requirement by showing non-successively experiencing agents are not possible for three main reasons, namely that they (1) fail to stand in the right sort of causal relationship to the outcomes of their actions, (2) exhibit the wrong sort of epistemic status for agency, and (3) lack the requisite agentive mental attitude of intentionality. I conclude that agency is incompatible with non-successive experience and therefore we should view the successive temporal structure of experience as a necessary condition for agency. I also suggest that the Succession Requirement may actually extend beyond my main focus on agency, offering preliminary considerations in favor of seeing successive experience as a precondition for selfhood as well. The consequences of the Succession Requirement are wide-ranging, and I discuss various implications for our understanding of agency, the self, time consciousness, and theology, among other things.

Vulnerability context and well-being factors of Indigenous community development: a study of Peninsular Malaysia

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-105
Author(s):  
Md. Khaled Saifullah ◽  
Muhammad Mehedi Masud ◽  
Fatimah Binti Kari
Keyword(s):  
Basic Education ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Peninsular Malaysia ◽  
Indigenous Community ◽  
Access To Education ◽  
Environmental Aspects ◽  
The Social ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Significant Factors

The Indigenous people of Malaysia are a heterogeneous community scattered over more than 852 villages in Peninsular Malaysia. This community has been identified to be among the poorest and marginalized in Peninsular Malaysia. This study evaluates the well-being factors as well as problems that hinder the development of an Indigenous community in Peninsular Malaysia. This article adopted a quantitative approach based on data collected through survey and 2,136 respondents were interviewed. The study reveals that the Indigenous community is likely to remain poor in terms of economic status significantly because of insufficient access to basic education and the inability of being employed. This is also due to the inability to receive support for housing, economic livelihood, and other social infrastructures. In addition, the study indicates that economic status and access to education are the most significant factors that may help improve the overall well-being of an Indigenous community. This finding also suggests that the social and environmental aspects in Peninsular Malaysia have not improved together with economic development.

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