Showing papers on "Contemporary society published in 2017"

The Many Faces of Vulnerability

Abstract: Social injustices, structural and personal crises as well as intensifying stress on some citizens seem increasing preoccupations in contemporary society and social policy. In this context, the concept of vulnerability has come to play a prominent role in academic, governmental and everyday accounts of the human condition. Policy makers and practitioners are now concerned with addressing vulnerability through an expansive range of interventions. As this special issue draws attention to, a vulnerability zeitgeist or ‘spirit of the time’ has been traced in contemporary welfare and disciplinary arrangements (Brown, 2014, 2015), which now informs a range of interventions and approaches to social problems, both in the UK and internationally. As prominent examples, ‘vulnerable’ people are legally entitled to ‘priority need’ in English social housing allocations (Carr and Hunter, 2008), vulnerable victims of crime are seen as requiring special responses in the UK criminal justice system (see Roulstone et al., 2011; Walkgate, 2011), ‘vulnerable adults’ have designated ‘protections’ under British law (Dunn et al., 2008; Clough, 2014) and vulnerable migrants and refugees are increasingly prioritised within international immigration processes (Peroni and Timmer, 2013). There is a long tradition in the field of social policy of critiquing the implications of particular concepts as mechanisms of governance, from poverty (Townsend, 1979; Lister, 2004) and social exclusion (Levitas, 1998; Young 1999) to risk (Beck, 1992; Kemshall, 2002) and resilience (Ecclestone and Lewis, 2014; Wright, 2016). Yet while vulnerability seems to be one of the latest buzzwords gathering political and cultural momentum, critiques and empirical studies of how it is operationalised in different policy and practice contexts are less well elaborated.

Anti-Discriminatory Practice: Equality, Diversity and Social Justice

Abstract: Contemporary society is characterised by its ever-increasing diversity. Having sold over 70,000 copies across its four editions, Neil Thompson's classic text remains a trusted introduction to the challenges of promoting social justice and equality. Addressing the ways in which social workers can effectively challenge inequality within society, the book explores the many forms of discrimination that can lead to disadvantage, disempowerment and oppression. Written with Thompson's inimitable clarity, this edition features: • Three all-new chapters, including a contextual introduction and chapters on sexuality and religious discrimination; • An explicit theory base, through extended discussion of the widely used PCS model; • A range of questions for reflection and comprehensive guidance on further reading, incorporating books, articles and websites

Heritage values in contemporary society

Abstract: What do we value about the past? In formulating policies about heritage preservation, that is the inevitable question, and deals not only with economic value but also the intangible value to individuals, communities and society as a whole. This interdisciplinary group of scholars-anthropologists, archaeologists, architects, educators, lawyers, heritage administrators, policy analysts, and consultants-make the first attempt to define and assess heritage values on a local, national and global level. Chapters range from the theoretical to policy frameworks to case studies of heritage practice, written by scholars from eight countries.

Designing Prostitution Policy: Intention and Reality in Regulating the Sex Trade

Abstract: In policy terms, social order is seen as the outcome of the more or less orchestrated practices of a large number of actors who ... Second, because prostitution in contemporary society is so entangled with public policy, it is essential that we ...

Surfing Life: Surface, Substructure and the Commodification of the Sublime

Abstract: Surfing Life is a study of surfing and social change that also provides insights into other experience-based contemporary subcultures and the nature of the self and social formations in contemporary society. Making use of extensive empirical material to support innovative theoretical approaches to social change, this book offers an analysis of the relationship between embodied experience, culture and the economy. With its ground breaking theoretical contributions, and its foundation in an ethnographic study of surfing culture in locations across Australia, this volume will appeal not only to those interested in the social and cultural phenomenon of surfing, but also to anyone interested in the sociology of sport and leisure, the sociology of culture and consumption, risk-taking, subcultures and theories of contemporary social change.

Doing and undoing risk: the mutual constitution of risk and heteronormativity in contemporary society

Abstract: This paper develops the concepts of ‘doing’ and ‘undoing’ risk, a new approach to risk research that echoes the ‘doing gender’ of gender studies. In this way, we combine intersectional and risk the ...

The Agony of Eros

Abstract: An argument that love requires the courage to accept self-negation for the sake of discovering the Other. Byung-Chul Han is one of the most widely read philosophers in Europe today, a member of the new generation of German thinkers that includes Markus Gabriel and Armen Avanessian. In The Agony of Eros, a bestseller in Germany, Han considers the threat to love and desire in today's society. For Han, love requires the courage to accept self-negation for the sake of discovering the Other. In a world of fetishized individualism and technologically mediated social interaction, it is the Other that is eradicated, not the self. In today's increasingly narcissistic society, we have come to look for love and desire within the "inferno of the same." Han offers a survey of the threats to Eros, drawing on a wide range of sources-Lars von Trier's film Melancholia, Wagner's Tristan und Isolde,Fifty Shades of Grey, Michel Foucault (providing a scathing critique of Foucault's valorization of power), Martin Buber, Hegel, Baudrillard, Flaubert, Barthes, Plato, and others. Han considers the "pornographication" of society, and shows how pornography profanes eros; addresses capitalism's leveling of essential differences; and discusses the politics of eros in today's "burnout society." To be dead to love, Han argues, is to be dead to thought itself. Concise in its expression but unsparing in its insight, The Agony of Eros is an important and provocative entry in Han's ongoing analysis of contemporary society. This remarkable essay, an intellectual experience of the first order, affords one of the best ways to gain full awareness of and join in one of the most pressing struggles of the day: the defense, that is to say-as Rimbaud desired it-the "reinvention" of love. -from the foreword by Alain Badiou

The problem that has a name : can paid domestic work be reconciled with feminism?

Abstract: Paid domestic work endures – with its oldest roots grounded in slavery and servitude, and newer ones in contemporary exploitative capitalism. Feminists the world over have analysed its occupational relations in depth to show how they reproduce race, class and gender inequalities, with many domestic workers experiencing inhumane treatment. But feminists also use domestic help. Should such feminists and paid domestic work be condemned, or can it be reconciled with the overarching feminist goals of equality and liberation that encompass all dimensions of discrimination? My thesis approaches this question through an interrogation of outsourced domestic cleaning in the UK and India. The primary data include 91 semi-structured interviews with White and Indian women working as cleaning service-providers and White and Indian female academics with an interest in feminism/gender and who were outsourcing domestic cleaning (or had outsourced previously), in the UK and India, respectively. My analytical approach, rooted in my particular varifocal diasporic gaze, draws on Mary Douglas’s anthropology-based cultural theory, which she used to show how comparative analysis enhances sociological understandings of the workings of the West’s own institutions and culture. My cross-cultural analysis thus takes into account similarities and differences between and within the four groups of participating women, as well as silences in the data. My findings reveal that in the modern urban context, outsourced domestic cleaning can be done as "work" (i.e. using mental and manual skills and effort and performed under decent, democratic work conditions) or as "labour" (requiring mainly manual labour, accompanied by exertion of "natural" emotional/affective labour and performed in undemocratic conditions). The issue at stake for feminism(s) is not just some women doing the demeaning work of other women but the classed evolution of the very meanings of work in contemporary societies.

Participatory action research in culturally complex societies: opportunities and challenges

Abstract: One of the aims of participatory action research (PAR) is to bring realities of lives closer together through dialogue and ‘conscientization’, raising critical awareness among participants from all backgrounds. Promoting participation often assumes a power shift from the decision-makers to the majority of society, who can be the end-receivers of decisions made. Once some kind of awareness is achieved, the participants should be able to challenge the causes of their perceived oppression, or resolve the suffering that is endured, if that is what they hope to achieve. However, the situation is more complex in many contemporary societies, in which there are not only differing cultural beliefs related to religion, but different ontologies about being and living in the world. There is much contemporary debate about the possibilities of critique that take on board divergent sociomaterial realities within the same classroom. Practical and structural differences can pose challenges to conducting PAR resear...

Speaking About Birth: Visible and Silenced Narratives in Online Discussions of Childbirth:

Abstract: In this article, I present an analysis of 1930 posts from 12 discussion threads from an online parenting forum, drawing upon a broader project on the mediation of childbirth. I present three themes in analysis –the multi-pronged functions of writing birth narratives, the discursive and perceived silencing of difficult stories and the overt individualisation and self-management evident in women’s accounts. I locate these as outcomes of the individualisation of maternity in contemporary society and pendulum swings in cultural and policy level conceptualisations of how births ‘should be’. I argue for greater attention to be paid to the mediation of parenting and networked maternal subjectivities.

Capital, State, Empire: The New American Way of Digital Warfare

Abstract: The United States presents the greatest source of global geo-political violence and instability. Guided by the radical political economy tradition, this book offers an analysis of the USA’s historical impulse to weaponize communication technologies. Scott Timcke explores the foundations of this impulse and how the militarization of digital society creates structural injustices and social inequalities. He analyses how new digital communication technologies support American paramountcy and conditions for worldwide capital accumulation. Identifying selected features of contemporary American society, Capital, State, Empire undertakes a materialist critique of this digital society and of the New American Way of War. At the same time it demonstrates how the American security state represses activists—such as Black Lives Matter—who resist this emerging security leviathan. The book also critiques the digital positivism behind the algorithmic regulation used to control labour and further diminish prospects for human flourishing for the ‘99%’. Capital, State, Empire contributes to a broader understanding of the dynamics of global capitalism and political power in the early 21st century.

The human right to health: exploring disability, migration and health

Abstract: Across the globe, an estimated one billion people are on the move today, of whom 244 million are international migrants. Not only have global horizons expanded in the realm of work and study; global conflict and exploitation have resulted in forced migration. Migration is a political issue, which raises questions of identity, citizenship, diversity and integration and is utilised to play upon the fear of the stranger, the ‘Other’ and difference in contemporary society. Disabled migrants are a hidden population whose experiences are often overlooked or subsumed within wider debates around disability and ethnicity. This article considers the intersection of disability and migration in contemporary society through the lens of healthcare access. Reflecting on the impact of citizenship rights on the realisation of human rights in the context of contemporary migration, using health as an example, the article considers the implications for disabled migrants, focusing primarily on the European Union.

Data activism as the new frontier of media activism

Abstract: This chapter introduces the notion of data activism as a heuristic tool that allows investigating how big data affect contemporary society without dismissing the democratic agency of citizens. It explores data activism as the newest form of media activism and puts forward the notion of data activism as a heuristic tool able to bring democratic agency back into the analysis of how big data affect contemporary society. The chapter straddles three streams of literature, namely media studies, social movement studies, and science and technology studies (STS), in view of offering an all-round theoretical and empirical approach to investigate people's critical engagement with massive data collection. It distinguishes between two forms of data activism, namely proactive and reactive. The chapter further provides historical grounding to the concept, placing data activism within the contemporary movement ecology and analyzing its role in relation to technological innovation and to media activism in its historical and current interpretations.

The effect of socioeconomic factors on crime rates in Romania: a macro-level analysis

Abstract: The article outlines the need to identify appropriate explanations for various acts of deviant behaviour, mental illness and violent reactions in Romanian contemporary society which is facing a cri...

Triangular relationships between commerce, politics and hip-hop: a study of the role of hip-hop in influencing the socio-economic and political landscape in contemporary society

Abstract: A PhD Thesis to the Anthropology Department, Faculty of Humanities: University of the Witwatersrand.

Big Data: A New Empiricism and its Epistemic and Socio-Political Consequences

Abstract: The paper investigates the rise of Big Data in contemporary society. It examines the most prominent epistemological claims made by Big Data proponents, calls attention to the potential socio-political consequences of blind data trust, and proposes a possible way forward. The paper’s main focus is on the interplay between an emerging new empiricism and an increasingly opaque algorithmic environment that challenges democratic demands for transparency and accountability. It concludes that a responsible culture of quantification requires epistemic vigilance as well as a greater awareness of the potential dangers and pitfalls of an ever more data-driven society.

Exploration of internal and external indicators of social change in sustainable communities: A futures perspective

Abstract: This thesis addresses some of the most pressing issues of contemporary society, such as widespread unsustainable practices, including armed conflict, and the worldviews underlying them, as well as the likely consequences of the current social change. Conflicts and rapid changes taking place in our postmodern society need to be evaluated and understood in a broader historical context, to enable progress towards sustainable futures. The wide historical perspective of this research is facilitated by macrohistory, and more specifically Sorokin Pitirim’s theory of social change (the pendulum model). Macrohistory, as methodology, is embedded in the discipline of futures studies. This thesis by publication proceeds from analysis of external indicators of social change to ever deepening layers of internal indicators, as expressed in sustainable communities. Firstly, the thesis presents case studies of three sustainable communities as representatives of the three categories constituting the innovative taxonomy Models of Sustainable Communities, developed by the author of this thesis. These three sustainable communities: Damanhur (Italy), Toarps Ekoby (Sweden) and Masdar City (United Arab Emirates), offer diverse ‘slow living’ alternatives to the prevailing fast paced Western lifestyle. Further, analysis of external indicators of social change was completed through case studies of sustainable communities (Sippy Downs, Australia, and Masdar City, United Arab Emirates) by contrasting their external features and underlying worldviews, to elicit trends in the social change of the 21st century. The macrohistory analysis based on the above case studies found that Western society is currently in the late sensate phase of sociocultural development, based on Sorokin’s pendulum theory, and is transitioning into the next idealistic epoch.; Submitted in the fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of the Sunshine Coast, 2017.

Advocacy Science: Explaining the Term with Case Studies from Biotechnology.

Abstract: The paper discusses the use of term ‘advocacy science’ which is communication of science which goes beyond simple reporting of scientific findings, using the case study of biotechnology. It argues that advocacy science should be used to distinguish the engagement of modern civil society organizations to interpret scientific knowledge for their lobbying. It illustrates how this new communicative process has changed political discourse in science and general perception of the role of science in contemporary society.

Relocating Civil Society: Theories and Practices of Civil Society between Late Medieval and Modern Society

Abstract: Civil society is widely considered as a crucial element in contemporary society. Academics and policy makers have traditionally associated it with voluntary associations and organizations, assuming that associational life is an ideal intermediary between citizens and government. While members of associations form large social networks, which they can mobilize at critical moments, the conviviality of group sociability fosters the development of a set of common values, such as a democratic political culture and other civic virtues. Its origins are generally situated in the eighteenth century, and are mostly attributed to secularization, Enlightenment thinking, the birth of the “public sphere,” and growing emancipation from oppressive structures such as the church and the state.

Outlaw Territories: Environments of Insecurity/Architectures of Counterinsurgency

Abstract: Reflecting on music culture, the late Mark Fisher spoke of what he called a ‘temporal malaise’ that had beset contemporary society, a term that describes a growing sense that the future, as a categ...

Welfare sociology in our times. How social, political, and economic uncertainties shape contemporary societies

Abstract: This article attempts to present the welfare sociology approach to the problems and dilemmas of modern developed capitalist societies. In addition to describing areas of interest in welfare sociology, primarily welfare economics and positive psychology, the focus will be on the characteristics of the condition of modern societies. For this purpose, the term ‘uncertainty’, which is well suited for characterizing the various dimensions of post-modern societies, will be used. Nevertheless, one should keep in mind that this concept has not reached the creditable sociological elaboration (except for the work of economists on precarious forms of employment). As sociologically defined, welfare will be used for analyzing changes in the structure of social differentiation, as well as in social relationships, educational opportunities, political attitudes, patterns of consumption and leisure, to name a few. All these changes reflect not only the impact of globalization on social security systems, but also the consequences of the technological revolution and demographic challenges on subjectively perceived social welfare.

Transitional narratives of identity among ethnic minority youth gangs in Denmark: from collectivism to individualism

Abstract: Current literature often depicts the street cultures of ethnic minority youth as forms of collective cultural resistance to experiences of marginalization from mainstream society. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and qualitative interviews in 2014 with 23 young men attached to a rehabilitation centre for criminal offenders in Denmark, this article focuses on ethnic minority youth who desist from such street culture and their former gang life, criminality and drug use and how they describe this shift within their narratives. More specifically, we show how this shift can to some extent be characterized by a move from collective to more individualistic self-narratives re-articulating broader individualistic discourses existing in contemporary society. Among these more individualistic self-narratives, we find extensive reference to ideas of self-responsibility and also individual pragmatic interpretations of Islam. Such re-articulations can be seen as a way to create feelings of agency in severely dise...

The New Fundraisers: Who organises charitable giving in contemporary society?

Abstract: Charitable fundraising has become ever more urgent in a time of extensive public spending cuts. However, while the identity and motivation of those who donate comes under increasingly close scrutiny, little is known about the motivation and characteristics of the ‘askers’, despite almost every donation being solicited or prompted in some way. This is the first empirically-grounded and theorised account of the identity, characteristics and motivation of fundraisers in the UK. Based on original data collected during a 3-year study of over 1,200 fundraisers, the book argues that it is not possible to understand charitable giving without accounting for the role of fundraising.

The American imaginary in the contemporary American multi-protagonist film

Abstract: In this thesis I explore the contemporary American multi-protagonist film’s use of contingency and representation of the American Imaginary. The multi-protagonist film is a film form of increasing significance that moves away from the classical narrative cinema’s reliance on a psychologically motivated goal-oriented character and causally coherent narrative, and favours instead a formation of several lead characters and contingency as a way to create coherence in the narrative world. I exemplify why contingency should be understood in these films to mean the opposite of necessity and not simply standing for accidentality. Although accidentality has an important role in the multi-protagonist film, as the thesis highlights and the current scholarship rightly recognises, I explore the way in which accidents can bring forth a larger sense that the given order could have been otherwise. The American Imaginary is understood as a cinematic depiction of a complex intellectual and material framework informing the characters’ worldview. My focus is not on arguing how the American Imaginary presents itself in the society of the United States, instead I explore the way in which the chosen films represent and interrogate a set of ideas and values that they depict as specific to the U.S. With that being said, the films can also be argued to be empirical examples of social constructions of the U.S. I engage with the subject via close textual analysis of three multi-protagonist films – Thirteen Conversations about One Thing (Sprecher, 2001), Killing Them Softly (Dominik, 2012), and The Big Short (McKay, 2015). The films are chosen above all based on their deep interest in both contingency and the American Imaginary. While Thirteen Conversations and The Big Short are representative of the form and could be argued to be close to the generic core of the multi-protagonist film because they treat all their lead characters equally, Killing Them Softly is a less obvious example because it seems to favour one character over the others. Yet, the film is chosen because I see it as representing a tension common to all multi-protagonist films – a struggle of striking a balance between treating all characters equally and to some extent following the norms of the classical narrative cinema, which, among other devices, applies psychological complexity for creating coherence in the story-world. I make use of the thinking of Jacques Ranciere and Slavoj Žižek to highlight the chosen multi-protagonist films’ similarity to contemporary continental philosophy. The philosophers are chosen based on what I illustrate to be a “family resemblance” between some of the authors’ main ideas and the chosen films. I will explore how Ranciere’s understanding of equality, its connection to contingency, and his thinking on the aesthetic regimes of art offer a way to rethink the central tension of the multi-protagonist film – that between the form’s interest in contingency and its own rigid structure. Žižek’s psychoanalytical thinking of the Real, the unsymbolisable, and its relation to ideology as the latter’s main structuring principle, can be seen to create a close parallel with the chosen multi-protagonist films’ profound interest in the contingent nature of all social structures. As such, the thesis departs from much of the current writing on the multi-protagonist film by demonstrating that the form’s interest in contingency is not restricted to an easy way of connecting the various lead characters nor is it simply a method through which the film form is aiming to reflect the increasing complexity of modern society. Rather, I show the example multi-protagonist films to be exploring contemporary American society with a particular emphasis on capitalism and neoliberalisation, understood by the films as a social process where business and financial logic comes to inform the most various aspects of life. Instead of recognising the contemporary American multi-protagonist film as only adapting to the rapidly transforming society, the film form is shown to actively contribute to a changing understanding of America and its role on the global stage.

Understanding Collective Decision Making: A Fitness Landscape Model Approach

Abstract: One of the main challenges facing contemporary society is to understand how people can make decisions together. Understanding Collective Decision Making builds on evolutionary theories and presents an analytical tool to analyse and visualise collective decision making. By combining theoretical research with real world case studies, the authors provide a coherent and conclusive solution to the often fragmented and dispersed literature on the subject.

Theorising Religion : Classical and Contemporary Debates

Abstract: Contents: Introduction, James A Beckford and John Walliss Part I Classical Roots: Religion as an elementary aspect of society: Durkheim's legacy for social theory, Philip A Mellor Weber, rationalisation, and religious evolution in the modern era, Colin Campbell Spiritualism and the (re)enchantment of modernity, John Walliss Trajectories of faith in the global age: classical theory and contemporary evidence, Frank J Lechner 'Magico-popular religion' in contemporary society: towards a post-western sociology of religion, CristiA!n Parker Part II New Growth: Religion in ultramodernity, Jean-Paul Willaime Theodicy, distribution of risk, and reflexive modernisation: explaining the cultural significance of new religious movements, Robert A Campbell Privatisation, globalisation and religious innovation: Giddens' theory of modernity and the refutation of secularisation theory, Lorne L Dawson From creeds to burgers: religious control, spiritual search and the future of the world, John Drane Understanding honour and religion as resource and constraint for young British Asians, Hannah Bradby Preference structures and normative constraints in movements outside, between and within religious organisations, Darren E Sherkat Part III Fresh Blooms: Narrative versus theory in the sociology of religion: five stories of religion's place in the late modern world, James V Spickard 'A minimalist sociology of religion'?, James A Beckford New media, niche markets, and the body: excarnate and hypercarnate challenges for theory and theology, David Lyon Inner speech and religious traditions, Douglas J Davies Sickness and salvation: social theories of the body in the sociology of religion, Freda Mold Breaching bleaching: integrating studies of 'race' and ethnicity with the sociology of religion, Matthew Wood Index

Engi maðr skapar sik sjálfr : individual agency and the communal creation of outsiders in Íslendingasögur outlaw narratives

Abstract: This thesis examines how Islendingasogur out¬law narratives engage with socio-political concepts of community and the individual. It demonstrates that the sagas discussed share key anxieties over the deep structural problems in society, which are shown to restrict the individual agency of their protagonists, a restriction that motivates the transgressive behaviour of these individuals. The thesis suggests that these texts force their audiences to consider how each of their protagonists, despite his desire to live on his own terms, has his life and fate primarily defined—or indeed created—by the other members of his community. The introductory chapter details important trends in literary-critical scholarship about Islendingasogur outlaw narratives, particularly trends that have caused problems for analysis of the texts’ socio-political dimensions. Chapter two reviews the usefulness of interpreting Gisli Sursson as a primarily anachronistic figure within his contemporary society; it argues that such an interpretation overly downplays how the society of Gisla saga is shown to be defined by conflicting systems of communal expectation, which underlie Gisli’s approach to vengeance. Chapter three discusses how Grettis saga shows that various social constructs, including outlawry, are used reductively by Grettir’s society to frame him as a figure of Otherness; it demonstrates that the text implies that society’s use of these constructs to create outsiders is a fundamentally problematic method for dealing with difficult individuals. Chapter four demonstrates how Harðar saga juxtaposes the extra-legal Holmverjar with normative Icelandic society in order to highlight fundamental structural problems that affect both communities in their capacity to provide stable environments for their individual members. Chapter five discusses Fostbrœðra saga’s treatment of sworn-brotherhood as a symbolically extra-legal community; it also shows how Þormoðr uses his status as an outsider to subvert familiar notions of normativity and Otherness, thereby gaining advantages in his dealings with society.

The religious linguistic characteristics of the presence of the Kingdom in the light of Speech Act Theory : Christian ethical implications

Abstract: This article presents a novel Biblical ethical hermeneutic approach that emerges from an understanding of the presence of the kingdom of God in the Biblical text. The approach is predicated upon the use of speech act theory (abbreviated as SAT) in relation to ‘kingdom language’ in the Biblical text. The approach shows how the notion of kingdom language, as God’s divine activity, is elicited in the contemporary Christian’s life by allowing it to operate beyond the world of the Biblical text. In other words, this approach establishes a Biblical-ethical hermeneutic bridge be-tween the text (and its context) and the context of contemporary readers of the text. The alternative linguistic epistemology in SAT considers the principle of the kingdom of God in the past (locution level), the present (illocutionary level) and the future (perlocutionary level). The dynamic equivalences of the past, present and future of the kingdom of God based on an SAT approach to the Biblical text can inform Christian ethical theory and moral action in the present world. It can also provide a new moral sensibility in relation to God’s sovereignty and the respon-sibility of Christians in contemporary society.