A Latin American Critical Sociology Perspective on Religion

Studying the interaction of modernity and religion has been at the heart of the sociology of religion. This chapter explores one of the most important explanations of this tension: secularization theory. Even when criticized, this theoretical perspective is present in debates and embedded in different methodologies in use to study religion. This chapter presents an alternative explanation of the Latin American religious landscape, inspired by the American-born religious-economy paradigm. Then the chapter considers the popular-religion approach, a model inspired by the Latin American cultural experience, which focuses on people’s practices. Finally, the chapter proposes a lived-religion approach to studying Latin American religiosity.

Three types of indigenization in the development of Korean sociology

This article focuses on the intellectual efforts to implement Western sociology into a Korean context during the country’s dynamic modernization. Three different types of responses are explored from the perspective of indigenization: historical sociology, critical sociology, public sociology, and comprehensive sociology. They suggest different approaches and strategies with their own research topics and academic activities. Although the simple dichotomy between Western universalism and Korean particularism is no longer presumed, intellectual efforts for indigenization remain an ongoing issue in Korean sociology.

Tracing Settler Colonialism: A Genealogy of a Paradigm in the Sociology of Knowledge Production in Israel

Knowledge is inextricably bound to power in the context of settler colonialism where apprehension of the Other is a tool of domination. Tracing the development of the “settler colonial” paradigm, this article deconstructs Zionist and Israeli dispossession of Palestinian land and sovereignty, applying the sociology of knowledge production to the study of the Israeli-Palestinian case. The settler colonial paradigm, linked to Israeli critical sociology, post-Zionism, and postcolonialism, reemerged following changes in the political landscape from the mid-1990s that reframed the history of the Nakba as enduring, challenged the Jewish definition of the state, and legitimated Palestinians as agents of history. Palestinian scholars in Israel lead the paradigm’s reformulation. This article offers a phenomenology of Palestinian positionality, a critical potential for decolonizing the settler colonial structure and exclusive Jewish sovereignty, to consolidate a field of study that shapes not only research into the Israeli-Palestinian case but approaches to decolonization and liberation.

Paying inattention: The art of ignoring others' work among Russian social scientists

Why do scholars pay attention to some works, and recognize the influence of their authors, but not others? The Mertonian approach suggests that scholars search for information instrumental in producing their knowledge claims and reward authors for making important contributions. The critical sociology of science approach explains recognition (e.g. in the form of citing) as rhetorical practices that strengthen one’s credibility. Both models fail to explain why academics sometimes ignore apparently relevant sources or how groups of scholars turn into bubbles, censoring information about findings made outside of them. According to the theoretical model suggested in this paper, what governs information search is not first-order relevance (what individual academics considers relevant), but second-order awareness (what they know their audiences are aware of). In this model, the search for information is mostly governed by the necessity to make successful claims of novelty – to present findings that are new to one’s audience. Individuals easily disregard findings their audiences are unaware of. Institutionally organized audiences thus serve as enforcers of information search, and their members may tacitly collaborate in maintaining unawareness of intellectual developments outside of their common attention space In the empirical part of the paper, we use the example of post-Soviet sociology to test the predictions following from this model: (1) that scarcity of enforcement results in an overall shrinking of individuals’ attention spaces, and in their attaining idiosyncratic configurations; (2) that when borders of audiences cross-cut legitimate classifications, attention spaces are shaped by the former, rather than the latter; (3) that as a reaction to such cross-cutting, new classifications are introduced, legitimizing existing inattention.

Gamification of business processes: Sociological analysis of the advanced management practices

Gamification is a new management approach implying the use of computer games technologies in non-game contexts, particularly to improve motivation at work and efficiency of organizational processes. The key assumption is that introduction of game elements into the working routine can increase employees motivation, involvement, and loyalty. The first attempts of sociological reflection on gamification were based on the critical approach and concluded that this technology could only exacerbate inequalities, exploitation, and control. However, this claim remains unconfirmed, partially due to the fact that the available evidence was provided by the managerial research that focus mainly on the gamification efficiency. The article is based on the analysis of gamification projects in eight companies and aims at testing the claim of critical sociology that gamification is mainly a tool of control and exploitation. Today gamification is a multifunctional technology and solves different tasks: increases productivity and quality of work operations, stimulates organizational communications and knowledge transfer, learning, teambuilding, control, and employees loyalty. Gamification can have positive effects, but often they are short-term and accompanied by side effects. Generalization of the available data does not support the conclusions of critical sociology; however, in some cases, gamification is used to strengthen control and reinforce the structural inequality. The critical approach tends to underestimate the influence of institutional and sociocultural factors that make the company strive for a balance of actors interests, and employees strategic planning. Thus, gamification, despite its ambiguity, has a positive potential - it is capable of improving the quality of human and social capital.