Outline of a Theory of Practice.
About: This article is published in Contemporary Sociology.The article was published on 1980-03-01. It has received 14683 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Practice theory.
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TL;DR: It is argued that the poor nutritional experience of populations subjected to colonialism resulted in a systematic loss of maternal capital, reflected in downward secular trends in stature, and public health policies need to benefit metabolic capacity without exacerbating metabolic load.
Abstract: There is particular interest in understanding socioeconomic and ethnic variability in health status. The developmental origins of disease hypothesis emphasize the importance of growth patterns across the life-course in relation to noncommunicable disease risk. The physiological components of cardiovascular risk, collectively termed the metabolic syndrome, derive in part from a disparity between the homeostatic "metabolic capacity" of vital organs and the "metabolic load" induced by large tissue masses, a rich diet and sedentary behavior. From an evolutionary perspective, the risk of such disparity is decreased by maternal physiology regulating offspring growth trajectory during gestation and lactation. Maternal capital, defined as phenotypic resources enabling investment in the offspring, allows effective buffering of the offspring from nutritional perturbations and represents the environmental niche initially occupied by the offspring. Offspring growth patterns are sensitive to the magnitude of maternal capital during early windows of plasticity. Offspring life-history strategy can then respond adaptively to further factors across the life-course, but only within the context of this initial maternal influence on growth. Maternal somatic capital is primarily gained or lost across generations, through variable rates of fetal and infant growth. I argue that the poor nutritional experience of populations subjected to colonialism resulted in a systematic loss of maternal capital, reflected in downward secular trends in stature. Accelerating the recovery of somatic capital within generations overloads metabolic capacity and exacerbates cardiovascular risk, reflected in increased disease rates in urbanizing and emigrant populations. Public health policies need to benefit metabolic capacity without exacerbating metabolic load.
240 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that "contested compliance" offers an empirical access point for studying changes in the normative structure of world politics, i.e., a situation in which compliance conditions are challenged by the expected norm followers.
Abstract: This article argues that ‘contested compliance’, i.e. a situation in which compliance conditions are challenged by the expected norm followers, offers an empirical access point for studying changes in the normative structure of world politics. It conceptualizes the normative structure as the ‘structure of meaning-in-use’ that works as a reference frame for decision-makers. The argument builds on a distinction between type, category and meaning of norms. In addition, the article distinguishes between a behaviorist approach to the impact of regulative and constitutive norms on state behavior, and a reflexive perspective on the impact of discursive interventions on the formative structure of world politics. The intention of the argument is twofold. First, it addresses the puzzle of good norm following despite increasingly contested norms, e.g. regarding the European Union’s accession criteria, on the one hand, and the United Nations Security Council resolution 1441, on the other. Second, it draws on and develops further the input of reflexive sociology on International Relations theory.
240 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a theoretical approach for studying the coordination of future making, based on theories of temporality and action, and show that actors need to coordinate in order to make sense of action together.
Abstract: This article presents a theoretical approach for studying the coordination of futures. Building off theories of temporality and action, the authors map three different modes of future making—protentions, trajectories, and temporal landscapes—that actors need to coordinate in order to make sense of action together. Using a wide range of empirical evidence, they then show that these modes of future-coordination are autonomous from each other, so that although they are connected, they can clash or move in disjointed directions in interaction. By focusing on the coordination and disjunctures of those three modes, the authors argue that sociologists can provide a methodological axis of comparison between cases; depict mechanisms through which other theoretical or empirical constructs—such as racism or late modernity—operate; and open a window into the ways in which people organize and coordinate their futures, a topic of inquiry in its own right.
240 citations
TL;DR: If certain obvious features of this continuous reproduction and ever freshly struck settlement show a degree of visible continuity over time this should not lead us to construct iron laws and dynamics of socialization from this mere succession of like things.
Abstract: Cultural patterns and activities and attitudes are developed in precise conjunction with real exigencies, and are produced and reproduced in each generation for its own good reasons. Patterns of the development of labour power for a specific kind of application to industry must in every generation be achieved, developed, and worked for in struggle and contestation. If certain obvious features of this continuous reproduction and ever freshly struck settlement show a degree of visible continuity over time this should not lead us to construct iron laws and dynamics of socialization from this mere succession of like things.Learning to Labour (p. 183)
240 citations
TL;DR: The notion of primordialism has been used to describe the origins and strength of ethnic attachments in the literature on ethnicity for the last three decades as discussed by the authors, and it was originally coined by Shils and developed by Geertz.
Abstract: The notion of primordialism has been used to describe the origins and strength of ethnic attachments in the literature on ethnicity for the last three decades. It was originally coined by Shils and developed by Geertz in the 1950s. Recent trends have shifted emphasis away from primordialism towards structural and circumstantial/situational approaches. These alternative approaches frequently provide implicit criticism of the notion of primordialism by pointing to counter examples, cases of ethnic attachments that vary over time and according to circumstance, hence undermining the contention that such loyalties could be considered ‘primordial’. Here, for the first time, the concept of primordialism is examined in its own terms. We analyse the intellectual history of the notion, its intended meaning and the misunderstandings it has spawned. We identify three aspects of primordialism and submit each to critical scrutiny. We conclude that the term is unsociological, unanalytical and vacuous. We advoca...
239 citations