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In contrast to nearby countries, Jordan achieved a unique situation in mitigating the covid-19 outbreak. The privileged situation lasted for a few months. After that situation, Jordan became one of the worst countries all over the world. Drawing on a conceptual framework derived from Blau’s theory: exchange and power in social life, this paper reevaluates the dynamics of combating covid-19 in Jordan as an exchange process between government and people. Jordan’s government employed maximum power to control people’s movements and gatherings. However, it failed to meet people’s expectations of keeping their lives safe and fulfilling their basic needs. The government tried to legitimize the situation by providing fake information. It has lost the trust of society which supported the efforts of the government. It could not maintain its control of people’s gatherings and movements, resulting in a rise in the number of cases. Transparency, trust, awareness, and society’s efforts are crucial in fighting pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a sample of Utahans to estimate the percentage of the state belonging to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the LDS, or Mormon Church). We find that the Mormon share of Utah's population is lower than is commonly believed. This finding has relevance for certain theories in the sociology of religion that make inferences about church growth and vitality based on the religious demography of Utah. We show how the process of secularization, changes in Mormon fertility, and shifts in migration into Utah combine to alter the religious landscape of the state. We close with a discussion of the implications of our findings for the sociology of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the poetry of Qu Xuanying, a literatus who remained in the city of Beiping (now Beijing) following its occupation by the Japanese in 1937. Through historical allusions in his poetry, Qu communicated with friends about the ethical dilemmas that he faced under occupation, and reflected upon the choices that literati in earlier eras had made when facing dynastic transitions and foreign conquest. Qu's 'esoteric writing' during the occupation contained a complex set of historical allusions which referenced various points in the Chinese past. Since Qu served in the collaborationist north China regime, he has often been perceived as a 'traitor' or a 'collaborator'. Through this in-depth analysis of his literary works, however, this paper seeks to reveal the special exegetical strategies adopted by literati such as Qu under occupation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that, for both sociological and epistemic reasons, the ethics of war needs the social sciences and, accordingly, sets an alternative to the two prevailing approaches in the literature in the ethics of war field, i.e. the just war tradition model and the ethics of war theory. Given what we learn from the factual description of war and its interpretation in the social sciences, and given what their epistemic premises are, both models - and more particularly the second one - fail to address important normative issues that arise in the course of warfare. Based on the discussion of two case studies - states' policy in the face of hostage-taking and the rule of proportionality - I argue it is important to move beyond the divide between a state-centric approach (the just war tradition) and an individualistic one (the ethics of war theory): it is indispensable to take into consideration other social spheres where norms emerge and find, between those spheres, some 'overlapping normative ground'. I argue, both sociologically and normatively, that norms rely upon interlocking sets of expectations. I also argue that these social expectations need to be thoroughly examined in order to ascertain the plausibility of norms in warfare. As a conclusion, for reasons that are both sociological and normative, I stress the political importance, within a liberal and knowledge-oriented society, of the access to facts that always need to be interpreted when making normative claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rape represents one form of sexual violence and may be defined as "forced sexual violation." The following paper builds upon that definition to differentiate among three distinct types of rapes to create an analytic typology that specifies the conditions under which these are more likely to occur. By drawing upon Black's theoretical approach of "pure sociology" and by examining the cross-cultural literature, the paper presents the different social fields or "social geometries" associated with variations in predatory, moralistic, and ritualistic rape. The paper also explains the social conditions most likely to ensure a relative absence of rape. The paper thus offers an innovative strategy for re-thinking the sociological nature of rape, including implications for new approaches to measure and evaluate the likelihood of rape occurring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What can variously be understood as "comparative sociology" take different contours and raise further issues and questions in different sociological traditions which in turn are shaped by different theoretical paradigms. The paper outlines conceptual and theoretical framework for a discussion about the current status of comparative sociology. Comparative sociology is perceived as an organization of research through constant comparisons at the different levels and stages of research. The paper presents outcomes of the field research that is developed on the basis of distinction between two modalities of comparative sociology: comparative sociology as an inquiry and comparative sociology as a teaching discipline. One basic and two subordinate alternative hypotheses are tested in the course of comparative analysis of the seven cases. Discussion of these cases results in formulation of specific questions for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies a comparative approach to analyze several dimensions of ‘Global Sociology’ from a normative stance based on a critical review of related discourses in sociological communities. The author reveals three major problems in intra-disciplinary, inter-disciplinary and extra-academic dimensions, manifested not only in ‘factual’ (objective) characteristics but also in ‘ideological’ visions typical of academic communities and connected with a negative stance towards global neoliberalism and its various agents: first, rigid vertical stratification of the international academic field, primarily, in terms of academic publishing and working conditions; second, negative tendencies in the status positions of sociology compared to other sciences, especially economics; and third, little cooperation with policy-makers and corporate practitioners combined with an orientation to supporting various discriminated groups against dominating powers associated with neoliberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]