scholarly journals The Transactional Horizons of Greta Thunberg

Societies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Daniel Stoecklin

The paper aims at developing new understandings of agency, or capacity to make a difference, which is a central issue in childhood studies. Sixteen speeches delivered by climate activist Greta Thunberg between 2018 and 2019 are analyzed. The findings reveal 5 core reflexive operations (objectification, personification, sanctification, unification and diversification) underpinning the speeches. This is conducive to the hypothesis that Greta’s audience and the replications of demonstrations for climate justice are bound to 5 transactional horizons (activities, relations, values, images of self and motivations) identified as the symbolic landscapes channeling the social interactions in climate activism. Transactional horizons form a structure of intelligible categories linked to sensatory experience. These vectors of agency twist perceptual consciousness into a hierarchized reflective consciousness. The dominant perspective of agency within structure is challenged by this emerging paradigm of agency through structure, whereby the two terms are seen as fluid and sedimented states. Future directions are identified for interdisciplinary research, contributing to heightened awareness of recursive processes that may impact climate policies.

Author(s):  
Gulbarshyn Chepurko ◽  
Valerii Pylypenko

The paper examines and compares how the major sociological theories treat axiological issues. Value-driven topics are analysed in view of their relevance to society in times of crisis, when both societal life and the very structure of society undergo dramatic change. Nowadays, social scientists around the world are also witnessing such a change due to the emergence of alternative schools of sociological thought (non-classical, interpretive, postmodern, etc.) and, subsequently, the necessity to revise the paradigms that have been existed in sociology so far. Since the above-mentioned approaches are often used to address value-related issues, building a solid theoretical framework for these studies takes on considerable significance. Furthermore, the paradigm revision has been prompted by technological advances changing all areas of people’s lives, especially social interactions. The global human community, integral in nature, is being formed, and production of human values now matters more than production of things; hence the “expansion” of value-focused perspectives in contemporary sociology. The authors give special attention to collectivities which are higher-order units of the social system. These units are described as well-organised action systems where each individual performs his/her specific role. Just as the role of an individual is distinct from that of the collectivity (because the individual and the collectivity are different as units), so too a distinction is drawn between the value and the norm — because they represent different levels of social relationships. Values are the main connecting element between the society’s cultural system and the social sphere while norms, for the most part, belong to the social system. Values serve primarily to maintain the pattern according to which the society is functioning at a given time; norms are essential to social integration. Apart from being the means of regulating social processes and relationships, norms embody the “principles” that can be applied beyond a particular social system. The authors underline that it is important for Ukrainian sociology to keep abreast of the latest developments in the field of axiology and make good use of those ideas because this is a prerequisite for its successful integration into the global sociological community.


Communicology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-33
Author(s):  
N.V. Kirillina

The paper represents the analysis of the concept of communicative. The choice of topic is determined by the search for criteria and tools for assessing the results of strategic communication, taking into account the development of its interactive forms. The author leads the existing approaches to the definition of the concept of engagement and identifies the areas for further interdisciplinary research of the specified subject, and raises the issue of the appropriateness of using the engagement indicators in the assessment the social potential of communication. The work is based on the phenomenological tradition in the interpretation of communicative processes and the metamodel of communication of R. Craig. The author uses the methods of comparative analysis, analogy, generalization, and combined methodology of interdisciplinary analysis.


Author(s):  
Jeffrey P. Copeland ◽  
Arild Landa ◽  
Kimberly Heinemeyer ◽  
Keith B. Aubry ◽  
Jiska van Dijk ◽  
...  

Social behaviour in solitary carnivores has long been an active area of investigation but for many species remains largely founded in conjecture compared to our understanding of sociality in group-living species. The social organization of the wolverine has, until now, received little attention beyond its portrayal as a typical mustelid social system. In this chapter the authors compile observations of social interactions from multiple wolverine field studies, which are integrated into an ecological framework. An ethological model for the wolverine is proposed that reveals an intricate social organization, which is driven by variable resource availability within extremely large territories and supports social behaviour that underpins offspring development.


Author(s):  
Lexi Eikelboom

This chapter proposes a framework for approaching the theological significance of rhythm through phenomenology, prosody, and the social sciences. In accordance with the general categories of phenomenology established by Merleau-Ponty and the “rhythmanalysis” of Henri Lefebvre, the chapter investigates two experiences of rhythm: approaches to analysing the human encounter with rhythm in the reading of poetry and the role of rhythm in social interactions introduced through commonalities between rhythm in conversation and in jazz performance. These explorations establish two features of rhythm that are of analytical importance for the chapters that follow: (1) the synchronic and the diachronic as two necessary but distinct theoretical perspectives on rhythm, each of which emphasizes different features of rhythm and (2) the importance of interruption for understanding rhythm’s significance.


Author(s):  
Christopher Cambron ◽  
Richard F. Catalano ◽  
J. David Hawkins

This chapter presents an overview of the social development model (SDM)—a general theory of human behavior that integrates research on risk and protective factors into a coherent model. The goal of this synthesis is to provide more explanatory power than its component theories. This chapter first specifies the model constructs and their hypothesized relationships to prosocial and antisocial behaviors. It then provides a synthesis of what has been learned from empirical tests of social development hypotheses for predicting pro- and antisocial behaviors. This chapter also highlights interventions derived from the SDM and summarizes their impact on pro- and antisocial behaviors. Finally, the chapter concludes by presenting future directions for SDM-based research.


Author(s):  
Sophie Mützel ◽  
Ronald Breiger

This chapter focuses on the general principle of duality, which was originally introduced by Simmel as the intersection of social circles. In a seminal article, Breiger formalized Simmel’s idea, showing how two-mode types of network data can be transformed into one-mode networks. This formal translation proved to be fundamental for social network analysis, which no longer needed data on who interacted with whom but could work with other types of data. In turn, it also proved fundamental for the analysis of how the social is structured in general, as many relations are dual (e.g. persons and groups, authors and articles, organizations and practices), and are thus susceptible to an analysis according to duality principles. The chapter locates the concept of duality within past and present sociology. It also discusses the use of duality in the analysis of culture as well as in affiliation networks. It closes with recent developments and future directions.


Author(s):  
Jennifer Nevile

Baroque dance was inseparable from music and theater, with its role in multimedia spectacles giving it a dramatic power and an expressive passion. It was part of politics and diplomacy; it was influenced by contemporary artistic attitudes as they pertained to the concept of beauty and artistic design principles, as well as trends in philosophic and scientific thought; and it reflected the organization of society and the social interactions of the upper levels of society. Dance taught self-control, which was itself a sign of noble virtue and a graceful bearing. While each country had its own national dance traditions, the fundamental characteristics of baroque dance was French; the practice as performed at the French court and the Opéra. The years 1630–1750 saw changes in styles and dance genres, major innovations in the methods of notating choreographies, as well as visible and substantial changes in the bodily deportment of dancers.


Author(s):  
Anita L. Vangelisti ◽  
Nicholas Brody

Social pain and physical pain have historically been conceptualized as distinct phenomena. Recent research, however, has noted several similarities between the two. The present chapter establishes the physiological basis of social pain. Further, the chapter explores the relational precedents and correlates of social pain. By synthesizing research that explores definitional elements of social pain, the reviewed literature explores the social basis of hurt. The chapter also reviews the extant research that posits similarities in the neural processing of social and physical pain. These similarities are further explained by examining findings that have emphasized parallels between cognitive, behavioral, and physiological responses to both social and physical pain. Shortcomings in the current research are reviewed, and several future directions are offered for researchers interested in the physiology of social pain.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Teruyoshi Kobayashi ◽  
Mathieu Génois

AbstractDensification and sparsification of social networks are attributed to two fundamental mechanisms: a change in the population in the system, and/or a change in the chances that people in the system are connected. In theory, each of these mechanisms generates a distinctive type of densification scaling, but in reality both types are generally mixed. Here, we develop a Bayesian statistical method to identify the extent to which each of these mechanisms is at play at a given point in time, taking the mixed densification scaling as input. We apply the method to networks of face-to-face interactions of individuals and reveal that the main mechanism that causes densification and sparsification occasionally switches, the frequency of which depending on the social context. The proposed method uncovers an inherent regime-switching property of network dynamics, which will provide a new insight into the mechanics behind evolving social interactions.


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