Macro-social Level Research Articles

Humiliation, shame, and violence: Honor, trauma, and political extremism before and after the 2009 crisis in Greece

Recent scholarship has mapped the dynamic between humiliation and violence, including the role of trauma and self-esteem. While existing research has mostly focused on individuals, there is a strong case for applying this framework to the macrosocial level. Taking an interdisciplinary approach that combines psychoanalysis, cultural anthropology, and political sociology, this paper carries out a step-by-step application of Gilligan’s shame/violence theory to the case of Greece, focusing on the post-2009 era known as “the Crisis.” This paper outlines the root causes of the shame/violence dynamic in Greece, with reference to communitarian moral codes and honor crimes, as well as political divisions, unresolved trauma, and shame/violence spirals originating in the mid-twentieth century. It then examines the role of humiliation during the current economic crisis, as well as the surge of political aggression. The application of Gilligan’s theory provides us with a compelling interpretation of civic culture in contemporary Greece, throwing light on patterns of collective self-harming behavior (“suicide by cop”) – as both a possible result of subjective humiliation, and a means of seeking pity and attention. The paper also identifies the existence of accumulated shame, which could lead to outbreaks of political extremism.

Transversal Competences: Their Importance and Learning Processes by Higher Education Students

At a time when the labour market is blocked and simultaneously rapidly changing, with the emergence of new professional and scientific areas, the higher education mission becomes less indisputable and more indeterminate and challenging. This uncertainty was the leitmotiv for this essay, which aims to discuss the importance of attaining transversal competences in higher education. To achieve this goal, a bibliographical research was carried out on the attention that is currently given by higher education institutions to this topic, how they respond to the need for increasingly more transversal training and how they develop a curriculum that meets these requirements. Thus, in methodological terms, a thorough research on the literature addressing the topic of transversal competences was carried out; subsequently, a document search was conducted and a qualitative review and analysis of the documents collected was performed to justify our stance. Our analysis allowed concluding that the context of indeterminacy regarding the future has variations, considering the geographical and political situation, the social context and the activity sector. Furthermore, attitudes, expectations and predispositions are also critical elements for the success of this process of transversal competences’ attainment. This latter factor is central in this process, as there is often a gap between students’ expectations regarding the competences they expect to attain in higher education and the proposals that frame their training at the micro, meso and macrosocial levels and which take the need to attain transversal competences in higher education for granted.

Effects of the decline in social capital on college graduates’ soft skills

Both businesses and recent college graduates in the United States attribute the lack of soft skills in recent college graduates to the colleges’ inability to prepare students for the workforce. This article explores the literature on social capital, human capital and social learning theory, offering an alternative hypothesis for why recent graduates are missing soft skills: namely, that it is the decline in social capital that is influencing the graduates’ ability to master those skills. Through the process of building social capital, college students gain the cultural and behavioural information and sensitivity they need to learn soft skills. College graduates are no longer accessing this experience; as a result, businesses and graduates are suffering the consequences of a decline in social capital. Therefore, the results of this study give rise to the hypothesis that the decline in social capital at the macrosocial level is negatively influencing recent college graduates’ formation of soft skills. This may be due to the decrease in building social capital through face-to-face interaction, rather than due to colleges not preparing graduates for success in the business environment.

Imagem Social e Imagem Sociológica: Sociological Comics enquanto método visual para o ativismo politico

Aims Current social life is immersed in images of memories and memories of images. Such memorable social images can be studied by Sociology through the concept of sociological image. This term means the scientific, technological and artistic images, constructed by the sociologist or by other social scientists, to organize contents on the cultural heritage and memory, e.g. for political activism, through visual archives and collections. The sociological paradigm of social visibilities. In substantive and theoretical terms, such sociological narratives of the visible are revealed and unveiled on a threefold plane where visual cultures and transcultures communicate: at the macro-social level of social structures, through the '(in) visions of the world' ; at the mediating level of institutions, organizations, associations and groups, by means of 'societal (in)visibilities'; and at the micro-social level of the interactions among agents, via the analysis of 'social (in)visualities'. New media and new methodologies. To study communities of interaction within the public space of the city, connected to communities of interactivity across the public cyberspace, is important to articulate the methodology of the Social / Human Sciences with the New Media. An example is Sociology Comics, both a sociological method and archive to do research through comics narrative. This device works as a Sociological Urban Novel, considering that it is used to demonstrate the potentialities of urban visual stories for sociological research. Furthermore, Sociology Comics uses hybrimedia, i.e. the hybridization/transformation of originating (initial, seminal) media such as graffiti and digital social networks, towards original (innovative) media, e.g. a mix/fusion of the precedent.

Could smog pollution lead to the migration of local skilled workers? Evidence from the Jing-Jin-Ji region in China

The study explored the characteristics of skilled workers’ migration intention in the Jing–Jin–Ji region of China from a new perspective of smog risk perception in response to the question “does smog lead to brain drain”. Quantitative research and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were used to contribute to the literature on risk perception by developing dimensions of smog risk perception, namely, physical health risk perception, mental health risk perception, living cost perception and government control perception. The applied boundary of social exchange theory was extended to the macro-social level from the original micro-organizational level. Based on this, the paper theoretically analyzed the hypothesis that there is a social exchange relationship between skilled workers and their city of residence. We theorized that this relationship could be upset by local smog pollution, ultimately resulting in the departure of skilled workers. The relationship between smog risk perception and migration intention was examined through correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis. The results showed that physical health risk perception, mental health risk perception and government control perception have significant explanatory power for skilled workers’ migration intention, which corroborates that the degree to which skilled workers perceive smog risk surely affects their migration intention. However, living cost perception is not currently a significant driver of migration intention. This study suggested that an important role is played by policy makers and organizations in the smog risk perception of skilled workers.

René Girard a jeho mimetická teorie společnosti jako možné východisko k nové sociologické teorii

The presented article introduces René Girard’s thought, especially the main components of his mimetic theory of culture. The author identifies in Girard’s work two main lines of thought: firstly, the part which covers the psychosocial effects of mimetism on the micro-social level; secondly, the part which deals with the effects of mimetism on the macro-social level and with the impact it has on the genesis and preservation of social structure. The author further explicates Girard’s understanding of ritual, myth, the sacred victim, the sacred monarchy and the relation between religion and society in general. The final part of the article considers the potential inspiration and relevance of Girard’s work for sociological theory. The author argues that the primary task is now to examine the relation of Girard’s thought to Durkheim’s theory of society. He further suggests to take a new look (with the help of Girard’s work) at the old theoretical dispute between Émile Durkheim and Gabriel Tarde, and examine, to bridge the differences between Durkheim and Tarde. The author considers such step especially relevant since Girard’s thought is grounded in the Durkheimian tradition and – at the same time – Girard’s key concept of mimesis plays central role in Tarde’s sociology. This is the direction towards which the author intends to work further in his own research.

The Plurality of Peter Berger's “Two Pluralisms” in Germany

The aim of this paper is to unfold Peter L. Berger’s new paradigm of the “Two Pluralisms” for the German context, concretizing and localizing the management of religious plurality with regard to central societal fields. It is argued that, besides the bird’s-eye view of the global and national developments, more differentiated analyses of smaller-scale units (like federal states, municipalities, and cities) are needed which zoom into the concrete local negotiation processes, opening them up with regard to their topics, actor constellations, dynamics, and effects. While Berger builds up his new paradigm in the connection of the social macro-level and the individual micro-level, this paper deals primarily with the meso-level and the consequences of the “Two Pluralisms” in the institutional contexts of politics/law, education, symbolic representation, and communication that are currently undergoing a significant change through secularization and religious pluralization while, however, have so far hardly been examined with regard to their dynamics and the intended integrative effects.

Generalising men’s affective experiences

ABSTRACTExisting approaches to understanding gendered emotions have inadequately identified the complexity of masculine affective experience on a macro-social (population) level. The division of social science into quantitative surveys of singular emotions (e.g. happiness) at the macro-social level, or qualitative examinations of multiplex feelings (i.e. multiple emotional/affective sensations experienced simultaneously) at the micro (local) level leaves existing studies unable to generalise and challenge stereotypes about the gendered affective experiences of the population. This paper uses national data from the 2015–2016 Australian Survey of Social Attitudes to show that men’s reported affective experience is characterised by a multiplex of conflicting primary and secondary emotions at the macro-level. Men’s primary surface emotions seem conventional, in that they are relatively more likely to report ‘work’-oriented emotions like enthusiasm, confidence, pride, and assertiveness. However, men are also more likely to report ‘care’-oriented emotions like care and sympathy, stress, loneliness, and anxiety as secondary emotions. Men who report primary feelings of tiredness and frustration are also more likely to report secondary feelings of love. These findings suggest that, at the macro-social level, men experience a multiplex of emotions consistent with being affectively engaged in family as much as working life, and challenge many stereotypes about men’s affective experience.

Ценностные трансформации современной студенческой молодежи

<p>В статье рассматриваются ценностные аспекты развития современной молодежи. Показано, что ценности выступают несущими конструкциями любого общества и составляют менталитет входящих в него членов. Обсуждаются социокультурные проблемы и деформации ценностного пространства воспитания, которые связаны с процессами дегуманизации культуры и демонтажем основных общественных институтов.</p><p>На психолого-педагогическом уровне изменения связаны с превращением человека из носителя культурных ценностей в носителя потребностей; на макросоциальном уровне констатируется системный сдвиг социальной структуры в логике перехода от модели «общества социального благосостояния» к модели «общества потребления». Раскрываются психологическая функция и педагогическое значение ценностей как источников личностного достоинства и социального заказа для воспитания. Показано деструктивное влияние общества потребления, современных массмедиа и информационных технологий на сознание молодежи.</p><p>Заключается, что мир ценностей создает систему жизненных координат, в которой молодой человек может найти себя, обрести свою общность с другими, определить свое уникальное место и уверенно двигаться по жизни. Наличие в обществе внятных, устойчивых, согласованных ценностей обеспечивает духовный и социокультурный иммунитет народа. Ценности стоят на страже культуры. Общество, теряющее свои ценности, неизбежно сходит со сцены истории. Ценности задают нормативно-императивный ландшафт для развития и воспитания молодежи. Зная и усваивая этот ландшафт, молодежь располагает четким пониманием и представлением о том, что от нее ожидает общество, как жить, какими быть и к чему стремиться. </p>

Narrating the Future: Population Aging and the Demographic Imaginary in Thailand

ABSTRACTMiddle-aged, working- and middle-class people in urban Northern Thailand are using demographic categories to imagine their future identities as ‘senior citizens’. I here introduce the term demographic imaginary to provide a conceptual framework for understanding how characterizations of the population at large are constructed, take hold, and shape group identification. More than simply justification for study and action, demographic categories and prognoses are key components of the social world made visible in narratives at the micro- and macro-social levels. With careful ethnographic attention to the stories people tell and those they refuse, I argue a synchronic future is at play in the present, underscoring the importance of narratives about the future for the lived experience of today.

APPROACHES TO DETERMINATION OF THE ESSENCE OF THE NOTION «THE STATE REGULATION OF THE TERRITORIAL COMMUNITIES’ WELFARE»

The article presents domestic and foreign approaches to defining of the essence of the notion «the state regulation of the territorial communities’ welfare», which are used for a set of theoretical and analytical purposes, requiring clarification. Moreover, these approaches can be considered both from the point of view of everyday life of a person, and from the point of view of social macro level. The basic characteristics and stages of research on the essence of the notion «the territorial communities’ welfare» are formed. It is disclosed that local authorities should create the necessary conditions for socio-economic expansion of territories and increase self-employment of the population, using the possible factors for attracting investments, creating new jobs, improving the welfare of the population, etc. It is noted that one of the main tasks of the state regulation in the socio-economic sphere is to ensure the welfare of citizens, including members of the territorial communities. It is determined that the main factors of the growth of the socioeconomic system are worthy living standards, access to vital goods (clothing, food), as well as improvement of the way and living conditions (labor and migration activity, environmental and transport support, etc.). It is established that for today the formation of the territorial communities, despite the positive trend of growth in recent years, is of interest to the study of problematic issues that need to be resolved and regulated. It is clarified that the state regulation of the territorial communities’ welfare can be represented as the use of a system of measures of state influence on a group of people (communities’ members) interacting in the immediate vicinity to perform all their functions and achieve harmonious growth of the socio-economic system by changing the parameters of financially-investment security and openness of the national economy.

Challenges of the Knowledge Based Economy in East Asia

The knowledge-based economy (KBE) is widely considered to be the foundation of the next stage of economic growth, following agriculture, manufacturing and services. Countries seeking to enter the KBE must take care to ensure that their resources ‘particularly human resources ‘ are willing and able to fulfil the roles requested of them. That in turn means that countries must be aware of what challenges and difficulties they will face in taking this next step in development. This paper attempts to outline at the macro-social level the issues involved in this process with a view to identifying an agenda of state-level developmental goals to be tackled.

A qualitative exploration of a family self-help mental health program in El Salvador.

BackgroundThere is a significant gap in our knowledge regarding community-based self-help groups and their benefits for persons living with mental conditions and their family caregivers in low and middle income countries. This study describes a such a program in El Salvador and explores participants’ perceptions of program effectiveness and benefits.Case descriptionThe Family Education, Support and Empowerment Program is a multi-component program in the capital that is facilitated by nonprofit professionals but carried out primarily by volunteers. A focus group methodology to build evaluation and research capacity in the organization was used. The study consisted of a questionnaire completed by participants individually, followed by two focus group sessions with the same ten people.ResultsThe study found perceptions of multiple benefits across social, functional, and economic dimensions and a variety of achievements at organizational and national levels.DiscussionThis study identified a family self-help program in El Salvador as a potentially highly beneficial program for its participants. This appears to be the first study to explore benefits across micro, mezzo and macro social levels and to include discussion of more diverse potential benefits such as individual and organizational social capital, leadership, and advocacy. These factors should be explored in future quantitative studies to help determine the relative importance and usefulness of such programs in meeting World Health Organization goals for access to mental health treatment and quality community-based services.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13033-016-0058-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Sport and Politics - Unilateral or Joint Interests? Romanian Case

Like any field of activity, sport must face the changes on three levels: micro social - at the individual level, medium level - sports institutions, and at macro social level - at the level of society as a whole. Policies in sports, cultivation and promotion of sports talent are a long term investment for a potential benefit of a nation. Sport and politics are not separate realities and cannot be that meet by chance in life practices. Sport has become a policy area that it was exploited due to its universalization. Sports institutions were forced to politicize certain decisions to survive, but also to pursue their interests and to create a favorable image. In Romania, regardless of the political regime or color of the time, sport served as resource, if not an economic, ideological, political and symbolic stake. This area was, through the top people, the safest spokesman and image makers of Romania in relation to other states. However, as in other countries, Romanian sports performance are characterized by a sinusoidal trajectory, fluctuating constantly. Compared to the current democratic regime, communist regime (the period after World War II and until 1989) anticipated the potential of sports, used and benefited more than the results obtained by the Romanian athletes in international competitions to form their own image: the first, by identifying with the nation's athletes, on the other hand, the leading elite.

Symbolic-Cognitive Proceduralism: A Model of Deliberative Legitimacy

Burkhalter et al.’s (2002) self-reinforcing model of democratic deliberation is well established, but lacks an account of legitimacy, which is a key element of most democratic-deliberative theories. We extend Burkhalter et al.’s model by proposing a new model called “symbolic-cognitive proceduralism,” which explains how democratic-deliberative processes generate legitimacy, and how such legitimacy contributes to the social reproduction of deliberation. Our proposed model accounts for perceived and normative legitimacy, at interpersonal and macro-social levels of analysis, over short and long time-spans, and accords with substantial empirical evidence.

The Subject Area of Humanistic Sociology in the Russian Society

This article contains an attempt to examine the development of humanistic sociology based on accepting humanism as a concept model of the research, which aims at identifying humanistic parameters of the social macro-level. The article suggests the statement that the intention of the Russian sociology to “transform into the sociology for society” is characterized by deviation from the traditional understanding of humanistic sociology as the micro-level sociology, because the key elements for categorizing the humanistic tendencies in the Russian society are the creative class and creative practices. Based on the statement about humanistic sociology as sociology of social creativity, the substantiation is given for the relationship between humanistic sociology conceptualization and of the sociology subject area expansion by explaining and predicting social and cultural changes at the social macro-level. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4s4p111

Społeczeństwo obywatelskie a religia. Typy relacji w perspektywie wiodących teorii socjologii religii

The aim of the article is to identify and analyze the main theses concerning the relations between the civic society and religion against the background of the leading paradigms of sociology of religion. The conception of mutual relations in the reality mentioned in the title are presented as three model propositions: opposition/competitiveness, autonomous coexistence and complementarity. Due to the close relations with transformations in the social, economic, cultural and moral spheres on the micro and macro social level, and in order to illustrate the theses more fully, they are presented in the context of modern theories of sociology of religion, with the use of the studies and systematic findings by Rev. Prof. Janusz Marianski in both these areas. Also, the connections between particular theses and the leading interpretation traditions of the civil society are shown.

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Alcohol use starts during adolescence and is influenced by multiple biopsychosocial variables. The influence of different regulatory policies (e.g., legal drinking age, prices) on youth access to alcohol has been studied to a macro-social level. However, the availability of alcohol on an individual level (e.g., pocket money) has received little attention. Another environmental variable that influences adolescents’ alcohol consumption is the peer group. Moreover, psychological variables such as being more extraverted and impulsive play a significant role in this behaviour in adolescence. The aim of this study was to analyse the relationship between personality, pocket money, and affiliation with deviant peers to alcohol consumption in adolescents. A sample of 390 high school students completed the Js neo-s, the Deviant Peer Scale (dPs), and the aisuJi questionnaires. Linear regression analyses showed that extraverted teenagers, if they had more pocket money or deviant peers, consumed more alcohol. In addition, higher extraversion combined with higher pocket money was related to more alcohol use. This result was also found in lower conscientiousness combined with having deviant peers. These results show the predictive value of personality, pocket money, and affiliation with deviant peers on drinking. Furthermore, environmental variables (pocket money and deviant peers) seem to moderate the effect of personality on alcohol consumption. keywords: Alcohol, Pocket money, Personality, Adolescence, peers.

Social Dialogue, Communication, Synergy Bonds and Unification with the Romanian Immigrants Background

Communication and social dialogue are the basic organization and social development. Human relationships are influenced by social interactions on micro-social level and macro-social level, without neglecting the role of the individual. People live together and interact in pursuit of common goals and the formation of communities as a result of belief, knowledge that is based on a common understanding. Romanian immigrant environments enable communication allowing similar ways of response, leading to emotional and intellectual provisions of the same rank. Social interaction and dialogue with the local populations of migrants and indigenous enable them to act, to integrate more easily, to be known and recognized and reflected upon. Communication and interpersonal relations are a necessity without which people or social groups cannot exist. On-line publications and sites created by Romanians everywhere, trying to establish a permanent communication language with a focus on what is happening in the country and aimed at promoting Romanian identity. Migrants with different origins, within common living areas, trying to communicate and evolve to a state of harmony, an uniform formation, helping to improve community life. Social interactions are influenced by the actions of individuals, groups, through the manifestation of conditions and performance. Romanian immigrants are found all over 30 countries in Europe and within 20 countries around the world, the migration of Romanians in the world has been going on since the second half of the nineteenth century.

Models and algorithms for health and social care of adolescents with addictive behavior, who use psychoactive substances

Background. The use of various psychoactive substances by adolescents and young people is the actual medical, psychological and social problem, which, unfortunately, has not yet been properly addressed. It should be noted that early diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders that occur the use of psychoactive substances (both episodic and systematic ones) for this contingent of respondents is a very complex issue, closely related to the destigmatization of psychiatric care, the success of psychoeducational projects on microsocial and family macrosocial (staff of educational institutions, social services, general practice) levels. It is periodically detection and early care in the vast majority of cases which have been determined the prognosis of mental illnesses and social consequences.
 Objective – based on a systematic, interdisciplinary approach we have the purpose to develop a model and the algorithm for providing medical and social care to adolescents with addictive behavior who use psychoactive substances.
 Materials and methods. A systematic, interdisciplinary approach is used.
 Results. Trends in the use of psychoactive substances by adolescents and young people will be described in such a way. Most of the respondents when taking various psychoactive substances were mainly in the area of relatively “safe” (1-7 points) or “dangerous use” (8-15 points), but without harmful effects or states of dependence. For adolescents with addictive behavior who used psychoactive substances, depending on the degree of use, we developed a model and the algorithm for medical and social care. Proposed measures were mainly psychotherapeutic and psychocorrectional in their nature.
 Conclusions. Based on the obtained data, the study and testing of addictive behavior of adolescents, the influence of social factors, premorbid mental disorders were developed and a model and the algorithm for providing medical and social care to adolescents who use psychoactive substances at different levels of care were tested.