Current Sociological Theory Research Articles

It has touched us all: Commentary on the social implications of touch during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper considers the political implications of the COVID-19 pandemic through a focus on the sense of touch. It begins by briefly outlining current sociological and philosophical theories of touch as an empathetic, pervasive, and social sense. Taking lead from news media, it then suggests how touch and virus-enforced touchlessness intersects with issues of race, class, gender, ableism, and technology. Action taken by governing bodies in the face of the pandemic, such as the introduction of lockdowns and the emphasis on working from home, signals and protects privilege while exacerbating oppression for the marginalised and Othered. The ability to both deny touch and simultaneously flaunt advice surrounding distancing clarifies a point of departure that separates the lower classes and the racialised, the non-male and the less abled, from the male and able-bodied, the white and wealthy.

Beyond the Disposition and Deliberation Dichotomy: The Interrelation of Teacher Habit and Intention in the Adoption of Student Advisories*

Using the example of teachers implementing student advisories as part of a larger school reform effort, this article proposes a rethinking of the dichotomous relationship between disposition and deliberation posited by much of the sociological literature. Running student advisories may be a challenge for teachers if they lack the dispositions necessary for providing students with social–emotional support and guidance. Current sociological theory, however, is at odds with our cognitive understandings of how dispositions and deliberation interrelate in situations like the one described in this article where actors are tasked with changing their habits. To address this shortcoming, I draw on a qualitative analysis of observations, interviews, and focus groups of 21 teachers and administrators to develop a typology of the ways teachers use deliberative action to deal with such situations: traditionalists, who engage in deliberative action to maintain existing dispositions; transposers, who deliberatively apply existing alternative dispositions to the situation; and cultivators, who do not possess the dispositions needed to succeed but engage in a deliberative process to develop them.

Faith and Existential Security: Making Deuteronomy 8 Respond to a Current Sociological Theory

Faith and Existential Security: Making Deuteronomy 8 Respond to a Current Sociological Theory

The Sociology of Social Intercourse in the Social Sciences

The paper aims to discuss the materials and outcomes of recently conducted research dealing with an analysis of the similarities and differences in current sociological theories exploring social inter-connection phenomena. The authors translate the term “obschenie”employed in Russian literature as “social intercourse”. Four basic theoretical constructions are under scrutiny, those being Anne Rawls’ interaction order theory, Randall Collins’ interaction ritual chains theory, Jeffrey Alexander’s theory of social performance, and Jonathan Turner’s theory of interpersonal behavior. The paper’s point of departure is an idea that there is a line ascending from the sociological theory of human interactions to the tradition represented in social science by Durkheim and Goffman. The discussion opens with an attempt to depict and classify the realities of “social intercourse” occurrences, followed with an assessment of its basic characteristics. Having displayed analytical and conceptual problems that the phenomenon “social intercourse” generates for sociological theory, the paper turns to a comparative analysis of the four noted theoretical interpretations of interaction in society. The outcomes of such an analysis drive authors to present and explore the research dilemmas that configure current theoretical sociological analysis of “social intercourse”. The closing part of the paper delineates the relations between the sociology of “social intercourse” with the sociology of everyday life and the sociology of emotions.

Beyond the Nation State and the Comparative Method? Decolonizing the Sociological Imagination

Beyond the Nation State and the Comparative Method? Decolonizing the Sociological Imagination

The Intelligent, Thoughtful Personality: Librarianship as a Process of Identity Formation

Current sociological theory defines ‘profession’ as a process of identity formation rather than the acquisition of traits or the wielding of power or expertise. Professions are sites of identity formation, where professionals come to terms with their class, racial, ethnic, or gender identities in the context of their professional institution. This paper examines the role that the women’s racial, ethnic, and gender identities played in the formation of the profession of librarianship in Utah, how these librarians understood those identities in the context of their profession, and how their personal identity influenced their professional identity.

Christians and Their Many Identities in Late Antiquity, North Africa, 200–450 CE. By Éric Rebillard. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2012. ix + 134 pp. $49.95 cloth.

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)Christians and Their Many Identities in Late Antiquity, North Africa, 200-450 CE . By Eric Rebillard . Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press , 2012. ix + 134 pp. $49.95 cloth.Book Reviews and NotesNorth African Christianity between 200 and 450 CE is well-trodden territory. Augustine and Tertullian penetrate the minds of theological students, not mention those in Classics, and Cyprian usually is not too far behind. However, new questions and new approaches continue make revisiting these old friends fruitful. Eric Rebillard's study is a case in point. His tapping into current sociological and literary theory assists him in creating a stimulating narrative, but it also distracts.His thesis is found late in the book: my goal was not show that enjoyed 'normal' day-to-day relations with non-Christians (a point conceded by scholars of early Christianity), but argue that Christianness was only one of a plurality of identities available be activated in a given situation (a point too often neglected in favor of the study of group or collective identity) (92, emphasis added). It would have been helpful have had this appear in the introduction as well as the conclusion. Methodologically, Rebillard proceeds with a deconstructive reading of the writings of the three luminaries mentioned above along with a selection of other relevant literature. Where he offers his own translations, he produces attractive and lucid texts (22).One of the primary strengths of Rebillard's study is his reaching through the work of the literati gain insight into the lives of the masses of contemporary Christians--I am less interested in Tertullian's view than I am concerned with what he reveals about the different and sometimes contradictory attitudes of other Christians (25), and most scholars have simply adopted the criteria of the . . . and have given too little consideration the arguments used by when they challenged their bishops (70). The relationships among the led and the leaders are always symbiotic and complicated. The concerns of the people rise decision-makers and shape their agendas, negatively or positively, and Rebillard's work makes that very clear regarding the era and the places he is studying. The people are found in the rhetoric of their superiors.A second strength is Rebillard's foregrounding of diversity. As elsewhere, the story of Christianity at these times and places often reads flat or two-dimensional. Rebillard has found ways provide depth. He magnifies the texture of the story. Anyone who has had anything do with a church, or a history department for that matter, knows that the texture was rough, but that reality typically is overlooked. Rebillard argues that Emperor Decius issued an edict in 250 in an effort to restore the pax deorum in a very troubled period (48). Commenting the variety of Christians' responses the edict, he says on the one hand the majority of did not consider the sacrifice relevant their membership [as Christians] and accordingly performed it freely and willingly; the other, a number of did not want sacrifice because of their membership. …

Contemporary adoptive kinship: a contribution to new kinship studies

AbstractThis paper was concerned with the changing nature of adoptive kinship. The analysis was located in the context of current sociological and anthropological theory and parallels were drawn with other alternative family forms i.e. gay and lesbian families, and families formed by new reproductive technologies.Adoption as a family form has largely been neglected in sociological and anthropological literature, yet the changing nature of adoption, particularly in relation to open adoption and gay and lesbian adoption, means that it has an important contribution to make to new discourses of kinship. Adoption is far more likely to feature in psychological and child welfare literature than that on the family and kinship, yet it is a unique addition to the heterogeneous family landscape with a profound impact on cultural definitions of family and kinship.By considering contemporary adoption practice through a social construction and kinship theory lens, the paper argues that new kinship studies are helpful in conceptualizing adoptive kinship. Adoption also has a valuable and significant contribution to make to contemporary kinship theory.

Participação, cultura política e cidades

Este trabalho faz uma apresentação comentada dos cinco artigos que constituem o presente dossiê, à luz de referências teóricas e bibliográficas sobre os temas da participação, da cultura política e das cidades. A intenção é contribuir com o debate acerca da democracia participativa e suas implicações na teoria sociológica atual. A apresentação está estruturada de forma a permitir um encadeamento dos temas tratados pelos artigos, iniciando por um resgate do contexto histórico e das referências teóricas sobre as dimensões envolvidas nos conteúdos que estruturam o dossiê.

Middle/Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age Cyprus: New Perspectives in Archaeological Theory and Techniques

The paper presented at the conference serves as an introduction to a research project that has recently been started at the University of Edinburgh in regards to the operation , interactions and transformations of social structures and formations during the Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age on the island . Ab initio it is observed that up to now a plethora of spatio-temporally and often times theoretically limited and frequently incongruent or even conflicting theories have been proposed regarding the form , historical trajectories and transformations of the social groups inhabiting Cyprus in the aforesaid periods . Nevertheless a comprehensive , islandwide overview of the socio-political and cultural systems of the periods in question is still lacking , while the issue of the transition from the Late Chalcolithic to the Early Bronze Age is still under heated debate . In this short presentation the aforementioned theoretical propositions are briefly presented , but not critiqued , while the research goals , methodology , working hypotheses and the philosophical-theoretical substratum of the project are more thoroughly explained . In way of summary it is mentioned that the project aspires to employ rigorous philosophical thinking in order to fuse concepts from current sociological and archaeological theory , whilst implementing novel techniques of data recording and treatment . Within this research strategy ’ s context , digital databases , spatial analysis and robust statistical techniques are utilised in order to re-examine the majority of relevant data and achieve a synthesis of data and theory in order to critically interpret the observed phenomena of socio-cultural transformations.

Differential association theory and juvenile delinquency in Ghana's capital city - Accra: The case of Ghana borstal institute

Current sociological theories argue that, delinquency results from economic and family relational problems. Unable to have their parents meet their material needs, children turn to all sorts of activities, many of which eventually lead to delinquent acts. Other theories focus on the role of peer relationships in determining deviancy. Using Edwin Sutherland’s differential association theory, this study explores the notion that, delinquency in inmates of the Ghana borstal institute is a reflection of the peer groups/friendship relations they hanged out with. Data for the study were collected from the Ghana borstal institute, a correctional institution for reforming juvenile offenders with structured questionnaire. The findings point to the presence of Differential Association at the onset of inmate’s delinquent behaviours though circumspection is recommended in the attempts to validate differential association as the study was carried out on institutionalized, verified group of delinquent juveniles. The close relationship between differential association and delinquency may not be present in noninstitutionalized juvenile offenders.

Inklusion als Zielpunkt einer modernen Sozialpolitik

Abstract Following the logic of constitutional economics a market economy is not legitimized by its efficiency, but by the agreement of individuals on a specific economic and political order. Consequently, it is plausible that individuals will agree on such orders, which guarantee to a large extent participation in societal life. In the current sociological theory and political practice this aspect is centred in the discussion of “inclusion”. In our paper we will discuss inclusion and its possibilities and constraints in regard to the economic system. We will show that a modern understanding of social policy is an essential and indispensable part of a modern society that will focus on inclusion as its main criterion of legitimization.

What Does it Mean that PRIMES is in P?

In August 2002, three Indian computer scientists published a paper entitled `PRIMES is in P' online. It presents a `deterministic algorithm' which determines in `polynomial time' if a given number is a prime number. The story was quickly picked up by the general press, and by this means spread through the scientific community of complexity theorists, where it was hailed as a major theoretical breakthrough. This is despite scientists regarding the media reports as vulgar popularizations. When the paper was published in a peer-reviewed journal only 2 years later, the three scientists had already received wide recognition for their accomplishment. Current sociological theory challenges the ability to clearly distinguish on independent epistemic grounds between distorted and non-distorted scientific knowledge. It views the demarcation lines between such forms of presentation as contextual and unstable. In my paper, I challenge this view. By systematically surveying the popular press coverage of the `PRIMES is in P' affair, I argue — against the prevailing new orthodoxy — that distorted simplifications of scientific knowledge are distinguishable from non-distorted simplifications on independent epistemic grounds. I argue that in the `PRIMES is in P' affair, the three scientists could ride on the wave of the general press-distorted coverage of their algorithm, while counting on their colleagues' ability to distinguish genuine accounts from distorted ones. Thus, their scientific reputation was unharmed. This suggests that the possibility of the existence of independent epistemic standards must be incorporated into the new SSK model of popularization.

En'lightening' energy use: the co-evolution of household lighting practices

Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFLs) are a well-developed, readily available technology that could deliver substantial energy savings in the residential sector. Due to this, lighting is usually a preferred target for household energy-saving campaigns and policies. However, the energy used to light homes continues to rise. In order to explore the reasons behind this increase, this paper examines changing household lighting practices in the UK using recent in-depth interview data and drawing upon current sociological theories about the construction of consumption practices. The paper illustrates how lighting choices made by householders tend to co-evolve with the household lighting practices portrayed by the media. It concludes that policies seeking to promote energy-efficient lighting technologies would be well advised to enlist the support of lighting designers, manufacturers, advertisers and sales people involved in the presentation of household lighting practices in the media.

Research on the Development of Sociological Theory Using Laudan's Scientific Philosophy of Research Traditions

The methodology of “theory construction” developed in the U.S. around 1970 established an approach for the development of sociological theories. However, this methodology underestimates the value of studies conducted on classical sociological theories. According to Laudan's philosophy of science, the studies on the classical theories can develop current sociological theories by solving conceptual problems, identifying anomalies, and comparing the strengths and weaknesses of several sociological research traditions. By studying these classical sociological theories, we can find problems that require a solution and clues to solve these problems. However, it is very difficult to develop a theory only through studies on these classical theories because conceptual and empirical problems are closely connected to each other. In order to solve an empirical problem, we must gather and analyze data. Therefore, we must solve both conceptual and empirical problems simultaneously in order to develop sociological theories. This can be achieved through derivation and by joining a “good” research group.

Exposing the Limitations of Disability Theory: The Case of Juvenile Batten Disease

Current estimates suggest that approximately 10% of the world's population, more than half a billion people, are disabled. It is predicted that this number will rise dramatically in the next quarter of a century and that increasing longevity of children with gene-linked disability means that this group will make up an ever more significant percentage of this number in the West. The area of disability studies has developed alongside an increasing awareness that ‘disability’ is about more than the care of functionally impaired people. This paper explores the nature of juvenile Batten disease; a rare, neurodegenerative, metabolic disease; as a means of exposing some of the limitations of current sociological theory around disability. The arguments for the social construction of disability and the removal or separation of the body or ‘impairment’ from disability are addressed along with the issue of the ‘new genetics’. It is suggested that, while disability theory has made huge advances in disability awareness, it has marginalized the embodied experiences of those with multiple or profound disability.

Privatizing the Welfare State: Nonprofit Community-Based Organizations as Political Actors

This paper examines a form of state social provision that has been neglected by current sociological theory: publicly funded supportive services. Federal policies of privatization and devolution, embraced since the Reagan years, have made private, nonprofit organizations the primary deliverers of these services. Public supportive services are distributed via competitive state- and local-level allocative processes that send government contracts to specific nonprofit community-based organizations (CBOs), which in turn serve specific neighborhoods and individuals. I describe a model by which CBOs generate greater contract revenues by adding electoral politics to their more traditional roles of providing services and building communities. This model produces a new kind of CBO: the machine politics CBO. By reciprocally distributing services to residents and binding residents to the organization, machine politics CBOs create reliable voting constituencies for local elected officials. These officials trade these constituencies at higher levels of the governmental system and steer government human service contracts to favored CBOs. Through this process, nonprofit CBOs can influence the allocation of service-based social provision in cities and therefore impact individuals' ability to access these services.

The Formation of Christianity in Antioch: A Social-Scientific Approach to the Separation between Judaism and Christianity

The Formation of Christianity in Antioch: A Social-Scientific Approach to Separation between and Christianity, by Magnus Zetterholm. Routledge Early Church Monographs. London/New York: Routledge, 2003. Pp. xiv + 272. $92.95 (hardcover). ISBN 0415298962. Historical analysis of relationship between and Christianity in first centuries of Common Era, long a central concern in study of Christian origins, seems to be approaching a crossroads. The general of model that has dominated scholarship since second World War has become object of substantial and serious criticism (see, e.g., Adam H. Becker and Annette Yoshiko Reed, eds., The Ways That Never Parted: and Christians in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages [TSAJ 95; Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003]). And Paul, traditionally regarded as a (if not the) decisive figure in this respect, has himself been read within Judaism in an increasing number of recent studies (see on this point John G. Gager, Reinventing Paul [New York: Oxford University Press, 2000]). Yet another sign of healthy reconsideration of conventional wisdom on this matter revised version of Magnus Zetterholm's doctoral dissertation (Lund University, 2001), which brings current sociological theory to bear on separation as it occurred in one specific location, Antioch-on-the-Orontes. The book's provocative thesis that parting of ways, at least here, was essentially an inner-Christian affair: result of a conscious effort by Jesus-believing to dissociate themselves from Jesus-believing Jews to whose community they were attached. What more, it was not Paul who laid groundwork for this separation, but James. In first chapter, Zetterholm explains that approach to general problem of separation of and Christianity taken by James D. G. Dunn's The Parting of Ways (London: SCM, 1991) inadequate on three scores: its limited focus on ideological aspects (Zetterholm will deal with these, but within a sociological framework [p. 4]); its notion that Paul meant to replace the Torah with faith in Christ for both and (Zetterholm assumes, with Gager, that Paul envisioned separate paths to salvation for and Gentiles [p. 5]); and, most interestingly, its assumption that the original Jewish and Gentile identities of adherents to Jesus movement are transformed into a common Christian identity (Zetterholm prefers to speak of Jesus-believing Jews and Jesus-believing [p. 6, his emphasis]). Since separation cannot in any case be assumed to have occurred uniformly everywhere, Zetterholm limits his study to one location: Antioch. Given paucity and questionable reliability of sources, Zetterholm finds sociological theories to be indispensable gap-fillers, indeed, providers of in those cases where the alternative, given state of evidence, is to say nothing (pp. 10, 11). He thus proposes a four-part method involving (i) assumption of general theoretical perspective of sociology of knowledge as presented by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckman, The Social Construction of Reality (London: Penguin, 1991); (ii) use of more specific sociological theories and models to illuminate particular problems; (iii) comparative study of other data from antiquity; and, of course, (iv) analysis of primaiy source material from Antioch. A case considered made we find something in texts about local situation in Antioch that makes sense from an underlying social-scientific perspective, and if this text can be analyzed with modern theories in order to extract more information from it, and if we also find expressions of same phenomenon in other ancient texts dealing with other locations (p. 14). In eh. 2, Zetterholm provides a broad treatment of history of, and sociopolitical conditions in, ancient Antioch in order to provide a general context for study. …

Murder and Masculinity, Violent Fictions of Twentieth-Century Latin America

Rebecca Biron breaks new ground in this study of masculinity, violence, and the strategic construction of collective political identities in twentieth-century Latin American fiction. By engaging current sociological, psychoanalytic, and feminist theories, Murder and Masculinity analyzes the cliche of proving virility through violence against women. Biron develops her argument through close readings of five works: Jorge Luis Borges's La intrusa, Armonia Somer's El despojo, Clarice Lispector's A Maca no Escuro, Manuel Puig's The Buenos Aires Affair, and Reinaldo Arenas's El Asalto. Although men murdering women is often interpreted as nothing more than machista misogyny, Biron argues that the five narratives addressed in this book show that healed masculinities are essential to the achievement of cultural identity and political autonomy in Latin America. The introduction to this study deftly situates Biron's work in relation to previous theoretical arguments on the social and political dimensions of Latin American writing. The five subsequent chapters offer superb analyses of the individual texts. Like their male protagonists who experiment with the psychological and legal extremes of gender division, these narratives risk nonconformity to the laws of genre in their quest for liberation from violent social and literary conventions. In combining elements of detective stories, crime narratives, psychological case studies, and magical or grotesque realism, they offer metafictional commentary on a network of discourses that confuses images of masculinity, national identity, and political autonomy in postcolonial Latin America.

Citizens in the maelstrom of change: Individual and collective experience in Serbia in times of transformation

In analyzing any society, particularly those which, like Serbia, have undergone deep ruptures and turmoil in a short period of time, the perspective of everyday life and ordinary people's experiences is indispensable. In addition, the application of current sociological and anthropological theories of everyday life on today's Serbia, seeking to capture personalized interpretations whereby ordinary citizens make sense of all that has happened to them during the past fifteen years, can yield broader theoretical implications. For, from this perspective it is easier to identify the limited and partial nature of various theories articulated in other, stable societies. In this overview some of these theories are marked along with starting premises of the research, and key events and symbolically charged concepts of the most recent Serbian history that will be the focus of the analysis of ordinary people's narratives collected through targeted fieldwork.