Körper | Kultur | Konflikt

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thorsten Benkel ◽  
Matthias Meitzler

Society's view of dying and death no longer corresponds to the fixed images with which the corresponding areas of knowledge were associated until a few years ago. For a long time, the supposedly ›unambiguous‹ levels of meaning of this complex issue were stable enough to paralyse social scientific research. For some time now, however, discourses have been emerging that (re)question the normative elements of funeral culture, the treatment of dead bodies and cremation ashes, the labelling of medical diagnoses, and the determination of the boundary between life and death. Today, there is a—quite productive—tension between real practices and cultural guidelines.

Author(s):  
Jose Pedro Zúquete

The study of the relationship between populism and religion has for a long time remained a neglected area of social-scientific research. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of religious populism. A subtype of populism, religious populism, is analyzed in its two dimensions: as an openly religious manifestation, in the form of the politicization of religion; and as a subtler religious manifestation, tied to the sacralization of politics in modern-day societies. The chapter ends with a discussion on the nexus between politics and religion and on the need to focus on the repeated intersections between the two fields.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 737-750 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Gess ◽  
Christoph Geiger ◽  
Matthias Ziegler

Abstract. Although the development of research competency is an important goal of higher education in social sciences, instruments to measure this outcome often depend on the students’ self-ratings. To provide empirical evidence for the utility of a newly developed instrument for the objective measurement of social-scientific research competency, two validation studies across two independent samples were conducted. Study 1 ( n = 675) provided evidence for unidimensionality, expected differences in test scores between differently advanced groups of students as well as incremental validities over and above self-perceived research self-efficacy. In Study 2 ( n = 82) it was demonstrated that the competency measured indeed is social-scientific and relations to facets of fluid and crystallized intelligence were analyzed. Overall, the results indicate that the test scores reflected a trainable, social-scientific, knowledge-related construct relevant to research performance. These are promising results for the application of the instrument in the evaluation of research education courses in higher education.


Author(s):  
Peter Hart-Brinson

This chapter explains the generational theory of Karl Mannheim and enumerates five challenges that scholars face when studying generational change. It shows how these changes have impeded social scientific research on generations and why research on Millennials, Generation X, and other broad cohorts is flawed from its first premises. To counteract the existing generational mythology, this chapter outlines what is required to produce social scientific studies of generational change. Recent scholarship on the “social generation” provides a theoretical and methodological opening for finally solving Mannheim’s “problem of generations.” Building on cross-disciplinary scholarship on the cognitive and cultural dimensions of the process of imagination, this chapter argues that the “social imagination” is the key concept that helps explain how public opinion about gay marriage changed.


2000 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul A. Kruger

Sociological and anthropological insights and the study of the Hebrew Bible: A review. This article reviews the main trends in the social-scientific study of the Hebrew Bible. It focuses on the following central issues: the theoretical principles underlying this approach, anthropologists and the Hebrew Bible, the Hebrew Bible and comparative anthropology, anthropological evidence from African cultures, and the Hebrew Bible in social-scientific research: perils and prospects.


Exchange ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-17
Author(s):  
Erik Sengers

AbstractThis paper offers an introduction in religious market theory on the basis of the theme of conversion. Conversions have everything to do with the religious market. Where people are looking for religious satisfaction, they will turn themselves to religious organisations that are willing to give that on certain conditions. Starting from the assumption of the rational actor, the theory makes some strong hypotheses on religious organisations and the religious market. What does the religious market look like, what are the basic characteristics of this market, and how can religious organisations interact with that market? However, when we discuss social-scientific research on conversion in Europe, the limits of religious market theory come to the fore. In the conclusion, the main questions that arise from religious market theory for the project Conversion Careers and Culture Politics in Pentecostalism are being discussed.


2001 ◽  
Vol 5 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 188-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Bede Scharper

AbstractIn this review essay, Thomas Berry's The Great Work is contextualized within Berry's overarching cosmological project. Special attention is paid to Berry's critique of economic corporations, as well as his interpretation of globalization and his assessment of an alleged decline of the nation state, claims that run counter to certain contemporary social scientific research offering more complex depictions of such phenomena. The critique of democracy in Berry's work, and its potential implications, is also critically addressed.


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