Sociological Ideas Research Articles

Sociology and Literature: Notes on an Ambivalent Affinity

The paper begins with Wolf Lepenies’ idea of sociology as a “third culture“, positioned between science and the humanities. Lepenies argues that sociology arose in the 19th century in the context of a bitter rivalry with literature, as both contestants sought to become the principal guide in helping humanity find its way in the new, modern society ushered in by political and industrial revolutions of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This competition forced sociology to seek legitimacy at the opposite side by borrowing epistemological principles from natural science, which eventually resulted in sociology’s irremediably “middle“ position, which has defined it ever since. The paper focuses on one side of the triangle only, i.e. the relation of sociology to literature, and reviews four possible ways in which the affinity between the two has been construed in sociology’s self-reflection and professional practice. 1) One is based on the recognition of similarities in contents, arguing that both speak of essentially the same subject matter – individuals, families and their destinies within society, conveyed through narrative. Here, the 19th century novel is particularly pertinent, with writers such as Balzac, Zola, and Flaubert leading the way. 2) The second form of affinity points to the similarly privileged social position of both disciplines, and the concomitant responsibility that is ascribed to each in redressing social wrongs and changing the social world for the better. Bourdieu’s conceptualization of the issue is discussed as the most fruitful. 3) Third, the category of “writing“ connects them as two different forms of textual production, with both being subject to comparable requirements of style, genre, and rhetoric. Within contemporary sociology, Jeffrey Alexander’s cultural sociology and social constructionism refracted through sociology’s methodological legacy of qualitative analysis are taken as representative in understanding of sociology as close to literary production. 4) The most abstract conceptualization of similarities locates them at the level of cognitive structures, with both literature and sociology seeking to uncover deeper truths hidden under the screen of self-evident conventions and routines of everyday life. Here, the examples are provided by Lahire’s interpretation of Kafka and Boltanski’s argument about parallels between sociology and detective and spy novels, as well as by more general discussions of literature’s stylistic devices that sometimes give it an advantage in capturing aspects of social reality. In conclusion, it is argued that sociology remains a “third culture“ and that a closer and more open-minded reflection on its affinity with literature could help revitalize its potentials in the contemporary context.

Durkheim’s war for civilization

Émile Durkheim’s collaborations with other French intellectuals during the war in various committees and polemical pamphlets, editorials, and scholarly essays are treated here as both a continuation of and a challenge to ideas he had developed earlier concerning social solidarity, the science of sociology, socialism, the modern state, and, ultimately, the moral foundations of civilization itself. Writing on behalf of the French war effort and against German “barbarism,” he tacitly or explicitly developed insights from his books On the Division of Social Labour, Suicide, The Rules of Sociological Method, and The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, and he elaborated on themes from his lecture courses on socialism, professional ethics and civic morals, and education. Although his wartime writings were largely commissioned, written, and published as propaganda, they also provided him with an opportunity to test, refine, and in some instances revise sociological arguments he had been working on throughout his career. Rather than bringing Durkheim’s scholarly production to an abrupt halt or signaling a gradual decline in his intellectual capacities, the war provoked him to rethink some of his key sociological ideas and inspired him to take his research program in new directions.

Selected problems of the application of sociological theories in the theory of education

The importance of sociology for the theory of upbringing is obvious. The pedagogue can use it in several ways. The first is the "encrusting" of the pedagogical text using sociological quotes and terms. Another is the use of sociology to characterize social and cultural factors of education. You can rely on it completely and uncritically. Hide behind the authority of sociological fame. The pedagogue can also critically analyse sociological theories, and determine their paradigmatic assumptions, including ontological and epistemological assumptions. Everything is fine when the educator independently develops the sociological idea, the author takes responsibility for the "theoretical scaffolding" he uses, and does not shirk responsibility by hiding behind the back of a "famous" sociologist. The most valuable, but very demanding way of using sociological knowledge by a pedagogue is the interdisciplinary ability to independently (although of course based on existing concepts and research results) of sociological thinking by the theorist of education. However, this requires creative mastery of sociology. We find such cases in scientific practice. You can also go without sociology at all, but then the subject of the study becomes an artefact, "preparation" wholly taken out of reality. You can also go without sociology at all, but then the subject of the study becomes an artefact, "preparation" wholly taken out of reality.

The Black Consciousness Movement in Azania (South Africa): A triple heritage

Starting with the 2015 Rhodes Must Fall campaign, there has been renewed interest in the philosophy of black consciousness through popular expressions – on social media and mainstream media articles – and by scholars. This article seeks to revisit the origins of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) in Azania (South Africa). Through an examination of primary sources, that is, documents written by the activist writers of the movement and secondary sources by scholars who reflect on the movement and other expressions of black resistance against colonialism and the oppression of black people globally, this article relies mainly on literature review of documents that are in the public domain. The overall findings of the review show that the BCM drew inspiration from and was shaped by the ‘black radical tradition’ influences from North America (specifically the United States), the Caribbean and South American region, and from the African continent, including locally in South Africa. While shaped by these influences the BCM adapted them and responded to the peculiarities of the condition of black people in South Africa and thus formulated a unique brand of black consciousness. The conclusion reached herein is that movements and the ideas that they espouse, are often confluences of views and practices drawn from different sources.Transdisciplinary Contribution: This article contributes to the understanding of the evolution of political movements from a variety of disciplines – political studies, history, sociology of ideas, history of consciousness and political philosophy.

In search of global sociology: a critical overview of competing research agendas

This article critically examines the idea of global sociology in relationship to the discipline of Sociology. While the discipline initially emerged in Western societies, in the post-1945 era, the field extended its reach to the rest of the world. The intellectual project of global sociology emerged in the 1960s and has been on the agenda of the International Sociological Association since at least 1990. Delving deeper than the mere notion of a sociology that is applied to the world, global sociology requires the re-examination of the role of core sociological concepts and narratives, especially regarding the extent to which these reflect Eurocentric preoccupations. Global modernisation (alongside Global Studies) and Postcolonial Sociology, two of the most widely known research fields claiming global intent, are examined as to whether they provide meaningful blueprints for global sociology. Both offer promising insights but also suffer from important drawbacks. Instead of attempting to unearth new grand narratives that would displace the narrative of Western modernity, though, it might be possible to envision a plurality of such narratives coming from different regions of the globe. Sociology can thus be conceived not as exclusively global but also as local and glocal.

Neuroqueer frontiers: Neurodiversity, gender, and the (a)social self

AbstractThis paper critically synthesizes leading edge scholarship on neurodiversity, arguing that sociology could expand its account for the relationship between self and society through attention to the (a)social practices of those constructed as neurologically disabled. Autistic scholar‐activism birthed the neurodiversity paradigm, which claims respect for neurological diversity and its social manifestations. Sexual and gender variation are among those. I review research on the confluence of neurological, sexual, and gender variance, pointing to opportunities for documenting the roles of social institutions in constructing and regulating divergent bodyminds, as well as new intersectional identities and social movements. Next, I synthesize nascent literature developing neuroqueer theory. “Neuroqueer” articulates the queer nature of neurodivergence and examines the entwinement of the two. Centering the epistemic authority of bodyminds problematized as lacking self‐control/intent, perspective‐taking, and reliance on the social symbolic, neuroqueer scholars forward (a)social ways of knowing, communicating, communing, and being human. Focusing on neuronormativity, interdependent with better‐recognized normativities (e.g., gender, ethnicity, etc.), neuroqueer theory offers fresh perspective on how dominant concepts and relations render some bodyminds problematic—legitimate objects of exclusion, marginalization, and “rehabilitation.” In doing so, it troubles sociological ideas about agency, sociality, communication, and what it means to be/have a (social) self.

The Conception of the Urban, 1800-1875

Many writers in northwestern Europe circa 1800 to 1875 attempted to grasp the dual dynamic of industrialization and urbanization. They contributed to a genre that we would now recognize as urban sociology. They attempted to grasp new social phenomena and to develop categories adequate for them. The writers who contributed to this body of literature mediated their experience through psychological, social, and cultural understandings, but they nonetheless partially grasped their world. In so doing, they developed historically specific categories. Their writing simultaneously recognized and misrecognized their world; it both affirmed the new dynamics of capitalism and urbanization and criticized them, pointing to a different and better world beyond them. This analysis will draw out of this body of literature avant lettre foundational ideas of sociology and social theory including ones more fully developed later by Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, Ferdinand Tӧnnies, and Georg Simmel.

From the ‘culture wars’ to reparative histories

The ‘culture wars’ that dominate public discourse in the UK turn, very often, on the significance accorded to histories of empire, slavery, and colonialism. What seems to be primarily of concern is the place of such histories in the telling of our national story. In this section, the articles explore different ways in which we could think about the relationship of the past with the present. Specifically, the articles collected here use the frame of ‘reparative histories’ as a potentially more effective way of engaging with complex and contested pasts. They address the idea of a reparatory sociology, colonial photography, representation and indigenous spaces, the gendering of reparative histories, and the need to rethink the welfare state from such a perspective.

Shaping Language Pedagogy: The Impact of Linguistics, Psychology, and Sociology from the 1880s to the 1980s

The time frame from the 1880s to the 1980s represents a crucial era where foundational ideas in linguistics, psychology, and sociology were established. Major developments in these fields such as the emergence of modern linguistics, establishment of psychology as a distinct scientific discipline, Durkheim’s concept of collective consciousness and societal nature of beliefs, two world wars, and geopolitical changes greatly influenced language teaching methodologies and theories during this time. The impact of these events resulted in changes within school systems, prompting ministries of education to take administrative measures. It also gave rise to the establishment of new organizations like the International Phonetic Association (IPA) and associations for language teachers. The research aims to provide a nuanced understanding of the interconnectedness of linguistics, psychology, and sociology in molding language pedagogy during a crucial period in its historical development. The intersection of these disciplines sheds light on shaping language teaching methodologies and theories, offering insights for educators, researchers, and policymakers in the field of language education.

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?

Лояльность местных элит центральной власти: общие закономерности и институциональные контексты

The article presents the conceptualization of loyalty (subordinates to superiors), the construction of the general theoretical hypothesis about the main causal factors of loyalty, as well as the analysis of the institutional contexts of the (dis)loyalty of local elites to the central government. Loyalty is understood as a variable characteristic of the political attitudes of actors (individuals and groups), combining recognition of the legitimacy of power, readiness to follow the adopted policy, obedience to orders, and reporting of reliable information about the state of affairs. Based on the general ideas of neo-Weberian political sociology, a hypothesis has been proposed about the basic factors that strengthen loyalty. The more an actor perceives a certain authority as providing his basic needs such as security, social status, income and influence (authority, political participation), the higher the actor’s loyalty to this authority will be. The main types of institutions that allow elites to satisfy their basic needs are civil service, patron-client networks, and egalitarian communities. A relatively high level of loyalty to the central government is typical of the representatives of elites, whose basic needs are satisfied by taking prestigious positions in the public service. It is due to the symbolic and universal nature of status in bureaucratic structures of the military and civil service. The formal and broadly recognized status also allows avoiding the necessity of its constant confirmation by means of aggressive and violent actions. On the contrary, for a successful career within the military-bureaucratic structures of state service, qualities such as discipline, accuracy, diligence, and control over emotions are in demand. The status of the members of patron-client networks and egalitarian communities is informal and recognized only by their entourage (if the entourage is willing to do this). Therefore, participants of informal communities have to confirm their status, including aggressive and violent actions. In such a way, the qualities as a heightened sense of self-worth, emphasized aggressiveness (as a means of demonstrating and protecting status), and love of freedom are constituted, which are little compatible with the bureaucratic virtues of obedience and reverence for superiors. In addition, disdain for official values, symbols, norms and rules of interaction cultivated in communities guarantees that their participants will remain loyal to their patron and/or comrades and will not succumb to the temptation to exchange all this for a more predictable and stable career in public service.

Зомби, или Триумф коллективной воли

Sociological texts on zombies are mostly interested in human problems (capitalism, pop culture, etc), not in zombies as such. Zombies as a specific form of (non) life remain a blindspot for sociologists. Scientists of other disciplines, like epidemiology and neurosciences, have already declared their ways for studying zombies. Our task is to outline the concepts and hypotheses that sociology could contribute to this emerging interdisciplinary project. The main focus is on the social organization of zombies in relation to the observed features of their behavior. One of the key questions (without a satisfactory answer) of the future sociology of zombies was formulated by the neuroscientists Timothy Verstynen and Bradley Voytek: why single zombies look dumb and clumsy, while big groups of zombies act like a well-coordinated formidable force? In search of a basis for understanding zombies, the essay turns to the classical ideas of sociology (Georg Simmel, Émile Durkheim, Gabriel Tarde) and to the later anthropological insights of Mary Douglas, Victor Turner and René Girard. A sociological approach to zombies makes it possible to describe them not as a pathology, but as a special way of organizing a collective (non)life that can successfully compete with the human one.

“Getting Back on the Bike”: Risk, Injury, and Sport-Related Concussion in Competitive Road Cycling

A clear and consistent finding across three decades of sociological work focused on performance sports is that various sports can be considered social spaces in which risk, pain, and injury are accepted, normalized, and valorized. In recent years, the emergent scientific and popular concern around the short- and long-term consequences of sport-related concussion has seen a resurgence in the use of classic sociological ideas to help understand why athletes appear to downplay, continue competing, and sometimes ignore potential brain injuries. Using data from interviews, this paper explores these social processes in the sport of road cycling in Britain. We present the argument that the enduring utility of classic sociological concepts in explaining athlete behaviors toward risk, pain, and injury may be indicative of the obdurate nature of the cultural norms which circulate in performance sport settings. With regard to the ongoing problems with concussion in sport, we show the continued need to understand the social context in which much sport is imagined and practiced. This leads to our suggestion that sociocultural and interactional processes in many sporting subcultures that support the normative acceptance of behaviors which often prioritize performance over health need to be more readily challenged if we wish to achieve comprehensive change toward improved athlete welfare.

Georg Simmel on the manifestation and restraint of emotions

One of the key issues of social philosophy of the XX-XXI centuries was the relationship of individual emotions to public life. The "classics" answered this question in different ways. In the opinion of the author of the article, the most interesting and influential approach is that of the German philosopher and sociologist Georg Simmel. The approach is ambivalent and creative. Starting from the need to take into account individual emotions, Simmel at the same time tried to show the specifics of an emotionally self-censoring modern society with its strict restrictions. In this article, based on general scientific methods, an analysis of significant works by Simmel is carried out. Strategies of emotional self-censorship or deterrence have been identified. First, the strategy of urban blasphemy or bluntness of emotions. It has been shown how this way of restraining emotions develops in conditions of cognitive overload in large cities. With the help of general scientific methods, the causes of such a phenomenon of public life, such as "self-defense" of the nervous system and social alienation have been identified. Secondly, the strategy of developing a sense of tact was analyzed. It is pointed out that, according to Zimmel, tact serves as the basis for communication and socialization and imposes a ban on the breakthrough of individual feelings into the sphere of communication. Thirdly, the article describes the strategy of monetary objectification of the emotional sphere, which is the most significant for Zimmel's creativity. Special attention in the study of this issue is paid to the analytical and critical understanding of the philosophical and sociological ideas of the work "Philosophy of Money". The author of the article carried out an independent translation of excerpts from the book, which allowed for a more detailed study of the relationship between money, emotions and desires. The elements of the scientific novelty of the article include the identification of the specifics of "monetary cynicism" as a special variant of the objectification of the emotional sphere.

Self-Fashioning and Ambiguities of Revolution in Austin Clarke's "Initiation"

This is a paper on Austin Clarke’s short story from his collection of short stories titled, In This City. The story can be seen as being a part of Diaspora Studies, Immigrant Literature and Black Studies. The paper critically scrutinizes the short story based on the text and the context to argue how there was an absence of sustainable structures in the public sphere for black immigrant masculinities to sufficiently express themselves in a white heteronormative culture. Sociological ideas of Toby Miller and Erving Goffman are used to understand how black immigrant identities could only sufficiently be expressed in alternate sub-structures that remained isolated from the dominant white and heteronormative status quo. The central subject of “white space” of the issue is highly relevant to the paper’s exploration of how the systems of self-fashioning and revolution that exist in the public imagination are “incomplete” in their lack of reliability and sufficiency for black immigrants in Canada. Hence, their position in relation to aspirations of self-fashioning and revolution is one of ambiguity as the title of the paper itself states.
 
 The paper lays bare how these ambiguities are manufactured based on the chasm that exists between the ways in which the characters want to act and the ways of self-fashioning that society approves for them. It also explores how the systems of revolution are incomplete for them as there is an absence in terms of a revolutionary process that ensures stability and self-preservation.
 

Nursing is not like organised crime: A theoretically informed commentary.

This article aims to contest misrepresentations and distortions of sociological writings on the nursing profession. During the latest ICN congress in Montreal, it has been suggested that professions, and the nursing profession for that matter, are thought of by sociologists in a similar way as organised crime, meaning that it is like a 'money sponge' sucking resources out of society, without however giving anything in return. Allegedly, there would be a distinct branch of sociology depicting the professions in this light. By sketching out relevant sociological ideas, including the sociology of nursing, I explain that there is no tradition portraying the professions as mafias. I demonstrate that while both the professions and organised crime are socially organised, they are radically different in legitimacy. The caring professions are themselves different in ethos from the classic professions, all the more so from criminal organisations. A distinct stream of research in sociology has been devoted to nursing, without however suggesting such an analogy. I lament that attendees to the ICN congress were indeed given an inaccurate representation of sociological thinking. Sociologists addressing nursing as a profession tend to highlight processes of emancipation, autonomy, vindication and social justice, as care work is essential to the broader socioeconomic order. While nursing as a profession is socially organised, the power devices and tactics it deploys in the sociopolitical arena are characterised by their legitimacy. Unlike organised crime, nursing policymaking is situated within a framework of lawfulness, fairness and transparency.

Before reflexivity comes preflexivity

Before reflexivity comes preflexivity

The Volterra cliff in the mind of philosophers, savants and geologists (1282–1830)

Abstract The Pliocene fossiliferous succession of the Volterra hill, a prominent place in Tuscany, Italy and, since the Renaissance, the site of important archaeological finds of the ancient Etruscan civilization, has formed the object of enquiry over six centuries of research on the inner nature of the Earth system. The works of Restoro d'Arezzo, Leonardo da Vinci, Nicolaus Steno, Giovanni Targioni, Nicolas Desmarest, Giambattista Brocchi, Alexandre Brongniart and Charles Lyell testify to the early recognition through fieldwork that those strata with seashells had formed at the bottom of the sea. This interpretation served different approaches to knowledge. Restoro, Leonardo and Steno, spanning nearly four centuries in the history of science (1282–1669), including the ‘Copernican Revolution’ and the start of the Modern Age, relied also on textual sources and trusted a speculative model of the Earth's interior, so that at Volterra they focused on vertical movements of the earth–water system. The authors of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries abandoned pre-built young-Earth models and emphasized the geography of ancient Tuscany. Brocchi, Brongniart and Lyell promoted the taxonomic use of seashells to correlate rocks across Europe. This place deserves higher standards of valorization to promote understanding of the history and sociology of ideas.

‘The body and the ear’: an aesthetic education approach for the international social work classroom under Erasmus+ blended intensive programmes

ABSTRACT The new generation of Erasmus+ agreements offer funding for innovatively designed compact blended intensive programmes in which international students study abroad together in Europe. The heterogeneity of international social work curricula, coupled with the linguistic and cultural diversity of students, presents pedagogic challenges. Inspired by teaching on such a programme in Germany, this paper theoretically examines an ‘aesthetic education’ (arts-based) response to these challenges. The basis of this learning is heightening students’ perception of each other, their own bodies, and their embodied knowledge. Examining a music workshop and a tango workshop reveals pedagogies grounded in creative arts, and utilizing the different senses of hearing, movement, and touch. It is suggested that theoretically-founded teaching approaches utilizing non-verbal communication and learning can supplement the primarily verbal pedagogies more commonly used in the social work classroom. Investigating philosophical writings from Friedrich Schiller and sociological ideas from Hartmut Rosa, it is argued that playful interactions can lead to students deepening their understanding of bodily-based aspects of communication and thereby experiencing more resonant relations to one other. The skills and sensibilities acquired in such creative sessions have contemporary relevance, preparing the student social worker for communicative interaction with ‘the other’.

“Lifeworld” in the coordinates of modern existential sociology

The aim is to study the possibilities and limitations of the definition of the "life world" in the content and semantic coordinates of modern existential sociology. Relevance: in the humanities, there is a "turn" — a turn towards "new existentialism", which is associated with the processes of "ontologization" of sociological science. In view of this, the definition of the "life world" acquires a special, non-trivial status for explaining and understanding the features of the modern existence of the individual and community. Objectives: the articles reinterpret the key ideas of existential sociology from the perspective of the difference between its subject and the subjects of other existential sciences — anthropology, psychology, philosophy, ethnography. Methodology — analysis of the principles, prerequisites, approaches, ideas of the leading representatives of the existential direction. Results: the author’s program has been developed, identifying the key parameters of the existential human model in sociology based on interpretations of the meanings of social reality considered through the prism of the coordinates of the social ontology of everyday life: individualism — collectivism; rational — irrational, using the conceptual and categorical apparatus: authenticity; situation; choice; actions; experience; feelings and emotions; self; body; structure; culture; religion, freedom, space and time; social changes, manifestations of being ("existentials"), massification, leveling. Theoretical and practical significance — the development of research algorithms that reflect individual and collective actions in the paradigm of the "life world", the presentation of a set of concepts in the chosen logic of presentation, which explains how and why existential sociology can be structured at macro-, micro- and meso- levels, can be presented in the middle range theories, in non-standard formats of visual, relational and sensory sociology; stated in negative and positive terms. The main methods are based on typical techniques of critical discourse analysis and frame analysis. Scientific novelty: despite the presence of various parameters of the life world and the corresponding modes of existence of individuals and communities, both these constructs themselves and their relationships have not yet been studied at sufficiently deep levels in the scientific community. The main conclusions of the article are the discovery of new conceptual spaces by existential sociological theory in the study of social mechanisms of synthesis of "soft" and "hard" versions of "structural bias", which explain the formation and determination of individual and group decisions by certain structural forces. The authors’ scientific contributions are in the fact that new possibilities of the definition of the "life world" are indicated to be presented in the coordinate framework of various sociological theories, including modern existential sociology.