Current Sociology recent issues

Editorial: Looking for the next editor(s) of Current Sociology

Smith, D. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:14:42 PST

The Shift of Environmental Debates in Russia

Yanitsky, O. N. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:14:42 PST

This article presents the results of long-term research aimed at identifying the major trends in environmental debates conditioned by Russian reforms and by the changing geopolitical situation of the Russian nation-state. The main topics of the article are changes in the very subject of these debates, the actors involved, the political opportunity structure of the debates and the character of the languages used by their participants. Four major shifts have been identified and analysed: first, from long-term to short-term issues; second, from nationwide to ‘insular’ debates conditioned by the division of Russians into those who live in time and in space; third, from value-centred to economically oriented; and fourth, from humanistic to social-technological. Epistemologically, these shifts indicate a process of transition from instructive to discursive production of scientific knowledge that should take into account local knowledge; in terms of sociology of social knowledge, this means a change in the relationships between science and publics that have acquired a right to speak; in cultural terms, it marks a shift from scientific to cultural rationality; and in institutional and organizational terms, it means a shift from debates in big national public arenas to issue-centred bargaining in which official and citizen experts compete.

Who's Afraid of Critical Social Science?

Sayer, A. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:14:42 PST

The article offers an assessment of rationales for critical social science (CSS), noting that over the last three decades these have become increasingly cautious and timid, so that, for example, critique is reduced to uncovering hidden presuppositions and deepening reflexivity. First, the article outlines a simple conception of CSS based on the standpoint of the reduction of illusion, distinguishes this from scepticism and partisanship, and notes the importance of the denaturalization of social forms, Second, it assesses the critical standpoint of freedom. Third, the article argues that a stronger standpoint of the critique of avoidable suffering is needed and already implicit in limited form in existing CSS. Fourth, the article explores and counters some of the key reasons for the retreat of critique, and concludes.

A Study of the Social Characteristics of Artists

Ravadrad, A. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:14:42 PST

This article examines the social characteristics of artists. The idea is that artists share some common characteristics that may have an effect on their becoming an artist. The process of acquiring the identification of artist is a multidimensional one, which is related to creativity, alongside many other factors that are inherently social. Here, emphasis is on the second kind of factors, the social ones. In order to show the importance of such factors, data from the author’s previous research are presented. The theoretical field of study is sociology of art with an emphasis on Janet Wolff’s ideas. The main hypothesis is that creativity and genius are preconditions for a person to become an artist, but are not sufficient in themselves. The individual’s emergence as artist also relies on their social conditions. If certain social conditions are right, then an individual may be able to pursue artistic activities and become known as an artist.

Job Satisfaction and/or Job Stress: The Psychological Consequences of Working in 'High Performance Work Organizations'

Kashefi, M. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:14:42 PST

The rapid diffusion of high performance work organizations (HPWO) has attracted the attention of many scholars in sociology and psychology over the last three decades. One area in which ongoing debates and evidence are inconclusive is the linkage between HPWO and the ‘psychological functioning’ of employees, specifically the issues of job satisfaction and job stress. This study examines, and thereby extends our understanding of, associations between workplace restructuring — adopting an ‘internalization strategy’ within HPWO — with job satisfaction and job stress. The findings reveal that the implementation of an internalization strategy has raised job satisfaction both directly and indirectly, through affecting job characteristics — while indirectly increasing job stress as well. The latter occurred because an internalization strategy speeds up work pace, develops conflicting demands and intensifies conflicts between work and family. The article concludes with a short discussion on the theoretical significance of the findings and their policy implications for human resource management.

The Author and Authorship in the Internet Society: New Perspectives for Scientific Communication

Longo, M., Magnolo, S. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:14:42 PST

The Internet is the most recent and relevant innovation in the field of media communication, as well as the medium that reproduces most of the characteristics of global society. In trying to describe contemporary society, we cannot neglect the social implication of the web. Our assumption is that the evolution of the Internet has led to problematic effects on the relevance of concepts such as individuality, author, authorship and copyright, as commonly used up till now. The first part of the article focuses on individuality as a means to describe individual actors and social structures in the first modernity, paying particular attention to the idea of the author as an individual in the field of intellectual products. New communication forms online make the connection between the individuality of the author and the text weaker and less recognizable. The second part develops the theme of scientific knowledge in contemporary society, with regard to scholarly authorship. The Internet has produced deep transformations in scholarly publications. Technical and structural characteristics of the Internet suggest possibilities for a reorganization of the scientific system towards the replacement of authorship and reputation with innovative mechanisms of information processing and selection.

National Identity, Anomie and Mental Health in Latin America

Parales Quenza, C. J. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:14:42 PST

This article suggests links between the construction of national identities in Latin America, anomie and mental health. Several issues in the process of national identification, including ambivalent independence movements, segregation and the emulation of Spanish social practices, have prevented the inclusion of all segments of the population into collective political projects. Due to exclusion and inequality, there is a persistent condition of anomie, in which social rules become ineffective to regulate the social behaviour of individuals. Dependency and in-group derogation are also counted among the effects of the dysfunctional processes of national identification. Given the influence of social determinants on the health of the population, anomie is considered an important cause of violence and psychosocial problems. The links between anomie and mental health call for a wider perspective to promote mental health and prevent violence and illness. Social participation, equity and citizenship are core themes within this broader perspective.

Networks as Culturally Constituted Processes: A Comparison of Relational Sociology and Actor-network Theory

Mutzel, S. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:14:42 PST

This article connects two current, typically separate strands in network thinking that treat ‘culture’ and ‘structure’ as intermingled rather than as autonomous entities of a duality. It reviews and compares two different traditions, the ‘cultural turn’ in social network analysis and actor-network theory, which both view networks as culturally constituted processes. The article argues that the two approaches share many conceptual similarities, although important differences remain. They differ on what kinds of actors ascribe meaning to others. Furthermore, the article argues that some conceptual similarities have turned into methodological points of convergence in data analysis. The article suggests economic sociology as one possible area of research where the two approaches productively connect.

Qualifying Social Influence on Fertility Intentions: Composition, Structure and Meaning of Fertility-relevant Social Networks in Western Germany

Keim, S., Klarner, A., Bernardi, L. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:14:42 PST

Although the relevance of social interactions or social networks for fertility research has been increasingly acknowledged in recent years, little is known about the channels and mechanisms of social influences on individuals’ fertility decision-making. Drawing on problem-centred interviews and network data collected among young adults in western Germany, the authors show that qualitative methods broaden our understanding of social and contextual influences on couples’ fertility intentions, by exploring the phenomenon, taking subjective perceptions into account, analysing interactions within networks as well as the dynamics of networks. Qualitative methods allow for the collection and analysis of rich retrospective information on network dynamics in relation to life course events. This can also be helpful both to complement the still rare longitudinal data on social networks and to develop parsimonious and efficient survey instruments to collect such information in a standardized way.

The Association of Sociologists of Kazakhstan: National Developments and Cooperation with the ISA

Konovalov, S., Taizhanov, A. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:14:42 PST

Resumes/Resumenes

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:14:42 PST

Thank You

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:14:42 PST

Working at Fun: Conceptualizing Leisurework

Rapuano, D. — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 06:10:55 PDT

Today, in Irish music pub sessions that are structured to attract tourists, the majority of musicians are engaging in what is for them a leisure activity. However, complicating their leisure activity is the fact that pub sessions are increasingly commercialized, as the profit motive becomes primary for pub owners. As more and more commercialized sessions aim to attract tourists, many musicians must participate in the new economic session structure. This makes problematic the leisure activities of musicians who believe they are playing music for fun, when they are in effect working to increase the profit of pub owners. The study looks at a form of leisure that takes on certain characteristics of work. Six years of fieldwork in nine Irish pub sites in Ireland and Chicago, and 50 in-depth interviews with pub session musicians, highlights the complexity of trying to construct conceptual boundaries around fluid human activities. This research takes into consideration the meanings that participants give to their activities as it explores the ways in which Irish traditional music pub sessions function as both leisure and work at the same time.

The Making of a Social Movement: Citizen Journalism in South Korea

Kern, T., Nam, S.-h. — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 06:10:55 PDT

This article investigates the emergence of innovations in the social movement sector by exploring citizen journalism in South Korea. The findings show that the innovation resulted from brokerage activities among journalists, labour and unification activists, and progressive intellectuals. Despite different cultural visions and interests, these groups succeeded in building coalitions and constituted a sociocultural milieu that promoted reciprocal learning by allowing actors to realize new ideas and to exchange experiences. The empirical part of the study is based on a social network analysis of social movement groups and alternative media organizations active in South Korea between 1995 and 2002.

The Contemporary Culture of Blame and the Fetishization of the Modernist Mentality

Lau, R. W. K. — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 06:10:55 PDT

In recent years, a culture of blame has arisen in certain economically advanced societies that rules out the unexpected mishap. Its nature is theorized with reference to Mary Douglas’s blame theory. A genealogy of the modern concept of accident shows that the conceptual distinction between the foreseeable and the unforeseeable becomes meaningful under a secular cosmology. Since contemporary society is secular, how the culture of blame is able, despite this meaningfulness, to delegitimize the unexpected is analysed by tracing it to the modernist mentality itself. Why the culture of blame has arisen is shown by tracing its emergence to neoliberalism’s ascendance. By showing, with reference to Garfinkel and others, why the unexpected is intrinsic to social life, and by combining the lay and Marxist meanings of the term fetishism, it is explained why the culture of blame’s mentality constitutes a fetishization of the modernist mentality. Illustrative cases are given. The culture of blame’s implications for understanding contemporary modernity vis-a-vis Giddens’, Beck’s and Bauman’s theories are discussed. The entrenchedness of the culture of blame is examined from a discursive angle.

Explaining Daughter Devaluation and the Issue of Missing Women in South Asia and the UK

Gill, A., Mitra-Kahn, T. — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 06:10:55 PDT

Women in South Asia have a biologically abnormal chance of mortality from conception until their mid-thirties. This phenomenon (known as ‘missing women’) is related to son preference and daughter devaluation, which manifests itself in sex-selective abortions and gender-biased allocations of healthcare and nutrition. This article examines putative underlying determinants of the missing women phenomenon in South Asia (primarily India, but touching upon Pakistan and Bangladesh) and determines which of them are operative. It is found that these underlying determinants persist in migrant communities in the UK, though there is evidence that they find expression in different ways. The article presents an agenda for researching the phenomenon of missing women in the UK and suggests ways in which it might be eliminated.

'Down-to-Earth' Cosmopolitanism: Subjective and Objective Measurements of Cosmopolitanism in Survey Research

Pichler, F. — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 06:10:55 PDT

People who see themselves as and feel citizens of the world are often regarded as cosmopolitans. Sociology further distinguishes cosmopolitans by a set of particular orientations to the greater world. According to major normative claims of cosmopolitan theory, cosmopolitans hold attitudes and beliefs recognizing diversity. They are also expected to be more open-minded, self-critical and future-oriented. Using data from the European Values Study (EVS), the article discusses the possibilities to operationalize two measurement approaches to cosmopolitanism. The first one, termed the ‘identity approach’, is based on self-views as a world citizen and feelings of belonging. The second, labelled ‘cosmopolitan orientation’, relates to particular attitudes towards difference. Analyses show that EVS data on the ‘identity approach’ are problematic. In a comparative crossnational study covering 31 European countries, it is found that individual-level characteristics (gender, age, social class, citizenship, etc.) and structural conditions (GDP, sociopolitical regime) impact on the objective measurement of ‘cosmopolitan orientation’. The results of a multilevel regression on this measure support the usefulness of approaching cosmopolitanism from a more ‘objective’ point of view.

Resumes/resumenes

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 06:10:55 PDT

Introduction: Comparative Perspectives on Professional Groups: Current Issues and Critical Debates

Bourgeault, I. L., Benoit, C., Hirschkorn, K. — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:01:05 PDT

Encountering Globalization: Professional Groups in an International Context

Allsop, J., Bourgeault, I. L., Evetts, J., Le Bianic, T., Jones, K., Wrede, S. — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:01:05 PDT

The market for professional services is increasingly international but comparisons have not been made between different professions nor on how state policies affect opportunities for mobility. This article considers three professions: engineers, physicians and psychologists and explores the similarities and differences in international labour market demand for occupations. It examines how state policies in four countries, Canada, Finland, France and the UK, aim to promote and control professional labour mobility and migration, and the differences across the three professions. Engineering is an international profession and the extent to which states encourage inward migration differs. Medicine is highly regulated in all four countries but inward migration of physicians varies depending on national policy. Psychologists are less mobile, and the extent of state sponsorship and regulation varies across countries. In all three professions, international organizations are a force encouraging global standards. The conclusion is that state policies reflect state interests and have a strong influence on patterns of mobility.

Professional Governance and Public Control: A Comparison of Healthcare in the United Kingdom and Germany

Kuhlmann, E., Allsop, J., Saks, M. — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:01:05 PDT

Governments across the western world face new demands to achieve greater efficiency and responsiveness in public services. The transformations are most radical and challenging in healthcare where both cost effectiveness and patient safety are major issues. Drawing on the National Health Service in the UK and the corporatist system in Germany, this article compares the dynamics of changing governance and public control in the context of different national and institutional arrangements. The analysis is based on studies carried out by each of the authors and secondary sources. The article addresses three issues: transformations in the governance of physicians who held a dominant position in healthcare; policies to promote the role of service users in defining the `public interest' and influencing the decisions of providers; and the professionalization and regulation of a broader range of health professions. The comparison between the two countries illustrates different institutional pathways to change and different conceptualizations of the `public interest' and how it is represented. This demonstrates that not only the government and service users, but also a variety of professional groups, in advancing their own professional projects, may still fundamentally shape the nature and form of public control and new governance practices.

Social Service Professional or Market Expert?: Maternity Care Relations under Neoliberal Healthcare Reform

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:01:05 PDT

Recent developments in the organization and practice of healthcare, driven by the introduction of (quasi-) markets and privatization, are altering traditional forms of professionalism found in high- and middle-income countries. Yet there remains debate about whether these neoliberal trends are universal or country specific, and whether they have any effect (positive or negative) on health service delivery. This article develops a comparative analysis that focuses on changes in maternity service systems in four countries in Northern Europe and the Americas with primarily publicly financed healthcare systems: the UK, Finland, Chile and Canada. The article begins with a discussion of the continuum of professional forms found in the post-Second World War period and their relationship to different kinds of welfare states. It then focuses on the impact of recent neoliberal reforms on the ideological projects of the medical and allied health professions in the four case examples. The results show that variation across time and place is mainly the result of structural/economic factors and that various forms of professional discourses are the result of the public/private ways that healthcare systems are organized. The article concludes with suggestions for further comparative sociological research.

The Moral Organization of the Professions: Bioethics in the United States and France

De Vries, R., Dingwall, R., Orfali, K. — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:01:05 PDT

Bioethics is a relatively new endeavor, emerging as a discourse distinct from considerations of moral responsibility occurring within the professions of medicine and science. This article uses the `de-centered comparative method' to examine how the emergence and development of bioethics varies across different social and cultural settings. In particular, the article looks at bioethical work in the US and France, exploring these different manifestations of the movement toward external oversight of those working in medicine and the life sciences. Our comparative data demonstrate how pathways of professionalization are shaped by contingent cultural and historical factors. We contrast `demand' and `supply' theories of professionalization and suggest that the increasing prominence of the bioethical occupation is the result of both the professional desires of bioethicists and a concern for the public good.

New Public Management and New Professionalism across Nations and Contexts

Leicht, K. T., Walter, T., Sainsaulieu, I., Davies, S. — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:01:05 PDT

The professions in the West are undergoing unprecedented calls for greater accountability and efficiency in service delivery. This article links these changes to recent developments in institutional theory that emphasize shifting salience of technical over symbolic organizational environments. The analysis of the adaptations to these changes in French and British healthcare, Canadian education and US managerial consulting suggest that country-specific responses to neoliberal institutional pressures are highly path dependent. The article concludes by suggesting a research program for the future study of the cross-national responses of professional groups to neoliberal economic and political ideologies.

Resumes/Resumenes

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:01:05 PDT

Hiding in Plain Sight: Community Organization, Naive Trust and Terrorism

Hawdon, J., Ryan, J. — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:54:00 PDT

Terrorism is behavior that is both initiated and sustained by actors within a social environment. That social environment may vary along a continuum from supporting and enabling the behavior, to ignoring or being unaware of the behavior, to actively opposing the behavior. This article applies social disorganization theory, social capital theory and Black's work on terrorism to predict community characteristics likely to provide the anonymity required for the development of terrorist activity in developed nations. Using the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey and case studies, the article demonstrates how the theory predicts and helps explain why the 9/11 terrorists went undetected even as they lived in the US.

Looking the Part: Embodying the Discourse of Organizational Professionalism in the City

Waring, A., Waring, J. — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:54:00 PDT

Recent theoretical developments in the sociology of professions reveal how a ubiquitous discourse of professionalism can represent a basis for occupational control that centres on expectations of performance and conformity. Few studies, however, explore how such a discourse is manifest within the workplace and embodied within individual practice and identity. Taking `city professionals' as its focus, this article investigates the relationship between a discourse of professionalism and the creation of a `professional body' within the context of the city workplace. The study focuses on `city workers' based within the corporate institutions of London and Manchester, to show that the `management' and `representation' of a particular body image, developed through a commitment to health and fitness practices, can be used to symbolize the discursive ideals of competitiveness, motivation, profitability, success and, ultimately, professionalism. The study argues that this commitment to health and fitness practices illustrates a degree of conformity to a prevailing discourse of professionalism found within and across city-based workplaces, which further indicates a form of occupational control within the workplace.

Introduction

Murphy, R. — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:54:00 PDT

The Environment and Carbon Dependence: Landscapes of Sustainability and Materiality

Redclift, M. — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:54:00 PDT

Sustainability has been the subject of considerable attention from the natural and social sciences and, during the last two decades, the discursive aspects of the way we construct nature and sustainability have opened up new terrain. These debates have been given urgency by the growing awareness of global climate change, and the need to formulate policy responses. On the one hand, the attention to policy has led to the belief, among many environmental economists, that climate change can be characterized as a `market failure'. From a quite different perspective, some recent work has provided critiques of the way nature is being transformed by capital, and sustainability is viewed in terms of changing materialities and poststructuralist understanding of the role of ideology. The article reviews these positions on the environment and carbon `dependence' and argues that sociology has a real contribution to make to the analysis of future `post-carbon' societies, drawing on its roots in critique and the elaboration of alternative, utopian, futures.

Sociology and Climate Change after Kyoto: What Roles for Social Science in Understanding Climate Change?

Yearley, S. — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:54:00 PDT

This article focuses on the comparatively neglected role of the social sciences (including economics) and of assumptions about the social functioning of the scientific community in projections about climate change and about societies' responses to changing climates and related environmental phenomena. Using an approach informed by social constructionism and science and technology studies, it examines the part played by the social sciences and the social institutions of science in making knowledge about the future of humankind in relation to the changing ecosphere. Using a small series of case studies focused on the way that social science features in the shaping of climate knowledge — for example, how value is attached to economic activities in different countries in the course of attempts to calculate the most `rational' global response to the myriad threats of changing climates — the article shows that there is a need for (1) greater understanding of the social dimensions of the scientific community that studies climate change and (2) more social science reflection on the roles of social science in climate-change models and projections.

Agricultural Biodiversity and Neoliberal Regimes of Agri-Environmental Governance in Australia

Lockie, S. — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:54:00 PDT

International agreements highlight the centrality of agricultural biodiversity and the ecosystem services it provides to human well-being, but provide little guidance on how to integrate agrobiodiversity within workable national regimes of governance. Complicating this picture further, it is not species richness per se that underwrites the resilience and productivity of agroecosystems but the functional relationships between organisms and ecosystem components at a variety of scales. Like many others, Australia's national strategy for biodiversity conservation acknowledges the importance of functional biodiversity but, in reality, focuses most attention on the protection of `wild' biodiversity from unsympathetic land use. In constructing a workable regime of governance for agricultural biodiversity, Australian governments have been particularly concerned to maintain and extend the neoliberal project of market rule. Biodiversity loss is defined as an outcome of market failure best addressed through various types of market reform. However, new tensions have been created between the totalizing logic of market rule and the spatio-temporal variability and specificity of biodiversity management. Despite the positive emphasis of Australian agri-environmental policy on planning and capacity building, declining terms of trade for agricultural produce are likely to make it very difficult for the majority of landholders to actively manage biological resources for which there are no direct and immediate productivity benefits.

Going out on a Limb: Postmodernism and Multiple Method Research

Fielding, N. G. — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:54:00 PDT

The article argues that `moderate postmodernism' can in certain respects be reconciled with a methodological practice, triangulation, that is based on mainstream methodological foundations. A connection is made between moderate postmodernism and triangulation's orientation to multiple methods. The evolution of social science approaches to triangulation towards a position less concerned with convergent validation and more concerned with using multiple methods to create greater analytic density and conceptual richness facilitates a conciliation between postmodernism and triangulation. The argument is illustrated by contemporary empirical examples.

Emerging Landscapes in Social Research: Comments on Nigel Fielding, Postmodern Thought and Social Research

Pascale, C.-M. — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:54:00 PDT

The View from Further Out: A Response to Fielding's `Going out on a Limb: Postmodernism and Multiple Method Research'

Healy, P. — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:54:00 PDT

Of Bridges and Limbs: A Response to Pascale and Healy

Fielding, N. G. — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:54:00 PDT

Resumes/Resumenes

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:54:00 PDT