Social Constitution Research Articles

A Marxist Analysis of the Metrification of Academic Labor: Research Impact Metrics and Socially Necessary Labor Time

Research impact metrics have proliferated in the context of the commodification of academia and academic research, being widely applied for the evaluation of the performance of academic workers. The existing literature on this question has so far failed to satisfactorily explain two key questions in relation to research impact metrics, namely, what dimension of academic labor they refer to and measure, and how their deployment in evaluation processes interweaves with the extension of capitalist relations of production in academia. Examination of the social constitution of research impact metrics from a Marxist perspective shows that metrics are indexes of socially necessary labor time, so that they indicate whether a given expenditure of academic labor has resulted in a use-value and has been undertaken according to the prevailing conditions of production and the average degree of intensity and skill. This analysis will also shed light on why research impact metrics have become so prominent in contemporary academia. The reason lies in the private and independent form taken by social labor in the wake of the unfolding of capitalist relations of production in academia. In conditions of private and independent production, the social validation of labor occurs ex post, namely, once that labor has been expended.

Skilled metacognitive self-regulation toward interpretive norms: a non-relativist basis for the social constitution of mental health and illness

Skilled metacognitive self-regulation toward interpretive norms: a non-relativist basis for the social constitution of mental health and illness

The edifying body: the role of embodied practices in the social production of servicescapes

PurposeThis research aims to explore and theorize the role of embodied practices – orchestrated by service providers – in the social production of servicescapes. It is claimed that the social character of the servicescape is shaped not only by narratives and materialities but also through the body. Bodily physical behaviors like physical movements in space, gestures, facial expressions, postures and tactile engagements with the surrounding materiality constitute a body language that conveys information and expresses meanings. In this kinetic capacity, the body becomes a building agent in the social constitution of the servicescape. As the author empirically demonstrates in the context of city tourism with diverse experiential opportunities, it is due to the body’s discriminatory orientation, walking, looking, pointing and acting in selective ways that the city emerges as a servicescape of particular kind.Design/methodology/approachMarket-oriented ethnography was conducted in Saint Petersburg, Russia, where the author observed the guiding practices of tour guides leading international tourists during two-day city excursions.FindingsThis research identifies and unpacks three clusters of embodied practices deployed by service providers as they guide customers at the servicescape: spatializing, emplacing and regulating. The role of the body and its association with narratives and materialities is identified in each cluster.Practical implicationsA number of embodied practices are provided for use by contact employees as they guide customers in the servicescape. Specific guidelines are also offered to service providers for the strategic employment of body language, their training is navigational skills and the coordination of body, narratives and materialities.Originality/valueThis study extends current materialistic and communicative approaches on the construction of servicescapes by claiming that the servicescape in not only a physical and narrative construction but something that is also configured through the body; provides three clusters of embodied practices deployed by service providers; theorizes the intertwined nature of narratives, materiality and the body; defines servicescapes as dynamic socio-spatial entities emerging from the constant {narrative-material-body} arrangements orchestrated by service providers; and sheds light on the mediating role of the body in the social production of servicescapes.

THE COLLAPSE OF MODERN DEMOCRACY

This scientific article will demonstrate the birth, evolution and crisis of modern democratic regimes. As notorious knowledge, democracy arose from the fall of the monarchical absolutist regime, when human rights appeared accompanied by constitutionalist movements. The evolution was gradual, the result of the social demands that emerged, noting at first the French ideological tripod, namely, freedom, equality and fraternity, reflecting on the social constitutions of social character. It turns out that with the increase of social demands, the state apparatus itself became unable to meet them, despite the existence of social constituent letters enumerating a catalog of human rights. Thus there is the occurrence of the phenomenon of apparent democracy, in which there is a constitutionally foreseen sequence of human rights, together with appropriate legislations, but are not met by the public power, collapsing the system. At the same time, other elements that contribute to the end of democracies are observed, and can point out the partisan political articulations, the search for perpetuation in power, the confidential meetings, the votes for a certain matter and so on that configure what they are what Political scientist Norberto Bobbio defines how the “rules of the game” democratic. Finally, it is appropriate to mention the occurrence of the invisible power of democracy, where not only the subjects hides, but also the content of decisions until the moment they must become public, always having other objectives.

Constitutionalising the Social Minimum in Greece: The Enduring Legacy of the Euro-crisis on the Social Constitution

Constitutionalisation of the decent standard of living in Greece – Euro-crisis and constitutional change – Financial assistance conditionality and minimum income policy – Decent standard of living in crisis jurisprudence

Reykjavik Summit: a new impetus from the Council of Europe in promoting the Social Rights Agenda in Europe

Social rights are an integral part of the Council of Europe’s shared joint vision. They are indispensable for all citizens to live in dignity and have a self-determined lifestyle. Guaranteeing them is an essential condition for democracy. The European Social Charter, known as the Social Constitution of Europe, plays a central role in the European human rights architecture. No other legal instrument at the pan-European level offers such broad and comprehensive protection of social rights. In May 2023, the Reykjavik Declaration insisted on Member States' commitment to this treaty. Consequently, this upcoming July 3 and 4, 2024, the High-Level Conference on the European Social Charter will take place in Vilnius, under the Lithuanian presidency of the Committee of Ministers. Its significance lies in the fact that the States will take up new challenges, including consolidating its standards, simplifying its systematization and contributing to its effective implementation. In short, it will reaffirm the need for social human rights to be key to the construction of the European legal framework.

Marriages across borders within the European Union

The present paper tackles the issue of the recognition of cross-border marriages and their effects within the European Union. The current praxis allows interesting remarks on the cross-border effects of foreign marriages and their recognition in the perspective of the rights to free movement and to family life. In this framework, the paper scrutinizes a potential definition of the marriage, whether according to EU free movement law or to European human rights law. Due to the lack of a commonly accepted definition, it tests the classic approach to the circulation of foreign documents and certificates, i.e. the conflict of laws perspective. Leading on, it analyses the more fashionable method of the mutual recognition of situations created abroad, as modelled by some States and tested in some cases by the European Courts, too. Despite important advantages, this method does not seem easily accepted for the circulation of the status of spouse(s) and of the institution of marriage. With the aim to push towards enhanced free movement rights and strengthened human rights, the present paper offers some final remarks regarding the legal value of (international) family law in the framework of a social Constitution of the EU.

Whose Uptake Matters? Sexual Refusal and the Ethics of Uptake

Abstract What role does audience uptake play in determining whether a speaker refuses or consents to sex? Proponents of constitution theories of uptake argue that which speech act a speaker performs is largely determined by their addressee's uptake. However, this appears to entail a troubling result: a speaker might be made to perform a speech act of consent against her will. In response, we develop a Social Constitution Theory of uptake. We argue that addressee uptake can constitute a speaker's utterance of ‘no’ as a speech act of consent under some conditions, but that this does not prevent us from judging that an addressee committed rape. Second, we claim that addressee uptake is not the only form of uptake that matters—the uptake of other members of the discursive community matters too, and can override the addressee's uptake, constituting the speaker's utterance as the speech act it was intended to be.

Who is responsible for what? Exploring online pedagogies of remote physical education during the coronavirus pandemic

ABSTRACT During the coronavirus pandemic, internet spaces became important sites of teaching PE remotely. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the emergency online pedagogies transpiring in these internet spaces and the role that digital resources gained in them. We focus on webpages on the platform Padlet.com, which have been identified but not yet investigated as relevant spaces for pedagogical encounters in German-speaking remote PE. Using a theory of practice approach to pedagogy and focusing on discursive practices of responsibilization, we investigate which responsibilities are claimed for PE as a subject, for teachers, students and digital resources on these webpages, and how these parties are thereby related to each other and positioned as recognizable subjects/actors of remote PE. Our qualitative discourse analysis of 14 Padlet webpages (755 posts combined) reveals that the online pedagogy on these webpages is characterized by the discursive positioning of (i) PE as being responsible for activity and sport under special conditions, (ii) teachers as subjects responsible for organizing PE and activating students while delegating pedagogical responsibilities to them and to digital resources, (iii) students as subjects who should care for themselves by taking responsibility for the processes and results of their physical activities and (iv) digital resources as important actors located between education, sport culture and internet economy. Discussing these results, we argue that exploring the actual ways and forms of performing pedagogical responsibility can yield important insights into the social constitution of – increasingly digitized – PE, its social relations, subject positionings and pedagogies.

The making of neoliberal legality: the legal imagination of business elites and the ‘social constitutionalization’ of ‘free enterprise’ in Latin America

AbstractThe ‘free enterprise’ system is a normative cornerstone of many Latin American political constitutions and a formative principle of neoliberal legality. However, the way in which this economic model shapes the legal field and conceptions of the rule of law remains understudied. Though lawyers, judges, and legal experts have played an important role in the legal buttressing of the free enterprise model, this article explores the shaping of neoliberal legality from the periphery of the juridical system. We argue that the rise of neoliberal legality in Latin America owes much to the legal imaginary crafted by business associations. In line with this, we examine the ‘norm entrepreneurship’ undertaken since the 1940s by an organization barely noted in mainstream histories of neoliberalism: the Inter‐American Council for Commerce and Production (IACCP). Drawing on the concept of social constitutionalism and archival work, we investigate the IACCP's role in the struggle to give business activities social legitimacy and establish free enterprise as a socio‐legal norm and a source of public law.

Alcohol and Loneliness: Their Entanglement and Social Constitution

I develop an externalist perspective and analysis of the relatedness of loneliness and (harmful) alcohol use and the concept of loneliness. I depart from twenty qualitative interviews with people undergoing inpatient treatment for alcohol dependence. Both, loneliness and its relatedness to alocohol dependence turn out to be complex relational and interactional phenomena whose occurrence and dynamics depend on the social and situational conditions under which they arise. Despite huge variations in interviewees’ experiences of loneliness, they share a common phenomenological and analytical structure. Loneliness arises when instances of social interaction fail to arrive at mutual understanding within a certain social context. Loneliness is neither reducible to individual experiences nor to distinctive characteristics of a person. Rather, it presents an evaluative and interactional phenomenon, a person’s awareness of his/her failure to establish mutual understanding with others in social interaction. The relatedness of alcohol dependence and loneliness is neither conceptual nor causal nor explainable by facts about the individuals concerned, but depends on the kind of loneliness involved and the function habitual ways of drinking alcohol have in a person’s everyday life and social environment.

Meanings, norms, and social constitution: revisiting ASEAN centrality in East Asian regionalism

Abstract This article examines the implications of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) centrality in East Asian regionalism. It seeks to address the question of how ASEAN created and maintained its central position in East Asian regionalism by managing regional cooperation in general and institution-building in particular. This article addresses the question by relying on the theoretical concept of productive power and tangible attributes associated with the concept. This article makes three arguments. First, ASEAN maintained its central position in East Asian regionalism by exerting productive power that works in generalized and diffuse social processes and through constitutive social relations. Second, the Association developed and employed specific meanings and norms that constituted the foundation for regional cooperation. Third, ASEAN maintained its central position in the complicated Sino–Japanese rivalry by embedding them in constitutive social relations and avoiding exclusive links with each of the two states.

Subjectivity and social constitution: Contrasting conceptions of institutions, artifacts, and animals.

We systematically compared beliefs about animal (e.g., lion), artifactual (e.g., hammer), and institutional (e.g., police officer) categories, aiming to identify whether people draw different inferences about which categories are subjective and which are socially constituted. We conducted two studies with 270 American children, ages 4 through 10: 140 girls, 129 boys, one not reported; 59% White, 3% Black, 10% Asian, one Native American, 17% multiracial or another race, 11% unreported. We also conducted two studies with 360 American adults recruited from Amazon mechanical Turk. In all four studies we found that children and adults judged institutional categories as more socially constituted than artifactual categories (in all studies) but as less subjective (in three of four studies). Whereas younger and older children's beliefs about subjectivity were similar, younger and older children expressed different beliefs about social constitution. Young children judged none of the category domains as socially constituted; older children differentiated between the three domains. These results support the conceptual independence of subjectivity and social constitution and suggest that concepts of institutions and artifacts differ. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Social Space-Time: On the Concept of Social Space-Time and Its Empirical Relevance to Biography

Attempts to reconcile space and time from a social-science perspective have recently become more common. This article goes about this task by developing a workable concept of social space-time, focusing on the connections between historicity—the relationship of the past, present, and future as it is constructed in the social sphere—and social constitutions of space such as the home or the nation-state. In the context of an exploratory study within the area of biographic constructions, this article draws upon twenty-four biographical-narrative interviews to reconstruct constitutions of time and space. It will be shown that certain relationships between past, present, and future concur with certain spatial constitutions. Space-time is therefore a concept that enriches empirical and theoretical work in the social sciences. Macrosociological analyses of modernity, of a transition to flexible accumulation, or processes of exclusion can be elucidated by differentiation between the proposed concentric-linear, networked-episodic, and insular-cyclical space-time types.

The Soulful Machine, the Virtual Person, the 'Human' Condition, and its Social Constitution --An Encounter with Jan M. Broekman, Knowledge in Change: The Semiotics of Cognition and Conversation (Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature, 2023)

The Soulful Machine, the Virtual Person, the 'Human' Condition, and its Social Constitution --An Encounter with Jan M. Broekman, Knowledge in Change: The Semiotics of Cognition and Conversation (Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature, 2023)

Towards a Newer Analytical Frame for Theorizing Ethnic Enclaves in Urban Residential Spaces: A Critical Dialectic Approach in Relational-Spatiality

Abstract: This paper provides a critical reflection on the nature of ethnic enclaves and segregation by presenting an analytical frame that can be used to capture the contested nature of spatiality in these spaces. By underscoring the dynamics in which differences constitute distinct subject positions, this paper posits a relational orientation to studying spatiality that is based on complex relations among and between subjects and space. To date, few attempts have been made to present an analytical frame for the analysis of the spatiality of ethnic enclaves and segregation in which space becomes contested by different groups, occupants of space, and those external to space. This paper bridges this gap by synthesizing the relational approaches found in Bourdieusian field theory and Lefebvrian spatiality. This paper seeks to make three contributions. First, to provide an explicit theoretical anchor upon which relational and spatial theories converge since the underlying rationale for complementary is usually only implicitly evaluated. In detailing this convergence, the social constitution of reality and an emphasis on the duality between individuals and society as well as society and space are identified as a rationale for relational spatiality. Second, to demonstrate how a collective engagement with Bourdieu’s and Lefebvre’s approaches facilitates a recognition of spatiality as a polysemous social product and producer of social reality in addition to grounding this orientation as a critical dialectic engagement in which both the subjects and knowledge production cannot be neutral. Third, to present an analytical frame for the investigation of ethnic enclaves in and through which ethnic majorities, minorities, occupants of space, and those external to these enclaves constitute different views towards the same space.

CINEMA E REPRESSÃO: A VONTADE DE VERDADE DE JAFAR PANAHI

The article analyzes the film In film nist (2011), by the Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, as a form of resistance to the silencing imposed by the Iranian government on his artistic production, since, in 2009, the filmmaker displeased the authorities of his country by supporting Mir Hussein Mussavi, the opposition candidate in the presidential election. Thus, Panahi was sentenced to 6 years of house arrest and banned from filming for 20 years, however, the filmmaker called his cameraman friend Mojtaba Mirtahmasb to record his routine in one day inside his own apartment and produced a questioning film. Contemporary Iranian cinema inaugurated a new modality of realism, whose filmmakers build “documentary fictions”, in which scripts are inspired by real stories. The restorative realism of Iranian cinema seeks to restore a fullness to the complex reality that only cinema would be able to achieve, using, for this, the resumption of episodes that happened in the historical and social world. It must be considered that the production of discourses, in any society, is controlled with the aim of conjuring its powers and dangers, weakening the effectiveness of uncontrollable events, with the aim of hiding the forces that materialize the social constitution. In order for the “will to truth” to be satisfactorily exercised, external and internal procedures to the discourse are used. While procedures external to discourse limit the production of discourses, interdicting the word, and defining what can be said/not said in each circumstance, through the “object taboo” and the privileged or exclusive right of the speaker; the procedures internal to the discourse have the function of classifying, ordering and dictating their distribution.

Social linking practices across physical distance: The material constitution of sociality

The COVID-19 crisis has resulted in physical distancing regulations, disrupting traditional practices of establishing and maintaining social relationships. We draw attention to digital nomadism as a mature case of navigating sociality in uncertainty to investigate how the linking value of materiality establishes social proximity without geographic contiguity through physical, virtual, and imagined practices. Using Miller’s (1987) theory of materiality and triangulating data collected from in-depth interviews and netnography, this study details the material constitution of co-presence with others in physical distance. We propose that consumers oscillate between work—instrumental practices of signaling and curating—and play—emotional practices of belonging and indulging—to experience social linking across different spatial and temporal frameworks.

‘You have to keep it going’: Relational values and social sustainability in upland agriculture

AbstractA transition to a more sustainable food production system in Europe has significant implications for the social constitution of rural spaces. Moreover, research has highlighted that engagement with sustainability initiatives can be affected by people's desire to maintain aspects of their current social realities pertaining to occupations, traditions and lifestyles. Farmers are central to a sustainable agricultural transition, yet are also socially embedded in the spaces that are targeted for transformation. This article engages with this dilemma through an exploration of farmer values in an upland farming area in Ireland. Specifically, we draw on qualitative case‐study data to explore how farmers value their occupation, lifestyles and social structures in terms of the relationships in which they operate. We highlight a range of dimensions through which case‐study farmers value farming—especially as autonomous, outdoor work—in terms of tacit skills and knowledge, familial legacies and certain forms of social organisation. Conceptually, this article builds on calls from within social sustainability scholarship to engage with social aspects of sustainable development. We develop and deploy a relational values analytic framework, which offers a simple yet effective lens for exploring farmer values in terms of the relationships through which they are generated and articulated. Through this framework, we explore how different individuals value their farming occupations and lifestyles. Moreover, by focusing on the relational dimension, we tease out the multiple and sometimes conflicting values that individuals navigate in relation to their farming occupations. We conclude that this kind of approach could enhance understanding of farmer engagement with (or resistance to) sustainable agriculture initiatives.

Ambiguous Musical Practice: Rethinking Social Analysis of Music Educational Practice

Music education holds an ambiguous relationship to social justice and social change; it is both complicit in perpetuating relations of inequality and a potential force for positive change. There is a need to turn the ambiguity of music’s social function—the simultaneous production of transformative and reproductive social processes—into the foundational premise of social analysis of music educational practice. Based on a discussion of ideas derived from social theory, feminist philosophy, and critical musicology concerning the performative constitution of agency and sociality, the notion of ambiguous musical practice is put forward as an analytical lens suited for exploring music’s social significance. The notion points to three interlocking dimensions of musical practice: bidirectionality (how music making may at once lead to destabilization and consolidation of social norms); multiplicity of social meanings (how music making produces multiple social meanings and therefore also may produce [contradictory] social effects on different levels of sociality); and in-betweenness (how music making may place participants in a state ‘in-between,’ understood as a social space where multiple identities, relations, and meanings can be both performed and imposed in ways that render them indeterminate). Inthis way, the notion of ambiguous musical practice may inform critical social analyses of music educational practice.