scholarly journals Community Seed Groups: Biological and Especially Social Investigations Can Support Crisis Response Capacity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Soleri ◽  
Nathaniel Kleinman ◽  
Rebecca Newburn

The food system is comprised of biophysical and social processes affecting everyone, and food system citizen and community science offer opportunities for research, especially on unstudied aspects of that system, including responses to crises and disasters. We describe how community science work on food crop seeds responded to the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how this response built on the social investigations that are part of that ongoing work. To address a number of the crises of the Anthropocene, groups and individuals have been creating infrastructure supporting community-driven seed research and provision. Some organizations investigate community development of locally adapted crops, and introduction of novel materials for testing in new environments, as well as alternative social organization and processes supportive of this research and aligned with their values. Looking at examples of two active, United States–based, community seed organizations, represented by two of the co-authors, we outline the values and theoretical grounding of this work, and how responding to the acute crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged these organizations to rapidly develop seed distribution work in ways consistent with their values and missions. Meeting these immediate needs has meant temporarily pivoting from the longer-term evolutionary processes of their community science biological investigations; still, existing social investigations remained relevant and useful in their pandemic work. The effectiveness of this crisis response provides an example of explicitly values-driven research, and indicates the importance of recognizing the implicit social investigations of community science that sometimes experiment with alternative approaches to organizing society to achieve both immediate results, and longer term, prosocial change.

2007 ◽  
Vol 52 (174-175) ◽  
pp. 152-167
Author(s):  
Natasa Golubovic ◽  
Srdjan Golubovic

Despite the great interest for the concept and a considerable number of papers that deal with the subject of social capital, yet there is no unique and consistent definition of social capital. Forming a consistent theory of social capital is hindered by the presence of several different approaches in the analysis of this phenomenon. Depending on the author?s theoretical position in the definition of social capital or the analysis of its sources, components and outcomes, the emphasis rests on different social processes and relationships. The aim of this paper is to analyze alternative approaches in the conceptualization of social capital, their advantages and shortfalls, and their implications for the development of the social capital theory.


2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bayram Unal

This study deals with survival strategies of illegal migrants in Turkey. It aims to provide an explanation for the efforts to keep illegality sustainable for one specific ethnic/national group—that is, the Gagauz of Moldova, who are of Turkish ethnic origin. In order to explicate the advantages of Turkish ethnic origin, I will focus on their preferential treatment at state-law level and in terms of the implementation of the law by police officers. In a remarkable way, the juridical framework has introduced legal ways of dealing with the illegality of ethnically Turkish migrants. From the viewpoint of migration, the presence of strategic tools of illegality forces us to ask not so much law-related questions, but to turn to a sociological inquiry of how and why they overstay their visas. Therefore, this study concludes that it is the social processes behind their illegality, rather than its form, that is more important for our understanding of the migrants’ survival strategies in destination countries.


Author(s):  
Shenique S. Thomas ◽  
Johnna Christian

This chapter draws from a qualitative study of incarcerated men to investigate the social processes and interactions between both correctional authorities and family members that inform their sense of belonging and legitimacy. It reveals that prison visitation rooms present a complex environment in which incarcerated men have access to discreet periods of visibility and relevance to their family members and the broader community. There are, however, several precarious aspects to these processes. The family members who are central to enhancing men’s visibility and legitimacy are primarily women from economically disadvantaged, racial, and ethnic minority groups, resulting in their own marginalization, which is compounded within prison spaces. By illuminating both the challenges and opportunities of familial connections, this chapter informs a social justice framework for understanding the experiences of both incarcerated men and their family members.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 386
Author(s):  
Jennie Gray ◽  
Lisa Buckner ◽  
Alexis Comber

This paper reviews geodemographic classifications and developments in contemporary classifications. It develops a critique of current approaches and identifiea a number of key limitations. These include the problems associated with the geodemographic cluster label (few cluster members are typical or have the same properties as the cluster centre) and the failure of the static label to describe anything about the underlying neighbourhood processes and dynamics. To address these limitations, this paper proposed a data primitives approach. Data primitives are the fundamental dimensions or measurements that capture the processes of interest. They can be used to describe the current state of an area in a multivariate feature space, and states can be compared over multiple time periods for which data are available, through for example a change vector approach. In this way, emergent social processes, which may be too weak to result in a change in a cluster label, but are nonetheless important signals, can be captured. As states are updated (for example, as new data become available), inferences about different social processes can be made, as well as classification updates if required. State changes can also be used to determine neighbourhood trajectories and to predict or infer future states. A list of data primitives was suggested from a review of the mechanisms driving a number of neighbourhood-level social processes, with the aim of improving the wider understanding of the interaction of complex neighbourhood processes and their effects. A small case study was provided to illustrate the approach. In this way, the methods outlined in this paper suggest a more nuanced approach to geodemographic research, away from a focus on classifications and static data, towards approaches that capture the social dynamics experienced by neighbourhoods.


Africa ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy Dilley

This article examines the specialized knowledge practices of two sets of culturally recognized ‘experts’ in Senegal: Islamic clerics and craftsmen. Their respective bodies of knowledge are often regarded as being in opposition, and in some respects antithetical, to one another. The aim of this article is to examine this claim by means of an investigation of how knowledge is conceived by each party. The analysis attempts to expose local epistemologies, which are deduced from an investigation of ‘expert’ knowledge practices and indigenous claims to knowledge. The social processes of knowledge acquisition and transmission are also examined with reference to the idea of initiatory learning. It is in these areas that commonalities between the bodies of knowledge and sets of knowledge practices are to be found. Yet, despite parallels between the epistemologies of both bodies of expertise and between their respective modes of knowledge transmission, the social consequences of ‘expertise’ are different in each case. The hierarchical relations of power that inform the articulation of the dominant clerics with marginalized craftsmen groups serve to profile ‘expertise’ in different ways, each one implying its own sense of authority and social range of legitimacy.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
HETTIE MALCOMSON

AbstractIn contrast to established musicians, lesser-known composers have received scant attention in art music scholarship. This article, based on an ethnographic study, considers how a group of British composers construed ideas of success and prestige, which I analyse in terms of anthropological writings on exchange, Bourdieusian symbolic economies, and Foucauldian notions of disciplinary power. Prestige was ascribed to composers who created ‘interesting’ music, a category that eclipsed novelty as an aim. Individuality, enacted within a context of individualism, was key to assessing whether music was interesting. This individuality had to be tempered, structured, and embedded in the social norms of this and related ‘art worlds’. The article examines the social processes involved in creating this individuality, musical personality, and music considered interesting.


2021 ◽  
pp. 026540752110514
Author(s):  
Einat Lavee ◽  
Tal Meler ◽  
Madlen Shamshoum

The objective of this study is to broaden understanding of how vulnerability is shaped more by social, cultural, and religious institutions than by individual life circumstances, exploring the case of Palestinian-Israeli single mothers’ relationships with men. Research often determines the vulnerability of a group, such as women migrants from an ethnic minority, by specific demographic characteristics. This common assumption has been challenged by calls to understand vulnerability as social processes intersecting with the action of the state and other social institutions. The study provides a nuanced examination of the social processes through which Palestinian-Israeli single mothers are simultaneously forbidden from and coerced into having relationships with men, drawing on a systematic analysis of data from semi-structured, in-depth interviews of 36 Palestinian-Israeli single mothers. The analysis exposed several mechanisms which forbid single mothers from having relationships with men, alongside mechanisms that permit, often even coerce, such relationships. These mechanisms are embedded in interrelated structural factors—massive differences in gender power relations, vast gender economic disparities, inability of most single mothers to support their families independently, and state policy of non-intervention in domestic affairs of ethnic minorities, and create a state of “dangerous vulnerability.”


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ritva Saari ◽  
Emily Höckert ◽  
Monika Lüthje ◽  
Outi Kugapi ◽  
Nuccio Mazzullo

The use of Sámi cultures in the Finnish tourism business has been problematic for many decades. The aim of this article is to explore how the notion of cultural sensitivity could help to find alternative approaches and new solutions to this situation, especially for Sámi tourism. For this purpose, a systematic literature review method was used to examine and describe how previous academic literature has approached the issue of cultural sensitivity in the Finnish context. While the concept has not been used in tourism research in Finland, previous discussions have focused on questions of respect, cultural sustainability, cultural carrying capacity, cultural representations and cultural identity in tourism contexts. Simultaneously, research in other fields of study has drawn attention to the importance of healing, reconciliation and recognition for Sámi cultures. Reviewing the social work and pedagogy literature indicates how the idea of cultural sensitivity can enrich the search for more responsible ways of thinking, doing and researching tourism. In sum, the article calls for future research, theoretical conceptualization and practical application of cultural sensitivity that emphasizes recognition of and respect for cultural differences.


Author(s):  
Concepción Maiztegui ◽  
Esther Aretxabala ◽  
Aitor Ibarrola ◽  
Pedro J. Oiarzabal

<p>This article describes and explores an analytical framework based on the concept of belonging, which, in turn, takes into consideration the personal, social, and performative dimensions of the integration process of young migrants. The concept of belonging is becoming one of the central pillars in current research on migration and integration, since it allows us to look into the subjective experiences of individuals and into the social environments that have an impact on the daily lives and give shape to the identity frameworks of young migrants. Approaches based on this concept also take into account the role of participation in social processes.</p><p><strong>Published online</strong>: 11 December 2017</p>


2017 ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Philippe Schaffhauser

Resumen:El pragmatismo y la sociología son, por decirlo así, primos hermanos ya que fueron engendrados en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX por la modernidad y la imperiosa necesidad de contrastar procesos sociales y económicos mediante una postura científica, crítica y participativa. Sin embargo este lazo de parentesco no significa que en la actualidad se haya dado una relación real a través de la constitución por ejemplo de un programa sociológico de corte pragmatista. La tradición pragmatista no es sino una fuente entre muchas otras para el pensamiento de autores tan diversos como son Jürgen Habermas y David Bloor. Lo único que encontramos cuando se revisan las fuentes son contados casos de acercamiento teórico entre ambas miradas y formas de acción, esto es, mediante textos de Emilio Durkheim (1913-1914), Charles W. Mills (1968) y hoy día con Hans Joas (1998 y 2002). En este artículo se pretende discutir sobre los posibles aportes del pensamiento pragmatista para la reflexión sociológica, los cuales giran en torno a buscar soluciones a problemas metodológicos-teóricos. En este sentido la concepción “práctica” de la realidad social como un proceso continuo y situado en un espacio “plástico” o, conforme a G.H. Mead y John Dewey, el re-planteamiento del concepto de acción social como “acción creadora culturalmente situada” pueden ser de gran interés para ampliar las perspectivas de la reflexión sociológica.Palabras clave: Sociología, Pragmatismo, Acción Creadora, Creencia y Continuidades.AbstractPragmatism and sociology are sort of first-cousins as both emerged from modernity in the second half of the nineteenth century, upon the need to contrast social processes with economic ones from a scientific, critical and participative approach. However, this does not mean there is currently a real link between the two of them given by, for instance, the development of a sociological programme based on pragmatism. The pragmatic tradition is only one of the many other sources for various thinkers like Jürgen Habermas and David Bloor. The only theoretical link and ways of action connecting these two disciplines are given in cases such as Emilio Durkheim (1913-1914), Charles W. Mills (1968) and nowadays Hans Joas (1998 and 2002).  This article aims at discussing about the potential contributions of the pragmatic thought to the sociological one in order to find answers to methodological and theoretical problems. In this sense, the "practical" conception of the social reality as a continuous process placed in a "plastic" space, as stated by G.H Mead and John Dewey, reshaping the social action concept as a "creative action culturally placed" may be of help to expand sociological perspectives.Key words: sociology; pragmatism; creative action; belief and continuities


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