Showing papers in "Theory and Society in 2001"

Connell's concept of hegemonic masculinity : A critique

Abstract: The originality of Connell's "social theory of gender" has established him as one of the leading theoreticians in the general area of gender relations and more particularly in the emerging field of the sociology of masculinity. His formulation of the concept of "hegemonic masculinity" represents the most influential and popular part of his work. It has been used in empirical research ranging from the areas of sexuality and gay studies to that of criminology and prison sociology. Yet, although numerous empirical researchers have made use of this concept, there has been almost no attempt to evaluate its theoretical merit.1 This article offers a detailed theoretical exposition as well as a critique of the concept of hegemonic masculinity. In the first part, I show that the notion of hegemonic masculinity was developed in an attempt to give an account of what the sex role framework left largely untheorized, that is, the questions of patriarchal power and social change. I then suggest an alternative way of conceptualizing hegemonic masculinity that draws on Gramsci's concept of historic bloc and Bhabha's notion of hybridity. I argue that hegemonic masculinity is not a purely white or heterosexual configuration of practice but it is a hybrid bloc that unites practices from diverse masculinities in order to ensure the reproduction of patriarchy. In the third and final part of this article, I undertake a brief case study in order to show the contribution of gay masculinities to the formation of the contemporary hegemonic bloc.

The elusive market: Embeddedness and the paradigm of economic sociology

Abstract: L'article critique la notion d'embeddedness (inclusion) comme paradigme de l'economie sociale, considerant que si le concept a ete utile pendant une decennie, il conviendrait a present d'etudier la facon dont ce concept a ete developpe et utilise a l'interieur de la discipline de l'economie sociale

The phenomenological habitus and its construction

Abstract: Dans cet article l'auteur expose ses conceptions de l'habitude, de l'habitus et de la phenomenologie Si Bourdieu reste la principale reference a la notion d'habitus, il ne manque pas de critiqes, lesquelles ne sont pas toutes justifiees pour l'auteur, qui en reconnaissant le role preponderant de l'analyse bourdieusienne en discute les differents points de vue Il propose de revisiter l'habitus sous un angle phenomenologique, en se basant sur les ecrits de Merleau-Ponti et de Husserl L'objectif de cet essai n'est pas de remplacer la theorie de Bourdieu par l'approhe phenomenologique mais de contribuer a ameliorer et aprofondir l'analyse sociale

Science, capitalism, and the rise of the “knowledge worker”: The changing structure of knowledge production in the United States

Abstract: In recent years a subtle paradox has emerged among scholars studying knowledge work in different institutional domains. Some analysts mainly, those studying scientists and engineers in private industry see a trend toward increased levels of autonomy and control, as corporate bureaucracies adopt more flexible practices and thus defer to these workers' technical expertise.' Yet, at the same time, other analysts those concerned with the position of scientists working in university settings commonly make the opposite case, seeing in the commercialization of the academy a significant threat to the traditional autonomy of academic researchers.2

Social theory and globalization: The rise of a transnational state

Abstract: Globalization is a relatively new concept in the social sciences. What this concept exactly means, the nature, extent, and importance of the changes bound up with the process, is hotly debated.1 But few would doubt that it is acquiring a critical importance for the academic as well as the political agenda of the twenty-first century, or that it poses a distinctive challenge to theoretical work in the social sciences. The historic limitations of social theory, insofar as it has been informed by the study of "national" societies and the nation-state, are brought into focus by the universalizing tendencies and transnational structural transformations bound up with globalization. To what extent is the nation-state a historically specific form of world social organization now in the process of becoming transcended by capitalist globalization? This is the question that underlies the present essay, although the matter I intend to address is more circumscribed.

Structuring migration: The case of Polish income-seeking travelers to the West

Abstract: L'auteur expose dans cet article ses theories concernant les migrations transnationales Selon l'auteur, la sociologie des migrations integre le phenomene transfrontalier sans lui accorder assez d'importance En prenant comme exemple la Pologne l'auteur s'appuie sur les conceptualisations d'A Giddens et sur l'ouvrage de D Massey World In Action pour examiner le processus structurel de la creation de liens micro/macro sociaux des migrants et de leurs comportements transnationaux

Social capital and political fantasy: Robert Putnam’sbowling alone

Abstract: Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam has achieved something akin to celebrity status rare for any academic by virtue of his compelling use of a metaphor, "bowling alone," to characterize the transformation of American social and political life during the postwar era.' He argues that a pervading sense of civic malaise and disengagement has taken over a society in which the vast majority of people are materially satisfied but deeply alarmed about the political, cultural, and moral direction of the country. "During the first two-thirds of the century," Putnam writes, "Americans took a more and more active role in the social and political life of their communities in churches and union halls, in bowling alleys and clubrooms, around committee tables and card tables and dinner tables ... then, mysteriously and more or less simultaneously, we began to do all those things less often" (p. 183). Of course, Putnam is not the first writer to call attention to the disintegration of civic culture in the United States, but what distinguishes his work is a focus on eroding "social capital" the collapse of networks of interaction among individuals that imbue human life with qualities needed for community, collective action, and democratic participation along lines theorized by Jean Jacques Rousseau and later celebrated by Alexis de Tocqueville in his classic Democracy in America. Hence: "Weakened social capital is manifest in the things that have vanished almost unnoticed neighborhood parties and get-togethers with friends, the unreflective kindness of strangers, the shared pursuit of the public good rather than a solitary quest for private goods" (p. 403). In a word, Americans have abandoned en masse bowling leagues and are now, more often than ever, taking to the lanes alone as a sign of their social disconnectedness. When the article upon which this book was written first appeared in 1995, Putnam was, as he concedes, a rather obscure academic; now he is invited to Camp David, lionized by talk-show hosts, pictured with his wife on the pages

Sociology and game theory: Contemporary and historical perspectives

Abstract: Since the mid-1980s game theory has become increasingly popular among sociologists and a number of interesting studies have been produced. This development, however, has not been accompanied by much comment in the profession nor by a general discussion of game theory from a sociological perspective; and it would therefore seem appropriate that such a discussion should take place. This article has as its main goal to contribute to a broad discussion of game theory and also to raise the question of whether it would be possible to develop a distinctly sociological version of game theory. By a broad discussion, I mean a discussion that is not limited to technical game theory but also includes games more generally and other approaches to analyzing reality in terms of games (what I shall call "game-related sociology"). By the expression a distinctly sociological version of game theory, I mean a version of game theory that is such that it will both draw on and renew the sociological tradition just like economists have developed their own version of game theory and used it to improve economic analysis. This article is a companion piece to an earlier study in which the major works in game theory are analyzed from the perspective of sociology.' In this second work, however, the focus has been shifted from game theory itself to the use that sociologists have made of game theory. Both studies are non-technical and built on the premise that game theory is of interest also to sociologists who are not trained in technical game theory.

“We, the polish nation”: Ethnic and civic visions of nationhood in post-communist constitutional debates

Abstract: Cet article fait part de recherches concernant les definitions de nation et nationalisme dans les ex- pays communistes et particulierement en Pologne. A la lumiere de l'ideal-type de Weber, l'A expose les differences de conception des modeles ethnique/civique qui oppose traditionnellement Orient et Occident sur la nation. En revenant sur l'histoire de la Pologne, l'A. se penche sur les representations de la nation-etat et explique la preponderence de la religion dans la formation de l'unite de l'etat-nation polonais

Politics, institutional structures, and the rise of economics: A comparative study

Abstract: Our modernity has been a witness to the dramatic rise of economics around the world Since the middle of the nineteenth century, the study of the economy has evolved from a loose discursive "field," with no clear and identifiable boundaries, into a fully "professionalized" enterprise, relying on both a coherent and highly formalized disciplinary framework, and extensive practical claims in administrative, business, and mass media institutions Perhaps more than any other form of knowledge, economics has participated in the rationalization of our "life-world," to use Habermas's phrase, by extending its logic into ever more remote areas of our everyday experience At first glance, the expansion of the discourse and profession of economics may be understood as a fairly homogeneous, world-level, trend of societal rationalization Certainly, the dominant intellectual form in economic science (largely derived from the Anglo-Saxon tradition) generally presents itself as a universalistic paradigm Its main rhetorical tool - model-building - is often taken-for-granted as a "natural" product of the cumulative development of scientific knowledge And since professions derive much of their authority and social legitimacy from the delimitation of a coherent and widely shared domain of knowledge, we may regard modern economics' claims to expert monopoly as a logical extension of its own internal theoretical and methodological strength The extensive jurisdictional prerogatives of economists thus seem to be legitimated by the fact that their discipline constitutes undoubtedly the most well-bounded and organized scholarly enterprise in the social scientific field

Double-Edged Rituals and the Symbolic Resources of Collective Action: Political Commemorations and the Mobilization of Protest in 1989

Abstract: The year 1989 was rife with resonant political anniversaries in both Eastern Europe and China as well as being the two-hundredth anniversary of France's first great democratic revolution. Democracy and the future of socialism were on many peoples' minds. Communist elites hoped to use these anniversaries as opportunities to celebrate the triumphs of the last forty years, but dissidents found these anniversaries even more auspicious as occasions to condemn "really existing" socialism. As a result, popular revolts erupted from Beijing to Berlin.

Collective action and political authority: Rural workers, church, and state in Brazil

Abstract: This article explores how new political actors form and reproduce themselves within societies’ most vulnerable sectors, those marginalized from the state’s authoritative decision-making centers. It explores this question in national settings that characterize much of the contemporary world ^ that is, settings marked by high levels of political con£ict over basic parameters of the political system and hence by signi¢cant institutional change. Dominant theories of collective action, such as those rooted in rational choice, political process, and ‘‘new social movements’’ literatures, are based on the experience of relatively stable Western democracies. 1 This article suggests that such theories may not travel well to regions where key background conditions, such as the stability of institutional arrangements that link state and society, do not hold. It develops an approach to collective action that theorizes the impact of high levels of con£ict over national patterns of political authority ^ that is, over the boundaries and nature of the state and national political regime ^ on the formation and reproduction of new political actors.This‘‘authority-centered’’approach understands the interaction between political elites and politically marginalized groups to be central to actor formation. It suggests that this interaction is shaped by historically contingent con¢gurations of three sets of factors: (a) the level of intra-elite con£ict over the pattern of political authority, (b) the relative strength of a group’s social base, and (c) the nature of the structural and political linkages that bind state and society. The analytic value of this approach is nicely illustrated by the formation and reproduction of the Rural Workers’ Union Movement (Movimento Sindical dos Trabalhadores Rurais), the principal political representative of peasants, small farmers, and rural wage laborers in Brazil, during the 1964^1989 period.The rural workers’ movement claimed to

Coalitions and clientelism in Mexico

Abstract: Dans cet article, l'A fait part de ses recherches concernant l'evolution de la mise en place de changements politiques au Mexique, et en particulier dans la region de Guadaljara. Les relations societe-etat sont principalement basees sur un mode clienteliste, que plusieurs associations rejettent. L'A. definit ces relations et examine l'organisation et les principes ideologiques de ces organisations qui resistent tant bien que mal a l'autoritarisme etatique et a la flexibilite voulue par les politiques neoliberales

Revisiting the question of the transnational state: A comment on William Robinson’s “Social theory and globalization”

Abstract: William Robinson's thoughtful and provocative essay calls for a recasting of the parameters of social theory in light of the structural shifts associated with globalization In particular, he argues that the sociology of the state needs to acknowledge the growing "deterritorialization" of economic and political relationships at the turn of the twenty-first century To accomplish this, he deploys the concept of the "transnational state" (TNS) as the embryonic political form of economic globalization Robinson bases this conceptual intervention on a theoretical claim for "a 'deterritorialization' of the relationship of capital to the state," and "the 'pure' reproduction of social relations, that is, a process not mediated by fixed geo-political dynamics" This is a bold claim indeed It suggests that we have arrived at a point where Marx's theory of capital now corresponds to reality Alternatively, it reaffirms the claims made by the agents of capital that globalization is here to stay and there is no alternative It is these implications that I wish to address in this comment

Making markets : A comparative study of postcommunist managerial strategies in Central Europe

Abstract: The transition from "socialism" to "capitalism" was apart from being the defining phenomenon of the late twentieth century an unprecedented natural experiment in societal transformation and organizational restructuring. Before the revolutions, the economies in Eastern Europe were almost entirely state owned and centrally planned; today the property of most postcommunist countries is predominantly in private hands and is market integrated. According to neo-classical "transition economics," as articulated by the leading economists studying the transition as well as the World Bank and other International Financial Institutions, the creation of private property and the freeing of markets should have created enterprise restructuring leading to rapid growth at the national level after a brief period of "readjustment."

The limits of gender rhetoric for nationalism: A case study from southern Africa

Abstract: Dans cet article, l'auteur expose ses conceptions de la relation existante entre nationalisme et rhetorique sexuelle. En s'appuyant sur la construction du mouvement zoulou Inkata, qui reflete une multiplicite des voies nationalistes, l'auteur demontre la forte imbrication des discours ethniques, nationalistes, patriarcaux et masculinisants dans la construction et la prise du pouvoir identitaire des nations. Il s'attache donc a souligner historiquement et empiriquement que la relation patriarcat-discours nationaliste affecte l'experience citoyenne des femmes et des hommes

Using social theory to leap over historical contingencies : A comment on Robinson

Abstract: To be fair to Robinson, it is worth mentioning that he does offer a number of qualifications to his thesis. He tries to avoid excessive determinism and at one point suggests:

Response to McMichael, Block, and Goldfrank

Abstract: It is at times of rapid social transformation that the cognitive and explanatory limitations of our extant accounts of the world are exposed. Social theory emerged in the nineteenth century as an intellectual outcome to a vast process of socioeconomic change and political upheaval. We are currently in another period of momentous change. It is in such times that the way forward requires that we "go out on a limb," that we advance novel theoretical and macrosociological propositions. Perching on the solid branches of established paradigms will get us nowhere. Yet such propositions are unsettling, not just because they have yet to be "fully corroborated" and "properly qualified," but also, and primarily, because they go against the grain of established modes of thinking and therefore generate stiff resistance.

Rational kernels in a mystical shell: A comment on Robinson

Abstract: Stripped of its needless confusion, presentist exaggeration, and antique Marxist fundamentalism, Robinson's article on globalization and the state makes two vital contributions that deserve highlighting. First, against the global-versus-national dualism prevalent in much writing on the subject, he shows how the globalization project is being carried out, often eagerly and willingly, by rulers and bureaucrats within the very nation-states this project is supposedly undermining. Second, he argues forcefully and reasonably that the major cause of the emerging transnational state apparatus is the ascendance in many countries of an increasingly self-confident transnational fraction of the world bourgeoisie. Accepting these two major points, let me try to clarify the confusion, reduce the exaggeration, and challenge the fundamentalism.

Power at the Top

Abstract: A discussion of Miguel Angel Centeno, Democracy within Reason: Technocratic Revolution in Mexico, University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997. Richard A. Colignon, Power Plays. Critical Events in the Institutionalization of the Tennessee Valley Authority, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997. John Gaventa, Power and Powerlessness. Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1980.