Sociological Understanding Research Articles

Strategic mothering in a hostile environment: how hostile immigration policies shape mothering, belonging and citizenship in the UK

ABSTRACT Immigration and citizenship policies in the UK have long been experienced as hostile and restrictive, particularly by groups who are racially minoritized. Since 2012, “Hostile Environment” policies have further restricted access to residency rights and citizenship status, generating legal and financial precarity for many families. Whilst research on state bordering practices is growing, little is known about their impact on mothering. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in a London neighbourhood, I show that hostile policies marginalize mothers with insecure immigration statuses and constrain experiences of mothering. Mothers face challenges and relational tensions which play out in ways specific to their structural positioning. I argue that mothers undertake strategic mothering work to address these tensions, enacting relational belonging and citizenship as mothers, for themselves and their children. This article contributes to sociological understandings of strategic mothering as a form of relational belonging and active citizenship in the context of hostile policies.

In God We Trust: Community and Immunity in American Religions during COVID-19

From the systemic issues of race and class division to political partisanship and religious identity, the pandemic has affected many aspects of American social and political life. I interrogate the role that religions have played in communal identity-making during the pandemic, and how such identities shaped ideological responses, particularly in the US, stymying public health efforts to stop, or at least significantly slow, the spread of COVID-19. Drawing from Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera as a historical case study, I use Garcia Marquez’s depiction of religion’s identity-making power during the cholera pandemic depicted in the novel as a comparison by which to understand current experiences of white Evangelical Christians in America during the current COVID-19 pandemic, particularly those who reject risk-minimizing practices such as mask wearing, quarantining, and vaccination. Drawing both from representations of Roberto Esposito’s theory of immunity and community, and from Lauren Berlant’s concept of “cruel optimism”, as well as sociological understandings of religion and identity, I argue that the boundary-making practices of religion and of communal and national identity are related to the complex and often contradictory set of moral practices that led many white Evangelicals to disregard public health policies surrounding COVID-19. A concurrent analysis of Garcia Marquez’s novel and of current events will allow me to explore this phenomenon, as Lauren Berlant would put it, both through the historically affective aesthetic and through the affective present.

“He Hears”: An essay celebrating the 25 year anniversary of The Audit Society

This paper is a reflection upon The Audit Society and how, 25 years after publication, it has since shaped thinking and research in audit, accounting and accountability. We first discuss the book’s impact in the context of its publication, and highlight the key messages that the book helped to impart. Second, within the broad scope of the book, we focus upon one of its central themes, ‘making things auditable’. We explore how this early idea was productive of an organizational and sociological understanding of audit and auditing practices, and the reasons why it might still be so. In suggesting this, we travel from the book’s macro-structural elaboration of the ‘audit society’ towards a micro-processual analysis of ‘auditability’. We consider in particular two recent works by Power (2015, 2021), and outline their import and future potential in connecting three central themes of audit research: the constitution of the ‘objects’ of audit, auditees’ subjectivities and ‘dispositions’, and the ‘logic’ of the audit trail and audit performativity.

The showability of policing: How police officers’ use of videos in organizational contexts reproduces police culture

While much scholarly literature on police ‘canteen’ culture focuses on police storytelling, there is little research on the effects of camera phone technologies on police behaviours, particularly in organizational settings. This article introduces the concept of showability to examine how police officers use videos in their everyday police life, and how this relates to police culture. Based on an ethnographic study of the Dutch police, it illustrates that officers show, share, and discuss videos of various policing acts such as arrests, car chases, and use-of-force events, and do this in various locations such as office spaces, squad cars, and on the streets. First and foremost, officers show videos to entertain and to educate themselves and their fellow officers. Second, showing videos is a new occupational practice that, like in telling stories, reinforces and refutes aspects of police culture, for instance, a masculine ethos. The article contributes to criminological scholarship on the era of ‘new visibility’ by demonstrating that showability is a form of inward visibility wherein officers generate a visual world that fits their professional vision. It also contributes to a sociological understanding of the ‘everydayness’ of police culture. I claim that showability is a key feature of policing practices, which is relevant in light of increasing pressures on the police to account for their work.

Чистая и прикладная математика в свете «сильной программы» Дэвида Блура

David Bloor’s work shows the insightfulness of applied mathematics for the philosophy of mathematics and at the same time provides convincing historical material for his “strong programme” in the sociology of science. Bloor insists that “scientific rationality” is a social institution connected to other social institutions of a given society and therefore there is no “Manichean antithesis” between the rational and the social. The very purity and rigor of mathematics, which has fascinated philosophers since Plato, is a social institution. The disciplinary division of mathematics into pure and applied one is also such an institution. According to Bloor’s sociological understanding, mathematical rigor results from critical discussion within an interacting community of acknowledged experts. For Bloor, equations are tools for solving a given set of problems; their usefulness is assessed in the social interaction of experts within specific social institutions. Institutions can both facilitate and inhibit the success of scientists. Here “success” means the achievement or non-achievement of objectives. In an extensive historical and scientific study, The Enigma of the Aerofoil, Bloor reconstructs the development of aerodynamics in Great Britain and Germany in the first third of the twentieth century. Aerodynamics is an experimental science in which the role of applied mathematics is very important. Scientists in Great Britain took a losing and unpromising route, whereas in Germany classical aerodynamics was developed during those years, which greatly contributed to the development of aircraft engineering. Bloor shows a difference in the methodological orientations of the British and German scientists: the former were looking for a true theory, while the latter were determined to create engineer-friendly computational tools. Bloor attributes this difference to the difference in the educational systems from which the British and the German scientists came.

Practices of Friendship: The Collective Memory of Twin Towns in Sverdlovsk Region of the USSR and the West Bohemian Region of Czechoslovakia

This article describes the experience of an interdisciplinary field study devoted to the examination of the collective memory of eyewitnesses of twinning ties of small towns of Sverdlovsk Region and the West Bohemian Region of Czechoslovakia in the 1960s–1990s. The study refers to five towns of the Middle Urals: Bogdanovich, Zarechny, Karpinsk, Pervouralsk, and Sysert. The theme of memory unites the efforts of historians and sociologists in the context of a general trend — the turn of society towards the local past, its assessment, and the formation of ideological positions for the present. The purpose of the article is to show the possibilities of historical and sociological understanding of twinning in the aspect of temporal dimensions. The choice and justification of methods for the applied study of the phenomenon of twinning ties is based on the methodology of collective memory: the category of “contextuality” of memory, described in the works of M. Halbwachs, J. Olick, is important for the authors; the study of memories of the recent past is carried out within the theory of the experience of the generation of K. Mannheim and M. Mead; the position of P. Hutton makes a significant basis about the measure of reproduction of the past; the “elaboration” of preliminary prejudices is built within the framework of the methodology of oral history. On the site of the Local History Museums of each of the five towns, round tables were held with participants of twinning ties. In addition, guests who had no such experience attended the events. The topic of interaction with residents of the Western Bohemian Region was proposed for discussion. It could be memories of trips to Czechoslovakia, or the arrival of the twin “brothers” in the Middle Urals. At the time of the events described, the participants of the round tables could perform various social roles.

Harnessing Collective Capacities: A Sociological Exploration of Stakeholder Contributions in Community-Based Environmental Stewardship and Empowerment

This study examines the role of diverse stakeholders in the Kampung Harmoni Empowerment Program, a community-based initiative aimed at environmental preservation in Indonesia. It utilizes Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to examine the contributions of the local community, the Environmental Agency (DLH), and CSR PT Indaco Warna Dunia, as they navigate the complexities of sustainable community development. The stakeholders' contributions are categorized into five types: physical labor, financial resources, material resources, moral support, and decision-making. Utilizing social capital theory, collective action theory, and the theory of planned behavior, the study provides a detailed analysis of the contributions and their impact on the program's success. The results reveal that the community's investment in social capital, the collective action exhibited by all stakeholders, and the moral guidance and motivation provided have fostered a communal vision for environmental preservation and community empowerment. This intricate interplay of stakeholder contributions provides a robust model for sustainable community development. The study concludes that successful community-based environmental preservation programs necessitate collaboration, shared resources, and an underpinning of sociological understanding. The findings provide valuable insights for similar initiatives and underscore the power of community-led, multi-stakeholder collaboration for sustainable development. This research enriches the field of sociology by providing an in-depth examination of how the collective efforts of various stakeholders can result in the effective management and preservation of the environment.

ՀՀ երիտասարդների սոցիալական ադապտացիան հետպատերազմյան իրականությունում. սոցիոլոգիական վերլուծություն / Social adaptation of Armenian youth in the post-war reality. Sociological analysis

The problem and features of adaptation of Armenian youth in crisis situations is represented in the article. In the frames of the article the main theoretical concepts on social adaptation are discussed (Piaget, Spencer, Parsons, Merton, Toffler). In the meantime, necessary parallels are drawn between psychological and sociological approaches of social adaptation. The article presents the meaning the definitions of social adaptation. The aim of the article is to point out the level of adaptation of young people in the socio-economic sphere in the post-war reality and to highlight the influence of factors related to post-war conditions on the social adaptation of young people. The sociological understanding of social adaptation makes it possible to discover what adaptation models young people have used in the post-war reality. Deprivation and imitative type adaptations are among the dominant models: deprivation and imitative type adaptations are mostly common among unemployed, war-participating youth. And among students, employed young people, a compensatory type of adaptation is noticeable. The topic can be considered as a base for clarifying and solving a number of current issues on youth in Armenia. It is also helpful for political decision-making process.

Between Strangeness and an Alternative Buddhist Lifestyle: An Expression of Religious Non-Conformity in Consumer Culture

This study contributes to the sociological understanding of the social perceptions of religious engagement and its self-presentation in consumer culture. Drawing on three years of comparative ethnographic research on the Buddhist lifestyle in five different organisations in France and the Czech Republic, it reveals that Buddhist engagement, through its practices, is considered peculiar or even potentially dangerous by the participants’ environment. Remarks of the people surrounding them reflect typical features of the popular understanding and the literature on sects, cults and new religious movements and express social pressure to respect different social norms. They also partly represent social demands to adopt a conformist lifestyle because of their often individualised and activity-centred character. At the same time, Buddhist practitioners’ self-presentation of their engagement is in line with alternative lifestyle discourses since it challenges different social practices, forms of sociability, ethics and other values. The importance, diversity and positive image associated with this alternative stance can be considered an expression of the value of non-conformity that reflects the individualism and disdain of conformism typical of consumer culture.

Book Review. Székedi Levente’s Limitele supraviețuirii

The recent publication of the volume Limitele supraviețuirii. Sociologia maghiară din Transilvania după 1945 [The Limits of Survival: Hungarian Sociology in Transylvania After 1945], signed by Székedi Levente, is a notable contribution to the study of the Transylvanian Hungarian sociology, the author’s playground being, for the time being, little frequented by other researchers. The analysis of the post-1945 period, made “on the grassroots,” from the perspective of survival, focusing on sociologists such as József Venczel or Lajos Jordáky, as well as other intellectuals, makes the reader part of a stage of adaptation and transformation of the Transylvanian Hungarian sociology in the context of an austere regime. After 1948, when sociology was eliminated as a science, we are the spectators of a long process of sociologists’ resistance and disguise of sociological research, under the umbrella of institutions other than sociological ones. The “escape directions” covered areas such as: political economy, folklore, history, social history, linguistics. The reappearance of Korunk magazine in 1957 led “cautiously” to the rehabilitation of sociology in the Hungarian culture in Romania. The author of the volume emphasizes the importance of the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Professor Ernő Gáll, in this whole process of re-establishing sociology and the Gusti School, analyzing the first articles, true professions of faith that stage the new action plans and research. The volume Limitele supraviețuirii. Sociologia maghiară din Transilvania după 1945 is about the Hungarian sociology of Transylvania in the complicated historical chapters of the period after August 23rd, 1944, for two decades, while at the same time frankly addressing the situation of the Hungarian minority in Transylvania. In this sense, it is worth mentioning the multidisciplinary and dynamic character of the work, necessary for any effort of political, historical, and sociological understanding of that era.

Web Resources in a Surgeon’s Everyday Professional Routine

Introduction.Research is devoted to the modern initiative practices of using web resources, which surgeons use to build a career and advance in a professional environment or aim for self-training. A review of Russian-language sources showed that studies on the topic are almost absent. The work was based on the principles of pragmatic sociology and revealed structural and functional changes manifested in new ways to improve professional skills through the opportunities provided by digital technologies.Methodology and sources. The authors rely on systemic, structural-functional approaches and the methodology of the French school of pragmatic sociology to describe the changes that digital technologies bring to the social institution of medicine. Foreign sources show a high researchers' interest in this field. Foreign colleagues develop the topic of web resources used in the routine practice of a surgeon having regard to his / her specialization, goal setting, etc. The publication is based on a questionnaire survey of 252 surgeons and four indepth interviews.Results and discussion. Web resources and social media in the professional practice of doctors in general and individual specializations are at the initial stage of scientific and practical understanding of Russian sociology. Appealing to web resources to improve the professional level or prepare for surgery is part of the routine practice of surgeons. At the same time, surgeons lack technical and organizational support, the actual use of web resources is underestimated, and institutional web resources are less popular than specialized communities and individual social media channels. Conclusion. Russian surgeons act in a resource-constrained Internet technology environment in their working place, bound by the lack of technical capabilities for creating, storing, and distributing video archives, the lack of special tools, and, often, skills for editing and commenting on videos, operations, and maintaining social media. The professional representation of surgeons on web resources is their initiative, and videos of the surgical operation are uploaded spontaneously. The mastership of the surgeon and the quality of the surgical operation posted do not have institutionalized forms of regulation and evaluation by the professional community.

A relational approach to the ethnographic study of power in the context of the city of London

The immersive ethnographic tradition has strong potential to contribute to a deeper sociological understanding of the construction, maintenance and processes of powerful groups. However, ethnography as a method – and sociology as a discipline – has tended to focus more on developing techniques and toolkits for studying what Bourdieu and Wacquant call a “poverty population” rather than elites systems of power. In response, this article builds a much needed ‘toolkit’ for would-be-ethnographers, examining how ethnographic methodologies can be adapted to critically examine the elite cultural fields. It does so by adapting Desmond’s four foci of relational ethnographic: fields, boundaries, processes and cultural conflict. Adopting a relational orientation, this article provides an illustration of how ethnography can be used in the study of powerful cultural fields, using the context of the City of London, and thereby forming the basis for future research.

Dezastrul produs în urma inundațiilor. Experiențe din mediul rural [Flood-induced disasters: Experiences from rural areas]. Tritonic, Bucharest, 2019. Anca Mihai

The book reviewed here is one of the very rare social scientific analyses of flood-induced disasters in Romania. The monograph is a valuable contribution to the Romanian literature in the social sciences, because the author makes a sustained effort to advance a sociological understanding of the disasters tiggered by floods. In this sense, any given flood is not the disaster but only the trigger of a social disaster. The disaster ensues from the ways in which the flood interacts with pre-existing socio-economic and spatial conditions and inequalities. The book is structured into six chapters and an introductory piece. Its appeal is wide-ranging and it includes all social scientists interested in flood-induced or climate change-induced disasters. Experts and stakeholders involved in the management of floods or similar systemic hazards would also greatly benefit from reading this informative piece.

The Variable Disadvantage of Nonstandard Employment for Entering Homeownership in Russia and Urban China: The Potential Role of Mortgage Prevalence

AbstractNonstandard employment (NSE) is a disadvantage for entry into homeownership because it is associated with both lower average income and greater uncertainty of future income. These features of NSE make formal mortgage loans from banks riskier to take on and harder to obtain. This mechanism implies that the relative disadvantage of NSE for homeownership entry is greater in societies where, due to institutional and macro-economic factors, mortgages are a more prevalent means to acquire homes. We test these theoretical expectations by analyzing entry to homeownership using panel surveys from Russia and urban China, two former state socialist countries with comparable labor market regulations, housing regimes, and welfare protections, but different mortgage prevalence. NSE is associated with lowers rates of entering homeownership in urban China, where mortgages are far more common, but not in Russia. Moreover, this negative effect in urban China pertains only to home acquisitions via mortgages, not to homeownership entry via other paths. Our findings broaden sociological understanding of how NSE contributes to inequality by highlighting the role of income uncertainty. They also suggest that cross-national differences in financial institutions may moderate the disadvantages of NSE and thus shape the consequences of market transition for stratification.

Indenturing Celebrity: Governing China’s Entertainment Industries

This article examines the governance of China’s entertainment industries using the concept of “indentured celebrities”—famous people who are obliged to serve as ambassadors for Chinese government advertising and public diplomacy. The article introduces the idea of indentured celebrities in relation to Western sociological understandings of major celebrities as “national power elites,” “powerless elites,” and cosmopolitan “Big Citizens” who use their mediatized star power to exert unelected, “stateless” political influence. It then examines the expansion since the mid-2000s of regulatory controls over China’s entertainment industries. Finally, it explores the “Fan Bingbing tax evasion case,” revealing how online public censure, and the associated potential for government action, can coalesce to discipline celebrity behaviors. We conclude that regulatory frameworks and, to a lesser degree, “supervision by public opinion,” indenture major celebrities to aid the ruling Chinese Communist Party, while undermining any scope to exert nongovernmental political influence as per Western celebrities.

Interview with Andreas Reckwitz: A Society of Singularities

This interview addresses Andreas Reckwitz’s main work, A Society of Singularities, but puts it in relation to his earlier and later writings. It starts with the strong and broad reception of this work in Germany. Next, it turns to how his understanding of the transformation of the social logics of modernity is related to other sociological understandings. In this way, the crucial distinctions of his work between the general and the particular, between formal rationalisation and culturalisation, are thematised. The next part addresses Reckwitz’s Foucault-inspired concept of critique and his understanding of the relation between theoretical and empirical work. The interview then goes on to the transformation of class structure, which is understood in terms of a culturalisation of inequality. The interview ends with a section about the kind of sufferings and problems that are typical of the present age, and how they might affect social transformation.

Sociology of Sport in Argentina: A Review of Publications in Local Journals (1995–2020)

This article aims to outline the characteristics of the publications on the sociology of sport found in three Argentinian journals, observing the education of the authors involved, the disciplines and subjects most investigated, and the bibliographic references most used by Argentinian authors. Based on the content analysis of this empirical evidence, we could see that the Argentinian production is more linked to sociology researchers. In addition, studies are predominantly about soccer, notions of identity, and mostly used local bibliographic references. That is, they are Argentinian or Latin American references. Finally, this study is itself a contribution to a greater understanding and analysis of sociology of sport in Argentina and Latin America.

Hans Kelsen and sociology

This review focuses on one major work of Hans Kelsen which was first published in 1922 and is now included in the most recent volume of Hans Kelsen Werke. While Kelsen’s reputation is as a legal philosopher, this 1922 work shows that he had an excellent understanding of sociology, especially regarding Georg Simmel and Max Weber.

A NEW WAY TO SOLVE BASIC EDUCATION PROBLEMS IN INDONESIA IN ADAPTING TO MULTICULTURALISM

This study has the aim of describing the results of research on multiculturalism in Indonesia. The findings of the research papers will be used as the basis for finding new ways, especially for the implementation of multicultural education in the context of basic education that can be used to solve problems in education. The research method used a content analysis of 12 articles in English from 2018-2022 using the keyword "multicultural Indonesia". Research findings indicate that teachers in primary education need to adapt to multicultural developments in Indonesia to solve educational problems. New ways for teachers to promote multiculturalism include: increasing philosophical and sociological understanding of Indonesia; strengthening understanding of policies and curriculum, as well as increasing learning (pedagogy) with a multicultural orientation in the Indonesian context. The recommendation from this research is to apply the multicultural learning model in the primary education classroom.

From Spatial Forms to Perception: Reassessing Georg Simmel’s Theory of Space

Among the founders of sociology, it was Georg Simmel who provided the most thorough analysis and theory of space. This paper aims to reconstruct Simmel’s spatial theory and his observations of spatial relations. The German sociologist engaged with spatiality in a threefold way. First, he tried to provide a systematic social theory of space; second, analyzing spatial relations was important for his diagnosis of modernity; third, he dealt with the subjective constitutions of space in his shorter, essayistic writings. This paper argues that the importance of the third strand for a sociological understanding of space has seldom been recognized in sociology. In addition, it also shows that despite the diversity in perspectives, there is an underlying coherence to Simmel’s theory of space. As a result, it becomes evident that Simmel was not only ground-breaking in conceptualizing space from a sociological point of view, but that his theory of space continues to be inspirational and relevant to this day for interpreting the entanglement of social and spatial relations.