Online research, new languages and symbolism of digital activism: A systematic review

In recent years, digital networks have given rise to new spaces for socialization, action and protest, favouring the emergence of new forms of social participation that generate their own languages and new symbolic strategies. In order to analyze online mobilization within the Spanish context and in order to explore these realities in more depth, a systematic review of empirical articles with their own methodology was carried out. It includes those manuscripts published over the last decade by Spanish Sociology journals with the highest impact factor. After identifying 101 general studies that met the initial inclusion criteria, 34 were chosen whose subject of study included online social mobilization and/or used virtual ethnography as a research technique. The final sample for analysis was drawn from these, comprising the 16 publications that addressed this issue as the central topic. Among the main results obtained we have the scarcity of publications on the virtual dimension of social mobilization, as well as the growing use and adaptation of virtual ethnography as a research methodology for studying this field of knowledge. Likewise, the potential of the Internet to amplify the impact of demands, the need to break the online-offline dichotomy, the creation of new narratives and the transformation of the symbolic production of contemporary social movements are noteworthy. En los últimos años, las redes digitales han dado lugar a nuevos espacios de socialización, acción y protesta, favoreciendo la aparición de nuevas formas de participación social que generan lenguajes propios y nuevas estrategias simbólicas. A fin de analizar la movilización online en el contexto español y de profundizar en estas realidades, se ha llevado a cabo una revisión sistemática de los artículos empíricos, con metodología propia, publicados en la última década por las revistas españolas de Sociología de mayor índice de impacto. Tras identificar 101 estudios generales que cumplían los criterios de inclusión iniciales, se seleccionaron los 34 que tenían entre su objeto de estudio la movilización social online y/o utilizaban la etnografía virtual como técnica de investigación; de ellos se derivó la muestra de análisis final, compuesta por los 16 que abordaban esta cuestión de forma central. Entre los principales resultados obtenidos se encuentra la escasez de publicaciones sobre la dimensión virtual de la movilización, así como el creciente uso y adecuación de la etnografía virtual como metodología de investigación para el estudio de este campo de conocimiento. Así mismo, destaca la potencialidad de la red para ampliar el impacto de las reivindicaciones, la necesidad de romper la dicotomía online-offline, la creación de nuevas narrativas y la transformación de la producción simbólica de los movimientos sociales contemporáneos.

Los imaginarios de los actores sociales del Pueblo Mágico de Ixtapan de la Sal, México

The symbolic production of a tourist place implies that the space has been appropriated and inter‑ vened upon by political and economic agents to project images and signs that contribute to the reproduction of social groups, but transforming the social relations and experiences of the place both for those who con‑ sume it and for those who live there at least on a daily basis. Hence it is important to analyse and compare the subjective spatial world visions of the different social agents intervening in tourism. To this end, we have used postmodernity as defined by Harvey (1990), the categories of place and non‑place of Augé (1992) and the “between‑place” of tourism as defined by Castrogiovanni (2007) to understand the symbolic fragmentation of place for the residents as contrasted with the experiences of the tourists.

“Everybody Is an Oil-industry Worker Here”: Discursive-Symbolic Production and Contestation of Intra-city Inequality in а NorthernSingle-industryTown

The article analyzes the phenomenon of intra-city inequality under the rule of city-forming enterprises in the northern single-industry (oil) town by employing R. Brubaker’s cognitive-linguistic version of social constructivism. The “capital” of the LUKOIL Oil Company — Kogalym (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug — Yugra) — was chosen as a research focus. The mechanisms of production and contestation of intra-city inequality in Kogalym are analyzed based on complex historical-field research data. The corporate imageineering (Ch. Rutheiser’s term) of Kogalym, ritual aspects of the town culture, as well as various discursive frameworks of the town’s selfpresentation are considered. We focus our attention on the complex social antagonism between oil workers and non-oil workers; we investigate its causes and dynamics, specifically, through the case of the transformation of the Kogalym Day celebration. We conclude that — in the context of a single-industry town — the cultural hegemony of the dominant group is ensured through closely related practices: the corporate unification of the cultural landscape of the town, consolidation of the dominant group’s point of view in the local historical narrative, reframing of the professional holiday of the dominant group as town-wide, official holiday commemorations, and gift rituals. The grassroot frustration on the part of the excluded is manifested in the form of a folklore reaction to the symbols of the “dominant” group, the creation of a historical narrative and places of memory alternative to the official canon. At the same time, the specific life cycle of the northern single-industry town’s population considerably diminishes its cultural diversity.

El caso Los Novísimos: una revolución simbólica específica en la génesis del campo artístico paraguayo / The case of Los Novísimos: a specific symbolic revolution in the Paraguayan artistic field genesis

El artículo presenta los hallazgos de una investigación hecha sobre el proceso de la génesis del campo artístico paraguayo y el fenómeno de grupos de vanguardia antagónicos, entre los años 50 y 60’s. Se utilizó el sistema teórico de Pierre Bourdieu, cuya puesta a prueba dejó ver que sus conceptos definen, simultáneamente, una interpretación conceptual específica y unas funciones metodológicas precisas en la reconstrucción de casos particulares: por ejemplo, mantener una perspectiva relacional, ejercer la ruptura con las prenociones y los datos preconstruidos, como también estabilizar un modelo analógico para la comparación entre casos ya establecidos. Esto significa que, si bien se estudiaron las propiedades singulares del caso, el objetivo radicó en inscribirlo en una serie de casos históricos semejantes mediante el razonamiento por analogía. El artículo presenta tres dimensiones estrictamente interrelacionadas: a) dimensión epistemológica; b) dimensión histórica; y c) una dimensión de análisis. Las proposiciones teóricas hacen inteligible que las tomas de posición de los grupos Arte Nuevo y Los Novísimos constituyeron unas específicas articulaciones entre la ética, la estética y la política en el arte paraguayo. This paper shows the research finding of the Paraguayan artistic field genesis process and the phenomenon of the avant-garde antagonistic groups around the 1950s and 1960s. Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical system was utilized for the purpose of construction and reconstruction: the deployment of concepts in this case showed that they define a specific conceptual interpretation and very precise methodological steps simultaneously. This means that, even if the singular properties of the case have been studied, the main aim resided in inscribing it in a series of similar historical cases through the reasoning by analogy. Furthermore, the logic of the investigation was composed of historical analysis, epistemological vigilance, and socio-analysis for the sake of reaching the rigorousness that characterizes sociology. The paper is structured by three interrelated dimensions: and epistemological dimension; a historical dimension; and a dimension of the analysis.Naturally, the Paraguayan artistic field has displayed singular properties like a particular case. But the heuristical power of Bourdieu’s theoretical propositions has allowed inscribing the Paraguayan case in the model of symbolic revolutions and in the specific struggle which revolved around the proper definition of art that was carried out by avant-garde groups. At the same time, the political context was a fundamental element: as Stroessner’s power was increasing (with the support of international cooperation like Brazil or the United States contributions), local artists, writers, and intellectuals were defining the structure and the autonomy of the cultural production field. Primarily, the importance of the actions of the group called Arte Nuevo was fundamental in the relative rupture with postulates of academic art; but later, Los Novísimos’ irruption played as a trigger of ethic and aesthetic investments that modified the field structure as it was emerging. Results show, on the one hand, the interrelations between ethics, aesthetic and political issues in the Paraguayan artistic field during the historical period studied and, on the other hand, the theoretical force of Bourdieu’s concepts. Finally, the approach applies a dispositionalist theory to study the process of symbolic production.

Memes as the Phenomenon of Modern Digital Culture

The article analyzes an Internet meme as the newest information product of the society and a result of its intellectual and artistic practices. The analysis of the role of the Internet memes, created by means of the popular artistic images modification in the modern digital culture is made. Such methods as semiotic and hermeneutic analysis of the Internet memes are used in the research work. The authors seek to explore the reasons for the popularity of memes in the processes of symbolic production and exchange in contemporary society and the modern digital culture, which is the purpose of this study. We consider that Internet meme created by using and modifying artistic images is a new phenomenon in human public life and new type of communication. As a hypothesis, a distinctive feature of the Internet meme is the surprise and laughter it causes in the “man of the Internet”. The main result of this article is the analysis the role of Internet memes in the newest information space and their specific features as a special information product of the modern digital culture. The authors draw attention to the popularity of Internet memes caused by an increase in information chaos in the modern symbolic production and exchange and, therefore, a person’s confusion when meeting a large number of information.

The Riot of the Literal

When Hortense Spillers speaks of ‘the hieroglyphics of the flesh’, she closes in on the lethally generative coincidence between racialized violence and symbolic production. Reading backward from her essay's last words, in which she incites an emergent praxis of naming, this study of ‘Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe’ moves with attention to the unsettling of figure and ground that Spillers's writing induces. In doing so, I draw out her insights into theoretical abstraction's complicity in extracting value from colonial slavery's dispossessing mark on black flesh. Kazimir Malevich's Black Square models this dynamic, insofar as the dereliction of those who are epidermally marked grounds, in eclipse, the freedom of ostensibly non-racial abstraction. For Spillers, a corresponding differential between the figural and literal becomes a site of intervention for discomposing grammars that codify asymmetrical laws of use, such that the forcible inscription of non-whites serves instrumentally as raw material for the predication of ‘Human’ meaning. Spillers's disruption of the tropological offers an occasion for working through theory's ‘death’ as a problematic re-centered on the intransigence of flesh to theoretical reflection; and, further, points the way to a feminist practice of reading, living, and dying that does not forsake racialised literality.

МІСЬКА VS РЕГІОНАЛЬНА ІДЕНТИЧНІСТЬ: ДО ПИТАННЯ ХАРАКТЕРУ ФОРМУВАННЯ/АКТУАЛІЗАЦІЇ/ПРОТИСТАВЛЕННЯ В УМОВАХ СУЧАСНОГО УКРАЇНСЬКОГО СУСПІЛЬСТВА

The main focus of this article is on identifying the features of regional and urban identity formation and actualization. An attempt was made to determine the nature of interaction and juxtaposition of these types of territorial identity in the conditions of modern Ukrainian society. The main mechanisms of formation of regional identity are distinguished: use of the mechanism of constructing crisis or opposition regional identity, ideological work as a mechanism of formation of regional identity, images, symbolism, mythologists, ideologists and communication slogans as mechanisms of formation of regional identity. Urban identity is formed during the symbolic production of urban meanings. It is emphasized that urban identity is a socio-cultural construct, which is formed as a result of socialization and adaptation in a certain settlement and is determined by the assimilation and reproduction of cultural symbols, accepted norms, traditions, lifestyle of the city residents. It is determined that in modern Ukrainian society urban identity prevails over regional identity.

Boredom as a Condition of Art and Its Transformation

In this article the phenomenon of boredom is considered in a paradoxical way. On the one hand, we have before us the substance of spoiled time, that is, the content of life, which is identical with its emptiness. But human adulthood is largely determined by the ability to deal with boredom, to make it bearable. And the most important way to this is the reception of art as a symbolic production. Boredom allows you to deal with not relevant things. Thus it is in it, in the background boredom, that the art of opuses gets its most reliable support

FORMATION OF BEHAVIORAL NORMS OF PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION FOR THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY

The purpose of the paper is to summarize and present stages of formation of behavioral norms of professional communication for the scientific community. The objectives of the study are following: to characterize the meaning of the concept of “scientific community” and clarify its definition; to consider the formation of views on the behavioral norms of the scientific community; to define a set of norms of a modern scientist’s professional ethics. The study presents a narrative review of the literature. During the selection of the papers for review, preference was given to the scientific publications of the classics of sociology of science, in particular published in the form of a monograph and in the journals included to the Web of Science Core Collection. An additional Google Scholar search was conducted to provide a more complete presentation of the scientific results. At the same time, the articles published in predatory journals were excluded from the search (where there are no reviews, the editorial boards of which do not correspond to the subjects of the journals, where articles from journals belonging to leading international scientometric databases, etc. are not cited). We also used the method of analysis of scientific sources, chronological method, methods of classification, comparison, and scientific generalization. The scientists used various metaphors to denote the scientific community: “institute of science” (R. Merton), “field of symbolic production of science” (P. Bourdieu), “invisible college” (D. Price and R. Merton), “social circle of scientists” (D. Crane), “social network of scientists” (R. Collins), “expert reality of science” (P. Berger, T. Luckmann), “scientific discourse” (J.-F. Lyotard). R. Merton codified the norms of science and formulated a “scientific ethos” by proposing a set of four imperatives as normative regulations of science: 1) communism, 2) universalism, 3) disinterestedness, and 4) organized skepticism. T. Kuhn “epistemologized” Merton’s sociological concept of science. R. Merton’s followers T. Parsons and N. Storer developed indicators of the scientist’s profession: a specialized amount of knowledge; high autonomy in attracting and training new members of the scientific community, control of their professional behavior; the need for reward (moral and material). R. Boguslaw rejected Merton’s ethical system as mythological and proposed a set of anti-norms. Later, this system of anti-norms was developed by I. Mitroff, S. Fuller, J. Ziman, and others. P. Bourdieu highlighted the problems of the struggle for a monopoly on scientific competence, the accumulation and investment of scientific capital. Today, the scientific community is understood as a complex system of teams, organizations and institutions that interact both vertically (from laboratories and departments to national academies) and horizontally (the whole set of social institutions, informal groups that do not have an institutionalized structure and administrative regulation). The functioning of the scientific community is determined by the support of the system of values and norms of behavior. Currently, the following key norms of professional ethics of a scientist have been formed: prohibition of plagiarism, objectivity of a scientist; focus on the search for truth; social responsibility of the researcher.

Commodification as the Means of Cultural Production

The paper discloses the phenomenon of the commodification of cultural production in course of evolutionary transformation of technic, technologic and economic capacities of society. Economic issues, including the definition of cultural product as a commodity, form the apparatus for the objectification of creative intention that does not impact directly on the creativity as freedom. Albeit the tension of social apprehension, spoken in words by either intellectual critics or market demand, and dependence on the market laws, reflecting either the labor issues or distribution and consumption, evoke the shift in the function of art, in particular, the loss of critical and regulative functions. Thus, the article seeks the logic dependence of the functional shifts in art on the phenomenon of commodification. The paper aims to justify the hypothesis that the commodification is an auxiliary tool for communication between the artist and audience, barely directly causing the leveling of aesthetic artistic value. Considering that the comprehension of commodification relies mostly on the philosophic criticism leaving the economic research of cultural production aside and missing the discourse of aesthetic and artistic essence, this paper concludes that the commodification of symbolic production, as the consequence of social and economic development, rather implies communicative capacity for artistic value than the destructive or leveling impact factor causing the shift of social functions of art.