Modern Sociology Research Articles

ПРОБЛЕМЫ РЕГУЛИРОВАНИЯ РЫНКОВ В СОВРЕМЕННОМ МИРЕ

Introduction. The mechanisms influence of the political processes on the world economics and the role of the states as the components of the political order in these processes are analyzed. Is there any irresistible antagonism between such notions as «market» and «state»? Materials and methods. The sociological analysis of the processes in the market formation in the context of the great representative’s works of the modern sociological and economical thought such as F. Blok, J. Coleman, N. Fligstein, K. Polany, Ch. Mills, I. Vallerstein is used. Results. The factor of the negative state influence on the regulation of the economical processes is rather often indicated in the Russian and foreign scientific practice. But the sociological analysis in this work shows that there is a great number of ways in the positive participation of the state structures in the formation of the social institutes including markets. Discussion. Under the definition accepted in modern sociology" subject of economic activity" includes both individuals, and large economic entities. They can be both physical and legal persons including the State. From the point of view of the classical sociological approach the State in relation to the economy always acts as an external force and its role is reduced mainly to the creation of favorable conditions for business which is nothing but interference in economic life. Conclusion. Consequently, in the structure of the modern capitalist world there is no insuperable antagonism between such concepts as the market and the State, in the process of forming a new world order they as the most important political institutions closely interact with each other and exert corresponding influence on each other.

Теоретические предпосылки социологического анализа потребления медицинской помощи

The topicality of the article is the necessity to construct theoretical bases of medical care consumption study in sociology. The purpose of this article is a systematic analysis of the content and boundaries in using the category of medical care consumption in sociological science. The novelty of the work is expressed in the applying of transdisciplinary methodological principle in medical care consumption phenomenon study. The author comes to the conclusion about the possibility of integrating of biomedical, valeological, axiological, economic, socio-cultural approaches for better sociological understanding of illness behaviour. Micro sociological perspective views medical care consumption as a stage of individual “disease career” in the social relation context. Macro sociological tradition is concerned with primarily how institutional limitations and cultural program of society influence medical activity. Socially-status and socio-cultural differences produce consumer strategies due to which form a secondary stratified division of society in the sphere of medical care consumption. Thus, the task of modern sociology, in the opinion of the author, is to link the socio-cultural basis of medical care consumption strategies with socio-economic structure of society. At the end of article the author emphasizes that sociological approach allows to reveal the hidden subjective and objective factors of medical care accessibility, as well as to define the reasons and effects of obvious limitations in medical care system

Crisis, Childhood and Children’s Rights: A Modern Sociological Approach

Discussions around the current economic crisis have primarily focused on how it affects children’s well-being, ignoring its consequences on the conception of childhood. Following the modern sociological approach to childhood, which argues that it is not just a biological fact of life but a product of the social context and that children have to be seen as social agents, it is examined how the current socio-economic situation affects the construction of childhood and whether this hinders children from being active subjects of social structures and processes. Similarly, taking into account the close relation between conceptions of childhood and perceptions on children’s rights, this paper also examines the consequences of the economic crisis on the contemporary theoretical evolution of children’s rights, which is mainly specified by the ascription of autonomy rights to children. The conclusion common to both the sociology of childhood and children’s rights is that modern social reality fails to meet the expectations that have been raised by recent developments in the above fields, as crucial concepts, such as dependency, agency and capacity, are undergoing complex transformations.

The Germination of German Economics: A Bounded School through European Integration, Which Theorized Without Theory

Some scholarly works do not consider the German School, often called the German Historical School, as its own school of economics. Contrary to this view, this paper answers this question, and argues, through comparisons and contrasts with other schools of thought, that it was, and is, its own bounded school with lasting influences, but was derived from timely culture. Unique for economics, which usually prefers mathematical techniques, it placed less methodological stress upon theory and more upon historical analysis. It struggled between deduction and induction, but viewed society biologically like an organism, with concern for the development of societies and societal issues, popular in today’s economics. Through the works of such brilliant minds as Friedrich List, Gustav von Schmoller, and Wilhelm Roscher, this paper traces the German School’s influence from its origins in the mercantilist period up to the Freiburg School and ordo-liberals. Relying on qualitative foundations, it shows that these economists were their own bounded school, theorizing not with mathematical theory but qualitatively. They have had lasting influences, including through the development of neoclassical economics, modern sociology, and economic changes brought on by German unification, the two world wars, and particularly the development of the European integration process.

From the Sociology of Things to the “Internet of Things”

In contemporary philosophical and social studies, the issues which are related to perceptual experience come to the fore, enhanced by attention to the things of reality in their immediate givens sometimes in everyday experiences. Modern sociology and social philosophy refer to things as to the something that had not previously shown as a relatively independent object without being the representator of the other types of reality and relationships in the world: social, economic (in terms production, distribution and consumption), political, etc. In our opinion, now a thing acquires a special status in philosophical studies, becoming a kind of condensation point of being. Such attention to the things due to several factors, including: the modern understanding of space and time, the expansion of the current “real” crisis idealistic philosophical ideas, the reorientation of phenomenology. In a situation of rapid development of information technologies there is such a phenomenon as the “Internet of things”, which captures not only the conjugation of human individuals in the information network, but also systems and hardware devices that can often go without human intervention. Such a phenomenon requires a philosophical rethinking, and represents the focus on perceptual and bodily aspects of life in the modern world.

Sociedad y cultura modernas en Brasil. La formación de la sociología en San Pablo

The experience of the constitution of modern sociology in Brazil has to be with the intense modernization of the country, which worsened during the crisis of traditional social relations, and more significantly after World War II. Brazilian society was moving in an opposite direction to that of Europe: while in Europe a loss of civilizational hegemony in Brazil it produced the debacle of the Estado Novo and the building of democratic institutions. USP was a product of the new concepts that guided the mentors of cultural institutions who advocated the creation of more modern ones. In this scenario of profound transformation and modernization Florestan Fernandes stood out as an unique personality which is identified with the mission to build the scientific foundations of sociology in Brazil.

Rudolf Andorka, an Emblematic Hungarian Sociologist of the Second Half of the 20th Century

A methodologically based point of view of the second half of 20th century’s Hungary shows a society driven by forces of various historical processes and paradoxical consequences of democratisation. Rudolf Andorka, an empirical sociologist examining Hungarian society in the socialist regime and after the transition in the 1990s, proves inherent and historically rooted social and spatial inequalities supplemented with the analyses of the underdeveloped rural settlement structure and village-town dichotomy. As a social scientist Andorka was stigmatised for his political untrustworthiness. He was arrested for political reasons and had a harsh beginning to his career. Andorka had a multidisciplinary stance in sociology, demography, economics and even beyond the scope of sociology. He took part in various research from regional inequalities through Household Panel Surveys and time series data analyses to deviant behaviour. His criticism of the socialist totalitarian regime was based on a specific approach to analyse social phenomena and gave rise to an innovative trend within Hungarian sociology. He is considered to be one of the founders of modern sociology in Hungary and his concise book of sociology (re-compiled) continues to be the basis of sociological studies at Hungarian universities and his approach to analysing society is prevalent until this day.

Embodied Memory: Commemorative Ritual in Sociology of Émile Durkheim

Reconstruction of Emile Durkheim’s views on collective memory is the focus of the article. Durkheim had not created the completed concept of collective memory and his main attention was concentrated on its concrete form, that is to say the commemorative ritual. Thereby he laid the methodological foundations for further development of the concept of collective memory and influenced on later memory studies. Durkheim’s sociology leads with the necessity for a conclusion that for the support of stability of a community, its members have to remember certain things in a certain way and to forget, in an orderly way, other things. The general theme of Durkheim’s sociology is that a community needs a certain degree of intellectual, moral and emotional conformism of its members. This provision results in a more particular conclusion about the social necessity of the “memorial conformism”. The paper explores Durkheim’s work The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life which takes a special position in the logic of Durkheim's research program. This book demonstrates the way to development of the general cultural theory of social, constructed on the basis of the category of sacred. However, for a long time this work, on the contrary, has been considered as less significant, almost marginal, written on a secondary ethnographic material. Only recently, in the context of the general cultural and anthropological movement in modern sociology, the “later Durkheim” was read anew.

Front Matter for: Applying Ibn Khaldun: The Recovery of a Lost Tradition in Sociology

The writings of lbn Khaldirn, particularly the Muqaddimah (Prolegomenon), have rightly been regarded as being sociological in nature. For this reason, Ibn Khaldun has been widely regarded as the founder of sociology, or at least a precursor of modern sociology. While he was given this recognition, however, few works went beyond proclaiming him as a founder or precursor to the systematic application of his theoretical perspective to specific historical and contemporary aspects of Muslim societies in North Africa and the Middle East. The continuing presence of Eurocentrism in the social sciences has not helped in this regard: it often stands in the way of the consideration of non-Western sources of theories and concepts. This book provides an overview of Ibn Khaldiin and his sociology, discusses reasons for his marginality, and suggests ways to bring Ibn Khaldtln into the mainstream through the systematic application of his theory. It moves beyond works that simply state that Ibn Khaldun was a founder of sociology or provide descriptive accounts of his works. Instead it systematically applies lbn Khaldiin's theoretical perspective to specific historical aspects of Muslim societies in North Africa and the Middle East, successfully integrating concepts and frameworks from Khaldunian sociology into modem social science theories. Applying Ibn Khaldiin will be of interest to students and scholars of sociology and social theory.

The Reconstruction of Sociology in Eastern Europe—Expectations and Dilemmas

The article raises two questions: why do sociologists in Western Europe hold expectations of theoretical innovations in sociology in (post-)transitional Eastern European countries, and why is it that sociologists from Eastern Europe do not meet these expectations. The assumption is that these expectations are primarily a response to the theoretical crisis of modern sociology itself, rather than the effect of its knowledge of changes in transitional countries or its willingness to really listen to sociologists from those countries and accept them as equal partners. The attempt to answer the second question involves an analysis of the multilayered reality of sociology in post-socialism, including the loss of the socialist and civil-society utopias which have been replaced by pragmatic endeavors to re-establish a market society and its institutions. Despite the differences between the social situations in the East and West, today’s “Eastern” and “Western” social scientists are confronted by similar global problems and challenges. While the present crisis of the capitalist economy and neo-liberalism certainly has its structural causes, what needs to be questioned here are the very assumptions underlying the world order and the key mechanisms of its functioning.

Max Weber in Politics and Social Thought: From Charisma to Canonisation by Joshua Derman (review)

[MVVS 14.1 (2014) 119-127] ISSN 1470-8078 Book Reviews Joshua Derman, Max Weber in Politics and Social Thought: From Charisma to Canonisa tion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 271. ISBN 978-1-107-02588 2. £62.00. This book offers both more and less than it seems to promise. It does not really seek to situate Weber's work in contemporary and subsequent social thought, in the sense of relating his own arguments to those of others, so that we might appreciate Weberian arguments as part of a broader discourse. Instead, it provides something rather nar rower, an account of the reception of Weber's work, first of all in interwar Germany, and then within the developing social sciences from the 1930s to the 1960s. The focus is not for example upon the changes Talcott Parsons envisaged for the social sci ences and the way in which Weber was pressed into service in advancing this vision; the focus remains upon the translation of Weber into this context. However, this restricted focus is an advantage, and we come away from reading Derman's book with a strong sense of the way in which Max Weber, a scholar whose writing was so strongly motivated by a desire for clear, uncompromising arguments, was taken up by the most contradictory currents in twentieth century thought: he was read and cited approvingly by liberals, social democrats, communists, conservatives, Nazis, cold war social scientists, nationalists, federalists, positivists, existentialists—there is no end to the diversity of those who have drawn upon his work. The general outlines of the story which Derman presents are today relatively famil iar: thanks to the efforts of his widow Marianne, Weber's legacy had by the mid-1920s been packaged into a ten-volume 'collected works' to which she added a substan tial biography. One of these volumes, the Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Wissetischaflslehre which first appeared in 1922, has yet to be published in the Gesamtausgabe, about forty years after that project began; and so in effect we are all still direct beneficiaries of Marianne Weber's energy and decisiveness. However, despite there being an Archiv ßr Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik until 1933, there was in effect little in the way of organised 'social science and social policy' in Weimar Germany that might have formed a natural readership for Webe/ s work; some of his writing did make a sig nificant impact upon German academics and the wider intelligentsia, but there was no clear constituency that might have claimed Weber as their man. This was first cre ated in the United States during the 1930s, centred first upon the work of Parsons and Shils, and then later that of Gerth and Mills. All of these American-based academics were associated with the delineation of a modern sociology, for which Weber became a major flag-bearer. Talcott Parsons, in particular, had a vision for a new social sci ence which broke decisively with its previous incarnation as the moral or political sci ences, promoting in their place the action frame of reference that served as a catch-all approach to human behaviour in much the same way that the vogue for neuroscience does today. In this incarnation, Max Weber became a sociologist, and it was in this© Max Weber Studies 2014, Clifton House, 17 Malvern Road, London, E8 3LP. 120 Max Weber Studies guise that he was re-introduced to post-war Ger was the butt of critique from Marcuse and Haberma of his birth; but Max Weber survived this criticism or Habermas, and this year we celebrate the 150th different Max Weber. We owe to scholars like Jo how Max Weber has over the years meant many t speak to us today with such clarity and urgency. Derman does not recount this trajectory as a st matically, and in this way is able to add consider reception of Weber7 s work in Germany during th States from the 1930s to the 1960s. Some of the lat that dealt with in the second part of Lawrence S clearly the production schedules of the two bo only to Scaff's earlier studies and not to the b stantial study in...

Keturių “stalo atramų” konsensuso modelis iš funkcionalizmo, takiosios modernybės bei kompleksiškosios teorijų perspektyvos

Based on the principle that the intensification of people mobility and societies configurations differentiation is the ongoing process de facto in societies living under democratic values , reaction to the dynamism of the plurality in societies is one of the most urgent problems in the contemporary world. Focusing on this problem and trying to find answers for it, the author of this article created a unique model: KSAK model. KSAK is the abbreviation in Lithuanian of the phrase “The four “table legs” for consensus” (Keturios “stalo atramos” konsensusui). The objective of this model is to provide strong premises for the pursuit of consensus. In pluralistic societies, where living individuals differently perceive and react to reality, social cohesion cannot be sought through universalism. In this case, this cohesion can be reached only by compromise, by pursuit of consensus. The KSAK model consists of four main affirmations. These affirmations raised by the KSAK model require being analyzed and confirmed empirically and theoretically, being a strong base for the model, and consequently, to the “table” for consensus it might have a firm basis. Therefore, the goal of this article is to analyze the affirmations of the new model created by the author of this article, through various sociological perspectives, namely through the modern and postmodern sociological theory. For this, as a representative of modern sociology, functionalism of Émile Durkheim was chosen. As representatives of postmodern sociology, liquid modernity of Zygmunt Bauman and theory of complexity of Edgar Morin were chosen. For the accomplishment of this work various theoretical literatures, mainly Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and English, were analyzed.

(In)formování sociálních systémů

Původni orientace systemoveho inženýrstvi na tvrde technologicke systemy dosud převlada. Je ale nutna pokrocila pozornost k navrhovani socialně kulturnich systemů. Pojem socialniho systemu je dobře znam z 20. stoleti z praci Parsonse, Luhmanna, Habermase, Bourdieu, Foucaulta aj. Přispěvek vybira několik zakladnich myslenek o socialnich systemech podle filosofie a sociologie modernity. Zaměrem je aktualizovat systemove inženýrstvi a vice je zapojit do systemových studii v Ceske republice. Jedna se o teze k 45. rocniku konference Systemove inženýrstvi (SYSIN 2014).

Being networks: the digital formism of net-activist movements

For the last few years online social movements have spread through several latitudes creating important theoretical challenges for several areas of knowledge, concerning the nature of such actions, given the connective and technological quality of its acts as well as concerning the creation of a new kind of locality, simultaneously informative and material expression of an unprecedented dwelling condition that brings humans together, informative circuits and territorialities. Finally, the necessity that imposes rethinking the composition of human collectives beyond the perspective of modern sociology, since it presents itself as expression of a reticular interactive ecology that is no longer political, that is, anthropomorphic and ideologically oriented.

Beyond class: The many facets of Gramsci’s theory of intellectuals

Gramsci’s theory of intellectuals is widely cited but rarely closely studied. This article makes a case for a rereading of this theory. This is both desirable and necessary because, as the article shows, it is a more nuanced and yet also encompassing theory than recognized in current scholarship on the sociology of intellectuals, and it actually has much to contribute to a comprehensive modern sociology of intellectuals. This is chiefly by the way it took class into account while transcending it. Far from being limited to a description of intellectuals as class-bound, Gramsci’s theory in fact also saw intellectuals as class-less and a class-in-themselves. It also took into account intrinsic qualities of intellectual production and can contribute to questions in subaltern studies and the study of counter-hegemony.

The ‘psychological’ and the ‘spiritual’: an evolutional relationship within an ontological framework. A brief comment on Jung's ‘Self’

Despite the prevalence of phenomenological perspectives in most modern scientific fields addressing religion and spirituality, including psychology of religion, ontological inquiries retain an important position in certain fields, such as modern sociology (e.g., Weber, Giddens' concept of ‘ontological security’). Ontological and phenomenological approaches, alongside certain principles that function as interpretative tools in the social sciences (e.g., reductionism, teleology, supervenience), can be synthesised to construct a pluralistic methodology for understanding anew the dynamics between the ‘psychological’ and the ‘spiritual’. This paper attempts to articulate an ‘evolutional’ approach to the spiritual as an ‘emergent’ property arising from multiple factors beyond the psychological and the metaphysical (such as social and cultural constructs). This holistic understanding of the spiritual will be then applied to Jung's notion of the ‘Self’ to understand further its spiritual and/or ontological potential.

Religion and Modern Society. Citizenship, Secularization and the State by Bryan Turner (review)

[MWS 13.2 (2013) 273-278] ISSN 1470-8078 Book Reviews Bryan Turner Religion and Modern Society. Citizenship, Secularization and the State (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 344pp. ISBN 978-0-521-67532-1. $34.99. Religion has not declined in the way that modern sociologists expected; their dom inant presupposition that 'secularization is uniform and an inevitable feature of modernity' (p. 73) has been undoubtedly disproved since the Iranian Revolution— the pivotal event which 'offered a singular example of the mobilisation of the masses in the name of religion renewal' (p. 104)—while dramatically collapsing after the events of 9/11. In his recent book Religion and modern society: citizenship, secularization and the State Bryan Turner fully embraces much of the considerable criticism the sec ularization thesis has come to face in light of the highly debated issue of the return of religion to the international stage as a driving force in society. Indeed, since the publication of José Casanova's Public religions in the modern world (1994), a number of sociologists have deeply revised a theory that has shown a lack of any empirical evidence, thereby admitting its mythical overtones and historical embeddedness. In this sense, as Turner puts it, a Durkheimian Talcott Parsons 'did not accept the secu larization thesis that became the hallmark of much European sociology', insofar as American liberal democracy—as 'an institutional and cultural realisation of (Protes tant) Christianity' (p. 73)—could reveal an alternative development. Nonetheless, in Turner's view, that theory still retains a crucial role in a global ized world. Indeed, although comparative researches on a global scale have made it necessary to overcome a narrow-minded approach to the study of the multiple sides of the interaction between religion and society —beyond the narrative frame of a sec ular Europe and of a profoundly religious North America—according to the Author the secularization thesis should not to be dismantled 'too profoundly' (p. 149). By contrast, it still affects religious beliefs worldwide in what he calls 'commodifica tion' or 'low intensity religion': religious faiths and practices, being enmeshed in 'a secular commercial culture', cannot but compete with secular lifestyles in the deliv ery of commercial goods. The setting up of 'mega-churches, drive-in confessionals, buy-a-prayer, popular religious films, religious shopping outlets (...)' (p. 150) are but a few examples of a phenomenon where religion appears to be 'merely a set of rituals for bringing good fortune and good health'. Within this frame, the Weberian idea of religion—'an ethical activity of self-creation'— has completely disappeared, for religion, in order to be 'a radical faith of transformation', has 'to be concerned' — in Weber's interpretation—'not with Glück but with Leid' (p. 58). From this perspective, Habermas' basic assumptions on post-secular soci eties need to be redirected, as far as Turner's opinion is espoused. The German philosopher, in debating with former Pope Benedict XVI his in-depth investiga tion into the 'post-secular', has reconsidered his earlier conceptions on the place of religion in modernity. Religious beliefs—'against the German background of© Max Weber Studies 2013, Clifton House, 17 Malvern Road, London, E8 3LP. 274 Max Weber Studies Kulturprotestantismus' (p. 105)—can still be important sources of meaning, iden tity and solidarity. Turner believes the enduring vitality of religious beliefs in the modern public domain cannot be explained without grasping the huge transforma tions within religion's 'traditional forms of authority' that the secular has produced (p. 210). More precisely, the Author refers to the paradoxical effects of the use of the Internet 'in preserving social and cultural connections' among diasporic com munities worldwide; indeed, if it is true world religions could arguably not suc ceed in keeping their faithfuls' conscience alive without it, the building of such a global network technology unfolds 'democratic characteristics that are also corrosive of religious authority' (p. xviii). Thus, well-established definitions of Islamic holy law—following Weber's account of the irrational characteristics of Shari'a (p. 152) — that made it in principle a frozen set of religious norms, 'closed to further interpreta tion', cannot be applied anymore to the contemporary period. Since modern Muslim migrants living...

Linhas retas ou labirintos?: A tradução da sociologia da modernização nos textos de Florestan Fernandes e de Gino Germani (1960-1970)

This article discusses how Florestan Fernandes and Gino Germani, in translating the American sociology of modernization to the specificities of the Brazilian and Argentinean societies, respectively, succeeded in achieving creative theoretical syntheses. In order to discern such theoretical potential, the article contrasts the formulations of those authors with the arguments of Talcott Parsons, a fundamental figure in the systematization of the sociology of modernization. Understanding the process of translation as a dynamic intellectual phenomenon, the article recoups the main texts of Fernandes, Germani, and Parsons, of the years 1960-1970, a decisive period in which the reciprocal displacements between their theorizations were becoming clearer.

International Relations Theory and the “Social Whole”: Encounters and Gaps Between IR and Sociology

This article explores some basic issues which arise from International Relations (IR) theory also being a form of social theory in a broader sense. Many of these issues are related to the question of a “social whole,” that is, whether international relations/International Relations is one of many parts of a social whole, on what grounds it is differentiated from other parts, and whether it operates on a distinct level of social reality. We argue that these questions have been addressed in many forms of IR theory, but mostly only implicitly, and that the failure to make explicit assumptions about a social whole is probably due to the relative neglect of the subject in modern Sociology. The article argues that implicit assumptions about a social whole can be unearthed by looking at the concepts of systems, levels, and sectors, discussing debates about each of these in turn. Openly addressing IR theory as social theory, and spelling out images of a social whole, allows one to gain a sharper understanding of some of the basic analytical categories used, and to judge whether they form plausible delimitations of social reality within a wider social context.

Machine Learning and Social Network Analysis Applied to Alzheimer's Disease Biomarkers

Due to the fact that the number of deaths due Alzheimer is increasing, the scientists have a strong interest in early stage diagnostic of this disease. Alzheimer's patients show different kind of brain alterations, such as morphological, biochemical, functional, etc. Currently, using magnetic resonance imaging techniques is possible to obtain a huge amount of biomarkers; being difficult to appraise which of them can explain more properly how the pathology evolves instead of the normal ageing. Machine Learning methods facilitate an efficient analysis of complex data and can be used to discover which biomarkers are more informative. Moreover, automatic models can learn from historical data to suggest the diagnostic of new patients. Social Network Analysis (SNA) views social relationships in terms of network theory consisting of nodes and connections. The resulting graph-based structures are often very complex; there can be many kinds of connections between the nodes. SNA has emerged as a key technique in modern sociology. It has also gained a significant following in medicine, anthropology, biology, information science, etc., and has become a popular topic of speculation and study. This paper presents a review of machine learning and SNA techniques and then, a new approach to analyze the magnetic resonance imaging biomarkers with these techniques, obtaining relevant relationships that can explain the different phenotypes in dementia, in particular, different stages of Alzheimer's disease.