scholarly journals Is There a Link Between Complementary Economic Institutions and Ideologies?

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 497-511
Author(s):  
A.I. Volynskii ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Han Dynasty ◽  
The Other ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
Dominant Ideology ◽  
Institutional Complementarity ◽  
Emergence Of Institutions ◽  
Spirit Of Capitalism ◽  
The One

Since the publication of Max Weber’s “Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism” in 1904, the author’s idea about the positive relationship between Protestantism and capitalism has taken root in social sciences. Even though since then, multiple authors have questioned Weber’s idea, it still remains popular. Douglass C. North’s theory of institutions is interesting in this respect. He pointed to the intentionality behind the emergence of institutions. For North, institutions are an attempt to reduce the uncertainty by providing a structure to our everyday life, including interactions. The forms of these interactions depend not only on the climatic, demographic, technological and other factors, but also on people’s ethical attitudes. In our study, we proceed from the assumption that there is a relationship between institutions and ideologies in the broad sense of the term, on the one hand, and, on the other, from the concept of complementary institutions. The latter implies the presence in the institutional environ- ment of two or more complementary institutions. Complementary institutions determine the structure of contractual relations between agents pursuing simple tasks, which means that there are various systems of stimuli and principles of how these agents should deliver on their obligations. In this respect the question arises as to how such institutional complementarity fit into the ideologies prevailing in this or that society? Is it possible for complementary institutions to coexist? In this study we focus on two cases from Chinese history to show that institutional complementarity is possible only if the adherents to the dominant ideology are ready to accept the possibility of flexible interpretations of such ideology and of the existence of complementary ideologies. The first example is the popularity of Taoism as a complementary ideology of Confucianism among the merchants in Qing China. Since Confucianism could not create the necessary ethical incentives for those people who were engaged in trade, Taoism filled the ethical void with its magical practices. The second case relates to the era of the Han Dynasty and the dispute about the limits of the state’s influence on the economy between the representatives of different philosophical schools. In both examples, complementary ideology creates necessary incentives for building complementary institutions.

From Fieldwork to Research Theory on an Indian Pilgrimage

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rémy Delage
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Random Sampling ◽  
South India ◽  
Scientific Discourse ◽  
The Other ◽  
Critical Reading ◽  
Major Research ◽  
Research Hypothesis ◽  
Sources Of Knowledge ◽  
The One

Using as the example of the pilgrimage to Sabarimala (Kerala, South India), I propose here to explore the links existing between sources, research hypothesis and research theory in social sciences. The choice of research materials in the process of investigation, sources of knowledge about the studied object, is not mere random sampling; it is processed in accordance with the questions of the researcher. It inevitably assumes a selective dimension. After a critical reading of the sources used by Indian studies, I will highlight on the connections between the sources and the methodological tools on the one hand, and the major research hypothesis about pilgrimage on the other. The links between the data taken from the field and the legitimacy of scientific discourse on India will be examined at the end before providing some keys for the interpretation of Sabarimala phenomenon in South India during the contemporary period.

Benson and Miller in Perspective

1979 ◽  
Vol 3 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 242-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Kuklick
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Applied Science ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Knowledge ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
Stock Of Knowledge

Despite differences in coloration Miller and Benson are birds of a feather. Although he is no Pollyanna, Miller believes that there has been a modest and decent series of advances in the social sciences and that the most conscientious, diligent, and intelligent researchers will continue to add to this stock of knowledge. Benson is much more pessimistic about the achievements of yesterday and today but, in turn, offers us the hope of a far brighter tomorrow. Miller explains Benson’s hyperbolic views about the past and future by distinguishing between pure and applied science and by pointing out Benson’s naivete about politics: the itch to understand the world is different from the one to make it better; and, Miller says, because Benson sees that we have not made things better, he should not assume we do not know more about them; Benson ought to realize, Miller adds, that the way politicians translate basic social knowledge into social policy need not bring about rational or desirable results. On the other side, Benson sees more clearly than Miller that the development of science has always been intimately intertwined with the control of the environment and the amelioration of the human estate.

China's Universities since Tiananmen: A Critical Assessment

1993 ◽  
Vol 134 ◽  
pp. 291-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Hayhoe
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
The Other ◽  
Western Countries ◽  
Western Influences ◽  
The One ◽  
Considerable Support ◽  
Scientific And Technological Development

China's present leadership sees universities as being of key importance for the country's economic development and for its relationship with Western countries. This is a kind of two-edged sword. On the one hand, considerable support and encouragement for scientific and technological development is provided, together with pressures for scientific findings to be applied to specific economic development needs. On the other, the reflective and theoretical social sciences and the humanities are being purged of Western influences in efforts to mobilize all resources against what is seen as the Western strategy of fostering “peaceful evolution” towards capitalism. The kinds of tension that arise out of this highly contradictory situation are severe.

scholarly journals Capitalism and justification

2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-244
Author(s):  
Ana Biresev
Keyword(s):  
Work Ethic ◽  
Cultural Background ◽  
The Other ◽  
Spirit Of Capitalism ◽  
New Capitalism ◽  
The One ◽  
Circuit Of Capital

Weber's thesis that the spirit of capitalism was preexistent to the rise of capitalism itself inspired many sociologist to search for the cultural background of contemporary forms of capitalism. In this paper, the author focuses on and makes comparisons of three approaches of such kind. The one approach draws from Luc Boltanski and ?ve Chiapello who examine the development of 'new spirit of capitalism' by focusing on the interrelation of two macroactors - capitalism and critique; the other one is of Nigel Thrift who relates the rise of 'soft capitalism' to the strengthening of 'cultural circuit of capital'; and finally, Richard Sennett's approach analyzes the culture of 'new capitalism' and work ethic of the 'mp3 organizations'.

scholarly journals Pragmatisme og "practice turn"

2018 ◽  
pp. 43-61
Author(s):  
Antje Gimmler
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
John Dewey ◽  
Social Scientist ◽  
The Other ◽  
Production Of Knowledge ◽  
The Social ◽  
Practice Turn ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
The One ◽  
Philosophical Pragmatism

Practices are of central relevance both to philosophical pragmatism and to the recent ‘Practice Turn’ in social sciences and philosophy. However, what counts as practices and how practices and knowledge are combined or intertwine varies in the different approaches of pragmatism and those theories that are covered by the umbrella term ‘Practice Turn’. The paper tries to show that the pragmatism of John Dewey is able to offer both a more precise and a more radical understanding of practices than the recent ‘Practice Turn’ allows for. The paper on the one hand highlights what pragmatism has to offer to the practice turn in order to clarify the notion of practice. On the other hand the paper claims that a pragmatism inspired by Dewey actually interprets ‘practices’ more radically than most of the other approaches and furthermore promotes an understanding of science that combines nonrepresentationalism and anti-foundationalism with an involvement of the philosopher or the social scientist in the production of knowledge, things and technologies.

scholarly journals North Perspectives for a Better South? Big Data and the Global South in Big Data & Society

2019 ◽  
pp. 84-107
Author(s):  
Guilherme Cavalcante Silva
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Big Data ◽  
Global South ◽  
The Other ◽  
The South ◽  
Local Data ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Data Practices ◽  
Academic Scholarship ◽  
The One

Over the last few years, data studies within Social Sciences watched a growth in the number of researches highlighting the need for more proficuous participation from the Global South in the debates of the field. The lack of Southern voices in the academic scholarship on the one hand, and of recognition of the importance and autonomy of its local data practices, such as those from indigenous data movements, on the other, had been decisive in establishing a Big Data in the South agenda. This paper displays an analytical mapping of 131 articles published from 2014-2016 in Big Data & Society (BD&S), a leading journal acknowledged for its pioneering promotion of Big Data research among social scientists. Its goal is to provide an overview of the way data practices are approached in BD&S papers concerning its geopolitical instance. It argues that there is a tendency to generalise data practices overlooking the specific consequences of Big Data in Southern contexts because of an almost exclusive presence of Euroamerican perspectives in the journal. This paper argues that this happens as a result of an epistemological asymmetry that pervades Social Sciences.

scholarly journals Tacitus und Sima Qian: Persönliche Erfahrung und historiographische Perspektive

Philologus ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 151 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fritz-Heiner Mutschler
Keyword(s):  
Han Dynasty ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Thinking ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Sima Qian ◽  
Personal Level ◽  
Chinese Historiography ◽  
The One

AbstractTacitus and Sima Qian (ca. 140-85 BC, author of the Shiji, the Records of the Historian) are eminent representatives of Roman and ancient Chinese historiography. The starting-point of the paper is a striking parallel between the two historians: During the reign of autocratic emperors (of the last of the Flavian emperors, Domitian, and of the most powerful of the Han-emperors Wudi) both authors undergo experiences which not only affect them on a personal level, but also influence their historiographie practice. The paper traces this influence with respect to the representations of individual historical characters. On the one hand it analyses the representations of rulers: of Tiberius, adoptive son and successor of Augustus, and of Wendi, natural son and (indirect) successor of Gaodi, the founder of the Han-dynasty; on the other hand it studies the representations of second and third rank characters such as senators, ministers, generals, and - in the case of Sima Qian - also of people from other walks of life. The similarities which can be observed between the two authors point to the existence of certain anthropological constants, whereas the differences are to be attributed to basic differences in Roman and Chinese political thinking and to differing degrees of the intensity of the experiences undergone by each historian.

scholarly journals Mediation Effect of Perceived Fitness on the Relationship between Self-Efficacy and Sport Practice in Spanish Adolescents

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (23) ◽  
pp. 8800
Author(s):  
Silvia Arribas-Galarraga ◽  
Izaskun Luis-de Cos ◽  
Gurutze Luis-de Cos ◽  
Saioa Urrutia-Gutierrez
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Psychosocial Aspects ◽  
The Other ◽  
Mediation Effect ◽  
Adolescent Population ◽  
Sport Practice ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

There has been a decrease in sports practices among the adolescent population, and several authors have tried to identify variables that can explain this decrease by analyzing psychosocial aspects such as perceived fitness and self-efficacy. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to examine the association of perceived fitness and self-efficacy with sport practices and to determine whether perceived fitness is a mediator of the association between self-efficacy and sport practice in Spanish adolescents. The sample was composed of 882 students between 13 and 17 years old from Gipuzkoa (Spain). A descriptive, correlational and direct/indirect effect approach was used, using the PROCESS macro for Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Among the results obtained, it is highlighted on the one hand, that perceived fitness significantly correlates with both self-efficacy and sport practice, on the other hand, it is confirmed that perceived fitness is a mediator in the relationship between self-efficacy and sports practice. This finding highlights the importance of psychosocial aspects in efforts to increase sports practice.

scholarly journals Paradigms in Political Science Revisited

1990 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-118
Author(s):  
Eric A. Winkel
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Political Science ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Western Thought ◽  
Values And Beliefs ◽  
The One

We are at a crossroads where the time is ripe for the emerging Muslim thought to once again set the standard for universal participation and debate. My continual argument with Mona Abul-Fadl's concept of kairos in The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, Vol. 6, No. 1, (September 1989 supplement) is whether the openness of the discourse realm is a result of what Gai Eaton describes as the process of decomposition releasing explosive gases, where the "ripeness" is putridity, or a beneficial progress of ideas. Does postmodern deconstruction, decentralization, and destruction create a foothold for the remembering of Islam? Or will the Islamic discourse enter the scene to be trivialized and relativized in the encounter? From my perspective, I tie the movements of the paradigms to the political encounter with the other, where the self-described American establishment was forced to recognize the non-white, the non-male, the non-consumer. More sensitive to complexities, calmer in her approach, and without any reductionism or oversimplification, Mona Abul-Fadl recognizes the "mundane" links of ideas, but treats them with respect nevertheless. It is her insight to see in the tanzil, in the physical and already interpreted descent of the Qur'an and Sunnah, the one rope on which we may spin, in shaa Allah, the Islamic discourse for it to achieve grounding and affirmation in a world of chaos and alienation. We are in a time when a metacritique may now become possible, where the crisis in Western thought coincides with a dawning epistemic consciousness among Muslims. "We are living," she notes, "at the threshold of a critical era which is steadily being acknowledged as such. The designation 'post­modernity' indicates the direction of the transition away from the established canon of values and beliefs identified with the European Enlightenment." ...

scholarly journals Democratic and Inclusive Education in Iceland: Transgression and the Medical Gaze

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ólafur Páll Jónsson
Keyword(s):  
Inclusive Education ◽  
Democratic Education ◽  
School Policy ◽  
The Other ◽  
Western World ◽  
Dominant Ideology ◽  
The Public ◽  
Medical Gaze ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
The One

‘Inclusive education’ and ‘democracy’ are more than buzzwords in education. They refer to official educational policy in much of the western world. Democracy as a school policy seems to be widely accepted while inclusive education is more controversial, sometimes fuelling lively public debates where parents and politicians are vocal. However, there seems to be little agreement on what ‘inclusive education’ means, although one can discern a certain core to the understanding of ‘inclusive education’ among many of those who participate in the public debate. Central to the above understanding of inclusive education and democracy are certain features that I want to draw attention to. First, what falls under the headings ‘democracy in schools’, ‘democratic education’ or ‘student democracy’, on the one hand, and ‘inclusive education’, on the other, have little to do with one another. I discuss how the medical gaze in the context of education belongs to the dominant ideology of the time and is thus prevailing without ever having to be argued for or defended. The consequence of this is, as I see it, that education (which sometimes is more training than growth) is being cast in pathological terms. I connect the idea of transgression to that of democratic school and character. Transgression is relevant in two ways here. The school has to be a place where transgression is encouraged and, secondly, it is a place where transgression is valued as a democratic virtue. Virtue here could, I think, be understood in Aristotelian terms – or even given a Socratic interpretation.

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