Reflexive Individuals Research Articles

Critical reflections of second-career veterinary nurse academics on the design and delivery of a novel online master’s programme

ABSTRACT Critical reflection can help educators resolve some of the ambiguity, conflict, and complexity of their daily practice. It can support professional learning and may help practitioners to develop phronesis, or a wisdom of practice. The experiences of veterinary nurse educators and academics are hereto unexplored. This self-study research applies a nine dimensions of critical reflection model to analyse the experiences of two second-career academics during the development and delivery of a novel online veterinary nursing master’s programme. Critical friend conversations and contemporary records were utilised in the data analysis and interpretation. For the academics, professional and personal tensions were resolved around quality of teaching, student engagement, legitimate knowledge, and hierarchy. Students benefitted from being taught by reflexive individuals who were willing to receive feedback, respond actively to make changes to learning and teaching, and who sought to understand the challenges they faced. The model of inquiry supported engagement in reflection as a means of professional development and knowledge creation and could be utilised by other educators and academics.

Expression of Identity in Tattoos of Symbols of Different Cultures

The construction and expression of identity in the context of globalization and digitalisation is a problematic task in the modern world, where the processes of identity self-creation allow oneself to choose from many different options. The problem of this work is the communication of identity of tattooed people through tattoos of symbols of different cultures. The aim of the work is to examine the aspects of the identity communication of tattooed persons. Semi-structured interview and qualitative analysis methods are used to implement the aim and objectives of the work.
 The obtained results reveal that the processes of identity construction and expression use the methods of creation and interpretation of semantic connections, reflexive individualization, multi-layered coding of symbols, incorporating elements of different cultures into the identity project, which include symbolic, philosophical, spiritual, aesthetic and mythological assimilation prisms. The intervention of the Other in projecting personal identity becomes the identity insertion, and tactile senses, sight and hearing help to assimilate different cultures through different existing life articulations. In the context of social interaction, virtual identity is transferred into material forms of expression of identity and, with the help of the body as a media, extends identity beyond technology and deletes boundaries between it.

KONSER DIDI KEMPOT SEBAGAI BENTUK SOSIALITAS BARU DI ERA LATE MODERNITY

This article try to explain the experiences of the young people of Sobat Ambyar in watching the Didi Kempot concert which formed a new form of sociality in the era of late modernity. Specifically, in this study there were four informants who were randomly selected by the researcher with certain criteria. In this study using a qualitative method with a phenomenological approach. The data obtained were based on in-depth interviews with informants. This study shows that there is one form of sociality in the era late modernity, although it is only temporary, not binding with membership that keeps changing. Besides that, the experience of watching a Didi Kempot concert is one of the coherent self-narratives to show that the sociality of neo-tribes can interact with reflexive individualism. Key note : Sobat Ambyar, Neo-tribes, Youth, Didi Kempot

Understanding Vaccine Hesitancy as Extended Attitudes

Abstract Vaccine hesitancy is not a singular view but encompasses a set of positions located between complete acceptance of vaccination and complete rejection of vaccination. In this paper, I argue that vaccine-hesitant attitudes emerge at the intersection of individual and structural processes, and thus can be better conceptualized as “extended attitudes”. Drawing on the theoretical understanding of risk and science scepticism in post-modern societies, I consider hesitant attitudes towards vaccination as addressing risks that are induced in our everyday lives by science developments. I conducted K-Means Cluster Analysis on Eurobarometer data from 2019 regarding Europeans’ attitudes towards vaccination. Four clusters of vaccine-hesitant attitudes were identified. “Price hesitation” and “Effort hesitation” result from restricted access to vaccination because of structural constraints, such as low economic capital and health care system’ deficits. “Unexercised pro-vaccination” is an attitude manifested by people who grant authority to science to manage health-related risks, even though they did not vaccinate in the last five years. “Consistent anti-vaccination” pertains to highly reflexive individuals who dismiss experts’ authority because of scientifically derived risks. My analysis enhances the theoretical understanding and the empirical assessment of vaccine-hesitant attitudes in the European Union and can inform public health policies in this area.

Loud internal life in a silent community: Towards lived aspects of religious life in a cloistered, female monastery

The aim of this article is to present the results of a sociological study on everyday life within a female cloistered monastery. This is a radical form of religious life, highly routinised, distanced from the outside world and conducted in community yet in almost total silence. By elaborating upon the concepts of everyday and lived religion, the scope of our examination complements dominant sociological approaches to the study of this religious phenomenon. By addressing the following research question: ‘Do cloistered monasteries de-individualise and totally regulate the life of nuns?’, we discuss selected aspects of everyday life in the institution and its contemporary transformations related to, among other things, new communication technologies and new generations of nuns. We show that in this highly institutionalised place nuns remain reflexive individuals.

For emancipation: a Marxist critique of structure within critical realism

PurposeThe authors critique Modell's proposition that critical realism is useful in elucidating and creating possibilities for emancipation.Design/methodology/approachThe authors begin by outlining Modell's conception of enabling structures. If ‘activated’ by reflexive individuals, these are theorised to be a mechanism through which agents can begin to emancipate themselves. However, the authors argue that emancipation must be contextualised within the material realities of global capitalism, paying particular attention to the shape of inequality and the subjects of exploitation. In doing this, they draw on Marx to pose an alternative view of structure.FindingsIn offering a Marxist critique of critical realism, the authors show how capitalist superstructure and base work together to reinforce inequality. In doing this, they highlight the enduring importance of collective action as the engine of emancipation. It is for this reason that they advocate for an emancipatory politics, which is collectively informed outside of, and in conflict with, the logics of capitalism.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors argue that explicit discussions of capitalism and its structures must be at the centre of critical accounting research, especially when it pertains to emancipation.Originality/valueGiven the importance of the conceptual framing of critical accounting research, this article suggests that critical realism has much to offer. That said, the authors draw on Marx to raise a number of important questions about both the nature of structure and the identity of reflexive agents within critical realism. They do this to encourage further debate about the emancipatory possibilities of the critical accounting project and the ideas proposed by Modell (2020).

LEARNING STYLES: PREFERENCE OF THE NURSING STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MAGALLANES, CHILE

ABSTRACT Objective: to identify the preference of the Nursing students of the University of Magallanes as regards learning styles. Method: a quantitative, descriptive and correlational study of the cross-sectional type was conducted with 186 students from first to fifth year of the undergraduate course, with an age range between 18 and 45 years old. The Honey-Alonso Questionnaire of Learning Styles was applied during the second semester of 2018. For data analysis, distribution of frequencies, descriptive statistics and correlations (Spearman) for the learning styles, using the SPSS v. 22.0. Results: the learning style of highest moderate preference of the Nursing students was the Reflexive one, with a mean value of 53.20%, according to class and to years of study, followed by the Theoretical, with 39%. No statistically significant correlations were found between the years of study and the learning styles (p>0.05); on the other hand, most of the surveyed students present one and two learning styles. Conclusion: knowing the learning styles will allow designing methodological strategies which are adequate for the students' learning styles, and which allow streamlining the learning process. The students object of this study are analytical and reflexive individuals, which very well matches the profile of the Nursing students when it comes to putting their Nursing chores into action.

Drinking the divine: fine wine, religion, and the socio-political in Aotearoa New Zealand

ABSTRACTFine wine – together with its producers and consumers – form a nexus that is frequently accorded divine provenance and sacred status along a continuum from the implicit to the explicit. This is evident at three moments of New Zealand history – in the explicit Christian ethos of nineteenth century European colonization; in the implicit sacredness and increasing dominance of romantic nationalism assigned to native flora and fauna (and to a lesser, more ambiguous, extent also to indigenous peoples) in the early twentieth century onward; and in the late twentieth century turn toward the cults of neo-liberalism and reflexive individualism. In all these instances the production, consumption and promotion of divine and/or fine wines are collusive modalities in the elite praxis – latent, overt and hegemonic – of prominent socio-political agents and institutions.

Chevalier (2015) and the rules of the European game

ABSTRACTThis article reads Chevalier (2015, Rachel Athina Tsangari) as an allegory of the Greek ‘crisis‘ following the global economic downturn of 2008. This has been a common theme of the recent Greek 'weird wave’, but the article claims that Chevalier offers a somewhat different approach to politics than that offered by other weird wave films. Informed by the writings of political philosopher Etienne Balibar, the article foregrounds notions of the conflict between the individual and the community, especially of the ways in which the actions and decisions of individuals are usurped by external authorities. The article thus argues that the game played by the main characters in Chevalier offers an allegory of the austerity measures imposed on Greece by the European Union in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Ultimately I argue that Chevalier relates specifically to the conditions of the Greek crisis, but that it also points to the ways in which the European Union, in its current guise, has stifled democracy in favour of a system of rules that limits the possibilities of what Balibar calls reflexive individualism.

Young People, Being Catholic, and Religious Change in the Philippines: A Response to Critics

ABSTRACT This article is a response to the comments offered by Giovanni Maltese, Peter Bräunlein, Rosa Cordillera A. Castillo, and Scott MacLochlainn on the book Being Catholic in the Contemporary Philippines: Young People Reinterpreting Religion. It addresses several areas including the limits and potential of conducting research on religious identity and the book’s arguments about reflexive spirituality and individualization. It ends by reflecting on the urgency of assessing religious change in the Philippines, which involves diversification and the rise of militant Christianity.

A teoria do novo individualismo

Resumo Neste artigo busco atingir dois objetivos principais: primeiro, examinar e reiterar a teoria de um “novo individualismo” que detalhei em escritos recentes de teoria social. Afirmo que hoje presenciamos as condições e consequências de um novo individualismo que varre o mundo e que se evidencia especialmente na nova economia financista das indústrias de mídia e comunicação. Então pergunto: como a teoria do novo individualismo difere de outros pontos de vista influentes na teoria social recente? Para os propósitos deste artigo, os pontos conceituais de comparação com a teoria do novo individualismo serão (a) a teoria das “tecnologias do eu”, conforme elaborada por Michel Foucault e vários neofoucaultianos; e (b) a noção de “individualização reflexiva” delineada por Anthony Giddens. Em segundo lugar, discutirei ramificações sociológicas mais amplas da nova tese sobre o individualismo. O novo individualismo, argumentarei, não se refere meramente a indivíduos ou a suas disposições psicológicas; em vez disso, penetra até o cerne do núcleo da cultura e da vida institucional. Novo individualismo é, portanto, uma espécie de taquigrama para vários processos que moldam, e que são moldados, pelas transformações sociais globais. Os principais condutores institucionais do novo individualismo sobre os quais vou dissertar são (a) reinvenção contínua, (b) mudança instantânea, (c) velocidade e (d) o curto prazo, ou episodicidade. Concluo tecendo considerações sobre as prováveis consequências sociológicas futuras do viver-se a vida na via expressa do novo individualismo.

From Gregarious Syncretism to Reflexive Individualism: a Critical Review of New Age Studies in Latin America

This article reviews the recent scholarship on the New Age in Latin America, and contributes with a theoretical framework predicated on the rise of reflexive individualism. It questions claims that gregariousness and radical autonomy are distinctive traits of a “Latin American New Age,” and also points out a misguided trend to misclassify unqualified syncretic groups as “New Age.” These scholarly effects stem from methodological, conceptual, and disciplinary biases. Rather than being specifically Latin American features, gregariousness, syncretism, and autonomy are also abundantly found across North America and Western Europe. What is particularly distinctive about the New Age (globally and in Latin America) is how religious, scientific, and therapeutic traditions are retooled for the reflexive cultivation of the self.

How Does the Individual Find a Place in French Sociology?

In France over the last four decades increasing interest in the small, the specific and the subjective can be observed. This involves a shift away from a holist approach towards social analysis focused on the individual and often carried out by researchers as specified and reflexive individuals. To be understood, this movement must be situated in the context of the development of French sociology, largely dominated at its origins by Durkheimian sociology. Thus, when the individual has appeared this is often not in his or her own right, but as representative of a social trend or group. As from the 1980s, new perspectives, very often imported from American sociology bring into play individual action, emotions and bodies, often studied as socially shaped. More recently, individual characteristics have been examined as a constraint on the possibilities of action, and discussion has also revolved around the reality of the person as an autonomous subject.

Charitable giving and reflexive individuals: How personal reflexivity mediates between structure and agency.

This article examines how individuals are reflexive beings who interpret the world in relation to things that matter to them, and how charitable acts are evaluated and embedded in their lives with different degrees of meaning and importance. Rather than framing the discussion of charitable practices in terms of an altruism/egoism binary or imputing motivations and values to social structures, the article explains how reflexivity is an important and neglected dimension of social practices, and how it interacts with sympathy, sentiments and discourses to shape giving. The study also shows that there are different modes of reflexivity, which have varied effects on charity and volunteering.

Relational agency

This article explores how the concept of agency in social theory changes when it is conceptualized as a relational rather than an individual phenomenon. It begins with a critique of the structure/agency debate, particularly of how this emerges in the critical realist approach to agency typified by Margaret Archer. It is argued that this approach, and the critical realist version of relational sociology that has grown from it, reify social relations as a third entity to which agents have a cognitive, reflexive relation, playing down the importance of interaction. This upholds the Western moral and political view of agents as autonomous, independent, and reflexive individuals. Instead, the article considers agency from a different theoretical tradition in relational sociology in which agents are always located in manifold social relations. From this, an understanding is created of agents as interactants, ones who are interdependent, vulnerable, intermittently reflexive, possessors of capacities that can only be practised in joint actions, and capable of sensitive responses to others and to the situations of interaction. Instead of agency resting on the reflexive monitoring of action or the reflexive deliberation on structurally defined choices, agency emerges from our emotional relatedness to others as social relations unfold across time and space.

Globalização e individualização na modernidade tardia. Uma introdução teórica à sociologia da juventude.

The article provides a programmatic analysis of some of the main theories of modernization, globalization and individualization in late modernity, connecting this analysis to the sociology of youth. The text is divided into four sections: the first provides an overview of debates about modernity and distinguishes various positions within them (classical, anti, post and neo); the second section proposes a multidimensional framework of reference for the analysis of globalization, integrating its economic, political and cultural aspects in a coherent narrative; the third section presents the theories of risk society, reflexive modernization and the reflexive individualization of Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens; the last section intertwines all of the threads of the analysis into a sociological theory of youth, post-materialism and new social movements.

Globalização e individualização na modernidade tardia: uma introdução teórica à sociologia da juventude

O artigo oferece uma análise programática de algumas das principais teorias da modernização, da globalização e da individualização na modernidade tardia, conectando essa análise à sociologia da juventude. O texto se divide em quatro partes: a primeira provê um panorama dos debates sobre a modernidade e distingue várias posições no seio destes (clássica, anti, pós e neo); a segunda parte propõe um quadro de referência multidimensional para a análise da globalização, o qual integra seus aspectos econômicos, políticos e culturais em uma narrativa coerente; a terceira parte apresenta as teorias da sociedade de risco, da modernização reflexiva e da individualização reflexiva de Ulrich Beck e Anthony Giddens; finalmente, a última parte costura todos os fios da análise em uma teoria sociológica da juventude, do pós materialismo e dos novos movimentos sociais.

The Arab revolutions; the emergence of a new political subjectivity

Since late 2010, the Arab World has witnessed regime changes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya; and revolts by Arab citizens are still underway in Syria, Bahrain and Yemen, along with reform initiatives at different levels. These processes cannot be accurately be described by Orientalist terms such as ‘Arab Spring’, ‘Arab unrest’ or the ‘Facebook Revolution’, where such categorizations fail to account for the radical transformation in politics and values that the Arab World is undergoing and the significance that resides in the confluence of social and democratic demands. The ultimate fate of these popular uprisings remains in the balance, but it is all too clear that they have produced the most dramatic changes in the region since the mid-twentieth century which marked the end of the colonial era. This article aims to elucidate the import of term ‘the people’ and to whom it applies in the popular slogan: ‘The people want the overthrow of the regime’ (al-shaʿb yurīd isqāṭ al-niẓām). It aims to identify the actors involved in the revolution, particularly the youth and participants among the labour movement. Through this analysis the study explores the new political subjectivity ushered in by these revolutions, in the specific form of individuality, or what is termed here reflexive individualism. This individualism, which is different from the neoliberal concept, is not a straightforward one predicated on anti-patriarchal authority, anti-tribe, anti-community or anti-political party sentiments. The political subjectivity of the individuals who have taken part is formed and shaped both within and across the shadowy edges of political institutions and their production of legitimacy and knowledge.

Dreaming the impossible dream: Ordering risks in Australian maternity care policies

Explaining the trajectory of Australian health policies over the last century requires an analysis of different political regimes and their dreams of order for managing risk. Crook reverses the Beckian axiom that risk is the unintended outcome of the failure of industrial societies, arguing for an understanding of risk within a Foucauldian and Actor Network Theory of governmentality. Risk becomes a mechanism for the realisation of different dreams of order. The welfare state was the risk management mechanism of organised capitalism. Individual aspirations of reflexive individuals form the risk management mechanism of neo-liberal regimes. As competing risk discourses destabilise the field of maternity care, key actors (including doctors, midwives, women and policymakers) form themselves into neo-traditional communities in ongoing struggles to have their risk claims institutionalised within policies and protocols that further legitimise their interests. These struggles around risk and power are evident in recent debates over maternity policy in the context of the 2009 Maternity Services Review and the policy aftermath.

Death as a Fateful Moment? The Reflexive Individual and Scottish Funeral Practices

Death is considered by some commentators to be problematic for the inhabitants of a late modern era, so that when individuals are confronted by death they revert to using traditional institutions and practices. This paper draws on sociological research exploring Scottish funeral practices to consider whether this is the case, or whether individuals are able to employ a process of self-reflexivity even when they are planning the funeral of someone about whom they cared. Two funerals are described in the article, and the suggestion is made that their organisers behaved some of the time as reflexive individuals as well as also making use of the traditional authorities of modernity, such as the family and church.