scholarly journals Recipes for Happiness: a Proposal for Analysing the Moral Orientation of Actions and Emotions

2021 ◽  
pp. 13-28
Author(s):  
Alberto Martín Pérez ◽  
José Antonio Rodríguez Díaz ◽  
José Luis Condom Bosch ◽  
Aitor Domínguez Aguayo
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Moral Obligation ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Social Discourse ◽  
Sociological Perspective ◽  
Social Production ◽  
Moral Orientation ◽  
The Social

This paper draws up a proposal for analysing discourses on paths to happiness. Recipes promoted by the happiness industry are studied as moral guidelines for social action: imperative messages spread through the Internet seek to guide their recipients in their quest for happiness. In a fielddominated by positive psychology, we approach happiness from a sociological perspective, which is to say as: an institutionalised social discourse; a form of social production; a socially-framed emotion. Research is based on systematic Internet observation and on quantitative and qualitative textual analysis procedures. We show how digital media in the ‘happiness’ field: (a) promotes recipes; (b) provides scientific legitimation for said recipes; (c) focuses on a generic individual as the recipient of the messages and as protagonist. A typology is proposed based on the meaning, nature and object of the actions that lead to happiness. Results show how recipes involve normative and moral orientations of actions and emotions: they indicate what to do and how to think andfeel to be happy. Happiness as a moral obligation involves most concerns shaping the agenda of contemporary societies, with a strong emphasis on individualism and on a utilitarian understanding of social relations and the social environment.

The main causes of social anxiety in the context of social action

2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 112-117
Author(s):  
I.S. Duisenova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Social Activity ◽  
Important Place ◽  
Social Actions ◽  
The Social

The article deals with the problems of social anxiety in the context of social activity. Social action is one of the phenomena of everyday life, so the study of anxiety that suddenly occurs in familiar conditions for a person, and its manifestations in social relations occupies an important place in sociological science today. Attempts to explain this were made using the works of T. Parsons, Y. Habermas, and G. Garfinkel. Various manifestations and forms of social anxiety affect the social actions of society.

Social Tyranny and Democratic Governance in the Information Age

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Ward
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
Information Age ◽  
Internet Access ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Individual Liberty ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Pertinent Information ◽  
Use Of The Internet ◽  
And Diffusion

The development and diffusion of inexpensive, reliable and easy to use public Internet access means that large portions of the U.S. and global populations now regularly communicate with one another. Will the increasing penetration of the Internet into the social and political lives of people facilitate Thomas Jefferson's vision of a world “founded on the primacy of individual liberty and a commitment to pluralism, diversity, and Community”? While many people believe that the answer to this question is “yes”, such affirmations often rest on adducing cases not theoretically linked to one another. In contrast, the present paper provides a broadly philosophical, conceptual analysis of how use of the Internet can lead to forms of “social tyranny” in which one or more elements of a community impose their own beliefs and interests on others in that community. For instance, dependence on Internet access and use for social action or pertinent information about social activities may lead to marginalization and exclusion for people whose Internet access or use is limited. Furthermore, the connectedness or mode of connectedness of groups or organizations may give them an unfair advantage disseminating and advocating the messages they deliver to members of the communities in which they exist. The conclusion is not that we should adopt attitudes and policies that are antithetical to the use of the Internet. Rather, using ideas from Dewey and Habermas, amongst others, the conclusion is that it is important to reflect broadly and critically on how use of the Internet can transform the character of the public domain and the deliberations about governance that occur within that domain.

scholarly journals Inequalities in the social use of the Internet of things: A capital and skills perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 1344-1361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex van der Zeeuw ◽  
Alexander JAM van Deursen ◽  
Giedo Jansen
Keyword(s):  
Internet Of Things ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Internet Skills ◽  
The Social ◽  
Use Of The Internet ◽  
Social Use ◽  
Smart Things ◽  
Social Uses ◽  
The Internet Of Things

In this article, we set out to explain different types of social uses of the Internet of Things (IoT) using forms of capital and Internet skills. We argue that the IoT platform entices different manners of social communication that are easily overlooked when focusing on the novelty of smart “things.” How people use the IoT socially is crucial in trying to understand how people create, maintain, or absolve social relations in a networked society. We find inversed effects for social capital, income and education on private use, and on sharing IoT data with a partner. Sharing with acquaintances and strangers is predicted by cultural activities. Sharing IoT data with acquaintances can especially be attributed to social relations that escape the immediate household. We conclude that varying figurations of capital and Internet skills predict how the IoT is used socially.

scholarly journals Be Safe or Be Seen? How Russian Activists Negotiate Visibility and Security in Online Resistance Practices

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 332-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tetyana Lokot
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Social Discourse ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Discursive Space ◽  
Digital Surveillance ◽  
Security Practices ◽  
State Surveillance ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Constant State

This paper examines how Russian opposition activists negotiate online visibility—their own and that of their messages and campaigns—and the security concerns brought on by the pervasive digital surveillance that the state resorts to in order to reinstate its control over the online discursive space. By examining the internet-based presence and activity of the members of Alexey Navalny’s FBK (Anti-Corruption Foundation) and other opposition activists, the paper traces connections between everyday security practices that these activists engage in online and the resistance tactics and repertoires they enact in an environment where the free and open exchange of information on the Russian internet is becoming increasingly difficult. The analysis finds that Russian opposition activists place a high value on digital, media, and security literacy and that navigating the internet using security tools and protocols such as VPN, two-phase authentication, and encrypted messaging is increasingly seen as the default modus operandi for those participating in organised dissent in Russia to mitigate growing state surveillance. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that Russian activists have to balance the need for security with growing visibility—a key factor for entering the mainstream political and social discourse. The tension between being secure and being visible emerges as a key aspect of resistance practices in an environment of near-constant state surveillance, as activists concurrently manage their safety and visibility online to minimise the risks posed by government spying and maximise the effect of their dissent.

Digitalisierung und Nachbarschaft

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Internet ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

There has hardly been any other development that has changed our everyday lives as significantly as digitalisation, and there is hardly anything as commonplace as neighbourship. Despite the links between these two concepts growing, they have been neglected in social science research in Germany so far. The prevailing sentiment is that the Internet and social media sites have no connection to the real world, but there are countless neighbourship groups on Facebook, Twitter hashtags named after neighbourhoods or entire websites, such as ‘nebenan.de’, which endeavour to strengthen local community bonds through digital means. In short, the social developments in this respect are already considerably more advanced than the knowledge that exists about it. This anthology makes a fundamental contribution to the sociological debate on digitalisation and neighbourship by aiming to provide an overview of the relationship between digitalisation and neighbourship on the one hand, and open up avenues for further research on the other. It therefore examines and systematises attempts to strengthen local community bonds using digital media from different perspectives.

scholarly journals Marxist psychology: a research paradigm whose time has come

2012 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Elhammoumi
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Substantial Contribution ◽  
Social Production ◽  
Historical Perspectives ◽  
The Social ◽  
Creative Force ◽  
Psychological Functions ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Stock Of Knowledge

This paper seeks to retrieve Marx's ideas about the development of psychology. It offers historical perspectives on different attempts to create a Marxist psychology that shed light on its scope and trajectory. According to Marx, concrete social and material real life play a key role in the development of human psychological functions. Later, Vygotsky, Wallon, Politzer, Leontiev, Luria, Sève among others built on Marx's ideas. These psychologists suggested that individual psychological functions are formed and shaped in concrete, cultural, social, historical circumstances, and pictured an organizing, creative force driving individual activity (instead of behavior). Marxist psychology is the study of the social individual within social relations of production. In a Marxist sense, the emphasis is placed on production, both material and social as the essence of social relations. Hence, psychology cannot be dealt with in an abstract, private and individual manner as the capitalist mode of production would want, but must be seen in terms of the social individual that is formed, structured, and shaped within the social relations of a production framework. In this context, the social production of the individual (as developed in Marx's Die Grundrisse) signifies social relations between people connected with concrete common real social conditions and material production. Production, both social and material, is the totality of social relations. In the process of production, social individuals act not only upon nature but also upon one another, they enter into a definite rich web of connections and relations to one another. Marx's writings encompassed the fields of psychology and made a substantial contribution to the stock of knowledge about human nature processes. Marx never wrote a full-length treatise on psychology, though his own work is the outstanding example of psychological conceptualizations. This paper stresses the decisive relevance of Marx's psychological conceptions for a paradigm shift whose time has come.

From speech as “situated” to speech as “situating”: insights from John Gumperz on the practical conduct of talk as social action

2011 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick Erickson
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
Immigrant Community ◽  
Doctoral Research ◽  
Speech Communities ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Practical Conduct ◽  
Further Development

AbstractThe article begins by reviewing the early research interests of John Gumperz and their further development across the course of his career. His doctoral research documented spoken language in an immigrant community. He then focused on bilingual speech communities and “code switching.” Later he became concerned with various aspects of style shifting within a language. Whether he was considering language switching, or dialect switching, or shifts in register, Gumperz showed that speakers were creative in their language use — active agents rather than passive rule followers — alternating among disparate styles to communicate metaphoric and usually implicit social meaning. Through changes in speech style, interlocutors could be seen to be reframing their social relations, modifying the social situation they were in. ( NB This lability in situational framing is a major point of emphasis in Gumperz's notions of “contextualization” and “conversational inference.”) The article continues by presenting and discussing two of Gumperz's “telling cases” of contextualizing frame shifts by speakers. In concluding, a few examples from the author's own research are presented, with emphasis on the use of contextualization in establishing local alignments of solidarity-in-the-moment among interlocutors — indexical shifts to a footing for interaction that the author has termed “situational co-membership.”

scholarly journals TRADISI NGAJAHUL: Fikih Pemakaman dan Kohesi Sosial Pada Masyarakat Muslim Priangan

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Yayan Suryana
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Sociological Perspective ◽  
Death Rituals ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Relationship

This paper presents an analysis of the death rituals carried out by Muslims in the Priangan region known as ngajahul. Ngajahul is done on the sixth or seventh day after death. Analysis of the ritual of death illustrates that the ritual of death is not only a spiritual-fiqhiyyah aspect, but also has a role in describing social relations. The graveyard that lay in the cemetery, not only shows the grave, but also describes the relationship between the deceased, the family and the social environment. This research in a sociological perspective produces the concept that the rituals of death and society, especially Muslim societies in various aspects are referred to as containing social cohesion. This concept illustrates that death rituals are not as depicted in recitation forums that see death rituals as a tradition laden with rituals that are spiritually nuanced. Ngajahul is a tradition that produces social interaction and involvement in social life that is produced simultaneously. Key Words : Ngajahul, Ritual, Social cohesion, fiqhiyyah

scholarly journals Identity and help in calls to Victim Support

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Emma Tennent
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Constitutive Relationship ◽  
Discursive Psychology ◽  
The Social ◽  
Competent Person ◽  
Victim Support ◽  
Seeking Help ◽  
The Relationship

<p>The link between identity and action is a fundamental topic across the social sciences. A key site to investigate this relationship is social interaction, where identities and social relations are built and used to accomplish action. In this thesis, I used discursive psychology to analyse the relationship between identity and the action of help in recorded calls to a victim support helpline. Victim is a contentious identity, with feminists and other critical scholars pointing to the politics involved when certain people are categorised as victims and others are overlooked. The name of the organisation that was the setting for my research, ‘Victim Support,’ explicitly links a victim identity with rights to access the help the service offers. Drawing on concepts in discursive psychology and using conversation analysis and membership categorisation analysis, I examined how participants oriented to the contentious questions of who victims are and how they should be helped. Drawing on contemporary interactional research which theorises the epistemic, deontic, and affective basis of human social relations, I examined how participants used self-other relations as a resource to build and interpret actions as help.  The findings provide evidence for the mutually constitutive relationship between identity and action. Counter-intuitively, most callers did not explicitly categorise themselves as victims when asking for help. My analyses show how call-takers understood callers’ identities as victims even when they did not say so directly. The act of asking for help from Victim Support constituted callers’ identities as victims; and their identities rendered their requests accountable.  Call-takers on the victim helpline act as gate-keepers, determining callers’ eligibility before providing help. I analysed how call-takers denied callers’ requests by implicitly or explicitly disavowing their identities as victims. Conversely, I showed that offers of help constituted callers as legitimate victims. Yet even once participants had accomplished joint understanding of callers as victims, they negotiated their respective epistemic and deontic rights to determine what help was needed and how it should be provided.  The negotiation of how victims should be helped was particularly salient when callers sought help on behalf of others. Participants negotiated whether the moral obligation to help victims was associated with friends and family members, or institutions. The emotional support and practical advice offered by Victim Support is delivered by volunteer support workers, reflecting a common-sense assumption that these forms of help are normatively available to any competent person. My analyses attend to the dilemmas involved when callers sought help for others rather than providing it themselves.  The findings contribute to three main areas of research: conversation analytic study of help as social action; membership categorisation analysis research on categorically organised rights and obligations; and the re-specification of psychological phenomenon as interactional objects within discursive psychology. The mutually constitutive link between identity and help is consequential, as the provision or withholding support can have material effects when callers are highly distressed or in fear for their lives. Thus, studying real-life interaction demonstrates the practical ways identity matters for seeking help.</p>

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document