Studying social action in interaction

Author(s):  
Beatrix Futák-Campbell

Some parts of the discursive literature in IR overlap with the scholarship that focuses on foreign policy practices. This is not surprising given the specific intentions by the scholars behind the practice turn to create an interparadigmatic research programme and promote methodological pluralism (Adler and Pouliot 2011:3). Nevertheless, there seems to be a division developing in the practice turn between those who focus on the language practitioners use by building on scholarship inspired by Michel Foucault, and those who focus on practitioners’ political actions, that is ‘what practitioners do’, in line with Pierre Bourdieu’s work. This book argues that it is instrumental to combine both. However, focusing on the linguistic resources used by practitioners and on the way they construct their social actions allows us to understand and explain specific foreign policy decisions or their practice. In order to do so, a new framework called Discursive International Relations (DIR) is put forward. DIR shares the same philosophical roots as some constructivist and most poststructuralist discursive approaches applied in IR, but it also combines features of discursive psychology (Edwards and Potter 1992), conversation analysis (Davies and Harré 1990; Sacks 1992) and ethnomethodology (Garfinkel 1967, Lynch et al 1983) in order to combine discourse and practice.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Owen M. Gilbert

The dominant social-evolutionary paradigm implicitly equates social actions and behaviors causing associations by extrapolating from models of social actions to explain behaviors affecting association. This extrapolation occurs when models of helping behavior are applied to explain aggregation or fusion, and when models of discriminatory helping behavior are applied to explain discriminatory segregation or discriminatory rejection. Here, I outline an alternative theoretical approach that explicitly distinguishes a social action as a helping or harming behavior, and an association as the context for a social action. Based on this distinction, I define a list of terms that allows a classification of association phenomena and the conceptual framework necessary to explain their evolution. I apply the resulting theory, which I call “association theory,” to identify a series of steps common to major and minor transitions in social evolution. These steps include the evolution of association, the evolution of differential treatment, the evolution of association preference, and the evolution of genetic kin recognition. I explain how to measure the parameters of association theory and I apply the theory to test Hamilton’s rule. I evaluate the evidence for association theory, including how it resolves anomalies of a former paradigm. Finally, I discuss association theory’s assumptions, and I explain why it may become the dominant framework for analyzing social evolution.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Ahmad Fauzi ◽  
Chusnul Muali

Pesantren and social value system is the result of constructing kiai's thoughts and social actions as an inseparable entity. This study aims to interpret the role and social action of kiai Moh Hasan, both as a fighter (al-haiah al-jihaadi li'izzi al-Islaami wal muslimin) in the community as well as guidance and guidance for the community (al-haiah al ta 'awuny wa al takafuly wal al ittijaahi) and teaching in educational institutions (al-haiah al ta'lim wa al-tarbiyah), significantly contributes greatly to the social realities of society in Indonesia. Portrait of central figure kiai Moh Hasan can not be separated from the depth of his field of Islamic science, simplicity, kezuhudan, struggle, sincerity and generosity. This view, not only recognized among the people around the boarding school, students and colleagues, but also spread in some areas in Indonesia. The fame of kiai Moh Hasan among scholars, habaib and society has many karamah and some other privileges, not even a few from the social recognition of kiai Moh Hasan Genggong, because the kiai are believed to have closeness with God, thus perceived as auliya'Allah. Thus the role and social actions of the kiai above, gave birth to the value system, so as to influence and move the social action of other individuals. The internalization of the aforementioned values becomes social capital in building a spiritual-based transformative leadership, as a strong leadership model and conducts various changes in the social field, by transforming the value of the ethical values.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 996
Author(s):  
James P. Trujillo ◽  
Judith Holler

During natural conversation, people must quickly understand the meaning of what the other speaker is saying. This concerns not just the semantic content of an utterance, but also the social action (i.e., what the utterance is doing—requesting information, offering, evaluating, checking mutual understanding, etc.) that the utterance is performing. The multimodal nature of human language raises the question of whether visual signals may contribute to the rapid processing of such social actions. However, while previous research has shown that how we move reveals the intentions underlying instrumental actions, we do not know whether the intentions underlying fine-grained social actions in conversation are also revealed in our bodily movements. Using a corpus of dyadic conversations combined with manual annotation and motion tracking, we analyzed the kinematics of the torso, head, and hands during the asking of questions. Manual annotation categorized these questions into six more fine-grained social action types (i.e., request for information, other-initiated repair, understanding check, stance or sentiment, self-directed, active participation). We demonstrate, for the first time, that the kinematics of the torso, head and hands differ between some of these different social action categories based on a 900 ms time window that captures movements starting slightly prior to or within 600 ms after utterance onset. These results provide novel insights into the extent to which our intentions shape the way that we move, and provide new avenues for understanding how this phenomenon may facilitate the fast communication of meaning in conversational interaction, social action, and conversation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angel Belzunegui-Eraso ◽  
David Duenas-Cid ◽  
Inma Pastor-Gosálbez

Purpose Social action implemented by the Church via its affiliated entities, foundations and associations may be viewed as a uniform activity. In reality, however, several organizational profiles exist that depend on the origin of these organizations (lay or religious), the scope of their activities (local or general) and their dependence on resources (whether from public administration or civil society). The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the authors examine this diversity based on a 2015 study of every Catholic Church social organization with headquarters in Catalonia. For the study, the authors conducted a detailed analysis of these organizations in order to determine their nature, scope and structure. The methodology combined questionnaire, interviews and non-participant observation. Findings The social actions of these organizations lead to interesting debates, such as those on: charity/assistentialism vs social justice; professionalization vs voluntarism; and personal autonomy vs functional dependence resulting from the action. This study also highlights how important it is that Church organizations carry out social actions to generate social welfare in the welfare states of southern European countries. Originality/value It is the first time that a study of the social impact of the church and its organizational implications in Spain has been made.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 133-148
Author(s):  
Muhammad Fadlan ◽  
◽  
Sudjarwo ◽  
Risma Margaretha Sinaga ◽  
◽  
...  

Suroan is known as a tradition which resulting from acculturation between the Saka and Islamic calendar. This tradition is performed to beg blessings and protections from misery and disasters. The implementation of Suroan became a custom in society, involving some trusted agents through social actions. However, most of Suroan performed in society is not in accordance with its true meaning. Regarding this problem, the purpose of this research is to obtain the action in the Suroan tradition. The method used is descriptive qualitative, while the kind of research is ethnography using Miles and Huberman’s interactive model. The data was collected through interview and observation in Bangunharjo, Taman Sari village. The result shows that social actions performed by Bangunharjo society are: a) traditional action through Suroan implementation is performed; b) affective action in a form of burial of the goat’s head, group prayers and puppet shows; c) instrument rational action in a form of physic, material, and emotional involving; d) rational action of value in a form of ubarampe. Thus, it can be concluded that Bangunharjo society still conserves the Suroan tradition.


2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 112-117
Author(s):  
I.S. Duisenova ◽  

The article deals with the problems of social anxiety in the context of social activity. Social action is one of the phenomena of everyday life, so the study of anxiety that suddenly occurs in familiar conditions for a person, and its manifestations in social relations occupies an important place in sociological science today. Attempts to explain this were made using the works of T. Parsons, Y. Habermas, and G. Garfinkel. Various manifestations and forms of social anxiety affect the social actions of society.


Semantic Web ◽  
2013 ◽  
pp. 27-51
Author(s):  
Edward Heath Robinson

The agentivity of social entities has posed problems for ontologies of social phenomena, especially in the Descriptive Ontology for Linguistic and Cognitive Engineering (DOLCE) designed for use in the semantic web. This article elucidates a theory by which physical and social objects can take action, but that also recognizes the different ways in which they act. It introduces the “carry” relationship, through which social actions can occur when a physical action is taken in the correct circumstances. For example, the physical action of a wave of a hand may carry the social action of saying hello when entering a room. This article shows how a system can simultaneously and in a noncontradictory manner handle statements and queries in which both nonphysical social agents and physical agents take action by the carry relationship and the use of representatives. A revision of DOLCE’s taxonomic structure of perdurants is also proposed. This revision divides perdurants into physical and nonphysical varieties at the same ontological level at which endurants are so divided.


2015 ◽  
pp. 993-1017
Author(s):  
Fayth Ruffin ◽  
Winnie Kubayi Martins

In this chapter, theoretical foundations of social entrepreneurship and legal empowerment are explored and intersection of these social actions by community based-paralegal practice in rural KwaZulu-Natal examined. Conceptually, integration of social entrepreneurship and legal empowerment innovatively contributes to the broader discourse on self-determined community development and democratic governance. Empirical evidence shows that community-based paralegals generate legal empowerment as social entrepreneurship and such service delivery advances rural women empowerment. Arguably there is a global/local nexus of each social action; a positive theory of social entrepreneurship is more useful than normative theories; rule of law orthodoxy is less meaningful for and somewhat contradictory to self-empowerment of indigenous populations that experience plural legal systems. This qualitative study found that while contemporary business models are incorporated in the intersection of social entrepreneurship and legal empowerment, so are African indigenous justice principles and remedies.


Author(s):  
Gerald R. Ferris ◽  
B. Parker Ellen ◽  
Charn P. McAllister ◽  
Liam P. Maher

Organizational politics has been an oft-studied phenomenon for nearly four decades. Prior reviews have described research in this stream as aligning with one of three categories: perceptions of organizational politics (POPs), political behavior, or political skill. We suggest that because these categories are at the construct level research on organizational politics has been artificially constrained. Thus, we suggest a new framework with higher-level categories within which to classify organizational politics research: political characteristics, political actions, and political outcomes. We then provide a broad review of the literature applicable to these new categories and discuss the possibilities for future research within each expanded category. Finally, we close with a discussion of future directions for organizational politics research across the categories.


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