Showing papers on "Social dynamics published in 1993"

Developing through relationships origins of communication, self, and culture

Abstract: The purpose of this outstanding new book is to explain how individuals develop through their relationships with others. Alan Fogel demonstrates that creativity is at the heart human development, arising out of a social dynamic process called co-regulation. He focuses on the act of communication - between adults, between parents and children, among non-human animals, even among cells and genes - to create an original model of human development. Fogel weaves together theory and empirical findings from a variety of disciplines - linguistics, biology, literature, cognitive and neural science, ethology, anthropology, and psychology - to demonstrate the continuous process model of communication. He contends that the human mind and sense of self must be seen as developing out of the processes of communication and relationship-formation between the subject and other individuals. Rarely has a work of scholarship so elegantly and so persuasively presented a complex psychological theory and its practical application. Developing through Relationships not only makes a substantial contribution to developmental psychology but also to the fields of communication, cognitive science, linguistics, and biology.

White By Definition: Social Classification in Creole Louisiana

Abstract: "An unusual and powerful study"--Eric R Wolf, Herbert H Lehman College, CUNY "A profound study of the nebulous Creoles Dominguez's use of original sources is scholarship at its best Her study is fascinating, thought-provoking, controversial, and without a doubt, one of the most objective analyses of Creole Louisiana Her emphasis on social stratification and her excellent integration of ethnic and racial classification of Creoles with legal and social dynamics and individual choice of ethnic identity elucidates strikingly the continuing controversy of who and what is a Louisiana Creole"--Journal of American Ethnic History "Dominguez's most important contribution lies in her conceptualization of the problem of identity She treats ethnic identity as something that can change over time, warning us against imposing current meanings on the past and requiring us to consider evidence of how terms were actually used in the past It is hard to imagine a frame of reference more ideally suited to historical analysis"--Louisiana History "A valuable interdisciplinary examination of the processes of racial definition in Louisiana's history Her study combines the anthropologist's sensitivity to language and self definition within a community with a skillful exploitation of historical sources"--Law and Society "I highly recommend this book to all persons interested in social stratification"--Alvin L Bertrand, Contemporary Sociology "A vivid and insightful reading of the historical circumstances that have shaped definitions of Creoles within Louisiana law and society"--Journal of Southern History "A provocative, often brilliant book It offers fresh perspectives on fundamental questions and deserves a wide readership among American social historians"--Journal of American History

Land in African Agrarian Systems

Abstract: "Land in African Agrarian Systems" argues that proposals for sweeping changes in African agricultural land tenure are misconceived. Colonial administrators, African elites, and foreign aid donors have historically viewed the variety of indigenous landholding systems as obstacles to increased agricultural production and to economic progress in general, believing that only private land ownership will provide the investment security necessary for agricultural efficiency. This volume contends that privatisation is not the panacea for Africa's agrarian ills, and that any solutions must take into account critical social dynamics that influence how productive resources are acquired, used, contested and underutilised. Editors Thomas J. Bassett and Donald E. Crummey bring together specialists with a variety of perspectives on land tenure issues throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Whether focusing at the level of household, community or nation, these case studies describe how land access, control, and management are embedded in social, political and economic structures that fluctuate and change over time. They examine these embedded systems closely to illuminate the relationship between landholding patterns and agricultural output, stressing throughout that land tenure is a political process. The contributors, an international group of scholars in the areas of land tenure, geography, African studies, anthropology, history and political science, call for pragmatism and respect for the flexibility of indigenous tenure systems, while also addressing the complicated issues of state intervention, socio-economic differentiation, and the social relations of production. By looking at the social and political processes behind the struggles over productive resources, "Land in African Agrarian Systems" aims to advance the debate over the land question and agricultural performance in Africa, and to counter the arguments of the powerful forces pushing for privatisation. "Land in African Agrarian Systems" advances the debate over the land question and agricultural performance in Africa, and counters the arguments of the powerful forces pushing for privatisation.

Women, Rituals, and Social Dynamics at Ancient Chalcatzingo

Abstract: Female figurines from the Cantera phase at Chalcatzingo, Morelos, depict stages of the life cycle: puberty, pregnancy, and child rearing. Contextual data indicate that the figurines were used in female-focused life-crisis ceremonies that created a web of social rights and obligations validated by reciprocal exchanges. These rights and obligations were the means by which power and influence were created, directed, and controlled by particular households. Thus, these figurines and their contexts permit a better understanding of the role of women in the dynamics of social-hierarchy formation at Chalcatzingo, and how the formation of social bonds and patterns of exchange were important in the accumulation of power.

Computer-Mediated Zones of Engagement in Learning

Abstract: Even the most casual observer of any activity that could be vaguely described as learning could not but be impressed with the social dynamics of the activity. The complex and intense interactions between teachers and pupils have defied any simple categorization but, however it is described, education cannot fail to be seen as entailing a special form of discussion; teachers and learners engage in a form of dialogue which is highly context bound, in that it relates at the very least to the social environment of classrooms, with all that that entails.

Listening to Rural Adolescents: Views on the Rural Community and the Importance of Adult Interactions

Abstract: The problems facing rural areas are many faceted, but a key component to their solution is the human resource of ruraladolescents. In this study, an interpretiveanalysisof interviews focusing on perceptions of the community, family, school social dynamics, andaspects of self identity with 20 adolescents from a rural high school, is discussed within the framework of two organizingdimensions: living in a rural community and the importance of adult-adolescent interactions. Participants both liked anddisliked growing up in a small rural community. Theinterpersonal intimacy of a rural community was seen as providing a sense of safety and belonging while taking awaypersonal privacy and fostering prejudices. Perceptions of community isolation include lack of social activities, difficulty with transportation, and, positively, an identification with nature. Adult interactions that wereperceived as important range from global perceptions of community support for school and adolescent activities to interpersonal contacts with teachers, family members, and other adults. Participants seemed to besimply asking to beheard andresponded toas individuals. Theimportanceof listening and understanding the uniqueconcerns of adolescents in each rural community isemphasized. Schools and communities need to work together locally to support the plans that most rural youngpeople would seem to naturally make: to live in a ruralarea to work and raise their ownfamilies. The deteriorating economic and social condi­ tions in rural areas have received national atten­ tion for some time. Romantic nostalgia aside, rural America is in trouble and the political battle for the survival of rural communities has been joined. Rural schools are only one focus of this struggle, but, I think, a critical one. The school is the link between young people and the future of the community. The youth of rural communities are a key component in the equation for a healthy future. Yet there has been comparatively little research on rural adolescents, and almost none that has provided an opportunity for rural adoles­ cents themselves to say what is important to them-to express their own thoughts, feelings, needs, or values. In this study, I begin to give voice to a group of rural adolescents, focusing on their perceptions of (a) what it is like to live in a small rural community and (b) the importance of adult interactions.

The Social Dynamics of Systems Development: Conflict, Change and Organizational Politics

Abstract: This chapter is about the system design process. More explicitly, it is about the process of developing computer-based artefacts “supporting” work in human organizations, primarily business organizations. It does not deal specifically with systems for supporting cooperative work; indeed all the case studies and theory that are discussed have been taken from the domain of information systems (IS) research. The querulous reader might wonder about the relevance of IS research to computer supported cooperative work (CSCW). Behind this demurring, I suspect, lurks the question, unresolved in CSCW, of whether CSCW systems are (or ought to be) fundamentally different from traditional systems. If they are, then it is more than likely that their design will evoke new issues and the relevance of conventional knowledge will need to be qualified, perhaps profoundly.

Games in Organizations

Abstract: This article discusses the difference between the individual and social dynamics of games as enunciated by Berne. It presents a format for integrating intrapsychic, interpersonal, intragroup, and i...

Dynamics of Modern Society

Abstract: In this paper, we would like to present a framework to understand our nowadays society. First we review various arguments on the trend of our age, and point out the problems to be considered. Then, to solve the problems, we adopt the concept “paradigm” refered from “language game”. According to Wittgenstein, “language game” is the whole of interactions between members in a group, and the members refer to “paradigm” regarded as transcendentally exists to play their “language game”. “Language game” corresponds to the social activity and “paradigm” to a view of social life, we think. Therefore, we can see the social movement as the sequence of interactions of the several paradigms existing in the society.At the beginning of the Modern Age, three types of automated machines were born. Clock, automata, and computer. They have represented three main paradigms specifying the social dynamics from Modern Age to our age, we think. We can examine this hypothesis by analysing the history. And we confirm that the social movement can be explained by inconsistency among paradigms represented by the machines mentioned above, which have been coexistent in the society.From consideration above, we conclude that : Our age will not proceed to pre-Modern society, totally controlled society, nor grass-roots network society spontaneously as insisted in the arguments refered first. Our age is a “language game” refering to “machine creating machines”. So, we must consider what and how machines are to be created from now on.

The long-term effects of development aid - Empirical studies in rural West Africa

Abstract: This article is based on field studies in rural West Africa. It concentrates on the socio-structural effects of development aid in the long run, in contrast to numerous available evaluation reports on the short-run effects of development projects. The study reveals that superficial generalisations or condemnations of development projects, like the big farmers benefit at the expense of the smaller ones, or the men benefit at the expense of the women, do not hold up to verification. Quite to the contrary one observes a wide range of specific adapted forms by which the target groups react to the demands and offers of development projects, and thereby transform their own social structure. In short, one observes a great diversity of social self-organisation. The bureaucratic structures of the development administration do, however, unfortunately - more often than not - ignore the social dynamic of their target groups which they nevertheless sustain unconsciously. Development aid has become an important political and economic factor in most African countries. Its financial impact often exceeds that of the national budget. It contributes, therefore, significantly to the development of a bureaucratic class and of its clients: the project development degenerates into a project nationalization / bureaucratization. This contrasts vividly with the strategies of the peasants. Men and women at village level do not accept any longer the paternalistic development approach. They just select what they need out of the packages of solutions that are offered to them, while they develop their own solutions, like a variety of seeds adapted to their specific resource endowments, diversified sources of income, different strategies of accumulation and risk prevention. All this allows for a gradual evolution by variation and selection. The dynamic of the rural society is to a large extent due to a competition of different (strategic) groups, opposed to one another, about the partitioning of the cake of development aid. Normally this struggle between different vested interests is covered up by the rhetoric of development planning. Planned development has up to now proven to be to rigid, to be able to take account of the complex and subtle fabric of self organisation. Aid sometimes appears to be a second best substitute for a vision of a democratic society. This is due to the fact that the structures we are aiming for in the long run - which are to allow for open markets, an orientation of the producers at the resources and needs of the nation, and last not least, the growth of indigenous structures of self-help - would require a responsible and democratic government, as well as the guarantee of civil rights, accountability, an independent judiciary, freedom of the press, etc.; up to now, however, all these elements are still oppressed by the commando state itself, well nourished by the various forms of technical and financial aid.

The social dynamics of the early transmission of the Jesus tradition

Abstract: Of fundamental importance to understanding earliest Christianity is the history of the Gospel traditions. Despite several shortcomings, the informal, freely developing concept of tradition transmission still merits attention. To analyse the transmission process with a social-scientific model, rumour research is discussed and summarised. This model is then related to aspects of the development of the synoptic gospel traditions, and suggested as applicable to some Jesus stories

Mediated collaborative research

Abstract: Several countries are currently in the process of planning and implementing advanced network infrastructures in the scientific and education communities. One of the objectives of this action is to facilitate collaborative research. In this paper, we closely examine the feasibility of this objective, by: 1) noting the claims of the proponents of the high speed academic networks 2) circumscribing the notion of collaborative research, 3) examining the current role of communication technologies in collaborative research, 4) identifying the possible obstacles to attaining this objective, and 5) presenting and analyzing a case study of a distributed research group and the implementation of a desktop videoconference system. The results of the case study tend to reinforce and extend previous observations concerning potential implementation difficulties of network technologies. Furthermore, the study suggests that the social dynamics in some collaborative research groups may complicate the introduction of new network technologies and limit their use.

Collective Action, Strategic Behaviour and Endogenous Growth

Abstract: This paper is devoted to exploring the social dynamics of economic behaviour specifically how to encourage endogenous growth. Innovation, the key to successful competition, and therefore growth, must be futher understood. The tecnological aspects of innovation are important, but their presence does not always result in innovation. It will be argued that the organization of the collective is the key to the establishment of the social mechanisms necessary to incorporate change without threatening the system as a whole. The paper concludes with a discussion of policy implications.

Environmental arguments and the survival of small-scale fishing in Iceland.

Abstract: This thesis is offered as a contribution to studies of social and cultural change in the Icelandic fisheries and fishing communities. Such changes may be seen as a result of the interplay of internal dynamics with both national and global forces and processes, not least with regard to the impacts of fisheries governance. These changes occur also in an international context of new environmental ideologies and perceptions of marine mammals, with consequences for social dynamics of local resource-use. Here it is argued that the conflicts over the harvesting or conservation of cetaceans can productively be understood from a cultural perspective. The thesis discusses the elevation of whales as symbols of particular value, and the metaphorical and cognitive aspects of, in particular, anthropomorphism, the projection of human motives and values onto animal behaviour, as a significant and effective part of conservation rhetoric and ideology.Specifically, the thesis deals with issues concerning whaling and whale watching along with issues and debates concerning these alternative forms of exploiting marine mammals. It also discusses central questions regarding fisheries governance and rights to fishing with reference to social and economic viability in Icelandic fishing communities. The unifying themes of this thesis are: how marine-mammal issues and controversies and social impacts of fisheries governance form part of globalization processes; how environmental and economic paradigms influence change, particularly in terms of marine-mammal conservation campaigns and market liberalist resource policy; and how these external ideological forces call for responses at local and national levels. The adaptive actions of the human agents and communities involved are described as creative, cumulative and complex. The thesis also highlights the central transformative role of the new regime of private property rights introduced into Icelandic fisheries governance in the 1980s.

Book Reviews : Scientific Knowledge in Controversy: The Social Dynamics of the Fluoridation Debate, by Brian Martin. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991, 192 pp. and appendixes, $16.95 (paper

Abstract: Scientific Knowledge in Controversy: The Social Dynamics of the Fluoridation Debate, by Brian Martin. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991, 192 pp. and appendixes, $16.95 (paper). In 1901, a Colorado dentist, Frederick McCay, noticed a high incidence of mottled teeth, which he attributed to an unidentified substance in the water supply. He noticed that mottled teeth seemed to be more resistant to decay than unmottled teeth were. The seeds of what has come to be known as the fluoridation controversy were embedded in this dual discovery as dentists, public health officials, and others have had