Search

Copyright of Society & Leisure / Loisir & Société is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Sociologists very often have extra-curricular lives as musicians. This article explores the relationship between musical life and sociological identities. Through a range of examples from Howard Becker's grounding in field research as a pianist in the Chicago jazz clubs and his theories of deviance, to the connection between Emma Jackson's life as a bass player in Brit pop band Kenickie and her feminist punk sociology, an argument is developed about the things sociologists learn from music. Based on 28 life history interviews with contemporary sociologists this paper shows how sociologists learn – both directly and tacitly – to understand society through their engagement with music. Music offers them an interpretive device to read cultural history, a training in the unspoken and yet structured aspects of culture, and an attentiveness to improvised and interactive aspects of social interaction. For sociologists, involvement in music making is also an incitement to get off campus and encounter an alternative world of value and values. Music enables sociologists to sustain their research imaginations and inspires them to make sociology differently. However, the article concludes that in the contemporary neoliberal university it is harder for sociologists to sustain a creative hinterland in music. The tacit knowledges that often nourish sociological identities may run the risk of being depleted as a result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For over 30 years, the men's UEFA Champions League (UCL) has showcased Europe's most elite and wealthiest football clubs. Debates surrounding the competition's best individual performance rarely reach a consensus. However, one common response points towards Manchester United's Roy Keane versus Juventus in the 1999 semi-final second leg. After falling 2-0 behind within 11 minutes, Keane almost single-handedly swung the game in United's favour as the final in Barcelona loomed. This article examines Keane's performance through the lens of a sociological case-study, drawing on the circumstances of his career and the match itself. Critical attention is given to sociologist Everett Hughes' conceptual belief of turning points, which has been innovatively applied to a single event in this paper. The author argues that, while statistics have typically driven performance analysis, only a sociological interpretation of Keane's performance provides an accurately sophisticated comprehension of, arguably, one of the UCL's greatest individual performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology & Society is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The aim of these issue of 'International Review of Sociology' is to present some reflections, which, starting from the analysis of several mediterranean countries, highlight the overall employment context of graduates in Sociology, characterised by widespread underemployment (or over-education) and difficulties in accessing the labour market. In particular, the papers highlight the need for a greater connection between academic sociology and professionals and the university's responsibility to establish adequate training paths and provide both specific and transversal skills, which are fundamental in the work of the sociology professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen a surge of interest in prefigurative politics, which refers to the political strategies that model a future society on a micro level and aim to instantiate radical social change in and through practice. While most previous studies have focused on defining the concept and categorizing various types of prefiguration, this paper contributes by investigating under what circumstances prefiguration leads to revolutionary social change. The paper takes an original approach to these issues by turning to transition studies and the socio-technical change literature. This field focuses on the technical equivalence of prefiguration: namely, the relationship between small-scale niche innovations and large-scale technological transitions. Through theoretical discussions and empirical illustrations, this paper presents a typology of five transition pathways through which prefigurative strategies may result in a range of social change outcomes from reformative to revolutionary transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the presence and consideration of economics in sociology, specifically its classical version. It identifies certain original and independent economic theories, concepts and approaches in classical sociological theory as central and its derivations, implications and extensions of economics as peripheral. The paper argues and demonstrates that classical sociology is far from being the science of noneconomic or irrational phenomena, as often sociologists conceive it and economists perceive it in counter-distinction from economics defined as the science of rational behavior, and indeed encompasses virtually all economic activities and processes, and thus prefigures New Economic Sociology adopting the same approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social scientists, in particular sociologists, claim that the distinction between universalistic and particularistic values is relevant to explaining the social behaviour of individuals (and societies). This paper provides preliminary empirical evidence that supports the claim. It first defines a number of proxies for the degree of particularism embedded into long-celebrated dimensions of social behaviour (trust, political awareness, and associational activities). Then, it shows that the particularistic measures are positively correlated to each other and negatively correlated to some established generalist measures for all dimensions of social behaviour considered, both across and within countries and regions. Moreover, the paper relates that the various proxies for particularism share the same set of covariates (such as low education and income), which are neatly distinguishable from the determinants of the generalist measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper compares the lives of three female social scientists born in the first two decades of the twentieth century and belonging to the first generations that had the opportunity not only to study at universities, but also to realistically consider a professional career in academia. Marie Jahoda, Herta Herzog and Patricia L. Kendall made their ways separately and interacted only rarely with each other, but shared at least one characteristic which influenced their careers: they were married to Paul F. Lazarsfeld, one of the eminent sociologists of the twentieth century, prominent as someone who encouraged and supported many of his collaborators and students. The comparison of these three women shows that they were professionally successful but did not completely prioritize academic work before other interests, ambitions, and obligations. These priorities found a correspondence in their underperformance in academia with regard to the particular preconditions to enter the pantheon of an academic discipline. Both their oeuvres and their academic records suggest that they were not actively striving to become academic 'immortals.' Here it is shown that women, even if they are to be located below the 'ultra elite,' produced remarkable and memorable intellectual achievements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As sociologists, we engage in history whether or not we see ourselves, professionally, as historical sociologists. These remarks discuss the varieties of ways sociologists use and approach historical scholarship, including history-as-context, analytic comparative/historical sociology, and interpretive approaches. I also reflect on the first fifty years of Midwest Sociological Society to show that, at different moments, the MSS mirrored, propelled, or lagged behind societal change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the role of sociology in climate change research and policies. Climate change can be regarded as one of the greatest challenges facing the world today. It has attracted attention from several disciplines, with the physical sciences regarded as dominating climate change research. Apparently, despite that climate change is inherently a social problem, sociologists have been slow in tackling it, at both theoretical and policy levels. Even so, available literature contains assorted and interesting sociological contributions and insights. As such, this paper posits that sociologists are interested in climate change issues, have a lot to offer and they can draw from a number of sub-fields. For instance, using sociology of sustainable consumption sociologists can tackle how societies can re-organise consumption patterns and habits, sociology of education provokes more intriguing research into the construction of climate change science, knowledge and solutions and feminist sociology can extend robust research into how the material and discursive dimensions of climate change are profoundly gendered. Importantly, critical sociology provides a repertoire of concepts and novel methods that can be deployed in climate change research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the financial crisis at the end of the last decade, Germany is regarded again as a successful coordinated market economy. However, a closer look at labour and working conditions reveals disturbing phenomena like an increase of psychical stress, growing shares of low wage employment or the erosion of collective bargaining or works councils' coverage. Finance capitalism has become the most popular concept among German sociologists to explain why and how industrial relations and working conditions have been put under pressure in the last one or two decades. But how coherent is the finance capitalism story? This question is tackled in the paper, based on literature review and empirical findings. The paper argues that the concept is overexpanded and that, first, financial market capitalism is refractured by agency and actors on different instituitonal levels and that, second, there are other and independent developments influencing industrial relations like globalisation or the deregulation of labour markets that have to be taken into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By utilising a relatively underused framework developed by Maurie J. Cohen (1997. Risk society and ecological modernisation alternative visions for post-industrial nations.Futures, 29 (2), 105–119), this theoretical paper joins two of the most debated theories of environmental politics – ecological modernisation (EM) and Ulrich Beck’s risk society thesis – into a unified framework and problematises some of their implicit assumptions to theoretically introduce the notion of a “double-risk” society. In addition, it explains the differences between the traditional “Risk Society” theorised by the German sociologist Ulrich Beck and the newly introduced concept of a “double-risk” society. The arguments put forward in this paper provide some fresh perspectives facilitating the study of the techno-environmental risks and other ecological problems faced by “double-risk” societies. Theoretically, this paper adds to both EM theory and the risk society thesis as the generalisability of their existing versions is limited precisely because they fail to address some important social changes at the global structural level. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It is an immense pleasure to be here today with my mentor, Nancy Chodorow. In 1976 I entered graduate school in sociology specifically to study with Nancy. As an undergraduate I had read two brilliant articles that Nancy published as a graduate student prior to The Reproduction of Mothering, in which she used psychoanalysis "to account for the reproduction within each generation of certain general and nearly universal differences that characterize masculine and feminine personality and roles" ("Family Structure and Feminine Personality" in Rosaldo and Lamphere Women, Culture and Personality). I was dazzled. Nancy not only went on to chair my dissertation in sociology, but nine years later sat on my committee for my dissertation in clinical psychology that became On the Shoulders of Women: The Feminization of Psychotherapy. We both now are psychoanalysts, sociologists and feminists. While we each have traveled down our own paths, I always have wondered how Nancy, as a graduate student at Brandeis, could write with such courage, conviction and, well, chutzpah, to take on the project of not only understanding why women mother, but how gender is socially reproduced across generations and cultures. I also took this as an opportunity to discuss how her thinking and interests have changed over time since the publication of her groundbreaking Reproduction of Mothering, a book that heralded a new era in our understanding of gender and psychoanalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sociological study of intellectual recognition has tended to focus on highly cited and highly acclaimed authors and perspectives, while reserving some interest for those who are "forgotten." We know much less about the liminal cases: authors who are in-between fame and oblivion. This paper proposes a way to study intellectual recognition, by examining the liminal case of sociologist Charles H. Cooley. Based on a multilayered (quantitative and qualitative) citation analysis of Cooley's classic work, Human Nature and the Social Order (HNSO), we study the role of intellectual deference in accounting for this liminality. Specifically, we identify two distinct deference processes: acknowledgment and involvement. We argue that Cooley has survived intellectual oblivion by standing on the shoulders of citers, as he has received substantial acknowledgment but decreasing involvement. In the conclusion, we discuss the implications of our paper for the understanding of the making of sociological theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main focus of the Italian literature on the profession of the sociologist is the transmission of sociological knowledge and the occupational outcomes of sociology graduates. In my paper, I try to examine additional aspects in depth that I believe to be crucial for the development of the profession: the absence of a sociological community of interests, the weak forms of association not supporting sociologists working in non-academic settings with regards to interprofessional conflicts and a public presence that conveys and transmits the usefulness of the profession and the discipline. Sociologists rarely use the skills acquired through formal education to strengthen their position in the labour market through collective actions. Their effort to control the market of particular services is too weak. In the paper, I argue for the need to construct a community of interest that intends to include practitioners and academic sociologists in their entirety, independently from institutional membership and to promote sufficient control on the dynamics of supply and demand of professional services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper starts from the thesis that unhindered international communication is a central characteristic of modern science. Second, the paper argues that scientific progress cannot be defined unequivocally in the social sciences. Four structures inhibit free international communication (linguistic barriers, the size of a national sociological community, the quality of scientific research, and the influence of specific sociologists and their schools). Third, three kinds of data are used to investigate the relevance of these factors: The participation in international congresses, the quotation patterns in major sociological journals and the reasons for the exceptional success of three sociologists, from the USA, France and Germany, respectively. Finally, a short hint toward the development of sociology outside the Western world is given. The paper concludes with some reflections on strategies to change the one-sided, asymmetrical communication in sociology toward a more balanced pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I outline my ongoing research into the life and work of the forgotten sociologist Pearl Jephcott (1900–1980) with three objectives in mind. First, I consider the practice 'doing' of biographical research into Pearl's life and work as well as briefly discuss how researching 'sociological biographies' intersects with 'genealogical' research. I do this to give a clear overview of the biographical research process and offer some insights into the realities/practicalities of the 'doing' of biographical research. This is important to 'throw light on our practices' (p. 167) as mentioned by Moore, Salter, Stanley, and Tamboukou [2016, The archive project archival research in the social sciences. London: Routledge] so that those who want to engage in this approach can learn directly from those who do biographical research. Second, using her notebooks, I briefly outline Jephcott's sociological/biographical research practice. Pearl was a biographical research practitioner well before this approach became 'fashionable' and ahead of the 'biographical turn'. Finally, the paper concludes with the sharing the lessons that I, and others, have and can learn from Pearl's work, and I reflect a little on how researching Pearl's biography has changed my sociological practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper turns to the work of the Portuguese sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos and explores how a set of concepts he developed over the years may constitute valuable tools in the task of decolonising and pluriversalising Human Rights Education (HRE). Informed by decolonial theory, Santos highlights that the struggle for global social justice is inseparable from the struggle for cognitive justice, namely, the recognition of epistemic diversity. This paper makes a contribution to the efforts that view the pluriversalisation of HRE as inextricable parts of the wider task of decolonising knowledge and education and struggling for social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the construction of combat motivation in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), arguing that although Israeli society at large is in a 'Post Heroic' era, the 'Heroic Spirit' is revealed during emergencies. A total of 1535 questionnaires were administered among combat soldiers during large-scale operations fought during national emergency and during small-scale routine operations. The results reveal differences in the construction of combat motivation typical for emergency vs. routine, as well as for reserves vs. regular units. These results indicate that the Post Heroic era is a condition that could be shifted according to cultural, organisational and individual determinants. This paper discusses the roots of these constructions and their implications on the theory of combat motivation and combat experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper engages with the recent discourse on decolonization of knowledge in South Africa from a sociological perspective. It interrogates the position and relevance of both sociology and sociologists to the development aspirations of South Africa. Its basic assumption is that sociology as a discipline is invaluable to the current needs for social reformation and reconstruction in South Africa. While the relevance of sociology as a discipline consistent with unravelling the complex and complicated dynamics of social formations remains unquestioned, its value as the embodiment of social aspirations and development has been undermined by the unquestioning assumption of the superiority of knowledge systems from outside and the glaring failure to promote sociology that is both contextualized and responsive. There is no arguing the prominent role of sociology in the liberation struggles and initial encounter with imperialism; there is also no doubt that sociologists nowadays have found comfort in an uninvolving study of society and the generation of knowledge that hardly functions as an adequate anchor for the existential needs of society. This paper therefore argues for the emergence of "frontier" sociologists and sociology of relevance which interrogates knowledge from outside and critically builds conviviality between outsider and African ontologies and epistemologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociology has made significant contributions to the conceptualisation of risk and critique of technical risk analysis. It has, however, unintentionally reinforced the division of labour between the natural/technical and social sciences in risk analysis. This paper argues that the problem with conceptualisations of risk is not a misplaced emphasis on calculation. Rather, it is that we have not adequately dealt with ontological distinctions implicit in both sociological and technical work on risk between material or objective risks and our socially mediated understandings and interpretations of those risks. While acknowledging that risks are simultaneously social and technical, sociologists have not, in practice, provided the conceptual and methodological tools to apprehend risk in a less dualistic manner. This limits our ability both to analyse actors and processes outside the social domain and to explore the recursive relationships between risk calculus, social action and the material outcomes of risk. In response, this paper develops a material-semiotic conceptualisation of risk and provides an assessment of its relevance to more sociologically informed risk governance. It introduces the ideas of co-constitution, emergent entities and enactment as instruments for reconciling the material and social worlds in a sociological study of risk. It further illustrates the application of a material-semiotic approach using these concepts in the nuclear industry. In deconstructing social-material dualisms in the sociology of risk, this paper argues that a material-semiotic conceptualisation of risk enables both technical and social perspectives on risk not only to coexist but to collaborate, widening the scope for interdisciplinary research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although attempts to complement the concept of reflexivity with social embeddedness have been made by many sociologists, theoretical tools for coming to grips with ‘temporally embedded’ aspects of reflexive activity have yet to make an entrance in the sociological arena. This paper intends to rectify this deficiency by spelling out how laypeople’s reflexive orientations draw onpastlived experiences in the social world. Margaret Archer’s celebrated approach to reflexivity struggles to accommodate this dimension of reflexive agents since its clear ‘subjective–objective distinction’ is hostile to any talk of reflexivity as beinghistorically constituted. A complementary account that allows us to map out and systematize temporal processes concerning reflexivity is, therefore, apt, an account that must address the fact that: reflexive activity does not start from scratch, in a vacuum, each time it operates; and, effects of previous lived experiences are at the heart of the mediatory process of reflexivity. By drawing on phenomenologically inspired sociology, and borrowing Schütz’s notion of ‘stock of knowledge’, I intend to flesh out how my account of reflexivity can be reconciled with the durable effects of sociotemporal embeddednesswithoutsacrificing the subjective and agentic qualities of reflexive activity. One immediate upshot of this ‘reconciliation’ is an empirical project that links a variety of reflexive orientations to multiple ‘time points’ (relevant lived experiences) and offers the prospect of penetrating deep intohowsocialization processes, identity formation and life trajectories actually transpire through temporality and reflexivity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sport sociologists are often required to interpret, question and respond to the ways in which fairness and eligibility concerns in elite sports are represented in policy frameworks produced by sports governing bodies. Drawing on Carol Bacchi's critical policy analysis framework, 'what is the problem represented to be?', this paper explores the importance in developing a critical eye and reading about representations of women athletes with particular differences of sex development (DSD) with elevated testosterone levels and the idea of regulating their testosterone levels in the female classification. Through using the above critical policy analysis line of questioning, this analysis aims to consider what the problem of women athletes with relevant DSDs with elevated testosterone levels in female elite sports is represented to be; what the assumptions underlying these representations of the problem are; how these representations of the problem have come about; what is left unproblematic in this problem representation; what the lived effects produced by these representations of the problem are; and how these representations of the problem have been produced, disseminated, defended, questioned, disrupted and even could be replaced. The critical policy analysis argues that the continuing persistence of policies marking particular women with DSDs as a problem, is related in part to societal views defining particular bodies and athletic abilities in the female classification as either 'right' or 'wrong' and in need of fixing. In moving forward and redressing the problem, it requires the embodiment of biomedical ethics and human rights advocacy work by sports governing bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural sociologists and geographers have conceptualised different rural development trajectories including “the agri-industrial model”, “the post-productivist model” and “the rural development model”. Alternative food networks (AFNs) are increasingly recognised as a “forerunner” and a critical component of the emerging “rural development model” in the West. Meanwhile, Marsden and Franklin [2013. Replacing neoliberalism: theoretical implications of the rise of local food movements.Local Environment, 18 (5), 636–641] pointed out that there is a “local trap” in the current conceptualisation of AFNs that overemphasises their local embeddedness and heterogeneity. This “local trap” marginalises AFNs and, therefore, hinders their potential for transforming the industrialised conventional food system. The convergence and scaling-up of fragmented AFNs have been recognised as important ways to address this marginalisation issue and thus have attracted considerable attention. However, current studies of the convergence of AFNs focus mainly on the role of food-centred organisations without recognising the role of the emerging “rural development” initiatives in the convergence of AFNs. Based on in-depth interviews with key stakeholders and analysis of secondary data, this paper uses the New Rural Reconstruction Movement (NRRM), an emerging alternative rural development movement in China, as an example to illustrate how the NRRM opens up a novel space for the convergence of AFNs. We argue that the interrelationship between AFNs and rural development is indeed reciprocal. The NRRM, following the “rural development” trajectory, functions as a hub for the convergence and scaling-up of various alternative food initiatives. Strategies for achieving convergence include constructing a “common ground” for these initiatives, establishing national alliances and organisations, sharing knowledge and exchanging personnel among them. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article takes up the story of a numerical indicator of system water losses called Non-Revenue Water (NRW), which is becoming an important measure for benchmarking South African Water Service Authorities (WSAs). The aim of this paper is, in the first place, to document the adoption of NRW as a Performance Indicator (PI), showing how it reflects a shift in the domestic regulatory framework in South Africa and the assumed priorities of water managers in line with the dominant governmental rationality in the sector. However, in drawing this discussion towards the theme of commodification I also show that the NRW audit enables a new way of seeing and speaking about "public water," while the story of its uptake tells us a something about the development of contemporary governmental norms, and the forms of the resistance that shape it. On the one hand then, the article links the enthusiasm for NRW auditing in South Africa to a wider movement in the development and usage of audits and indicators as technologies of government at a distance. On the other hand, and stepping to a higher level of abstraction, I argue that the uptake of NRW must be read in relation to a contested set of processes marked by struggles over the commodification of water, and which sometimes turns up in the numbers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is organized in three stages. In the first part, I outline the evolution of the notion of altruism with its critical dimension of political economy by following the intellectual sequence from Auguste Comte to Pierre Bourdieu, through Emile Durkheim and Marcel Mauss. In the second, I consider the forms of transaction to which these sociologists report altruism and its derivatives. In the last section, I examine recent developments on altruism as a result of developments on performativity on the one hand and market design on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the flash crashes and market manipulations blamed on high-frequency trading (HFT), algorithms have been brought inside the regulatory perimeter. This paper focuses on the most ambitious regulation directed at the practice: the algorithm-tagging rule in the German High-Frequency Trading Act. Fifteen interviews with stakeholders in the Act’s implementation serve to reconstruct how regulators defined an algorithm and help pose the question of to what extent regulatory definitions and data need accurately to represent financial practices to be useful. Although tentative in its findings, the research suggests that the algorithm-tagging rule may be providing valuable signals in the noise to trade surveillance officers and having virtuous effects on the cultures of trading firms. The conclusion argues that sociologists of finance should adopt a more balanced approach when evaluating regulatory technologies and heed MacKenzie’s 2005 call to open up their black boxes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines Louisiana’s habitual offender statute and the role of a sociologist as a mitigation expert/criminologist in a specific case. The paper includes a summary of the habitual offender statute; the literature/theories used by the sociologist in his testimony; the trial judge’s decision; and the decision of the three-judge panel of the appellant court, particularly the minority opinion. The case has been returned to the district court for re-sentencing and the trial judge is under no obligation to accept the panel’s decision; but in practice must justify any lenient sentence. The use of sociology as mitigation in criminal cases generally is discussed. The author has worked in over 300 criminal cases since 1988, most of which were capital murder, but also include second-degree murder, manslaughter, armed robbery, rape, and habitual offender hearings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sociology of the South, as a substantive area research interest, emerged during the 1800s as a means to rationalize and preserve the cultural norms of slavery era whites who would soon experience seismic social shocks including the Civil War and emancipation of enslaved blacks. The person singularly cited as the architect of this area of study is Howard W. Odum. Although Odum is identified as the person most responsible for the development of this field, archival data indicate that W. E. B. Du Bois and the men and women of the Atlanta Sociological Laboratory were its first practitioners. In this paper evidence is offered to show that Du Bois's Atlanta University efforts predated Odum's North Carolina research program. Additionally, an explanation for Du Bois's marginalization in the existing sociology of the South literature is offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents results from a collaborative research project investigating European scholars from the social sciences and humanities (SSH) who acted as public intellectuals during the 2014 European Parliament (EP) election campaign. We analyze op-ed contributions published in 21 broadsheet newspapers and in 9 EU member states, written by 195 authors who contributed 262 articles. The result is a portrait of European SSH scholars acting as public intellectuals. It shows a clear overrepresentation of male authors of advanced age. Academic reputation and public prestige show an east-west divide, with prominent authors prevalently publishing in renowned “West European” newspapers. Disciplinary background offers the most noticeable differentiations. Political scientists are most active, however, predominantly publishing in domestic settings. By contrast, economists reach out to a wider international audience and write explicitly on EU matters, while intervening sociologists and philosophers, as the most senior intellectuals, examine Europe in its wider international and historical context. Correspondence analysis comprising the content of public interventions, and key characteristics of all contributors, suggests that even during the EU electoral campaign, scholars from the SSH do not necessarily contribute to the rise of a European public sphere, as their interventions are more domestic than European in focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACTDigital forensics (DF) has existed since the 1970s when industry and government first began developing tools to investigate end users engaging in Web-enabled financial fraud. Over the next 40 years, DF evolved until, in 2010, the National Research Council ‘officially’ recognized DF as a forensic discipline. Over its evolution, DF developed some of the traits of a profession, which sociologists suggest include the following: (1) specialized knowledge; (2) specialized training; (3) work that is of great value; (4) credat emptor (‘let the buyer trust’) relations with clients; (5) a code of professional ethics; (6) cooperative relations with other members; (7) high levels of autonomy; and (8) self-regulation. This paper reviews the development of DF and argues that despite making strides, DF has not yet achieved the status of a profession as described by social scientists, and that it will not achieve that status until it remedies several deficiencies and addresses impediments preventing it from attaining that status, including the perceived low social status of the field’s clientele and an inability of the field to convince the public it occupies a unique place within the larger division of labor in society. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

“Slow journalism” is a term anthropologist and sociologists sometimes use to describe their empirical work, ethnography. To journalists and media observers, meanwhile, “slow journalism” signifies a newfound dedication to serious long-form journalism. Not surprisingly, thus, “ethnographic journalism”—a genre where reporters adopt research strategies from social science—takes “slow” to the extreme. Immersing themselves in communities for weeks, months and years, ethnographic journalists seek to gain what anthropologists call “the native's point of view”. Based on in-depth interviews with practitioners and analyses of their journalistic works, this paper offers a study of ethnographic journalism suggesting that slow time operates in at least three separate registers. First, in terms of regimentation, ethnographic journalism is mostly long-form pieces that demand time-consuming research and careful writing and editing. Second, in terms of representation, practitioners report on the quotidian rather than urgent events. Third, deceleration is an essential tool for acquiring an insider's perspective. Ethnographic journalists describe a point during reporting at which their attitudes begin to change and they start to understand how things make sense to their sources. Their accounts reveal processes of “reorientation”—an added aspect of deceleration that must be included in the debate on “slow journalism”. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Based on research in Karratha, a remote resource town in Western Australia, this paper explores the ways in which blue-collar affluence disturbs the meritocratic mythology of formal education. In the opening decade of the twenty-first century Karratha was one of Australia's most affluent towns, yet its adult population was characterised by a level of formal qualifications that was well below the national average. These demographic realities test fundamental beliefs about the functions of education in industrial modernity in ways that help illuminate the importance of Corbett's challenge for educational sociologists to strengthen their commitment to posthumanist studies focused on building sustainable human spaces, particularly in rural areas. Further to this we need to stretch the possibilities of humanist education beyond the successes linked to financial security. Comprehending alternatives to the structurating influence of the myth of an education-based meritocracy offers an important strategy for doing so. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There was a long-held belief, that, prior to the 1970s, women were no longer involved in paid labour once they were married or began to have children. Official statistics also supported this particular national narrative. This paper argues that this narrative did not accurately reflect the historical situation because the methods used to determine who worked and when did not fully capture all of women's paid labour at the time. This is reflected in a small study of older women and their recollections of paid employment. Some women initially claimed that they did no paid work after marriage, but with low key, in-depth and persistent questioning, it became clear that many women did work in an unofficial capacity (in the black economy) or alongside their husbands in their paid employment. This is a preliminary study that underlines the importance of life-course narratives in the social sciences to delve deeply into women's memories and thus their experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A personal narrative is presented which explores the author's experience of meeting and knowing African sociologist Bernard Makhosezwe Magubane.

In this paper I present and summarize the theoretical proposals of four leading scholars of the so-called ‘relational sociology’. First of all I try to contextualize its emergence and developments in the increasingly globalized scientific system. From this particular (and international) point of view, relational sociology seems to develop through a peculiar scientific path opened and charted by well-identified actors and competitors, their invisible colleges, their global connections, cleavages, and coalitions. Whatever the structuring of this field, it accomplishes the criticism of classical individualistic and collectivistic sociological theories, a task strongly facilitated by the development of new methods and techniques of empirical research, and by the increasingly powerful computing capabilities. After this brief historical reconstruction, and following very strictly the contributions of the four scholars, I try to synthetize their theoretical designs, focusing the analysis on two scientific issues of great significance for the future of relational sociology: the specific ontology of ‘social relations’ and the methodologies used to observe it adequately. Finally, I wonder if we are facing a new sociological paradigm, already well structured and internationally established, or rather a ‘relational turn’ that probably will develop into a new ‘sociological field’ internally very differentiated and articulated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In recent years, many different versions of relational sociology have appeared. In this paper, I present a critical realist version developed since 1983, which is also called ‘relational theory of society’ (CRRS). It shares with the other relational sociologies the idea of avoiding both methodological individualism and holism. The main differences lie in the way social relations are defined, the kind of reality that is attributed to them, how they configure social formations, and the way in which their changes are conceived (morphogenesis and emergence). In particular, this approach is suitable to understand how the morphogenesis of society comes about through social relations, which are the connectors that mediate between agency and social structure. The generative mechanism that feeds social morphogenesis resides in the dynamic (that is, in their ways of operating) of the social relations networks that alter the social molecule constituting structures already in place. Social morphogenesis is a form of surplus of society with respect to itself. Society increases (or decreases) its potential for surplus depending on processes of valorization (or devalorization) of social relations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article argues for a broader reconsideration of American sociologist Everett C. Hughes's work, and of the initial reaction of the discipline of sociology to the atrocities of the Holocaust. In particular, it looks at how Hughes's thoughts offer us a lens through which to view the polarizing debate on whether genocide should be seen as an expression of the "banality of evil," or whether focus should be placed on its planning and premeditation. Reading his work within the context of Pierre Bourdieu, one discovers a series of reasons why American sociologists have been slow in seeing the importance of Hughes's categories of ordinary executioners in the comprehension of the Holocaust. Additionally, the article sheds light on how it is possible to emend the supposedly delayed response to the Holocaust by sociology. Finally, the article will show how re-reading Hughes's writings, as well as the scholarly criticism of them, contribute new insights to the historical debate among functionalists, intentionalists and logicists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Social Sciences and, specifically, the sociological research, have progressively assumed the gender factor as one of the strategic keys to understand contemporary phenomena. In fact, as a variable for socio-statistical analysis or as a characterizing trait of individual identity, it is a decisive factor in the interpretation of the deep social transformations, and it inspires the self-reflection of the sociologists about the analytical tools of their discipline. The contribution proposes, through a lexicometric approach, an analysis of the articles published in the last two decades by the oldest journal of Sociology, published by Routledge. The main aim is to highlight the different ways in which gender issues are declined in the international sociological researches presented in the repertoire of the International Review of Sociology and to outline, both on the lexical level and on the topic level, the changes occurred over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores contemporary threads in the heritage history of Aotearoa New Zealand, as we witness in real-time the emergence of alternative narratives of Indigenous heritage, in contrast to those of Western dominated modernity and colonial hegemony. Moves to actively decolonise heritage studies is creating shifts in the bicultural understanding of culture and heritage to overtly include place heritage. As this new framing emerges, wider acknowledgement of the significance of Māori heritage landscapes is growing. This is explored here in a series of four case-studies. Each account illustrates how Indigenous Māori voices have gained momentum, and reinforces how Aotearoa New Zealand is transitioning to greater bicultural appreciation through inclusion, changes in social and cultural conventions, and new interpretations of dominant narratives using tools like critical heritage studies and existing legal conventions. This evolution of heritage values is not without repeated contestation, however. Positively, increasing numbers of settler-Pākehā (non-Māori) as well as those colonised, no longer believe or accept the histories previously told. Much needed, robust, and sometimes difficult discussions are taking place, enabling New Zealanders to reconsider the significance of what heritage means to all its people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-serving hegemonic visions of history are institutionalized by dominant memory entrepreneurs, simultaneously imposing an authoritative version of "what happened" and their right to articulate it. These visions and the hierarchies of honour they consecrate are cultivated trans-generationally, aiming to ensure the community's political cohesion, as well as the emotional attachments that can ensure its reproduction over time. This paper has three objectives. First, it brings insights from social epistemology to bear on a conceptualization of political memory-making and proposes the concepts of "hermeneutical dissidence" and "hermeneutical seduction" to capture the critical interrogation of such mythologies. It highlights the obstacles facing any attempt at subverting them, particularly given the resilience of cognitive and emotional investments in particular schemas of perception and understanding in relation to the boundaries of the community and its history. Second, I transplant the descriptive concept of "affair" formulated by pragmatic sociologists into debates about political memory, infusing it with a dose of normativity in order to shed critical light on various types of hermeneutical dissidence from dominant, emotionally anchored, exclusionary imaginaries. Third, to render the theoretical proposal concrete, I introduce two "memory affairs," both triggered by debates over the meaning and gender of political resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political acceptability is an essential issue in choosing appropriate climate policies. Sociologists and behavioural scientists recognize the importance of selecting environmental policies that have broad political support, while economists tend to compare different instruments first on the basis of their efficiency, and then by assessing their distributional impacts and thus their political acceptability. This paper examines case-study and empirical evidence that the job losses ascribed (correctly or incorrectly) to climate policies have substantial impacts on the willingness of affected workers to support these policies. In aggregate, the costs of these losses are significantly smaller than the benefits, both in terms of health and, probably, of labour market outcomes, but the losses are concentrated in specific areas, sectors and social groups that have been hit hard by the great recession and international competition. Localized contextual effects, such as peer group pressure, and politico-economic factors, such as weakened unions and tightened government budgets, amplify the strength and the persistence of the 'job-killing' argument. Compensating for the effects of climate policies on 'left-behind' workers appears to be the key priority to increase the political acceptability of such policies, but the design of compensatory policies poses serious challenges. Key policy insights Public perception of, and support for, climate policies is substantially reduced in the presence of large negative shocks, especially job losses. Climate policies can be perceived as negative for employment, especially in areas where polluting industries represent a large share of employment and in occupations and sectors already damaged by globalization and automation. Policymakers should distinguish between small and large distributional effects of climate policies, and find the appropriate combination of revenue recycling schemes, industrial and retraining policies as well as compensation packages to increase the support for such policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses two current debates that have generated increasing interest in a number of countries but have rarely been considered together: the debate on religious and interreligious literacy and the debate on the assessment of the outcomes of Religious Education (RE). Against this background, both debates are reviewed and critically discussed in relation to the following questions: 1) What guiding educational ideas are connected to the new or renewed interest in religion-related knowledge, and which ideas form the shared motives that influence the two debates? 2) What is the empirical basis of these debates? The results indicate that the educational basis of the two debates is currently underdeveloped, and their empirical foundations are rather weak. In addition, there is a need to direct attention towards strengthening religious and interreligious literacy in, for example, RE. The debates on both (inter-)religious literacy and the assessment of the RE outcomes should be based on clear educational guidelines and informed by solid empirical results that directly address religious literacy and the religion-related knowledge of young people. Moreover, we conclude that the two debates should be developed together, as they both require enhanced theoretical understandings and empirical insights. This article focuses on two separate debates that have recently attracted interest in several countries around the world: the debate on religious and interreligious literacy and the debate on the assessment of the outcomes of Religious Education (RE). Although these debates have similar themes and are influenced by shared factors, they have rarely been considered together. From this standpoint, both debates are briefly reviewed and critically discussed in this article. The analysis is directed by two questions: What guiding educational ideas are connected to the new or renewed interest in religion-related knowledge, and which ideas form the shared motives that influence the two debates? What is the empirical basis of these debates? The results show that the educational basis of the two debates is currently underdeveloped, and their empirical foundations are rather weak. In addition, there is a need to strengthen religious and interreligious literacy in, for example, RE. The debates on both (inter-)religious literacy and the assessment of the RE outcomes should use clear educational guidelines and include solid empirical results that directly focus on religious literacy and the religion-related knowledge of young people. Moreover, both debates should be developed together to improve their theoretical understandings and empirical insights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coauthorship has intensified as a mode of production across the twentieth century and into the twenty-first in a large number of fields. Yet sole authorship remains a publishing mode in some fields. Publishing is not only an individual behavior but is also nestled in organizations. To that end, incentives to sole – or co-author work may vary organizationally, a topic that prior research has not addressed. This article fills that void by examining authorship patterns by where one works in a stratification of academic institutions. Data for the study come from the published research articles obtained from the CVs of over 500 sociologists situated in thirty U.S. sociology departments grouped into three tiers using program rankings established by the National Research Council. After accounting for demographic characteristics and the principal research methods that sociologists use in their work, the study reveals significant organizational differences in the propensity to publish multi-authored work in a field where sole authorship remains a mode of scholarly production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociologists are working to expand knowledge about the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ+) college students. Yet there is little research on how these students come to navigate their identities over the course of higher education. Analyzing in-depth interviews with 20 LGBQ+ college seniors, this study finds evidence of two ways of making meaning of LGBQ+ identity that correspond with two strategies for managing identity disclosure. One group of participants described being LGBQ+ as a painful or peripheral identity; they compartmentalized communities, revealing their identity in some settings but not others. Meanwhile, a second group of participants perceived LGBQ+ identities as a source of pride and core to their sense of self. They created continuity by disclosing their sexual orientation across settings. These strategies extended to students' plans for after college as they anticipated how they would navigate their identities following graduation. Our findings have implications for students' experiences in higher education and opportunities in the transition to post-baccalaureate life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pandemic has exacerbated the dilemmas facing college students and their institutions of higher education, and the pressures on institutions to be accountable to multiple stakeholders have, if anything, increased. No one is opposed to accountability in principle. The issue, rather, is who determines what constitutes academic quality and the key dimensions of student success. A substantial literature now exists highlighting the problems that accrue when neoliberal thinking gains ascendancy in higher education. What is not stressed enough in these discussions are the implications of the neoliberal audit mentality on pedagogy itself – on how we teach. I will discuss the negative impact on teaching of three accountability systems that are widely institutionalized on college campuses – the student evaluation of teaching at the end of the semester, the assessment of student learning in the major, and program review of the major or academic program. Further, I will outline ways that we as sociologists might act as individual faculty members, as members of departments, or as members of larger professional organizations to resist or mitigate those pressures. As sociologists, we should be well positioned to see beyond the individual course or career and to argue for the collective with a reality sui generis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]