Sociological Literature Research Articles

The Brass-Bells Drum: An African Literary Writer’s imaging of Neo-colonial woes in Nigeria

Literature reflects and refracts socio-political issues. Novels, a genre of literature, images of socio-political realities with a view to proffering solutions to some of the threats to human and social development. This essay examines the depiction of postcolonial disillusion and neo-colonial woes in Nigeria as represented in Akińwùmí Ìṣọ̀lá’s Saworoide translated, as The Brass-Bells Drum by Pamela Olubunmi J. Smith. The paper hinged on the Marxist Sociology of Literature and Postcolonial approaches, it critically evaluates inept political leadership and corrupt practices. The analysis reveals that corrupt leadership and followership undermine the development of Nigeria. Some of the major challenges undermining the development of Nigeria are the insincerity and insensitivity of political leaders to the plight of the masses, selection/electoral corruption, mismanagement of public funds, abuse of power, neglect of the masses, political assassination, bribery, and corruption. It is established in the novel that, the greatest obstacles to Nigeria’s development are inept leadership and corruption. The paper concludes that the uniqueness of Iṣọla’s discourse of postcolonial woes manifests in the adroit blend of motifs and narrative techniques of political instability, betrayal of trust, acute leadership crisis, and corruption. The novelist advocates harnessing some tangible and intangible cultural heritage as well as communal revolt to checkmate the continuing spread of this menace of (mis)governance in Nigeria.

What drives public trust in the military in non-democracies: Evidence from Libya (2014-2019)

ABSTRACT This article investigates the conditions that lead to heightened trust in the military in non-democracies through an empirical study of post-2011 Libya. Drawing on the political science and sociology literatures on institutional trust in non-democratic contexts, we develop hypotheses linking public trust in the military to personal safety, political interest, Islamist orientation, trust in institutions, regionalism, and support for democracy. Using survey data collected by the Arab Barometer between 2014 and 2019, we empirically test these hypotheses. Our findings reveal a confluence of factors driving trust in the military in Libya, including regional, generational, educational, and class divides. Being older, male, and from the East contribute positively to trust in the military as well as perceived personal safety, trust in government, interest in politics, and support for democracy. On the other hand, an Islamist orientation, education and income are negatively correlated. These results allow us to speculate about the drivers of trust in the military. In particular, the positive impact of personal safety and support for democracy could reflect the public's perception of the army as responsible for ensuring safety and protecting a nation in turmoil. The role of interest in politics could be attributed to the charged context of politics and security after the 2014 elections. Notably, regional exceptionalism in the East could be related to the role and behaviour of the eastern-based, self-proclaimed Libyan National Army. Our paper contributes to the limited empirical research on trust in the military in non-democracies, backsliding in conflict countries, and political attitudes in Libya.

Unequal selves in the classroom: Nature, origins, and consequences of socioeconomic disparities in children's self-views.

Children from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds often have more negative self-views than their peers. How are these self-views shaped by teacher-student interactions in the classroom, and what are the consequences of these self-views for achievement inequality? We present a developmental framework addressing these questions by bridging insights from the psychological, educational, and sociological literatures. We show that children from low-SES backgrounds perceive themselves as less intelligent, less able to grow their intelligence, less deserving, and less worthy, independent of their actual abilities and achievements. We demonstrate how negative intellectual stereotypes-expressed through daily interactions with teachers in classrooms, such as teachers' expectations, feedback, and attention-undercut the self-views of children from low-SES backgrounds. We also show how this process can be exacerbated by institutional and cultural values reflecting a belief in meritocracy (e.g., schools that encourage competition, emphasize raw ability, and attribute achievement inequality to intrinsic factors), which are common in countries with high income inequality and rigid between-school tracking. The ensuing more negative self-views introduce psychological barriers that undermine the academic achievement of children from low-SES backgrounds, thereby reinforcing achievement inequality. This represents an enormous loss of potential and perpetuates harm into adulthood. Socioeconomic disparities in self-views can emerge early in life and widen with age, underlining the need for developmental research and timely intervention. We discuss implications for studying the nature, origins, and consequences of socioeconomic disparities in self-views, and for designing interventions to reduce achievement inequality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

STRATEGI MODAL ‘ALA AL-ASWANY DALAM ARENA SASTRA ARAB: KAJIAN SOSIOLOGI SASTRA PIERRE BOURDIEU

'Ala Al-Aswany is one of the modern Arab writers. His name is well-known among Arab writers, and his works are accepted, enjoyed, and studied by critics, even receiving numerous awards. This research aims to analyze the capital strategies employed by 'Ala Al-Aswany to obtain his position or legitimacy in the Arab literary arena using Pierre Bourdieu's sociology of literature. This study is a qualitative research with a descriptive-analytical method, using data sources such as books, articles, research reports, and other documents related to the topic and theory used. The data collection technique is documentation. The data is analyzed by identifying the author's biography and his contributions to the Arab literary world, then formulated and described relationally based on Pierre Bourdieu's capital structure. The results show that Al-Aswany possesses four types of capital classified from Pierre Bourdieu's perspective: economic, cultural, social, and symbolic capital. With the arena of production and these four capital strategies, he achieves a specific legitimacy, in this case, Al-Aswany attains the position of a "specific writer" in the Arab literary arena.

Cultural Intolerance, in Practice: Social Variation in Food and Drink Avoidances in Italy, 2003–2016

Sociological literature on cultural practices seeking to understand the social differentiation of taste pays limited attention to what people avoid consuming, despite its potential as a strategic indicator of taste. Avoidance has special relevance for the understanding of eating and drinking practices which are often characterized by exclusion of items for health, hedonic, reputational, or spiritual reasons. Making use of rich data on twenty-three items commonly consumed by Italian adults, this paper investigates how avoidances—i.e. what people claim never to eat or drink—are clustered, socially patterned and have evolved over time. Methodologically, we propose the novel use and integration of two machine learning techniques—Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) and Boosted Regression Trees (BRT)— to identify nine highly homogeneous avoidance clusters and examine the power of social variables in predicting the probability of individuals’ belonging to various clusters and to further characterize them. We conclude by discussing possible rationales behind avoidance.

Hizib Nahdatul Watani Wa Nahdatul Banati Karya TGKH. Zainuddin Abdul Majid (Analisis Gaya Bahasa dan Fungsi Sastra)

Where Hizib Nahdatul Watani Wa Hizib Nahdatul Banati becomes a literary work that has a function and role in the reading community and the author himself who is also a reader of Hizib Nahdatul Watani Wa Hizib Nahdatul Banati. This research is qualitative research, namely research that obtains data and information about the object of research through relevant books and scientific articles and through field observations in the form of interviews with related sources. In this study, two theories were used, namely the first theory in the science of balaghah which was used to express the style of language used in Hizib Nahdatul Watani Wa Hizib Nahdatul Banati. And the second is the theory of literary sociology to reveal the function of literature to the reading society. The result of this research is the book Hizib Nahdatul Watani Wa Hizib Nahdatul Banati in terms of the author's language style using iqtibas, saja', majaz, and ithnab. The function of the book Hizib Nahdatul Watani Wa Hizib Nahdatul Banati for the author is as a prayer, as a defense bull of NWDI and NWBI, as a medium for spreading Nahdlatul Wathan, and as a light for the nation and state. While the function for the Nahdlatul Wathan tariqa group and Nahdlatul Wathan residents is as a bale wall, medicine for disease, savior, and as a medium of allegiance to Allah SWT. In addition, there is also a tradition that has been built, namely the hiziban tradition in the Nahdlatul Wathan community

Depressive Symptoms of Homophobic Bullying Victims among LGB Adolescents in the Chinese Mainland A Case Study Analysis

In recent years, depression has become more common among younger age groups in the Chinese Mainland. However, only a small amount of study has examined the prevalence of depression among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adolescents, and little is known about how prejudice events such as homophobic bullying may impact this groups rates of depression. Therefore, the present study aimed to identify the prevalence of depressive symptoms following experiences of bullying victimization among LGB adolescents. A case study analysis was performed using secondary sources from online surveys conducted by Common Language, Beijing LGBT Center, and international literature in sociology, psychology, and public health. The study demonstrated that victims of homophobic bullying frequently encounter issues with depressive symptoms. The psychological well-being of victims is greatly affected by challenges including an absence of social support, internalized homophobia, perceived discrimination, and hostile school climates. The resilience framework can offer insights on how to improve their mental health by using effective strategies for coping and intervention programs to address the issue.

Harmonisasi dan keselarasan hidup dalam cerpen Harta Gantungan karya Ahmad Tohari

Kang Nurya's persistence in preserving buffalo as the hanged treasure is the center of the story discussed in the "Harta Gantungan" storiette. Although the neck swelling could take his life, Kang Nurya believes that death is a human cycle and chooses not to seek medical treatment. Kang Nurya believes that the consequences of medical expenses will have implications for the sale of his favorite buffalo, which is actually prepared for the cost of taking care of his body later. A discussion about this then took place with Markotob, who also believes that death is a destiny that must be faced. However, the way to prepare for it is not like Kang Nurya's thinking. The dialog between the two brings out the balance of views on the concept of death. The purpose of this research is to find the balance through harmonization and harmony of life based on the author's worldview. The theory used is Lucien Goldmann's genetic structuralism and Mukařovský's literary aesthetics with a literary sociology approach. The research result shows that there is a harmonization and live conformity that appear on that storiette, and that is the world view of Ahmad Tohari. Internal conflict in Kang Nurya is moderated by Markotob, showing the discussion about the meaning of death. Both have the same view about death but with different thinking methods. Even though Kang Nurya is stubborn, Markotob still respects him. Moreover, in the end, Kang Nurya did not know that his death did not use the hanged treasure that he had taken care of at all.

Utilizing Indigenous Knowledge Systems on Climate Change for Forestry Conservation in Kenya

Forest conservation is important in climate change mitigation. The Indigenous Knowledge (IK) or Indigenous Knowledge System (IKS) has recently been recognised in forest conservation for climate change mitigation. The potential use of IKS in climate change management in Sub-Saharan Africa including Kenya is unknown. Numerous analytical postulations detailing how to integrate IKS in climate change management have been formulated. However, this information is fragmented and mostly lost in sociology literature. This paper briefly reviews the indigenous knowledge related to different aspects of forest resource management. This review delves at in-depth information on the IKS and climate change management in Sub-Saharan Africa, emphasizing Kenya. For this review, the scooping review methodology was used to describe the state of knowledge and map the available evidence of the role of IKS for forest conservation and climate change adaptation. It discusses the role of IKS in climate change management in Sub-Saharan Africa and the potential application of the IKS in preventing adverse climate change effects. The integration of IKS to guide the climate change management have been evaluated and the threats to IKS and their conservation deliberated. It is generally observed that in many rural communities in Kenya, IKS is useful for enhanced food production, forest conservation and natural disaster management. But being culture-specific, IKS can be adopted across communities in SSA for real time management of climate change.

THE CONCEPT OF UTILITARIANISM IN THE SHORT STORY “THE ONES WHO WALK AWAY FROM OMELAS” IN “THE WIND'S TWELVE QUARTERS” BY URSULA KROEBER LE GUIN

This study examines the concept of utilitarianism presented in the short story "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" in "The Wind's Twelve Quarter" by Ursula K. Le Guin. Through an ethical approach in sociology literature, this study aims to analyze the ethical implications of collective action in achieving general happiness in Omelas. Through analysis of the sociology of literature, this study reveals the social practices of utilitarianism presented in the story. In utilitarianism through ethical theory developed by philosophers Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, argues that a good action is an action that produces as much happiness as possible for as many people as possible. In the context of this short story, society has collectively chosen to maintain general happiness by ignoring the fate of the oppressed individual. This raises deep ethical questions about the justice and morality of emotional action. This study also analyzes the attitudes of individuals who choose to leave Omelas. This action shows disapproval of the principle of utilitarianism which sacrifices one individual for the sake of broad happiness. The attitude of individuals who dare to walk raises ethical overtones about our responsibilities to society and individuals. Through an analysis of ethical theory in a literary sociology approach, this study concludes that "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" pushes to limit the ethical boundaries of utilitarianism and change moral compromises in achieving peace. The social and psychological implications of this story awaken our awareness of the moral dilemmas associated with emotional action and raise deep ethical questions about human values ​​and justice.
 Keywords: Utilitarianism, Sociology of Literature, Ethics

Resistance and the delivery of healthcare in Australian immigration detention centres

There are few issues that have been as vexing for the Australian healthcare community as the Australian governments policy of mandatory, indefinite, immigration detention. While many concepts have been used to begin to describe the many dilemmas faced by healthcare professionals and their resolution, they are limited, perhaps most fundamentally by the fact that immigration detention is antithetical to health and wellbeing. Furthermore, and while most advice recognises that the abolition of detention is the only option in overcoming these issues, it provides little guidance on how action within detention could contribute to this. Drawing on the work of political theorists and the broader sociological literature, we will introduce and apply a form of action that has not yet been considered for healthcare workers within detention, resistance. We will draw on several examples from the literature to show how everyday resistance could be enacted in healthcare and immigration detention settings. We argue that the concept of resistance has several conceptual and practical advantages over much existing guidance for healthcare workers in these environments, namely that it politicises care and has synergies with other efforts aimed at the abolition of detention. We also offer some reflections on the justifiability of such action, arguing that it is largely consistent with the existing guidance produced by all major healthcare bodies in Australia.

Restoring culture and capital to cultural capital: origin–destination cultural distance and immigrant earnings in the United States

ABSTRACT An extensive sociological literature maintains that cultural capital is pivotal in perpetuating social inequalities. However, empirical tests of cultural capital theory focus on how culture influences educational outcomes, not earnings, and they mainly look for cultural differences across social classes within societies. We propose a direct test of economic returns to cultural capital based instead on differences in national cultures across countries. Using the American Community Survey and the National Survey of College Graduates, we analyze the relationship between immigrants’ lack of U.S.-specific cultural capital, proxied by cultural distance between the origin country and the U.S., and their earnings. Findings consistently indicate that origin – U.S. cultural distance is linked to immigrants’ lower earnings after controlling for numerous other factors, supporting cultural capital theory. Cultural distance earnings penalties are more pronounced for immigrants with at least a bachelor’s degree, those arriving in adulthood, and those with foreign degrees. Moreover, county-level analysis reveals more sizable cultural distance penalties in more competitive and unequal labour markets, highlighting how subnational receiving contexts shape origin-country disparities in immigrants’ economic incorporation at their destinations.

Konflik Sosial Dalam Novel Rembulan Tenggelam Di Wajahmu Karya Tere Liye: Kajian Sosiologi Sastra

This research uses the literary object of the novel entitled Rembulan Tenggelam di Wajahmu by Tere Liye. This research is motivated by several social conflicts that usually occur in society, both those that are going through and that have already been passed. The formulation of the problem in this research is how social conflict is in the novel Rembulan Tenggelam di Wajahmu by Tere Liye. The social conflicts in the novel include realistic conflicts, non-realistic conflicts and the positive function of social conflict. The aim of this research is to describe the social conflict in the novel Rembulan Tenggelam di Wajahmu by Tere Liye. This research uses a qualitative descriptive method with a literary sociology approach through Lewis A. Coser's social conflict theory which is used to discover social conflict. The data collection technique in this research uses documentation techniques. Based on the research results, it can be concluded that there is an analysis of social conflict in the novel Rembulan Tenggelam di Wajahmu by Tere Liye: A Sociological Study of Literature which consists of 1) The concept of social conflict of the characters in the form of realistic conflict with elements of Hostile feeling and Hostile behavior and non-realistic conflicts are dominated by realistic conflicts because the conflicts in the novel mostly occur between two people and without the element of revenge.

Structural Comparison, Transfers and Unequal Power Relations: Field Theory as a Conceptual and Methodological Tool

This paper proposes a comparative approach theoretically and methodologically based in the sociology of literature, and more specifically on field theory, which takes into account circulation and transfers, as well as international power relations between centers and peripheries. As developed in the first section, this approach combines Bourdieu's field theory, Casanova's analysis of the world republic of letters, Even-Zohar's polysystem theory, Moretti's quantitative methods, and the author's own work on the circulation of literary texts and forms. Exemplified by case studies borrowed from the existing literature (including the author's research), the methodological framework developed in the following sections addresses authorities (publishers, prizes, festivals) and writer's strategies.

Natalism as a Nationalist Biopolitical Response from Socialism Till Today in Hungary

AbstractAfter the Second World War, the population policies of the socialist countries were not free from the dilemma of natalist/anti-natalist policies. This essay focuses on the Hungarian population policy discourses of the Kádár era and the present day, with some references to Central European specificities. The fear of the disappearance of Hungarians has been present in Hungarian intellectual discourse for several centuries, and by the twentieth century, it had become a fundamental idea that reached society as a whole. Given the growing interest (not independently of contemporary trends) in the international sociological literature not only in the transformation of biopolitics in recent decades but also in the historical antecedents of earlier periods, I believe that it may be interesting to examine the fear of national death in both a Hungarian and a Central European context.

Bentuk-bentuk interaksi sosial pada tokoh surya dan segara alam dalam Novel Noda Tak Kasat Mata karya Agnes Jessica dan Pulang karya Leila S. Chudori: Perspektif Georg Simmel

The novel is one means of expressing a history and the existence of forms of interaction in each plot of the novel. This study aims to describe the forms of social interaction experienced by the main characters Surya and Segara Alam in the novels Noda Tak Kasat Mata by Agnes Jessica and Pulang by Leila S. Chudori. The approach used is Georg Simmel’s literary sociology theory approach. The research method used is descriptive qualitative research method. The data sources used are the novels Noda Tak Kasat Mata by Agnes Jessica and Pulang by Leila S. Chudori. The data used are excerpts from interactions between characters in the form of short dialogues. Data collection techniques used literature study and note-taking techniques for the two novels. The results of the study found that the forms of interaction experienced by the figures Surya and Segara Alam were exchange, conflict, domination, and sociability. In both novels, there is no prostitution as a form of social interaction. Keywords: social interaction, Georg Simmel, Noda Tak Kasat Mata, Pulang, novels

Creating Social Harmony With the Bissu Community in Tiba Sebelum Berangkat Novel by Faisal Oddang and Calabai Novel by Pepi Al-Bayqunie

Research about the Bissu community has been carried out in various writings and forms. Research that related to the existence, role, and gender of Bissu has been done by Muh. Saidi with the title Peran Bissu Dalam Masyarakat Bugis in 2016, while research that related to social harmony has been done by Rayi Oktafiani Utomo with the title Telaah Nilai Toleransi Dalam Novel Karya Ahmad Tohari in 2020. This study was aimed to discussed about Bissu's social harmony in Tiba Sebelum Berangkat Novel by Faisal Oddang and Calabai novel by Pepi Al-Bayqunie so that quotes, dialogues, monologues, and discourses that contained in the both novel would be primary data sources meanwhile the literature also reliable sources from the internet would be the secondary data in this research. This research was descriptive qualitative. Qualitative descriptive was done by combining the overall content analysis and interpretation in the form of a description, then the tools to analysis the data was sociology of literature. Social harmony and the role of the Bissu as local culture preservers are part of the social process, so it would be appropriate to use the theory of the sociology of literature. This research then focuses on how the Bissu community utilizes ancient religious teachings, magic, and their role as leaders of the ancient Bugis religion to create social harmony. Thus, this research will produce additional treasures in the form of writings on identity and social harmony that are carried out uniquely by the Bissu community.

Pendidikan Karakter dalam Tepukan Tiga Kali pada Pembelajaran Bahasa Indonesia di SMP

Character education is now necessary for the survival of a nation in the midst of rapid and dramatic social change. This study aims to reveal and describe character education in a collection of short stories by Wicahyanti Rejeki and its relevance in learning Indonesian in junior high school. This research belongs to the category of literary research with a qualitative descriptive form, using a literary sociology approach with the content analysis method. The data used in this research is a collection of short stories Tepukan Tiga Kali by Wicahyanti Rejeki. The data analysis techniques used are dialectical techniques and interactive techniques. The results showed that the first five short stories from the Tepukan Tiga Kali short story collection studied contained character education values. Character education contained in the five short stories include: faith and piety in God Almighty, global diversity, mutual cooperation, independence, critical reasoning, and creativity. Secondly, the character education values contained in the collection of short stories can help achieve the educational objectives of Indonesian language lessons. The implications of moral and character values contained in literary works play a role in developing cognitive, affective, psychomotor aspects, developing personality, and developing the social personality of junior high school students.

Historical geographies of alternative, and non‐formal education: Learning from the histories of Black education

AbstractShining a light on the various non‐formal education spaces that have garnered attention in geographies of education over the past two decades, this review takes stock of how historical spaces of education and learning have become a key focus of this body of work. In so doing, the review signals prominent and emergent themes around which scholarship in this subdiscipline has cohered: most notably, geographies of citizenship and morality in informal education spaces, and the radical pedagogic practices of alternative education spaces. As well as looking back, the review also signals two areas that scholars in the field should consider engaging with more closely: Black education and decolonial education. Analysing literature in history and sociology on the Black education movement in Britain, the paper calls for geographies of education to engage more closely with work published in cognate disciplines and not to overlook the relational nature of decolonial education in global north contexts.

How Does Regional Social Capital Structure the Relationship Between Entrepreneurship, Ethnic Diversity, and Residential Segregation?

The extant theory posits that ethno-racial diversity promotes entrepreneurship by increasing the novelty of information and perspectives available for recombination in a region. This view presupposes the flow of novel information among potential entrepreneurs. Yet, we know comparatively little about how regional social structures (e.g., collective social capital) that affect information flows condition this relationship. We build on the sociological literature to theorize how the interplay between collective social capital and residential segregation moderates the relationship between ethno-racial diversity and entrepreneurship. We test, and find empirical support for, our hypotheses among all registered new ventures started in the United States between 1990 and 2018.