Uncomfortable Territory

This chapter reviews the historical and cultural emergence of the categories of LGBTQ+ identities and seeks to understand why knowing this background matters for the work of designing inclusive policies and welcoming school spaces: focusing on the normative system that produces and polices sexual and gender “deviance” is a crucial part of understanding what we are trying to change. The chapter will also provide an overview of the approaches to gender creative children in order to illustrate why affirming someone's gender entails engaging with the assumptions behind the concept of gender itself. It will argue that expanding the possibilities of gender identification additionally positively impacts not only queer students, but all of us. It provides readers the chance to think about how deeply their own gender runs through their assumptions and to understand what is at stake for this culture when we ask to include LGBTQ+ identities in school curricula and policies.

Aspirational taste regime: Masculinities and consumption in pick-up artist training in China

Based upon 2 years of ethnographic fieldwork, this study proposes “aspirational taste regime” as a critical concept through which to examine the emergence of a discursively constructed normative system in China’s Pick-Up Artist (PUA) training programs. By unpacking how taste is practiced both digitally and corporeally in these programs, the paper argues that Chinese PUA learners carefully curate taste for an illusionary, at times even deceptive, presentation of idealized masculinities to increase their matrimonial chances. In doing so, this paper extends the literature on taste regimes by moving beyond its typically Western focus. It directs attention to an aspirational taste regime that capitalizes on young men’s aspirations for idealized masculinities and prescribes a seemingly effortless but in fact highly curated online presentation of cultural-capital-oriented consumption.

EU Competition Law as Responsive Law

This article proposes two broad ways to conceptualise EU competition law. EU competition law could be viewed as ‘autonomous law’ (‘AL’), namely as a closed normative system a technocratic tool consisting in a set of rules that prohibit undue restraints of trade. Or, EU competition law could be viewed as ‘responsive law’ (‘RL’), namely as a relatively open normative system and an interpretive practice that oscillates between openness and integrity. The responsiveness approach offers a compelling conceptualisation as it explains certain endogenous features of EU competition law: its fuzzy mandate, conceptually elastic vocabulary, and use of rules and standards. In addition, the responsiveness approach can clarify the role economics plays in EU competition law. It views economics as an ‘ideological science’, which, even though it cannot insulate this legal field from value disagreements and make it ‘autonomous’, it can provide a source for positive and normative interpretive statements. On this basis the responsiveness approach maintains that EU competition law is by design open—ie conceptually elastic and factually sensitive—and that its openness can enhance, but also undermine its integrity—ie its capacity to realise its objective in a rule of law compatible manner. These conflicts between openness and integrity are the cause of EU competition law's relative indeterminacy. To deal with the problem of indeterminacy, the RL approach proposes a tripartite legal-institutional modus operandi consisting in constructive interpretation, responsive enforcement, and catalytic adjudication. Hence, considering EU competition law as a form of responsive law has three major implications: first, it offers a new way for understanding how this legal field works and changes; second, it suggests a strategy for dealing with EU competition law's indeterminacy, and third it proposes a new framing for the discursive practices of EU competition law's epistemic community.

The Role of Social Marketing in Community Health Improvement: A Mixed Approach

Background and Purpose: Social marketing (SM) is a fitting strategy in world health that is aimed to ensure attitude correction in the community, laying the foundation for the behavioral changes resulting in health promotion in the community. The purpose of this research was to explain the role of social marketing in promoting community health. Methods: This was applied research conducted through a descriptive survey. For data gathering, a mixed quantitative/qualitative approach was adopted. The statistical population included the youth under 25 years old who smoked cigarettes in Mazandaran Province. Based on the Cochran formula, a sample consisting of 385 respondents was formed, and the individual members of it were selected using proportionate random sampling. The data on social marketing mix and normative system were collected using the questionnaires constructed by Pang and Kubacki [1] and Issock et al. [2], respectively. The data on advertisement were collected using the questionnaire constructed by Dunn and Nisbett [3]. Data analysis was performed in PLS Software using Structural Equation Modeling. Result: The result indicated that the messenger’s features influenced the user perception of social marketing and had a positive effect on the user normative system. Further, the results suggested that the user normative system affected their perception of social marketing. Conclusion: It was concluded that marketing practitioners can manipulate consumer perception of social marketing by shaping ethical norms.

VII international scientific conference “Digitalization of society and the future of Christianity. On the transformation of the value-regulatory system of society”

On February 18-19, 2021, the St. Tikhons Orthodox University for the Humanities hosted the VII international scientific conference Digitalization of society and the future of Christianity. On the transformation of the value-normative system of society. At this scientific event, prominent scientists from Russia, Italy, Germany, France, Taiwan, China, India, Nigeria, Ukraine and Belarus made their presentations. They considered in the Christian perspective the challenges and benefits of digitalization for the contemporary society. A special emphasis was made on the changes in values and norms under digitalization.

The Nature of Legal Philosophy

Philosophy is general and systematic reflection about what there is, what ought to be done or is good, and how knowledge about both is possible. Legal philosophy raises these questions with respect to the law. In so doing, legal philosophy is engaged in reasoning about the nature of law. The arguments addressed to the question of the nature of law revolve around three problems. The first problem addresses the question: in what kinds of entities does the law consist, and how are these entities connected such that they form the overarching entity we call ‘law’? The answer is that law consists of norms as meaning contents which form a normative system. The second problem addresses the question of how norms as meaning contents are connected with the real world. The third problem addresses the correctness or legitimacy of law, and, by this, the relationship between law and morality.

CONSTITUTIONALIZATION OF THE LEGAL ORDER THROUGH THE PRISM OF FORMATION OF THE DOMESTIC SOCIO-NORMATIVE SYSTEM

Today, the concept of law and order is reproduced through close attention in the scientific literature. This integrated interest, first of all, requires a precise definition of this category in the theory of law, its detailed and comprehensive review and determination according to practical necessity. Law and order is a necessary condition for the functioning of all social services, the stabilization of sociopolitical processes and the formation of true democracy. Legal order is a complex formation, its research should be carried out using a system of methods. In this case, the analysis of law cannot be limited to the �legal method� developed by analytical jurisprudence, which consists of a dogmatic in nature qualification of legally significant situations. The study of the problem of law and order, their unambiguous interpretation is extremely important due to the fact that all without exception, the branch of legal sciences, within which various aspects of law and law enforcement process are studied with its provision. The legal culture of the population is manifested in respect laws, their knowledge, observance and implementation. It provides citizens with the ability to defend their rights and be accountable for their responsibilities. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that today there are virtually no scientifically sound mechanisms for automatic extrapolation of constitutional and legal knowledge into the content of legal norms. In view of this, it is necessary to scientifically comprehend and generalize the practice of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, which is the legal basis for developing mechanisms of constitutionalization. The modern interpretation of the rule of law is a combination of the provisions of the theory of legal positivism and the ideology of natural law. The legal order in the general context is considered, first of all, as a reflection of legal existence, one of the means of functioning and reproduction of the existing law. The phenomenon of constitutionalization is the most important means of ensuring the rule of law and is a characteristic (condition, requirement) of activities related to lawmaking, due to the formation of the domestic socio-normative system. It is expedient to consider the rule of law as a supra-sectoral (inter-sectoral) phenomenon that cements the leading branches of national law. The problems raised are quite complex, multifaceted and cannot be studied within a single scientific investigation and require further scientific research, which will result in new scientific knowledge about the rule of law and the process of its constitutionalization. The vast majority of these problems were outlined by the author of the article in a single monograph. However, the declared provisions may be the subject of new scientific discussions, contribute to qualitative changes in general theoretical jurisprudence and constitutional law, and thus be a guide in the constitutional, judicial and other reforms currently underway in Ukraine.

Consumption: conceptualization of notion in foreign classical sociology

Bases for the concept of “consumption” in foreign classical sociology have been considered. The author’s theoretical scheme of consumption analysis is developed. Approaches to consumption within the framework of structural functionalism at the level of macrosocial analysis are presented – these are class and institutional approaches, based on the principle of social organization and subordination. Social functions of the consumption are the stratification and establishment of control by interested system players. On the level of microsocial analysis, there is a socio-cultural approach based on the principle of identification, and in this case, social functions of consumption are the rationality of subjects in the process of self-realization and establishment of social communications in the context of the value-normative system of culture. As a result of the review of the scientific literature, it has been revealed that, at the moment, there is no consensus among researchers on the adoption of a broad definition of the concept of “consumption” in sociology, since it is usually defined by the context of the study. Based on the analysis of the sociological approaches to the consumption, its definition is formulated as social activity to satisfy material and spiritual needs through acquiring, using, destroying and alienating goods, as a result of which social differences and relations, social structure, institutional influence, value-normative system of culture, social identity, life styles, social connections and communications are determined, established and maintained.

Spiritual Development as a Factor of Professional and Personal Qualities of Modern Students

This article deals with the formation of spiritual development of students, caused by three main circumstances: First, the need to study the changes taking place in society and changes in the mechanism of formation of spiritual culture of students. The hierarchy of values and spiritual activity of new generations of students differ significantly from previous generations' value-normative system. Secondly, students' innovative role in youth culture and a special place of higher education as a factor in the formation of students' spiritual culture. Third, considering students' specific qualities and characteristics as a special social group, the study of youth spiritual culture can determine the parameters of society's spiritual development prospects. In the works of the researchers mentioned above, in particular, the social aspects of cultural self-identification of young people were touched upon. The influence of deformations of the value-normative system on the strengthening of the processes of individualization of consciousness of young people taking place against the background of the destruction of rigid traditional forms of social control and the absence of new moral boundaries was studied. In connection with the social and educational environment, the issues of adaptation of young people were considered. Applied research in the higher education system reflects the urgent problems of universities. It contributes to the clarification of hypotheses and building theories of the middle level, including issues of institutional impact institutions of higher education on the formation of students' spiritual development, especially in terms of its professional component. The analysis of requests, expectations, and preferences of young generations in the field of culture makes it possible to form a holistic view of the development of leisure behavioral stereotypes.