10 results
Search Results
2. Advancing the Sociology of Empathy: A Proposal.
- Author
-
Ruiz‐Junco, Natalia
- Subjects
EMPATHY ,SOCIOLOGY ,INTERACTIONISM (Philosophy) ,SOCIAL constructionism ,SOCIOLOGISTS - Abstract
Empathy is an increasingly popular term in the public sphere and in academia. Although the common belief is that empathy is a 'psychological' topic, sociologists have made important contributions to this conversation. The goal of this article is to provide a theoretical effort in advancing the sociology of empathy. In the first part of the paper, I review classical and contemporary statements on empathy. I identify Charles H. Cooley as an important precursor of the sociology of empathy, and discuss how contemporary interactionists have further developed this notion. Based on these previous insights, I next propose a preliminary framework for the study of the social construction of empathy. This framework is presented in two steps. First, I introduce a vocabulary based on interpretivist concepts: empathy frames, empathy rules, and empathy performances. Next, I coin the idea of empathy paths. I theorize three ideal-typical empathy paths: self-transcendent, therapeutic, and instrumental. Throughout this presentation, I use empirical cases to illustrate the applicability of this framework. In the conclusion, I show how sociologists can inform public understandings of the meaning of empathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2017
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
3. An Interactionist Approach to the Social Construction of Deities.
- Author
-
Sumerau, J.E., Nowakowski, Alexandra C.H., and Cragun, Ryan T.
- Subjects
GODS ,ETHNOGRAPHIC analysis ,RELIGION ,SOCIAL interaction ,SOCIAL constructionism ,SOCIAL facts - Abstract
This paper examines the ways people construct and signify deities. Utilizing responses from an ethnographic study as well as analyses of existing studies of religion, we elaborate ways people construct the existence and characteristics of deities by engaging in 'deity work,' which we define as the work people do to give meaning to deities as well as to themselves, others, or social phenomena related to deities. In so doing, we demonstrate how people may accomplish this in many settings by engaging in strategies of identity work including (1) defining, (2) coding, and (3) affirming the meanings of a given deity in social interaction. In conclusion, we draw out implications for understanding (1) the importance of examining deity work, and (2) some ways a focus on deity work processes may expand existing religious and interactionist studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2016
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
4. Diagnosis as Topic and as Resource: Reflections on the Epistemology and Ontology of Disease in Medical Sociology.
- Author
-
Weinberg, Darin
- Subjects
SOCIAL medicine ,THEORY of knowledge ,ONTOLOGY ,SOCIOLOGICAL research ,MEDICAL research - Abstract
This article notes an enduring ambivalence in medical sociology concerning the epistemology and ontology of disease and shows this is precisely an ambivalence concerning whether biomedical disease categories are best understood as topics of, or as resources for, medical sociological research. The first section critically reviews the topic/resource debate in ethnomethodology. The second section elaborates upon the pertinence of this debate to sociological debates directly concerned with the epistemology and ontology of disease. The article concludes by demonstrating how framing the epistemology and ontology of disease in terms of the topics and resources of medical sociological analysis serves to clarify the work of thinking sociologically about disease and helps overcome protracted theoretical challenges that have persistently troubled medical sociological research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2021
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
5. Narrative Manhood Acts: Batterer Intervention Program Graduates' Tragic Relationships.
- Author
-
Schrock, Douglas, McCabe, Janice, and Vaccaro, Christian
- Subjects
MASCULINE identity ,IDENTITY (Psychology) ,AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL fiction ,RACIALIZATION ,SOCIAL constructionism ,CONFERENCES & conventions - Abstract
We analyze how twenty graduates of a Batterer Intervention Program constructed autobiographical stories about their relationships with women they assaulted. We focus on the presentation of gendered selves via narrative manhood acts, which we define as self‐narratives that signify membership in the category “man” and the possession of a masculine self. We also show how graduates constructed self‐narratives as a genre that was oppositional to organizational narratives: rather than adopting the program's domestic violence melodrama or preferred conversion narrative, graduates used the larger culture—especially “bitch” imagery and sometimes racialized discourse—to construct tragedies. Our study demonstrates the usefulness of narrative analysis for research on batterers' accounts and manhood acts, and also shows how oppositional genre‐making can be a method to resist organizational narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2018
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
6. Middle‐Range Future Claims: Constructing the Near‐Future Consequences of COVID‐19
- Author
-
Joel Best
- Subjects
2019-20 coronavirus outbreak ,History ,Sociology and Political Science ,Social Psychology ,Scope (project management) ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,Communication ,General Social Sciences ,Social issues ,Social constructionism ,Education ,Late summer ,Political economy ,Economic impact analysis ,General Nursing ,Period (music) - Abstract
The extraordinary social and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has generated many claims about the middle-range future-the period beginning in the late summer or early fall of 2020 and projected to last for some months or years This paper surveys those assertions and seeks to explain the factors that led to them Exploring questions about future claims can expand the scope of social problems theory
- Published
- 2020
7. A Mother's Value Lies in Her Sexuality: The Simpsons, Family Guy, and South Park and the Preservation of Traditional Sex Roles.
- Author
-
Feltmate, David and Brackett, Kimberly P.
- Subjects
HUMAN sexuality ,MOTHERHOOD ,WIT & humor ,INTERPERSONAL relations ,UNITED States social conditions - Abstract
This article examines the relationship between being a sexual woman and a good mother in The Simpsons, Family Guy, and South Park. Considering the sexual criticisms of women in the 'Mommy Wars' which continue to be fought across the United States, we find that these three programs reproduce conservative assumptions about women's sexuality and motherhood. Through critical constructionist theories of humor and motherhood, mothers from each program are analyzed and the relationship between their sexuality and motherliness is examined in detail. We conclude with a discussion of the social constrictions of reality that humorous popular culture both exposes and reproduces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2014
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
8. Advancing the Sociology of Empathy: A Proposal
- Author
-
Natalia Ruiz-Junco
- Subjects
Vocabulary ,Sociology and Political Science ,Social Psychology ,Communication ,media_common.quotation_subject ,05 social sciences ,General Social Sciences ,Empathy ,Social constructionism ,0506 political science ,Education ,Epistemology ,Presentation ,050903 gender studies ,050602 political science & public administration ,Public sphere ,Conversation ,0509 other social sciences ,Psychology ,Social psychology ,General Nursing ,media_common ,Meaning (linguistics) - Abstract
Empathy is an increasingly popular term in the public sphere and in academia. Although the common belief is that empathy is a “psychological” topic, sociologists have made important contributions to this conversation. The goal of this article is to provide a theoretical effort in advancing the sociology of empathy. In the first part of the paper, I review classical and contemporary statements on empathy. I identify Charles H. Cooley as an important precursor of the sociology of empathy, and discuss how contemporary interactionists have further developed this notion. Based on these previous insights, I next propose a preliminary framework for the study of the social construction of empathy. This framework is presented in two steps. First, I introduce a vocabulary based on interpretivist concepts: empathy frames, empathy rules, and empathy performances. Next, I coin the idea of empathy paths. I theorize three ideal-typical empathy paths: self-transcendent, therapeutic, and instrumental. Throughout this presentation, I use empirical cases to illustrate the applicability of this framework. In the conclusion, I show how sociologists can inform public understandings of the meaning of empathy.
- Published
- 2017
9. 'The Way That I Look at Things [Is] Different Because It's Me': Constructing and Deconstructing Narratives About Racialized Sexual Selves
- Author
-
Beth Montemurro
- Subjects
060201 languages & linguistics ,African american ,White (horse) ,Sociology and Political Science ,Social Psychology ,Communication ,media_common.quotation_subject ,05 social sciences ,General Social Sciences ,Human sexuality ,Gender studies ,06 humanities and the arts ,Social constructionism ,Education ,Race (biology) ,Presentation ,050903 gender studies ,0602 languages and literature ,Sexual orientation ,Narrative ,0509 other social sciences ,Psychology ,General Nursing ,media_common - Abstract
Many gender scholars have abandoned the notion that we can explore women's experiences without attention to other identities such as race, class, and/or sexual orientation. Until now, the ways race influences the development of sexual selves has been underexplored. In this paper, I focus on heterosexual women's accounts of the interplay of race, gender, and sexualities. Based on in-depth interviews with sixty-two white and African American heterosexual women between the ages of twenty and sixty-eight, I examine the ways in which narrative work tells a story about the presentation of public sexual selves. I also explore how women's personal narratives are impacted by larger cultural narratives about race. Specifically, through a study of sexuality, I focus on the social construction of “postracialism.”
- Published
- 2017
10. An Interactionist Approach to the Social Construction of Deities
- Author
-
Alexandra C. H. Nowakowski, Ryan T. Cragun, and J. E. Sumerau
- Subjects
050402 sociology ,Sociology and Political Science ,Social Psychology ,Communication ,05 social sciences ,General Social Sciences ,Identity (social science) ,Social constructionism ,Social relation ,Education ,Focus (linguistics) ,Epistemology ,0504 sociology ,Work (electrical) ,050903 gender studies ,Ethnography ,Sociology ,0509 other social sciences ,Construct (philosophy) ,Social psychology ,General Nursing ,Meaning (linguistics) - Abstract
This paper examines the ways people construct and signify deities. Utilizing responses from an ethnographic study as well as analyses of existing studies of religion, we elaborate ways people construct the existence and characteristics of deities by engaging in “deity work,” which we define as the work people do to give meaning to deities as well as to themselves, others, or social phenomena related to deities. In so doing, we demonstrate how people may accomplish this in many settings by engaging in strategies of identity work including (1) defining, (2) coding, and (3) affirming the meanings of a given deity in social interaction. In conclusion, we draw out implications for understanding (1) the importance of examining deity work, and (2) some ways a focus on deity work processes may expand existing religious and interactionist studies.
- Published
- 2016
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