Topic
Contemporary society
About: Contemporary society is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3991 publications have been published within this topic receiving 91755 citations.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors review the research conducted to date on media events and media spectacles and argue that more research needs to be carried out on transitional societies, as we need to learn more about the role of mediation, events and spectacles in democratization processes and in contemporary revolutions.
Abstract: We review the research conducted to date on media events and media spectacles. We posit that the main phenomena challenging the current conceptualizations of media event and media spectacle are (1) the understanding of risk, (2) the context of disasters and (3) globalization and the mediation of news in the context of transnational and transitional societies. We suggest that more research on disruptive events is needed. In the context of the new media landscape in particular, the ritual researcher may need to take into account the concepts of temporality and unpredictability as inherent features of media events and rituals – the traumatic events researcher may benefit from the concept of global risk society. Finally, we argue that more research needs to be carried out on transitional societies, as we need to learn more about the role of mediation, events and spectacles in democratization processes and in contemporary revolutions. Overall, our findings indicate that in the context of global risk society, constant disruptions and unplanned events, together with the changes in news transmission, need to be taken as a starting point also in the research frames used to understand the mediation of events in contemporary society.
33 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that maintaining meaningful social connections boosts health in amazing ways, and that social isolation pervades disturbingly in contemporary society, and because of its harmful consequences, social isolati...
Abstract: Maintaining meaningful social connections boosts health in amazing ways. Even so, social isolation pervades disturbingly in contemporary society. Because of its harmful consequences, social isolati...
33 citations
TL;DR: 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.
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...
33 citations
TL;DR: In the context of the American Sociological Association's 63rd annual meeting, the following themes were discussed: Confusion and disorder, or chaos, may be viewed in large part as the resultant of the dissonance and discord among the various cultural strata, each of which tends to persist beyond the set of conditions, physical and social.
Abstract: SOCIETY as a whole has been viewed historically from many perspectives. It has been envisaged among other ways as "the great society" (Wallas, 1916), "the acquisitive society" (Tawney, 1920), and "the affluent society" (Galbraith, 1958). Contemporary society, whether observed globally, nationally, or locally, is realistically characterized as "the chaotic society" and best understood as "the anachronistic society." Contemporary society is realistically characterized as chaotic because of its manifest confusion and disorder-the essential elements of chaos. On the international scene, to draw upon a few examples, consider the situation in Vietnam, Czechoslovakia, the Middle East, and Nigeria. On the national level consider the United States, France, the United Kingdom, China, and almost any country in Asia, Latin America or Africa. On the local level, in the United States, consider New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, Cleveland, Memphis, Miami, and over 100 other cities which have been wracked by violence. Contemporary society can be best understood when it is viewed as an anachronistic society. To be sure, society at any time, at least during the period of recorded history, has been an anachronistic society. For throughout the millennia of the historical era, society, at any instant in time, comprised layers of culture which, like geological strata, reflected the passage and deposits of time. Confusion and disorder, or chaos, may be viewed in large part as the resultant of the dissonance and discord among the various cultural strata, each of which tends to persist beyond the set of conditions, physical and social, which generated it. In some ways chaos in contemporary society differs from that in earlier societies only in degree. But there are a number of unique factors in contemporary chaos which make it more a difference in kind. First, contemporary society, as the most recent, contains the greatest number of cultural layers, and, therefore, the greatest potential for confusion and disorder. Second, contemporary society, by reason of the social morphological revolution, possesses cultural layers much more diverse than any predecessor society and, therefore, much greater dissonance. Third, contemporary society, unlike any predecessor, contains the means of its own destruction, the ultimate weapon, the explosive power of nuclear fusion. Fourth, fortunately, contemporary society possesses the knowledge, embodied in the emerging social sciences, including sociology, that affords some hope for the dissipation of confusion and the restoration of order before the advent of collective suicide. It is a moot question, however, as to whether society yet possesses the will and the organization to utilize available knowledge to this end. * Prepared as Presidential Address, 63rd Annual Meetings of the American Sociological Association, Boston. August 28, 1968. 1
32 citations
TL;DR: The republican tradition revolves around the idea that freedom requires the enjoyment of a certain set of material assets granting individuals socioeconomic independence from others as discussed by the authors, and material independence constitutes a necessary condition to build and consolidate individuals' positions as free choosers.
Abstract: The republican tradition revolves around the idea that freedom requires the enjoyment of a certain set of material assets granting individuals socioeconomic independence from others. This material independence constitutes a necessary condition to build and consolidate individuals’ positions as free choosers – their capacity for making choices in all domains of life with the security that, thanks to a particular social and institutional design, nobody will have the remotest chance of arbitrarily interfering in their individual life plan decisions. The picture republicanism paints of social life shows a dense network of social relations intersected by all sorts of asymmetries of power likely to cause bonds of dependence. Therefore, Philip Pettit asserts that “if a republican state is committed to advancing the cause of freedom as non-domination among its
32 citations