scholarly journals Generational “we-sense”, “they-sense” and narrative: An epistemological approach to media and social change

2019 ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Goran Bolin
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Communication Studies ◽  
Empirical Basis ◽  
Epistemological Problem ◽  
The Social ◽  
Generational Identity ◽  
Media And Communication ◽  
Medios De Comunicacion

A classic epistemological problem in the social sciences is how to analyse and understand social change. In media and communication studies, for example, the concept of mediatisation has sparked off such a debate, since one of the main criticisms against the approach is that researchers rather take change for granted without being able to empirically establish if and how change has occurred. In this article is suggested a model for analysing social change through an analysis of how generational identity as “we-sense” is produced in narratives about media use. The empirical basis for the discussion is picked from a recently finished project on media generations in Sweden and Estonia, building on foremost qualitative material. The article concludes with accounting for the merits of using a generational perspective for analysing social change.Cómo analizar y comprender el cambio social es un problema epistemológico clásico en ciencias sociales. Sin embargo, en los estudios de comunicación, por ejemplo, el concepto de mediatización ha precipitado el debate, de manera que una de las principales críticas que se dirigen a los estudios realizados desde este concepto tienden a dar por sentado el cambio, sin llegar a establecer empíricamente si tal cambio ha ocurrido o cómo se ha producido. En este artículo, se sugiere un modelo para analizar el cambio social a través de un análisis de cómo la identidad generacional -entendida como “sentido compartido” (we-sense)- se produce en las narrativas sobre el uso de los medios de comunicación. La base empírica para la discusión deriva de un proyecto recientemente finalizado sobre las generaciones de medios de comunicación en Suecia y Estonia, fundamentado principalmente en material cualitativo. En artículo concluye resaltando el valor que tiene el uso de una perspectiva generacional para analizar el cambio social.

scholarly journals Protest communication ecologies

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Mercea
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Communication Studies ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Media Communication ◽  
Growth Area ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
Communication Practices ◽  
Media And Communication

The flurry of protests since the turn of the decade has sustained a growth area in the social sciences. The diversity of approaches to the various facets and concerns raised by the collective action of aggrieved groups the world over impresses through multidisciplinarity and the wealth of insights it has generated. This introduction to a special issue of the international journal Information, Communication and Society is an invitation to recover conceptual instruments—such as the ecological trope—that have fallen out of fashion in media and communication studies. We account for their fall from grace and explicate the rationale for seeking to reinsert them into the empirical terrain of interlocking media, communication practices and protest which we aim to both capture with theory and adopt as a starting point for further analytical innovation.

scholarly journals A critical review of social sciences and humanities R and D expenditure in South Africa, 2005–2014

2018 ◽  
Vol 114 (7/8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Neo Molotja ◽  
Gerard Ralphs
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Research And Development ◽  
Communication Studies ◽  
Experimental Development ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
Research Fields ◽  
The Social ◽  
Development Expenditure ◽  
Media And Communication

Expenditure on research and experimental development in the social sciences and humanities (SSH) in South Africa has almost doubled over the past decade. However, fine-grained analysis of patterns of Research and Development expenditure in SSH research fields over the period 2005/2006–2014/2015 reveals a number of critical issues for both institutional planning and national policymaking. We demonstrate that most SSH Research and Development expenditure in the 10-year reference period was targeted predominantly within just a few research fields: finance, economics, education, accounting and political science and public policy. By contrast, investment in SSH research fields such as architecture and habitat, media and communication studies, psychology, and transportation studies was strikingly low in the same period, with some research fields, such as dance or tourism, appearing to be at risk of decline. Using these Research and Development data as a proxy, we argue, principally, that institutional Research and Development planners and national policymakers need to find a greater balance between current priorities and future needs, if SSH Research and Development is to be ‘leveraged’ for larger socio-economic impacts, as is being envisaged in a new draft White Paper on Science, Technology and Innovation. Significance: • Research and Development expenditure in the social sciences and humanities between 2005 and 2014 was concentrated in just a few research fields, such as finance, economics and education. By contrast, Research and Development expenditure was comparatively low in research fields such as media and communication studies, technology management, architecture and habitat, and dance. • In an era of rapid global technological change, but also deepening local societal challenges, South Africa’s national and institutional policymakers face strategic Research and Development choices. This article contributes to national debate about the status and perceived role(s) of the social sciences and humanities in this context.

scholarly journals The Turn to Affect and Emotion in Media Studies

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margreth Lünenborg ◽  
Tanja Maier
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Affect Theory ◽  
Affect Studies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Central Interest ◽  
Contemporary Media ◽  
Media And Communication

This editorial delivers an introduction to the thematic <em>Media and Communication </em>issue on “The Turn to Affect and Emotion in Media Studies”. The social and cultural formation of affect and emotion has been of central interest to social science-based emotion research as well as to affect studies, which are mainly grounded in cultural studies. Media and communication scholars, in turn, have especially focused on how emotion and affect are produced by media, the way they are communicated through media, and the forms of emotion audiences develop during the use of media. Distinguishing theoretical lines of emotion theory in social sciences and diverse traditions of affect theory, we reflect on the need to engage more deeply with affect and emotion as driving forces in contemporary media and society. This thematic issue aims to add to ongoing affect studies research and to existing emotion research within media studies. A special emphasis will be placed on exploring structures of difference and power produced in and by media in relation to affect and emotion.

scholarly journals Communication & Society: A Critical Political Economy Perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 357-405
Author(s):  
Horst Holzer
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
English Translation ◽  
Communication Studies ◽  
Critical Sociology ◽  
Social Forms ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Sociology Of Communication ◽  
Media And Communication ◽  
The Relationship

This paper presents the English translation of one of Horst Holzer’s works on communication and society. Holzer elaborates foundations of a critical sociology of communication(s) that studies the relationship of communication and society based on the approach of critical political economy. He shows that such an approach relates communication and production, communication and capitalism; communication, ideology and fetishism; and situates communication in the context of social struggles for alternatives to capitalist social forms. The paper is followed by a postface in which Christian Fuchs contemplates why Holzer’s approach has been largely “forgotten” in the German social sciences and media and communication studies, in turn stressing the continued relevance of Holzer’s theory today.

scholarly journals Embodying Charismatic Affect(If): the Example of Bruce Lee (Translation into Russian)

Corpus Mundi ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 15-49
Author(s):  
David Hugh Kendall Brown
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Change ◽  
The Body ◽  
Bruce Lee ◽  
The Social ◽  
Moving Body ◽  
Affective Interaction

While the concept of charisma is widely used in the social sciences, its embodied nature is less thoroughly explored and theorised. This paper revisits the key embodied characteristics of Weber's sociology of charisma and re-interprets these using Shilling's (2005, 2013) umbrella notions of the body as a source and location of and means for society as a way of analysing the idea of the charismatic body as a force for social change. It then draws on a range of embodied concepts to illuminate how charisma is significant channel of infra and inter-corporeal affective interaction between “leaders” and their followers. In particular, Freund's (2009) social synaesthesia and bio-agency, Massumi's (2002) perspective of affect and the moving body, Thrift's (2010) charismatic celebrity, allure and glamour, Mellor and Shilling's (1997) sensual solidarities, and Seyfert's (2012) conception of affectif. To develop and illustrate this perspective of the charismatically affective body in action, the life of film star and martial artist Bruce Lee (1940–1973) is utilised.

scholarly journals Digital distinctions: mechanisms of difference in digital media use

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (58) ◽  
pp. 30
Author(s):  
Stina Bengtsson
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Business Administration ◽  
Survey Study ◽  
Communication Studies ◽  
Media And Communication ◽  
The Empirical Analysis ◽  
Empirical Material

This article aims at understanding to understand the distinctive mechanisms of digital media use, seen in relation to cultural practices at large. The empirical material is a survey study of university students at the Business Administration, Media and Communication Studies, Political Science and Philosophy departments at Södertörn University, Sweden. The empirical analysis deals with the students’ digital media use and preferences, and how these are related to their broader cultural practices and preferences. Specific attention is paid to the webpages the students mention in the survey, and how these are distributed among the groups. By showing detailed information on these areas, the mechanisms of difference of digital media use are revealed.

Social change and masculinities: exploring favourable spaces?

2021 ◽  
pp. 144078332110482
Author(s):  
Pam Papadelos ◽  
Chris Beasley ◽  
Mandy Treagus
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Social Reform ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Popular Media ◽  
Australian Society ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Gender

Understanding social change remains a challenge in the social sciences. This has resonance when considering the continuing significance of gender inequality in Australian society despite decades of political and social reform. Our aim is to elaborate a framework regarding social change which engages with major debates in masculinity studies, with applications beyond gender and masculinity. The potential of favourable spaces for social innovation is explored by outlining a dynamic taxonomy of masculinity and change. This framing of social change is located in a material social context involving specific actors. While popular media accounts of boys’ schooling and the specific instance of private boys’ schools indicate the maintenance of hegemonic norms upholding masculine dominance, we investigate illustrative instances of Catholic boys’ schools committed to gender equality. Yet, constructions of masculinity shift between and/or incorporate hegemonic styles and gender equitable styles, even in situations where gender equality is publicly promoted.

scholarly journals Charles Tilly: Connecting Large Scale Social Change and Personal Narrative

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 287-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernesto Castañeda
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Social History ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Personal Narrative ◽  
Charles Tilly ◽  
The Social ◽  
Popular Audience ◽  
Over Time

Charles Tilly's work as a historical sociologist and on states, social change and other topics has had powerful influence across the social sciences and social history, also having a large popular audience. Themes and issues in his work over time are explored, in particular his developing thinking about national states, macro and micro processes, stories and social change.

Partha Nath Mukherji (1940–2021): The Scholar and His Scholarship

2021 ◽  
pp. 003802292110146
Author(s):  
N. Jayaram
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Change ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Past President ◽  
Building Research ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sociological Society

This essay is a tribute to the memory of Partha Nath Mukherji (1940–2021), the past President of the Indian Sociological Society (2004–2005). After briefly tracing his scholarly career, it provides an overview of his sociological contributions spanning almost six decades. His oeuvre covered a variety of themes and issues, both empirical and theoretical, which can be categorised under the following rubrics: social movements and social change, sociology of agrarian relations, democratic decentralisation and panchayats, nationalism and nation-building, research methodology, indigenisation of the social sciences, regional (South Asian) sociology, and the question of approach and relevance in Indian sociology.

scholarly journals Engineering a Platform: Constructing Interfaces, Users, Organizational Roles, and the Division of Labor

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shreeharsh Kelkar
Keyword(s):  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Algorithm Design ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Communication Studies ◽  
Large Power ◽  
The Social ◽  
Organizational Roles ◽  
Media And Communication

Internet “platforms” like Facebook and YouTube often avoid accountability and regulation by claiming that they are mere software infrastructures with little oversight over their users. Scholars in media and communication studies have shown that these platform companies’ control over interface and algorithm design,gives them a disproportionately large power, compared to their users, to fundamentally reshape politically salient categories like the “social” or the “innovative.” This paper argues that this power of platforms stems from their ability to shape organizational roles and the division of labor. Based on an ethnographic study of the edX organization, I describe how the architects at edX transformed it from an educational company into a platform by building digital interfaces and formatting multiple organizational roles (their own, those of their “users”) to engineer a dichotomy between “software” and “education.” I suggest that platform studies should expand its concept of governance to include the socio-technical-discursive work of engineering organizational roles and the division of labor.

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