Showing papers in "Canadian Journal of Sociology in 2015"

How Unreligious are the Religious “Nones”? Religious Dynamics of the Unaffiliated in Canada

Abstract: Increasing rates of religious non-affiliation have been a fundamental transformation of Canadian society since the 1970s. Such increases, present across the West, have received much attention from researchers and sparked much debate. Two competing frameworks identify differing mechanisms behind the rise in individuals declaring having no religion. Secularization theories see this trend as indicating a decline of all things religious. By contrast, individualization theories argue it is only institutional indicators of religiosity which are on the decline, and individually constructed spirituality systems are becoming the norm. Yet, little systematic empirical testing has been done on this subject, especially in the Canadian context. Generating single- and multi-level regression models with data from the Canadian GSS and the ISSP, this paper undertakes a novel comparison of religiosity levels among the unaffiliated between Canadian provinces, between a number of Western nations and regions as well as between age groups.

Schools, Cultural Mobility, and Social Reproduction: The Case of Progressive Discipline

Abstract: Drawing on a case study of Progressive Discipline (PD), this paper asks: How does greater discretion, flexibility and parent involvement affect the application of school policy? What are the consequences of these conditions? PD is part of a suite of changes that caters to students’ individualized academic and social needs while formalizing increased parent involvement. Drawing on forty-four interviews with school staff members, we find that PD has the potential to enhance students’ social and behaviour literacy. And yet, educators are unable to fully tame higher-SES (Socio-Economic Status) parents. According to our interviewees, higher-SES parents are more likely to participate in disciplinary proceedings, confront and threaten school staff and negotiate more favourable disciplinary outcomes for their children. Our paper contributes to cultural capital theory by examining how higher-SES families exploit “discretionary spaces” (i.e., opportunities that allow parents to improve their child’s social, academic or disciplinary outcomes) in schooling organizations. Resume : En s’appuyant sur une etude de cas de mesures disciplinaires progressives (MDP), cet article pose la question : Comment une plus grande discretion, souplesse et participation des parents influent sur la mise en pratique de la politique scolaire ? Quelles sont les consequences de ces mesures ? Les MDP font partie d’une serie de changements qui repondent aux besoins scolaires et sociaux individualises des eleves, tout en formalisant la participation accrue des parents. A partir de quarante-quatre entretiens avec des membres du personnel œuvrant dans des ecoles, nous constatons que les MDP ont le potentiel d’ameliorer les habiletes sociales et comportementales des eleves. Pourtant, les educateurs sont incapables de composer de facon satisfaisante avec les parents jouissant d’un statut socio-economique plus eleve. Selon les membres du personnel interviewes, il est plus probable que les parents de statut socio-economique plus eleve participent plus activement au suivi disciplinaire, confrontent et menacent le personnel de l’ecole et negocient des solutions disciplinaires plus favorables pour leurs enfants. Notre article contribue a la theorie du capital culturel en observant comment les familles de statut socio-economique plus eleve exploitent des « espaces discretionnaires » (c’est a dire, les possibilites qui permettent aux parents d’ameliorer les resultats sociaux, academiques ou disciplinaires de leur enfant) dans les organisations scolaires.

The Media Construction of Climate Change Quiescence: Veiling the Visibility of a Super Emitter

Abstract: Castells hypothesized two possibilities concerning global warming: i) a world awakening to the danger with policies to reverse it, or ii) the defense of productivism at all costs. Canada is presently pursuing economic benefits of a fossil-fuel superexporter, which makes it a superemitter. By focusing on the discursive legitimation of practices that cause anthropogenic climate change, this article shows how communication power in the Canadian mass media veils the adverse consequences of extracting oil from bituminous sand. It demonstrates how concern about emissions is dampened and quiescence socially constructed. The mediation between scientific warnings of danger and polluting social practices by media communication power constitutes an important element explaining why Canada’s emissions are increasing. It also explains why science, an institution claimed to be particularly influential in reflexive, cosmopolitan modernization, is having little influence in societies like Canada when it brings troubling news. The article shows how a scientifically documented environmental problem becomes a societal non-problem.

Mapping the Field of Environmental Justice: Redistribution, Recognition and Representation in ENGO Press Advocacy

Abstract: The environment is increasingly seen as a meta-injustice or master frame of the politics of the new century. If this is indeed the case, environmental concerns should transcend national and organizational boundaries and should have a discursive claims-making space of their own. Research on environmental advocacy, however, shows that many claims for environmental justice are rooted in specific locales and advocacy is often mediated through, and at times overshadowed by, other dimensions of power. Using Nancy Fraser’s conception of dimensions of justice, and a Bourdieusian inspired field approach, this paper maps Greenpeace and Sierra Club’s press advocacy between 2006 and 2010. In doing so, the paper identifies environmental advocacy spaces and argues that non-parametric approaches to analysing ENGO media advocacy are needed to explain the complexity of multi-scaled political contexts.

Is She a Pawn, Prodigy or Person with a Message? Public Responses to a Child’s Political Speech

Abstract: The 2012 appearance on YouTube of a speech about banking reform prompted mainstream news coverage and hundreds of online comments, dwelling less on the content of the speech than on the speaker, Victoria Grant, a twelve year-old girl. A qualitative content analysis of over 600 comments revealed disagreement about children’s capacities as participants in political and economic discussions. Commenters’ mixed beliefs were linked to dominant, frequently contradictory, discourses of childhood. Victoria Grant was positioned as embedded in educational processes, as competent but often exceptional, as incompetent, and as innocent and therefore vulnerable. These conflicting yet emotionally charged narratives of childhood illustrate the concept’s rhetorical elasticity and flexibility. Despite advances in the cause of children’s social participation in recent years, most of these adult-centered narratives undermine the idea of children as legitimate contributors to economic analysis and political debate.

Mediating Environments: Introduction

Abstract: The impetus behind this special issue of the Canadian Journal of Sociology on “Mediating Environments” is to bring together current Canadian scholarship interrogating the relationships among the environment, media, and evolving concepts of mediation. Using “mediation” as a way of conceptualizing the interaction of human and non-human actors – whether environmental, technological, social, political – opens up ways of understanding social relationships to include more-than-human agencies and to reconsider the relations that shape subjects, objects, and identities.

Citizenship praCtiCes among Youth Who have experienCed government Care

Abstract: . Expressions of youth citizenship are evident in young people’s actions, behaviours, and lived experiences. While youth citizenship literature has proliferated in the last two decades, the focus has often been on rights and responsibilities, rather than the differences in citizenship practices amongst youth themselves. Using a qualitative research design, our study explores how youth-with-care-experience practice citizenship. We conducted twenty semi-structured interviews with youth-with-care-experience between the ages of 14-24 in Greater Victoria, Canada. Analysis of participants’ narratives reveals three types of citizenship practices: self-responsible, dissenting and reluctant citizenship. We discuss our findings in the context of the literature on youth citizenship, focusing on the ways that it is contextualized by experiences with family, peers, institutions, and the government care system. Resume. Les expressions de la citoyennete des jeunes sont evidentes dans leurs actions, comportements et leurs experiences vecues. Alors que la litterature reliee a la citoyennete des jeunes a prolifere dans les deux dernieres decennies, l’emphase a souvent ete mise sur les droits et les responsabilites, plutot que sur les differences dans les pratiques de la citoyennete chez les jeunes. En utilisant un modele de recherche qualitatif, notre etude explore comment la citoyennete est vecue par les jeunes qui ont ete pris en charge. Nous avons effectue vingt entretiens semi-structures avec des jeunes qui ont ete pris en charge âges entre 14 et 24 ans dans la region de Victoria, Canada. L’analyse des donnees revele trois types de pratiques de la citoyennete: auto-responsable, dissidente et reticente. Nous discutons de nos resultats dans le contexte de la litterature sur la citoyennete des jeunes, en mettant l’accent sur les facons dont la citoyennete des jeunes est contextualisee par des experiences avec la famille, les pairs, les institutions et le systeme de sante.

Stratégies d’orientation et d’insertion professionnelle des jeunes issus de l’immigration à Montréal: motifs de choix des institutions postsecondaires anglophones et francophones

Abstract: Au Quebec, les nouveaux arrivants sont tenus, selon les politiques linguistiques, de frequenter les ecoles primaire et secondaire du secteur francophone. Or, au postsecondaire, le choix de la langue d’enseignement est laisse a la discretion de l’etudiant. Cet article presente les resultats d’une recherche qualitative menee aupres de jeunes issus de l’immigration (N=37) ayant poursuivi des etudes collegiales et universitaires dans des institutions francophones et anglophones. La sociologie de l’experience (Dubet 1994) a ete mobilisee afin de reperer les logiques d’orientation au postsecondaire. L’analyse revele que les choix d’orientation linguistiques sont lies a des strategies d’insertion professionnelle. Ainsi, une logique strategique semble expliquer principalement les choix d’orientation des jeunes interroges. Les motifs lies a l’appartenance linguistique ou identitaire sont quasi absents des discours des jeunes issus de l’immigration interroges. De meme, la dimension « expressive » des choix scolaires, axee sur l’accomplissement personnel a travers les etudes, est peu presente dans les discours des jeunes.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Pine Beetles And Humans: The Ecologically Mediated Development Of British Columbia’s Carbon Tax

Abstract: In 2008, the province of British Columbia was an early mover in North America introducing a broad-based and escalating carbon tax. This article explores the interface between the human and non-human environment that resulted in this policy outcome. I use Actor-Network Theory, with its emphasis on the co-construction of human and non-humans, to describe, inform, and problematize the way humans relate to the non-human environment. Drawing on a post-humanist Latourian perspective, I examine the interlocking relationship between “chemical reactions and political reactions.” I explore five examples of human and non-human mediation in the development of British Columbia’s carbon tax: environmental pricing, the beetle epidemic, political economy, emissions accounting, and emotion. Applying Actor-Network Theory to the case of British Columbia’s carbon tax disrupts traditional anthropocentric approaches to policy development, highlighting the role of the non-human environment in shaping, rather than simply being shaped by, policy.

Les effets des programmes d’été de littératie : Les théories sur les opportunités d’apprentissage et les élèves « non traditionnels » dans les écoles de langue française en Ontario

Abstract: Selon des etudes americaines et realisees au Canada anglais, les ecarts au chapitre du rendement scolaire se creusent durant la periode des vacances estivales lorsque les eleves ne frequentent pas l’ecole. Neanmoins, les interventions scolaires en litteratie peuvent reduire ces ecarts. Le present article presente les resultats d’une etude quasi experimentale, effectuee dans huit conseils scolaires de district de langue francaise en Ontario, aupres de 682 eleves de la premiere a la troisieme annee en 2010, 2011 et 2012. Nous avons compare la progression des resultats des tests en lecture de 361 participants aux programmes d’apprentissage pendant l’ete a ceux des 321 eleves du groupe temoin entre juin et septembre. Les participants au programme d’apprentissage pendant l’ete avaient au depart des resultats en lecture et resultats scolaires plus faibles, et provenaient majoritairement de milieux socio-economiques defavorises. Neanmoins, les programmes d’apprentissage pendant l’ete ont reduit les ecarts preexistants entre les deux groupes. L’ampleur de l’effet d’une variete de modeles d’analyses de regression multivariees et de modeles d’appariement des coefficients de propension ont varie de 0,32 a 0,58. Ces resultats representent un effet considerable dans le contexte de l’education au niveau primaire et des etudes sur les programmes d’apprentissage pendant l’ete. Les effets sont plus importants pour les eleves dont les parents ne parlent pas exclusivement le francais a la maison. Notre article applique la theorie sur les opportunites d’apprentissage au contexte des eleves dits « non traditionnels » dans les ecoles de langue francaise en Ontario.

Theorizing the Deep Parallel between Goffman and Freud: Goffman's Interaction Order as a Social-structural Underpinning of Psychoanalytic Concepts of the Self

Abstract: A dialectical reading of Goffman and Freud connects the Interaction Order to the psychoanalytic conception of the self and thereby open up new possibilities of interpretation and transformation. Goffman’s concept of the Interaction Order enables us to understand more clearly the Freudian concepts of superego, ego-ideal, and the introjected Father. Next, we draw out the dramaturgical approach of both Goffman and Freud in terms of performing self and performing illness and discuss how the psychoanalytic reading of Goffman’s work sheds light on the formation of neuroses and the neurotic symptoms which Freud characterized as a type of performance. Here we link Freud’s “symptoms” to Goffman’s modes of disordered or flawed modes of interaction, specifically hysteria connected to havoc and obsessive compulsive disorder connected to hyperritualization. This dialectical reading allows us to rethink notions of sociality and thereby opens new possibilities for constituting the relation between the self and the social.

Disciplinary Practices As Social Manoeuvers: A Field Theory Alternative To Michael Burawoy’s Typology Of Knowledge

Abstract: In his call for more public sociology, Michael Burawoy presents a generic framework to describe disciplinary structures in the social sciences. This model is based on a fourfold typology of knowledge which has been criticized by many. However, alternatives have fallen short of providing a convincing articulation of the social organisation and meaning of the intellectual practices the original typology was trying to describe. The debate on public sociology did not bridge differences in analytical beliefs about knowledge production and thus could not be expected to build a consensual disciplinary orientation. The current paper builds on field theory, organizational sociology, and interview data to frame the practices identified by Burawoy as social manoeuvers (i.e. ways of utilizing and legitimating knowledge) within specific social fields. In so doing, the paper provides a framework that is more flexible, more empirically adequate, and congruent with the sociology of science and the sociology of intellectuals and experts.