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Social Action (social + action)
Selected AbstractsThe Church of Faith and Freedom: African,American Baptists and Social ActionJOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION, Issue 1 2003Shayne Lee Clergy have an undeniable ability to shape the political beliefs and attitudes of their congregations and thus revealing how the framing activities of clergy affect behavior and influence mobilization is vital for political sociology. This ethnographic work delineates how, in 1972, the Second Baptist Church of Evanston's new pastor initiated a rapid change from social conservatism to become one of the most politically and socially active African,American Baptist churches in the Midwest. Second Baptist's radical change confirms the power of religious elites in shaping politics in spiritual institutions, and also demonstrates the vital impact of professional socialization on the theological and political orientations of clergy. [source] Producing Parsons' reputation: Early critiques of Talcott Parsons' social theory and the making of a caricatureJOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF THE BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES, Issue 2 2010B. Robert Owens This article examines the critical responses to Talcott Parsons' first major work, The Structure of Social Action (1937), and his two subsequent books, Toward a General Theory of Action and The Social System (both 1951). Because Parsons' work was the subject of such virulent debate, we cannot fully understand Parsons' impact on the discipline of sociology without understanding the source and nature of those early criticisms. I trace the responses to Parsons, first through book reviews and private letters and then in the more substantial statements of C. Wright Mills, George Homans, and Alvin Gouldner, from the largely positive but superficial reception of Structure to the polemics that followed Parsons' 1951 works. In the late 1930s and 1940s, Parsons' reputation grew steadily but there remained no careful reception of Structure, fostering resentment toward Parsons in some quarters while precluding a sophisticated understanding of his work. After 1951, a few critics capitalized on that tension, writing sweeping rejections of Parsons' work that spoke to a much broader audience of sociologists. That dynamic, coupled with Parsons' own indifference toward his harshest critics, produced a situation in which many sociologists simply chose not to read Parsons in the 1950s and 1960s, reinforcing a caricature and distorting perceptions of Parsons' place in mid-twentieth-century American sociology. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Individual Orientation Toward Engagement in Social ActionPOLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2002Alexandra F. Corning The issue of how an activist identity develops is one of the core issues in social psychology and social movement research. Because of problems in the measurement of individuals' propensities to engage in social action, however, findings in this area are often equivocal, and cross,study comparisons and conclusions are difficult to draw. Hence, the aim of these studies was to develop a measure to assess individuals' propensities to engage in social action. This measure, the Activism Orientation Scale (AOS), demonstrates strong psychometric properties and allows assessment of activist propensity across a wide continuum of social action behaviors, ideological positions, and movement issues. Additionally, the broad applicability of the AOS allows for its use by researchers, activists, and policymakers. [source] Social action with youth: Interventions, evaluation, and psychopolitical validityJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 6 2007Julie Morsillo We describe two interventions designed to encourage community action with youth in a school and a community service setting. The school intervention took place with a Year 10 class, while the community-based intervention took place with a group of same-sex attracted youth. Using a participatory action research framework, youth in both settings devised a series of community projects to promote personal, group, and community wellness. Projects included drama presentations addressing homophobia, designing an aboriginal public garden, children's activities in a cultural festival for refugees, a drug-free underage dance party, a community theatre group, and a student battle of the bands. We evaluated the various community projects using self-reports, videotapes, and ethnographic data. While goals of personal and group wellness were meaningfully met, wellness at the community level was harder to achieve. Introducing a tool for the evaluation of psychopolitical validity, we examined the degree of both epistemic and transformational validity present in the interventions. Our assessment indicates that (a) psychological changes are easier to achieve than political transformations, (b) epistemic validity is easier to accomplish than transformational validity, and (c) changes at the personal and group levels are easier to achieve than changes at the community level. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comm Psychol 35: 725,740, 2007. [source] Anxiety, Remembering, and Agency: Biocultural Insights for Understanding Sasaks' Responses to IllnessETHOS, Issue 1 2009M. Cameron Hay When someone is ill, people respond by seeking jampi. The more anxiety surrounds the illness, the more fervently jampi are sought. This article offers a biocultural analysis of jampi, tacking between (1) ethnographic descriptions of how jampi are transmitted, recalled, and used and (2) neuropsychological evidence regarding memory, anxiety, and agency. This biocultural approach highlights the central importance of anxiety for enabling the cultural reliance on jampi through its facilitation of memorization, recall, and social action. I conclude by suggesting that through examining the importance of anxiety ethnographically we may gain insight into the embodied experiences and social and healing practices surrounding illness. [memory, emotion, agency, anxiety, illness, Indonesia] [source] Opinion-based group membership as a predictor of commitment to political actionEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 1 2007Ana-Maria Bliuc Research on group identification has shown it to be a surprisingly weak predictor of intentions to take large-scale social action. The weak links may exist because researchers have not always examined identification with the type of group that is most relevant for predicting action. Our focus in two studies (one in Romania and one in Australia, both Ns,=,101) was on opinion-based groups (i.e. groups formed around shared opinions). We found that social identification with opinion-based groups was an excellent predictor of political behavioural intentions, particularly when items measuring identity certainty were included. The results provide clear evidence of the role of social identity constructs for predicting commitment to social action and complement analyses of politicised collective identity and crowd behaviour. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Reconstructing Culture in Historical Explanation: Narratives as Cultural Structure and PracticeHISTORY AND THEORY, Issue 3 2000Anne Kane The problem of how to access and deploy the explanatory power of culture in historical accounts has long remained vexing. A recent approach, combining and transcending the "culture as structure"/"culture as practice" divide among social historians, puts explanatory focus on the recursivity of meaning, agency, and structure in historical transformation. This article argues that meaning construction is at the nexus of culture, social structure, and social action, and must be the explicit target of investigation into the cultural dimension of historical explanation. Through an empirical analysis of political alliance during the Irish Land War, 1879,1882, I demonstrate that historians can uncover meaning construction by analyzing the symbolic structures and practices of narrative discourse. [source] The Second Somatic Revolution1JOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 3 2008BRENDA FARNELL ABSTRACT This paper proposes a dynamic theory of embodiment that aims to get beyond the absent moving body in embodied social theory. The first somatic revolution, inspired by Merleau Ponty, provided theories based on the feeling and experience of the body. The theory of dynamic embodiment focuses instead on the doing itself as embodied social action, in which the embodied person is fore-grounded as a complex resource for meaning making. This represents a theoretical enrichment of the earlier turn to the body in social theory, which tended to separate the semiotic, as necessarily representational and/or linguistic, from the somatic as a wide range of corporeal processes and practices assumed to be separated from mind, language and/or conscious thought. We argue that overcoming this persistent Cartesianism requires a New Realist approach to the proper location of human agency as a causal power, one that promotes a bio-psycho-social concept of personhood. Part one of the paper presents a general framework for this perspective, while part two applies this paradigm ethnographically to illustrate how bringing semiosis and somatics together requires a robust conception of multi-sensory modalities. [source] Rethinking Crowd Violence: Self-Categorization Theory and the Woodstock 1999 RiotJOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 2 2004STEPHEN VIDER According to self-categorization theory (SCT), incidents of crowd violence can be understood as discrete forms of social action, limited by the crowd's social identity. Through an analysis of the riot at Woodstock 1999, this paper explores the uses and limitations of SCT in order to reach a more complex psychology of crowd behavior, particularly those instances that appear unmotivated, irrational, and destructive. Psychological and sociological literature are synthesized to explore the role of communication in establishing social norms within the crowd. Several modifications to current crowd psychology are proposed, including a false consensus effect of motivation and the mediation of personal and social identities. [source] From parent education to collective action: ,Childrearing with love' in post-war GuatemalaJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY & APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2009Anita Schrader McMillan Abstract The paper discusses the implementation and effect of group-based parenting workshops oriented by the principles of liberation psychology in a low-income, hispanicized community in Guatemala City. The objective of this initiative was not only to improve outcomes in the parent,child relationship, but to galvanize the formation of community-based support groups that could have multiple ends. The theoretical foundations of the project are introduced, before illustrating their practical application. Sixteen months post-intervention, largely positive effects were being sustained in parent child relations. The project was also successful in generating social action through the formation of grass-roots women's organizations. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Blogging Practices: An Analytical FrameworkJOURNAL OF COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION, Issue 4 2007Jan Schmidt This article proposes a general model to analyze and compare different uses of the blog format. Based on ideas from sociological structuration theory, as well as on existing blog research, it argues that individual usage episodes are framed by three structural dimensions of rules, relations, and code, which in turn are constantly (re)produced in social action. As a result, "communities of blogging practices" emerge-that is, groups of people who share certain routines and expectations about the use of blogs as a tool for information, identity, and relationship management. This analytical framework can be the basis for systematic comparative and longitudinal studies that will further understanding of similarities and differences in blogging practices. [source] Evaluating complex public health interventions: theory, methods and scope of realist enquiryJOURNAL OF EVALUATION IN CLINICAL PRACTICE, Issue 6 2007James B. Connelly MD MSc FFPH Abstract The standard models used in the study of complex public health interventions are inadequate. They adopt a simple empiricist theoretical foundation and attempt to graft onto an essentially open social system a contrived laboratory experimentation typically in the form of a randomized, controlled trial. By understanding the ontological and epistemological claims of critical realism, it is possible to transcend the methodological inadequacy of the standard model approach. Critical realism posits a substantive causal theory, an end to fact-value dualism, and a coherent and emancipatory model of social action; all of these features amount to a systematic and compelling account of public health practice and a coherent approach to evaluation of complex public health interventions. [source] Toward a sociocognitive approach to second Llanguage acquisitionMODERN LANGUAGE JOURNAL, Issue 4 2002Dwight Atkinson This article develops the notion of a sociocognitive perspective on second language acquisition (SLA), proposed as an alternative to the cognitivism pervading the field. By sociocognitive, I mean a view of language and language acquisition as simultaneously occurring and interactively constructed both "in the head" and "in the world." First, I develop a view of language and its acquisition as social phenomena,as existing and taking place for the performance of action in the (socially-mediated) world. Second, I describe the cognitive nature of language and its acquisition, focusing especially on recent developments in connectionism. Third, I introduce sociocognitive views of language and posit a social interpretation of connectionism as bridging the gap between cognition and social action. Fourth, I discuss sociocognitive perspectives on first language acquisition. Fifth, I describe the cognitivist biases of much SLA research, then suggest how sociocognitive approaches can help overcome them. I end by considering implications of the perspective I develop in this paper. [source] An examination of nervios among Mexican seasonal farm workersNURSING INQUIRY, Issue 3 2007Margaret England An examination of nervios among Mexican seasonal farm workers The purpose of this exploratory descriptive study was to examine a process model of the nervios experience of 30 Mexican seasonal farm workers. Focused interviews were conducted in Spanish to determine the workers' perspectives on their experiences of nervios while residing in rural, southwest Ontario. Data for analysis originated from variables created to represent key themes that had emerged from open coding of the interviews. Simultaneous entry, multiple regression analyses revealed that provocation, control salience, and cognitive sensory motor distress directly explained 67.2% of the variation in worker expressions of negative affectivity. The combination fear, feeling trapped, and giving in mediated the relationship of provocation, control salience and cognitive sensory motor distress to expressions of negative affectivity (R2 = 88.1%). Control salience and its dampening effect on other elements of the nervios experience, however, appeared to be key to whether subjects experienced negative reactions to being provoked or distressed. This evidence points to nervios being a powerful, holistic idiom of distress with at least six variables contributing to its affective negativity. This information is important to our understanding of how nervios unfolds and for accurate specification of a nervios model for clinical practice and research. It also sets the stage for improved therapeutic alliances with nervios sufferers, and social action to reduce factors that provoke nervios. [source] An overview of structuration theory and its usefulness for nursing researchNURSING PHILOSOPHY, Issue 4 2005Mary-Ann R. Hardcastle RN BA DipEd MPHTM PhD Abstract, Anthony Giddens' theory of structuration is a theory of social action, which claims that society should be understood in terms of action and structure; a duality rather than two separate entities. This paper introduces some of the central characteristics of structuration theory, presenting a conceptual framework that helps to explore how people produce the systems and structures that shape their practice. By understanding how people produce and reproduce structures, then there is the potential for changing them. Criticisms that have been raised about the theory are introduced, followed by examples of how the theory might be useful to nursing research. Structuration theory can be employed to explore how nurses produce, reproduce, and transform nursing practice through social interaction across time and space. [source] No "Illusion of Separation": James L. Bevel, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Vietnam WarPEACE & CHANGE, Issue 1 2003Adam Mack As a student activist and member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, James L. Bevel played a leading role in the civil rights movement. After the passage of the landmark federal civil rights legislation of 1964,65, Bevel promoted a new set of goals for the freedom struggle including ending United States involvement in the Vietnam War. Bevel's objections to the war grew from the belief, shared by other African,American leaders, that America's Vietnam policy could not be separated from issues of race and racism. Yet Bevel's antiwar stance remained unique. Driven by the depth of his antiwar sentiment as well as by a commitment to push nonviolent social action to its fullest potential, he increasingly worked to make peace the leading goal of the civil rights movement. Bevel's effort generated new levels of cooperation between civil rights and peace activists but also highlighted some of the barriers to a strong alliance between the two movements. [source] The Mothers of La Plaza de Mayo: A Peace MovementPEACE & CHANGE, Issue 3 2002Viviana M. Abreu Hernandez On April 30, 1977, at 3:30 in the afternoon a historical transformation began in Argentina. This transformation was carried out by Argentinean women acting in the social and political spheres against a military regime that directly affected them and their futures. The Mothers of La Plaza de Mayo have reshaped the concepts of motherhood, feminism, activism, resistance, and social action in Argentina and the rest of the world. This study looks at the Mothers of La Plaza de Mayo as a peace movement instead of a human rights movement, resistance movement, or feminist movement, as it has been previously analyzed. Looking at the literature analyzing peace movements and nonviolent direct action, I propose that the Mothers of La Plaza de Mayo should be seen as a peace movement. [source] Interpersonal Expectations as the Building Blocks of Social Cognition: An Interdependence Theory PerspectivePERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS, Issue 1 2002John G. Holmes In this paper I use interdependence theory as an analytic framework for depicting the logically interconnected network of expectations that determines social interaction. The framework focuses on expectations about a partner's goals (B) relevant to particular interdependence situations (S), and suggests that expectations about these two elements define the social situation that activates a person's own goals (A). Together, these elements determine interaction behavior (I). This SABI framework is complementary to Mischel and Shoda's (1995) CAPS theory of personality in its logic. It depicts a person's interpersonal dispositions as having profiles or signatures dependent on both the expected features of situations and the expected dispositions of partners. A taxonomic theory for classifying both situations and the functionally relevant goals of interaction partners is outlined. Research on attachment theory and trust is used to illustrate the model. Finally, I suggest that people's expectations about partners' prosocial motivations,their perceived responsiveness toward the self,play an imperial role in social cognition, and, further, that complex SABI models can be seen as detailing a set of security operations that serve as a program for social action. SABI models detail the set of mechanisms that constitute the basic survival kit of interpersonal relations. [source] Individual Orientation Toward Engagement in Social ActionPOLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2002Alexandra F. Corning The issue of how an activist identity develops is one of the core issues in social psychology and social movement research. Because of problems in the measurement of individuals' propensities to engage in social action, however, findings in this area are often equivocal, and cross,study comparisons and conclusions are difficult to draw. Hence, the aim of these studies was to develop a measure to assess individuals' propensities to engage in social action. This measure, the Activism Orientation Scale (AOS), demonstrates strong psychometric properties and allows assessment of activist propensity across a wide continuum of social action behaviors, ideological positions, and movement issues. Additionally, the broad applicability of the AOS allows for its use by researchers, activists, and policymakers. [source] On the Modernity of Traditional Contraception: Time and the Social Context of FertilityPOPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT REVIEW, Issue 2 2002Jennifer Johnson-Hanks Many studies of fertility implicitly equate temporal management, biomedical contraception, and "modernity" on the one hand, and "tradition," the lack of intentional timing, and uncontrolled fertility on the other. This article questions that equation, focusing on the widespread use of periodic abstinence in southern Cameroon. Drawing on field data and the Cameroon Demographic and Health Survey, the article investigates how local concepts of timing shape both contraceptive choice and the evaluation of methods as "modern" or "traditional." Cameroonian women prefer periodic abstinence because they perceive it as "modern," a modernity tied both to the social context in which it is taught and to its unique temporal form. By contrast, Depo-Provera, pills, and the IUD are seen as less-than-modern, because they are less exigent of temporal control. The reliance on a behavioral, rather than technological, contraceptive method parallels the experience of the European fertility transition. Cameroonian women draw on a complex social repertoire in making contraceptive choices; methods are preferred or rejected not only on the basis of their efficacy in averting pregnancy, but also because of their correspondence to models of legitimate social action. Reproductive practices may have social motivations that are unrelated to fertility per se. [source] The fractal yam: botanical imagery and human agency in the TrobriandsTHE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, Issue 4 2009Mark S. Mosko Anthropologists have long appreciated that animals are ,good to think'. In this essay I ponder whether plants might be good to think too, and particularly whether there is any sense in asking if plants (along with animals) might also be ,good to act'. The botanical metaphor of ,base', ,body', and ,tip' animates the origin structures of many if not most societies of the Austronesian world. Less attention has been directed at indigenous elaborations in other socio-cultural domains of the region. Based on recent fieldwork, I outline such ramifications in Trobriand culture, drawing upon the notions of fractal recursion and self-similarity from chaos theory wherein emergent ,tips' yield ,fruit' which become the condition or ,base' for further production and transformation. Accordingly, the base-body-tip-fruit metaphor serves as a cultural template or scenario for social action, shedding new interpretative light on many topics of long-standing anthropological interest (e.g. yam propagation, display, and exchange, kula, mortuary celebration, age categories, fame) as well as more recent theoretical interests. Résumé Les anthropologues ont compris il y a longtemps déjà que les animaux sont « bons à penser ». Dans cet essai, l'auteur se demande si les plantes sont elles aussi bonnes à penser, et en particulier s'il vaut la peine de se demander si les plantes (comme les animaux) pourraient être « bonnes à agir ». La métaphore botanique de « base », « corps » et « tête » anime les structures originelles de beaucoup de sociétés du monde austronésien, sinon toutes. On s'est moins intéressé aux élaborations indigènes de la région dans d'autres domaines socioculturels. Sur la base d'un récent travail de terrain, l'auteur retrace ces ramifications dans la culture trobriandaise, utilisant les notions de récursivité fractale et d'autosimilitude de la théorie du chaos, selon lesquelles les « têtes » donnent des « fruits » qui deviennent la condition ou « base » d'une nouvelle production et transformation. En conséquence, la métaphore base-corps-tête-fruit sert de modèle culturel ou de scénario d'action sociale, jetant un nouvel éclairage interprétatif sur de nombreux sujets qui intéressent depuis longtemps les anthropologues (tels que la propagation, la présentation et l'échange des ignames, la kula, les célébrations mortuaires, les classes d'âge, la renommée), mais aussi sur de nouvelles questions théoriques plus récentes. [source] Politics And Gastropolitics: Gender And The Power Of Food In Two African Pastoralist SocietiesTHE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, Issue 2 2002Jon Holtzman Male-centred aspects of political behaviour have generally remained the explanatory and interpretive focuses in analyses of the social organization of African pastoralists. While recent work on African pastoralists has shed increasing light on the lives of women, I argue that key assumptions underlying anthropological models of male dominance in these societies have been insufficiently challenged. Drawing on recent approaches in gender and social organization that highlight the mutual constitution of domestic and political domains, I examine comparative material from two well-known pastoralist societies: the Samburu of northern Kenya and the Nuer of southern Sudan. In doing so, I suggest strong linkages between male-dominated ,political spheres' and areas of domestic life in which the role of women is more significant , particularly processes of domestic food distribution. In re-examining central facets of Samburu politics , which are best known through Paul Spencer's seminal analysis of the gerontocratic aspects of Samburu political life , I suggest that the status and identities of Samburu men are in fundamental ways defined through their relationship to women as providers of food within Samburu households. Comparative material from the Nuer suggests, additionally, the strategic use of food by women in influencing male ,political spheres'. In comparing these cases, I suggest a more general model through which domestic processes of food allocation as realms of female-centred social action may be seen to play a central role in the forms and processes of pastoral ,political' life. [source] Getting out of the habitus: an alternative model of dynamically embodied social actionTHE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, Issue 3 2000Brenda Farnell Although Bourdieu's theory of practice has drawn widespread attention to the role of the body and space in social life, the concept of habitus is problematic as an explanatory account of dynamic embodiment because it lacks an adequate conception of the nature and location of human agency. An alternative model is presented which locates agency in the causal powers and capacities of embodied persons to engage in dialogic, signifying acts. Grounded in a non-Cartesian concept of person and ,new realist', post-positivist philosophy of science, vocal signs and action signs, not the dispositions of a habitus, become the means by which humans exercise agency in dynamically embodied practices. Ethnographic data from the communicative practices of the Nakota (Assiniboine) people of northern Montana (USA) support and illustrate the theoretical argument. [source] Informal Self-Employment in Developing Countries: Entrepreneurship or Survivalist Strategy?ANALYSES OF SOCIAL ISSUES & PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 1 2009Some Implications for Public Policy A central debate around labor market informality, which has enormous implications for the design and implementation of public policy, relates to the nature of informal employment. Is informal employment and, in particular, informal self-employment, a symptom and, at the same time, a reproductive factor of precariousness and inequality, as well as social and individual poverty? Or is it, on the contrary, a space of individual and social action that reflects economic initiative and business potential which, if channeled and fostered properly, could contribute to social and economic development and, consequently, to the reduction of inequality and poverty? In this article, the findings of the 2005 edition of the Mexican version of the World Value Survey,concerning relevant values and attitudes of informal participants in the labor force in Mexico,are used to assess whether informal self-employment is a reflection of incipient entrepreneurship and individual choice or, rather, a survival strategy forced on individuals by their precarious circumstances. This article explores the public policy implications of the results obtained. [source] What can the Social Sciences Contribute to the Study of Ethics?BIOETHICS, Issue 2 2002Empirical, Substantive Considerations, Theoretical This article seeks to establish that the social sciences have an important contribution to make to the study of ethics. The discussion is framed around three questions: (i) what theoretical work can the social sciences contribute to the understanding of ethics? (ii) what empirical work can the social sciences contribute to the understanding of ethics? And (iii) how does this theoretical and empirical work combine, to enhance the understanding of how ethics, as a field of analysis and debate, is socially constituted and situated? Through these questions the argument goes beyond the now commonly cited objection to the over-simplistic division between normative and descriptive ethics (that assigns the social sciences the ,handmaiden' role of simply providing the ,facts'). In extending this argument, this article seeks to establish, more firmly and in more detail, that: (a) the social sciences have a longstanding theoretical interest analysing the role that a concern with ethics plays in explanations of social change, social organisation and social action; (b) the explanations that are based on the empirical investigations conducted by social scientists exemplify the interplay of epistemological and methodological analyses so that our understanding of particular substantive issues is extended beyond the conventional questions raised by ethicists, and (c) through this combination of theoretical and empirical work, social scientists go beyond the specific ethical questions of particular practices to enquire further into the social processes that lie behind the very designation of certain matters as being ,ethical issues'. [source] Intervention et représentation de la pauvretéCANADIAN REVIEW OF SOCIOLOGY/REVUE CANADIENNE DE SOCIOLOGIE, Issue 3 2010PIERRE-ANDRÉ TREMBLAY Ph.D. Résumé L'intervention sur la pauvreté est moins un processus administratif, qu'une relation sociale incarnée dans l'interaction entre des acteurs qu'elle contribue à définir. Elle implique, comme toute action sociale, la production de significations guidant les acteurs. La compréhension de ce réseau sémantique nécessite un processus d'interprétation. Ce texte présente un modèle simplifié d'une telle interprétation. Il contraste la façon dont des intervenants présentent les pauvres et la pauvreté et la façon dont des personnes en situation de pauvreté parlent d'elles-mêmes et de leurs difficultés. Cette mise en regard fait ressortir la très grande distance entre ces deux discours. Abstract Any intervention against poverty is not so much an administrative process as a social relation between categories of actors that are partly defined by it. Being a social action, it implies a construction of meaning that will guide the behavior of the actors. This semantic network needs an interpretation. This article presents a simplified model (an "ideal-type") of this meaningful interaction. It will contrast the way the professional actors of the poverty field present poverty and poor people and the way poor people themselves present their situation and the difficulties they face. This comparison will show the great distance between these discourses. [source] Using Space: Agency and Identity in a Public,Housing DevelopmentCITY & COMMUNITY, Issue 3 2002Kevin Fox Gotham Recent critiques of conventional poverty research have highlighted the need to move beyond the conceptual limitations of "neighborhood effects" models and the use of the tropes of "adaptation" or "resistance" to explain the behaviors and actions of the urban poor. We use ethnographic field observations and interviews with public,housing residents to address these limitations in the poverty literature, assess competing explanations of poor people's agency, and provide insight into the importance of space as a mediating link between macrostructural constraints and locally situated behaviors. We theorize agency and identity as spatial phenomena,with spatial attributes and spatial influences,and examine how different spatial meanings and locations enable or constrain particular forms of social action and behavior. Our ethnographic and interview data depict several strategies by which residents "use space" to provide a measure of security and protection, to designate and avoid areas of criminality and drug activity, and to challenge or support the redevelopment of public housing. From these data we show that urban space is not a residual phenomenon in which social action occurs, but a constitutive dimension of social life that shapes life experiences, social conflict, and action. [source] Understanding and Efficiency: Habermas's Concept of Communication ReliefCOMMUNICATION THEORY, Issue 2 2008Thomas Hove This commentary calls attention to a topic neglected in the scholarly reception of Habermas's work,the concept of communication relief. In his recent public sphere theory, he classifies different media forms that are necessary for coordinating different types of social action. He identifies three such media forms: linguistic agreement, steering media, and generalized communication. Although communication scholars acknowledge his ideas on linguistic agreement, they have overlooked those on steering media and generalized communication. Accordingly, this analysis focuses more on the latter two media forms, which fall under the broader concept of relief mechanisms. Extending the media theories of Talcott Parsons, Habermas identifies four types of relief mechanisms: money, power, influence, and value commitment. Money and power perform steering media functions that promote efficiency. Influence and value commitment perform generalized communication functions that promote not only efficiency but also understanding. Implications for normative theories of mass-mediated democratic communication are discussed. Résumé Compréhension et efficacité : Le concept habermassien du soulagement communicationnel Ce commentaire attire l,attention sur un sujet négligé dans la réception universitaire des travaux de Habermas : le concept du soulagement communicationnel (communication relief). Dans sa récent théorie sur la sphère publique, il classifie différentes formes de médias nécessaires à la coordination de différents types d'action sociale. Il identifie ainsi trois formes médiatiques : l,accord linguistique, les médias de direction et la communication généralisée. Bien que les chercheurs en communication reconnaissent ses idées sur l'accord linguistique, ils ont négligé celles sur les médias de direction et la communication généralisée. Par conséquent, cette analyse se concentre surtout sur les deux dernières formes médiatiques, regroupées sous le concept de mécanismes de soulagement. Prolongeant les théories médiatiques de Talcott Parsons, Habermas identifie quatre types de mécanismes de soulagement : l,argent, le pouvoir, l'influence et l,engagement envers des valeurs. L'argent et le pouvoir accomplissent des fonctions de médias de direction qui promeuvent l,efficacité. L'influence et l,engagement envers des valeurs accomplissent des fonctions de communication généralisée qui promeuvent non seulement l'efficacité mais aussi la compréhension. Les conséquences pour les théories normatives de la communication démocratique de masse sont commentées. Abstract Verstehen und Effizienz. Das Habermas'sche Konzept der Kommunikationserleichterung Dieser Kommentar greift ein Thema auf, dass in der bisherigen wissenschaftlichen Auseinandersetzung mit den Arbeiten Habermas' vernachlässigt wurde , das Konzept der kommunikativen Erleichterung. In seiner aktuellen Theorie der Öffentlichkeit klassifiziert er verschiedene Formen von Medien, die notwendig sind, um verschiedene Arten von sozialem Handeln zu koordinieren. Er identifiziert drei solche Medienarten: linguistische Übereinstimmung, Führungsmedien und generalisierte Kommunikation. Obwohl Wissenschaftler seinen Ideen zur linguistischen Übereinstimmung zustimmen, haben sie die Annahmen zu Führungsmedien und generalisierter Kommunikation bislang übersehen. Dementsprechend fokussiert dieser Beitrag auf diese zwei Medienformen, welche dem Konzept des Erleichterungsmechanismus zuzuordnen sind. In Erweiterung der Medientheorien von Talcott Parsons identifiziert Habermas vier Typen von Erleichterungsmechanismen: Geld, Macht, Einfluss und Wertebindung. Geld und Macht leisten führende Medienfunktionen, welche Effizienz fördern. Einfluss und Wertebindung hingegen erfüllen generalisierte Kommunikationsfunktionen, welche nicht nur Effizienz, sondern auch Verständnis fördern. Abschließend werden Schlussfolgerungen für normative Theorien der massenmedial vermittelten demokratischen Kommunikation diskutiert. Resumen La Comprensión y la Eficiencia: El Concepto de Comunicación de Alivio de Habermas Este comentario llama la atención sobre un tema desatendido en la recepción de los estudiosos del trabajo de Habermas,el concepto de la comunicación de alivio. En su teoría reciente sobre la esfera pública, Habermas clasifica las formas diferentes de los medios que son necesarias para coordinar distintos tipos de acciones sociales. Él identifica 3 formas de los medios: acuerdos lingüísticos, la dirección de los medios, y la comunicación generalizada. Aún cuando los estudiosos de la comunicación reconocen sus ideas sobre los acuerdos lingüísticos, han pasado por alto la dirección de los medios y la comunicación generalizada. Por consiguiente, este análisis se enfoca más en estas dos últimas formas de los medios, las cuales caen bajo el concepto amplio de mecanismos de alivio. Extendiendo las teorías de los medios de Talcott Parsons, Habermas identifica 4 tipos de mecanismos de alivio: dinero, poder, influencia, y valor del compromiso. El dinero y el poder funcionan como dirección de los medios que promueven la eficiencia. La influencia y el valor del compromiso funcionan como las funciones de comunicación general que promueven no sólo la eficiencia sino también la comprensión. Las implicancias para las teorías normativas de los medios masivos de comunicación democráticos son discutidas también. ZhaiYao Yo yak [source] Practice and Economic GeographyGEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 4 2010Andrew Jones Economic geography has over the last decade become increasingly interested in the role of practice, conceptualised as the regularised or stabilised social actions through which economic agents organize or coordinate production, marketing, service provision, exchange and/or innovation activities. Interest in practice is most clearly manifest in a growing body of research concerned to conceptualise how the regularized social relations and interactions linking economic actors (e.g. entrepreneurs, firms) shape the nature of economies, industries, and regional development processes. However, an emphasis on social practice faces significant challenges in that it lacks conceptual coherence, a clear methodological approach, and relevance for public policy. This article critically assesses the idea that practice-oriented research might or should become a core conceptual or epistemological approach in economic geography. In doing so, we identify at least four distinct strands to economic geographical interest in practice: studies centred on institutions, social relations, governmentality and alternative economies respectively. We then argue however that this shift towards practice-oriented work is less a coherent turn than a development and diversification of longstanding strands of work within the sub-discipline. [source] Containment and counter-containment: planner/community relations in conservation planningTHE GEOGRAPHICAL JOURNAL, Issue 2 2001Roger Few Critical analyses of public involvement in conservation projects in developing countries commonly point toward imbalances of power between project agencies and communities and the persistence of top-down patterns of decision-making. Taking an actor-oriented research approach, this paper probes beneath the surface patterns to analyse the complex socio-political mechanisms at work in the negotiating arena represented by public participation in project planning. The discussion is based on a case study of community involvement in the planning of protected areas in Belize. Detailed analysis of the power relations and tactical interactions between different actors in the negotiating arenas revealed that planner/community relations in the case study were dominated by a process identified as ,containment'. Containment refers to a strategic management of public involvement by the planning agencies, and it hinged on three fundamental social actions: avoidance of conflict; exclusion of dissent; and control over knowledge and procedure. Actions by local stakeholders that served to undermine containment constitute ,counter-containment'. The paper discusses these mechanisms in depth, before developing a comparative analytical framework of containment and counter-containment to help explain disparities in planning progress between different sites. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||