scholarly journals A Review of Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities by Rebecca Solnit.

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 67
Author(s):  
Julianne Burgess

Rebecca Solnit's book makes the case for hope as a commitment to social action in an uncertain world. The author draws from her own history of activism and her study of environmental, political and cultural history, to shine a light on long forgotten transformative victories. Solnit argues that we are living in a time of exciting, unprecedented social change.

Kybernetes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 226-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josué Antonio Nescolarde-Selva ◽  
Hugh Gash ◽  
Jose-Luis Usó-Domenech

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the unintended consequences of actions as one of the central and constituent elements of sociological theory and long debated in the history of sociology. This question has been treated under varying sociological terminologies, including, providence, social forces, social paradoxes, heterogeneity of ends, immanent causality and the principle of emergency. Design/methodology/approach This paper is concerned with “adverse effects”. The thematic contexts of “unintended consequences of social action” the authors wish to focus attention on are specific types of consequences which may merit the adjective “adverse”. Findings The analysis of the intentions of our actions and their unwanted or foreseen consequences allows us to understand how societies work. Many historical facts are probably “unintentional.” But, most continuous or changing life forms must be interpreted as a mixture of intentional (social reproduction) and unintentional consequences (social change). Originality/value This paper focuses on four points of view: the object of sociology, the problems of order and social change, the methodological status of the discipline and the nature of social explanation, and mathematical theory. Four classifications of unintended consequences are formulated from the works of Boudon, Baert and Ramos, as well as the authors.


2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix K. Esoh ◽  
Chammah J. Kaunda

This article argues that libation, often associated with the ancestors, artefacts, images and pre-Christian religious devotions, constitutes sources for articulating authentic African cultural history of Obang community in the Northwest Region of Cameroon. It highlights that among traditional memory carriers, the ritual of libation remains trust worthy and pervasive, even among communities challenged by globalisation and colonising effects of Christianity. The article demonstrates the immense potentials of libation as an epitome and stabiliser of cultural memory, and a maxim in cultural resilience in contemporary Africa. Thus, the article calls for revisiting this ancient ritual to expose its potentials as a veritable memory repertoire in cultural–historical studies, especially at a time when social change and modernism continue to challenge the memories of traditional societies.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bart Barendregt ◽  
Peter Keppy ◽  
Henk Schulte Nordholt

From the 1920s on, popular music in Southeast Asia was a mass-audience phenomenon that drew new connections between indigenous musical styles and contemporary genres from elsewhere to create new, hybrid forms. This book presents a cultural history of modern Southeast Asia from the vantage point of popular music, considering not just singers and musicians but their fans as well, showing how the music was intrinsically bound up with modern life and the societal changes that came with it. Reaching new audiences across national borders, popular music of the period helped push social change, and at times served as a medium for expressions of social or political discontent.


Author(s):  
Tim Greenwood

Although the Byzantine annexation of Armenian territories in the later tenth and eleventh centuries has been studied from a number of perspectives, little attention has been paid to the subsequent history of those districts, and in particular the circumstances and the responses of the communities who stayed put. This chapter explores the social and cultural history of the district of Tarōn in the century after its incorporation as a theme. Through comparison with the annexation of Vaspurakan in 1021, it argues that both the lay and clerical elite left Tarōn in 966. This affected land tenure in several ways, including the creation of stratiotika ktemata and the imposition of the demosion. Evidence from an Armenian Gospels manuscript indicates that the land tax was still being collected—and the registers updated—as late as 1067. A new network of episcopal sees was established across the former Armenian see of Tarōn. Finally the History of Tarōn, a composition completed in the 980s, shows how one monastic community took advantage of the recent turmoil to promote its claim to foundation and endowment by St Grigor the Illuminator at the start of the fourth century. It also forged multiple links between the activities of St Grigor and the metropolitan see of Caesarea, associating the conversion of Tarōn, and by implication of Armenia, with the Byzantine Church.


1989 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 413-413
Author(s):  
No authorship indicated
Keyword(s):  

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document