Positive regard for difference without identity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy Nicholas
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
The Other ◽  
Contact Theory ◽  
Contact Hypothesis ◽  
Trans People ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Cis And Trans

The contact hypothesis has been the go-to social psychology concept for promoting better relations between unequal social groups since its inception in the context of ‘racial’ de-segregation in the USA. The idea that contact between groups reduces prejudice has been applied to a range of dominant / subordinate social groups such as ethnic groups, homo/heterosexuals, cis and trans people. This chapter will question whether the aims and premises of contact theory are still useful in the context of increasingly subtle and systemic biases and inequalities, and whether and how it might be usefully extended to relations between more complex identities than simple pre-defined oppositional ‘in’ and ‘out’ groups.  To do so, it considers some examples of intergroup othering using case studies pertaining to backlashes against gender, sexual and ethnic diversity in the contemporary Australian context. This chapter proposes the fruitful combination of queer ethics, post-tolerance political theory and the social psychology concept of ‘allophilia’ (love for the other) to move towards fostering ‘positive regard’ as an alternative way to tackle prejudice. It suggests that queer ethics can lend a convincing strategy here, which I call ‘reading queerly’, that is, being able to approach an other with an openness that neither homogenises nor subordinates difference.

scholarly journals Content and stylistic peculiarities of non-canonical Orthodox Internet Sermon in modern Russia

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 83-96
Author(s):  
Konstantin S. Sharov
Keyword(s):  
Social Groups ◽  
Digital Age ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Internet Users ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Goals And Objectives ◽  
Technical Professions

The paper is concerned with a study of the changing content and style of non-canonical Christian religious preaching in the digital age. Special attention is paid to the analysis of modern rhetoric Christian preachers practice in their Internet channels, forums and blogs. It is shown that the content of the Internet sermon is largely determined by the Internet users themselves and the topics of their appeals. The fundamental characteristics of the content of the Internet sermon are: 1) focus on the individual, their private goals and objectives, not just on theological problems; 2) rethinking the phenomenon of the neighbour; 3) a shift from the Hesychast tradition of preaching the importance of inner spiritual concentration to the preaching of religious interactivity. The observed stylistic features of the digital preaching can be summarised as follows: 1) moving away from simple answers to the rhetoric of new questions addressed to the audience; 2) empathy, co-participation with a person in his/her life conflicts and experiences; 3) desire to share religious information, not to impose it; 4) resorting to various rhetorical techniques to reach different audiences; 5) a tendency to use slang, sometimes even irrespective of the audience’s language preferences and expectations. It should be pointed out that the Orthodox Internet sermon in the Russian Internet space has a dual and contradictory nature. On the one hand, this phenomenon can be regarded as positive for the Orthodox preaching in general, since it is a means of spreading Christian ideas in the social groups that do not constitute a core of parishioners of Orthodox churches, for example, schoolchildren, students, representatives of technical professions, etc. On the other hand, the effectiveness of such preaching is still unclear. Lack of reliable statistics as well as the results of the survey related to the Orthodox Internet preaching gives us no opportunity to judge about effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the phenomenon at this stage of its development.

scholarly journals HISTORY OF DEVELOPING THE CONCEPT OF «LARGE SOCIAL GROUPS». PART 1: PERIOD FROM THE MID-19th CENTURY TO THE MID-1930-Х YEARS OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

2020 ◽  
pp. 390-418
Author(s):  
Ю.В. Ковалева
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Psychological Study ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
Two Stages

Представлен историографический анализ развития понятия большие социальные группы и историко-психологический анализ социальных феноменов , связанных с массовыми общественными явлениями в России. Сформулированы актуальные проблемы психологии больших социальных групп, к которым относятся неоднородность оснований для их выделения, недостаточная дифференцированность со сходными понятиями, неравномерность исследований в различные временные периоды и идеологическая нагруженность их разработки. Данная работа была ответом на необходимость восполнения знаний о процессах в таких группах, происходивших в различные исторические периоды развития социальной психологии, с соответствующим им уровнем научного осмысления, а также обобщением этой целостной картины на уровне современного понимания и формулировка перспективных направлений исследований. Целью исследования является установление связи между определением и основными свойствами понятия «большие социальные группы» (его синонимов, аналогов) и особенностями социальной ситуации в определенный период времени, а также реконструкция социальных процессов данного исторического этапа. Проверялась гипотеза о том, что большие социальные группы как феномены социальной жизни формировались в соответствии с историческим временем, а соответствующее им понятие и его свойства с одной стороны отвечали уровню развития гуманитарного знания, а с другой - пытались удовлетворить общественный и политический запрос в объяснении и управлении социальной ситуацией. Использовались методы историографии социальной психологии и психолого-исторической реконструкции . Первая часть статьи посвящена анализу первых двух этапов развития социальной психологии - с середины XIX до начала XX вв. и в 1920-е гг. XX в. The historiographic analysis of the development of the concept of large social groups and historical and psychological study of social phenomena associated with mass social phenomena was presented. Topical problems of the psychology of large social groups are formulated, including heterogeneity of the grounds for their isolation, insufficient differentiation with similar concepts, uneven research in various periods, and ideological loading of the history of its development. The study's main problem was the need to replenish the processes in such groups that took place in various historical periods of social psychology development as well as a synthesis of this holistic picture at the level of modern understanding and the formulation of promising areas of research. The study's purpose was to establish a connection between the definition and the basic properties of the concept of "large social groups" (and its synonyms, analogs) and the peculiarities of the social situation in a certain period, as well as the reconstruction of social processes of this historical segment. The hypothesis was tested that large social groups as phenomena of social life were formed under the past time. The concept and its properties were corresponding to them, on the one hand, compared to the level of development of humanitarian knowledge. On the other, they tried to satisfy the social and political requests to understand and manage the social situation. Methods of the historiography of the history of social psychology and psychological and historical reconstruction were used. The article's first part was devoted to the analysis of the early two stages of the development of social psychology - from the middle of the XIX to the beginning of the XX centuries and 1920 of the XX century.

Who is my stranger?

2018 ◽  
pp. 176-201
Author(s):  
Richard M. Titmuss
Keyword(s):  
Social Groups ◽  
Gift Exchange ◽  
The Other ◽  
Economic Aspects ◽  
Social Facts ◽  
The Social ◽  
Material Gain ◽  
The Future ◽  
Traditional Societies

This chapter explores the social and economic aspects of gift-exchange as a universal phenomenon. Examples drawn from both complex and traditional societies indicate that the personal gift and counter-gift, in which givers and receivers are known to each other and personally communicate with each other, is characterised by a great variety of sentiments and purposes. At one end of the spectrum, economic purposes may be dominant as in some forms of first-gifts which aim to achieve a material gain or to enhance prestige or to bring about material gain in the future. At the other end are those gifts whose purposes are predominantly social and moral in that as ‘total social facts’ they aim to serve friendly relationships, affection, and harmony between known individuals and social groups. Meanwhile, social gifts and actions carrying no explicit or implicit individual right to a return gift or action are forms of ‘creative altruism’.

Peasant Resistance in Ethiopia: the Case of Weyane

1984 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gebru Tareke
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
The Other ◽  
The West ◽  
Political Autonomy ◽  
Social Basis ◽  
The Social ◽  
Pastoral Communities ◽  
The Government ◽  
Peasant Resistance

Weyane was a spontaneous, localized peasant uprising with limited objectives. It occurred in 1943 because several disaffected social groups in the eastern part of Tigrai believed that they could defeat or at least extract substantial concessions from a weak transitional government. The multiplicity of objectives roughly correspond to the divergent interests of the participants: the sectarian nobility wanted a greater share in the regional reallocation of power, the semi-pastoral communities of the lowlands were interested in pre-empting feudal incorporation, and the highland cultivators wanted to terminate the excessive demands of officialdom and militia. The convergence of these forces made Weyane possible; the disorganization of the ruling strata and the subsequent defection of a segment of the territorial nobility enormously enhanced the peasants' capacity for collective action. But this very heterogeneity comprised the peasants' objectives. The revolt lacked a coherent set of goals, nor did it have a specific program for social action. The rebels attacked neither the legitimacy of the monarchy nor the ideological basis of the Ethiopian aristocracy. In the end, Weyane buttressed the feudal order, and was probably instrumental in strengthening Ethiopia's neo-colonial link with the West. In the aftermath of rebellion, the Tigrai nobility did get its rights and prerogatives recognized, to the same extent that the nobility in the other northern provinces did. The government undercut the nobility's political autonomy, but paid the price of reinforcing their social position. On the other hand, in reaction to Weyane, the state destroyed the social basis of clan authority and autonomy, and reduced the Raya and Azebo to landless peasants. Weyane marked the end of conflict between centrifugal and centralizing forces, but did not eliminate the social roots of popular protest.

Justice

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Political Philosophy ◽  
The Other ◽  
Greek Philosophy ◽  
Philosophical Thought ◽  
Fields Of Study ◽  
Individual Character ◽  
Individual Trait ◽  
The Social

From its earliest roots in Greek philosophy, among the most prominent virtues—and arguably the most important of the social virtues—has been justice. While during this same period political philosophy focused intense energy on understanding justice as a property or quality of societies, discussion of justice as a virtue of individuals mostly disappeared. But justice as a virtue of individual character has, along with the other virtues, regained footing as work examining it has increased not only in philosophy but also in social psychology and other empirical fields of study. This volume aims to demonstrate some of the breadth of that thinking and research. It is a collection of new essays solicited from philosophers and political theorists, psychologists, economists, biologists, and legal scholars. Each contribution focuses on some aspect of what makes us just people, either by examining the science that explains the development of justice as a virtue, by highlighting virtue cultivation within distinctive traditions of empirical or philosophical thought, or by adopting a distinctive perspective on justice as an individual trait and its contribution to a society of thriving people. The book aims to stimulate further work in justice as an individual virtue and in how we can become more just as individuals.

scholarly journals Parental Grief in Three Societies: Networks and Religion as Social Supports in Mourning

2007 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 179-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey K. Hass ◽  
Tony Walter
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Ties ◽  
Social Supports ◽  
The Other ◽  
Emotional Engagement ◽  
Parental Grief ◽  
The Social ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Network Form

How do people respond to the grief of parents over the death of their infant child? This article documents the experience of one of the authors, an American married to a Russian whose child died in England. Responses to this death by friends, colleagues and family in the USA, England, and two cities in Russia varied considerably in terms of depth and degree of engagement (emotional engagement, respect, or distance and avoidance). What factors underlie these varied responses? Two are identified, one structural, the other cultural: the strength of the social ties within social networks, and religiosity as historically sedimented within a culture. The degree of engagement is correlated with network form; but the content of engagement depends on religiosity.

scholarly journals The Amoebic Self Scale and GPA are related to the academic procrastination sensu lato

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest Bielinis ◽  
Lidia Bielinis
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Grade Point Average ◽  
The Other ◽  
Academic Procrastination ◽  
Grade Point ◽  
Academic Context ◽  
Psychological Separation ◽  
The Real ◽  
The Social

The Amoebic Self Theory is a concept of the social psychology, which postulates that humans have a psychological boundary. As the authors of the concept propose [1], the function of the boundary is to allow psychological separation of one from the others. In this study, we examined how sen-sitivity to violation of the boundary, measured by an amoebic self scale, is connected with differ-ent types of procrastination sensu lato, measured by seven procrastination subscales. Only two of the seven procrastination aspects, i.e. the preference for pressure and outcome satisfaction, were negatively and significantly related to the spatial-symbolic domain of the amoebic self scale. The other purpose of this research was to examine the connection between the students’ grade point average (GPA) and scores obtained in the procrastination subscales. Only the non-adaptive aspect of procrastination predicted significantly the GPA. That is an important detail, because pointing out the gap between one’s self-opinion and the real, non dependent of the opinion, academic achievement. All these findings were considered in the academic context and consequences of these results were discussed.

scholarly journals Muslim Europe or Euro-Islam

2003 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-132
Author(s):  
Sophie Gilliat-Ray
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
The Other ◽  
European Identity ◽  
Eastern Area ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
The Social ◽  
Individual Human

The chapters comprising this volume arise out of a conference held in 1998:"Islam and the Changing fdentity of Europe." The conference organizers,frustrated with what they regarded as the insular nature of European andMiddle Eastern area studies research, wanted to examine Islamic identityand citizenship from a broader interdisciplinary perspective. This volumetherefore brings together specialist contributors from the social sciences,political science, Middle Eastern studies, and international relations, toname just some of the disciplines represented.The editors set the scene by exploring changing realities and percep­tions of identity within Europe. They note that in some places, the fact ofreligious and ethnic diversity has yet to be fully acknowledged and accommodatedas part of a European identity that, historically, was forged largelyin opposition to ''the other" - especially the Muslim "other." As a consequence,Muslim populations in Europe find themselves part of, and to someextent a cause of, a complex process of European identity deconstructionand reconstruction from above and below. The presence of Islam withinEurope's borders is forcing a reexamination of what it means to beEuropean, and raising profound and challenging questions about issues ofcitizenship, participation in civil society, political recognition, inclusion,and exclusion.Each contributor approaches the discussion with a common desire toavoid reductionism, essentialism, and a view of Muslims as members ofhomogeneous monolithic communities. Indeed, the diversity within Muslimcommunities is seen as part of an important dynamic that will help to forgewhat Bassam Tibi calls "Euro-f slam," a form of Islam that is acceptable(without compromises) to both Muslim migrants (and converts) and secularEuropean societies. Just as there are forms of Islam - each absolutely"authentic" - that are distinctive in Africa, Malaysia, or the ArabianPeninsula, Tibi calls for developing a form of Islam that is adjusted toEuropean society and the values of individual human rights and liberaldemocracy ...

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