Construction Of Society Research Articles

Toward an Abbasid History of Emotions: The Case of Slavery

The idea that there can be histories of everything or anything has not yet taken root in the field of Islamic history, which is still dominated by political history. There has been a revival of women's history, and gender studies is flourishing, but these developments have brought about only one radical rethinking of mainstream narratives: Nadia Maria El Cheikh'sWomen, Islam, and Abbasid Identity, which argues that Abbasid society's construction of early Islam and of its own self-image is profoundly gendered, because “Women, gender relations, and sexuality are at the heart of the cultural construction of identity, as they are discursively used to fix moral boundaries and consolidate particularities and differences.”

Inside the male psyche: men and healthcare

This article, the second in this series on men's health issues, will provide a basic overview of some of the issues that men face in relation to their general healthcare, such as social attitudes to men, the ‘male psyche’, male health and whether (and why) men do not access healthcare services in the same way that women do. A number of local, national and international reports into men's health will be highlighted; these may be of use in helping support staff understand how our society's construction of the male identity prevents men from accessing health services.

Research on the MSP Evolution Patterns of Two-oriented Society Coordinated Development in Regions of China

In order to study the evolution patterns of two-oriented society coordinated development, with the guidance of Scientific Development View, this paper proposed the research thinking of the evolution pattern of two-oriented society coordinated development, established the MSP evolution patterns structure model of two-oriented society coordinated development and created the model of comprehensive index, coordination degree, development degree and coordinated development index. It also made an empirical analysis of the evolution patterns of two-oriented society coordinated development in all regions of China and worked out the MSP evolution map of two-oriented society coordinated development in each region. This paper improved the theories of coordinated development two-oriented society and embraces great importance of the regional two-oriented society's construction.

The Influence of Western Society's Construction of a Healthy Daily Life on the Conceptualisation of Occupation

This article proposes that the current conceptualisation of occupation within the dominant Anglophone literature reflects central elements of Western society's construction of a ‘healthy’ daily life, the ‘ideal’ and expected way to live. Contemporary theories of social action are used to describe the structuring influence of social institutions on daily activity. Four of the commonly identified characteristics of occupation, that it is active, purposeful, temporal and meaningful, are discussed in relation to Western institutions and related aspects of daily life. It is not intended to provide a comprehensive account of the socio-historical construction of the concept of occupation, but rather to illustrate the coherence of characteristics of occupation with those of Western daily life. The implications of this for understandings of occupation amongst groups and communities with alternative constructions of daily life are discussed. Some examples are offered, particularly from Greece, as a Christian Orthodox, non-industrialised, largely collectivistic society.

A better world through law? The implications of the theories of Niklas Luhmann for green economics

This paper considers the implications of the theories of Niklas Luhmann for attempts at achieving social change through law. According to Luhmann, modern society consists of all that can be communicated and understood as having meaning. Such communications are structured according to functionally differentiated subsystems such as law, politics, science, economics and education. Luhmann applies the biological term, 'autopoiesis', to explain how social systems produce and reproduce themselves by the interaction of their own elements and in so doing, participate in society's construction of reality. Each system distinguishes itself from its environment through binary codes and then reconstitutes phenomena entering its environment by applying its own internal binary code (such as legal/illegal in the case of law). This normative closure means that direct or simple exchanges or communications between social systems, or between individuals and social systems, are impossible. We therefore need to abandon notions of 'steering' social systems in predetermined ways and bringing about social change directly through legal norms. Progressive change may occur but this will depend more on how events entering each social system are reconstituted by those systems, rather than on the motivation and planning of social campaigners. Luhmann offers a way of describing society that seeks to engage with, rather than avoid, the increasing complexity and contingency of modern society, and which enables us to see that whether law achieves 'justice' depends on the viewpoint from which law (or any other social system) is being observed.

The End of an Age: Beyond Age Restrictions for Minors' Medical Treatment Decisions

This research paper explores one aspect of society's construction of aging - that the to make decisions comes only with age. When considering the ways in which individuals can be discriminated against on the basis of their age, we tend to focus on the experiences of older Canadians. However, may equally suffer discrimination simply because they are below the age of legal majority. (I use the term minors only to reflect society's division through law of our lifespan into childhood and adulthood, and do not intend to endorse status-based categorisation in any way). I question whether denying a minor the entitlement to make her own medical treatment decisions because of her age and presumed may constitute discrimination within the terms of s.15 of the Charter. This paper analyses the various provincial frameworks for determining whether a minor who refuses medical treatment will nevertheless receive that treatment, and contrasts these schemes with a full understanding of decision-making maturity. Some judges and statutes currently override minors' mature treatment decisions. Yet, this may simply be because judges and law-makers have been unable to reconcile themselves to compromising the protection of in favour of minors' autonomy when it is not clear that whose decisions satisfy the available tests of maturity have reached mature decisions. What should we mean by maturity? A mature decision requires more than a high level of cognitive and psychosocial development specific to the decision-making context; a minor's mature decision is not reached in an irrational manner, and is based on a relatively stable set of informing values, which are themselves socially tolerated. I contend that satisfy these criteria below the age of majority, although there can be no general rules for of the same age. As a consequence, age is an inadequate proxy for decision-making maturity. This paper concludes with recommendations for how provincial law might be brought into line with the demands of minors' s.15 right to equal treatment, and suggests, among other proposals, the adoption of an age-based presumption of decision-making for who are at least 12 years old.

Infanticide: contrasting views

The subject of infanticide is met with complex reactions. Paradoxically, the very same society that practices gender selection may also prosecute a mother for killing an infant. The author reviews historical, cultural, and political views on infanticide. Using the case of Andrea Yates, the author illustrates the outcome of an infanticide case in American Judicial System in which a floridly psychotic mother serves a life in prison. This work explores contemporary worldwide experiences of infanticide and investigates culture specific attitudes towards causes, facilitation, and punishment of this tragic cause of infant mortality. The work illustrates the intricate relationship between a society's construction of parenthood and mothering, and its experience of infanticide. Infanticide is deeply embedded in, and responsive to the societies in which it occurs. Causes vary from poverty to stigma, dowry and insanity. The worldwide experience of infant murder reaches from facilitation of gender determination in China and Asia to lethal execution of mothers as perpetrators in the United States. Infanticide must be viewed against the political, cultural, social and legal backgrounds of societies that treat women with disregard. It is a reflection of social and cultural norms governing motherhood, a constant that links these seemingly disparate acts. The overall association of infanticide with crime, postpartum illness, population and sex selection speaks to unjust discrimination against women and children. We as a world society can do a far better job of protecting motherhood.

Aesthetics and values as core determinants of musical identity formation

The development of learning systems is of particular interest to the music educator and the ethnomusicologist. Furthermore, a society's construction of a world of musical sound is learnt by cultural insiders who identify with it, thereby contributing to their broader sense of cultural identity. This article looks at ways in which such musical worlds are constructed cognitively through social negotiation. This construction involves aesthetic choices, which in turn are derived from value systems that develop within the cultural environment. As environments change with time, so too do value systems and aesthetics, thus indicating a dynamic system of thinking, choosing, discarding and creating. The primary goal of this research endeavour is to develop a theory that can guide arts education and research, a theory which emerged from data extracted from ethnographic field work since 1993, informal surveys, reflective analysis and a broad literature review. The existing literature on societal music cognition and aesthetics in sub-Saharan Africa indicates general approaches and systems, although few pursue the actual construction of individual and social systems of thinking. Hence, based loosely on cognitive theory and ethnomusicology practice, the essay discusses a way in which indigenous sub-Saharan societies developed a system of musical aesthetics that instructed the youth in basic societal values, including encoded systems of knowledge which underlie the actual transmission of musical practice and dance. It then goes on to investigate tensions between musical traditions of the past and contemporary popular culture. Knowing as we do that traditional values are placed under severe stress in urban, modern or post-colonial environments, the intention is to explore whether popular culture contradicts or draws on earlier traditions. While focusing mainly on indigenous informal forms of learning (folklore), the essay addresses some of the value changes that lead to changes in musical aesthetics.

Fear's Slave: The Mass Media and Islam after September 11

This paper investigates the purpose of society's construction of ‘others’ through the gaze of the mass media. During times of crisis, the paper argues, Western mass media are faced with an irreconcilable paradox: the simultaneous demand for, and denial of, a fear-inspiring other (the Soviet Union, Al Qaeda, etc.) This paradigm of otherness was overcome in the period post-Cold War and pre-9/11 as the US media was able to demonise ‘others’ at home — the war on drugs, for example. The question this paper will address, then, is: what are the motives driving the US mass media towards an other constructed along lines similar to the Soviet-era other? Who is to ‘blame’ for this phenomenon — the media, or the society in which these media operate?

Sunny Days on Sesame Street? Multiculturalism and Resistance Postmodernism

Now in its fourth decade, Sesame Street, which has been called one of the most influential children's shows in television history, plays an important role in shaping society's construction of multiculturalism. This article addresses the role of educational children's television as a contributor to the forging of the notion of multiculturalism by analyzing Sesame Street's suitability as a tool for multicultural pedagogy. Using McLaren's theory of resistance postmodernism (1994), this study argues that while Sesame Street does not directly provide a language for educators to critique social and cultural practices, it is a text that allows and invites multifaceted dialogues that critically discern an Other in the construction of identity.

Law, Pollution, and the Management of Social Anxiety

This paper considers the cultural meaning of masturbation and spermatorrhoea (wet dreams). It explores the more than 200-year-long campaign against self-pollution by examining the meanings assigned to the practice along a number of dimensions that collectively contribute to society's construction of the Good and the Bad: : purity and pollution, health and harm, self and other, natural and unnatural, beauty and deformity, gender-appropriate and gender-inappropriate, order and chaos, good and bad, and true and false. The article identifies several overlapping frameworks that norm entrepreneurs used to stigmatize masturbation: the religious, medical, and sociological models. Each of these models offered a theory for the origin, development, and treatment of the conditions. The paper concludes with some conjectures about the value the campaign against masturbation may have offered in terms of displacing social anxieties, especially for physicians, moral conservatives, and early feminists.

Behaving outrageously: Contemporary gay masculinity

In behaving outrageously are gay men fulfilling the unrequited dreams of Australian mateship, being part of the queer generation, or perhaps just expressing dominant patriarchical sexuality, minus the constraints of society's construction of heterosexuality? One thing is certain: modem gay male identity extends far beyond the visible subculture, and it is intimately tied to wider concepts of Australian masculinity.

The Starfish and the Strange Attractor: Myth, Science, and Theatre as Laboratory in Maria Irene Fornes' ‘Mud’

Cara Gargano sees the plays of Maria Irene Fornes as reflecting ‘nucleate disorder in a system far from equilibrium’ – a theatrical response to the overturning by the new science of the Aristotelian as of the Newtonian paradigm. Comparing the wildly divergent critical interpretations of Fornes' Mud since its premiere in 1983, she suggests that in this overtly simple dramatization of a far from simple triangular relationship, Fornes ‘uses the theatrical space as her laboratory – a place to explore the interface between our society's construction of the world and our evolving artistic and scientific vision’. Cara Gargano is a writer, teacher, and choreographer who took her doctorate at the City University of New York, was on the faculty at the New York School of Ballet, and is presently Chair of the Department of Theatre, Film, and Dance at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University. She has written extensively on the Quebecoise playwright Marie Laberge, and her articles on performance, quantum mechanics, and chaos theory have been published in Modern Drama, L'Annuaire Théâtrale, and Dance and Research.

Rewriting Our Lives: Stories of Meaning-Making in an Adult Learning Community

Abstract The stories of three adult students who completed bachelor's degrees in an intensive learning community are examined. A controlling narrative learned from families and the culture had led them to interrupted educations and lives that failed to reflect their full capacities. With the guidance of faculty mentors and the collaboration of a peer community, they each reexamined, reinterpreted, and rewrote their failure narratives. Once they understood how they and their peers had accepted society's construction of their identities, these three were able to revise those self-constructions. Further contextualizing their experiences through the lenses of history, art, and literature enabled Helen, Ben, and Millie to make dramatic personal transformations. Helen, a single mother on welfare, rejected the hypothesis that an artist must be a genius or a man. Ben, a Vietnam-era veteran, let go of the macho warrior model and adopted a different way of contributing to the human community. Millie, an African American activist, found the common experience that connected her to both White workingclass women and Cambodian refugees.(Adult Learning, Learning Comunity, Narrative, Collaboration, Mentors, Peer Learning, Personal Transformation)