Sociopolitical Hierarchies Research Articles

Incorporating Feminist Theory into Social Work Practice: Group Work Examples

ABSTRACT Feminist theories explain the structure and dynamics of women's experiences within sociopolitical and interpersonal sexual hierarchies. To enhance flexibility and responsiveness in applying the theories, social workers should be conversant in various branches of feminism. This paper reviews five branches of feminist theory and applies each one to social work practice, using group work examples. The practice examples are drawn from the author's study of women's groups in which facilitators described the goals and processes used to practice feminism or womanism in their groups.

:The Movement towards Subversion: The English History Play from Skelton to Shakespeare

The Movement Towards Subversion explores the theme of power in the Renaissance English history play. It analyzes the growing subversion of the sociopolitical hierarchy in Renaissance drama from Skelton's Magnificence to Shakespeare's King Lear. Unlike most scholarship, this book studies the lesser-known, often neglected dramas plus some familiar 'canonical' works. These plays tell us a lot about political and religious attitudes in sixteenth-century England. Instead of discussing the plays in regard to their relationships with and influences upon Shakespearean drama, the author analyzes the plays on their own terms. This book also shows how dramatists employ medieval history in their plays to express subversive ideas about Tudor political situations.

Hierarchies, Heterarchies, and Urbanization Processes: The View from Bronze Age Cyprus

Neo-evolutionist models of the rise of civilizations have attracted increasing criticism because the hierarchical, centrally organized politico-economic systems which they posit (i.e. chiefdoms and states) are not always evident in the archaeological record of societies in transition to urbanism or other modes of social complexity. Alternative models based on the concept of hierarchy, or complexity that is not necessarily associated with highly centralized socio-political hierarchies, offer a new way of analyzing and interpreting such cases. In this paper I consider urbanization processes in Late Bronze Age Cyprus, which diverge from the paradigm of hierarchy inasmuch as they seem to have begun in the absence of prior 'chiefdom' societies and culminated in the emergence of a number of autonomous regional polities with a diversity of hierarchical and hierarchical characteristics. I discuss the differing patterns of internal organization which these polities display and explore the possible reasons for those differences, focusing on variations in local settlement histories and geographical or logistical factors such as proximity to important copper resources.

The Citadel of Cairo: A New Interpretation of Royal Mamluk Architecture

This architectural history of the Citadel of Cairo uses indices from maps, photographs, plans of hitherto unstudied structures, and a large array of historical documents to chronologically reconstruct the Citadel's development from its foundation by Salah al-Din until it reached its most monumental form in the middle of the fourteenth century. The study analyzes the influence of Mamluk socio-political hierarchy on the conceptualization of the Citadel's spaces and forms; assesses its impact on medieval Cairo; proposes a new interpretation for the development of Mamluk royal architecture; and presents new definitions for a number of medieval architectural terms. By weaving the history of the Citadel together with the history of Cairo and the Mamluk system, this book is relevant to historians of architecture and urbanism and medieval historians.

Imagining democracy: political culture and democratisation in Buganda

Most of the recent literature on democratisation in Africa has paid insufficient attention to popular understandings of democracy and the local reception of democratic practices. This article examines the articulation of the concept of democracy with existing socio-political conceptions in contemporary Buganda. The standard translation of the word ‘democracy’ into Luganda tends to assimilate it to a local political cosmology which emphasises the values of justice, civility and open communication between rulers and subjects, and involves a conception of sociopolitical hierarchy modelled on the system of clans and kingship. Key ideological features of this conception include its construction from the bottom up, the singularity of power, regulated competition and nested solidarities. Such liberal democratic practices and institutions as elections, political parties and representation are not part of the local definition of democracy. In fact, political parties are widely condemned as antithetical to democratic governance. At a more pragmatic level, however, some of the democratisation initiatives of the current Ugandan government have given rise to a new popular allegiance to democratic elections. These reforms are unusual in that they resonate significantly with local political values and conceptions. The article suggests that more attention should be devoted to the coherence of democratisation initiatives with local socio-political conceptions.

Tiwanaku Settlement System: The Integration of Nested Hierarchies in the Lower Tiwanaku Valley

This study reports on changing settlement patterns in the lower Tiwanaku Valley during the Formative (1500 B. C.-A. D. 100), Classic (A. D. 400-800), and Postclassic (A. D. 800-1100) periods. Based on the association of agricultural features with these site distributions, as well as the consideration of ethnohistoric and ethnographic information, it is argued that fundamental principles of the political and economic organization of the Aymara ayllus and markas can be inferred from the archaeological evidence. It also is suggested that Tiwanaku articulated local elites through mechanisms of reciprocity and common ideological denominators rather than through direct intervention and control of local sociopolitical hierarchies.

Constraints on Capitalism in Russia: The Managerial Psyche, Social Infrastructure, and Ideology

In the wake of failed coups and political challenges by ultra-conservatives, leaders in the emergent Russian federation face the difficult task of introducing sweeping economic, political, and social changes without provoking a return to Soviet ideology. Russian citizens are uncertain about the benefits of adjusting to a market-based economy, and their social infrastructure is inadequate to cope with new expectations for self-direction and individual responsibilities. At the core of the change process are nearly 75 years of deep-rooted socialist doctrine and a rigid sociopolitical hierarchy through which monopoly power over resources and the means of production were controlled. Until recently, only a select body of the Supreme Soviet or its appointees had authority to make substantive decisions. Today, however, Russia is attempting to transform its economy, which involves repositioning companies as market-driven enterprises. Consequently, managers are being given greater authority and responsibility for organizational performance. Changes in managerial values are a significant element in the socioeconomic transformation in Russia.

What Can Be Learned by Estimating Human Energy Costs?

AbstractArchaeologists have estimated the human energy costs of various undertakings. Confusion has arisen about the notion of energy “profits”–what must be included in their calculation and what we can learn from such calculations. When it comes to assessing the contribution to sociopolitical hierarchy building of energy profits derived from long-distance transport of food staples, it is the energy expended (both in transport and acquisition of the food staples) that matters. The source of the food that produces the human energy so expended is immaterial. What may be learned from such calculations is whether attempts to understand certain behaviors in terms of economic “rationality” succeed or not.

Risk and Agricultural Intensification During the Formative Period in the Northern Basin of Mexico

The relationship between the development of hydraulic agriculture and the formation of sociopolitical hierarchies is a major issue in studies of the evolution of early civilizations in the Basin of Mexico and elsewhere. Previous explanations of agricultural intensification have emphasized population pressure and the effects of settlement nucleation and distance to markets. Neither factor, however, adequately explains the shift to hydraulic farming at relatively low population levels in arid and semi‐arid environments. This paper attempts to demonstrate that risk of crop failure was significant in promoting land‐use intensification and the development of hydraulic agriculture during the Formative period in the northern Basin of Mexico.