Sociological Thinking Research Articles

The Ongoing Plausibility of Peter Berger: Sociological Thoughts on The Sacred Canopy at Fifty

The Ongoing Plausibility of Peter Berger: Sociological Thoughts on The Sacred Canopy at Fifty

Between facts and wills: Tönnies, Durkheim, and the sociological critique of modern obligation

This article explores the relation between Durkheim and Tönnies’ sociological thinking. Instead of focusing on their divergences, it shows how the content of their mutual criticisms, before being naturalized in national sociological traditions, reveals a shared epistemological aim: to rethink modern moral and political obligation via sociological theory. From this perspective, the opposition between Durkheim’s social fact and Tönnies’ social will reveals how classical sociological theory has been engaged in a general critisicm of modern natural law in order to furnish a different understanding of modern poltical concepts, in particular of the notion of state.

Critical Sociological Thinking and Higher-level Thinking: A Study of Sociologists’ Teaching Goals and Assignments

We argue that the literature on critical thinking in sociology has conflated two different skill sets: critical sociological thinking and higher-level thinking. To begin to examine how sociologists weigh and cultivate these skill sets, we interviewed 20 sociology instructors and conducted a content analysis of 26 assignments. We found that while multiple interviewees considered critical thinking to be too obvious a goal to warrant discussion, it did emerge as a criterion for evaluating assignments. In addition, we created a spectrum of writing tasks and found that only a minority of assignments (5 of 26) could be classified as eliciting higher-level thinking. These were found exclusively in advanced courses, where they were still outnumbered by assignments eliciting lower-level thinking by nearly 2 to 1.

The Sociology of Forms

Caroline Levine's Forms is a study of form as much as a sociology of forms—a tracking of the many ways that they relate to one another or are conjoined in creative works. While offering an extended meditation on the formal categories of whole, rhythm, hierarchy, and network as they are manifest in such works, the book organizes this meditation under the separate category of collision. Other terms are substituted for it—overlap, encounter, interaction—but the metaphoric intent remains the same. If the book seeks to sharpen our understanding of four major forms as universal elements of texts and social experience, its other interest is in honing our awareness of the complex ways these forms collide within and through narrative. his interest spurs Levine to look to sociological theory for examples of how to think about this complexity, a tradition that dates back at least to the time when György Lukács was writing under the influence of Georg Simmel, around 1910. Here I will show how her conversation with sociology follows yet another familiar path: the literary critic's borrowing of conclusions or concepts from sociologists while eschewing the methods and theoretical models through which these conclusions or concepts are arrived at and understood. In particular, I consider the consequences of drawing on sociological thinking to make general claims about complex relations while excluding some of the methods by which generalizability is established and problematized in the social sciences. This exclusion marks a fundamental disciplinary divide that sociologically inclined literary critics continue, sometimes out of habit, sometimes out of perceived necessity, to preserve.

Émile Durkheim e a análise sociológica do direito: a atualidade e os limites de um clássico

Este artigo pretende analisar as contribuições e os limites da abordagem sociológica de Émile Durkheim para a compreensão do direito. Assim, em primeiro lugar, sublinha a relevância do pensamento de Durkheim na configuração da sociologia moderna. Para tanto, realiza uma breve incursão pela análise de Danilo Martuccelli acerca das matrizes do pensamento sociológico sobre a modernidade. Em seguida, a partir da reconstrução de alguns aspectos fundamentais que estruturam a tese veiculada no livro De la division du travail social, enfatiza a centralidade que o direito adquire no pensamento de Durkheim. Deste modo, ressalta, sobretudo, que Durkheim concebe o direito como um fato exterior que simboliza as formas de solidariedade social (mecânica e orgânica). Por fim, recupera algumas apreciações críticas que teóricos contemporâneos fazem acerca da análise sociológica de Durkheim sobre o direito.

Plucky Little People on Tour: Depictions of Irish Football Fans at Euro 2016

Plucky Little People on Tour: Depictions of Irish Football Fans at Euro 2016

Du discours sociologique à l’imaginaire nationaliste: Barrès et le bon usage des boucs émissaires

The three parts of the scapegoat cognitive mechanism (crisis, aggressiveness to an individual or a minority group, catharsis which restores even strengthens the cohesion of the social group) are present in Barres’ novels, especially in the trilogy Le Roman de l’energie nationale. The presence of scapegoats in these novels presents a number of peculiarities, that is why it cannot be interpreted using an external interpretative model, like Rene Girard’s. In regards to the historical context, it takes on a different perspective. The scapegoat representation in these novels helped Barres develop a nationalist ideology, during the time of the Dreyfus’ affair, as well as his observation of a social crisis which he calls uprooting. This representation connects to the rising sociological thoughts, because the scapegoat has been used by Durkheim to explain anti-Semitism. However, Barres and Durkheim diverge: the sociologist gives a demystifying explanation, whereas the nationalist novelist uses the scapegoat to introduce his readers to the necessity of defending the social body against invaders.

The Potential Use of Sociological Perspectives for Business Ethics Teaching

This paper investigates the potential contribution of sociological perspectives for business ethics teaching. After a brief and selective literature review, the paper suggests starting with sociological thinking and three aspects of it: sociological concepts, sociological imagination, and postponed judgment. After presenting two short case teaching stories (about speaking up or not) and three sociological concepts or frameworks (deviance, roles, and power), the potential inspiration value of a sociological checklist for analysing or diagnosing business ethics cases is tried out. As an open ending, some short final suggestions are made for further use of sociological perspectives in both business ethics teaching and research.

Colonial Modernity and Methodological Nationalism: The Structuring of Sociological Traditions of India

This article traces traditions of sociological thinking in India and suggests that in order to write the disciplines’ history, it is important to identify the episteme that governs these traditions. It suggests that there are two broad epistemes that have defined sociology as a discipline in India—colonial modernity and methodological nationalism—and it argues that they organise theories, perspectives, methodologies and methods, teaching and research practices of the discipline. The history of the imprint of these epistemes is investigated at four levels: first, in the way one or both defined the discipline’s identity and, thus, organised its characteristic mode of thinking methodologically; second, in the way this identity defined its theoretical direction and the theories that it borrowed, adapted to and reframed; third, in the way the first two organised its professional orientation and made it choose its identity as an academic discipline whose main role is restricted to teaching and research within academic institutions at an expense of a public orientation; and fourth, the way the aforementioned three defined its geographical compass, limiting its queries to national concerns wherein the macro became reduced to the micro abjuring discussions on global debates. This article suggests that today there is a crisis in the received epistemes, and in this context, it becomes imperative to take command to define a new episteme which intersects the local, regional, national and global concerns, is theoretical and methodologically eclectic and is comparative in nature.

Contested Tastes: Foie Gras and the Politics of Food. By Michaela DeSoucey. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2016. Pp. xx+270. $29.95.

<i>Contested Tastes: Foie Gras and the Politics of Food</i>. By Michaela DeSoucey. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2016. Pp. xx+270. $29.95.

SOCIAL CITIZENSHIP AND SOCIAL RIGHTS IN AN AGE OF EXTREMES: T. H. MARSHALL'S SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY IN THELONGUE DURÉE

This article demonstrates how T. H. Marshall's conceptualization of sociology—its subject, key questions and methodology—was embedded within broader moments in twentieth-century political history, including two world wars, the economic crisis of the interwar era, the onset of the Cold War and the rise of decolonization. In doing so, it brings intellectual history and the history of academic disciplines (particularly sociology) together with more recent trends in the historiography of twentieth-century Europe, including research on postwar democratization, reconstruction and the global spread of human rights discourses. Marshall was a sociological thinker in what Eric Hobsbawm has called the “age of extremes,” whose understanding of social citizenship not only played a role in theorizing the welfare state in postwar Britain, but also helped shape reconstruction within Europe and international development efforts following decolonization. In this respect, Marshall was part of a transnational and global movement to recast key concepts such as democracy, human rights and citizenship after the Second World War. This broader perspective illuminates how his work straddles traditions of pluralism and idealism, liberalism and social democracy, rather than being simply representative of any one of these schools of thought.

Pembelajaran Pendidikan Agama Islam (PAI) Model Keberagamaan Inklusif untuk Mencegah Radikalisme Beragama Dikalangan Siswa SMA

The phenomenon of religious radicalism has become a global threat of the 21 st century that phenomenon was a result of Islam as anaccused religion and was often associated with a terrorist religion. Educational institutions often suspected in creating of terrorists’ generations because the content material of Islamic Religious Education Study was dogmatic, indoctrinated, and related to proselytizing spirit that confirms truth claims. Anyway, substance of instructional materials used in senior high school does not contain inclusive religious content so it can create an exclusive and intolerant religious behavior among senior high school students. The aim of this study; 1).Providing foothold among students of theological and sociological thinking and behavior in order to have an inclusive and tolerant religiosity 2).Deploying and seeding ideas and behavior of an inclusive and tolerant religiosity as a form of resistance ideology (de-radicalization). 3). Filling the void literature Islamic Religious Education Study particular model of inclusive diversity relevant to mainstream Islam in Indonesia. To counteract the religious radicalism among students, the teaching material of Islamic Religious Education Study must contain religious inclusive content incorporating the teachings of Islam as a religion Rahmatan Lil Alamin , a religion of tolerance which is supported by the argument of the Quran and hadith . By using this model of teaching materials is expected of senior high school students have an inclusive religious behavior that is relevant to the character and Indonesian Islam mainstream in order to prevent radicalism behavior among senior high school students.

Societal development, social stratification and power- and achievement-values Inglehart’s scarcity hypothesis and the theory of the social production functions in the comparative study of values

ABSTRACTPower- and achievement-values are seen to be important for productivity and societal stability. But what exact factors drive the forces to adhere to power- and achievement-values? In this study, the focus is on societal development and social stratification. Research on values in general often is not very careful in the distinction between different levels of analysis although the necessity has been outlined in several contributions to theoretical thinking in sociology. That is why this article comes from the position of methodological individualism and highlights explicitly the different levels of analysis and their assumed interrelations. It is shown that Inglehart’s scarcity hypothesis as an explaining mechanism has some weaknesses. As an alternative, the theory of social production functions is suggested that is capable to provide a framework of compatible societal- and individual-level mechanisms. The empirical analysis is based on data of the fourth round of the European Social Survey containing about 50,000 respondents in 31 countries. The comparability of power- and achievement-values across countries and across the societal and the individual level is tested by using two-level confirmatory factor analysis. The results show that comparability across countries and across both levels can be confirmed. Furthermore, opposing relations for societal development and social stratification are found: The higher the societal development, the lower the priority of power- and achievement-values; the higher the social stratification position, the more important the power- and achievement-values. Therefore, the scarcity hypothesis is rejected and the need for an alternative explanation is reinforced.

Asian Intellectuals for Cultural Resistance: Departures and Disruptions

&lt;p&gt;In the past, the emergence of viable intellectual groups had been stunted by the grip of colonial imperialism, apart from the long years of feudal tutelage that made the society subservient to its ruling ideology. Today, the challenges are far more complex. Calling for intellectuals to take up cultural resistance can be just a utopianistic fervour, unless we first unravel the obstacles that prevent intellectuals from making a substantive presence in society. In this paper, four main areas will be discussed, namely: (a) the relegation of intellectuals in this era of technoscientific and soundbites euphoria, (b) the domains in which intellectuals should take up the task of cultural resistance, such as addressing intellectual captivity, culturalism, ethno-religious exclusivism and neoliberalism, (c) the timidity in our context of forging an Asian intellectual solidarity and comradery, and (d) the need to forge autonomous and humanistic sociological thinking amongst Asian cultural and intellectual circles. At present, the struggle for cultural resistance is marked by departures and disruptions. Thus, it warrants the creative and critical approaches with foremost commitment in imagining the possibility of cultural resistance as a start. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Keywords: &lt;/strong&gt;cultural resistance, intellectuals, culture circle, postcolonialism&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Decolonizing Sociology: Epistemic Inequality and Sociological Thought

Decolonizing Sociology: Epistemic Inequality and Sociological Thought

Too Big to Faill: Albion W. Small's Sociological Thought

Albion W. Small was a leading sociologist of the Progressive Era. As the founder of the department of sociology at the University of Chicago in 1892, and of the American Journal of Sociology in 1895, his thought shaped the “First Chicago School” of sociology. This paper seeks to highlight the main features of Small’s sociology and his treatment of social sciences, which was for a large part marginalized in the sociological tradition. Relying on archival work as well as on Small’s books and papers, this work will discuss Small’s major concepts: “interests” and “social control”. More widely, Small raised other fundamental questions: that of the centrality of interactions in sociology, the question of interdisciplinarity, and he triggered an epistemological debate on the commitment of researchers as well as their relationships to ethics.

Teoría de la productividad social

In this text we compare modern political philosophy, absolutism, especially Hobbes, with contemporary sociological thinking, from Adam Smith. The change, or the difference, is located in the notion of social productivity. For classical thought, social productivity culminates in the idea of virtue, rather absent in contemporary sociology. Above virtue Polo suggests that is the notion of person: its fecundity is the root of social productivity.

Towards a Sociology of Equivocal Connections

This article contributes to the need for imagining forms of sociological thinking and doing beyond the univocity of disciplinary knowledge. In order to do so, we demonstrate how connections between different ‘sensory worlds’ involve equivocal understandings about what the ‘social’ entails. We begin by considering current anthropological reflections on the equivocal character of social relations as well as the equivocal ways in which western sociology has conceptualized the ‘social’. In order to visualize how ‘equivocal connections’ between different sensory worlds emerge, we build on Mapuche indigenous understandings about how different practices open up different sensory worlds. Through the examination of one of the hunger strikes that has taken place in the conflict between Mapuche people and the Chilean state, we show how such equivocal connections entail ontological, rather than epistemological, differences. Both as ethical and epistemological imperative, these differences must be actively demonstrated in order to reinvigorate the sociological imagination.

Smoke gets in your eyes: what is sociological about cigarettes?

Contemporary public health approaches increasingly draw attention to the unequal social distribution of cigarette smoking. In contrast, critical accounts emphasize the importance of smokers’ situated agency, the relevance of embodiment and how public health measures against smoking potentially play upon and exacerbate social divisions and inequality. Nevertheless, if the social context of cigarettes is worthy of such attention, and sociology lays a distinct claim to understanding the social, we need to articulate a distinct, positive and systematic claim for smoking as an object of sociological enquiry. This article attempts to address this by situating smoking across three main dimensions of sociological thinking: history and social change; individual agency and experience; and social structures and power. It locates the emergence and development of cigarettes in everyday life within the project of modernity of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It goes on to assess the habituated, temporal and experiential aspects of individual smoking practices in everyday lifeworlds. Finally, it argues that smoking, while distributed in important ways by social class, also works relationally to render and inscribe it.

Mutual Gains? Is There a Role for Employee Engagement in the Modern Workplace?

I examine the history of employee engagement and how it has been characterised by thinkers in sociology, psychology, management and economics. I suggest that, while employers may choose to invest in employee engagement, there are alternative management strategies that may be profit-maximising. I identify four elements of employee engagement – job 'flow', autonomous working, involvement in decision-making at workplace or firm level, and financial participation – and present empirical evidence on their incidence and employee perceptions of engagement, drawing primarily from evidence in Britain. I consider the evidence regarding the existence of mutual gains and present new evidence on the issue. I find a non-linear relationship between human resource management (HRM) intensity and various employee job attitudes. I also find the intensity of HRM use and employee engagement are independently associated with improvements in workplace performance. I consider the implications of the findings for policy and employment practice in the future.