This article argues that the failure of certain theories of reflexive identity transformation to consider more fully issues connected to gender identity leads to an overemphasis on the expressive p...

Gender, Habitus and the Field: Pierre Bourdieu and the Limits of Reflexivity

As presently constituted, the analysis of `ideas' is deficient in two key respects. First, despite presenting itself as an alternative to the dominant rationalist perspective on international relations and foreign policy, the turn to `ideas' represents only a minor modification of that tradition, rather than a serious challenge to it. Second, the retention of the rationalist framework has had problematical implications for how `ideas' are conceptualized. Although explicitly defined as shared beliefs, we argue that the metaphors structuring rationalist analyses lead them to conceptualize `ideas' as objects. As an alternative, we offer a constructivist account of ideas as `symbolic technologies' that enable the production of representations. This different metaphor enables us to address directly the difficulties for analysis stemming from a conception of ideas as objects. It also opens up for examination a range of empirical phenomena overlooked by rationalist analysts.

Beyond Belief: ideas and symbolic technologies in the study of international relations

The study of masculinities has not escaped the influence of Judith Butler’s writings on gender, performativity, and subversion. However, this article suggests that Butler’s formulations of performativity and subversion express a lack of clarity and engender a number of problems with respect to agency, action, interaction, and social change. This article argues for reformulating performativity and subversion in a more explicitly sociological frame to render the concepts more useful for examining agency and subjectivity in the study of masculinities. The writings of Erving Goffman suggest ways to reclaim the socially constructed agency of “performance” from the mire of “performativity,” with the latter’s apparent disappearance of subjective action. This article suggests reworking subversion away from parody and resignification toward a consideration of resources for subjectivity and challenges to prevailing social structures. In this way, performativity and subversion may be set more convincingly within a s...

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Masculinities, Performativity, and Subversion: A Sociological Reappraisal

Body/Power/Identity: Passions of the Martyrs

This paper is concerned with modeling the nature of expertise and its role in society in relation to research on expert systems and enterprise models. It argues for the adoption of a collective stance in which the human species is viewed as a single organism recursively partitioned in space and time into sub-organisms that are similar to the whole. These parts include societies, organizations, groups, individuals, roles, and neurological functions. Notions of expertise arise because the organism adapts as a whole through adaptation of its interacting parts. The phenomena of expertise correspond to those leading to distribution of tasks and functional differentiation of the parts. The mechanism is one of positive feedback from parts of the organism allocating resources for action to other parts on the basis of those latter parts past performance of similar activities. Distribution and differentiation follow if performance is rewarded, and low performers of tasks, being excluded by the feedback mechanism from opportunities for performance of those tasks, seek out alternative tasks where there is less competition. The knowledge-level phenomena of expertise, such as meaning and its representation in language and overt knowledge, arise as byproducts of the communication, coordination and modeling processes associated with the basic exchange-theoretic behavioral model. The model is linked to existing analyses of human action and knowledge in biology, psychology, sociology and philosophy, and is used to analyze the role of information technology in supporting activities in the lifeworld.

http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/%7Egaines/reports/PSYCH/Collective/Collective.pdf

The collective stance in modeling expertise in individuals and organizations

Introduction Part I: In Search of Action 1. Action and Behaviour 2. Action and Social System 3. Rationality and the Theory of Action 4. Action and Labour 5. Action and the Subject-Structure Relation 6. Action and Communication 7. Where to find Action Part II: Action as A Borderline Concept 1. The Reduction of Action to Meaning 2. Observance of Rules and Relation to Rules 3. The Revival of the Philosophy of Praxis 4. Life-World and Anonimous Intentionality 5. The Ontology of Understanding and the Hermeneutical Circle 6. Existential Phenomenology and Hermeneutic 7. Hermeneutic and Pragmatism Part III: General Categories of Action 1. Action and Desire 2. Insecurity and Identity 3. Action as Involvement: Care and Responsibility 4. Action and Transcendence Part IV: Power 1. Sociality and Normative Order 2. Inner Power 3. Outer Power 4. Structural Power and the Production of Inequality 5. Structural Power and Social System: the Crises of Power 6. Theories of Power and Theory of Action Part V: Problems of Method 1. Hermeneutic and Scientific Discourse 2. The Phenomenological Analysis of Action 3. Social Research in a Hermeneutical Perspective Part VI: Some Conclusions.

Social action and power

Abstract As centres of population and human activities, nowadays urban environments are simultaneously the main cause of and solution to a growing number of health-related challenges. In this setting, COVID-19 pandemic has helped reiterate this and serves as a wake-up call and an opportunity to rethink the way we approach cities. Aim of this paper is to research what today seems the most promising urban model for long-term individual and global resilience: the “city of proximity”, namely about inclusive walkable and cycling environments where people can access all basic destinations within reasonable times and distances from home. Therefore, urban proximity dimension, methodological approach and urban features and functions become the main subject of a quanti-qualitative matrix of comparison of five international case studies centred on the topic, by which it is possible to set out general criteria for such model, along with a methodology to measure all cities in its respect. As a result, residential density, functional mix, pedestrian surface, cycle routes, public transport stops, green areas, schools, cultural facilities, sport facilities, retail services and urban gardens make up the fix components of a comprehensive set of 11+n urban features, whose occurrence is investigated through GIS-based analysis within designated distance ranges, creating a comprehensive assessment framework that is adjustable to all urban contexts worldwide. In the end, the application of such framework to the city of Milan finally helps to validate its effectiveness in providing a picture of city-wide accessibility to proximity services, and in highlighting the value of integrated analysis in view of shaping public policies and informed planning choices which put health and sustainability at the centre.

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Franco Crespi

Papers

Social action and power

(Re)thinking the city of proximity for Salutogenic purposes