Sociopolitical Orientation Research Articles

From the Balconies to the Barricades, and Back? Trajectories of Participation in Contentious Politics

Scholars have long been interested in explaining why some individuals engage in civil society through acts of protest while others do not. However, what happens after individuals are involved? Using a nationally representative panel data set that follows Americans from 1965 until 1997, I show that almost half of participants either engage in ‘individual abeyance’, moving in and out of engagement over time, or disengage. I examine the role of socio-political orientations, resources, biography or life-course factors, and group affiliation in predicting patterns of civil society participation over time. Past work suggests that persistent activists differ from those who disengage due to the formers’ particular socio-political orientations. However, I show that there are no significant differences in these orientations between those who persist and those who do not. Instead, biographical changes and engagement in political groups are the most important factors predicting persistent participation over time.

Performance monitoring and the medial prefrontal cortex: a review of individual differences and context effects as a window on self-regulation.

The medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) is central to self-regulation and has been implicated in generating a cluster of event-related potential components, collectively referred to as medial frontal negativities (MFNs). These MFNs are elicited while individuals monitor behavioral and environmental consequences, and include the error-related negativity, Nogo N2, and the feedback-related negativity. A growing cognitive and affective neuroscience literature indicates that the activation of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and surrounding medial prefrontal regions during performance monitoring is not only influenced by task context, but that these patterns of activity also vary as a function of individual differences (e.g., personality, temperament, clinical and non-clinical symptomatology, socio-political orientation, and genetic polymorphisms), as well as interactions between individual differences and task context. In this review we survey the neuroscience literature on the relations between performance monitoring, personality, task context, and brain functioning with a focus on the MPFC. We relate these issues to the role of affect in the paradigms used to elicit performance-monitoring neural responses and highlight some of the theoretical and clinical implications of this research. We conclude with a discussion of the complexity of these issues and how some of the basic assumptions required for their interpretation may be clarified with future research.

An Integrated Theoretical Approach to Understanding the Sociocultural Basis of Multidimensional Environmental Attitudes

Various disciplines have contributed to knowledge about complex and multifaceted attitudes about natural resource management regimes. The vast array of previous research has resulted in disparate approaches to understanding and evaluating environmental attitudes and related constructs, which make comparisons across studies and the advancement of knowledge difficult. Drawing on multiple theoretical perspectives, I outline an integrated approach for assessing critical dimensions of environmental attitudes based on underlying values, ecological worldviews, and sociopolitical orientations. With a cognitive hierarchy framework, I specify a variety of attitude objects toward which evaluative judgments should be examined, focusing on the goals, entities, and strategies involved in resource governance. My intent is to enhance the conceptual clarity of research on environment perspectives while providing a comparable but flexible approach to assessing attitudes and their sociocultural basis in a variety of contexts.

Routledge handbook of religion and politics

1. Introduction Jeffrey Haynes Part 1: 'The World Religions and Politics' 2. Buddhism and Politics Peter Friedlander 3. Christianity: Protestantism Paul Freston 4. The Catholic Church and Catholicism in global politics Allen Hertzke 5. Confucianism, from above and below Michael Barr 6. Hinduism James Chiriyankandath 7. Sunni Islam and politics Andrea Teti and Andrea Mura 8. Shiism and politics Mohammad Nafissi 9. Judaism and the state Shmuel Sandler Part 2: 'Religion and Governance' 10. Secularisation and Politics Steve Bruce 11. Religious fundamentalisms Jeffrey Haynes 12. Religion and the State John Madeley 13. Does God Matter, and If So whose God? Religion and Democratization John Anderson 14. Religion and political parties Clyde Wilcox and Payam Mohseni 15. Religion and civil society David Herbert 16. Religious commitment and socio-political orientations: Different patterns of compartmentalisation among Muslims and Christians? Thorleif Pettersson Part 3: 'Religion and International Relations' 17. Integrating Religion into International Relations Theory Jonathan Fox 18. Religion and Foreign Policy Jeffrey Haynes 19. Transnational Religious Actors and International Relations Giorgio Shani 20. Religion and globalisation David Wessels Part 4: 'Religion, Security and Development' 21. On the Nature of Religious Terrorism Rohan Gunaratna and Adam Dolnik 22. Conflict prevention and peacebuilding Atsuhiro Katano 23. Religion and Women: Canadian Women's Religious Volunteering: Compassion, Connections, and Comparisons Brenda O'Neill 24. Faith-based development aid Gerard Clarke 25. Religion, climate change and human suffering Noah Tully

Just Looking and Staring Back: Challenging Ableism through Disability Performance Art

This article advocates for art curriculum to be guided by the goal of challenging the discrimination, stigmatization, marginalization, and medicalization of disabled people. The Disability Arts Movement provides an important site through which to engage students in exploring the sociopolitical issue of ableism in art curriculum. The pedagogical strategies of disability performance artists Carrie Sandahl, Mary Duffy, and Petra Kuppers are examined for the purposes of establishing an affirmative model that focuses upon the cultural contributions of disabled people rather than an orientation that focuses upon individual functional limitations. It is suggested that the strategies of critical appropriation and autobiography used by these artists offer ways through which to conceptualize disability as a sociopolitical issue in art curriculum. In its conclusions, this article suggests that an integration of the sociopolitical orientation and affirmative model of disability in the classroom be employed guided by the important work of the Disability Arts Movement in order to challenge ableist ideologies.

Higher education and sociopolitical orientation: The role of social influence in the liberalisation of students

Research has long suggested that higher education leads to liberalisation in students’ sociopolitical orientations (e.g., Feldman & Newcomb, 1969; Newcomb, 1943/1957; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991). Differences in level of liberalisation depending on academic discipline have also been found (e.g., Baer & Lambert, 1982; 1990; Guimond & Palmer, 1990; 1996). Two hypotheses have been proposed to explain these differences: self-selection, where people choose disciplines whose views most closely match their own; and socialisation, where people’s belief systems change to match their discipline’s. Two key mechanisms are thought to drive socialisation: normative (people’s attitudes change to match those around them) and informational influences (provision of specific knowledge creates attitude change). This paper reviews the major evidence of liberalisation of students’ orientations, as well as evidence for the self-selection and socialisation explanations, and for normative and informational influence. It concludes with suggestions as to how future researchers can investigate whether change occurs and the processes by which this may be occurring.

Comprehension by Orthodox monks of church-religious, inter-church, social problems of the pre-war era in monastic sources

It is of scientific interest to consider the monastic and monastic vision of church-religious, socio-political, ethno-religious problems of the pre-war era in Ukrainian lands. Interest is dictated by the following factors and reasons. First, monastic centers from the time of Kievan Rus remained one of the most stable in the society and in their mass created a fairly representative network of peculiar indicators of the spiritual state of the Russian (Ukrainian, Byelorussian) community in the regions. Secondly, through these spiritual centers there was a large-scale reproduction in the generations of the whole world-view complex, which included not only church-religious, but also ideological, socio-political orientations, moral and cultural values, ethno-national traditions, etc. Third, it was from monasticism that the higher clergy formed, which then determined the position and course of the church as a whole. Fourth, the monasteries, in the face of socio-political transience and uncertainty, actually became the gatherers, producers and guardians of the spiritual achievements of the Russian community.

Cold Hearts and Bleeding Hearts: Disciplinary Differences in University Students' Sociopolitical Orientations

Many people believe that a university education leads to the liberalization of students' worldviews. The author aimed to investigate whether such differences occur across disciplines and whether they are due to self-selection or socialization within disciplines. The author conducted 3 correlational studies of university students (N = 223, N = 531) and alumni (N = 143). The results clearly supported the self-selection hypothesis and suggested that students from all disciplines generally endorse liberal or left-wing attitudes. These findings have theoretical implications for the study of belief system development (primarily the impressionable years hypothesis), and they contribute to a greater understanding of how a university education affects the sociopolitical orientations of students.

Politics of Conservatism in Turkey

The 1990s have witnessed growing electoral support for parties to the right of the political spectrum in Turkish politics. As the political left shrunk, the political gravity in electoral and party politics shifted toward the Islamic revivalist and ultra‐nationalist Turkish parties. This article examines the nature of this ideological shift, with special focus on the politics of conservatism. The findings of major survey research conducted in April–May 2006 on the sociopolitical orientations and values of Turkish voters are utilized to delineate the characteristics of conservative voting behavior. A major finding of this survey is that most voters tend to support a conservative party such as the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) out of expected economic benefits rather than purely ideological beliefs.

Perspectives traditionnelles et perspectives critiques en criminologie

Is critical criminology “passée”? Have its fathers, the British and American sociologists who wrote Critical Criminology in the mid seventies exhaust its potential interest and flavour? It would be too bad because critical criminology never really took place. There never was a serious and rigorous attempt at unfolding the historical, epistemological, socio-political roots of the discipline, a critical look at it that took nothing for granted. Reminding the readers of the very serious and highly publicised debate around Traditional and Critical Theory in the late thirties launched by the sociologists and philosophers of the Frankfurt School, the author shows that, far from being outdated, critical theory is of the utmost practicality in criminology, even more so because its founding fathers have taken, since, a less partisan and doctrinaire view of it. The applications of their intellectual and socio-political orientations to criminology are numerous, calling for a serious socio-historical analysis of the discipline and of its academic origins that should throw light on where it is going and its impotence at developing a paradigm.

Dehistoricizing History

This article traces the unsettling history behind the concept of “East Asian bioethics,” a term coined in the mid 1990s, and raises questions about processes of history-making (and -unmaking) in bioethical debates. A barometer of sociopolitical attitudes and orientations, bioethics poses reflexive questions about cultural, national, and global identity. The century-old janusian relationship between eugenics and bioethics continues to inform the popular perception of the nature and future of postmodern Japan, which since the mid 1990s has been shaped by an asymmetrical and ahistorical celebration of pan-Asianism. The bioethical dilemma posed and produced by a politics of renewal and strategic “dehistoricization,” together with “reasianization,” is introduced and analyzed.

Popular political support in urban China

Has the current political system in the People's Republic of China lost its legitimacy in the eyes of the Chinese public? On the basis of three carefully drawn surveys of Beijing residents between 1995 and 1999, the author finds that diffuse support for the current political system-based on attitudes toward institutions and values-remains strong, at least among city-dwellers, though it is gradually declining. Specific support for current political authorities, as measured by evaluations of their performance in major policy domains, is much weaker, with many citizens evaluating the authorities' performance as mediocre. In analyzing the longitudinal data presented here, the author finds that the same set of key sociodemographic attributes and sociopolitical orientations variably influence citizens' attitudes toward the political system and their evaluations of leaders' performance. Further, the study shows that citizens' attitudes toward the system, on the one hand, and their evaluation of incumbents' performance on the other, have different impacts on forms of political participation, such as voting and contacting authorities.

Соціально-політичні орієнтації громадян України

Соціально-політичні орієнтації громадян України

The Influence of the Class Situations of Husbands and Wives on Class Identity, Party Preference and Attitudes Towards Redistribution: Sweden, Germany and the United States

The influences of female employment on working couples' class-based identities, preferences towards government redistribution, and choice of political party in Sweden, Germany, and the US are analysed in this article. Two issues are of interest. The first is the unit of class composition: families (conventional approach) versus individuals (individual approach). The results indicate that the conventional approach explains more of the variation in the dependent variables than does the individual approach. However, in many cases the inclusion of female employment within the class schema increases the explanatory power of social class significantly. The second issue is cross-country variation. Based on assumptions about the post-industrial economy, a hypothesis concerning cross-country variation in class-gender patterns is tested. In contrast to the hypothesis, the data show that female employment influences are greatest in Germany, closely followed by Sweden. In the US, influences of female employment on working couples' socio-political orientations are negligible.

Stability and Change in Korean Values

Dramatic changes have taken place in socio-political value orientations in Korea throughout the post-World War II period, primarily as a function of intergenerational change and rising levels of education. This article, by using the three waves of the World Values Surveys conducted between 1982–1996, investigates the changing patterns of basic social values, and analyzes the relationship between these values and their effects on mass political orientations in Korea. The findings indicate that social values have played an important, if not crucial, role in shifting mass political attitudes, and in enhancing the propensity to engage in political action between 1982–1996. What we learned is that Authoritarian-Libertarian (A-L) values have sharply partitioned Korean society largely along the lines of age and education, the latter becoming more important in the later period. It was also shown that the differences in the A-L values are strongly related to contrasting protest potential.

Four Field-Related Educational Resources and Their Impact on Labor, Consumption, and Sociopolitical Orientation

In modern societies, understanding the role of education in social inequality requires more than the study of the level of education attained. Attention should also be paid to the field of study in which people are educated. The authors propose that fields of study supply four types of resources to students: cultural, economic, communicative, and technical. Drawing on data from a nationally representative Dutch survey, they developed scales that measure the prevalence of these four types of resources across 11 fields of study. These scales are related to a wide range of variables in three domains: the labor market, consumption patterns, and sociopolitical orientations. Controlling for level of education, individuals who obtained many cultural resources more often participate in highbrow culture and attain a high cultural occupational status. Individuals who were trained in fields that provide economic resources are more materialistic and conservative in their behavior and attain high economic-status jobs. Those whose field of study attended to communicative qualities are more liberal in their sociopolitical orientation and participate more often in voluntary organizations. Technically educated people tend to have low occupational-status jobs and lifestyle preferences directly associated with their technical skills.

La démocratie chrétienne en Europe comme expression politique des religions chrétiennes: essor et déclin (1945-2000)

Immediately after the Second World War, Christian Democracy became the most important political expression of Christianity (especially Catholicism) in western Europe. It found a favourable breeding-ground in the religious revival and the increased prestige of the Christian churches. It was able, after the defeat and discredit of fascism, to integrate in its ranks most of the political right. Its position of power was henceforth dependent on its ability to keep the right tied to it. In most countries, this turned out to be an impossible task. Moreover, from the 1960s onwards, Christian churches (including the Catholic Church) began to change their socio-political orientation, concentrating their attention on “civil” rather than on “political” society. Consequently, Christian Democracy declined in the last decades of the 20th century. Nevertheless, it has exerted a great influence on western European society, in political, socio-economic and socio-cultural life.

Traditions of Lay Orthodoxy in the Russian North

History books and political propaganda have taught us to think about Russian culture in geographical terms, as something that is an integrated whole. Political develop­ ment over the past few years under the banner of 'federalism' has led to a number of political and economic declarations about the diversity of the regions, but behind all these declarations there are short-term economic interests connected with the avail­ ability or absence of resources, the varying depth of the economic crisis and the level of political ambition of regional politicians. More often than not we remain unaware of the fundamental diversity of historical background and of the resulting diversity of culture, mentality, religiosity and socio-political orientation. Despite this, and even given the unitary and centralised nature of Muscovite power, the historical memory of Tver', Saratov, Vladivostok or the North-West varies considerably. Holy Rus', on whose land walked hundreds of heroes of the faith, where to this day every little town has its ancient churches, where great icon­ painters laboured, where our ancient history took place, where the Russian people suffered from the Tatar yoke and lived through the Times of Troubles of the seven­ teenth century, is but a relatively small part of our homeland. A slightly bigger area is formed by the territory where there were aristocratic estates (some of which survive to this day in continued decline), which were the hearth of classical Russian culture of the nineteenth century. The history of the Volga region since its settlement by Russians is no older than that of Massachusetts and for the Pacific Maritime region the antiquity of Virginia could be an object of enormous envy. However, the uniform, monolithic, universally acknowledged version of Russian history, culture and religiosity has primarily Muscovite features, plus features of central Russia, which was the heart of 'Holy Rus and was part of Muscovy from ancient times. All the lands acquired by the Muscovite state were supposed to receive ideology along with the system of government. Even the local inhabitants were often not fully aware of the ideological diversity of these lands. Over the years some of the historic features of the regions were lost or uprooted (especially under the Bol­ sheviks). Where there were gigantic construction projects to which vast numbers of people moved and where the map was peppered with islands of the Gulag and where the rule of the NKVD was the basic form of local government, it was virtually impossible for any kind of historic roots to be preserved. On the other hand there were regions that largely escaped the traumas of the Soviet era. We can speculatively note historic features of the regions which no longer play any role in real life today; on the other hand we may fail to notice, or write off as insignificant, something which was formative for the present reality of some part of our country.

Catapulted Into Democracy: South African Adolescents' Sociopolitical Orientations Following Rapid Social Change

In this article, we explore the effects of the political transformations in South Africa on the orientations of adolescents to these changes. The study was conducted between 1992 and 1996. This period includes the first negotiations toward a new political dispensation for the country, the first democratic elections of April 1994, and the first few years of post‐apartheid democratic governance. Informed by generational and life span approaches, this study examined some effects of these changes on 14‐ and 17‐year‐old adolescents. These adolescents grew up in racially segregated South African communities, which had different experiences of the transformation process because of their position in the apartheid racial caste system. Results indicate that the separate and differential life circumstances created under apartheid powerfully shaped orientations to the changes in South Africa since 1994. All the adolescents expressed strong concern with the future. White adolescents in particular were alienated from many of the changes that have taken place, while Black African adolescents were generally positive. Those of Indian and mixed racial descent showed a variety of responses, but were also frequently negative or ambivalent. In addition, perceived differences in the society at the two times of measurement generally had more powerful influences on the participants' orientations than did age.

Guest Editor’s Introduction

This article introduces the contributions in this special issue of the International Journal of Sociology and demonstrates their usefulness for elUCidating a tabula-rasa hypothesis as it applies to public opinion in Eastern Europe. This hypothesis states that an unexpected revolution in communist societies caught people unprepared for a transition to democracy and a free market economy, and that this state of affairs is manifested in weakly interrelated and frailly determined sociopolitical orientations. The mixed results prOVided by the articles contained in this issue call for a reformulation of the tabula-rasa hypothesis. In addition, these articles are used to illustrate problems in detecting sources of intercountry variation, in establishing a functional equivalence of measurement, and in examining the timing of events. Both the substantive and methodological matters are discussed in the context of current research on the transition from a communist system to democracy and a free market economy.