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Social Construct (social + construct)
Selected AbstractsRestoring landscapes: the authenticity problemEARTH SURFACE PROCESSES AND LANDFORMS, Issue 13 2006Isis Brook Abstract Philosophical concerns about restoring landscapes often revolve around two, connected, issues. First is the idea that a restored landscape, even if it is a perfect replica, has lost some of its value. The claim might appeal to a break in the continuity of the landscape and that continuity is part of what is valuable. Alternatively, often in the case of natural landscapes, the appeal is that any human manipulation is inauthentic; here the analogy is sometimes made with the art world and the restoration is deemed a fake. The second problem highlighted in philosophical debates is that the greater the success of restoration projects, the more threatened natural landscapes become: any claim that something must be preserved in its pristine or historically layered state is undermined by the claim that it could be put back again. Initially I discuss two opposing potential responses to these claims: (1) that humans are part of nature and thus cannot be an alien dominating force outside of nature; and (2) that nature is itself a social construct. Neither of these positions is entirely satisfactory, but what they jointly reveal is the reality of our fluid and multifaceted relationship with the world. I then show that Elliot's claim of the additional value of pristine nature is actually not based on an inherent value, but is dependent on the human valuation of it. I propose an alternative that places the source of value in the thing itself and thus arrive at a positive role for restoration as the setting in train and guiding of positive relationships above and beyond their social or public amenity value to us. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Max Weber on ,ethnic communities': a critiqueNATIONS AND NATIONALISM, Issue 1 2007MICHAEL BANTON ABSTRACT. An untitled draft found among Weber's posthumous papers was published. In English translation it was given the title `Ethnic Groups'. In the Max Weber Gesamtausgabe it is titled `Ethnic Communities'. In this manuscript, Weber treated the feeling of belonging together because of shared ethnic origin as a social construct, underlain by a desire to monopolise power and status. Subsequently, Weber determined to put an end to the use of collectivist concepts, but at the time of writing he treated groups as real entities, instead of using the concept of group as an aid in the explanation of behaviour. The causal connections in ethnic group formation and maintenance have been more closely identified in subsequent sociological analysis. [source] THE CHALLENGE OF ,TECHNOLOGICAL CHOICES'FOR MATERIALS SCIENCE APPROACHES IN ARCHAEOLOGY,ARCHAEOMETRY, Issue 1 2000B. SILLAR Recently several anthropological and sociological studies have interpreted technologies as cultural choices that are determined as much by local perceptions and the social context fly any material constraints or purely functional criteria. Using the example of ceramic technology we consider how materials science studies can contribute to and benefit from this understanding of technology as a social construct. Although we acknowledge some potential difficulties, it is our contention that both materials scientists and archaeologists have gained much and have much to gain by cooperating together to study ancient technologies, and that the concept of ,technological choices'can facilitate a wider consideration of the factors shaping technological developments. [source] Risk as a Window to Agency: A Case Study of Three DecoratorsJOURNAL OF INTERIOR DESIGN, Issue 1 2008Nancy H. Blossom M.A. ABSTRACT This paper explores the idea of "risk" by examining the role of three women in interior design in the twentieth century (Elsie de Wolfe, 1865,1950; Dorothy Draper, 1888,1969; and Sister Parish, 1929,1994). Women's roles as arbiters of taste were consistent with the social construction of the female gender at the turn of the century; that these roles involved risk,the perception of possible loss or injury,is, for the most part, overlooked by social historians. Our theoretical framework is built upon three keywords from the vocabularies of postmodern social history and women's history: discourse, experience, and agency. These three terms represent the important recognition that the collective understanding of history is not static, but is dependent on the social constructs of the period, as well as (1) how individuals experienced, interpreted, and acted within these constructs and (2) how historians understand and interpret the individual actions in the context of the same constructs. These concepts suggest that individual characters have agency (i.e., power or choice) in framing or reframing an event, based on their unique view of the world. It is through agency that we explore unique qualities of de Wolfe, Draper, and Parish. The stories of de Wolfe, Draper, and Parish demonstrate that risk of traditional values, risk of public persona, and risk of financial security all influenced the ways that they navigated the social and economic circumstances that surrounded them. Each risk, whether imposed on or undertaken by our protagonists, was a seed of change that ultimately affected the social and professional construct of the field of interior design. [source] A Conceptual Framework for Hispanic Oral Health CareJOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH DENTISTRY, Issue 1 2008Gloria C. Mejia DDS Abstract The need to study the health and health care determinants of US Hispanics is mandated by their rapid population growth. Nonetheless, it is challenging to study such a diverse population that incorporates many similarities and differences in values and experiences. This paper aims to highlight the factors that should be considered in Hispanic oral health research in the United States, and presents, in a theoretical framework, the relationships between these factors. The proposed ecological framework is supported by an extensive literature review, with an emphasis on the factors that are reported to differ among ethnic groups. It has a foundation in social science and is based on existing models from different fields of knowledge. To be comprehensive, the framework simultaneously addresses individual and environmental constructs. Within these, antecedent factors shape the intention to seek oral health care, while empowerment factors play a mediating role between intention and actual receipt of care. Individual antecedent factors incorporate risk markers, need, and predisposing factors. Environmental antecedent factors are represented by social constructs that allude to the population's health culture. Empowerment factors explain the level of control that a person perceives or the environment provides in receiving care. A thorough consideration of the factors that drive Hispanics' oral health care usage will aid US researchers and practitioners in improving this population's health and access to care. [source] The social and discursive construction of computing skillsJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 1 2005Sanna Talja In this article a social constructionist approach to information technology (IT) literacy is introduced. This approach contributes to the literature on IT literacy by introducing the concept of IT self as a description of the momentary, context-dependent, and multilayered nature of interpretations of IT competencies. In the research literature, IT literacy is often defined as sets of basic skills to be learned, and competencies to be demonstrated. In line with this approach, research on IT competencies conventionally develops models for explaining user acceptance, and for measuring computer-related attitudes and skills. The assumption is that computer-related attitudes and self-efficacy impact IT adoption and success in computer use. Computer self-efficacy measures are, however, often based on self-assessments that measure interpretations of skills rather than performance in practice. An analysis of empirical interview data in which academic researchers discuss their relationships with computers and IT competence shows how a self-assessment such as "computer anxiety" presented in one discussion context can in another discussion context be consigned to the past in favor of a different and more positive version. Here it is argued that descriptions of IT competencies and computer-related attitudes are dialogic social constructs and closely tied with more general implicit understandings of the nature of technical artifacts and technical knowledge. These implicit theories and assumptions are rarely taken under scrutiny in discussions of IT literacy yet they have profound implications for the aims and methods in teaching computer skills. [source] | ||||||||||