Sociological Tradition Research Articles

Global sociology and its discontents

AbstractSociology emerged in the course of Western modernization; its major classical-era statements are preoccupied with modernity and its impact on national societies. After decolonization, ‘Third World’ modernization paved the way for the notion of globalization. The sociology of globalization is a current specialty within US and European sociological associations. The promise of global sociology has been on the agenda of the International Sociological Association since at least 1990. At a deeper level, global sociology requires un-thinking the role of core concepts such as modernity or religion or society vis-à-vis their Western origins. Global Studies and post-colonial sociology, two of the most widely known research fields claiming global intent, are examined with respect to whether they provide adequate conceptual resources for global sociology. While the research agendas of both offer promising insights, inquiry suggests that both suffer from important drawbacks. The sociological tradition is now facing an impasse; fragmentation may persist, but other possibilities also exist. No grand solution is perhaps possible. A truly global sociology may eventually emerge from the original interpretations that develop from non-Western historical paths.

The Rise of Contractual Publics

The paper examines modern re-conceptualisations and re-contextualisations of publicness, proposing theoretical and empirical advancements in its conceptualisation. It critically analyses two significant developments following the English translation of Habermas’s seminal work, “Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit.” On the one hand, the book (re)affirmed the key role of communication and media in democratic politics and instigated a broad acceptance of the public sphere as a fundamental concept in academic discourse, leading to renewed research efforts and innovative developments. However, the subsequent conceptual fragmentation of (the concept of) the public sphere raised concerns about the loss of its original critical epistemic value. On the other hand, Habermas’s book obscured important sociological traditions, contributing to a divide between normative theory and sociological analysis, exemplified by a neglect of the habitual roots of public opinion and contractual bonds in the evolution of publics. These aspects gain relevance within the context of the platform economy and artificial intelligence governing internet communication. The paper concludes by introducing the concept of the contractual public, which draws on the evolving dynamics between public and private spheres, and proposing four strategies to revitalise publicness.

A economia solidária além da questão do trabalho

Abstract In this essay, we discuss the limitations of the orthodox approach of labor regarding solidarity economy, adopted by the International Labour Organization (ILO), and by the classical view of the sociology of work. Initially, we show that solidarity economy has been analyzed by the traditional sociology of work, both in Brazil and France, as an illusion of which participants are victims. ILO, although adopting lately a contrasting perspective, is restricted to a conception of decent work in solidarity economy that also keeps a common reference framework with the conservative perspective of the sociology of work. In the second part, we present two practices that show that solidarity economy cannot be reduced to the economic dimension of the production mode and labor relations, and that there is an inherent emancipatory political dimension - the cases of Conjunto Palmeiras (Brazil) and the Régies de quartier movement (France). From these cases, in the third section we identify the theoretical frameworks that not only understand the modes of work implementation in solidarity economy, but allow a wider integration of solidarity economy multiple dimensions. Therefore, we present three theoretical approaches: the Epistemologies of the South, the approach of substantive economic action, and the deliberative democracy perspective. At the end, we open up the reflection on the direction in which the sociology of work and the ILO can develop and reconfigure their reference approaches to work in an expanded, substantive and heterodox understanding of the solidarity economy.

Discourse on the Durkheimian Tradition in Political Sociology

This paper examines the understanding of Durkheimian tradition in political sociology. It explores different elements of Durkheimian analysis ranging from social solidarity, anomie, religious experience, and structure functionalism. Durkheim's theories have a significant influence on social scientific research, particularly in sociology, anthropology, and cultural studies. He has emphasized structural functionalism, morality, social cohesion, and religious influence on social institutions. He has given scholars a useful foundation for comprehending today's social problems and cultural practices. In this paper, we also explore criticism faced by Durkheim’s concepts by other researchers

The ‘forgotten’ sociologist, Florence Kelley

Florence Kelley, whose theoretical and empirical activity played a central role in the development of social analysis, started promoting social research in the US in the early 1890s, with a critique of the capitalistic organisation of labour and the exploitation of children and women in the factories and sweatshops of Illinois. This research was also decisive in the contemporary development and use of qualitative and quantitative methods. Poverty, a central element in Kelley’s observations, was to her mind, the fruit of the total subordination to work of workers, their families and their communities. Her theoretical knowledge, based on her American studies, her pragmatism and the Hull-House women’s practice of democracy, was enriched by her history, economics and law studies in European universities and her relationship with the socialist tradition, with Marx and with Engels, whose The Condition of the Working Class in England she translated into English in 1887. The construction of an American sociological canon erased Kelley’s activity and that of many other women, authors of important research, excluded by a slew of anti-women behaviours and critical silences about their lack of scientificity. But History is blotted out by a highly focused present as Anselm Strauss is said to have stated (1993, p.256), a contradictory present in which the idea of a vocation on the part of women to transform research is becoming ever more central: I am seeking an end to androcentrism, not to systematic inquiry (Harding, 1986, p.10). Reflection on Florence Kelley’s personal journey re-opens debates and questions as to the reasons why in the last century, in the 1990s, there began a process of reappropriation of women’s contribution to the history of sociological thought and social research, which necessarily leads to their founding presence in training curricula and sociological tradition thus restoring contents, dignity and memory.

Queerowy <i>life writing</i> a dyspozycje krytyczne

This article attempts to analyze the contest diaries written by LGBTQ+ individuals published in the collection <i>Cała siła, jaką czerpię na życie</i> [All the Strength I Muster to Live] (2022) from the perspective of life-writing strategies, the production of auto/biographical subjectivity, and the specific positioning of the authors in relation to the poetics of the contest monograph. The published testimonies are set in the scheme of both literary and sociological traditions of Polish diary writing from the 1930s. The text also draws on the project of anxious reading by Astrid Rash, through which, in the process of critical reading, it becomes necessary to activate individual areas of “selective empathy” towards the stories about experiences of violence and marginalization contained in the diaries. Keywords: competitive diary writing, LGBTQ+, life writing, anxious reading

Six theorems of the social disintegration theory

In the article the author’s own theoretical view, intended to describe the specificity and condition of contemporary society, is presented. The approach discussed in the paper refers to the functionalist tradition in sociology, emphasizing the systemic nature of such social entities as society. At the same time, the conventional premise of functionalism regarding the cohesive nature of social systems is rejected here. Accordingly, the theoretical approach proposed is called social disintegration theory. Six theorems of this theory are introduced and discussed in the paper.

A SYNTHESIS AT THE CROSSROADS OF SOCIOLOGICAL THOUGHT: BOURDIEU’S INTELLECTUAL DANCE WITH MARX, WEBER AND DURKHEIM

Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological thought has been characterized by methodological and reflexive eclecticism, emphasizing the importance of establishing a dialogue between opposing theories. This practice of critical eclecticism allowed him to transcend the boundaries between different epistemologies and contribute to the development of a new sociological tradition. However, Bourdieu’s relationship with various traditions of thought in constructing his sociological theory goes beyond mere eclecticism. In this article, we position Bourdieu as a synthetic thinker and focus on some aspects of his relationship with the founding figures of sociological thought (Marx, Weber, Durkheim). Rather than identifying which theorist Bourdieu owes more to, our focus is on understanding the various influences that shaped his distinctive sociological framework.

Divine Compensation? Gender, Religiosity, and the Link Between Feeling Underpaid and Psychological Distress

Theoretical and empirical work within social psychology has highlighted the impact of the sense of distributive injustice—the evaluation of unfairness in the distribution of outcomes or rewards—and adverse mental health outcomes. Drawing on a sample of Canadian workers from the Canadian Work, Stress, and Health Study (CAN-WSH; N = 2,376), we consider whether three facets of religiosity—perceived divine control, religious attendance, and prayer—have stress buffering potency when it comes to perceived underpayment. We also test whether these associations vary by gender. Our results suggest that for men who reported being underpaid, higher levels of divine control were protective for psychological distress. By contrast, weekly religious attendance was a stress buffer for women who were underpaid. We draw from research at the intersection of sociology of religion and gender to interpret our findings. Taken as a whole, our findings underscore the importance of assessing religiously-based resources for individuals who perceive they are underpaid and speak to how understanding the effectiveness of coping resources, including those found within religious life, are contingent upon social status—a hallmark of the sociological tradition.

Accountability in the environmental crisis: From microsocial practices to moral orders

AbstractThe global environmental crisis is the result of a complex web of causation and distributed agency, where not even the most powerful individual actors can be considered responsible nor remedy the situation alone. This has prompted multiple calls across societies for transformative social change. What role can accountability play in this context? Starting in the theoretical traditions of microsociology and pragmatic sociology, this article elaborates the role of accountability in social interactions. To provide an account that justifies an action or inaction is here understood as a process of social ordering, where accounts are assessed as acceptable only after they have been tested against higher normative principles. Microsocial practices are, in this way, linked to macrosocial order. The following section turns to the global environmental crisis, showing that the crisis raises normative as well as epistemic challenges. The complexity of the socio‐environmental situation makes it hard to know what should be done and opens normative orders and epistemic claims to contestation. This situation provides increased opportunities for strategic maneuvering to justify actions as well as opportunities to question social practices and social order. The article concludes by discussing the role of accountability in climate change. Accountability can serve as a mechanism to attach issues to the current environmental crisis and re‐embed decisions and practice in an environmental moral order. As part of a broader palette of instruments, rules and norms, accountability has an important function to play in transforming society towards sustainability.

Strangely Hesitant about Anti-Blackness: A Comment on Quadlin and Montgomery

We raise concerns about Quadlin and Montgomery’s Social Psychology Quarterly article, “When a Name Gives You Pause,” a study of whether racialized names affect the time to dog adoption in a county shelter. Our comment is guided by the recent insistence of American Sociological Association leadership for greater critical introspection in sociological research. First, the study is ahistorical by overlooking histories of human-animal relations and naming in the construction of anti-Blackness. Second, the study is acontextual by contorting labor market research and color-blind perspectives in a manner that directs undue attention to the treatment of dogs without specifying the concrete disadvantages for Black people. The study’s narrow focus on adopters misrepresents organizational factors within animal shelters. These various oversights invest Quadlin and Montgomery’s article in a whiteness-centered sociological tradition. We urge divesting from this tradition and conclude with a call for sociology to be more educative and reflexive.

Field theory, role theory and role conflict: Reappropriating insights from the past

This paper puts Bourdieu’s influential field theory into dialogue with the classic sociological tradition of role theory. I argue that while role theory per se is certainly problematic, it nonetheless bore the virtue of conceptualising in clear terms something amply borne out by empirical research but underemphasised in Bourdieu’s account of the social world: that people are situated in more than one social structure, with differing salience to them, and that this can have profound effects on their experience, their wellbeing and their practice. Following Bourdieu’s own prompts, I thus appropriate and recast selected insights from role theory to elaborate field theory so that it might articulate how experience and practice are structured by multiple fields, introducing the notions of field-set, meta-habitus, lifeworld horizon, illusio space and greedy fields.

TRANSFORMATION OF RUSSIAN IDENTITY: VALUE DIMENSION

The problem of theoretical conceptualization of the value dimension of the subject’s picture of the world in the context of identification processes in Russian society is posed. The picture of the world has a spatial and temporal organization that affects the speed and direction of the identification processes of an individual with a group, society as a whole. At the same time, the picture of the world is filled with subjective meanings and is supplemented by another dimension - the meanings and meaning of reflected events and phenomena. Therefore, the analysis of the facets of the picture of the world from the standpoint of the value dimension includes the approaches of post-non-classical science using the criteria of analysis in the political-psychological and sociological traditions. Three approaches are formulated, the possibilities of practical application of which are illustrated by the results of empirical studies of the Institute of Sociology and the Institute of Socio-Political Research of the Federal Scientific Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The proposed view on the value dimension of the picture of the world made it possible to reveal the dependence of identification processes not only on obvious social and political transformations. Self-identification of an individual and groups is also latently influenced by the variability of the value picture of the world: social ideas and values, social norms and attitudes, political needs, interests and orientations, that is, the delta of novelty, which is reflected in new meanings and reflected in new meanings. The relationship between objective situational factors reflected in the value picture of the world and latent markers of the transformation of the identification of an individual, groups and society as a whole has been revealed. The value-semantic dimension of the picture of the world of Russian society made it possible to see the mobility and duality of value transformations, which requires further study of the networks of meanings, analysis of their symbolic structures as the basis of the cultural matrix of Russian society.

Measuring the Image of the Russia’s Future Among Russian Youth: Cognitive Science and Cybermetrics for the Political Study

The article presents methodological problems of studying the image of the future of the country among Youth. The unsuitability of the mono-design of empirical analysis, which is limited to the traditional survey method for measuring the image of the future of the state among younger generation, is substantiated. The heuristics of instrumental and projective cognitive science and its possibilities in compensating for the shortcomings of traditional sociology are analyzed. The principles of verification of cognitive science data by methods of automated socio-media analysis of representation in the digital space of the image of the future of Russia are considered. The potential of combining cognitive and psychosemantic methods: eye tracking, polygraphology, cardiometry (instrumental cognitivistics) and associative and sand modeling (projective cognitivistics) in the identification of integration images reflecting in the minds of Russian youth symbols of the positive future of Russia is investigated. The results of the experiment are analyzed, which made it possible to establish visual images associated by Russian youth with the archetypes of “Consent”, “Trust” and “Pride” as the basis for a positive perception by young people of the image of the future of the Russian. Federation. The heuristics of combining the traditional survey with the methods of instrumental and projective cognitive science in clustering young people according to the criteria of activity, awareness of responsibility for their fate and the future of their country, self-generation of goals, demonstration of readiness to achieve them, willingness to negotiate with partners, opponents, self-organization and skills to involve other people in the implementation of their plans are shown. The possibilities of validating the data of projective cognitive science by means of automated social media analysis are considered. The possibilities of scaling the semantic core of the rhetoric of young people — representatives of various strategies for perceiving the image of the future of Russia on the information flows of social media on the Runet are revealed. In conclusion, the general conclusions on the implementation of the methodology and methodology of projective and instrumental cognitive science in the study of the image of the future of the country in the minds of Russian youth are presented. Monitoring the representation of the future of the Russian Federation in the minds of the younger generation can become a basis for practical recommendations to authorities, relevant ministries and state structures on the formation of a positive image of the future of the Russian Federation among young Russians.

Legitimacies Conflict: The Evolution of Perceived Legitimacy in Modern Russia

Abstract The paper proposes a new interpretation of the evolution of legitimacy in Russia based on two pillars: the sociological tradition of legitimacy research, and David Easton’s typology. In this regard, the political process in Russia can be perceived as a conflicting coexistence of various legitimacies. The very conflicting variations begin to prevail in the public consciousness at certain stages of modern Russia existence, not forcing out each other completely. The trends that prevailed in the definition of Russian statehood allow us to distinguish three stages in the legitimacy evolution, which conditionally correspond to each decade of the existence of modern Russia: the “ideological” stage (90s-00s) and the “structural” one (00s-2012). We define the contemporary period as “personal” that emerged after 2012. The current political crisis in Russia is interpreted as a conflict of “structural” and “personal” legitimacy, that is unfolding against the backdrop of attempts by the authorities to compensate for the lack of trust, with technologies of “quick” self-legitimacy.

Nur Vergin’in Din Sosyolojisi

Nur Vergin has left an important legacy of thought on behalf of the social sciences literature of our country with her works based on her academic and intellectual background. A rough overview of the content of this legacy reveals a wide range of ideas produced under the headings of politics-religion relationship, urbanization and political attitudes, social change and family, civil society, secularism, political system debates, etc. Vergin's ideas in the field of sociology of politics and religion are particularly prominent aspects of this legacy. Analyzing Vergin's legacy from different perspectives in various areas of sociology will provide essential gains for the social sciences literature of our country. In this respect, the subject of this study is Vergin's ideas in the sociology of religion. The main problem of the study can be summarized with the following question: "What are Nur Vergin's thoughts on the relationship between religion, politics, and society, and what is the place of these thoughts in the Turkish sociological tradition?". My study aims to address the ideas on the relationship between religion, politics, and society in Vergin's works from the perspective of the sociology of religion and to pave the way for new studies and discussions on her works. The importance of the study is that it will be a pioneering work in this field due to the limited number of studies on Nur Vergin's works and will pave the way for new discussions on his thoughts. A qualitative research method was used in this study. Therefore, qualitative data collection techniques were utilized. The data obtained were analyzed and evaluated descriptively and in terms of content. First, Vergin's life, works, cultural and intellectual background, social science understanding, and methodology are discussed. Afterward, the studies produced by Vergin within the scope of the sociology of religion were analyzed. With this study, it is understood that Nur Vergin aims to analyze social phenomena at the macro level by following the course of historical change within historical integrity and without ignoring the relationality between them. In this respect, it has been observed that Vergin analyzes issues such as secularism, Alevism, the relationship between religion and social change, etc., which are the subjects of her sociology of religion studies, with a long-term approach, in the plan of historical continuity and parallel with the verstéhenian tradition. In this respect, Vergin's approach to the phenomenon of religion is within the framework of the new axis, which constitutes an alternative to the evolutionary positivist approach, which was the dominant paradigm in the Turkish sociological tradition in the 1970s and 80s, and which manifested itself in names such as Şerif Mardin and Nilüfer Göle. * This paper is based on the master's thesis study titled "Nur Vergin's Sociology of Religion" conducted under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Celaleddin Çelik at Erciyes University Institute of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology of Religion.

An Analysis on the Nature of Morality and Its Social Projections in Durkheim's Sociology

Durkheim, one of the pioneering representatives of the sociological tradition, placed religion and morality at the center of his studies throughout his professional life. Therefore, it would not be wrong to call Durkheim's sociology the sociology of morality. It is important to examine Durkheim's intense interest in morality, his purpose, and implications in order to understand his understanding of morality and his relationship with sociology. Also, this study has not remained indifferent to this interest, and has made it the subject of analyzing the theoretical and practical dimensions of his understanding of morality. Durkheim could not control but focus on the issue of religion. Because morality, which has an important place in the field of social regulations and is one of the key concepts of Durkheim's sociology, largely depends on the reference of religion and is positioned parallel to religion. To understanding Durkheim's sociology does not seem possible without understanding the value he gives to subject of the morality. Durkheim examined an abstract issue such as morality and made it the subject of sociology, which is a modern discipline. On the one hand, Durkheim was influenced by Kant's rational morality, which was free from theological considerations, and on the other hand, he adopted Aristotle's 'ethics', which he called a practical science based on action. The importance of this the study is that Durkheim's theoretical and practical evaluation of the issue of morality is analyzed on the basis of the social reflections of morality and its relationship with religion and society. Durkheim's most characteristic contribution to the sociology of religion is his acceptance of religion as the most important social phenomenon in terms of its effect on collective consciousness and its relation to morality, and his view of society as the basis of social phenomena. According to him, among social phenomena, morality is a social reality, and this reality is not the reality of abstract theories and ideas, but the reality of morality in action. This study aims to analyze the nature of morality in Durkheim's sociology, its necessity, source, continuity, reality, validity, and social manifestations. Moreover, it is aimed to make evaluations and analysis about his sociology and moral understanding as a result of this examination. Within the scope of this study, all of Durkheim's books on morality, which are the accessible in Turkish and English books, especially were examined. The study is presented within the framework of a comparative method by considering the causality and cause-effect relationship between concepts and phenomena. Durkheim, one of the pioneers of the positivist understanding in sociology, is in favor of a rational and secular morality. He struggled to free morality from the dominance of religion and made it the tool of sociology to give it freedom and adapt it to its own age. He turned a phenomenon with abstract, subjective metaphysical aspects into an object of science on a concrete objective rational ground. He used sociology, which he cared enough to call the science of morality, to identify and enforce moral rules. He is a conservative moralist who attaches great importance to social solidarity and integration. He prefers the believers of society to the believers of God. The extreme importance and value he attributed to society is considered sociologism. Durkheimian morality is an ideal secular morality that should be taught to all citizens and substituted as the rules of 'religion', which he calls 'society'. Durkheim attempted to dislocate the relationship between the individual and morality, society and morality, religion and morality, and the organic link in these relationships in rational and secular understanding.

ChatGPT, LaMDA, and the Hype Around Communicative AI: The Automation of Communication as a Field of Research in Media and Communication Studies

The aim of this article is to more precisely define the field of research on the automation of communication, which is still only vaguely discernible. The central thesis argues that to be able to fully grasp the transformation of the media environment associated with the automation of communication, our view must be broadened from a preoccupation with direct interactions between humans and machines to societal communication. This more widely targeted question asks how the dynamics of societal communication change when communicative artificial intelligence—in short: communicative AI—is integrated into aspects of societal communication. To this end, we recommend an approach that follows the tradition of figurational sociology.

Niklas Luhmann and Jacques Ellul on the autonomy of technology

PurposeDrawing on the work of Niklas Luhmann, the paper argues that technology can be viewed as a self-referential system which is autonomous from both human beings and other function systems of society. The paper aims to develop a philosophy of technology from the work of Niklas Luhmann. To achieve this aim, it draws upon the systems-theory work of Jacques Ellul, a philosopher of technology who focuses on the autonomous potential of technological evolution.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on the work of Niklas Luhmann and Jacques Ellul to explore the theme of autonomous technology and what this means for our thinking about technological issues in the twenty-first century. Insights from these two thinkers and researchers working in the Luhmannian sociological tradition are applied to remote work.FindingsThe sociological approach of Luhmann, coupled with Ellul's insights into the autonomous nature of technology, can help us develop a systems theory of technology which takes seriously its irreducibility to human functions.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper contributes to the growing sociological literature that thematizes the Luhmannian approach to technology, helping us better understand this phenomenon and think in new ways about what technological autonomy means.Originality/valueThe paper brings together the work of Luhmann, Ellul and contemporary researchers to advance a new understanding of technology and technological communication.

De]Politicizing the Pandemic: Visually Communicating Digital Public Sociology

In the context of the COVID-19 “infodemic,” we explore discourse around a highly polarized health issue: mask wearing during the pandemic. Probing ideologically charged discourse from #masks on Twitter, we examine the potential for visual tools to promote digital citizen social science. Our case study reveals the promise of visualization to make ideological discourse on social media more easily identifiable by members of the general public. This leads us to argue that accessible visualization tools are needed for the public to ethically engage as digital citizen social scientists who actively analyze their own media consumption and outputs. Doing so would potentially awaken the sociological imagination by giving digital prosumers the agency to contextualize the social structure of debate around issues of public concern. In this way, visualizations of social media may ignite the sociological imagination in the tradition of digital public sociology.