Sociological Work Research Articles

A Sociological Take on Language Generative AI Tools

Language represents the medium in which human experiences are uniquely encoded by how an individual processes and produces language. The development of generative artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT created a challenge in the context of education due to how humans, being humans, often employ tools in unconventional ways as hallmarks of our creativity and critical thinking. Efforts to resist the incursion of AI into academic work have evidently failed, as observable from how the Russell Group changed its stance from prior bans on AI to the current acceptance of AI to a large degree (4 July 2023). This acceptance created tremors for the longstanding traditions of knowledge acquisition and production, which many academics are paying increasing attention to. In a bid to better understand the impact of such acceptance, the study was carried out to investigate the impact of AI use for sociological work. Employing a pilot study of a pragmatic approach with 20 graduates, it was found that while there was an even distribution of preference between personal writing and AI writing, academic submission preferences scaled towards AI writing. Preference for AI writing for submission was noted to be twice that of personal writing, despite an even distribution of preference. Findings also noted the qualitative differences between personal writing (268 words with 84 unique words) and AI writing (250 with 10 unique words) in word range and unique words. The analysis notes significant differences in word range between personal writing (± 35.93) and AI writing (± 4.28), reflecting a convergence of writing rhetoric that proves to be largely detrimental to sociological developments. The discussion presents considerations in three dimensions: the challenge on education, the challenge on language education, and the challenge on the sociological lens.

Forms of culture in the implementation of school reform efforts: A conceptual framework

Despite concerted efforts to improve educational practices through reform, classroom implementation remains a persistent challenge. This theoretical article draws on recent work in cultural sociology to offer a fresh perspective on this problem. It introduces a framework that differentiates between declarative, procedural, and public forms of culture, highlighting their unique mechanisms of internalization and enactment. This multidimensional understanding of culture reveals the cognitive challenges inherent in translating reform principles into classroom practices. More specifically, the article contends that the common assumptions of convertibility and transferability between these forms of culture underlie the limited success of many reform initiatives. By attending to the cognitive dimensions of cultural dynamics, the proposed framework opens new avenues for understanding and addressing the difficulties of educational change. This article concluded with an agenda for future research to test and refine the framework.

Care and circularity: how the enactment of care enables and shapes the circular consumption of clothing

In a circular system, consumers need to acquire, use, look after and part with products in ways that recirculate or reuse materials and minimise waste. Thus, although seldom made explicit, consumer care is built into the circular economy project. In this article, we aim to contribute to the emerging body of sociological work on circular consumption by foregrounding the role of care in the performance of circular clothing practices. Theoretically, we combine previous care literature with theories of practice. The analysis builds on an ethnographically inspired study of 24 households’ circular clothing consumption. Our findings suggest that accomplishing circularity in everyday clothing consumption involves developing care awareness and taking on responsibility for the care of clothes as a way of caring for distant others. We also show that multiple care struggles and care dilemmas complicate the accomplishment of care in this context. The article ends by outlining the possible contributions of developing an awareness and understanding of how care and circular consumption are intertwined.

COVID-19 and the biopolitics of stigma in public housing: dividing practices and community boundaries in pandemic times

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 ‘hard lockdowns’ in Melbourne, Australia in 2020 targeted public housing estates thus trading on perceptions of risk associated with public housing as some of the most stigmatised sites in post-industrial cities. This article draws on interviews with Melbourne public housing tenants on their experience of COVID-19 lockdowns to analyse the place of stigma in residents’ accounts. Pairing Wacquant et al's (2014) concept of 'territorial stigma' with sociological work on the biopolitics of stigma we consider the dynamics of stigma, tracing how it functions to delimit community boundaries and justify pandemic containment measures. Residents navigate multiple layers of stigma, including stereotypes of public housing, normative judgements of neighbouring residents, and a broader public housing system riven with structural issues. Members of these communities are both the targets of stigma and seek to distance themselves from those seen as vectors of stigma. Our participants report mobilising social distancing strategies couched in normative assessments of perceived risk based on physical appearance, presumed drug use and past conduct. We explore the implications of these enactments of territorial stigma and trace the logics of abjection that construct public housing as deprived urban zones, home to abject ‘Others’ perceived as threatening the health of the community.

Civilization in the Face of Sociology

The article is a brief overview of the concepts that exist in sociological science from the moment of its inception to the present and related to civilizational issues. The peculiarities of this branch of knowledge, which arose during the Great Industrial Revolution, in the era of the formation of nation-states, led to the fact that for a long time sociologists did not use a civilizational approach, the idea of civilization prevailed as a certain stage in the development of society, opposing “barbarism”, in the age of Enlightenment (F. Guizot), and in the twentieth century (N. Elias). At the same time, it is possible to identify a certain attitude to civilizational issues in Marxism, and in an alternative approach to it, which the author calls technological (D. Bell, O. Tofler with J. Gelbraith adjacent to them), and in the concept of the “world-system” by I. Wallerstein, and in geoeconomics by F. Braudel. The article analyzes the contribution to the sociology of civilizations of the classics of the civilizational approach (N.Y. Danilevsky, O. Spengler, A. Toynbee, P. Sorokin). Special attention is paid to the “civilizational turn” in sociology in the 1970s, primarily related to the works of Sh. Eisenstadt and continued at the beginning of the XXI century by Aronson, as well as the concept of Russian civilization in the works of sociologists D. Nielsen and I. Yakovenko. The article raises theoretical questions about the civilizational approach from a sociological perspective, first of all, the scientific possibilities to identify specifically cultural and value cores of various civilizations, including Russian, to define Russian civilization in relation to the concepts of Eastern Christian civilization and Soviet civilization, as well as the degree of its universalism and autarkism.

Возможности метода фокус-групп в процессе подготовки специалистов в сфере социальной работы

The main advantages and disadvantages of the focus group method as a qualitative method of em-pirical research are revealed. The main directions of application of the focus group method are de-fined - the effectiveness of general and private social work technologies, changes in the main char-acteristics of objects and subjects of social work, the development of new forms, technologies, di-rections of social work, the implementation of social work in the non–commercial sector. It is con-cluded that the focus group method is actively used in such areas of social work as education, healthcare, and social protection, and the ability to apply it in practice reflects a high level of train-ing of specialists and a deep understanding of the interdisciplinary connections between sociology and social work.

The promise of public sociology in India: Looking at Burawoy and beyond

AbstractThe trajectory of the academic discipline of sociology is an attestation to the quest for civility and sociability. We believe that the promise of public sociology will rejuvenate scholars to commit to better engagement with one another and with the public. We situate and draw from the scholarly contributions of Michael Burawoy to reflect on sociology's longstanding critical imagination, hoping that the world could be different. We place ourselves on the continuum of what is and what ought to be for better lived experiences and a sustainable planet. We draw from the work of sociologists in India, which continues to guide us to amplify the voices of the unheard and the issues of public concern. To be inclusive, sustainable, democratic, and humane, we need to move beyond structurally ingrained processes within academia and make bridges that are open to all. The deliberation furthered in this paper will encourage young scholars to be more concerned for engaging multiple publics and, thereby, help the discipline of sociology itself.

Evolvement of new professions in the sphere of career guidance as an imperative of our time

Introduction. The current situation with the employment of graduates, when almost half of them do not work in their speciality, is a negative phenomenon for both the state and the citizens. One of the reasons for this situation is a gap between the graduates’ expectations and the real content of labour activity. The core of the problem is inefficient career guidance. The need to modernise the career guidance system is recognised worldwide. Forecasting of new professions for career guidance should be one of the directions of this modernisation. Specialists having new competencies will be able to ensure the systemic and planned nature of transformations in the sphere of career guidance in order to optimise it. The aim of the study is to justify the need for and predict the emergence of new professions to improve the efficiency of career guidance. Materials and methods. The study involved the materials of the European Training Foundation, the World Economic Forum; the documents of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation: letters, orders, methodological recommendations; the data of the Russian Federal State Statistics Service; scientific articles by Russian and foreign authors. The following methods were used: theoretical analysis of the career guidance development sphere; inductive inferencing; forecasting based on the study of documents and scientific literature on the problem. Results. At present, there is a problem connected with the professional training of specialists engaged in career guidance. People with education in the fields of pedagogy, psychology, sociology and social work are not able to efficiently solve the numerous tasks of modern career counselling. The solution can be achieved by the introduction of new specialisations of employees in this sphere matching the needs of modernity and development trends. It is predicted that these specialisations will be transformed into new professions in the future. For instance, such new professions for career counselling as career research foresighter (prognosticator), career guidance playwork specialist, career guidance testing specialist and developer, career guidance imagemaker, etc. will presumably appear. Conclusion. The modernisation of the career guidance system requires innovations not only in its content and technical fit-out but also in its staffing. The research results can be further used in the process of development of new qualification requirements; for substantiation of proposals on training specialists in upand-coming professions in the sphere of career guidance. They can also serve as a basis for the development of training programmes in new specialities.

A discussion on coloniality and global social theory

AbstractThe conversation between Ali Meghji and Manuela Boatcă focuses on how modernity/coloniality may (or may not) be a productive sociological concept in the remit of global social theory and wider political movements. Speaking from within different locations in the imperial core (England and Germany respectively), we discuss how the concept of modernity/coloniality has traveled over to our respective European contexts, and the ways it has informed our sociological approaches to matters such as inter‐imperiality, creolization, decolonization, global racisms and anti‐racisms, and historical sociology. The conversational approach is meant to tease out the multiple ways that modernity/coloniality can inform different—albeit related—aspects of sociological work, and also the varying contexts from which global social theory can be produced.

The Evolution of Sociological Approaches Towards Conceptualizing Consumption in Western Sociology

The second half of the 20th century saw multiple directions of consumer research emerge in sociology, including a cultural turn, a material turn, a practical turn, a turn towards sustainability, and a digital turn. These turns indicate trends in sociological thought, which arise with increasing speed and overlap each other. On the one hand, these directions build upon ideas about consumption brought forth by the classics of economic theory and sociology, and on the other hand they constantly attempt to critically comprehend basic concepts and fill them with new meaning. The purpose of the article is to expand on the concept of consumption by reviewing the historical evolution of views on this concept in sociology of the 20–21 centuries. It first considers the integral definitions of consumption presented by contemporary sociologists (V. Radaev, E.R. McDonnell, A. Warde). From there it outlines the basic views on consumption held by classics of sociology (K. Marx, G. Simmel, T. Veblen, M. Weber, the Frankfurt School, P. Bourdieu). Finally, sociological approaches towards consumption that appeared during the second half of the 20th century are examined. A review of key approaches towards consumption demonstrates how the concept of consumption has consistently acquired new meanings and contexts, also acquiring an internal independent logic and transforming into a multidimensional concept in sociology. The paper covers a broad timeline and is based on key sociological works, without claiming to be able to comprehensively describe them. Also this paper does not consider the Russian tradition of research.

The Importance of Human Capital in the Life of a Corporation: the Influence of Managers on the Dynamics of the Social Environment

Introduction. The purpose of the article is to analyze the influence of managers and their human capital on the corporate social environment, offering tools for such analysis and studying the factors of human capital formation. The relevance of the work is determined by the practical application of network research methods using the in-depth interview method. The result of using such methods is the analysis of the qualities of managers that influence the building of the most positive socio-structural relations in the corporation and contribute to the development of the human capital of the corporation, which is important for society.Methodology and sources. In developing the methodology there were used the works of sociologists devoted to values (M. Weber, T. Parsons, F. Tennis, P. Bourdieu, V.A. Yadov) and the theory of network human capital (P.P. Deryugin, S.A. Kravchenko, S.A. Dyatlov) were used. The results of research by N.E. Tikhonova, S.A. Solntsev, M. Goltzman and others on the role of leaders in Russian society were used. In addition to the in-depth interview method, the research methodology was based on the concept of "Management Grid", which reveals the work style of a manager through his self-assessment.Results and discussion. This article is an applied research that reveals the role of human capital of managers in the life of a corporation and its impact on the social environment. It confirms the key importance of human capital and the social institution of corporations for the formation of social structure and economic development, and offers practical recommendations for corporate management with an emphasis on the development of human capital. Conclusion. The human capital of managers significantly affects the interaction inside and outside the corporation and the social dynamics of society as a whole. The development of leadership competencies, skills and values plays a key role for the success of corporations and society as a whole. The social component of the life activity of corporations is focused on production by meeting social needs, which emphasizes the central importance of human capital and its impact on the social structure of society.

INTERGENERATIONAL DIALOGUE IN THE NOVEL “BONJOUR TRISTESSE” BY FRANҪOISE SAGAN

The article aims to study the poetic means of reproducing models of intergenerational dialogue in the parameters of “conflict/solidarity”. The material of the study is the novel “Bonjour tristesse” (“Hello Sadness”) by Françoise Sagan, which demonstrates models of intergenerational relations within and around one family. The objective of the research is to study the existential model of “friend or foe” in intergenerational relations, the peculiarities of generational identification and self-identification, to clarify the mythopoetic interpretation of the archetype of Mother, Eros and Thanatos, and the gender focus of intergenerational relations. The study uses the methodology of literary gerontology, existential interpretation of a literary text, mythocriticism, psychoanalysis, sociological and psychoanalytic works related to age anthropology. Historical, cultural, comparative historical and typological methods are used to study the embodiment of age-related aspects, as well as to establish thematic, figurative, and compositional features of the functioning of intergenerational dialogue in a literary text. The result of the study shows that the intergenerational dialogue in the novel takes place within the framework of the models of “solidarity” and “conflict”. The figurative and motivational complex “solidarity” is characteristic of Cécile and Raymond’s relationship with elements of the idealisation of the father. The model of “solidarity” with elements of manipulation prevails in the relationships of Cécile-Elsa and Cécile-Cyril. During the story, these relationships do not have a deep emotional connection. The “conflict” model is expressed in the Cécile-Anne interaction. Anne makes the mistake of taking her role as a mother to Cécile to heart. Thus, she breaks the established ties in the family, trying to impose “foe” roles on the father and daughter, and on the other hand, she attempts to try on the sacred image of a mother, which leads to Anne’s death. The novel presents an artistic interpretation of the Mother archetype in several projections. First of all, in the variation “patronage as a maternal function”, the Mother archetype is characteristic of Anne. However, if Anne’s patronage as a “foe” is acceptable to Cécile, she does not plan to see her as her father’s wife, or her mother (stepmother). The Cécile-Anne conflict can also be seen in the mythological tradition of the stepmother-stepdaughter. Another variation of the Mother archetype, the “sacrificing mother”, is characteristic of Cyril’s mother, but Cécile negatively perceives the type of “woman in the family kinkeeper role”. The mythopoetics of the conflictual parallel of Eros and Thanatos in the novel is closely related to the motif of the intergenerational relationship between Raymond and Elsa. Here, the connection between an older man and a young lover is a necessary confirmation of a man’s physical and emotional state. The line of mutual love between 40-year-old Anne and Raymond provides an example of harmonious ageing. However, the destructive conflict between Cécile and Anne becomes a modulated energy aimed at eliminating the threat (Anne). In this way, the author’s intention reveals the ontological problem of playing with death, the unconscious realisation of the primordial instinct of destructiveness. The motif of Thanatos is immanently present in the novel because of the death of Cécile’s mother. The relationship between Raymond and Anne causes Cécile’s rejection and ends in Anne’s suicide. Anne’s attempt to take her mother’s sacred place ends in death.

The Problem of Denominational Identity of Churches in Modern Protestantism

This article examines the history of denominationalism – the division of Protestantism into a multitude of independent religious associations, freely competing with each other. This approach to typologising religious associations, initially adopted for Protestant communities within the United States, has become a global phenomenon. Since the early 1980s, there has been a vigorous debate in the sociology of religion about the contemporary meaning of denominations. There is a growing number of independent churches that do not wish to be associated with any of the Protestant denominations; megachurches are leaving denominations or trying not to emphasise their affiliation with any particular denomination; some megachurches and church organisations are growing into a transdenominational evangelical movement with worldwide influence. The article is based on an analysis of the work of sociologists of religion on the issue of denominationalism in Protestant organizations, ranging from Richard Niebuhr to researchers drawing on contemporary statistical data. The existing congregations that emphasize their denominational identity, none of them exist in a denominational isolated cocoon any more – worship practices and music, missional objectives and educational resources can be adopted from other non-denominational churches and trans-denominational evangelical movements. The very concepts of megachurch, independent church, and evangelical movement can be viewed as separate denominations. Using these terms, members of a congregation identify themselves as holding certain beliefs and engaging in certain practices in common with others around the world. The trend toward the emergence of independent churches is part of the new course of Protestantism – post-denominational Protestantism.

Интенсификация взросления детей, интегрированных в спортивную сферу деятельности, как социальное явление

The paper analyzes the problem of accelerated maturation of children-athletes with reference to the theories of socialization and constructing their own maturation. To study the stated problem the theoretical and applied works of the researchers N. V. Veselkova and E. V. Pryamikova, aimed at revealing the social nature of the maturation competence, as well as two author's sociological researches were used. The first is "Longevity in sports of highest achievements", which was carried out by the method of questionnaire survey of high-class athletes (n = 400 people). The second is "Temporality as a factor of intensification of growing up", conducted by the method of focus-group of veteran athletes (n = 17 people) was realized at the Department of General Sociology and Social Work of National Research Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod in 2023. The object of the study is the process of accelerated maturation of children integrated into the sphere of sports activities. The purpose of the study is to identify the factors contributing to the intensification of the process of growing up of children-athletes. As a result, the author's interpretation of the concept of "accelerated maturation" of child athletes is proposed. The system of factors contributing to the accelerated maturation of this category of population is revealed: individualization and autonomy of the subject, temporality of sports space, enhanced social mobility of children in the field of sports, critical thinking, success of minors as a result of achievements in sports and recognition of their merits in society.

What makes a wine region worth visiting: Place and beauty in Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

AbstractThis article explores the potential of Okanagan Valley as a place of distinctive wines and the tourism experiences that match these wines. By “distinctive” I mean wines with a sense of place woven into their production and marketing—wines that are called “terroir‐driven” in the wine world. My focus is not on wine production, but on place‐making and regional planning. The article is informed by geographical and sociological work on wine, but it accentuates the empirical over the conceptual to explore the long‐term potential of the Okanagan as a wine destination. Methodologically, the paper synthesizes academic and trade sources with primary fieldwork material, including participant observation in the region and interviews with wine professionals in British Columbia. It contributes to the efforts to forge an authentic narrative for the Okanagan as a place of wine.

A call for a sociology of adaptation

A call for a sociology of adaptation

Hard yards, vulnerable bodies: Tenderness in two recent prison films from Argentina and Chile

Prison literature from Latin America has been a topic of growing interest for literary scholars of and from the region in recent years. This reflects wider attention in cultural studies dedicated to ‘heterotopias’ or ‘other spaces’, while building on the work of sociologists who have studied prisons and prison reform in countries there. Less has been written, however, about films set in penitentiaries. Building on recent work (Podalksy) that examines the depiction of feelings and emotions in cinema, as well as writing on depictions of the Latin American jail on page and screen (Whitfield, Aguilar) this article addresses the cinematic portrayal of a perhaps unlikely feeling, tenderness, in two prison films from the Southern Cone, one fictional, El Príncipe (Sebastián Muñoz, Chile, 2019), and one documentary, Rancho (Pedro Speroni, Argentina, 2021). In both films, feelings traverse the body–mind divide and cross between people, while portrayed with what we shall argue is a form of filmic tenderness.

Three Sociologists as National Leaders: Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Jože Pučnik and Bernardo Arévalo

AbstractFernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil and Bernardo Arévalo of Guatemala are PhD sociologists who served as presidents of their countries. Jože Pučnik of Slovenia, also a PhD sociologist, was a leading but defeated candidate in his country’s first post-communist presidential election. This paper explores the relationship between their sociological work and their political careers. Cardoso’s work was interdisciplinary and focused on historical conjunctures. He was very widely cited in scholarly publications. Pučnik was concerned with overcoming fundamentalist megaliths and uniting theory and practice. He had difficulty communicating the relationship between his sociology and his political leadership. Arévalo wrote a dissertation in the historical sociology of Guatemalan militarism, and also pursued an applied sociological career in conflict resolution. Sociological leadership may be enhanced by using middle-range theories tuned to current situations, especially at times of crisis, and by advocating timely and feasible solutions.

FEATURES OF ORGANIZING STEAM EDUCATIONAL PROJECTS USING IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGIES

Formulation of the problem. The rapid development of technologies in the modern world opens up new horizons for education. Integrating science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) holds particular significance as a transformative approach, fostering interdisciplinary learning and preparing students for the challenges of a knowledge-based and digitized society. The transition from a traditional approach to STEAM education becomes even more captivating with the incorporation of immersive technologies. This direction, merging technical and creative aspects, requires an innovative approach to the organization of educational projects, considering the new opportunities and challenges presented by virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR). Materials and methods. To achieve the goal of our research, we used the following methods: systematic and comparative analysis of pedagogical, psychological, philosophical, and sociological works, methodic literature, and analysis of the pedagogical experience of using immersive technologies to organize STEAM projects at school; synthesis and generalization to formulate the main provisions of the study; interviews and questionnaires of teachers regarding their understanding and attitude to immersive technologies as a means of implementing STEAM projects at school; interpretation of research results. We analyzed 18 scientific sources, including 14 Scopus-indexed articles, two reports (the educational report from Horizon 2020 and the "State of the Industry Report" from the XR Association), and two scientific studies by Ukrainian researchers. Eighty-seven teachers participated in interviews and surveys conducted through Google Forms. Results. Creating and organizing a STEAM educational project using immersive technologies involves the following teacher actions: forming a project name by the student's learning goals, educational content, and the project result as its product; creating a reference project; determining the subject, topic, age of students, project preparation time, learning time, essential immersive technologies; forming the purpose of the first lesson and project tasks to immerse and motivate students about the project; identifying problematic issues that should reflect the actual context or problem. We have characterized teachers' attitudes towards immersive technologies when organizing and conducting such projects. Based on the study's results, we have identified the features of organizing STEAM projects using immersive technologies: expanding the field of creativity with AR and VR, immersion in scientific concepts and conducting experiments through the use of virtual laboratories, visualizing abstract ideas through the use of augmented reality, interacting with technology through mixed reality projects, and teamwork in immersive environments. Conclusions. Immersive technologies in STEAM education have advantages (e.g., gaining practical experience, forming interdisciplinary connections through interdisciplinary learning, cooperation, communication, adaptive environment, and request for creativity) in teaching.

Sameness across Difference: A Postcolonial Feminist Analysis of Gender-Affirming Health Care in Thailand and the United States.

Joining a growing body of research calling for the integration of social analysis and postcolonial theory, recent work in medical sociology has analyzed health, illness, and medicine from a postcolonial lens. In this article, I argue for a postcolonial feminist approach to medical sociology that builds on this extant work while challenging methodological nationalism and cultural essentialism. Based on an analysis of gender-affirming health care for transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people in Thailand and the United States, I propose "sameness across difference" as a framework to analyze commonalities in the health care experiences of marginalized populations across nations as the products of imperial legacies. Drawing on 83 interviews with health care providers, TGD patients, and TGD activists, I demonstrate the role of imperialism in sustaining barriers to gender-affirming health care through the uneven geographic distribution of care across rural and urban areas and the reinforcement of racial and class hierarchies within cities.