scholarly journals Relational Versus Relationist Sociology: A New Paradigm in the Social Sciences

Stan Rzeczy ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 15-66
Author(s):  
Pierpaolo Donati

The paper presents a general outline of the author’s relational sociology, showing it to be different from other relational sociologies, which are, in fact, figurational, transactional, or purely communicative. Relational sociology is conceived as a way of observing and thinking that starts from the assumption that the problems of society are generated by social relations and aims to understand, and if possible, solve them, not purely on the basis of individual or voluntary actions, nor conversely, purely through collective or structural ones, but via new configurations of social relations. The social is relational in essence. Social facts can be understood and explained by assuming that “in the beginning (of any social fact there) is the relation.”Ultimately, this approach points to the possibility of highlighting thoserelational processes that can better realize the humanity of social agents and give them, as relational subjects, the opportunity to achieve a good life in a society that is becoming increasingly complex as the processes of globalization proceed.

2004 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Zapata

El presente articulo analiza las prácticas de caridad que desarrollan un conjunto de agentes sociales definidos como “voluntarias de Caritas” y analiza la asistencia social del estado, que se materializa en programas de “ayuda social” que ejecutan esas voluntarias, en una parroquia católica de una ciudad media de la Argentina. A diferencia de lo que proponen los enfoques estatalistas sobre el fenómeno de asistencia social, aquí propongo que la caridad y la asistencia social son hechos estructuralmente asociados y que se han desarrollado como los polos opuestos alrededor del fenómeno de la circulación gratuita de objetos. A través de la descripción etnográfica de la vida cotidiana de la organización caritativa por excelencia de la Argentina, Caritas, la de sus agentes, las voluntarias, y de los programas sociales que allí se desarrollan, pretendo mostrar, desde el punto de vista de las voluntarias, la conflictividad cultural que provocan los fenómenos ligados a la gratuidad, lo cual demanda una antropología especialmente referida a estos fenomenos. An Anthropology of Gratuitousness: charity practices and social assistance policies in Argentine Abstract This papers analyzes charity practices developed by a group of social agents that define themselves as “Charity volunteers” as well as social assistance practices of the state, that materialize themselves in programs of “social help” lead by these volunteers in a Catholic parish of a medium city in Argentine. In contrast with “state oriented” (“estatalistas”) approaches on the problem of social assistance, it is proposed here that charity and social assistance are structurally related facts and that they have developed themselves as opposite poles in relation to the phenomenon of free flow of things. In other words, charity and social assistance shape one type of social fact that rely on the principle that labels specific objects as free and as a consequence request an attitude towards them: the elimination of individual interest. The ambiguities of meaning attached to the phenomena framed within the logic of the gratuitousness often become “misunderstandings” and “double truths”, which suppose permanent conflicts attached to charity and social assistance. Through ethnographic description of everyday routine of the mayor charity organization of Argentine, Caritas, of their agents, volunteers, and of the social programs it develops, I aim to show, from the point of view of the volunteers, the cultural conflicts that spur from phenomena attached to gratuitousness, which demand an anthropology that specifically refers to these social facts.


2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 423-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evgeniya Aleshinskaya

Abstract Musical discourse analysis is an interdisciplinary study which is incomplete without consideration of relevant social, linguistic, psychological, visual, gestural, ritual, technical, historical and musicological aspects. In the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis, musical discourse can be interpreted as social practice: it refers to specific means of representing specific aspects of the social (musical) sphere. The article introduces a general view of contemporary musical discourse, and analyses genres from the point of ‘semiosis’, ‘social agents’, ‘social relations’, ‘social context’, and ‘text’. These components of musical discourse analysis, in their various aspects and combinations, should help thoroughly examine the context of contemporary musical art, and determine linguistic features specific to different genres of musical discourse.


2007 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleanor Townsley

This article describes an exercise that explores how race categories and classifications are socially constructed scientifically. In an introductory sociology setting, students compare their perceptions of the size of minority populations with counts from the U.S. Census. In a series of debriefing sessions, students analyze both their perceptions and Census counts as social constructions of the moral phenomena we call race. In the process, students are introduced to Census data and the Census web site as well as to historical and theoretical literature on the social construction of race. Students are then asked to reflect critically about the scientific practices in which race is constructed as a social fact, and in particular, to consider their own roles in these practices as users and subjects of race categories. The larger goal is to help students to develop a critical sociological imagination that productively engages the analysis of race in contemporary society.


Author(s):  
Oleksiy Stupnytskyy ◽  
Vlad Genin

The necessity of using innovative social technologies, and explores the concept of social entrepreneurship, which is parsed as a form of social innovations. It analyzes the concept of «social entrepreneurship» as a relatively new specific type of enterprise, and its differences from commercial entrepreneurship. It proves, that today in terms of the new model of economic development the social entrepreneurship allows, first of all, to carry out efficient change of social relations and management systems, for the sake of the growth of sociopolitical accessibility of marginalized groups to resources for provision of more qualitative satisfaction of the needs and participation in political processes; and, secondly, to save communicative integrity of social system due to the increase of social capital and possibility of choice for a social individual. It gives a characteristic of both “European” and “American” models of social entrepreneurship, as well as its peculiarities and differences. The provides the examples, how the most successful social entrepreneurs from the West contributed with the distribution of innovations, whose usefulness was rated so highly, that they were implemented on a national scale with the support of the state and business. Also, it analyzes current level of development of social entrepreneurship in Ukraine, the existing problems of creating favorable organizational, legal, economic and competitive conditions, organization and operation of different forms of social entrepreneurship, interaction between the state and public organizations, and maintenance of the development of social entrepreneurship in regions.


Futures ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 280-295
Author(s):  
Arjun Appadurai

This essay explores the paradox that collective, socially imagined visions of the future seem both abundant and scarce. Their abundance is based on the variety of images of possibility, hope, and the good life that emerge from the social and cultural diversity of our world. Yet, imagining the collective future is highly constrained by the limitations imposed by fear, censorship, and commercial and political propaganda. The chapter explores the conditions of possibility of this paradox. It argues that the scarcity of social futures in the digital era is a result of a process of Schumpeterian destruction, in which what is at stake is human creativity, curiosity, and the social relations of the non-virtual world.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 89
Author(s):  
Sardjuningsih Sardjuningsih

<p><strong><em>Field research with a phenomenological approach, in the District of Kabuh-Jombang. The barren rural socio-geographical setting makes tradition basics a reference and measure of norms of action. The uniqueness of this study with previous research is the process of reducing the sacredness of marriage by placing the status of Widower or Widow better than the status of an old spinster or old age. Research with a Phenomenological approach with Robert Merton's Structural-Functional analysis knife rests on deep interview techniques of 20 informants consisting of couples who experience young and divorced couples, families, and community leaders. produce conclusions that the tradition of underage marriage is a social fact, a habit that still continues to this day, constructed with noble and sacred meaning. In the social process the Nobleness of meaning is not supported by other social facts, that being a widower or widow is better than being an old woman or old woman. This puts divorce better than maintaining marriage. This pragmatic outlook is contrary to the ideal ideals of a sacred marriage. The result of a complex divorce is a negative new social fact that is neglecting the rights of children to be paid by their parents. This negative social fact is due to the dysfunctional social control and social structure of the process of adaptation to change.</em></strong></p>


2021 ◽  
pp. 175774382110116
Author(s):  
Stefano Ba’

The ‘New Paradigm’ of Sociology of Childhood famously maintains that childhood is socially constructed and supposedly places a much greater emphasis on the agency of children: children should not simply be framed as the passive receivers of socialisation. The aim of this article is to demonstrate that such a ‘social construction’ of childhood is not concretely articulated and that the theoretical understanding of the ‘social construction’ of childhood is simply delegated to historiographical or ethnographic accounts. In doing so, it advances a new criticism of the New Paradigm and radicalises previous ones. Here, key is the theoretical engagement with the concept of ‘human capital’: foregrounding its critique, this article proposes the link between ‘human capital’ as a neoliberal version of labour power and the concept of socialisation. The aim is to show that the ‘social construction’ of childhood is central, but the New Paradigm uses categories that are at the same time founded on neo-liberal views and abstracted from concrete social relations. This article maintains that a concrete critique of processes of socialisation (which is here understood as the socialisation of childhood as human capital) is needed instead of abstract critique of reified childhood. Two alternative pedagogical practices are used to provide an example of such a concrete critique.


Author(s):  
Widhya Ninsiana

This article discusses the issues around the socio-cultural phenomenon that employ interdisciplinary studies between linguistics, anthropology and sociology to study the linguistic behaviors of the Lampungese society in a way to grasp their worldview. The data were technically collected through observation and literature reviews to bring out the voices and experiences of the people who mostly affected by the concept of Piil Pesenggiri, of people whose voices have been missing in literature and debate. The production and reproduction of identity through Piil Pesenggiri seems to remain a finding tradition exist among the Lampungese which primarily resulted both demographic and the local political change allowing emergence of a capitalist strategy "retreatment" used as a form of resistance against the transmigrants. It is not a secret anymore that Piil Pesenggiri which many of us understood as the life philosophy of Lampungese triggers negative stigma amongst other shared races or tribes of transmigrants, it is a shift of viewing piil as a mere "cultural shield" or cultural fortress within their social relations. It then becomes clear that the worldview of the social facts of the community as well as segregation that plunges into the socio-political aspects of society including education, cultural symbols, the political flow of identification of social structures. Todays, the existence of Piil Pesenggiri ethnolinguistically is deemed to reflect cultural capital, a static and contextual product of identity which cannot be separated from the people (ulun) Lampung. The empirical information obtained by this research is expected to be utilized by various stakeholders concerning the problem of relations between ethnic groups in taking the attitude, policy and purposes of a scholarship. Such studies are of course useful not only for reconciliation to conflicts involving the ethnic communities, but also to the ability to maintain a well-created social harmony as well.


MANAJERIAL ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (02) ◽  
pp. 153
Author(s):  
Mirza Dwinanda Ilmawan ◽  
Feisal Ala'i

Background – Leadership and organizational culture is one of the keys for someone deciding to leave or maintain their work comfort zone. BUMN companies are taken in this case because of the social fact that these companies are able to provide adequate compensation and even tend to be abundant. However, whether these social facts are in line with the facts in the field will be the focus of this study to reveal these things that are juxtaposed with organizational culture and leadership in it. Purpose – This study aims to obtain an empirical picture in the field in order to find the justification for someone leaving the comfort zone of BUMN. Design / Methodology / Approach – This research uses explanatory principles by digging up information related to the decision to leave the comfort zone of BUMN, an interesting phenomenon in which BUMN employees are known to receive better compensation than other companies and have secured prestigious positions in the company but choose to leave. The selected subjects are BUMN executive employees who choose to leave their positions before entering retirement. Result and Discussion – The results of this study reveal an interesting fact where respect for company executives is a very important thing that must be given by the CEO/ President Director and if there is any neglect of this, the risk faced is the loss of potential employees. Other findings may be that further study is the best option to reduce work stress. Conclusion – Organizational culture factors that are too dynamic have a positive influence on leaving the comfort zone of work. Researh Limitations – This study uses a limited subject, therefore the picture described follows the limitations of the number of subjects taken.


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