Sociological Notion Research Articles

Facets of Trust and Distrust in Collaborative Robots at the Workplace: Towards a Multidimensional and Relational Conceptualisation

The relevance of trust on the road to successful human-robot interaction is widely acknowledged. Thereby, trust is commonly understood as a monolithic concept characterising dyadic relations between a human and a robot. However, this conceptualisation seems oversimplified and neglects the specific interaction context. In a multidisciplinary approach, this conceptual analysis synthesizes sociological notions of trust and distrust, psychological trust models, and ideas of philosophers of technology in order to pave the way for a multidimensional, relational and context-sensitive conceptualisation of human-robot trust and distrust. In this vein, trust is characterised functionally as a mechanism to cope with environmental complexity when dealing with ambiguously perceived hybrid robots such as collaborative robots, which enable human-robot interactions without physical separation in the workplace context. Common definitions of trust in the HRI context emphasise that trust is based on concrete expectations regarding individual goals. Therefore, I propose a three-dimensional notion of trust that binds trust to a reference object and accounts for various coexisting goals at the workplace. Furthermore, the assumption that robots represent trustees in a narrower sense is challenged by unfolding influential relational networks of trust within the organisational context. In terms of practical implications, trust is distinguished from acceptance and actual technology usage, which may be promoted by trust, but are strongly influenced by contextual moderating factors. In addition, theoretical arguments for considering distrust not only as the opposite of trust, but as an alternative and coexisting complexity reduction mechanism are outlined. Finally, the article presents key conclusions and future research avenues.

Pratiques in situ d’enseignants-chercheurs et confrontation avec le vécu des étudiants : une étude de cas en mathématiques et en physique

This research focuses on the teaching practices of teacher-researchers (TRs) in a lecture context. Their declared practices were studied using the sociological notion of professional identity. The analysis of the verbatim, collected during interviews with 5 TRs indicates a strong attachment to the epistemology of their discipline and a willingness to interact with the student audience to facilitate learning. However, the analysis of students' answers to a questionnaire proposed at the end of the lecture shows a misunderstanding between their intentions and the students' experience. We have identified two profiles of TRs: some encourage interaction during the course by overlooking some of the students' difficulties, while others give too many details or use a medium that hinders learning.

On religious ambiguity: Childhood family religiosity and adult flourishing in a twin sample

Ambiguity is an important notion in sociology, denoting situations where social actors and groups carry on without shared meaning. The current article applies this concept to the context of religiosity during people's upbringing, recognizing that multiple factors make family-level religion a complex experience. Indeed, though recent research portrays household religiosity in childhood as a sociocultural exposure with long-term implications for well-being, existing studies have yet to incorporate multiple inputs to consider the cohesiveness of that exposure. Using twin data from a national sample, we investigate whether consistency in recalled household religiosity is associated with mid-life flourishing. Multi-level linear regression models reveal that similarity in twin reports matter, above and beyond the actual level of religiosity individuals report and net of dis/similarity across other childhood recollections. We conclude that coherence in religious upbringing—whether religion was understood to be important or not—is a key ingredient for thriving later in life and then reflect more broadly on manifestations of sociocultural ambiguity in families and in larger social units.

Belonging-Assemblage: Experiences of Unaccompanied Young People Seeking Asylum in the UK

In this article, I examine how belonging takes place within lives shaped by the hostile milieu of UK immigration policies and politics, by focusing on the everyday experiences of unaccompanied young people seeking asylum. Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari’s assemblage, I suggest an understanding of belonging as a rhizomatic assemblage, comprising the interactions and relations of diverse forces and flows. Based on the analysis of in-depth interviews with unaccompanied young people and the professionals who care for or work with them, I conclude that belonging is reconfigured in-between relations, always incomplete and in transition. I argue that belonging is characterised by inconsistencies and ruptures and made possible by the ‘micro-politics’ of those unaccompanied young people encounter in their everyday lives. I contribute to the literature by conceptualising the sociological notion of belonging in a novel way and exposing its key components and nature formed under precarious conditions.

ARTISTIC-EXPRESSIVE DIMENSION OF GYMNASTICS FOR ALL

The expressive and poetic dimension of Gymnastics for All (GfA) is often recognized in choreographies performed at gymnastics festivals, emphasising its communicative and referential function. The aim of this study was to discuss the artistic-expressive dimension of GfA based on Pierre Parlebas’ theory and in the sociological notion of sportivisation. The particular and unfinished sportivisation GfA process includes the absence of institutionalised gesture codes, characterising the artistic-expressive dimension as a "potency", which therefore may or may not be part of GfA's activities, according to the decision of each group. This analysis allows us to distinguish GfA from other artistic sports, such as Rhythmic Gymnastics and Figure Skating, and from other art forms, such as dance and circus.

Platform companies on the internet as a new organizational form. A sociological perspective

Today’s internet is shaped by privately operated platforms that not only organize economic processes but also coordinate and regulate broader societal contexts. Against this background, this conceptual paper develops a sociological notion of platform companies and the platforms they operate as a new type of enterprise that consists not only of economic features (business and revenue models, exploitation patterns, market relations) but also of action-orienting rules, institutional infrastructures and social relations between a great variety of individual, corporate and collective actors that clearly reach beyond economic contexts and far into society. To this end, we specify the often fuzzy talk of ‘the platforms’ by drawing an analytical distinction between (1) the platform-operating companies as organizing cores whose goal is to operate a profitable business; (2) the platforms belonging to them as technically mediated market and social action spaces that provide the basis for not only economic but also genuine social activities on today’s internet; and (3) the institutionalized coordination, control and exploitation mechanisms implemented by the platform operators, linking these two constitutive levels of the platform architecture.

Machine Learning and Postcolonial Critique: Homologous Challenges to Sociological Notions of Human Agency

This article discusses two seemingly unrelated but homologous challenges to established sociological thinking, namely machine learning technologies and postcolonial critique. Both of these confront conventional human-centric sociological notions. Where the rise of machine learning should prompt sociologists to take the agency of nonhuman systems seriously, postcolonial critique challenges the idea of Eurocentric human agency. I discuss whether this dual agency challenge can be addressed through Latour’s actor-network theory and Luhmann’s sociological systems theory – both of which explicitly aim to transcend classical human-centric approaches. I argue that Latour’s work can align with postcolonial sociology. However, despite broadening the notion of agency, his actor-network concept remains strongly human-centric. It merely expands the range of actors with which humans engage rather than analysing interactions among nonhuman actants, such as machine learning systems. In contrast, such interactions can be understood through Luhmann’s theorisation, which, however, can be subjected to postcolonial critique.

"Cyber security is a dark art": The CISO as Soothsayer

Commercial organisations continue to face a growing and evolving threat of data breaches and system compromises, making their cyber-security function critically important. Many organisations employ a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) to lead such a function. We conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 15 CISOs and six senior organisational leaders, between October 2019 and July 2020, as part of a wider exploration into the purpose of CISOs and cyber-security functions. In this paper, we employ broader security scholarship related to ontological security and sociological notions of identity work to provide an interpretative analysis of the CISO role in organisations. Research findings reveal that cyber security is an expert system that positions the CISO as an interpreter of something that is mystical, unknown and fearful to the uninitiated. They show how the fearful nature of cyber security contributes to it being considered an ontological threat by the organisation, while responding to that threat contributes to the organisation's overall identity. We further show how cyber security is analogous to a belief system and how one of the roles of the CISO is akin to that of a modern-day soothsayer for senior management; that this role is precarious and, at the same time, superior, leading to alienation within the organisation. Our study also highlights that the CISO identity of protector-from-threat, linked to the precarious position, motivates self-serving actions that we term 'cyber sophistry'. We conclude by outlining a series of implications for both organisations and CISOs.

Platial mobility: expanding place and mobility in GIS via platio-temporal representations and the mobilities paradigm

While platial representations are being developed for sedentary entities, a parallel and useful endeavor would be to consider time in so-called “platio-temporal” representations that would also expand notions of mobility in GIScience, that are solely dependent on Euclidean space and time. Besides enhancing such aspects of place and mobility via spatio-temporal, we also include human aspects of these representations via considerations of the sociological notions of mobility via the mobilities paradigm that can systematically introduce representation of both platial information along with mobilities associated with ‘moving places.’ We condense these aspects into ‘platial mobility,’ a novel conceptual framework, as an integration in GIScience and the mobilities paradigm in sociology, that denotes movement of places in our platio-temporal and sociology-based representations. As illustrative cases for further study using platial mobility as a framework, we explore its benefits and methodological aspects toward developing better understanding for disaster management, disaster risk reduction and pandemics. We then discuss some of the illustrative use cases to clarify the concept of platial mobility and its application prospects in the areas of disaster management, disaster risk reduction and pandemics. These use cases, which include flood events and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, have led to displaced and restricted communities having to change practices and places, which would be particularly amenable to the conceptual framework developed in our work.

Texas Brigadier to the Fall of Atlanta: John Bell Hood by Stephen Davis

Reviewed by: Texas Brigadier to the Fall of Atlanta: John Bell Hood by Stephen Davis Alexander Mendoza Texas Brigadier to the Fall of Atlanta: John Bell Hood. By Stephen Davis. (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2021. Pp. 554. Illustrations, maps, notes, works cited, index.) Stephen Davis's Texas Brigadier to the Fall of Atlanta is a welcome addition to the growing scholarship on General John Bell Hood and the Texas Brigade during the Civil War. Serving as the first of two volumes of a comprehensive study on the beleaguered commander, this book sheds much-needed light on the general's military career and the maelstrom of controversy and recrimination that surrounded the Confederate Army of Tennessee. From the onset, Davis tackles his subject and addresses the elephant in the room, the notion that Hood undeservedly received promotion to full general and the command of an army he was ill-suited to lead. Historians have "concluded that Hood was a nineteenth-century embodiment of the 'Peter Principle'—the American sociological notion that in hierarchical organizations, individuals rise to the level of incompetence," the author writes (1). Davis acknowledges that it is possible to see Hood as an ambitious commander who clamored for promotion. However, history does not work as simply as that. Rather, it is more nuanced and complex than the one-dimensional interpretations that historians have imposed on Hood. Davis's biography provides a short background of Hood prior to 1861. Because the author's stated purpose is to analyze the development of Hood as a soldier and officer, it is fitting that Davis devotes so little to Hood's background. The general himself wrote only eleven pages in his postwar memoirs about his life prior to the war. During the war, Hood [End Page 516] emerged as a true leader of men, a commander who possessed an innate confidence that attracted admiration and loyalty from his subordinates. Yet this is no hagiography, and Davis acknowledges that Hood was not above self-promotion. At one point, for instance, after the Battle of Second Manassas in 1862, Davis suggests that Hood was likely responsible for providing the Richmond Enquirer an anonymously written account praising the exploits of the Texas Brigade and its commander. The "gallant Hood" that emerged from that column would be a term used to describe the general for years. "Sophistication does not generally characterize John Bell Hood, but ambition—the drive for fame and glory—certainly does," Davis writes (33). This was evident at the crucial point of Hood's military career, his promotion to full general and ascension to command the Army of Tennessee during the Atlanta Campaign. The work of any good biographer is to delve deeply and provide careful analysis. Davis exemplifies that in his assessment of Hood. During Hood's convalescence in Richmond after losing his right leg in the Battle of Chickamauga, Davis provides the most detailed account yet of how Hood maneuvered through the world of Richmond high society and Confederate politics. He did so clumsily and awkwardly but persevered enough to gain the admiration of the public. The picture that emerges is of someone who struggled to dip his toes into the political waters of the Confederate capitol. Ultimately, Davis succeeds in his close examination of how Hood gained command of one of the Confederacy's foremost armies. Texas Brigadier is exceptionally well-researched and soundly written. Significantly, Davis's book is a treasure trove for historians and scholars interested in the machinations of the Confederate high command. The footnotes alone are worthy of thorough reading. Civil War historians will certainly benefit from this fine work. Alexander Mendoza University of North Texas Copyright © 2022 The Texas State Historical Association

‘They are Alone in Their Parenthood’: Parenting Support and (Re)building Community

This article uniquely contributes to critical discussions about parenting support in contemporary social science research that has examined the recent political and public attention on parenting. The studies highlight the increased attention on individualised parenting support focused on the parent–child relationship. Based on an analysis of 310 family support projects initiated in Finland, this research found that another orientation exists alongside individualised parenting support, which has gained only little attention in recent studies about parenting support. That alternative focuses on a communal parenting support, wherein parenting support is conducted by means of community (re)building. This article summarises how anxiety about parenting overlaps with discussions about community as well as ‘the family decline’, creating a need for community (re)building. In this study, I show how concern within family support projects is harnessed to establish ‘communion’, representing a third category alongside the more common sociological notions of ‘society’ and ‘community’. However, fundamental tensions appear as projects attempt to build community, which I also discuss in this article.

T. S. ELIOT AND EMILE DURKHEIM: SACRED AND PROFANE IN "THE LOVE SONG OF J. ALFRED PRUFROCK"

Along history, sociology and literature have formed various associations with each other. From the sociology of literature that has considered literature as a social production to the usages of sociological perspectives as literary theories or the usage of literature as illustration of sociological abstract notions, literature and sociology have been constantly and interrelatedly studied. Nevertheless, this study aims at revealing another interrelation between literature and sociology by referring to the beginning of the twentieth century when the replacement of religious thinking with secular ideas was dominant in modern society. Sociologists like Emile Durkheim detected and studied this shift in modern society and later on literary authors of the time followed the promotion of secularism in their literary works. However, T.S. Eliot reacted to this replacement in his poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock". He wrote the poem while he was reviewing Durkheim’s The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life in the journal the Westminster Gazette. This paper argues that T.S. Eliot’s "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is written with a mindset loaded by Durkheim’s sociological perspectives such as the notions of the sacred and the profane to further conclude that T. S. Eliot’s creation of Prufrock is consistent with the view that the modern man is unable to establish himself in a society which is devoid of the notions of sacred and profane and that he may consider committing suicide to save himself as the final resort.

Les étrangetés psychologiques et sociales chez Fatou Diome : des vecteurs d’une affirmation identitaire cosmopolite ?

This article analyses four works by Fatou Diome (La préférence nationale, 2001; Le ventre de lʼAtlantique, 2005; Impossible de grandir, 2013; Marianne porte plainte !, 2017) which thematically target the exile of narrator Salie, the author’s double. The aim is to order the abundant textual material through literary, sociological and anthropological notions, without ignoring the surplus of literature, which shows the way. The hypothesis will consist in revealing the didactic virtues of the pamphlet (2017), in contrast to fictional narratives that are not very performative. Methodologically, the analysis will go from the constellations of cosmopolitanism to an alternationalist education, through the figures of the foreigner and hospitality, and the question of identity.

Machine learning and social theory: Collective machine behaviour in algorithmic trading

This article examines what the rise in machine learning (ML) systems might mean for social theory. Focusing on financial markets, in which algorithmic securities trading founded on ML-based decision-making is gaining traction, I discuss the extent to which established sociological notions remain relevant or demand a reconsideration when applied to an ML context. I argue that ML systems have some capacity for agency and for engaging in forms of collective machine behaviour, in which ML systems interact with other machines. However, ML-based collective machine behaviour is irreducible to human decision-making and thereby challenges established sociological notions of financial markets (including that of embeddedness). I argue that such behaviour can nonetheless be analysed through an adaptation of sociological theories of interaction and collective behaviour.

Rivalry as a social relationship: conceptualizing the micro-foundations of competition

ABSTRACT Recent sociological conceptualizations of competition emphasize its discursive or institutional aspects, such as rankings. Although macro- and meso-sociological takes on competition are more or less well established, micro-sociological approaches are less so. What does it mean to be in competition from the perspective of everyday social relationships and interactions? A possible answer is provided by the concept of rivalry. In this paper, I examine the evolution of the concept of rivalry and its development in the sociological tradition in the early to mid-twentieth century, especially in the work of Georg Simmel, Leopold von Wiese, Karl Mannheim, but also, later, Erving Goffman. I argue that a micro-sociological focus on rivalrous social relationships and interactions is able to address at least some of the issues concerning a micro-sociology of competition. Grounded in an examination of this tradition, I discuss how rivalry relates to sociological notions such as social knowledge, action, worth, and evaluation. I distinguish two intersecting logics of competition, namely, the logic of action and the logic of observation. I argue that a typology of rivalries cutting across various domains of social life can be worked out according to this intersection. A micro-sociology of rivalries can make a genuine contribution to the sociological investigation of competition.

Slovenian midwifery professionalization: Perception of midwives and related health professions.

INTRODUCTIONThis article presents research into the professionalization of midwifery in Slovenia. Since recognition by related occupations is important for professions, this comparative study asked doctors and nurses in Slovenia about their perceptions of the status of midwifery.METHODSA questionnaire survey was conducted with 300 Slovenian midwives, 666 nurses and 416 obstetricians. The questionnaire included statements covering traditional sociological notions of the profession (ethics, theory, power), and three notions based on new elements of professionalism (reflective practice, interdisciplinary working, and partnership with clients).RESULTSFindings suggest that nurses perceived themselves to be less autonomous than midwives, and this partly explains why most nurses thought that midwifery should be a specialized course of study, after the general nursing diploma. Obstetricians claimed to support midwives, however, they did not give midwives credit for basic midwifery competencies and did not feel midwifery to be equal to their profession. Midwives revealed not to feel autonomous; they felt that nursing and obstetrics is jeopardizing independent midwifery practice.CONCLUSIONSSlovenian midwifery was poorly evaluated in some attributes of professionalism, especially knowledge and autonomy. Even midwives themselves consider midwifery more occupation than profession. The autonomy of midwifery will be hard to achieve in the institutions of medical dominance. The study revealed that participants of all three groups are in a competitive relation and are poorly aware of the roles and competencies of the other two professions. Therefore, partially joined education might be beneficial in order to promote interprofessional collaboration in the future.

Balancing local justice and spatial justice: Mobile outreach and refused asylum seekers

AbstractThis article sheds light on the dynamics of mobile outreach practices, and is based on a field study of the ambulatory activities of Médecins du Monde around Strasbourg, France. Mobile teams act in a temporality of urgency and in the spatiality of the street. Roaming the city at regular intervals, they provide healthcare and social services to a target population that lives in the space of the street and is thus alienated from the general social and healthcare systems. Like other French cities, Strasbourg has seen an increase in asylum seekers as well as in migrants who have been refused asylum. Here, we examine the combination of the sociological notion of local justice and the geographical notion of spatial justice in the light of these changing populations. This doubled‐pronged approach allows us to more fully explore the interlocking social and spatial issues involved in the inevitably difficult choices and hard decisions inherent in mobile outreach.

Consumption: conceptualization of notion in foreign classical sociology

Bases for the concept of “consumption” in foreign classical sociology have been considered. The author’s theoretical scheme of consumption analysis is developed. Approaches to consumption within the framework of structural functionalism at the level of macrosocial analysis are presented – these are class and institutional approaches, based on the principle of social organization and subordination. Social functions of the consumption are the stratification and establishment of control by interested system players. On the level of microsocial analysis, there is a socio-cultural approach based on the principle of identification, and in this case, social functions of consumption are the rationality of subjects in the process of self-realization and establishment of social communications in the context of the value-normative system of culture. As a result of the review of the scientific literature, it has been revealed that, at the moment, there is no consensus among researchers on the adoption of a broad definition of the concept of “consumption” in sociology, since it is usually defined by the context of the study. Based on the analysis of the sociological approaches to the consumption, its definition is formulated as social activity to satisfy material and spiritual needs through acquiring, using, destroying and alienating goods, as a result of which social differences and relations, social structure, institutional influence, value-normative system of culture, social identity, life styles, social connections and communications are determined, established and maintained.

Littéraires et sociologues: enjeux interdisciplinaires d’une redéfinition de la littérature comme dispositif d’intelligibilité du social

In the context of what seems to be known in France as the “crisis of literature,” one of the solutions often put forward over the past two or three decades is to invoke the epistemic capacities of literary works, in order to argue their usefulness and legitimacy. Literature specialists, but also representatives of other fields of study thus speak of a sociological, historical or philosophical knowledge, which would be possible through literature. This situation brings to light the question of interdisciplinary relations in the French intellectual and academic field. This article proposes the analysis of such a confrontation between literary figures and sociologists, around the notions of implicit sociology of literature and novelistic sociology. We try to show, through the examination of the discussions on this subject between intellectuals such as Bernard Lahire, Jacques Dubois, Nathalie Heinich, etc., that the strong enhancement of literary works by the use of the idea of knowledge through literature could lead, in return, to critical questioning of the importance and legitimacy of literary studies.

Review: Lifeworlds of Islam: The Pragmatics of a Religion, by Mohammed A. Bamyeh

Review: <i>Lifeworlds of Islam: The Pragmatics of a Religion</i>, by Mohammed A. Bamyeh