American Sociology Research Articles

The formation of the idea of patient agency at the institute of medicine

This article is devoted to the topic of patient agency. The aim of this work is to consider the process of formation of the idea of patient agency at the Institute of Medicine. The author of this article, starting the consideration with the concept of the «patient role», authored by the famous American sociologist T. Parsons, shows the trend observed since the second half of the 20th century to move away from the paternalistic model of the «doctor-patient» relationship that was dominant at that time. The article examines the works of such modern researchers as A. Bock. E. Deffos, P.S. Sorokin, A.V. Zykova et al. It is noted that interest in the issue of agency in general and in the agency of patients in particular has increased during the coronavirus pandemic. The emergence of patient agency in recent years has also been facilitated by digital technologies, which began to be used in medicine thanks to the so-called «digital revolution», which, according to researchers, the pandemic has only accelerated. For example, telemedicine and various websites where patients can find the necessary information have begun to actively develop. At the same time, the very concept of agency today does not have an established meaning in scientific circles; there are heated discussions around this concept; the topic of patient agency is promising for research and needs further study.

Race and caste in the making of US sociology

In this article, we take a look at the influence of 20th-century provenance of caste as a category of academic importance meriting a debate in American sociology and beyond. Two actors participated in the animating discourse of caste and race in the annals of American sociology. Oliver Cromwell Cox took a class position to define caste, unmaking the hierarchies set in social structures. Instead, he advocated for a racialized system to understand the post-slavery capitalist America. Gerald Berreman represented a different camp that found social hierarchies to be co-determinant of relations and division arranged into a caste society. The debate over caste, nevertheless, admitted to the plausibility of castes contrasted with India’s caste system. However, caste categorization was found to be an appropriate application to the conditions of social inequalities. Gunnar Myrdal and other scholars of repute contributed to the debate. What remained limited in their theoretical contributions to the discussion was an inadequate focus on the lived reality and politics of the caste formulations in the postcolonial, socialist mode of production. A serious examination of untouchability, sub-castes and sub-sub-castes that regulate the kernel of the caste system as well as the racialized castes in India were not studied or referenced in detail. This article adds to that void a theoretical understanding of the discussion on caste, race and colour in sociological and anthropological disciplines.

Comments on Suraj Yengde’s lecture

Emerging out of religious conflict in early modern Europe, the terms race and caste as we understand them today went on to define hierarchical relations in different parts of the globe. Yet, they have never completely parted ways and Suraj Yengde’s essay explores these hidden connections in the use that American sociologists made of both categories. They generally did so by setting one term against the other in the attempt to account for racial discrimination in the United States. Race and caste were mediated by class in these debates, a category seen as being more modern and progressive than either of them. The comments that follow argue that caste and race are not simply the precursors of class and continue to interact with each other without the latter’s mediation. Anti-race and anti-caste politics are also more connected to religious forms of universality.

The Violent ‘Trojan Horse’: a Comparative, Transnational Reading of Two Paralysis Narratives

This article proposes a comparative analysis of two ALS narratives: one written in 2017 by the Spanish businessman and author Francisco Luzón, El Viaje es la recompensa (The Trip is the Reward) and the other published in 1999 by American sociologist Albert B. Robillard, Meaning of a Disability: The Lived Experience of Paralysis. Both ‘autopathographies’ present detailed testimonies of the increasing emotional crisis, stigmatization, and feeling of helplessness of two powerful and eminent men left paralyzed in mid-life by a cruel illness. The European and the American outlook on this perverse malady, as experienced on two different continents, will enable us to explore issues related to wasted bodies, the daily struggle against a body and a mind bent on destroying themselves, the battle against fear and anger, the memories of an intense life and of a life journey worth travelling, even when narrated from ‘the kingdom of the ill.’

To the Journal, the American Sociologist

AbstractSociology is a field that examines the social construction of various aspects of human life, including gender and sexuality, and explores how these are produced and perceived by individuals, groups, and institutions. In Italy, despite resistance to institutionalization, Gender Studies have significantly enriched sociology by identifying new research areas and generating innovative analytical categories. Initially linked to second-wave feminism, Gender Studies gained momentum in the Western world from the mid-1970s, exploring the nature-culture-society relationship and its impact on bodies, sexuality, and identity within specific cultural contexts. The Gender Studies section within the Italian Sociology Association was established in 2012 after a prolonged accreditation process. While gender issues entered Italian social sciences in the late 1970s, their integration varied across research areas. Sociology, with its broad analytical frameworks, has played a crucial role in understanding and addressing gender disparities in a country marked by a discriminatory welfare system. The integration of gender perspectives into sociological research has fostered a deeper understanding of Italian social reality and reshaped scientific paradigms. Moreover, sociology’s comprehensive approach to studying social inequalities has been instrumental in highlighting the importance of gender studies within academia. Recent years have witnessed increased attention to Gender Studies in Italian universities, reflecting legislative mandates and evolving cultural attitudes. More scholars, including men, are engaging with gender issues, expanding research beyond women’s status to encompass diverse sexual and gender identities. Approaches like intersectionality promise to broaden the scope of Gender Studies within Italian sociology, offering new avenues for exploration and analysis. The collaboration between sociology and gender studies continues to enhance the academic environment and contributes significantly to the evolution of Italian society.

Why Now? Thoughts on the Du Boisian Revolution

ABSTRACTIn this editorial collection, five sociologists share their opinions on why there has been a recent proliferation of scholarship on Du Bois, and summarize their own position in relation to this intellectual area. Ranging from reflections on how they “discovered” Du Bois's works, through to assessments of American sociology's reception of Du Bois's scholarship, the idea of this brief piece is to provide an insight into some of the potential driving forces behind the boom in Du Boisian scholarship.

Social science Eurocentrism in the land of universalism: An introduction to French blindness

AbstractFrom the late 18th century onwards, France has delivered a universalistic discourse about politics, society, rights and also science. The emergence of social science largely confirmed this trend. Nowadays the growing challenging of Eurocentrism that has become more and more visible since the early 1990s remains most often untranslated, untaught, uninvestigated and undebated. The disciplinary structure of the university as well as the lingering isolationism of French social science accounts for part of this situation, the latter requires some further explanations. If some opening has recently been visible in the field of gender, race and discriminations, it has usually meant a greater influence of some—White or Black—American anthropologists, sociologist or philosophers, but hardly ever of non‐Western thinkers. The very issue of a social science canon is not even raised. The main reason for this is the weight of French neo‐republicanism as it was born in the early 1990s at the very same time when anti‐Eurocentric alternatives discourses became more widely heard. It results in a persistent denial of these discourses as being scientific and a widespread ignorance of them in the academic field.

Paternal influence on pregnancy: Setting the precedence

According to sociologist, Sylvia patriarchy is “a system of social structures and practices in which men dominate, oppress, and exploit women.” Derived from the Greek word patriarkhēs, patriarchy means “the rule of the father.” American sociologist Allan Johnson further mentions that patriarchy is a kind of society in which even though men and women participate, but is male-privileged, maledominated, male-identified, and male-centered. Apart from the sociologist’s point of view of society, it seems that developmental programs in biology also have a patriarchal trend. At least, that’s what is reported from several studies recently. Lopez-Tello et al., reported a paternal insulinlike growth factor 2 (Igf2)-related selective trafficking of maternal resources toward the fetus for its development. Metabolic demands for the fetus are enhanced during pregnancy. It is, therefore, observed that there is a relatively greater shunting of metabolic fuels toward the fetus to increase nutrient availability, more than it is perhaps allowed by the maternal system. The placenta assists in this shuttle by promoting insulin resistance, which leads to glucose intolerance in the mother. This glucose is now made available to the fetal compartments. The paternal Igf2 gene undergoes genomic imprinting, and only the copy inherited from the father is active. Paternally active Igf2 expressed in placental endocrine cells directs the maternal lipids and carbohydrates toward the fetus, an excellent example of paternal manipulation of maternal physiology and metabolic patriarchy. Further, studies have shown that fathers fed with a high-fat diet reduce the pregnancy success rate because of the reduction of their sperm motility. Excess intake of processed food, highsugar diets, or fructose has consequences on offspring’s cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Males fed a low protein diet in mice results in glucose intolerance, metabolic and cardiovascular dysfunctions, and altered patterns of bone mineralization in pups. We, therefore, can conclude a robust paternal influence on pregnancy and fetal outcome. Pregnancy was once thought of as an exclusively maternal affair. Increasing research in this arena seems to have smashed that stereotype with paternal influence seems to play a significant role in shaping the birth process. It is high time that Sylvia patriarchal understanding is redefined with the paternal share of responsibility beyond just dominance and an authoritarian role.

Social Communicative Contexts between Technological Determinism and the New Media

The advent of the new media is a major paradigm shift in human communication and the traditional media that sustained communication from the earliest times till today. Human social progress is almost entirely dependent on the nature of communication that exists in the society. No society survives without a good system of managing information within it as no meaningful encounter and engagement that can drive growth and development can occur without the media. The 21st century brought in its wake several innovations in the information and communication technologies that totally changed the nature of communication, its processes, practice and management. This paradigm shift has given birth to new orientations and attitudes which have combined to create the notion of technological determinism which is the belief that technology is the principal initiator of the society’s transformation. This view of the society is usually attributed to the American sociologist, Thorstein Veblen, who argued that there is a causal link between technology and the society. He opines therefore that all social transformations in the society are controlled by technology and the new media orientation it has birthed. Using content analysis as its main methodological tool, this paper examines the nature of communication, its role in the human society and the interaction between it, its media and the society which is its theatre of action. It argues that the new media technologies and the society have a symbiotic relationship that has altered, redefined, refashioned and redirected social communicative contexts in such a way that has changed the way the human society and individuals act and react leading to a total overhaul of the ways everything is done-trading, teaching, learning, paying taxes, interacting and negotiating. It concludes that social communicative contexts are not distorted by the new media but are rather recontextualised by affirming existing identities and creating new roles in stimulating specialised communication.

Экотопия Мюррея Букчина: утопия или реальная альтернатива?

Using the works of the famous American philosopher, sociologist, environmentalist, speaker and publicist Professor Murray Bookchin (1921–2006), this article examines his project of social structure. In the first part of the study, the author dwells on the relevance of this issue at the present stage of the global socio-political and economic development. In particular, it is noted that idealized utopian ideas were inherent in human society literally at all stages of historical development, being especially pronounced during the periods of social shifts and upheavals. This thesis is confirmed by a number of written and other sources. The current situation is no exception. The economic crises of 2008 and 2020, the global energy crisis of 2021–2023 and a series of food crises of 2022–2023 as well as the growing geopolitical tension have called for finding ways of alternative development. This makes Bookchin’s social ecology especially relevant in view of its detailed elaboration. The second part of the article is devoted to the analysis of the conceptual and methodological basis of Bookchin’s theory, whose main feature is the variability of historical development. Using the anarchist approach and the dialectical method (dialectical naturalism in his terms), Bookchin identifies libertarian and authoritarian tendencies, which have been manifested throughout the written history of humankind, since the appearance of social stratification, cities and the state, and which have eventually led humanity to a deadlock. In the third part, the author examines the transition to a new ecological social structure described by Bookchin, who believed that the scientific and technological progress of the 20th century had made it possible. Real prospects of this project’s implementation in current conditions are discussed. Answering the main question of the study, the author notes that the social structure project, despite all the elaboration and appeal to rationalism, can, with good reason, be considered a classic utopia. In addition, the article points out obvious contradictions in Bookchin’s theory.

Loneliness Is No Longer What It Used to Be

ABSTRACT: Loneliness is a historical affect that emerges from a long history of religious, poetic, and sociological ideas about isolation, solitude, and existential angst. There is a complex journey from theological and poetic ideas about loneliness to some key themes in modern American sociology. Today, the experience of loneliness is dramatically affected by the need for social distancing and the use of social media. In these new circumstances, has the meaning of loneliness radically changed?

Организационный цинизм: теоретический анализ феномена

The article delves into the theoretical analysis of foreign studies of the phenomenon of organizational cynicism and its impact on the effectiveness of the organization’s labor activity and socio-psychological climate of the workforce. To assess the extent of this influence, the authors analyzed the phenomenon of organizational cyni-cism, as well as its classifications, formed by American sociologists. During the theoretical analysis it was found that organizational cynicism represents a negative attitude of employees towards the organization and management, it will divide the team rather than contribute to its unity. The relevance of this topic is due to the lack of such materials and research among domestic scientists, which in turn will help further study organiza-tional cynicism in Russian companies and conduct their own research.

What COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Disparity Reveals About Solidarity

What COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Disparity Reveals About Solidarity

The Behind Discourse on the Extension of the President's Term of Office

Abstract: since the beginning of the 2024 simultaneous General Election (Election) stage, even before that, there have been sideways issues regarding the implementation of the election, among which the most dominant is the issue or discourse about extending the term of office of the president and postponing the 2024 election. These two discourses have become polemic in the midst of Indonesian society because some of them support it and others clearly reject it for the main reason, namely the constitutional mandate must be the basis for organizing the state. the government as the ruler is then strengthened by an analysis of academic theory according to the study of scientist C. Wright Mills an American sociologist who wrote The Power Elite in 1956 in which he gave rise to an understanding of elite theory. An understanding of the election law can realize that the legal loophole for extending the term of office of the president has been closed so that this discourse is not appropriate to continue to be put forward because it violates the constitution, as well as delaying elections which are considered to violate the constitution. As for the decision of the Central Jakarta District Court (PN), it is considered that the decision is categorized as flawed in the constitutional law rules as explained by several legal experts. In conclusion, the emergence of discourses as mentioned above is nothing but an attempt by interested parties, in this case, the ruling elites who are in the current government circle to remain in their seats of office. To prevent this, it is mandatory for the community to understand and adhere to constitutional rules in carrying out the life of the nation and state.
 Keywords: Delaying the 2024 Election ; Legal Basis for Elections; Elite Theory; Central Jakarta District court Decision; Elite Interests

Re-thinking assimilation and why it matters: an intellectual, career and life journey – Richard Alba in conversation with Paul Statham

ABSTRACT Richard Alba, the American sociologist whose research is known for developing assimilation theory to fit the contemporary multi-racial era of immigration, reflects on the evolution of his thinking, influences and future directions for sociology in this interview. In a wide-ranging discussion, Alba talks about his early motivations and personal experiences that brought him to the topic of assimilation and his way of doing sociological research. He then moves on to discuss the impact of Re-making the American Mainstream (2003), co-authored with Victor Nee, one of the most highly cited books in sociology. After offering his thoughts on the benefits and limits of cross-Atlantic exchanges on integration and assimilation, Alba addresses recent challenges from postcolonial and critical race theories. The conversation then shifts to examine in detail some of his contemporary views outlined in The Great Demographic Illusion (2020) and elsewhere. Finally, Alba looks forward to the next steps of his journey.

Әлеуметтік ғылымдардағы «бақыт» концептісін талдау

In the scientific article, the author reviewed psychological theories by conducting a historical analysis of the phenomenon of "happiness". It is established that the phenomenon of "happiness" in psychological science is constantly discussed in the conclusions of scientists on hedonism and eudenomism by two main scientific approaches. In addition, many factors that currently affect happiness were put forward by the American sociologist and political scientist Ronald Inglehart, basing his global values on the conclusions of research work. The research methods used were desk research, a review of scientific papers, theoretical and methodological analysis, secondary data analysis. The main information of the article consists of various theories and scientific approaches and modern research works related to the phenomenon of "happiness" in psychological science. The conclusion of the article states that the concepts of "happiness" and "well-being" are concepts that still complement each other in psychological science. We came to the conclusion that people evaluate happiness objectively and subjectively, hedonistically and eudemonistically.

Кельтская триада: кинематографии британских национальных меньшинств и «внутренний колониализм»

The global success, both in viewership and expert community, of auteur feature films Belfast, directed by Kenneth Branagh, and The Banshees of Inisherin, directed by Martin McDonagh, and produced by independent Northern Irish companies in 2022–2023, prompts a closer examination of the challenges faced by the national minority cinemas of Great Britain. Specifically, we focus on the culturally and linguistically related regions of Northern Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, collectively referred to in this article as the Celtic Triad, which represent a significant presence in the world cinema landscape. A number of British film historians and sociologists argue that national film industries are on the verge of survival, highlighting two main trends in the context of national cinema: inclusivity and sovereignty. From the perspective of the dominant ethnic group and its major production companies, inclusivity entails assimilation into the mainstream, while sovereignty involves preserving distinct national cultural characteristics. The representatives of national minorities are striving to safeguard these characteristics in the face of what American sociologist Michael Hechter termed internal colonialism—a policy implemented by the dominant Anglo-Saxon ethnic group towards cultures of national minorities and expressed in their marginalization and Anglification. A negative consequence of these dynamics, according to Hechter, is ethnocentrism, that is, the prevalence of one’s own culture in shaping perceptions of the world. Nevertheless, as this article demonstrates, the strategies employed by the Celtic Triad in pursuit of economic independence and artistic self-determination not only ensure the survival of national cinema but also establish its distinct sovereignty and success beyond the borders of Great Britain. Television broadcasting in national languages, which has gained popularity with the advent of digital broadcasting, plays a significant role in this process. An important contributing factor here is the economic and socio-cultural collaborations of these cinemas with both domestic and international partners, relying primarily on the influence of soft power and implying adaptation not only by adjusting to them, but also by active interchange and cross-fertilization of cultures.

Что такое фикшен? Фреймы в мультсериале «Подозрительная сова»

Explore the intricate relationship between reality and fiction in a thought-provoking examination of how we perceive and interact with fictional forms. Delve into the fascinating complexities of human experience through cinema, theater, and video games, and witness how they reflect and imitate our own reality. Understand the sociological underpinnings as illustrated by the American sociologist of everyday life Erving Goffman and embodied in the Suspicious Owl animated series. This exploration unravels the layers of perception and interpretation, demonstrating how our engagement with fiction influences our understanding of the real world. Whether you’re a fan of literature, film, or simply intrigued by the mechanics of the human mind, this perspective on the interplay between the real and unreal offers a compelling lens through which to view our daily lives. It’s a journey into the essence of our very being, a reflection of how we see ourselves, and a challenge to our assumptions about what is truly real.

Publicly Engaged Sociological Research for Immigrant Well-Being

Drawing inspiration from the long tradition of U.S. sociology and from Latin American sociology, I describe a few examples of how I have endeavored to make my scholarship available to the public and to inform policy to enhance immigrant well-being. I frame this piece within discussions around public, policy, critical, and professional sociology to underscore that these strands of the discipline do not conflict but draw strength from one another. Identifying urgent issues that need our research attention is key to doing this work effectively to contribute to social change.

‘Two Souls, Two Thoughts, and Two Unreconciled Strivings in One Body’

American sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois introduces the phrase double consciousness in his work. According to Du Bois, this phrase describes a dilemma of two consciousnesses that Black Americans face due to what he calls ‘the veil of racism’. While the consciousness that Du Bois speaks of is in the context of Black Americans, this work attempts to answer whether colonisation and racism in South Africa did not also lead to a form of double consciousness to those who experienced it. This work does this by firstly exploring the institutionalised form of colonisation in South Africa known as apartheid. It shows how this system characterisedand made Black people seem as though they were lazy, stupid, and inferior, which in turn led to the second consciousness. This work further shows the experience of double consciousness by Black South Africans through hair and beauty politics. It shows that Black South Africans retaliate and assert their blackness through protest despite the double consciousness. Furthermore, this work usesSouth African literature to demonstrate how Black people in South Africa are knowledgeable of the consciousness, its effects, and how it operates.