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Showing papers in "Journal for The Theory of Social Behaviour in 2010"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors identify three major challenges, or layers of complexity, that a unified theory of volunteering faces, and they use a hybrid theoretical strategy that seeks to combine the "multiple goodness" of current approaches.
Abstract: The study of volunteerism has generated multiple conceptual frameworks yet no integrated theory has emerged. This article identifies three major challenges, or layers of complexity, that a unified theory of volunteering faces. First, volunteering is a complex phenomenon that has permeable boundaries and spans a wide variety of activities, organizations, and sectors. It is a social construct with multiple definitions. Second, different disciplines attribute different meanings and functions to volunteering. Third, existing theoretical accounts are biased toward covering the "laws of volunteering" and have a strong empirical surplus. "Good theory" however is multidimensional so there is a need to include other views on theory. To overcome these challenges, we use a "hybrid theoretical strategy" that seeks to combine the "multiple goodness" of current approaches. Our hybrid framework builds on the three layers of complexity identified, and provides an innovative conceptual system of navigation to map, compare, and integrate existing theories more adequately.

310 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a dialogical approach to study intersubjectivity at different levels, as both implicit and explicit, and both within and between individuals and groups, and make use of self-report, observing behaviour, analysing talk and ethnographic engagement.
Abstract: Intersubjectivity refers to the variety of possible relations between perspectives. It is indispensable for understanding human social behaviour. While theoretical work on intersubjectivity is relatively sophisticated, methodological approaches to studying intersubjectivity lag behind. Most methodologies assume that individuals are the unit of analysis. In order to research intersubjectivity, however, methodologies are needed that take relationships as the unit of analysis. The first aim of this article is to review existing methodologies for studying intersubjectivity. Four methodological approaches are reviewed: comparative self-report, observing behaviour, analysing talk and ethnographic engagement. The second aim of the article is to introduce and contribute to the development of a dialogical method of analysis. The dialogical approach enables the study of intersubjectivity at different levels, as both implicit and explicit, and both within and between individuals and groups. The article concludes with suggestions for using the proposed method for researching intersubjectivity both within individuals and between individuals and groups.

297 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The positioning diamond as mentioned in this paper is a framework that can be employed in discourse analysis across social science disciplines to provide explanations of most types of human thought and action, including identities, rights and duties, and social force of acts.
Abstract: Social science requires a dual ontology: one for the physical realm, and one for the symbolic realm of meaning. Much research produced in social science remains based in an old paradigm, which entirely neglects the symbolic realm. While social scientists attempting to forge a new paradigm have embraced a discursive approach, this approach lacks a coherent framework that can be systematically applied in the analysis of meaning. This paper presents the positioning diamond as a framework that can be employed in discourse analysis across social science disciplines. The four facets of the diamond-storylines, identities, rights and duties, and the social force of acts-can be analyzed at three levels of discourse: the content, narrator-interlocutor, and ideological levels. The framework can be employed to provide explanations of most types of human thought and action.

95 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The main argument of as mentioned in this paper is that a defining aspect of technology is the role that it plays in extending human capabilities, and drawing attention to this aspect helps to help distinguish technology from other material artefacts but also goes some way to explaining the peculiarposition technology occupies in modern societies, or at the very least provides auseful framework for posing important questions about technology.
Abstract: There is a tension in many discussions of technology concerning the distinctionbetween technical objects and other artefacts. On the one hand, a variety ofartefacts, such as paintings, sculptures, jewellery, food, toys, passports, etc., tendnot to be considered as technical objects. Such artefacts do not enter into accountsof technical change or technological trajectories and are not referred to in orderto illustrate major theories of technology—for example, it is hard to image atheory of technological determinism having emerged from a concern with suchartefacts as paintings or jewellery. On the other hand, general discussion oftechnology tends to shift between the word technology and undifferentiatedreference to material artefacts or even simply artefacts. That is, specific talk ofparticular “acceptably technical” objects, such as computers or hammers, whengeneralised, quickly take the form of discussions of artefacts or material thingswith no clearly or explicitly distinguished technical characteristics. No doubtmuch of this tension arises for the simple reason that it is not easy to establish whatit is about certain artefacts that make them unambiguously technical in nature.Various attempts have been made to use some conception of “function” or“means” to mark the difference. But such attempts quickly unravel. Is art or foodwithout function? Are not most actions or productions a means to some otheraction or production?The main argument of this paper is that a defining aspect of technology is therole that it plays in extending human capabilities. Moreover, drawing attention tothis aspect of technology, I suggest, serves not only to help distinguish technologyfrom other material artefacts but also goes some way to explaining the peculiarposition technology occupies in modern societies, or at the very least provides auseful framework for posing important questions about technology.These arguments, however, require a fair amount of elaboration. First, a varietyof definitional issues are raised. For example, can a role be a defining aspect of a

66 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose an alternative approach in a sociology which emphasizes agency, and is grounded in an analysis of actors in material situations, allied to the concept of ideational resources, social categories and identities upon which actors draw, and a middle-range view of causality and tendency in social change.
Abstract: The many critical approaches to an 'ethnicity framework' have fallen short of a very possible conclusion-that the language of ethnicity provides, for the most part, a poor paradigm with which to work. In the present paper we seek not only to re-state some key weaknesses of this paradigm but also to suggest that these weaknesses are more general in an over-ethnicised sociology. There are numerous critiques of particular models or elements of ethnicity thinking, including critiques of primordialist approaches (Fenton 2003), of multiculturalism ( 2000), and of the over-objectification of groups (Brubaker 2004; see also Jenkins 2008). The major critiques constitute a strong case against 'thinking with ethnicity'; the broader weaknesses are more general in contemporary 'identitarian' sociology. From this position we turn to the question of offering an alternative approach in a sociology which emphasizes agency, and is grounded in an analysis of actors in material situations. This is allied to the concept of ideational resources, social categories and identities upon which actors draw, and a middle-range view of causality and tendency in social change. Ideas of ancestral belonging are among those ideational resources, and these ideas and assumptions are played out in a context of material and political change. The subject of study is not ethnicity, but power, resources, social relations and institutions (which may and may not be) informed by cultural identities and ideas of ancestry. The strategy of the paper will be first to re-state the deficiencies of 'ethnicity thinking' and second to offer an alternative framework for thinking about social action and social structure.

59 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Careful inspection shows that at the present state of research, hedonics is on the side of DR advocates, and bioethicists are correct about the intrinsically low QOL of people with impairments, then the disability rights movement's political goals of environmental modification are diminished in value.
Abstract: When people with disabilities are asked about the quality of their lives, they report only slightly lower quality than nondisabled people. Nevertheless, most nondisabled people (especially including bioethicists and health care economists) estimate the quality of life of disabled people to be extremely low, and they sometimes argue that the high QOL reports of disabled people should be discounted. Social psychologists have begun to systematically study human happiness in a new field called hedonics. This paper reports and interprets the recent empirical results of hedonics research to see whether disabled peoples' high reports of their own quality of life are more reliable than the lower estimates of bioethicists and other nondisabled observers. The outcome is relevant to policy disagreements surrounding disability. If bioethicists are correct about the intrinsically low QOL of people with impairments, then the disability rights (DR) movement's political goals of environmental modification are diminished in value. Careful inspection shows that at the present state of research, hedonics is on the side of DR advocates.

51 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors introduce two theoretical approaches on symbolic boundaries that have become standard within Science and Technology Studies (STS), but which have little theoretical connections and seem to be talking about different types of boundaries.
Abstract: This paper introduces two theoretical approaches on symbolic boundaries that have become standard within Science and Technology Studies (STS), but which have little theoretical connections and seem to be talking about different types of boundaries. I will conceptually combine these two approaches, as well as providing a deeper explanation of what is going on when scientists draw boundaries, by utilising theoretical concepts from social psychology: social representations and identities. I will explore how the two boundary concepts can be explained through social representations and identities with an example of popular science authors' depictions of the philosopher of science, Karl Popper, and where the philosopher can become both a boundary marker that separates science from other pursuits as well as defining scientists' identity.

46 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the individual conception of community and the boundaries within which people apply their sense of justice is considered as an evidence of the intra-individual variations on moral reasoning as a consequence of inter-individual differences.
Abstract: The issue of how people develop moral knowledge and moral judgment is of theoretical and empirical importance in psychological literature. The cognitive-developmental approach is still the predominant today, pursuant to Kohlberg's stage system. However, a full account of morality may start from Kohlberg's individual moral development, but it must focus on the nature of moral judgments in the specific contexts of daily life. In this article, the individual conception of community and the boundaries within which people apply their sense of justice is considered as an evidence of the intra-individual variations on moral reasoning as a consequence of inter-individual differences. Indeed, the group membership of the person to be judged exerts an influence on the judgment of moral issues. In this sense, moral exclusion theory can provide some suggestions for a better understanding of moral reasoning.

39 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose a theory of social positioning that can analyse cultural encounters between social actors, and identify the conditions for positive relations in intercultural relations, based on social representations theory.
Abstract: The challenge of intercultural relations has become an important issue in many societies. In spite of the claimed value of intercultural diversity, successful outcomes as predicted by the contact hypothesis are but one possibility; on occasions intercultural contact leads to intolerance and hostility. Research has documented that one key mediator of contact is perspective taking. Differences in perspective are significant in shaping perceptions of contact and reactions to it. The ability to take the perspective of the other and to understand it in its own terms is a necessary condition for successful intergroup outcomes. This paper sheds light on the processes involved in intercultural perspective taking by elaborating the notion of the point of view based on social representations theory. The point of view provides a theory of social positioning that can analyse cultural encounters between social actors, and identify the conditions for positive relations. Insights are drawn from a study of public views on the relative merits of science and religion, following a documentary by Richard Dawkins in which it was suggested that religion is a source of evil. The findings demonstrate that the point of view may be categorised according to a three-way taxonomy according to the extent to which it is open to another perspective. A point of view may be monological—closed to another's perspective entirely, dialogical—open to the possibility of another perspective while maintaining some percepts as unchallengeable, or metalogical—open to another's perspective based on the other's frame of reference.

38 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Radical interactionism is derived from the work of George Herbert Mead, Robert Park, and Herbert Blumer as discussed by the authors, which focuses the spotlight on nature and operation of subordination among individuals and groups living in minor, major, regional, supra-and even world communities.
Abstract: Like symbolic interactionism, radical interactionism is derived from the work of George Herbert Mead, Robert Park, and Herbert Blumer. Unlike symbolic interactionism, however, radical interactionism places much more importance on Park's ideas. In the case of the role that subordination plays in human communal life, it emphasizes Park's ideas more than it does either Mead's or Blumer's ideas. Thus, unlike symbolic interaction, radical interactionism focuses the spotlight on nature and operation of subordination among individuals and groups living in minor, major, regional, supra- and even world communities. By building on and extending all three of their ideas, rather than only on those proposed by Mead and Blumer, an explanation is offered for several matters that are crucial to the understanding of subordination. Among the crucial matters explained are the need for the exercise of domination in complex social acts, the imperceptiveness of super-ordinates in their exercise of domination, the invisibility of domination's operation in everyday social acts, its intimate relationship with the operation of power and force, the institutional support for and legitimacy of exerting force to dominate social action, and the creation of dominance orders in groups and communities of various types and sizes.

29 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article analyzed discursive strategies in terms of rights and duties enabling forms of sense-making in two biomedical engineering laboratories engaged in cutting-edge research in a major university setting and illustrated the usefulness of positioning theory for analyzing identity formations and their relation to problem solving and innovation in research science contexts.
Abstract: We illustrate the usefulness of positioning theory for analyzing identity formations and their relation to problem solving and innovation in research science contexts. We analyze discursive strategies in terms of rights and duties enabling forms of sense-making in two biomedical engineering laboratories engaged in cutting-edge research in a major university setting. We organize selected examples into three categories to emphasize qualitatively different ways positioning can be seen to function in laboratory practice in an interdisciplinary context. Interview text examples coded as involving positioning display the highly integrated nature of social, cognitive, and affective aspects of the “speech acts” of researchers recorded as interview material.


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors make use of a new development in social psychology, Positioning Theory, the study of the way rights and duties are ascribed, attributed and justified to and by individuals in local social groups, and link this theory with a generally Vygotsky inspired approach to understand the means by which people are brought into terrorist networks.
Abstract: This paper makes use of a new development in social psychology, Positioning Theory, the study of the way rights and duties are ascribed, attributed and justified to and by individuals in local social groups. It links this theory with a generally Vygotsky inspired approach to understanding the means by which people are brought into terrorist networks. Focusing on the use of the Internet as a device to bring mentor and novice together, the unique role of chat rooms and personal conversations made possible by the Internet in this psychological process is revealed. Examining Vygotsky's ideas about the influence of a collective identity on the development of individual identities by psychological symbiosis in the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) sheds new light on the positioning of terrorist recruits. Incorporating Wittgenstein's concept of hinges into understanding the groundings of individual positions explains how the jihadist form of life turns on the unexamined grounding of beliefs about the non-believers.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose a coordination solution to the agency/structure dilemma, which takes social structures as game/play frameworks and explains their discontinuous transitions in extraordinary times.
Abstract: Sociologists seeking solutions to the agency/structure dilemma have devised theories based in principle on the Thomas theorem: actors design their actions to be embedded in taken-for-granted social structures which are established as a result of the heuristic execution of action scenarios. Respecting this tradition, this article offers a "coordination solution" to the dilemma which takes social structures as game/play frameworks and explains their discontinuous transitions in extraordinary times. The reality status of these frameworks, i.e. members' knowledge and beliefs about the ways the "games of life" are played, derives from actors' heuristic choice behaviour governed by both opportunity and coordination costs. Frameworks are respected as solid "things" because changing them through coordinated action is inconceivable or-if conceivable-adaptation to existing frameworks is significantly less costly than modifying them. However, continuous and even discontinuous changes in frameworks—transitions——may occur under extraordinary circumstances. In such case, dramatic narratives, which temporarily come to dominate people's understanding of the situation, help to lower the coordination cost of framework change.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that a rule is social if and only if it is internally related to a social relation, and this helps to clarify and systematize how social rules relate to social positions and identities.
Abstract: What kind of things are social rules? The paper starts from the critique of social rules articulated by ethnomethodologists and proposes an alternative conception of rules as situated, often tacit, imperatives. This ontological theorization borrows insights from critical realism and post-structuralism to explore general features of rules. For instance: they under-determine fields of legitimate actions, are prone to logical stratification, are anchored to desires and are inherently open to interpretation, though in a discursively structured way. Moreover, it is proposed that a rule is social if and only if it is internally related to a social relation. In turn, this helps to clarify and systematize how social rules relate to social positions and identities. The purpose of this ontological study is three-fold. Firstly, it attempts to articulate a realist conception of rules that avoids their dilution (as in the works of ethnomethodology) as well as their reification into codes or algorithms (as in the works of functionalist sociology). Secondly, it purports to initiate a dialogue with other authors writing on rules such as Giddens, Lawson and Searle. Finally, it aims to facilitate the development of empirical research on rules and related processes of legitimation, identification and subversion.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argue that the medicalization of shyness tells us more about who we are in late modernity than it does about any internal dysfunction, and they suggest that American psychiatry may be unwittingly constructing the very behaviors it is seeking to treat.
Abstract: The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has recently pathologized shyness as a mental disorder. This paper argues that the medicalization of shyness tells us more about who we are in late modernity than it does about any internal dysfunction. Drawing on the insights of hermeneutic philosophy, the paper challenges the configuration of the self offered by medical models and recent editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and argues that diagnostic psychiatry and contemporary American identity in general is already being shaped by a background of socio-historical meanings that are producing a more assertive, competitive, and gregarious self. By failing to acknowledge this hermeneutic background-one that determines why certain kinds of dispositions matter to us in the first place-I suggest that American psychiatry may be unwittingly constructing the very behaviors it is seeking to treat.

Journal ArticleDOI
Jeff Coulter1
TL;DR: The authors argue that the pursuit of "materialist" solutions to the Cartesian problematic became intense after the work of Huxley and others in the Darwinian camp, and conclude that Wittgenstein's attack on the conception of a private language of the "mental" enables us to emancipate ourselves from the last philosophical hurdle confronting Darwinism: the problem of "mind".
Abstract: Darwin's evolutionary theory of the emergence of the human species posed an implicit challenge to proponents of what then was the major philosophy of mind, namely, Cartesian Dualism in all of its variants. In this paper, I argue that the pursuit of "materialist" solutions to the Cartesian problematic became intense after the work of Huxley and others in the Darwinian camp. I argue that the many efforts to "materialize" the "mind" ultimately failed due to the neglect by such theorists of the logic of the so-called "mental predicates" in language. I discuss this issue in relation to the work of Mead, Brentano, Chomsky, Toulmin, Shanker and Noble, and conclude that Wittgenstein's attack on the conception of a "private language" of the "mental" enables us to emancipate ourselves from the last philosophical hurdle confronting Darwinism: the problem of "mind".

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Within a pragmatic perspective, metatheoretical theses grounded on identity as sameness, uniqueness, and difference address the inevitability of inequality as mentioned in this paper, and the experiential mix of cognition and affect highlights an inequality of positive and negative futures, of hope and fear.
Abstract: Within a pragmatic perspective, metatheoretical theses grounded on identity as sameness, uniqueness, and difference address the inevitability of inequality. Pragmatic meaning, furthermore, is always in the future. Temporal inequality emerges as central to meanings of identity, especially expectations of unequal endtime futures. The experiential mix of cognition and affect highlights an inequality of positive and negative futures, of hope and fear. Following G. H. Mead's adumbration, an emergent cultural turn is to pragmatic cosmopolitan identities allowing for a "both-and" acceptance that affirms self as well as other as a functional basis for cooperative action addressing shared issues.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors looked at the philosophical sources on which Florian Znaniecki and other sociologists who developed the concept of analytic induction drew, focusing on a conflict in their accounts between appeal to Aristotelian and Galileian notions of science.
Abstract: This paper looks at the philosophical sources on which Florian Znaniecki and other sociologists who developed the concept of analytic induction drew. In particular, it focuses on a conflict in their accounts between appeal to Aristotelian and Galileian notions of science.