Religion as the “art of being an object”: Some modern cryptotheological approaches

In the article, the author proceeds from the assumption that the obsession with the subject status, characteristic of the New European man, devalued the “art of being an object”. The article deals with intellectual strategies for the rehabilitation of the “object” status: the social grammar of Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy and the cybernetic epistemology of Gregory Bateson. Rosenstock-Huessy draws attention to the fact that in speech acts the speaker appears not only as the subject-source of speech, but also as the object to which the listener’s reaction is directed. Moreover, the condition for the formation of the subject of speech is the listener’s object position. This statement captures a wide range of interpretations: from psychological and pedagogical to theological. Bateson criticizes Cartesian epistemology, which, without reflexive grounds, places a person in the position of a subject, thinking, acting, that is ultimately controlling, and ignores or critically treats the position of the object. However, such epistemology gives an incomplete picture of the cognitive or practically transformative act, since it does not register the moments when the cognizing and acting subject receives feedback from the known or transformed reality — becomes an object. The “art of being an object” is proposed as an essential characteristic of religion as such. In fact, a religious situation (at least in theistic religions) is a situation of being in a complex subject-object relationship with the Absolute, where a person, as a rule, does not control the situation, but voluntarily or forcibly becomes the object of influence, control. At the same time, a religious person is not indifferent to the field of a certain power he finds himself in, therefore he is forced to use art or the “gift of discerning spirits”. In the article’s conclusion, secular forms of object behavior are criticized.

Empirical validation of the Adapted Warner status characteristic index

The paper presents the results of empirical validation and verification of the reliability of the Adapted Warner status characteristic index (Warner’s AISC). Earlier, the adaptation of Warner’s ISС was carried out, and the level of theoretical (obvious and substantial) validity was checked. As a part of checking the level of empirical validity of Warner’s AISC, the level of validity by criteria and construct validity was measured. Two face-to-face surveys (2017–2018) were used as the empirical basis for the study. The validity by criteria was tested through holding a methodical experiment, that comparing two groups which differed significantly in terms of social status. Respondents in two different administrative districts of Kyiv were selected as such groups. The level of prestige of the district of residence differs significantly in terms of prestige. There were found that the mean value of Warner’s AISC in these groups differed significantly, which indicates a high level of validity by criterion. The relationships between the different indicators of the social status of respondents have been analyzed to test the level of validity of construct. Thus, the relationship between Adapted Warner’s Status characteristic index indicators and the results of the questions aimed at directly measuring the self-assessment of their position in society was analyze: 1) integral self-assessment of social status using a seven-point scale; 2) a subjective assessment of the financial situation, within the framework of which the respondent is asked to assess his own financial condition. The mean values of Warner’s AISC in the deferent groups by the level of self-esteem differ significantly. The results obtained speak in favor of the construct validity of Warner’s AISC. With regard to the reliability of the index, it has been concluded that it would be useful to measure the retest reliability of the instrument. Because of the causality characteristics of the composite index we can’t use assessment of usability. The validation results of the Adapted Warner status characteristic index indicate a high level of empirical validity of the instrument.

Human Amnion Epithelial Cells Impair T Cell Proliferation: The Role of HLA-G and HLA-E Molecules

The immunoprivilege status characteristic of human amnion epithelial cells (hAECs) has been recently highlighted in the context of xenogenic transplantation. However, the mechanism(s) involved in such regulatory functions have been so far only partially been clarified. Here, we have analyzed the expression of HLA-Ib molecules in isolated hAEC obtained from full term placentae. Moreover, we asked whether these molecules are involved in the immunoregulatory functions of hAEC. Human amnion-derived cells expressed surface HLA-G and HLA-F at high levels, whereas the commonly expressed HLA-E molecule has been measured at a very low level or null on freshly isolated cells. HLA-Ib molecules can be expressed as membrane-bound and soluble forms, and in all hAEC batches analyzed we measured high levels of sHLA-G and sHLA-E when hAEC were maintained in culture, and such a release was time-dependent. Moreover, HLA-G was present in extracellular vesicles (EVs) released by hAEC. hAEC suppressed T cell proliferation in vitro at different hAEC:T cell ratios, as previously reported. Moreover, inhibition of T cell proliferation was partially reverted by pretreating hAEC with anti-HLA-G, anti-HLA-E and anti-β2 microglobulin, thus suggesting that HLA-G and -E molecules are involved in hAEC-mediated suppression of T cell proliferation. Finally, either large-size EV (lsEV) or small-size EV (ssEV) derived from hAEC significantly modulated T-cell proliferation. In conclusion, we have here characterized one of the mechanism(s) underlying immunomodulatory functions of hAEC, related to the expression and release of HLA-Ib molecules.

Gender, Parenthood, and Hiring Intentions in Sex-Typical Jobs: A Survey Experiment

We ran a survey experiment with Dutch employers to investigate hiring discrimination in sex-typical jobs. We ask if women are especially discriminated against when they have children, whether discrimination applies similarly in different occupations, and whether statistical discrimination or status-characteristic theories best account for discriminatory practices (if any).Employers rate fictitious candidates for either a female-typical job (primary-school teacher) or a male-typical job (software engineer). Employers are found to display a slight preference for female candidates when filling a teacher post, although such bias is less strong for female applicants with children. No such ranking is found for a software engineer vacancy, nor do we find different salary offers across candidates and across vacancies. Employers do not appear to favour men over women for positions likely to be on the career track, as predicted by statistical discrimination theories, nor do they expect women to be less capable than men, as posited by status-characteristic theory. Female candidates with children, however, are expected to be less committed to their job and work fewer hours, especially in the teacher experiment. Such expectations seem to have small consequences for the hiring decisions and salary offers Dutch employers make in our study.

The Aesthetic Labor of Ethnographers

This chapter uses a comparative case method, drawing on autoethnographic accounts to explore how ethnographers perform aesthetic labor across two research sites: a women’s plus-size clothing store and a coed retail gym. The authors find that they engaged in aesthetic labor as they adapted to the aesthetic expectations of sites by either blending in or sticking out. In their studies, the successful accomplishment of aesthetic labor relied primarily on gender and body size, highlighting how the body functions as a status characteristic that influences existing power dynamics. Such insights suggest the need to conceptualize ethnographic research through the lens of labor—a lens that makes clearer how academic work is structured by the same intersectional inequalities prevalent in most occupational fields.

Who gets to lead the multinational team? An updated status characteristics perspective

This article examines the emergence of informal leadership in multinational teams. Building on and extending status characteristics theory, the article proposes and tests a model that describes how global inequalities reproduce in multinational teams, and accounts for who gets to lead these teams. It is argued that an individual’s language (i.e. a specific status characteristic) and nationality (i.e. a diffuse status characteristic) predict deference received from peers (i.e. leadership status). However, individuals enhance and/or compensate for the effects of their status characteristics by virtue of their core self-evaluations. A study of over 230 individuals from 46 nationalities working in 36 self-managing teams generally supports the expected main and moderation effects. Individual core self-evaluations enhance an otherwise weak effect of English proficiency, but compensate for low levels of national development. The article concludes with implications for practice, and linking micro- and macro-level theories of status and global inequality.

Mediating Access: The Utilization of Status Evaluation Processes in the Work of Bouncing

Evaluative processes play a central role in our social world. These processes are especially salient in the work of bouncing, the work carried out by security staff at establishments licensed to serve alcohol. Bouncers have the power to admit or deny patrons who seek admittance to bars and nightclubs. Although the continual evaluation of patrons’ statuses (including their social status, race, and age) is common in this line of work, little sociological research has focused on these processes. Using interviews and participant observations, this article provides a grounded theory study that aims to expand the sociological knowledge about evaluative processes in the work of bouncing. This article argues that bouncers rely on socially constructed stereotypes in their evaluations of patron attitude and dress, associating certain attitudes and dress with violent behaviour. Bouncers’ reliance on status characteristic stereotypes systematically excludes classes and races of patrons who are perceived to have characteristics associated with violence.