Social Logic Research Articles

Teatro de Chile: Obras, prácticas y roles. Constitución y vida de una compañía teatral

Three traditions in art sociology have provided partial but matching visions of the social logics that contribute to convert art in a social field. First the art as a social system of Luhmann, second the concept of habitus of Bourdieu, and finally the notion of roles of the sociology of the organizations. Based on an empiric work, about the company "Teatro de Chile", this article aims to raise an integrated vision of such theories, in order to study: how the autonomous evolution converges with the different logics that give life to a theatre company. Thus, it is clearly shown that in this company, each level evolves with an autonomous social logic in relation to specific criteria: the production of "good plays". Moreover, in conclusions it presents a common artistic code, which allows the simultaneous evolution of these social logics.

Assessing the sociology of sport: On controversies and scandals

On the 50th anniversary of the ISSA and IRSS, Catherine Palmer, a wide-ranging scholar of sporting subcultures, examines one of more intriguing artifacts of sport in contemporary times: the inevitability of controversies and scandals. Palmer notes that the controversies, scandals and crimes that have become a regular feature of sport represent ‘empirical gold’ for sociological inquiry and cultural critique. While sporting scandals are most often ‘middle order moral events,’ their sociological analysis can lead to important changes in the governance of sport. Four key challenges in the ‘ecology of scandal’ in sport are identified and discussed: scandal susceptibility, polysemia, intertextuality and scandal hierarchy. It is argued that in the future, sociological inquiry will need to consider why it is that sports scandals are often presented in media and popular discourse with little critical reflection on specificity or context, given that such scandals can give rise to questions about a wider social logic which can help focus analyses of contemporary cultural politics that underpin sport.

The return of social government

In recent years, there has been a panoply of new forms of ‘social’ government, as manifest in ‘social enterprise’ and ‘social media’. This follows an era of neoliberalism in which social logics were apparently being eliminated, through the expansion of economic rationalities. To understand this, the article explores the critique of the very notion of the ‘social’, as manifest in neoliberal contributions to the socialist calculation debate from the 1920s onwards. Understood as a zone lying between market and state, the social was accused by Mises and Hayek of being both unaccountable (lacking any units of measurement) and formless (lacking instruments of explication). The article then asks to what extent these critiques still retain their purchase, following recent developments in hedonic measurement and data analytics. The argument is made that new post-neoliberal forms of ‘social government’ may now be entirely plausible, though focusing on the corporation rather than the state.

A Rawlsian Defense of the Individual Mandate: The “Collective Asset” Approach

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires individuals to get coverage or pay a fine (or “shared responsibility payment”) starting in 2014. This mandate had been at the center of a contentious political and legal debate. Although the Mandate is key to ending discriminations based on pre-existing conditions in the individual insurance market, its constitutionality had been challenged. We argue that the Obama administration's legal argument for the constitutionality of the Mandate by invoking conventional economic categories such as “negative externalities” is inadequate in addressing the economic and moral significance of the Mandate. As an alternative, we suggest a Rawlsian approach. Specifically, we will borrow the Rawlsian notion of “collective asset” to articulate the moral appeal of the Mandate and its social insurance logic.

Nuevas lógicas en la formación profesional en Argentina Redefiniendo lo educativo, lo laboral y lo social

El artículo discute las diferentes lógicas en la formación profesional inicial y continua (FP) en Argentina, a partir de dos estudios basados tanto en datos secundarios (material documental y estadístico), como en entrevistas a actores sociales participantes del campo. Los interrogantes centrales fueron: si se produjo durante el periodo 2003-2010 una reconfiguración del campo de la FP, mediante el establecimiento de nuevas lógicas acerca de sus funciones, de los actores y sus articulaciones; y en qué medida esas nuevas lógicas reflejan otras visibles en el desarrollo histórico previo de la FP. Se concluye que las lógicas educativa, laboral y social previas se han transformado en el marco de nuevas políticas públicas y el reposiciona- miento de los distintos actores sociales. Si bien se evidencian contradicciones y tensiones entre esas lógicas, la introducción de una perspectiva de protección social reubicó a los actores en un diálogo social ampliado, y concibió a la población a la que se dirigía como trabajadores en lugar de beneficiarios asistidos, vinculando la formación con subsidios universales, orientación y puentes con el mundo del trabajo.

The Oxford Handbook of Global Modernisms

The Oxford Handbook of Global Modernisms

Life in the Global Public Domain: Response to Commentaries on the UN Guiding Principles and the Proposed Treaty on Business and Human Rights

This paper addresses the foundational logics of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and comments on the recent decision by the UN Human Rights Council to commence treaty negotiations on this subject. As the author of the Guiding Principles, the paper reiterates the important contributions of Amartya Sen to my understanding of human rights. Sen insists that human rights are much more than laws’ antecedents or progeny. Indeed, he states, such a view threatens to “incarcerate” the social logics and processes other than law that drive public recognition of rights. My work, including the Guiding Principles, has sought to contribute to the freeing of human rights discourse and practice from these conceptual shackles, by drawing on the interests, capacities and engagement of states, market actors, civil society, and the intrinsic power of ideational and normative factors. Moreover, now that negotiations on an international legal instrument are about to commence, my sole concerns are that they build on what has already been achieved, not undermine it; and that the effort be meaningful and actionable where it matters most: not in legal treatises, journals of ethics, or the mesmerizing effects that the word “binding” has on the critical faculties of many committed activists, but in the daily lives of people — and not in some far-off promised future that may or may not ever materialize, but starting in the here and now.

The Euro Crisis’ Theory Effect: Northern Saints, Southern Sinners, and the Demise of the Eurobond

Of the multiple narratives EU policymakers could have chosen at the onset of the euro crisis, why did austerity and structural reform win out over other plausible cures for member states’ problems? Arguably, sovereign debt pooling or more federalized economic governance would have been a solution to member states’ national deficits and competitiveness woes. To understand this puzzle, we draw on the sociology of knowledge literature. We argue that the response to the euro crisis was heavily informed by broader social logics that constructed the problem and the solution heavily toward ordoliberal and neoliberal ideas. Mapping the fate of the Eurobond proposals allows us to trace the complex entanglement of economic policy-making and parse out the ways in which social realities are shaped to make particular policy choices seem inevitable, even as they are themselves the product of social processes.

Social Impetus, Economic Roots, and Political Logic: China’s Transformation Through the Lens of American History

China is facing a crucial turning point in its sociopolitical development with the recent turnover of the leadership and the potential of further reform carried out by the new administration. To shed light on the future of China, this research compares the United States between 1789 and 1917 with China between 1949 and 2012. We examine the social impetus, economic roots, and political logic of the great transformations of the two countries. Through the lens of American history, we argue, first, that social discontent in the short run may push structural reform forward. Second, to transform the passive, piecemeal, and unpredictable reform into a proactive, systematic, and integral reform, we propose that China must build social consensus and a strong middle class.

Blending Institutional Logics: The Emergence of B Corps in Australia

The market logic has dominated since the 1970s, with increasing pressure from the financial community and the market for corporate control. However, the dominance of the market logic is being challenged by the emergence of new common-good mission-centred hybrid organizations that blend market and social logics. This paper explores the experience of 14 Australian companies who are implementing a hybrid B Corp model to understand how they make sense of, and combine, commercial and social logics. By examining the dynamics of commercial and social logics in B Corps, the paper contributes to better understanding the consequences of institutional complexity and the challenges, and opportunities, hybrid organizations face in combining elements of multiple logics. The research found that the B Corp form provides a common collective identity for the companies to adopt as it aligned with their values and the way that they were already doing business. The B Corp identity provides a visible way of classifying the type of business they are and the company they keep, as well as validating and explaining their business approach to stakeholders. Few internal tensions and conflicts were identified among organization members in dealing with the social and market institutional logics. The B Corps’ priority was on their societal impact and profits allowed them to fulfil their social purposes. B Corps engage in institutional work at the macro level to legitimate the hybrid form by engaging with highly legitimate actors such as industry bodies and government officials through their lobbying, advocacy and education activities.

Logics and ambivalence – professional dilemmas during implementation of an inclusive education practice

Although inclusion has been a value set forth in international policy arenas and a focus for school development research indicate the problems in establishing more inclusive practices. Although teachers may favor an inclusive model of education, they may experience difficulties in the implementation of inclusive practices. The aim of this article is to describe and analyze the professional experiences of a policy-driven, top-down-initiated inclusive practice in a municipally in northern Sweden. The empirical data is based on qualitative interviews with four teachers, two from special school and two from compulsory school. The result show a professional ambivalence in relation to introduction and information, cooperation and views on inclusion. The results are analyzed from an institutional viewpoint and point out that two institutional logics are apparent in the study. On the on hand an educational logic, which is formal/ideological and contains norms and values connected to ideological ideals such as normality, equality, and inclusion. On the other hand, a social logic, which was, not informal, but vague and pragmatic were differentiation and disability were key aspects. Consequently, important inter-professional aspects during an implementation process, such as information, cooperation, and views of inclusion, were characterized by ambivalence. To conclude, the article add to the discussion of challenges – administrative, organizational, practical – in implementing new discursive practices within inclusive education as norms and values, routines, and rituals are not easily changed, regardless of political rhetoric.

A Critical Reading of the European Union’s Social Innovation Policy

In this paper we conduct a critical reading of the European Union’s social innovation (EUSI) policy discourse. We argue that social innovation has become a prominent element of European policy discourses and can be seen as a key component in an emerging hegemonic project. We therefore engage in a problematization of EUSI policy. Inspired by a governmentality perspective and Howarth’s framework for critical policy studies (2010) we examine the social, political, ideological, ethical and economic logics in three EUSI policy documents. Our contribution lies in (1) our problematization and critical study of social innovation policy discourse in the EU context; and (2) our expansion of Howarth’s framework with two additional logics that are at play in policy discourse: ethical logics and economic logics. The distinction between ideological and ethical logics helps us to expose how EUSI discourse is meant to grip subjects through both the fantasmatic promise of a win-win-win and the ethical injunction of responsibilization. The addition of economic logics helps us to reflect on the further incorporation of the social into the economy, as the economic valuation of social and environmental impacts becomes a key part of the vision for the future of the EU.

Interplay of Competing Institutional Logics: The Case of Socially Sustainable Global Outsourcing

This paper explores the tensions and challenges on hybrids that incorporate competing social responsibility and commercial logics in achieving social and economic value creation objectives of socia...

Processos de inclusão excludente presentes no ensino superior privado

As pressões locais e globais por melhora nas formas de organização social incidiram em políticas públicas que visam garantir o acesso ao ensino superior de parcela da população, outrora desprivilegiada. Este artigo trata dos efeitos que esses processos de inclusão podem gerar. Os dados coletados através de uma etnografia em uma Instituição de Ensino Superior privado foram analisados mediante as noções de identidade e diferença produzidas pelos Estudos Culturais. Considera que os processos de inclusão reforçam e validam as identidades que se adéquam às imposições de consumo e performatividade, características do neoliberalismo, e marcam a diferença por meio de processos sutis de exclusão para aqueles que não se inserem na lógica social vigente.

EL CICLO DEL COBRE EN MINAS CAPILLITAS (PROVINCIA DE CATAMARCA, ARGENTINA) EN LA SEGUNDA MITAD DEL SIGLO XIX: TENSIONES ENTRE LÓGICAS PRODUCTIVAS, ESCALAS TECNOLÓGICAS Y UNIDADES SOCIALES

En este articulo caracterizaremos las distintas escalas de produccion de minerales y de reproduccion social atestiguados en Capillitas, con la intension de comprender las logicas sociales subyacentes. En efecto, asumimos que el paisaje minero de Minas Capillitas no muestra un relato complaciente del triunfo del desarrollo tecnologico, como lo querian ver los empresarios de la epoca fuertemente influenciados por la idea decimononica del progreso, sino las relaciones de diferentes colectivos sociales en la practica de la mineria en los ambitos que se articularon en torno a las vetas de cobre. Para evidenciar esta actividad de practicas y colectivos silenciados, nos apoyaremos en la confrontacion de evidencias arqueologicas con fuentes bibliograficas contemporaneas.In this article we will characterize the different scales of mineral production and social reproduction shown in Capillitas to understand the underlying social logic. We assume that the mining landscape of Minas Capillitas does not show a complacent narrative of the triumph of technological development -as expected by the entrepreneurs of the period who were strongly influenced by the nineteenth-century idea of progress. Instead, the relationships of different social groups in the mining practice within the areas were organized around the copper veins. To demonstrate this activity of silenced practices and collectives, we compare the archaeological evidence with contemporary bibliographic sources.

Cómo puede transformar su negocio la lógica social: El auge del emprendimiento social

Cómo puede transformar su negocio la lógica social: El auge del emprendimiento social

The impact of urban pattern on claiming ‘place’: case studies from Istanbul

The main hypothesis of this study is that, along with other influences, urban pattern (spatial configuration of neighbourhoods) plays a role in claiming the ‘place’ (developing environmental protective behaviour). In this context, three settlements in Istanbul, Turkey, are examined and compared, and the relationship between spatial configuration of the neighbourhoods and emergence of a neighbourhood initiative against a possible environmental threat is investigated. The effective protests demonstrated by residents in two of the selected settlements, against construction of a third bridge in the first case and against the construction activity in the last green space of the neighbourhood in the second case was the reason why these particular case studies were selected. The residents of the third settlement, although exposed to the same environmental damage with the first settlement, did not openly oppose the proposed interventions. This was therefore selected as a comparison case. In the investigation, using Space Syntax as a method to evaluate the social logic of space, findings from the case studies reveal similarities in the spatial patterns of two of the settlements, in that they form a neighbourhood integration core that has the potential to support human co-presence and social encounter, and therefore act as a foundation on which to establish NGO activity which might be referred to as environmentally protective behaviour. The differences in the third analysed settlement, which has the same socio demographic and natural factors but in which environmental protests were not seen, reveals the impact of the urban pattern. Therefore, the article presents data on the potential impact of urban pattern, in terms of organisation of its open spaces, on raising environmental protective behaviour of its residents.

Powers of incomprehension

Meetings between Korowai of Papua and foreign tourists are an example of the historically common phenomenon of transient but close interaction between people lacking any shared language. This article contributes to a comparative anthropology of such contact communities of mutual incomprehension by exploring how Korowai and tourists take translation and incomprehension as sites for defining their relation, particularly in its evaluative and political dimensions. One main pattern I examine is that linguistic interactions are focused on linguistic otherness as such, with each side taking up the other’s difference of language as a figure around which to define what they are to each other more broadly. Another main pattern is that participants in the encounters actively value linguistic incomprehension as a resource for staying separate. Finally, I also address the pattern that the limited cross-language comprehension which does occur is mostly mediated by guides. For Korowai, these translation specialists embody a model of authoritative speakerhood that is an important point of new commensuration between their political ethos of egalitarianism and the hierarchical social logics of markets and states.

Tecnologias digitais na revista Veja: a construção de um futuro despotencializado

O artigo busca analisar como o enunciador de Veja, a principal revista semanal brasileira, coloca em discurso o tema da tecnologia. O texto parte das seguintes hipóteses principais: a) em Veja predomina uma visão de mundo calcada no determinismo tecnológico; b) a tecnologia é discursivizada como uma estratégia para a construção de um futuro que, em síntese, tende a reproduzir as relações sociais do presente c) a tecnologia atua como despontencializadora das possibilidades de transformação social. A pesquisa aponta indícios claros no sentido de confirmar as hipóteses; de fato, Veja constrói uma visão apologética do desenvolvimento tecnológico que prefigura uma imagem determinista do futuro como desdobramento de um presente fechado ao "acontecimento", entendido no sentido de Alain Badiou. A análise discursiva, incidindo em dois momentos temáticos, aponta duas tendências principais: a) colonização do futuro: o futuro tecnológico é construído nas reportagens de capa (1968-2010) para legitimar relações hegemônicas codificadas (Feenberg) nos aparatos tecnológicos; b) despotencialização do acontecimento: a visão prefigurada do futuro congela a imprevisibilidade/acaso de um presente que poderia engendrar transformações políticas, operando uma sutura em lugar de ponto nodal (Laclau), que poderia ter efeitos disruptivos na ordem do capital. Conclui-se, assim, que o ponto de possível ruptura representado pela potencial da tecnologia é convertido em "ponto de tamponamento" (Žižek), a partir do qual o discurso do determinismo tecnológico reconstrói permanentemente o social pela lógica do Capital. O artigo aciona, como referencial teórico, as recentes tendências pós-estruturalistas da Análise do Discurso (Laclau), da Filosofia do Acontecimento (Badiou) e da Teoria Critica da tecnologia (Feenberg).
 
 Palavras-chaves: cibercultura; tecnologia; futuro; revista semanal; jornalismo; Veja.

The Discursive Constitution of the 'Management Control' Organisation

The idea of ‘management control’ regards stability within the organisational environment, in the sense of directing the behaviour of employees towards some set of ‘organisational’ objectives. More than a collection of managerial artefacts, however, this signifier labels a specific set of objects and practices, which typify a regime of practices ‘management control’ at the same time that they are driven, enabled and constrained by it. In this sense, diverse ‘organisation’-like social and political logics are materialised through these objects and practices and through the crystallised regime of practices, then being recognised as ‘management control’-like constitutive logics. Throughout the exercise of such logics – political institutions of social logics – a ‘management control’-like organisational discourse is constituted, hence constituting the ‘management control’-like ‘organisation’, then being experienced as a typical ‘management control’ organisation. The organisation – and the ‘management control’-like organisation – does not happen as a random phenomenon, but it happens out of the constitution of ‘management control’-like organisational discourse. The present thesis develops the arguments towards this essential description, working on post structuralist discourse theory and following a retroductive circle of problematisation, theory construction and persuasion/intervention for research in social sciences, willing to answer the research question regarding the dynamic whereby ‘management control’ logics are articulated and thus constitute contextually-specific organisational discourses. A case study has been developed at the Enterprise, a family-owned metallurgic business, and five theoretical contributions are then proposed, regarding the dynamic process of constituting the organisation, the conceptual difference between discourse theory and institutional theory, the powerful role of political actors for instituting, de-instituting and re-instituting social logics, the relevance of using management accounting artefacts as tools for materialising ‘management control’ social logics, and the materialisation of ‘management control’ like hegemonic discourse through the feedforward process with the articulation of the regime of practices.