Social Genesis Research Articles

Sohn-Rethel’s Unity of the Critique of Society and the Critique of Epistemology, and his Theoretical Blind Spot: Measure

Abstract Sohn-Rethel’s great idea was to ‘socialise’ Kant’s transcendental subject by combining it with Marx’s commodity-form. In so doing, he took on three challenges simultaneously: a) the timeless validity of modern natural science; b) the social genesis of empirically pure forms of cognition; and c) socialisation occurring through a purely social synthesis. However, Sohn-Rethel construed Marx’s value-form analysis as an empirical exchange of commodities and held that such exchange performs a real abstraction – in this way, he laboured under the very semblance that money engenders at the surface of society by virtue of its function qua means of exchange. This semblance can be rendered transparent by, on the one hand, explaining value in terms of capitalist valorisation rather than as a product of abstraction, and, on the other, developing money as the measure and form of this valorisation.

Entre forma e conteúdo: a generalização afetiva na arte

Abstract This article continues Vygotsky’s efforts in investigating the social genesis of affective generalization in artistic creative and reception process proposed in On the problem of the psychology of the actor’s creative work. Affective generalization abstracts emotions and feelings from the individual to the social plane and from the mundane to the hyper-generalized level. Based on an examination of Vygotsky’s aesthetic ideas, we introduced Chinese philosopher Defeng Wang’s work in philosophy of art under the existential approach. Finally, we propose to adopt the cultural psychology of semiotic mediation as a framework to capture this dynamic process.

Attention operation and language in the learning process in a music lesson

This paper presents an interactive episode analysis which was resulted from a music lesson for children. The idea was to point out the attentional process, in a perspective of Vygotsky and Luria. The study involved a group of three children who weekly had participated in Group Piano lessons at a social project developed in São Paulo State, Brazil. The data were documented by means of a field diary and the transcription of a video recording, and the analyzes were based on studies of historical-cultural approach. It is emphasized that the attention process happens depending on the apparently individual volitional acts but notoriously established during social relationship. Social genesis and perceptions which are expressed in gestures, looks, and speeches point to a complex construction perception of oneself, of the other and of the music in teaching relationships.

Scenography and the Production of Artworks in Contemporary Art

This article challenges the assumption in a classical sociology of art that artworks are created in the artist’s studio as independent and self-sufficient objects. Given that artistic production merges with exhibition making in contemporary art, I argue that the production of artworks needs to be situated in the exhibition space. In this institutional and physical environment, a set of scenographic principles dominate. Scenography is an ideology and method for exhibition making that emphasises the audience’s experience of the exhibition as a coherent entity. In the exhibition context, therefore, artworks are produced as an integral part of the scenography. Drawing upon six cases of solo exhibitions in museums and galleries, I reveal how the material, conceptual, and experiential features of artworks are shaped by scenographic considerations. The six cases also demonstrate the variations in the production of contemporary art. This article further develops the sociology of art in three ways. First, I show a middle way between the classical sociology of art and the recent material turn in cultural sociology. While the former explains artworks as social products but often fails to show the direct impact of social factors on features of artworks, the latter prioritises the agency of artworks qua artistic features but take these as given. Through the concept of scenography, I explain the social genesis of artistic features without prioritising human or non-human actors. Second, I call more attention to the dialogue with art history, especially its turns towards exhibitions for apprehending new developments in art. Third, the hybrid practices in visual art extend our understanding of artistic mediation as art itself, which becomes more applicable to different genres of art.

Dynamics of special schoolteachers’ adaptation to communicative stresses of social genesis

Dynamics of special schoolteachers’ adaptation to communicative stresses of social genesis

A Educação em Vigotski: prática e caminho para a liberdade

ABSTRACT The article analyzes formulations by L. S. Vigotski (1896-1934) in the field of education, in an articulated and historically situated way with the set of the author’s work, aiming to highlight the notion of education for freedom present in his theorization and to outline possible implications of this conception for contemporary school education. The first section discusses the social genesis of personality in Vygotsky’s view, as a way to freedom. In the second section, the author’s concept of education is presented, such as human education and instruction. In the third section, the relationship between instruction and the development of the conscious personality is discussed and some possibilities for the realization of education as a practice and way to freedom in the contemporary school are presented. It is concluded that the concept of education as a practice and a way to freedom, formulated by Vigotski and not always made explicit by scholars of the author’s work, can contribute to the realization of a critical and emancipatory education.

Наследник и бастард (Заметки о социальном генезисе ресентимента)

The article focuses on redefining the social genesis of ressentiment. The concept of ressentiment, widely used today in the form shaped by Friedrich Nietzsche and fine-grained by Max Scheler, turns out to be both overly and insufficiently connected to the social structure of the societies, for the analysis of which it is used. The reason is that although Nietzsche’s and Scheler’s ideas about ressentiment refer to the socio-structural aspects of its genesis, they do so in a contradictory and incorrect manner. Without noticing their own contradictions, both thinkers elevate genesis of ressentiment to the moral standards of the lower classes. Using the examples of younger heirs and bastards of the medieval aristocratic families, as well as the examples of other relatively privileged social groups, the author shows that one should rather seek the genesis of ressentiment within higher social strata. At the same time, the author shows that the moral feelings and behavioral strategies germane to ressentiment can be adopted and are adopted by representatives of other classes. In this form, it attracts attention in times when the oppressed classes obtain real opportunities to change their position, or, at the very least, they receive reasons to believe that they could achieve more if such an opportunity had been given to them.

Genealogy and social genesis of the noble Panchenko family (middle of the XVII – XIX centuries)

The article is devoted to the consideration of several aspects of the social history of the Little Russian nobility of the XIX century. On the basis of archival documents, which are introduced into circulation for the first time, the author traces the complex process of nobilitation of the descendants of the Cossack-sergeant family to the general imperial nobility on the example of the noble Panchenko family from the city of Nizhyn. Comparing these processes on the Left Bank and on the lands of the Right Bank of Ukraine, the author reveals common features and regional differences. Having studied and analyzed genealogical, heraldic, sphragistic sources, the researcher draws attention to the difficulties encountered by the descendants of Cossack families in proving their «noble origin». On the example of the Panchenko family, we can state that this process lasted for almost two decades, and if we take into account how many years the family representative Ivan Ivanovich Panchenko served to get «starting opportunities» to start the process of proving his nobility, we should talk about a lifetime. Descendant of the famous Cossack family, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, who served in the Zaporozhian Army, went on campaigns with Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Ivan Samoilovich forced by all, even sometimes not quite legal ways, to prove their origin. The desire to be part of the noble nobility and take over for themselves and their families the privileges inherent in the nobility, sometimes push the seekers to outright deception. The analysis of archival documents allows not only to trace the life and career path of an «ordinary person from the province of Little Russia», but also to identify and evaluate his worldview and values, to look at the family-intimate and domestic side of life in a few centuries.

The Winning Narrative: The Social Genesis of Pilgrimage Sites

The Winning Narrative: The Social Genesis of Pilgrimage Sites

Sociology of sports and the space of sports practices: Social genesis and sociological theories

In recent years, the importance of sports in Russia has increased dramatically, which is determined primarily by the country’s hosting international sport events, in particular, the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup 2018. The influence of sports on social processes has increased, sports began to strengthen its position in public opinion as a prestigious sphere of employment and an important social category [24. P. 60]. Thus, there is an obvious need to identify the relationship of physical culture with society as a whole and with all elements of the social structure and specific social institutions. The article examines the origins and prerequisites for the formation of sociology of sport as a relatively independent scientific discipline; presents the issues of sports sociology in the historical perspective - in the context of both their social genesis and contemporary sociological theories; considers the social role and social functions of sport education and sports. The authors believe that the differentiated social distribution of sports practices is determined by the interconnections of the space of possible practices (supply) and the space of demand for certain practices. In the article, the well-known foreign scientists are presented in the new perspective - as sociologists who provided for both Russian and foreign authors the incentive and direction for theoretical studies of sports issues. The article also presents to Russian readers the original studies on sociology of sports conducted by famous scientists - Norbert Elias, Eric Dunning, Anna Ingram, Georges Hébert, etc.

Temporal variations in mortality from the main causes of death in 20142018 in Khanty-Mansiysk autonomous district-UGRA (Western Siberia)

The aim of this work is to analyze the temporal variations in mortality from the main groups of diseases and external causes in the period 2014-2018 in Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug - Ugra (Western Siberia). Methods. Data on mortality wereobtained from the Medical Information and Analytical Center in Khanty-Mansiysk. To test the hypothesis about cyclic variations in mortality, wavelet analysis was applied. Results. Fluctuations in death rates from infectious diseases, neoplasms, mental disorders, diseases of the nervous system and circulatory system, pathology of the digestive system appeared to have a significant circannual rhythm. For diseases of the endocrine system, respiratory system, musculoskeletal and genitourinary system, circannualpattern of mortality was not observed. Mortality from socially significant diseases demonstrate two-year, annual and intra-annual rhythms. Significant rhythms of mortality from injuries with a six-month (p = 0.012) and near-annual (p = 0.045) periods may have an exogenous nature, while circaseptan activity (p = 0.055) seems to have a social genesis. Fluctuations in mortality from suicide occur in near-annual (p = 0.002) and semi-annual (p = 0.068) rhythms. Temporal variations of road traffic accidents are characterized by insignificant six-month and two-week rhythms. Conclusions. Our findings suggest that mortality in the study areahas various duration and number of periods of rhythms, low-energy rhythmic activity with pronounced inter-seasonal and day-to-day fluctuations in weather factors, a changed photoperiodic regime, and seasonal exacerbations of endemic zoonoses against the background of constant exposure to unmodified risk factors for the development of diseases presented in this paper.

Классические и цифровые подходы в государственном управлении в условиях пандемии коронавируса

Introduction: under modern conditions the digital orientation of the economy, planning and management in general, as well as social orientation and responsibility of the latter, is raising its importance. Digital technologies have a significant role to play in the formation of modern society, its management, the unfolding industrial and technological revolution, and the removal of critical limits of social inequality in the social genesis. It is becoming increasingly clear that the economic leaders of the future are digital and technological leaders. It is important to understand that digital technologies in general and digital platforms in particular can be used in different ways, with different economic and social efficiency, in various management models and government policies. Objectives: to analyze the potential and transformations of classical and digital approaches in public administration in the context of the current global pandemic and structural crisis. Methods: comparative analysis of the main classical and digital models in public administration; neoinstitutional, network, communicative, cultural and value approaches in the study of state-management paradigms; modeling. Results: the study analyzed and showed new trends in the transformation of classical and digital approaches in public administration in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Almost all traditional approaches in public administration bring forward the widespread use of digital technologies. It is shown that the targeted use of modern digital technologies by the Russian state (portals Gosuslugi.ru, Mos.ru and others), its policy of targeted support for industry and relevant social groups and strata, significantly contributed to countering the negative consequences of the pandemic crisis. Conclusions: digital technologies and platforms, when used efficiently, make it possible to optimize management processes in practice. The most effective way to deal with the consequences of the current global pandemic and structural crisis is to use digital technologies in the paradigm of post-Keynesian approaches which involve and increasing regulatory role of the state, its constant and, in fact, instant feedback with other subjects and objects of management and an appropriate social policy. The experience of a number of countries which experienced insufficient state support for the economy, as well as social disunity shows that the fast overcoming of the negative economic consequences of the pandemic economic and structural crisis did not succeed.

A. V. Golubkov. Préciosité and the gallant tradition in French salon literature of the 17th c. A monograph

The monograph deals with a subject that is rarely covered by Russian philologists: préciosité and the gallant tradition of 17th c. French culture. The author singles out the French and Russian approaches to interpreting preciousness, noting their differences and the fact that Russian scholars are lagging behind the French on the subject of salon literature. A. V. Golubkov rejects the principle of ‘neutrality’ towards the subject of the study, which is evident from his context-based use of psychoanalytical tools, including the term ‘frigidity’ to describe the social genesis of the gallant tradition and the habitus of préciosité. In his examination of the sources of these French cultural phenomena (‘academy’, ‘préciosité’, ‘gallantry’, and ‘salon’) the author shows their association with types of creative activity, Baroque and Classicism, and oral and written practices of salon culture, and portrays linguistic and genre-specific experiments of the précieuses. He stresses their preference of the salon literary genres over rhetorical skills, identifies elements of dialogue-based poetics, and reveals the principal indicators of a new language art.

Social Genesis in Computing Education

It is common to think of learning as the acquisition of knowledge by an individual learner. Starting a century ago, Lev Vygotsky developed a different perspective on learning, initiating a tradition of educational research whose momentum and influence continue to grow. One of Vygotsky's key principles is the general genetic law of cultural development that states that whatever skilled cognition that individuals carry out within their own minds is preceded by homologous activity carried out by a social group of which this individual was a part. In linking the individual and society through this law, learning is not simply a matter of the acquisition of domain knowledge. Rather, it is a cyclic process by which a social group, in its functioning through joint activity, leads to individuals taking into themselves (i.e., internalizing ) the social forms of activity. In this article, our goal is to explicate Vygotsky's genetic law and demonstrate its utility for yielding novel insight into computing education. We provide an extended illustration of the use of Vygotsky's law in examining a teacher and students in a university setting write code together during a class session. What our analysis reveals is that the teacher and students together enact a sequential, rule-based, and dialogical process of problem decomposition and code writing far different from the plan and schema-based models for programming that have emerged from prior research focused on the individual student and their cognitive strategies and structures. We provide commentary on implications of the genetic law for both research and practice in computing education.

ТЕХНОЛОГІЧНЕ ЗАБЕЗПЕЧЕННЯ РОЗВИТКУ САМОРЕГУЛЯЦІЇ СИТУАТИВНОЇ ТРИВОЖНОСТІ МАЙБУТНІХ ПСИХОЛОГІВ

У статті розкрито проблему технологічного забезпечення ситуативної тривожності майбутніх практичних психологів. Визначено, що під технологією розвитку саморегуляції ситуативної тривожності майбутніх психологів розуміємо комплексну систему технологічних процедур, що спрямована на зниження рівня прояву ситуативної тривожності. Сформульовано мету, принципи технології. Обґрунтовано, що теорія поетапного формування розумових дій (О. Леонтьєв, П. Гальперін, Д. Ельконін, Н. Тализіна та ін.) і принцип соціального генезу вищих психічних функцій (Л. Виготський) є методологічною основою розробки технології саморегуляції ситуативної тривожності майбутніх психологів. Установлено основні етапи технології: діагностичний, підготовчий, основний, підсумковий (контрольний). Визначено мету кожного з етапів: (діагностичний етап – виявлення рівня прояву ситуативної тривожності щодо проведення формувального етапу технології; підготовчий етап – активізація студентів, надання інформації про методи саморегуляції ситуативної тривожності; усвідомлення студентами необхідності зниження ситуативної тривожності; основний етап – зовнішня регуляції довільної дії щодо застосування методів саморегуляції ситуативної тривожності: за допомогою викладача; самостійно, коли вправляння супроводжується значним вольовим зусиллям і почуттям упевненості; довільна регуляція дій у процесі застосування методів саморегуляції ситуативної тривожності; підсумковий (контрольний) етап – повторне визначення рівня прояву ситуативної тривожності щодо виявлення ефективності технології). Розроблено технологічну карту механізму розвитку саморегуляції ситуативної тривожності майбутніх психологів, де, окрім мети, визначено засоби й очікуваний результат на кожному етапі реалізації технології. Послідовно розкрито суть кожного з етапів. Очікується, що в процесі послідовної реалізації кожного з етапів сформуються навички саморегуляції ситуативної тривожності та ефективні патерни поведінки в ситуаціях, які можуть викликати тривожність майбутніх психологів.

Contextualizing Entrepreneurial Legitimacy: The Interplay of Internal and External Social Representations

Entrepreneurial legitimacy has been described as a trigger of entrepreneurial career choice and motivation, meaning that the propensity of an individual to engage in an entrepreneurial career increases with the social legitimacy of the career. However, more than a predictor of entrepreneurial success, entrepreneurial legitimacy is a complex social construct that determines the diffusion of entrepreneurial culture in different countries. This article aims to contribute to contextualizing entrepreneurial legitimacy by acknowledging its social genesis and dynamics, and by showing the variety of social interactions that it encompasses. The article examines the discursive strategies that entrepreneurs use to gain legitimacy among their audiences, and studies the representations and expectations attached to the figure of the entrepreneur by current and aspiring students in a Master’s program in Entrepreneurship. We gather the views of three social groups that actively engage in the social construction of entrepreneurial legitimacy in order to identify their convergent and divergent social representations of what it means to “be an entrepreneur.” Based on a questionnaire survey of 529 French participants and on 30 qualitative interviews, we present and compare the social representations of French entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship held by SME entrepreneurs and current and potential students in a Master’s in entrepreneurship program. We found that entrepreneurial legitimacy is a collective outcome of various social representations circulating in the public space that affects entrepreneurs’ ability to develop their businesses and their identities, along with their willingness and capacity to promote the entrepreneurial spirit in society.

A study of crowd-collaborative learning: an empirical study

PurposeInformation technology is widely applied for completing group tasks and enhancing learning in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment. Group members not only complete tasks but also learn ideas from other members of the group. These ideas can be better than what individual could come up with. As these ideas are referred as an upward comparison in the perspective of social comparison theory. However, there are limited studies that provide evidence in investigating how social comparison orientation (SCO) perceived by individual learner impacts on learning and group performance. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approachThis study experimentally tackles this problem at both individual and group level. An experimental study was applied in this study. Structural equation modeling and hierarchical linear modeling approaches are used to validate the data.FindingsResults of 168 subjects reveal that SCO does have associations with group performance and learning performance respectively. Discussions and implications for literature and practice are given at the end of the paper.Originality/valueThis study confirms that the social genesis occurs more effectively through social interactions in CSCL. It also extends our understandings about the impacts of SCO. Results reveal that the higher level of SCO adopted by group members, the higher level of social interactions at group level can be triggered. As a result, the group performance can be enhanced. On one hand, these findings bridge the research gap in terms of investigating the notion of SCT on CSCL. On the other hand, it provides a possible solution in alleviating the problem of social loafing as commonly observed in CSCL. Therefore, these findings fulfilled the two research objectives.

A socio-historical approach to policy analysis: the case of the Brazilian Workers' Food Policy.

Policy analyses based on traditional or structuralist definitions of the state are important, but they have some limitations for explaining processes related to policymaking, implementation, and results. Bourdieusian sociology links the analysis to objective and subjective dimensions of social practices and can help elucidate these phenomena. This article provides such empirical evidence by analyzing the social genesis of a Brazilian policy that currently serves 18 million workers and was established by the state in 1976 through the Fiscal Incentives Program for Workers' Nutrition (PIFAT/PAT). The study linked the analysis of the trajectory of social agents involved in the policy's formulation to the historical conditions that allowed the policy to exist in the first place. Although the literature treats the policy as a workers' food program (PAT), the current study showed that it actually represented a new model for paying financial subsidies to companies that provided food to their employees, meanwhile upgrading the commercial market for collective meals. The study further showed that the program emerged as an administrative policy, but linked to economic agents. The program became a specific social space in which issues related to workers' nutrition became secondary, but useful for disguising what had been an explicit side of its genesis, namely its essentially fiscal nature.

Video capture of symbolic activity in toddler initiated play

This article is backgrounded by researchers using of visual methodology for naturalistic research to document young children’s learning. Recent interest in the speed and immediacy of mobile phone video capture leads to new opportunities in educational research. This small study aims to find if mobile phone video is an appropriate research tool for the capture of fleeting moments of learning, in toddler initiated play. Inspired by participation in an ethically approved pilot project: ‘Studying Babies and Toddlers: Cultural Worlds and Transitory Relationships’, the study uses a cultural-historical Theoretical approach to analyse mobile phone video data of one toddler’s pontaneous play activity. It is argued that greater attention be paid by educators to transitory moments of toddler play in relation to their pedagogical significance. A fortuitous moment of toddler initiated symbolic play activity is video captured on mobile phone and used for discussion. Drawing on Vygotsky’s concepts of the social genesis of higher mental functions and perezhivanie, the toddler’s initiated symbolic play activity is analysed. Analysis is supported by visual methodology, where video image data are linked with transcript to create a narrative of the moment of toddler’s initated play. Data are found to exemplify the ontogenesis of higher mental functions being culturally mediated and supported in the toddler’s symbolic play activity. Futhermore, findings show how tactile and visual qualities of a cultural object attract a toddler’s sensory responses, which in turn, activate the creative moment of symbolic play. The toddler’s momentary playful action captured on mobile phone video, sheds light on how symbolic activity reflects thinking processes to offer insight into how toddler (Luci) can, in a passing moment, imbue a cultural object with new symbolic meaning. Findings imply that using mobile phone video for later review, makes it possible for educators to pay more immediate attention to toddler’s activity in frequently overlooked transitory moments of play. Potentially, the ubiquitous mobile phone can help educators discover the pedagogical significance of a toddler’s smallest moment of symbolic activity, and in practice, offer ethical and caring extension to support their learning.

Categorizing Neighborhoods: The Invention of ‘Sensitive Areas’ in France and ‘Historic Districts’ in the United States

AbstractThis essay offers a reflexive return to two research projects to demonstrate the value of Bourdieu's emphasis on the symbolic for the analysis of contemporary urban transformation. Bourdieu's insistence that we track the social genesis and diffusion of spatial categories of thought and action directs us to the empirical study of the struggles between agents and organizations that promote and/or oppose these categories, as well as the political, economic and other interests animating the agents. A retracing of the parallel invention of the ‘at‐risk neighborhood’ (quartier sensible) coined for and targeted by French urban policy since the late 1980s and the emergence of ‘historic’ or ‘diverse’ neighborhoods touted by gentrifying residents, cultural organizations and real estate agents in the United States since the 1960s challenges misleading oppositions between materiality and representations that often underpin and cramp urban research.