Contemporary Structure Research Articles

ANCIENT ROOTS TO MODERN SOCIETY: INDIAS SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION

Indias social transformation is a journey marked by the interplay of ancient traditions and modern influences. This paper explores the evolution of Indias social fabric from its early Vedic roots to its current standing as a dynamic and diverse society. The analysis delves into the enduring impact of religious, cultural, and philosophical traditions on contemporary social structures, highlighting how these ancient legacies have shaped the modern Indian ethos. By examining key historical milestones, such as the contribution of empires, colonialism, and the independence movement, the study reveals the complex ways in which India has navigated the challenges of modernity while preserving its rich heritage. The discussion also addresses the ongoing struggles and adaptations within Indian society, including caste dynamics, gender roles, and the quest for social equity, emphasizing the continuous process of negotiation between tradition and modernity. Through this exploration, the paper aims to provide a nuanced understanding of Indias social transformation, underscoring the nations ability to adapt and innovate while remaining rooted in its ancient cultural wisdom.Indias social transformation encompasses changes in various societal aspects, including institutions, structure, culture, and philosophy. The goals of social transformation in India are evolutionary in strategy but revolutionary in content. Leaders of the Indian independence movement understood that social structure, history, and tradition form the foundation of society, setting the parameters for social reform plans, objectives, and methods.

Portrayal of Muslim Female Character: A Critical Study of Bollywood Movie Raees

The Indian film industry provides a huge source of entertainment to the masses not only in India but also across the borders as well. With the help of artistic fictional expressions, it not only caters to locating facts and realities in the contemporary social structure but also has the undeniable capacity to persuade viewers in a certain way. Indian cinema or “Bollywood” has marked its place in the minds of its consumers and consequently restyled their perceptions about the world around them. There is a variety of subjects, issues and cultures that are projected by the Indian cinema. Amongst them, the portrayal of Muslim females has been the popular theme of Indian cinema. However, Muslim characters like women remain subject to bias. To dissect this phenomenon in Bollywood, present study is an attempt to examine the depiction of Muslim women in Bollywood. For this purpose, Movie, “Raees” (2017) has been selected. Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional model of Critical Discourse Analysis (2003) used as the methodological framework. Under the theoretical realm of framing theory, this study focuses on the portrayal of the female character in the Bollywood movie Raees. The study concludes that Muslim women are being portrayed as disconnected from their religious beliefs. Keywords: Framing, Muslim women, Critical discourse analysis, Bollywood, Raees,

The Gradual Evolution of Speech from Linguistics to Sociolinguistics

Fundamentally, human beings can communicate complex ideas and phenomena using simple signs, jesters, and sounds.The sound produced or communications made to express things are referredto as the intricate reverberation produced by certain sound waves to express various meanings. This phenomenon is known as Language. Verbal and nonverbal modes of communication include signs, jesters, written symbols, and visual cues. Language is an organized system of communication made up of sounds and signs that are produced and exchanged to carry meanings. Human knowledge attempts to investigate Language logically and methodically to create a sequence of logical facts that are presented cogently to convey a specific connotation.Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, emphasising meaning, discourse, and other characteristics of Language. It may be conducted by employing systematic scientific procedures involving observations, testing ideas, and formulating hypotheses. The study includes more than sound, grammar, and meanings; it also includes lexicon, syntax, grammar, and semantics. Jargon, slang, and novel constructs created by hundreds of thousands of individuals are combined into Language, an essential and fundamental occurrence. Language is primarily a product of human needs, and it develops or produces new languages based on what is most convenient for humans to convey meaning to others.Since Language impacts social structure and cultural practices, it is a communication factor that preserves social and cultural components within itself. Language is also influenced by social norms and cultural practices concurrently. It is acknowledged that the two components are unrelated. In sociolinguistics, the current study explores the evolution of Language as a social construct and a contemporary social structure.

Blood Clock 2020: Challenging Culturally Mandated Acts of Feminine Discretion

Blood Clock 2020:Challenging Culturally Mandated Acts of Feminine Discretion Se Jong Cho (bio) When I read the description of, and the public reaction to, Pipilotti Rist's Blutclip (1993) in "The Colorful Worlds of Pipilotti Rist" (Calvin Tomkins's 2020 profile of the artist in The New Yorker), I recalled how I felt ashamed about my menstruation for a long time while growing up in South Korea and in the US. It occurred to me that this sense of shame must have sprung from culturally mandated acts of feminine discretion: hide your tampon when you are going to the bathroom, erase all traces of blood in the toilet, and don't talk about your period lest you make people feel uncomfortable. Rist created Blutclip—Blood Clip, in English—one year after a positive reception of Pickelporno, her response to the discussion around pornography and feminism in the 90s. Filmed with a tiny surveillance camera, Pickelporno exposes glimpses of foreplay, interspersed with shots of lush natural imagery and other human body parts, including "an erect and friendly penis." Despite the explicit sexual candor, Pickelporno, according to Tompkins, "offended no one—it even aired on Swiss television." But Blood Clip's depiction of menstrual blood, intended (in Rist's words) "to get the blood out into the open" and showcase this "marvelous liquid, this flesh-clock," did cause offense, seen by some as "taking feminism too far." What does it mean to take feminism too far? Menstrual taboos and stereotypes are still ingrained in contemporary social structures, impacted by religion, nationality, politics, economics, ethnicity, class, gender identity, and many other sociocultural factors. "Taking feminism too far" by getting "the blood out into the open" means challenging the strictures that mandate acts of feminine discretion, that necessitate economic burden on women for feminine hygiene, that equate femininity with neuroticism, and that align fertility with control. Inspired by Rist, I also wanted to get the blood out into the open, because the contemporary social structure needs to be challenged as a prerequisite for moving toward an equitable future. To get the blood out into the open, I made twelve paintings documenting my menstrual cycle: one for each month of the year 2020 when our collective sense of time had been distorted by the global pandemic. This body of work is titled Blood Clock 2020 as it is my response to Blood Clip to showcase my own "marvelous liquid, this flesh-clock." [End Page 107] Susan Sontag in Against Interpretation observed that works of art "give rise not to conceptual knowledge but to something like an excitation, a phenomenon of commitment, judgment in a state of thralldom or captivation." With Blood Clock 2020, I intend to captivate the audience in a contemplation of the red liquid without turning away with a sense of shame or disgust that is often associated with menstrual blood. Instead, I wanted to celebrate menstrual blood as the medium for human existence that nourishes our culture and gives birth to new lives. To foster a consideration of the human existence and temporal scales within the context of the larger world, I suspended the blood droplets against lush landscapes, ranging from desert plains to aquatic and mountainous environments. I integrated imagery from paintings by Georgia O'Keeffe, who masterfully painted flowery vaginal images without stirring any sense of shame nor perverting the subject. I wanted to simulate a dialogue with and learn from O'Keeffe, who famously stated, "I had to create an equivalent for what I felt about what I was looking at—not copy it." Accordingly, I integrated what I felt about O'Keeffe's paintings Deer's Skull with Pedernal (1936), Summer Days (1936), Lake George (1922) and Lake George Reflection (1921–1922), Pedernal (1945), and Black Palace II (1945) into my menstrual cycle paintings, to give rise to a new life through the synthesis of my creative desire and expression with those of O'Keefe and Rist. I also chose to depict the menstrual blood like hot wax dancing in a lava lamp. The undulation of blood droplets, like those of hot wax seamlessly and ceaselessly rising, merging, and reshaping, is meant to mesmerize and transport the...

«POSSESSIONES SEU VILLAE KENEZIOS HABENTES...»: THE EVOLUTION OF KENEZSHIP ON THE TERRITORY OF BEREG COUNTY IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 16TH - THE FIRST THIRD OF THE 18TH CENTURIES

This article attempts to reveal the main characteristics and functions of the kenezs of the Bereg county in the second half of the 16th – the first third of the 18th century. Also, one of the main goals of the publication is to consider the evolution of kenez status in the specified historical period. In general, the early modern era was marked by a significant population movement and influx for the northeastern border territories of the Kingdom of Hungary and the northwestern borders of the Principality of Transylvania. The such migratory activity led to the interaction of different legal systems, resulting in the emergence of new or a change in the meaning of old legal structures. Currently, the term «kenez» is considered in the scientific literature as a phenomenon of high–altitude Carpathian settlements existing exclusively within the boundaries of «Wallachian law». Accordingly, one of the main tasks of this study is to verify the mentioned concept in the example of Bereg county, which includes plains, foothills, and mountain areas. In addition, the publication provides a comprehensive analysis of the idea of «kenezship» and considers various variants of its meanings. To achieve the goal, the author studies written sources related to the administrative-territorial and economic structure of Bereg county. At the same time, the publication examines some aspects of the contemporary social structure of the settlements of the Kingdom of Hungary. The article substantiates the thesis about the gradual transformation of the status of «kenezship» and its displacement by elements of Hungarian law, which the author tries to demonstrate with the help of the analysis of these acts, privileges, urbariums, and inventory descriptions of the committees of northeastern Hungary of the 16th – 17th centuries. The author paid particular attention to the processing of such documents as the charter granting privileges to the kenez of the settlements of the Bereg county, the court case of the kenez families of the village of Guklyve in 1645, and the urbaria of the early modern period from the Chynadiieve and Mukachevo domains. In addition, the publication reviews the concept of the term «birov», which existed together with the term «kenez» on the territory of Bereg county. The author concludes that the kenesis were not homogeneous in terms of functions and had their internal division. At the same time, highlighting the main features of the kenezship on the territory of the Bereg county allows us to assert its gradual transformation and transition into the framework of Hungarian law. For the sake of certain clarifications and a more detailed analysis of the phenomenon under study, the author is allowed to go beyond the time and geographical framework of the study.

Unread History of an Erstwhile Manual Scavenging Community: From Being an Urban to a Marginalized

The article is based on an ethnography of community who had been historically manual scavengers in the Bengal Province later even in the state of Bihar and continued until the parliament enacted a law prohibiting this practice. The history of manual scavengers are well written in the context of their rehabilitation and occupational engagements but one community that merely got any attention was Hadi jati (caste), who have been doing the menial job for generations in the Jharkhand region. Off beat, they are referred as Safai Karamchari on the roll of municipal administration for technical purposes but the people living in the town popularly refer them as Hadis. This article is an attempt to bring the historical existence of Hadis in the region who served in the kingdom, royal and feudal families and later, in the independent India, continues in the contemporary urban settlements. An inquiry into the historicity of Hadis brings a sociological insights to a neglected and marginalized section of the urban India and shows the tyranny and continuation of caste-based traditional in a town that could see the earliest public sector steel conglomerate established in 1968. In view of this background, there is a humble attempt to examine the process of marginalization of Hadis in the historical and contemporary social structure.

A Study of Marital Relationship in Bharati Mukherjee's Wife and Jasmine

The analytical study of the secondary works on Bharati Mukherjee reveals the in depth study of her works majorly with reference to the alienation or strangeness of the protagonist. Whereas, this article aims to examine the operation of the marital relationships and the problems associated with the interpersonal relationships, which has a consequent effect on the lives of the protagonist within the fictional framework. The research also makes an attempt to discuss the various expectations and roles imposed on women characters not only from the outside sources but from within as well, which results in their subsequent disillusionment. The research further deals with the journey of the neurotic mental state of the selected protagonists portrayed through their frustrations and baffled desires, resulting in the final redemption, which leads to the final marital discord. Many psychologists have made an in-depth study of the interpersonal relationship of husband and wife, moving in and out of their marital relationship. While on the contrary, this article focuses to explore the factors, which affects the adjustments and maladjustments in a marriage, which results in harmonious or disharmonious relationships. The article also aims to draw a parallel between the marriage institute of western culture where theory like 'complementary mate selection' is brought in the scenario, whereas, in Indian culture the marriage is still based on 'arranged' basis with elaborated traditional rites. It exposes the contemporary social structure of the modern world, where the need to stay bound in marriage has lost its importance to the happiness of an individual. The overall objective of the article is to outline the cause of the plight of women characters, the expectation and roles assigned to them, the factors involved which affects the harmonious marital relationship and a journey to self-redemption within the fictional framework of Bharati Mukherjee.

Çağdaş Kültürel ve Sosyal Yapıda Sanat Olarak Dövmelerin İncelenmesi

Body painting has been practiced in the wide variety of cultures which includes Tattooing, Marking, and Ink Painting. In this study, we have explored whether tattoos should be counted as art and if they should, their aesthetic characteristics have been extracted based on the Franz Boas analytical method in anthropology of art. In this study, we attempted to investigate two issues about tattooing: 1) How the common aesthetic characteristics in art theories could be understood in tattoo as an artwork, And 2) According to the fact that, in addition to the aesthetic features, tattoo is also associated with social and cultural dependencies, we sociologically attempted to look for the tattoo’s functions in the contemporary social and cultural structures. Furthermore, considering the similar features of tattooing art in the world, the cultural style of this art has been studied in our society. According to the observations in this study, tattoo not only has aesthetic value in a cultural context, but also has symbolic meaning which influences and is influenced by individual and social leaning. Keywords: Tattooing/ Marking, Anthropology of art, Aesthetic value, Symbolic meaning, Historical and cultural context.

Temporal and spatial diversification of rural social structure: The case of Poland

AbstractThe article presents a temporal and spatial analysis of the social structure of rural Poland – currently a home to two‐fifths of the national population. In the first – temporal – dimension, the focus is on changes that have taken place since the post‐communist transformation. The aim of the analysis was to explain the mechanisms of change, that is, identify the processes that brought about those changes. We assumed that transitions in the rural social structure progressed differently than in the rest of society: they were deeper, followed different trajectories and resulted in fundamentally changed proportions between the rural structure's elements. In the other – spatial –dimension, we investigated the territorial diversity of the contemporary social structure. The social structure morphology was analysed on the basis of the proportions between three major social/occupational segments: farmers, workers and the middle class. Their distinction was determined by the trajectories of social structure change starting from the 1990s: depeasantisation, proletarianisation and gentrification. The study has revealed the complexity of the process of change as well as the unique character of the process of deagrarianisation, its depth/intensity being determined by the spatial diversity of types of rural social structure.

Depiction of Postmodern culture in Elif Shafak’s “The Bastard of Istanbul”

Postmodern culture or postmodernity speaks of social, economic or cultural conditions which made an appearance in western society after the modern age. It functions opposite to the modern outlook. This research has been carried out to represent postmodern culture in contemporary social structure through “The Bastard of Istanbul” written by a Turkish author Elif Shafak. The novel has been investigated deeper keeping in view the concept of postmodern culture. The results unfold that the author exhibits pop culture, social hypocrisy, dual standards, social follies and wavering personalities in the novel. This research concludes that the author has, by incorporating postmodern elements in the novel, highlighted social and cultural issues which are a reflection of our contemporary society.

Risk Factors of Lifestyle Diseases – Analysis by Decagonal Linguistic Neutrosophic Fuzzy Cognitive Map

Lifestyle (LS) diseases are the outcomes of undesirable customs incorporated by the upcoming generation. The people of developed and developing nations are battling to procrastinate the epoch of mortality caused by LS diseases. The change in one’s health state is characterized by the extensive role of the respective internal and external environment. Contemporary social structure, occupational scenario, behavioural change, and recklessness of dietetics altogether have yielded a shallow health. This study considers the predominant lifestyle diseases and its risk factors in comprehensive perspective. Decagonal Linguistic Neutrosophic Fuzzy cognitive map facilitates the representation of indeterminacy and linguistic representation between the risk factors. This research work aims in developing a new methodology to determine the impact of one risk factor over the other by alleviating the indeterminacy.

Lal Ded: Re-defining the Socio-Religious Realms of Kashmiri Culture

Lal Ded is an iconoclastic 14th century Kashmiri saint poetess whose life and works mark the beginning of the modern period in Kashmiri language and literature. Her poetry is an amalgamation of multifaceted and heterogeneous culture of Kashmir. Her works provide a fertile ground for studying and critiquing the existing norms and ways of life in Kashmir. The present paper attempts to understand the ways in which Lal Ded’s entry into the realm of religious poetry disrupts the dominant socio-religious order and lays down a foundation for a new understanding of the self, of the individual and the society, and that of the self and the cosmos. The two of the most important aspects of her social identity that the paper would focus on in order to study the contemporary social structure and its gradual growth are her gender and her religious philosophy. Her creation marks a radical break from the traditional roles associated with women as well as saints. In creating a space for herself and being true to her spirit, Lal Ded, left us a legacy that transformed the landscape of Kashmiri culture, language, and literature forever. She transcends the human constructed boundaries of gender, caste, age, and education. She asserts her individuality in an idiom and language that takes shape through her experiences and hence speaks to the hearts of millions. The present study provides a critical reading of her life and works through theories of feminism, marxism, and deconstruction.

The Dazzling Diversity and the Fundamental Unity: Peopling and the Genomic Structure of Ethnic India

India with a census size of 1.25 billion, harbours more than one-sixth of the world population. Contemporary India has a rich tapestry of cultures and ecologies. However, when we refer to the heritage and the glorious diversity of the land, we are generally referring to the immense diversity of its people. There are about 400 tribal groups and more than 4000 groups of castes and sub-castes, speaking 22 ‘officially’ recognized languages and 461 ‘tongues’ belonging to four major language families. Recent advances in molecular and statistical genetics have enabled the reconstruction of human history by studying living humans. The ability to sequence and study DNA by calibrating the rate of accumulation of changes with evolutionary time has enabled robust inferences about how humans have evolved and retrace their early paths of migration. Modern humans after their origin in Africa about 150,000 years before present, has migrated out-of-Africa to populate the entire globe. It is postulated that one of the earliest of these migration waves passed through India. Subsequently, the Indian sub-continent has occupied the center-stage of many Paleolithic and Neolithic migrations. Waves of migration at different points of time in history have resulted in India being a genetic melting pot. The contemporary social structure of Indian populations is characterized by endogamy with different degrees of porosity. The social structure, possibly coupled with large ecological heterogeneity, has resulted in largescale genetic diversity and local genetic differences within India. In this essay, I provide genetic evidence of how India may have been peopled, the nature and extent of its genetic diversity, and genetic structure among the extant populations of India. Studies of uniparental markers like the mtDNA and Y-chromosome has established the antiquity of the Indian populations. It has also outlined the possible earliest migration routes from out-of-Africa into India. However, for fine-graining the intricacies of migrations and admixture, uniparental markers are not extremely useful. An early effort with genomewide markers modeled the peopling of India as an admixture with only two distinct ancestries. However, recent studies have shown that the peopling in India has a much more complicated history, which has also been reshaped by cultural and demographic events. Evidence shows that populations of mainland India have atleast four distinct genetic ancestries. A distinct ancestry of the populations of Andaman archipelago is also identified and found to be co-ancestral to Oceania populations.

‘I didn’t even know that there was such a thing as aboriginal games’: a figurational account of how Indigenous students experience physical education

ABSTRACTThis article is about how Indigenous students from Year 7 to 10 at three government schools in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) experience PE. The research question being, how do Indigenous students experience PE at the schools selected for the research? A process oriented approach was used to answer this question. In particular, figurational sociology was chosen because of its usefulness in interpreting sociological problems processually. The idea of the figuration or configuration was utilized to represent human power relationships, as well as systems and processes. The study also drew upon the complimentary figurational concept of habitus. An accompanying methodology sympathetic to figurational sociology reconstructed the macro and micro levels of the figuration studied. This figuration being the PE provision across the three sites. The macro level depicts the contemporary social structure or ‘rules’ of the figuration and the micro level the individuals that exist within this social structure. Data were collected over a two year period using semi-structured interviews, school websites, school based documentation and wider ACT Education and Training Directorate system level documents. The research found that Indigenous students experience almost entirely Eurocentric PE that lacks acknowledgment of their own culture. The PE provided is an example of ‘superior’ knowledge characteristic of dominant groups. The research also showed that the habituses of key players such as principals, Health and Physical Education curriculum writers and teachers were pivotal as long-term processes in upholding Eurocentric PE content. The findings suggest that for Indigenous perspectives to be included in PE as stipulated in national level documentation, policy directives alone are inadequate. For meaningful change to take place alteration at the habitus level of the mentioned key players has to occur and such change requires a multi-faceted approach.

Funerary Variability in Late Eighth-Century B.C.E. Attica (Late Geometric II)

Attic mortuary practices of the last three decades of the eighth century B.C.E. (Late Geometric [LG] II) are principally marked by the dominance for adults of inhumation over cremation. Nevertheless, this transformation was not universally applied at all burial sites in Attica. Instead, funerary rites present a high degree of variability unprecedented in earlier periods. The Late Geometric burial record has been considered in certain quarters to be a reflection of the changes in contemporary social structures affected by the emergence of the polis. The collection and study of all LG II funerary evidence, not only that from Athens or the well-excavated and published necropoleis of Attica, lead to several interesting observations that demand a reconsideration of the attested funerary variability and the proposed interpretations. The treatment of the deceased seems to have largely depended on their age, with all age groups represented in the organized necropoleis. Thus, the discerned horizontal dimension of the mortuary rites needs to be addressed within the framework of contemporary Attic social developments.

Becoming with Animals: Sympoiesis and the Ecology of Meaning in London and Hemingway

Becoming with AnimalsSympoiesis and the Ecology of Meaning in London and Hemingway Ryan Hediger (bio) “An African Story,” a narrative lodged near the center of Ernest Hemingway’s posthumous novel The Garden of Eden, opens with the protagonist David coming alive to the presence of an elephant by feeling “his dog’s hair rise under his hand as he stroked him to be quiet” (159).1 The dog Kibo’s perceptions thus initiate David’s powerful encounter with the elephant, whose pursuit is central to the published novel’s larger dynamics. In other words, careful consideration of first the dog and then the elephant helps David access radically new understandings of his life. The animals are in embodied communicative dialog with David, enriching his understanding of his immediate circumstances, and beyond that, of the larger meanings of the episodes described in the story. Jack London often approaches animals in a similar fashion in his writing. Many critics suggest that London’s animals are commonly what might be called “humanimals”—that is, hybrid creations, less fully their nonhuman selves, more metaphorical, hybrid mixtures of themselves and humans.2 But like Hemingway, London relies on animal otherness to think through dimensions of human life that tend to remain unacknowledged and marginalized. In The Birth of a Jungle, Michael Lundblad presents a reading of London in this vein, revealing in the texts a disruptive interspecies affection, not easily reduced to familiar forms. Lundblad suggests that London is reaching for alternatives to the brutality of social Darwinism (71).3 This essay argues that in such cases, London and Hemingway expose and engage the profound intersubjectivity of humans and animals. “Inter-subjectivity,” in fact, is too familiar a term to adequately account for the completely interwoven character of human and nonhuman selves. Human becoming, as Donna Haraway has argued, has always been a becoming [End Page 5] with, a making with, a sympoiesis, as distinct from an autopoiesis, a self-making. She is my source for this term “sympoiesis,” which she develops in her book Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene.4 London’s and Hemingway’s animals are more than mere ciphers or metaphors, even more than companions; their feelings and senses are part of the subjectivity of people who think and act with them. This mutuality, this ecology of selfhood and meaning, takes robust yet intricate form in their work. I. Delusions of Solitary Striving: Sympoiesis in London First, to address further the term “sympoiesis”: An advantage of this neologism is that it unmoors our thinking from exaggerated notions of discrete, independent human selfhood. Human sympoiesis, easiest to see in human-to-human “intersubjectivity,” occurs at a number of other levels. About half of the cells in the human body, by number, are not human, consisting of bacteria, protists, fungi, and more, whose activities are necessary to human life.5 Similarly, the history and pre-history of humanity is deeply intertwined with other larger species like dogs, horses, and so on. Sympoiesis is not only in the past. Although many contemporary social structures have succeeded in deepening the illusion of human independence, many ordinary contemporary facts undermine that perception. To name just a few: the food supply relies on animals and animal bodies, not just as direct sources for flesh, milk, and so on, but also as sources for fertilizer, and in many parts of the world, as draft animals.6 When it comes to crops, our food supply depends profoundly on bees, whose pollination and other activities are necessary contributions to around one-third of our foodstuffs (Ellis). Many modern medical advances rely upon animal testing, and militaries continue to make use of dogs, horses, and other animals as part of the national defense of many nations (leaving aside the serious ethical questions about both these activities). There is much more to write in this spirit, but this list suffices for my purposes here. Only a few generations ago, the fact of animal importance would have been so clear as to obviate the need to state it. Evidence was everywhere. For example, the problem of horse dung in the streets in nineteenth-century New York City was glaring...

Litigations Without a Ruling: The Predicament of Administrative Law in China

The Administrative Litigation Law of China 1989 paints a rosy picture in which the individual and the government face each other in court, both submitting to the judgment of the law. However, in reality, many administrative cases do not conclude with judicial rulings but largely with withdrawals by plaintiffs (varying between 30-57%). In recent years, coordination and settlement in administrative litigations are even advocated in the official directives. This paper employs national statistical data, articles and reports written by judges to demonstrate that in most situations, withdrawals in administrative cases have not only denied individual plaintiffs the opportunity to protect their legal rights through litigation, but also rendered illusory any potential contribution that litigations might have towards the rule of law. The large number of withdrawals indicates the degree of difficulty that the institution of administrative litigation faces. Efforts made by the Supreme People’s Court to enhance the number of administrative cases or reduce the rate of withdrawal have failed to reverse the general pattern. The preference for coordination and settlement that courts at all levels have expressed in administrative litigation may be partly motivated by the prevailing judicial philosophy, but it is believed to be primarily a collective compromise that courts have made in face of challenging conditions. The paper indicates that the institution of administrative litigation, embedded in the contemporary political and social structure of China, cannot be a means for achieving constitutional governance in China, and its impact on social change is severely limited. To eliminate the obstacles to administrative litigation, the immediate priority should be the promotion of judicial independence and authority. In the long term, the reform depends on the growth of civil society and the perfection of democratic politics.

El impacto de la crisis entre los jóvenes en España

This article studies the impact of poverty during the process of transition to adult life in Spain within the context of the current crisis. It conceptualises young people by means of social criteria, through a multidimensional analysis of vulnerability and a methodological triangulation that combines quantitative analysis (European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, EU-SILC, 2011) with qualitative analysis, through biographical interviews. It localizes the existence of socially differentiated juvenile social groups within the contemporary social structure of Spain. It also shows how each social position is affected by specific forms of vulnerability. Finally, it evaluates the process of integration of this social position in the supjectivity and practices of Spanish youths in terms of reaction strategies in the face of poverty, degradation of identity, and social isolation: everything from the alternative search (often alegal, illegal and/or stigmatized) for material resources, to supjective mechanisms for relief from or relativization of their living conditions.

An Integral Approach Toward Transcending the Pedagogical Matrix: A Sociology Instructor’s Personal Reflection

As a young, second year adjunct who teaches sociology at a City University of New York (CUNY) community college in Brooklyn, I'm happy to say that I've had the good fortune of learning the ropes in my own way and in my own time. Being thrust into a position of instructing college pedagogies in classrooms full of forty students or more wasn't exactly a relaxing day at the beach to start out. Taking on the teacher role was something that was completely foreign to me; which I'm sure is an experience that many other young teachers at all types of institutions are familiar with. There were some rocky moments and, of course, some positive, confidence building moments to be had. However, due to the fact that I had to essentially on the fly, I found myself growing and expanding to levels that I wasn't even necessarily cognizant of. Each semester, my confidence and comfort levels increased, but so did the scope of my pedagogical practice. As I have evolved, so too has the equilibrium of my classroom dynamics in a much more balanced way (as opposed when I first started out). Furthermore, my evolutionary process has taken me to the point where I can observe a correlation between my stage of development and the broader social state of affairs around me at individual, institutional, and societal levels. For that reason, I'd like to specifically share my observations, perspectives, and ideas concerning contemporary educational culture in higher education.In this article, I utilize my sociological lens (among other lenses) to assess the state of educational and pedagogical environments. Specifically, I discuss the neoliberal effect on dominant pedagogies that gets transmitted through educational institutions. Then I discuss how these pedagogies work to severely constrain students' self-awareness and creative possibilities. In response, I cite alternative, integral approaches to education that offer a significantly different way for students to learn about themselves and their social enviromnent; whereby self-definition and self-empowerment are emphasized. Lastly, I divest how my own pedagogical and personal evolution has led me to develop my own effective, integral practices; which I share as an example for all others within higher education to read about in the hopes that they become inspired to potentially develop their own integral pedagogical methods for their specific environment.CONTEXTUALIZING AND UNDERSTANDING THE NEOLIBERAL CONTEXTWe can greatly expand our scope of analysis when discussing the prevailing neoliberal context in which our contemporary American culture has been based by prefacing it within the even larger social context of capitalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy. These interlocking systems combine to form an overarching matrix of power that works to create and influence social norms, values, belief systems, interaction, and social structure itself.1 In this way, racialized, economic, and gendered parameters and guidelines become set in order for dominant interests to become actualized and maintained. In the process of suiting these dominant interests, the stratified social identities of race, class, and gender (amongst many others) become produced and reproduced as a result. However, if we continue to expand the scope of analysis even farther, and continue to contextualize the social context, we find that the systems of capitalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy are actually based on the illusory premise or assumption of separateness. Understanding this illusory assumption becomes vitally important if we aim to truly realize why our contemporary social structure is set up the way that is; and thus develop ways in which we can genuinely transcend it.Very briefly, developments in quantum mechanics and neuroscience have been revealing that the universe (and everything in it; including social structure) is not actually a material universe of separate objects with matter being made up of solid atoms. …

Analysis of Ginseng Research Trend for last decade

department of a large Chinese medical hospital in Beijing, China. Results: Results demonstrated that Chinese medical psychology is a developing field that draws upon psychotherapy, psychiatry, biomedicine, and Chinese medicine in order to treat various formsof psychological suffering inChina. Results also reveal that the experience and treatment of psychological suffering in China is highly contingent upon unique socioeconomic and cultural circumstances, including traditional ideals of the self and their conflict with the demands of contemporary social structures as well as unique practice environments and the freedom of physicians to expand their scope of practice in China. Conclusion: In order to translate contemporary forms of Chinese medical psychology into integrative contexts outside of China, it is critical to take cultural, legal, and ethical factors into account. For example, licensing requirements in certain countries may preclude the practice of Chinese medical psychology in its full form by acupuncturists and other practitioners outside of China. Likewise, specific techniques used in Chinese medical psychology may not be culturally or ethically appropriate in other settings. These challenges are not unique to translating Chinese medical psychology, and much can be learned from ways in which general Chinese medicine has been translated in other countries. However, because of the particularly sensitive nature of psychological treatment, the translation of Chinese medical psychology warrants special consideration. Contact: Sonya Pritzker, spritzker@mednet.ucla.edu