Sociology Research Articles

Black Interactionist Thought and the Lived‐Experience Approach to Symbolic Interactionism

Du Bois is often regarded as an important scholar for his contributions to the development of sociology. However, less is known about his work in developing interactionist thought. This essay is an introduction to this special issue, and a small attempt to acknowledge the work of scholars of color within the interactionist tradition. The Du Bosian approach to sociology has for too long been dismissed out of hand. Scholars pursuing new areas of inquiry, topics outside the bounds of “mainstream sociology,” are often met with fierce resistance—even today. Instead of building these scholars up, through mentorship and aid, so‐called “accomplished” scholars see fit to tear down the work of those not like them. The Du Bosian perspective celebrates the plurality of voices, advocates for mentorship, and sees sociological inquiry as rooted in the real needs and concerns of those so marginalized. As this collection of articles illustrates, even when conforming to scientific standards work in this tradition has a political dimension as it lays bare the inequities in society—even, at times, drawing government interference with their work. This issue also calls upon professional sociologists to reflect on the ways they reproduce these patterns within the discipline and higher education.

‘It’s a Small Little Pub, but Everybody Knew Everybody’: Pub Culture, Belonging and Social Change

Public houses have long served an important social role in the United Kingdom, yet in recent decades the conditions under which they operate have changed dramatically. While research has examined adaptations in the pub sector, there is little analysis of how this relates to social change as experienced in the lives of individuals and communities. Pubs are therefore a useful topic of sociological inquiry. Using focus groups data, this article examines how people experience the changing form and function of pubs reveals insights into perceptions of social change. Findings show that participants were aware of how pub culture has changed over recent decades and that this was linked to perceptions of wider social and cultural changes in society. Talking about pub going was a means to express dynamic feelings of belonging and attachment, particularly where they arise at the intersection of personal life changes and wider social transformations.

Glitches in the Aspirational Discourse: Between Enterprise and Compromise1

In recent years, the sociology of culture has turned its gaze to future aspirations. This gaze is in line with contemporary future‐oriented culture, which encourages young people to aspire to fulfill their dreams. A leading carrier of future orientation is the aspirational discourse, which has become prominent in the educational field and among youth. Sociological inquiry is conflicted regarding the outcomes of this discourse. While it is criticized for increasing inequality, it has also been shown that aspirations are means for higher achievements. In this article, we shift from a focus on outcomes to a focus on interpretation and ask: How do social actors make sense of aspiring selves despite social limitations and inequality? Based on a qualitative study that tracks the aspirational discourse among school educators and recent high school graduates in Israel, we introduce the concept of “glitches” as articulated detours that rise in response to a mismatch between the discourse and lived experience. We identify three main glitches: deviating from the message “the sky is the limit” by lowering the aspirational sky, pausing future orientation by taking time out and limiting individual accountability by yielding to force majeure. We discuss how each glitch serves a different role in the construction of individuals' life narratives and argue that the intermittent use of glitches enables individuals to sustain the mythical aspirational discourse, even in moments of mismatch and doubt.

TELAAH SOSIOLOGI HUKUM TERHADAP FENOMENA TALAK DI LUAR PENGADILAN AGAMA

The purpose of this study is to examine the phenomenon of divorce that occurs outside the Religious Courts, especially in Bangun Purba Village. Then describes the practice of divorce in the Bangun Purba community in terms of Sociology of Law. While this type of research is field, which uses a qualitative approach. While the primary data collection methods, namely observation, interviews and documentation. To examine more deeply, researchers use legal system theory which is categorized into three types, namely legal substance, legal structure and legal culture. The results of this study indicate that the occurrence of divorce outside the Religious Courts was caused by ordinary matters and was not questioned by positive law. In addition, according to three respondents, the method of divorce that was carried out was familial (custom), namely through intermediaries, and partly witnessed directly by their respective families.

Advancing Du Bois’s legacy through emancipatory environmental sociology

ABSTRACT Environmental sociology, while dedicating significant scholarship to issues of environmental racism and environmental justice, remains a predominately white subdiscipline that has not enjoyed general relevance across sociology. One of the drivers of the dominance of white perspectives in the subdiscipline is the lack of a core theoretical pillar that anchors the importance of racism to structuring inequitable environments. W.E.B. Du Bois not only offered a foundational approach to sociological inquiry but also a deeply material perspective on the maintenance of racial inequities. Du Bois’s approach to sociology lays the path for a liberatory approach that documents the scope of a problem, interrogates its drivers, and works with affected communities and allied resources to develop alternative models with transformative outcomes. This paper argues that an environmental understanding was original to Du Bois’s methodology as demonstrated through his concept of the total environment. He connected inequitable environments to the legacy of racial capitalism, which he saw as driven by anti-Blackness. His solution was to advance Black solidarity and community cooperatives through Pan-Africanism. Du Bois’ framework establishes an approach to conducting emancipatory environmental sociology that provides theoretical and methodological legitimacy for engaging in partnership with marginalized communities to advance their goals towards liberation.

Teachers Learning Classroom Sociology and Social Justice in Primary Education

Classroom sociology is a powerful discipline that helps students develop a sense of identity, achieve success, and experience well-being while building a strong community in the classroom. Teachers who can see beneath the surface and are aware of classroom sociology create a better and more just learning environment for learners, especially in primary education. This study focuses on improving teachers’ classroom sociology and social justice awareness. Researchers designed a four-week in-service classroom sociology program for primary school teachers. The program aimed to improve the teachers’ awareness and behaviours in terms of classroom sociology and social justice. This applied research was conducted using an in-service program intervention with 12 primary school teacher participants. Data was collected from in-class observations, teacher ethnography notes, participant evaluations, and classroom observations. Initially, participants were more focused on academic performance and teaching routines and largely ignored the social context of the classroom. At the end of the study, teacher participants’ awareness of classroom sociology and social justice increased, and both their attitudes towards their students and their teaching methods changed in a positive manner.

An Analysis on Ayaşlı ile Kiracıları (Ayaşlı and his Tenants) in Terms of Sociology of Literature

Edebiyat; insanı, hayatı bir başka deyişle toplumu konu alan bir sanat dalıdır. Sosyoloji ise toplumu inceleyen bir bilim dalı olarak ortaya çıkmıştır. Kaynağının insan ve toplum olması bu iki alanı birbirine yaklaştırmış, hatta edebiyat sosyolojisi adı verilen müstakil bir disiplinin ortaya çıkmasını sağlamıştır. Edebiyat sosyolojisi tarihsel gelişimini uzun bir süre içerisinde tamamlayarak edebiyat eleştirisinde ve sosyolojik çalışmalarda araştırmacıların bu alandan faydalanmasına olanak tanımıştır. Memduh Şevket Esendal, Cumhuriyet Dönemi Türk edebiyatında özellikle de hikâyeleri ile ön plana çıkan bir yazardır. Bununla birlikte Ayaşlı ile Kiracıları romanı yazarın bu türde de başarısını kanıtlamıştır. Romanda tesadüf sonucu bir araya gelen kişilerin bir apartmandaki hayatları ele alınır. Bu karakterler üzerinden toplumda yaşanan ahlaki yozlaşma dile getirilir. Her ne kadar yazarın konuyu ele alırken tarafsız bir tutum takındığı düşünülse de romanda yozlaşmış kahramanların başına gelen felaketler, kötülerin bilinçli bir şekilde cezalandırıldığını düşündürmektedir. Bütün bu veriler üst üste konduğunda roman edebiyat sosyolojisi açısından incelenmeye değer görülmüştür. Bu çalışmada Memduh Şevket Esendal’ın Ayaşlı ile Kiracıları romanı sosyolojik açıdan incelenmiştir.

The sound of liminality: MHD's afro trap, affective listening, and the (re)invention of Afropean identities in France

AbstractThis article is an exploration of the world making capacities of afro trap. Through an extended case study of MHD's discography, I ask what can be learnt about the liminal experiences of postcolonial black citizens, or Afropean citizens, in France, by listening to popular music. I argue that through embracing, reinventing, and (re)producing familiar Afropean soundscapes, MHD claims and creates from his liminal subject position. Going against the assumption that Frenchness and blackness are always mutually exclusive and in tension, this music sonically proposes a way of being otherwise in France, stemming from this liminality. I see in what I call ‘the sound of liminality’ an instance of ‘queering ethnicity,’ one which channels the affective capacities of sound. I propose affective listening as a method that, incorporating autoethnography to consider critical listening positionality, facilitates a renewed attention to sound as an object of sociological inquiry.

Using (Visual) Humor to Demarcate Social and Symbolic Boundaries

While humor has a long résumé as a “window into the unconscious,” the boundaries it strikes against are understudied. Are people offended in particular, predictable ways? This online survey (N=1,178) that gathers demographic, biographic, and psychological data in combination with responses to 22 wordless cartoons, reveals distinct social patterns in offend ability. With reference to anthropological, psychological, philosophical and neuroscientific traditions, “offend ability” is conceptualized in cultural sociological terms, by which “offense” is read as the “striking against” of a symbolic boundary (separating profane from the too-sacred-to-play-with). As such, offense is proposed as a supremely meaningful metric in defining groups in terms of what they believe most deeply. With attention both to marginal groups and to liminal identities, analysis crystalizes an intriguing trend, namely: the significance of micro (individual) level factors (e.g. age, gender, psychological characteristics) and macro (social) factors (e.g. ethnicity, nationality) in predicting sensitivity to offense, in comparison to the seeming irrelevance of the mesa (interactional). This builds on major sociological work that cites the increasing solitariness of modern life; here, “sacred” boundaries are seen to be individually determined, in combination less with lived experience than with membership in abstract, often innate groups. Regression models explore meaningful variables in greater detail [1, 2]. Of particular note: sexual preferences were the greatest predictor of sensitivity to offense, with women attracted to women reporting the highest sensitivity. Across the board, those who were uncomfortable before disclosing particular information (e.g. sexual, political preferences) were disproportionately members of groups who were more sensitive to offense (e.g. “queer”, right-leaning): identity discomfort manifests as symbolic discomfort.

Max Weber’s typology of medieval cities and the origins of modern representation

ABSTRACT From the very outset of his work, Max Weber shows an intense interest for medieval cities and their role of transition to the modern era. His analysis focuses at first on economic aspects, but it progressively entails a sociological inquiry which provides an articulated typology of different kinds of cities in the Middle Ages, and a political analysis highlighting the origin of representative institutions at that time. In general, life in the city guaranteed individual freedom and instated a process of democratization, which simultaneously required new offices and institutions. In this context, Weber takes into account Italian local parliaments as well as the process of formation of the English Parliament. He also stresses the function exerted by the guilds in order to ensure forms of political organization and a purposeful representation of interests.

Rediscovering visual sociology, once again

ABSTRACT This essay explores four different versions of visual sociology – and a fifth that centers on their relatedness – that scholar-practitioners frequently have to navigate, acknowledge or otherwise attend to in their own research and teaching. Over the past five decades, the first four became familiar to me through my own engagement in visual sociology, and the fifth emerged while writing this essay. Taken together, these different versions of visual sociology can be perplexing. Passing through them over the course of a somewhat atypical academic career, however, led me recently to rediscover visual sociology once again, not only as a mode of sociological inquiry, but also as a form of recursive praxis that can enrich understanding of culture and social life for both academic and folk communities.

On the controversial issues of the use of the term "sect" in legal acts (on the example of the Central Federal District legislation)

The subject of the study is the use of the definition of "sect", which is absent in federal legislation, in relation to religious organizations registered in accordance with the established procedure in the legal acts of the Central Federal District. The object of the research is scientific articles by foreign and domestic scientists on the subject, legal acts of the Central Federal District. The author examines in detail modern scientific and theoretical research in the field of destructive religiosity and a vast array of legal acts in which the term "sect" is used. Particular attention is paid to hypothetical problems that can lead to broad discretion of subjects endowed with public powers when trying to introduce rather religious, sociological (and often just everyday) term "sect" into legal discourse. Methodological basis of the research: analysis, synthesis, formal-logical and comparative-legal methods in their systemic interrelation, as well as the consistent practical experience of the author of the article as a teacher of religious studies, and an employee of one of the executive authorities of Primorsky Krai. The main conclusions of the study are the statement of the unsatisfactory experience of the implementation of the term "sect" in the legal field of the subjects of the Russian Federation included in the Central Federal District; the formulation of recommendations to eliminate these shortcomings of legal regulation. The author's special contribution to the study of the applicable conceptual apparatus is that there are practically no similar studies in the scientific legal literature. Representatives of other humanities disciplines use this term as a matter of course, but their ideas are speculative, very poorly correlated with legal reality. In a state governed by the rule of law, it is hardly justified to arbitrarily label "sect" on various religious organizations, even relatively small ones.

Psychosocial characteristics of patients in a cosmetology clinic: results of a non-sample study

The relevance of the study is determined by the rapid development of medical cosmetology, which, unlike plastic surgery, has not been studied at all in psychological and sociological terms, although the effect of facial skin defects on the emotional state, social success, quality of life is beyond doubt, and their elimination significantly affects psychological well-being. patients. A practicing dermatologist-cosmetologist conducted a non-selective clinical and socio-psychological study of 188 patients (mean age 39.12+0.81 years) of a cosmetology clinic. The author’s structured interview and the medico-sociological scale «Level of social frustration» were used. According to 50 parameters, women with mild, moderate and significant severity of cosmetic problems were compared. Statistical methods of analysis were used (Pearson’s χ2 and ANOVA). An analysis of clinical data showed a relationship between the severity of a facial skin defect and its nature (symptoms), age, comorbid pathology, and treatment efficacy. Social positions (educational and labor status, nature of professional activity), significant spheres of personal relations (to oneself, to persons of the opposite sex, family relations, the presence and nature of mental trauma) were studied. Among the psychological and social characteristics, the characteristics of the family sphere, the reasons for visiting the clinic, and the patient›s subjective assessment of the impact of the cosmetic problem on the quality of life have a statistical relationship with the severity of the cosmetic problem and the age of the patients. The results are compared with the data of modern world literature. The limitations of the study associated with the use of non-standardized methods, which are relevant, however, to the tasks of a screening non-selective survey, are noted. The prospects for further studies of patients of the clinic for non-surgical correction of appearance using psychometric (standardized) methods are outlined.

How Funerals accomplish Family: Findings from a Mass-Observation Study. Transl. from Eng. by A.A. Zaitseva, Yu.A. Ivanova

This article analyzes how potentially conflicting frames of grief and family operate in a number of English funerals. The data come from the 2010 Mass-Observation directive “Going to Funerals” which asked its panel of correspondents to write about the most recent funeral they attended. In their writings, grief is displayed through conventional conceptions of family. Drawing on Randall Collins, we show how the funeral divides mourners into family or nonfamily, with such differentiation occurring through outward display and internal feelings. The funerals described were more about a very traditional notion of family than about grief; family trumped grief, or at least provided the frame through which grief could be described. Funerals were portrayed as a distinct arena privileging family over fluid and varied personal attachments. They are described both in terms of the new sociology of personal life and through the concept of disenfranchised grief.

Analysis of the Phenomenon of Chinese Educational Involution and Recommendations

At the end of 2020, the time of the COVID-19 outbreak, a word suddenly became particularly popular, called "involution". Originally, this is a sociological term that refers to a social phenomenon in which the competition for social resources increases when resources are limited and there are no incremental resources. But as soon as the word appeared, it was almost immediately associated with the field of education. More and more people are trying to improve themselves by taking extracurricular classes, studying abroad, and so on, in order to get more educational and social resources, which is undoubtedly a kind of "involution". Under the current situation of educational involution, this paper will study the phenomenon of educational involution in depth, which will help to understand the concept of educational involution, its causes, solutions, and future development trends. This paper examines the causes of educational involution from three perspectives, including historical, economic, and social causes. Then, it provides two suggestions. The first suggestion is that students need to have a clear understanding of their preferences and goals and make themselves as a reference for academic progress rather than other peers; the second suggestion is to expand educational resources to reduce educational involution. Finally, it is speculated that the trend of education after involution is that the criteria for evaluating students will become diversified, and scores will no longer be the only evaluation criterion.

:Unfinished Spirit: Muriel Rukeyser’s Twentieth Century

:<i>Unfinished Spirit: Muriel Rukeyser’s Twentieth Century</i>

Fit for Motherhood: The Glocalization of Maternal Physical Activity in Mother and Baby Magazine

Fit for Motherhood: The Glocalization of Maternal Physical Activity in <i>Mother and Baby</i> Magazine

A Sociological Inquiry on Training and Treatment of the Wellbeing of Female Inmates in Correctional Facilities in Ogun and Lagos States, Nigeria

All over the world, the UNODC policy of 2011 agitates for needs to train, treat and promote the wellbeing of female inmates so as to reduce and control rate of recidivism in the country. Women are considered as care givers whose duty includes socialisation; domestication and procreation of offspring for societal continuity. In Nigeria, once women are convicted or apprehended by law, they faces lot of challenges ranging from stigmatization, poor health treatment, isolation, psychological trauma, unequal treatment among others Relevance publications to include local and international journals, magazines, newspaper, textbooks and articles were reviewed and double deviance feminist theory was adopted for justification of the inquiry. A mixed method was adopted with cross sectional survey method. Total population for the study in the three selected correctional facilities in Lagos and Ogun states was estimated to 348 inmates but 250 was found useful for the quantitative analysis while 15 female inmates were selected for the qualitative analysis. The result indicated that there are many factors that increase female involvement in criminal acts ranging from greed, poverty, unemployment. The second result shows that the treatment available for female inmates has insignificant negative effect on their wellbeing while the last indicated that training have significant relationship with female wellbeing in the facilities. The government, non-governmental organisation and the philanthropists should collective support the promotion of the wellbeing of female inmates and adequate cares and supervision should be ensure through the use of CCTV cameras in the facilities

Clinician-Patient Relationships in Virtual Care: A Dimensional Analysis of the Symbolic World of Cancer Care.

Rapid uptake of telehealth technologies has shifted clinician-patient relationships, a well-studied topic of sociological inquiry. The purpose of this dimensional analysis study was to understand the symbolic interaction of clinicians and patients within virtual supportive cancer care. Seventeen clinicians, eighteen patients, and three care partners receiving or providing care at a multi-site cancer center in the United States participated in interviews. Our analysis of supportive cancer care experiences reveals a key tension: clinicians need to rely on patients in order to share clinical tasks in a virtual care setting but can be reluctant to do so. We posit that dimming the light on cancer is a process that enables clinicians to overcome their reluctance to engage in clinician-patient task sharing by strengthening the relationship. Taken together, these findings reconceptualize the symbolic interaction of the clinician-patient relationship and highlight opportunities to actualize models of relationship-centered virtual care. We discuss implications for clinical practice, ethical relational care, and the literature on clinician-patient relationships and trust.

Darwin translated into Turkish with a Marxist agenda: a sociological inquiry into the agents of translation

ABSTRACT This paper studies the agents of translation who introduced Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871) into Turkish more than one hundred years after their original publication in England. Elaborating on the agents’ motives for translating and publishing Darwin’s works in the Turkish (leftist) publication field, the study considers translator Öner Ünalan (1935–2011) and publisher Muzaffer İlhan Erdost (1932–2020), within the framework of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of action. The findings of the study epitomize the ‘two-way relationship’ between the habituses of the agents of translation and the social dynamics of the field(s) in which they operate. The article demonstrates that Ünalan and Erdost’s translatorial interest in Darwin’s works was closely linked to the strong influence of Marxism on their social dispositions and to the dynamics of the Turkish publication field between the 1960s and 1980s. As a result, Ünalan and Erdost’s Darwin translations contributed to an increase in the scientific and social distinction of both the Marxist movement and the Turkish leftist publication field during a period of growing tension between right – and left-wing ideologies in Turkey.