Sociological Lens Research Articles

Vertical and Horizontal Discourse: A Bernsteinian Perspective of Preservice Teachers’ Conceptualizations of Using iPads in Early Elementary Teaching Environments

ABSTRACTPolicymakers’ neoliberal education reforms, which define education through economic rather than democratic principles, continue to promote the integration of mobile devices into early childhood classrooms to provide students with new learning opportunities while preparing them for the job market. Although many schools have begun integrating such devices into their classrooms, research has highlighted that teachers find it challenging to incorporate mobile devices into their teaching, even when they are trained to do so. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the challenges preservice teachers face when implementing technology in their current and future classrooms through a sociological lens. Specifically, we employed Bernstein’s notion of vertical and horizontal discourse to examine a sample of first-semester preservice teachers’ conceptualizations of using iPads in their current and future teaching environments. Our findings highlight the challenges teacher educators face when supporting preservice teachers in moving beyond deep-seated horizontal understandings of what school and teaching should look like. Our findings also suggest that teacher educators have a responsibility to strengthen preservice teachers’ vertical discourse around teaching so that they will engage in pedagogical practices that go beyond a set of skills to be acquired and replicated with technology or otherwise.

Confronting the Social Determinants of Health: Has the Language of Trauma Informed Care Become a Defense Mechanism?

Many writers have been calling for the incorporation of trauma-informed care (TIC) in nursing education and practice, with some recently advocating the adoption of formal TIC competencies in psychiatric nursing. In light of this heightened interest, it is worth engaging seriously with criticisms of TIC. This paper reviews some of the published criticisms of TIC, starting with those emerging from within the TIC scholarly community. These focus mostly on matters of methodological rigor and conceptual clarity. It then presents critiques that emerge through the lenses of feminism, cultural sociology, and psychoanalysis. These focus on the shift away from political and historical consciousness in some TIC language and call attention to discursive mechanisms that split off our concern for patients from concern about ongoing social determinants of trauma in the world. The paper then addresses the implications for TIC in nursing, advocating a social justice orientation to the teaching of trauma.

Reading John Grisham’s Bleachers with Foucault: lessons for sports retirement

ABSTRACT This paper has explored how a sociological reading of John Grisham’s short work of fiction Bleachers can shed light on the complexities of the coaching and sports retirement processes. The aim of this paper was to consider the “sociological insights” that Bleachers has to offer by reading the novel in companionship with the thoughts of French post-structuralist thinker Michel Foucault , specifically his disciplinary analysis from Discipline and Punish. This paper has also observed how the figure of Coach Eddie Rake in Bleachers can be considered as trope for retired athletes’ unresolved feelings towards their former sport. In achieving these aims, this paper has considered how Bleachers, when read through a sociological lens, can act as a meaningful data source for those invested in learning more about the poorly understood phenomena of sports retirement, as well as the dangers of coaching practices that are overly reliant upon the disciplinary logic of sport.

Donors of the Floating World

The text Never Let Me Go envisions dystopianism through the eyes of a group that is simultaneouslysubjugated and compensated by class structures. Due to the synchronous glorifcation andeuphemization of their oppression, the fate of these characters ties historical threads to thelivelihoods of Yoshiwara courtesans in Edo Japan. These parallels are drawn from historicaland sociological lenses, inspired by scholars Cecilia Segawa Seigle and Kelly Rich on courtesanlife and environmental infuence.This dichotomy between perception and reality is born from thesubjective nature of what it means to be educated and cultured. The relativity of privilege is thenis weaponized by those in power, who ensure that both marginalized groups internalize their classand grow complicit in their own exploitation. In light of these parallels, the fuidity between utopianand dystopian livelihoods manifests, and therein seeps beyond the literary realm.

Social injustice through the lens of sociology: on xii international scientific conference “XII Sorokin reading”

Current article is dedicated to XII International scientific conference “XII Sorokin Readings. Social Injustice through the Lens of Sociology: Contemporary Global Challenges”.

A Sociological Approach to the Extremist Radicalization in Islam: The Need for Indicators

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the factors connected with the Islamist radicalization process looking at three categories of indicators – psychological, meso-sociological, and macro-sociological ones –, in order to underline the need for designing early prevention and identification mechanisms. The proposal that these mechanisms should be at the heart of public policies to combat Islamist terrorism within the Spanish territory is one of the underlying assumptions from which this study has been undertaken. Defense policies are crucial, yet, when implemented without a profound understanding of the phenomenon being faced, might generate greater threats and spur the radicalization processes1 in the long term. Provided that jihadist terrorists constitute a global reticular network, the sociological lens through which this whole paper views this topic, despite being underpinned in Spain, will draw on insights produced abroad.

Jan Mohr, Minne als Sozialmodell. Konstitutionsformen des Höfischen in Sand und rede (12.–15. Jahrhundert). Studien zur historischen Poetik 27. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2019, 532 pp.

Jan Mohr’s 2014 Habilitationsschrift for the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München appears in here revised form with seven chapters that examine minne through the lens of sociology of knowledge as a ‘semantic resource’ in courtly society and for the formation of roles within that society. Minnesang in the widest sense constitutes the objects of study and encompasses the early Minnelieder and canzonas, as well as the later medieval poets such as the Mönch von Salzburg and the later Minnereden genre. Recent handbooks and editions have facilitated access to the wider Minnesang corpus examined here, particularly via <?page nr="419"?>comparative approaches to the grouping of Tagelieder – Winterlieder (Neidhart) – erzählende Minnereden.

Identity(ies) Explored: How Journalists’ Self-conceptions Influence Small-town News

ABSTRACTExisting literature on community journalism suggests it is worthwhile to theoretically and conceptually examine journalists in small towns. These reporters and editors always wear multiple hats, including news worker, community member, and booster. Therefore, drawing on newsroom observations and interviews, and applying the interpretive lenses of sociology and identity theory, this study examines the self-perceived identities of weekly newspaper news workers, and how those identities influence their news production. Findings across three organizations show that for these journalists, professional identity is intertwined with personal identity as a church member or baseball coach. Simply put, these journalists see themselves as members of the community that their newspaper covers. Their interactions with friends and neighbors are also interactions with sources – and with advertisers. This sense of personal connection further serves as a key motivation to produce meaningful news for their communities, which the author suggests has served as a safeguard to declines in readership for many small-town weekly newspapers.

Exploring Embodiment Through Choreographic Practice.

This pilot explored embodiment and gender representation through the lens of choreographic practice and sociology. The perspective derives from a comparative lack of status held by female (vs. male) choreographers in the United Kingdom. The pilot study specifically addresses how choreography itself embodies and perpetuates sociocultural values. This work is part of a larger, on-going ethnographic study into the social world(s) of choreography and choreographers. The method is a process of dance making called Sonnet that would expose habitual expectations of dance performances. The process aimed to heighten awareness of gender expectations and to challenge dancers and audience members to reflect on what they normally take for granted. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s critique and notion of habitus (embodiment), the study indicates perpetuating social hierarchy in dance training and practice. This is explored and framed from Bourdieu’s social and cultural perspective.

Thinking intergenerationally: intergenerational solidarity, health and active aging in Hong Kong

ABSTRACTThis paper intends to provoke thoughts into intergenerational relations and future policies that can strengthen solidarity within families and community in order to face the challenges of aging population. It first provides an overview of intergenerational relations and the efforts to promote intergenerational programs in the specific context of contemporary Hong Kong. Through a sociological lens, it draws on a theoretical framework that explains how intergenerational relations are constructed. It also sets out the factors leading to cohesive or conflicting relations at the individual, family and community levels. The paper concludes by applying this framework to inform intergenerational programming, and to suggest ways to promote IP and to take intergenerational perspective into policy design towards a healthy and intergenerational cohesive community.

Jewels Set in Stone: Hindu Temple Recipes in Medieval Cōḻa Epigraphy

Scholarship abounds on contemporary Hindu food offerings, yet there is scant literature treating the history of food in Hinduism beyond topics of food restrictions, purity, and food as medicine. A virtually unexplored archive is Hindu temple epigraphy from the time that was perhaps the theological height of embodied temple ritual practices, i.e., the Cōḻa period (ninth-thirteenth centuries CE). The vast archive of South Indian temple inscriptions allows a surprising glimpse into lived Hinduism as it was enacted daily, monthly, and annually through food offerings cooked in temple kitchens and served to gods residing in those temples. Through analyzing thousands of Tamiḻ inscriptions from the tenth through the fourteenth centuries CE, I have gleaned information concerning two distinct material cultural facets. (1) The practice of writing these rare but remarkable recipes which themselves are culinary textual artifacts has allowed us to access (2) Hindu food offerings of the past, also complex, sensory historical artifacts. In exploring these medieval religious recipes for the first time, I aim to show: the importance that food preparation held for temple devotees, the theological reality of feeding the actual bodies of the gods held in these temples, and the originality of the Cōḻa inscriptional corpus in bringing about a novel culinary writing practice that would be adopted more extensively in the Vijayanagara period (fourteenth-seventeenth centuries CE). This study, a radical new attempt at using historical sources inscribed in stone, sheds new light on medieval Hindu devotees’ priorities of serving and feeding god. The examination of this under-explored archive can help us move our academic analysis of Hindu food offerings beyond the hitherto utilized lenses of economics, sociology, and anthropology. Further, it contributes to our understanding of medieval temple worship, early culinary studies, and the history of food in India.

Showing respect in school: what does it mean?

ABSTRACTThis article is a structured reflection on the notion of respect in school. It considers notions of respect, self-respect, ability, dependence, autonomy, compassion, and inequality, while at the same time analysing these fundamental notions through an institutional and sociological lens. The theoretical framework is due to Richard Sennett and the article makes a detailed application of Sennett’s work to the institution of school. It is a case study that is focused on stimulating insight, reflection, and discussion within the teaching profession and its professional bodies.

Recognising and valuing student engagement in science museums

ABSTRACTStudent engagement with museum content is an integral part of the mission of many institutions, including science museums. Our research utilises a sociological lens to bring a new perspective on engagement in such spaces. Specifically, we draw on qualitative data from student visits to a science museum to explore what engagement might be possible, by whom, and under what circumstances. The students in focus are of underrepresented ethnic and cultural backgrounds in the museum, and do not have high levels of science capital. Our findings reveal that moments of engagement occur when there is alignment between personal habitus and capital – the students’ dispositions and practices – and the field, the museum's conventions and rules, as well as its objects and exhibits. However, this engagement was often with the historical or social aspects of exhibits, rather than the science behind them. We propose this approach to engagement as a useful tool for museum practitioners.

Who Takes on the Small Producers? The Role of Emergent Portfolio Dynamics

In this paper, I combine insights from economic and valuation-based theories to examine the factors of niche product representation and portfolio expansion. Building on the premise that different theories might have different explanatory potential on different levels of analysis, I outline expectations based on economies of scale, value homophily, and the lived experience of industry participants. I use the empirical case of beer wholesaling, a reactionary industry segment, in which firms were reacting to the changing conditions in beer production. The change entailed the emergence of a niche market segment, the increased market entry of small-scale producers. I conduct two analyses using a proprietary dataset. First, I analyze what accounts for a wholesaler’s decision to add any craft producers to its portfolio. Second, I answer what accounts for a portfolio with a wider variety of craft brands. I find that it is the firms with high sales values that have a higher likelihood of representing any craft labels; value homophily matters less. Moreover, there is a local logic to the composition of beer labels in a given portfolio, and this fit positively affects both craft representation and portfolio diversity. Finally, while ‘good renegade’ labels hinder access to portfolios of latecomer producers in most areas, they facilitate portfolio diversity in highly competitive environments. The discussion explores the generalizability of the good renegade concept and its connections to organizational inequality. This paper calls for extending current research frameworks in economic sociology that allow studying firm behavior using both economic and sociological lenses.

The [Not So] Hidden Curriculum of the Legalist State in the Book of Lord Shang and the Han-Fei-Zi

This paper loosely draws some parallels between the experience of a subject in a so-called “Legalist” state with that of a contemporary student in Western schooling today. I explore how governance in the Book of Lord Shang and the Hanfeizi can be interpreted as pedagogy. Defining pedagogy in a relatively broad sense, I investigate the rationalizations for the existence of the state, the application of state mechanisms, and even the concentration of the ruler’s power all teach subjects habits, attitudes, and sensibilities in a similar fashion to what Philip Jackson called the “hidden curriculum”. Through his framework of “crowds, praise, and power” this paper will explore how governance teaches and what those subjected to it learn. This study also attempts to provide some insight into the usefulness of approaching “Legalist” texts with a positive sociological lens.

Pentecostal roots: Considerations of the effect of Pentecostal foundations on organizational culture and leadership of the assemblies of God Great Britain

ABSTRACTBased on a recently completed PhD study, this paper1 draws from ethnographic ecclesiological research conducted between 2011 and 2017 on the leadership and organizational culture of the British Assemblies of God (AoG). The approach to inquiry is briefly outlined and analytical insights from field research are presented with associated underpinning conceptual considerations drawn from a trilateral lens of ecclesiology, organization studies and sociology. The research took place at a crucial time of significant leadership and organizational transition for AoG and as the study neared its completion a series of critical incidents occurred that were illustrative of the leadership and culture paradigm issues addressed in the thesis. This paper concludes with the key findings and considerations for the future leadership of the denomination.

Emotion, reflexivity and social change in the era of extreme fossil fuels.

Reflexivity is an important sociological lens through which to examine the means by which people engage in actions that contribute to social reproduction or social elaboration. Reflexivity theorists have largely overlooked the central place of emotions in reflexive processing, however, thus missing opportunities to enhance our understanding of reflexivity by capitalizing on recent scholarship on emotions emanating from other fields of inquiry. This paper explores the role of emotion in reflexivity, with a qualitative analysis of social responses to hydraulic fracturing in Alberta, Canada, utilizing narrative analysis of long-form interviews with rural landowners who have experienced direct impacts from hydraulic fracturing, and have attempted to voice their concerns in the public sphere. Based on interviews with a selection of two interview participants, the paper highlights the means by which emotions shape reflexivity in consequential ways, beginning with personal and highly individualized emotional responses to contingent situations, which then factor into the social interactions engaged in the pursuit of personal projects. The shared emotional context that emerges then plays a substantial role in shaping outcomes and their implications for social stasis or change. This study exemplifies the extent to which reflexive processing in response to breaches in the social order can be emotionally tumultuous affairs, constituting a significant personal toll that many may be unwilling to pay.

Paying for financial expertise: privatization policies and shifting state responsibilities in the school facilities industry

In an era of expanding global educational privatization and shifting policies on how to fund educational facilities in many states in the US, this study engages the lenses of critical policy analysis and fiscal sociology to examine educational privatization in the school facilities industry in California. Employing critical policy document analysis to examine approximately 40 primary and secondary source documents including propositions, bills, government and education codes, facilities reports, and state public debt data, this paper addresses the following research question: How have education finance policies shaped the system of school district facilities financing over time, specifically with regard to the field of private actors involved in the school facilities industry? This paper examines the historical policy context for privatization in school district facilities financing, evaluating how policies have evolved, been implemented, and affected stakeholders over time in the broader neoliberal context. Findings indicate that policies promoting privatization in education finance impact school districts’ abilities to provide equitable facilities to their students. Also, the complex and intermittent process of financing school facilities has facilitated the rise of specialized private actors in the school facilities industry that has now organized to engage in private-sector policy setting.

Anti-Innovation Norms

Intellectual property (IP) scholars have recently turned their attention to social norms-informal rules that emerge from and are enforced by non-hierarchically organized social forces-as a promising way to spur innovation in communities as diverse as the fashion industry and the open source software movement. The narrative that has emerged celebrates social norms' ability to solve IP's free-rider problem without incurring IP's costs. But this account does not fully consider the dark side of social norms. In fact, certain social norms, when over-enforced, can create substantial barriers to the most socially beneficial creative pursuits. Because IP scholars have left unexplored how social can hinder innovation in this way, the harm they cause has gone unmitigated. This Article sheds light on the dark side of innovation norms. It coins the term norms to label these counterproductive social forces. Using the double lens of sociology and psychology, it gives a full theoretical account of three types of anti-innovation norms: research priority, methodology, and evaluation norms-all of which interfere with socially beneficial boundary-crossing innovation. Our elucidation of anti-innovation has both theoretical and policy implications. On the theory side, it suggests that IP scholars to date have been too focused on addressing the free-rider problem. This has caused them to overlook other barriers to innovation, like those posed by the set of anti-innovation we describe here. This focus on free-riding may also help explain why innovation and scholars have paid little attention to debates within the broader literature on law and social concerned with identifying situations in which social are welfare reducing. On the policy side, it points to innovation dilemmas that IP is not fully equipped to solve. While changes to the IP doctrines of attribution and fair use in copyright and nonobviousness in patent law can counteract anti-innovation at the margin, a comprehensive solution requires innovation scholars to broaden their vision beyond the IP toolkit. We take the first steps in this direction, proposing a number of interventions, including novel funding regimes and tax credits.

From the Tower shootings in 1966 to Campus Carry in 2016: Collective trauma at the University of Texas at Austin

AbstractThe first mass school shooting in the modern history of the United States occurred at the University of Texas at Austin on August 1, 1966. A 25‐year‐old student, Charles Whitman, went on a rampage that ultimately left 16 dead and 31 injured. With no prior models for how to respond, public discourse about the tragedy was squelched. Fifty years lapsed before a proper permanent memorial was dedicated – the same day that the Campus Carry gun law went into effect. This article explores the tragedy and its aftermath through the lens of history, rhetoric, sociology, and psychoanalysis. The silence and disavowal after the killings, the perception that Austin lost its innocence, feelings of helplessness and shame, more permissive gun laws, and even the counter‐culture's glorification of Whitman were symptomatic of collective trauma. In the years since the massacre, we learned that collective trauma requires witnessing, discourse, and memorialization for healing to occur.