Showing papers in "International Sociology in 2013"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors evaluate the potential found within two approaches that recognize the complexity of social hierarchy in different ways and propose an intersectional framing which centres on social location and translocation.
Abstract: This article evaluates the potential found within two approaches that recognize the complexity of social hierarchy in different ways. First, it looks at the revival of class analysis within culturally inflected approaches to class. These have incorporated a number of societal relations, broadly referred to as the symbolic, the social and the cultural, into the analysis. Second, the article assesses attempts to theorize the intersections of gender, ethnicity and class through the intersectionality framework. It considers the potential for developing more integrated analytical frameworks for understanding social hierarchy through cross-referencing these debates. It proposes an intersectional framing which centres on social location and translocation.
214 citations
TL;DR: This article investigated the functions and implications of contemporary filial piety in three Chinese societies, namely, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China, using large-scale cross-national datasets from the 2006 East Asian Social Survey.
Abstract: This study investigates the functions and implications of contemporary filial piety in three Chinese societies, namely, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China, using large-scale cross-national datasets from the 2006 East Asian Social Survey. Despite the shared Confucian cultural values among these three societies, they have sharply differed in their paths toward modernization and in the development of their sociopolitical structures over the last century. The authors propose that the implications and influences of filial piety tend to be more similar in Taiwan and Hong Kong, but may be different in China because of profound differences in its sociopolitical system. Using the dual filial piety model as the baseline for comparative analyses, the results show that dual filial piety can be found in all three societies, although there are some componential alterations in China. The study also goes beyond the common practice of treating filial piety within the confines of caring for family elders by considering its funct...
196 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present an in-depth study of how Polish entrepreneurs in Munich, Germany, make use of their economic, social and cultural capital acquired in Poland and in Germany to position themselves transnationally.
Abstract: This article presents an in-depth study of how Polish entrepreneurs in Munich, Germany, make use of their economic, social and cultural capital acquired in Poland and in Germany to position themselves transnationally. The article studies these migrants’ life courses and draws attention to cross-border intersections between their cultural, social and economic capital with roots in different places. The article also throws light on the subjective evaluation of economic capital of migrants in a transnational frame. Three types of transnational social positioning of the migrants are discerned (single space, bi-local and overlapping), which suggest a new reading of Bourdieu’s work that is better adapted to the theoretical challenges faced by researchers who study people in transnational spaces.
106 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined the changes in intergenerational relations in four East Asian societies, chosen for their shared cultural background of patriarchy: China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, and found that despite changing family structures, co-residence between generations remains clearly patriarchal, and the main flow of inter-generational support is still from adult children to parents.
Abstract: Due to rapid aging of populations in East Asia, intergenerational relations are changing. This study examines these changes in four East Asian societies, chosen for their shared cultural background of patriarchy: China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Data were taken from the 2006 East Asian Social Survey. The authors’ analyses show that in these four East Asian societies, contemporary intergenerational relations reveal both continuity and change. Despite changing family structures, co-residence between generations remains clearly patriarchal, and the main flow of intergenerational support is still from adult children to parents. The dominant patriarchal culture also expresses itself in the continuing influence of filial norms on intergenerational relations, in that sons tend to perform various filial duties much more than daughters. However, the emergence of prolonged co-residence of young, unmarried and less educated adult children with their parents implies that the traditional pattern of intergenerational su...
71 citations
TL;DR: The process of policy diffusion is gaining increasing attention among social scientists as discussed by the authors, following world society theory, and a burgeoning literature reports a positive relationship between national lin..., and a growing literature reports that
Abstract: The process of policy diffusion is gaining increasing attention among social scientists. Following world society theory, a burgeoning literature reports a positive relationship between national lin...
64 citations
TL;DR: The authors questioned not only the secularization thesis, that religion is inevitably declining under conditions of modernity, but also the notion of the secular and its relation with the religious and its rela...
Abstract: Current debates in sociology are questioning not only the secularization thesis, that religion is inevitably declining under conditions of modernity, but also the notion of the secular and its rela...
43 citations
TL;DR: In this context, the question of whether the religious tradition migrants belong to, and which presumably shapes migrants' ethics, conforms to the values of host societies has drawn great attention in public debate as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Many of the key features of the contemporary era of global modernity bear powerful connections to religion and secularity. Worldwide migration brings with it the movement of religious identities and practices. Emergent forms of religious diversity challenge societies, especially those who have been marked by close connections between state, national identity and organized religion. More than before, migratory movements and questions regarding the rights of ‘newcomers’ are today at the centre of struggles over citizenship and maintain intimate links to struggles over the expansion of native residents’ citizenship rights as in the case of gay and lesbian mobilizations. In this context, the question of whether the religious tradition migrants belong to, and which presumably shapes migrants’ ethics, conforms to the values of host societies has drawn great attention in public debate. The demands of religious minorities to freely and equitably practice their religion and the practices of states to accommodate them are assessed in light of the values of democracy and human rights, and states, religious communities as well as ‘secular’ movements usually claim these values for themselves when justifying their lines of action in front of increasingly globalized audiences. Likewise, terrorism just as the so-called ‘war on terror’ responding to it and the forms of religious profiling of victims and potential suspects they engender, are fuelling contestations over religion and secularity. This suggests that secularity is often implied in social conflicts or processes of change that have other issues as their primary object. At the same time, however, the way secularity figures within configurations of modernity is fundamentally shaped by the long duree of civilizational history, by the way religion affects local cosmologies and
33 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compare three broad traditions that organize competing patterns of authority, community, and cooperation in contemporary Africa: the Axial religions (Christianity and Islam); indigenous chieftaincy systems based around chief, lineage, and clan; and globalized modernity, represented primarily by NGOs and the global human rights agenda.
Abstract: This article contrasts three broad traditions that organize competing patterns of authority, community, and cooperation in contemporary Africa: the Axial religions (Christianity and Islam); indigenous chieftaincy systems based around chief, lineage, and clan; and globalized modernity, represented primarily by NGOs and the global human rights agenda. The article argues that in many respects it is the Axial religions that are the most modernizing, as they directly counter the power of traditional kin obligations (and the overwhelming dangers of witchcraft), while the purportedly modern and secular NGOs practice a ritualized version of modernity, even as they are penetrated by the norms and practices of the kin-based chieftaincy system and its related system of patron–client ties.
31 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors draw on the concept of multiple secularities as culturally embedded forms of distinction between religious and non-religious spheres and practices, and argue that those dist...
Abstract: This article draws on the concept of ‘multiple secularities’ as culturally embedded forms of distinction between religious and non-religious spheres and practices. The authors argue that those dist...
31 citations
TL;DR: Based on ethnographic research of Japanese expatriate families in Los Angeles, the authors explores how Japanese expat mothers, in dealing with globalization and transnational migration, deve...
Abstract: Based on ethnographic research of Japanese expatriate families in Los Angeles, this article explores how Japanese expatriate mothers, in dealing with globalization and transnational migration, deve...
31 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored elites' perceptions of poverty, inequality, and social policy in Brazil and Uruguay from democratization to the recent shift toward left-wing governments, and explored their perceptions of inequality and poverty.
Abstract: This article approaches elites’ perceptions of poverty, inequality, and social policy in Brazil and Uruguay from democratization to the recent shift toward left-wing governments. It explores elites...
TL;DR: The authors draw a distinction between religion as heritage and as belief, and also show the complications which arise in predominantly Christian countries when "new arrivals" and "evangelicals" are mixed together.
Abstract: This article draws a distinction between religion as heritage and as belief, and also shows the complications which arise in predominantly Christian countries when ‘new arrivals’ and evangelical, P...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors put the debate into a broader historical framework and contributed to the debates on multiple modernities and multiple secularities in the Arab Middle East, where Islam was perceived as defender of popular rights against foreign domination and despotic rule.
Abstract: Irrespective of long-ongoing processes of secularization in all fields of public and private life, the principle of secularity continues to be highly contested in the Arab Middle East. The reasons are both cultural and political. In the age of colonialism followed by authoritarianism and accelerated globalization, Islamists were able to project themselves as defenders of popular rights against foreign domination and despotic rule, and to mobilize broad sections of the populace in the name of religion (i.e. Islam). In the Arab Middle East as in other parts of the Muslim world, it is not so much the relation between ‘state’ and ‘church’ that shapes the configuration of secularity, but rather the relation between the ordre public and Sharia, or ‘Islamic references’ more generally. By putting the debate into a broader historical framework this article also contributes to the debates on multiple modernities and multiple secularities.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors view human rights as a context-dependent and socially constructed discourse, and they investigate how it is used in social movements and investigate how human rights discourse is used.
Abstract: Human rights discourse is central for the work of international social movements. Viewing human rights as a context-dependent and socially constructed discourse, this article investigates how it is...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors adapts Robert Merton's theory of coping with social strain to revisit the main paradigms in the literature of migrant adaptation and develop five new ideal types of migrants adaptation: (1) migrant conformity through straight-line assimilation, (2) migrant ritualism through multidirectional assimilation; (3) migrant retreatism through segmented assimilation.
Abstract: This article adapts Robert Merton’s theory of coping with social strain to revisit the main paradigms in the literature of migrant adaptation. Intersecting this literature with Merton’s theory of coping with social strain and the ideas of emergence and resistance, the authors develop five new ideal types of migrant adaptation: (1) migrant conformity through straight-line assimilation; (2) migrant ritualism through multidirectional assimilation; (3) migrant retreatism through segmented assimilation; (4) migrant innovation through transnationalism; and (5) migrant rebellion through cosmopolitanism. The authors’ typology makes the point that migrant adaptation is a plural and ambiguous process, which needs to be understood and explained to identify the causes and effects of long-term migrant adaptation, integration or non-integration. The results show that these ideal types provide an explanation of how and why many of the paradigms on which the literature on migrant adaptation is based also lead to differen...
TL;DR: The influence of national affluence, political opportunity structures, and global ties on public and private environmental behavior has been analyzed in this article, showing that public behavior is quite similar across countries, while private behavior is more strongly influenced by the national context.
Abstract: In 2011, we published the article ‘Global activism and nationally driven recycling: The influence of world society and national contexts on public and private environmental behavior’ in International Sociology. We considered the effects of national affluence, political opportunity structures, and global ties on these two environmental behaviors. This initial analysis showed that public behavior is quite similar across countries, while private behavior is more strongly influenced by the national context. Furthermore, a higher level of development, permissive political opportunities, and more ties to world society showed positive effects on both public and private behaviors. The 2011 analysis and conclusions were based on survey data from 23 countries collected by the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) in 2000/2001. This crosssectional design did not allow for any insights in changes over time. Meanwhile, ISSP has collected another wave of data on environmental behaviors and attitudes in 2010/2011. Together with the older ISSP data from 1993/1994, this research note utilizes a threewave design that allows more complex insights. The present time-comparative analysis extends and qualifies some of the initial observations. Private and public behaviors are becoming more similar across countries over time, and, therefore, homogenization processes are present in both dimensions. The underlying trends, however, are contrarian. Activism has decreased and private behavior
TL;DR: Time-space compression is commonly defined as time space compression, a view that relies on an idea of empty time and space where these dimensions have been stripped of local meanings by abstraction and s... as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Globalization is commonly defined as time–space compression, a view that relies on an idea of ‘empty’ time and space where these dimensions have been stripped of local meanings by abstraction and s...
TL;DR: In this article, the impact of restructuring on collective identities in six European (former or actual) industrial regions in Spain, France, Germany, Poland, Turkey and the UK was studied.
Abstract: The significance of collective identities has been widely questioned in this age of individualism. However, the difficulty in sustaining collective identities does not mean that a sense of collective belonging has stopped being important. One of the bases on which collective identity may be sustained is in the belonging to a certain territory, expressed locally or regionally, that may contribute to a feeling of sameness. This article reports on a European research project which studied the impact of restructuring on collective identities in six European (former or actual) industrial regions in Spain, France, Germany, Poland, Turkey and the UK, and analysed more than a hundred biographical interviews in the search for narratives of contemporary identity. The findings suggest collective identities take shape and strength through a complex social process to create a sense of belonging and the articulation of the community us.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors determine the extent to which the evolution of religiosity in Spain and Poland in their post-democratic transition periods has been affected by the process of generational replacement.
Abstract: The objective of this article is to determine the extent to which the evolution of religiosity in Spain and Poland in their post-democratic transition periods has been affected by the process of generational replacement. For Spain data are drawn from several surveys carried out by the Spanish Centre for Sociological Studies (CIS) between 1980 and 1996. For Poland the data come from the Polish General Social Survey and ISSP covering 1992–2008. Results show two radically different patterns of religious change. The fall in religious practice in Spain observed throughout the first 16 years after the political transition was due mostly to the inter-cohort change that affects each new generation born after 1950. In the case of Poland, post-transition change is less marked and due mainly to decline in religious practice on the individual level. The study also observes that the cohorts of Poles born during and after the fall of communism are significantly less religious than older cohorts.
TL;DR: In this article, a special set of articles promotes new studies and conceptualizations of migrants' social positioning in the contexts that they form by living in new locations, and/or by being simultaneously co-existing with other migrants.
Abstract: This special set of articles promotes new studies and conceptualizations of migrants’ social positioning in the contexts that they form by living in new locations, and/or by being simultaneously co...
TL;DR: In this article, a comparative reading of the works of Gokalp and Durkheim, along with related academic literature, is presented, concluding that the sociology of Ziya Gok alp is less original.
Abstract: Although Emile Durkheim’s sociology was used by the Turkish state elite in the early 20th century, no comprehensive literature delineating its influence on Turkish politics exists. This article attempts to fill this lacuna by analysing how Ziya Gokalp, the founding father of Turkish sociology and a prominent politician of the early 20th century, adapted Durkheimian sociology to explain and respond to the sociopolitical problems of the period. It relies on a comparative reading of the works of Gokalp and Durkheim, along with related academic literature. The present study proposes that: (1) Gokalp’s culture–civilization distinction is the foundation of his attempt to provide a basis for social unity in Turkey; and (2) Durkheim’s theoretical claims regarding magic and religion in particular, and his view on the relationship between social constraints and individual agencies in general, are intrinsic to the culture–civilization duality. This article concludes that the sociology of Ziya Gokalp is less original...
TL;DR: A remarkable expansion of secondary and tertiary education has been witnessed in mainland China in the past decades, resulting in changing returns to educational credentials as discussed by the authors. But this is not the case in the US.
Abstract: A remarkable expansion of secondary and tertiary education has been witnessed in mainland China in the past decades, resulting in changing returns to educational credentials. Using data from the 20...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors challenge the traditional concept of mate selection and propose a new concept of "arranged marriage versus love marriage", which is too limited in scope to cover the whole spectrum of human relationships.
Abstract: This study challenges the orthodox concept of mate selection. Existing research presupposes the binary conceptualization of ‘arranged marriage versus love marriage,’ which is too limited in scope t...
TL;DR: In this paper, a new analytical framework is proposed to deconstruct and explain the inequalities that 22 Chinese transnational migrants experienced when attempting to access resources in the transnational spaces they formed by living in several societies.
Abstract: This article puts forward the concept of ‘transnational positions’ as an important part of a new analytical framework to deconstruct and explain the inequalities that 22 Chinese transnational migrants – who had links to Singapore and who lived in New York – perceived they experienced when attempting to access resources in the transnational spaces they formed by living in several societies. Emphasis is on analyzing their experiences in New York and in Singapore. Transnational positions are the migrants’ subjective and retrospective accounts of their relations with people and institutions controlling access to desired resources in the different countries and places in which they lived. This new framework uses Bourdieu’s ideas of capital conversions to deconstruct and analyze the Chinese migrants’ transnational positions. The article shows that these positions express and reflect the migrants’ perceptions of their inequalities when they attempted to access resources in their transnational spaces, and that th...
TL;DR: This paper examined the relations between parental politics and the choice of activists entering radical movements of the communist left or the neo-fascist right between the late 1960s and early 1980, and found that parental politics played a significant role in the entry of radicals into radical movements.
Abstract: This article examines the relations between parental politics and the choice of activists entering radical movements of the communist left or neo-fascist right between the late 1960s and early 1980...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors report the findings of comparative studies of family values and relationships based on the unique East Asian Social Survey (EASS) data set, and the design of the EASS data set is described.
Abstract: This special set of three articles reports the findings of comparative studies of family values and relationships based on the unique East Asian Social Survey (EASS) data set. The design of the EAS...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss two basic theories of social measurement in development studies -the quality of life (QOL) and social quality (SQ) theories, and show how these two approaches are both distinctive and complementary.
Abstract: This article discusses two basic theories of social measurement in development studies – the quality of life (QOL) and social quality (SQ) theories. The QOL theory has a long tradition in the study of individuals’ living standards, whereas SQ theory helps us understand the traits of social circumstances. Based on survey data collected from six Asian societies, a number of QOL and SQ factors are examined in this study to show how these two approaches are both distinctive and complementary. The study suggests consideration and comparison of these measures relating to factual indicators and subjective indicators in order to reveal the features of different societies.
TL;DR: Zhang Letian's book Say Goodbye to Utopia: Research into the Institution of the People's Communes has been a strong influence in sociological thinking inside China as discussed by the authors, where Zhang takes an unusual and revealing look at the system of the people's communes, exposing their strengths and weaknesses but seeing overall their legacy as positive and transformational.
Abstract: Zhang Letian’s book Say Goodbye to Utopia: Research into the Institution of the People’s Communes has been a strong influence in sociological thinking inside China. Using documentary sources of unrivalled depth and completeness, Zhang takes an unusual and revealing look at the system of the people’s communes, exposing their strengths and weaknesses but seeing overall their legacy as positive and transformational. Zhang’s analysis understands the people’s communes as governed by an interaction between top-down imposed changes, or ‘shocks’ as he calls them, and patterns of traditional behaviour. While Zhang’s insights, rooted in rural China, are not necessarily generalizable to the whole of Chinese society, his work has resonances that makes it required reading for anyone interested in 20th-century Chinese society. Two questions will interest many of those studying Chinese sociology: what connections does the work have for global society, and how do concepts in Chinese sociology relate to those in internati...
TL;DR: The Uses of Chaos and Fear: Critical Geopolitics and Everyday Life as discussed by the authors are complementary studies of the complex concepts of chaos and fear, which are universal in reach; all individuals or collectives can experience these emotions and phenomena in one manner or another.
Abstract: The Uses of Chaos and Fear: Critical Geopolitics and Everyday Life are complementary studies of the complex concepts of chaos and fear. Whereas chaos gives rise to creativity and innovation and drives us to make newer kinds of sense of our lives, fear reduces us to self-preservation and saps our life energies. Both these concepts are universal in reach; all individuals or collectives can experience these emotions and phenomena in one manner or the other. Fear has been used to coerce compliance by powerful nations of the weaker ones and create the ‘other’ among ourselves with unpleasant consequences. Once chaos is understood in the right perspective, great innovation and order may result. Similarly, fear emboldens individuals and nations to rise in resistance and bring hope to their lives. Both books add value to the existing research on these complex concepts and provide firm ground for further investigation.