Gender as a social category

This paper discusses the case of missing persons in Israel, to show how the category of “missingness” is constructed by the people who have been left behind, and how this may threaten the life-death dichotomy assumption. The field of missing persons in Israel is characterized not only by high uncertainty, but also by the absence of relevant cultural scripts. Based on a narrative ethnography of missingness in Israel, I claim that a new and subversive social category of “missingness” can be constructed following the absence of cultural scripts. The left-behinds fluctuate not only between different assumptions about the missing person’s fate; they also fluctuate between acceptance of the life-death dichotomy, thus yearning for a solution to a temporary in-between state, and blurring this dichotomy, and thus constructing “missingness” as a new stable and subversive ontological category. Under this category, new rites of passage are also negotiated and constructed.

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Reducing Social Judgment Biases May Require Identifying the Potential Source of Bias

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin ◽

10.1177/0146167218814003 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 45 (8) ◽

pp. 1232-1251 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Jordan R. Axt ◽

Grace Casola ◽

Brian A. Nosek

Keyword(s):

Social Judgment ◽

Bias Reduction ◽

Social Category ◽

Social Categories ◽

Zero Bias ◽

Social Bias ◽

Total N ◽

Potential Source ◽

Judgment Biases ◽

Social Biases

Social judgment is shaped by multiple biases operating simultaneously, but most bias-reduction interventions target only a single social category. In seven preregistered studies (total N > 7,000), we investigated whether asking participants to avoid one social bias affected that and other social biases. Participants selected honor society applicants based on academic credentials. Applicants also differed on social categories irrelevant for selection: attractiveness and ingroup status. Participants asked to avoid potential bias in one social category showed small but reliable reductions in bias for that category ( r = .095), but showed near-zero bias reduction on the unmentioned social category ( r = .006). Asking participants to avoid many possible social biases or alerting them to bias without specifically identifying a category did not consistently reduce bias. The effectiveness of interventions for reducing social biases may be highly specific, perhaps even contingent on explicitly and narrowly identifying the potential source of bias.

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Adulthood: The Contemporary Redefinition of a Social Category

Sociological Research Online ◽

10.5153/sro.1563 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 12 (4) ◽

pp. 1-11 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Harry Blatterer

Keyword(s):

Family Formation ◽

Alternative Conception ◽

Social Recognition ◽

Social Category ◽

Social Trends ◽

Home Leaving ◽

Social Scientific ◽

Successive Generations

Social trends such as delayed or forfeited family formation, postponed home leaving and allegedly infantilising leisure practices are often marshalled in support of a long standing social scientific as well as popular assumption: successive generations take longer to reach adulthood. This article argues that this ‘delayed adulthood thesis’ is based on an anachronistic model of adulthood and goes on to suggest an alternative conception. Some original interview material with individuals in their late twenties as well as the notion of social recognition are utilized in this process. It is suggested that the very practices that serve as evidence for the delayed adulthood thesis are in fact productive of new, emerging modalities of adulthood that are commensurate with changed and changing social realities.

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The Development of the Tribe and Dialect Group from Social System to Social Category

Sociological Bulletin ◽

10.1177/0038022919600101 ◽

1960 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 1-9

Author(s):

W. H. Newell

Keyword(s):

Social System ◽

Social Category

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Islam et structures sociales chez les immigrés Soninké en France

Social Compass ◽

10.1177/003776867902600105 ◽

1979 ◽

Vol 26 (1) ◽

pp. 87-98 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Constant Hames

Keyword(s):

Foreign Country ◽

Religious Community ◽

The Other ◽

Social Structures ◽

Social Category ◽

French Society ◽

Religious Knowledge ◽

The One ◽

Muslim Immigration ◽

The Relationship

In spite of the fact that Islam represents the second largest religious community in France, as a result of the African Muslim immigration, we do not know anything about its dif ferent national components, nor about the reactions or the transformations it undergoes in a foreign country. This article presents a few elements of a survey devoted to the case of the Mauritanian Soninké. The author emphasizes the relationship which exists between religion and a certain social category, the moodi, i.e. those who are depositaries of religious knowledge. Religious action is seen under two aspects : Muslim teaching as it is provided by the moodi, on the one hand, and certain magic practices which claim to be attached more or less to Islam, on the other. While the latter practices enjoy the possibility of being spread through im migration, the teaching nevertheless continues to be given in the context of the homes that are provided for the immigrants. As a result, Islam seems to be advancing amidst the soninké immigration, except for the practices of ramadân. This is due not only to the permanent character of the soninké social structures which are reproduced during immigration — the moodi continue to play their role, but also to a shift in Muslim values, which tend to identify themselves with the sociological essence of the community which confronts a French society perceived as a danger for the soninké identity.

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Reducing social judgment biases may require identifying the potential source of bias

10.31234/osf.io/ngxks ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Jordan Axt ◽

Grace Casola ◽

Brian A. Nosek

Keyword(s):

Social Judgment ◽

Bias Reduction ◽

Social Category ◽

Social Categories ◽

Zero Bias ◽

Social Bias ◽

Total N ◽

Potential Source ◽

Judgment Biases ◽

Social Biases

Social judgment is shaped by multiple biases operating simultaneously, but most bias-reduction interventions target only a single social category. In seven pre-registered studies (Total N > 7,000), we investigated whether asking participants to avoid one social bias impacted that and other social biases. Participants selected honor society applicants based on academic credentials. Applicants also differed on social categories irrelevant for selection: attractiveness and ingroup status. Participants asked to avoid potential bias in one social category showed small but reliable reductions in bias for that category (r = .095), but showed near zero bias reduction on the unmentioned social category (r = .006). Asking participants to avoid many possible social biases or alerting them to bias without specifically identifying a category did not consistently reduce bias. The effectiveness of interventions for reducing social biases may be highly specific, perhaps even contingent on explicitly and narrowly identifying the potential source of bias.

Download Full-text