Contemporary Social World Research Articles

Religion and the Internet: A microcosm for studying Internet trends and implications

This article argues that paying close attention to key findings within the study of religion and the Internet, a subfield of Internet Studies, can enhance our understanding and discussion of the larger social and cultural shifts at work within networked society. Through a critical overview of research on religion online, five central research areas emerge related to social practices, online–offline connections, community, identity, and authority online. It is also argued that observations about these themes not only point to specific trends within religious practice online, but also mirror concerns and findings within other areas of Internet Studies. Thus, studying religion on the Internet provides an important microcosm for investigating Internet Studies’ contribution in a wide range of contexts in our contemporary social world.

One step forward, one step Beck: a contribution to the ongoing conceptual debate in youth studies

In a time of rapid and unprecedented social change, the concepts we use to make sense of the ways in which young people understand and interact with the world are very much under the microscope. Some researchers argue that we need to reinvigorate our conceptual repertoire, while others argue that our theoretical tool box still has the capacity to consider continuities as well as change. Building on an earlier paper, this article provides a rejoinder to recent contributions to this debate written by Woodman and Threadgold. Attending to some misunderstandings, misinterpretations and oversights, the article aims to clarify and re-emphasise some important points I have made previously. In particular, the article argues for a coherent and comprehensive critical review of Beck's corpus before we uncritically and readily incorporate his perspectives into our ways of theorising the contemporary social world.

The role of women in building social capital in the region

The role of women in building social capital in region is topic worthy of ventilation in light of our almost total emphasis on building of human capital through formal education, and importance paid to individual and personal development. In so doing we have neglected importance of social capital with its emphasis on social and cultural networks for betterment of society. The paper will provide clear understanding of concept social capital and provide insights into role of women over time in building on its attributes, including socialization process in home and community in what we call informal education. The emphasis will not be on names and characters and their deeds (that work is yet to be done) but rather general impact on our contemporary social world. Social capital is created when individuals participate in civil society. Putnam (1995, p.67) has defined social capital as the features of social organization as networks, norms and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit. Fukuyama (1995) defines social capital as trust and thriving civil society. He places emphasis on importance of cultural capital. High trust societies are those, which have cultural traditions of cooperation and trust among non-kin in civil society, which can be transferred to economic institutions. The prevailing orthodoxy is based on theory of human capital (Shultz 1961 and Becker 1964, 1975) and is at heart of globalization process with individuals as only source of sustainable competitive advantage. Karabel and Halsey (1977) have noted that theory was used to explain poverty of nations and communities resulting from under-development of their human capital. It diverted attention from other forms of capital, notably social and cultural. Social and cultural capital with their emphasis on social relationships, shared values, and cultural traditions could very well be major focus of The Open Campus as it seeks to reframe its practice. Coffield (1999) makes point that human capital theory has nothing to say about polarization in income and wealth that is taking place globally. Coffield quotes Manuel Castells (1998,p.l61) who has produced extensive evidence to show how new forms of capitalism are creating sharp divide between valuable and non-valuable people and locales and a fundamental split in societies all over world: on one hand, active culturally self-defined elites, on other hand, increasingly uncertain, insecure, social groups, deprived of informative resources and power, digging their trenches of resistance. A variety of social purpose educators recommend building social-capital as practical way of strengthening civil society, of encouraging civic participation, countering social exclusion and promoting public good. In fact it is felt by some that social capital should take its place alongside physical and human capital in successful and sustainable communities. We are already witnessing that with de-emphasis of social capital in region there is diminished civil society; that sector of public life that is outside political and economic spheres: sphere of voluntary and associations and informal networks in which individuals and groups engage in activities of public consequence (Friedland and Sirarmi, 1995, p. 15). It is about how we live together in communities and work together for common good. Large sums of money have been borrowed by our governments and spent on education but returns have been disappointing. On other hand social problems, poverty, 'brain drain' and growing loss of social identity exist. Reference will be made throughout to concept of informal education that is gaining prominence in educational research. Formal education refers to organized educational activity within established formal system both private and public, as well as specialised programmes offering technical and professional training. …

Postmodernism and Sociology: From the Epistemological to the Empirical

This article investigates the place of postmodernism in sociology today by making a distinction between its epistemological and empirical forms. During the 1980s and early 1990s, sociologists exposited, appropriated, and normalized an epistemological postmodernism that thematizes the tentative, reflective, and possibly shifting nature of knowledge. More recently, however, sociologists have recognized the potential of a postmodern theory that turns its attention to empirical concerns. Empirical postmodernists challenge classical modern concepts to develop research programs based on new concepts like time-space reorganization, risk society, consumer capitalism, and postmodern ethics. But they do so with an appreciation for the uncertainty of the social world, ourselves, our concepts, and our commitment to our concepts that results from the encounter with postmodern epistemology. Ultimately, this article suggests that understanding postmodernism as a combination of these two moments can lead to a sociology whose epistemological modesty and empirical sensitivity encourage a deeper and broader approach to the contemporary social world.

La Ciberciudad: una visión de lo social y lo urbano desde la cibernética

Coming up from an observation over the contemporary social world and its layers of relations and combinations, this paper suggests the necessity of concepts and more complex standards for the conceptual organization than the few ones available so far. One of those concepts is Cyberculture, and some of those new standards for the conceptual organization are the Cybernetics, the Systemics and the Communicology. This proposition’s main view point is that an understanding of the Cyberculture settled over the computers and Internet images is not enough, the power of the word exists when it recalls an idea built on our best contemporary scientific sights. And that is the instance in which the body of the text is developed. Cyberculture is a concept that combines reflexivity, complexity, constructivity and creation. Besides, the best place for its application is the elemental form of our social life ecology, the city; which from the point of view of Cyberculture will turn to a Cybercity, along with all that implicates in thinking, communictations and action overlapping and building the complexity.

Articulating Class In "Post‐Fordist" France

In recent yean, there has been a growing interest in analyzing the political and economic changes that have occurred under late capitalism Anthropologists and sociologists alike have suggested that one of the key changes that has taken place in the international organization of capitalism has been the shift from a mass "Fordut" system of industrial organization to globalized or "Post‐Fordist" regimes of flexible accumulation. It has been argued that shift has not only reshaped the material realities of peoples' everyday lives but they have also altered the ways in which people constitute themselves as collective subjects. Universalist forms of identification such as class, so it is argued have given way to a series of new forms of affiliation involving national ties, regionalism, ties of ethnic affinity and detemtorialized forms of solidarity While the appearance of new forms of affiliation have undoubtedly surfaced along with the large scale transformations of late capitalism, the extent to which they have overridden old forms of identity is the subject of much debate. In this paper. I will argue it may be premature to jettison the notion of class in any attempt to understand the dynamics of contemporary social world. Rather what is needed are attempts to problematize class identity and, indeed class relations in their complex relationship to emergent particularistic forms of affiliation. Drawing on research amongst the family farmers in rural Languedoc, who often engaged in militant forms of regional activism. Otis paper then argues, that class, especially in its complex relations to region, remains core in structuring collective identities in the context of late capitalism

Differences, Conflations and Foundations: The limits to 'accurate' theoretical representation of disabled people's experience?

ABSTRACT This article proposes that current approaches to theorising disability as a form of social oppression and their relationship to disabled people's experiences are hampered by a modernist conceptual framework, which is increasingly at odds with the contemporary social world and with developments in theory-making as a whole. In order to bring disability theory closer to the lives of disabled people and the politics of new social movements, it is argued that the conceptual underpinnings of theory must be broadened beyond their current focus on structures, which view differences in terms of delimiting boundaries to one which includes an awareness of the relational, mediatory and performative role of discourse, and the increasing importance of local knowledges in shaping the social and political world.