Frontiers in SociologyPub Date : 2025-07-04eCollection Date: 2025-01-01DOI: 10.3389/fsoc.2025.1596427
Klaus Kraemer, Joris Steg
{"title":"When normality collapses from one moment to the next. A sociological theory of singular crisis.","authors":"Klaus Kraemer, Joris Steg","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2025.1596427","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fsoc.2025.1596427","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Since the emergence of sociology, it has been part of the discipline's self-image to diagnose crises in modern societies. Sociology, however, has no theory that differentiates between normal and extranormal or singular crises. In this article, we want to develop a crisis typology that distinguishes between these two types. While a normal crisis is characterised by cyclical and structural patterns, which usually build up gradually and lead to incremental change, a singular crisis is characterised by eruptive ruptures in relation to the pre-crisis state. Such ruptures can challenge the traditional social order, both institutionally and narratively. Unlike normal crises, a singular crisis is marked by exogenous shocks like wars, natural disasters, or pandemics. This shock marks the beginning of a process of crisis intervention, which we examine to reconstruct the sociological peculiarities of a singular crisis. By using the Covid-19-crisis as an empirical slide, we analyse a singular crisis and list various dimensions and criteria-namely involvement and impact, temporality, principle of order, social change, isomorphism, path dependency, collective morality, mode of legitimation and spatial order-that can be used to differentiate between singular and normal crises.</p>","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"10 ","pages":"1596427"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12273084/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144676039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Frontiers in SociologyPub Date : 2025-07-03eCollection Date: 2025-01-01DOI: 10.3389/fsoc.2025.1557332
A C Preethika Shree, G K Chithra
{"title":"Iconoclasm of normative structures: exploring queer ageing in \"<i>Kaathal: The core</i>\" by Jeo Baby.","authors":"A C Preethika Shree, G K Chithra","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2025.1557332","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fsoc.2025.1557332","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>This research critically examined the portrayal of older gay men through an iconoclastic perspective in the Malayalam film <i>\"Kaathal: The core,\"</i> directed by Jeo Baby, focusing on the intersecting identities of age, marriage, and homosexuality as depicted in the film, further exploring how these overlapping facets shape the characters' lives and experiences.</p><p><strong>Methodology: </strong>A qualitative research approach was employed to examine the representation of older gay men in the film. The study focused on narrative analysis of key scenes, dialogues, character portrayals, and cinematic elements to explore how the intersection of age, sexuality, and cultural norms is depicted.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The film narrative explored the challenging circumstances faced by the older gay characters, Mathew Devasy and Thankan, within a heteronormative cultural framework, particularly as of those who stay mute on their identity, remaining isolated and vulnerable. The research discloses the hetero character Omana's display of significant agency, challenging traditional views on family and belonging.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>The film critiques the rigid heteronormative framework of traditional family structures, offering alternative perspectives through non-traditional kinship and support systems. By addressing the intersection of age, sexuality, and cultural norms, this research emphasizes the importance of expanding queer representation to include diverse identities and life stages, paving the way for more inclusive cinematic discourses.</p>","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"10 ","pages":"1557332"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12268953/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144660611","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Frontiers in SociologyPub Date : 2025-07-03eCollection Date: 2025-01-01DOI: 10.3389/fsoc.2025.1570110
Francesco Pasetti, Reinhard Schweitzer
{"title":"Looking back and abroad while (not) moving forward. Migration, ideas and the stability of citizenship in Spain.","authors":"Francesco Pasetti, Reinhard Schweitzer","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2025.1570110","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fsoc.2025.1570110","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article addresses the remarkable stability of the Spanish citizenship regime. Since it was established in 1982, it has remained largely unchanged, despite the country's rapid transformation from a country of emigration to a major destination for non-EU immigrants. We complement existing explanations for this phenomenon by shifting the analytical focus to the realm of ideas. Based on a close analysis of the law-making process and parliamentary debates about citizenship reforms between 1978 and 2024, we argue that this puzzling stability can partly be attributed to the widely shared and remarkably stable way in which the country's political elite conceives nationality. We identify three constitutive elements that make this dominant citizenship frame: (i) the preference for blood-ties over territorial presence, (ii) the preferential treatment of emigrants (and their descendants) over immigrants, and (iii) the predilection for potential citizens' historical over contemporary connections to Spain. This set of ideas, in which political parties' views overlap, has constituted the tracks along which the country's nationality laws have evolved. It has outlived not only demographic but also political changes including the appearance of the country's first far-right, anti-immigrant party. By focusing on ideas, this article offers a new analytical and less deterministic perspective, complementing the explanatory backdrop provided to date by the scholarship concerned with citizenship law-making. Our findings and analysis contribute to a fuller understanding of the politics of citizenship in Spain and-more generally-of the ambiguous role that past, present, and future migratory dynamics (can) play in shaping-the evolution of citizenship law-making. It thereby also contributes to the literature on the multifaceted nexus between citizenship and migration and to broader debates on the importance of ideas in public policymaking.</p>","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"10 ","pages":"1570110"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12267229/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144660633","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Frontiers in SociologyPub Date : 2025-07-02eCollection Date: 2025-01-01DOI: 10.3389/fsoc.2025.1555236
Chiedza Ikpeh, Iman Federico Awi
{"title":"\"I am because we are\": Ubuntu as a framework for social capital building among Black Women in the academy.","authors":"Chiedza Ikpeh, Iman Federico Awi","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2025.1555236","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2025.1555236","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"10 ","pages":"1555236"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12265951/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144650803","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Frontiers in SociologyPub Date : 2025-07-02eCollection Date: 2025-01-01DOI: 10.3389/fsoc.2025.1434353
Diane Trusson, Katie Powers, Kate Radford, Audrey Bowen, Kristelle Craven, Amanda Farrin, Christopher McKevitt, John Murray, Julie Phillips, Judith Stevens, David Clarke
{"title":"Exploring stroke survivor and employer experiences of disruption within the RETurn to work After stroKE (RETAKE) trial during the COVID-19 pandemic.","authors":"Diane Trusson, Katie Powers, Kate Radford, Audrey Bowen, Kristelle Craven, Amanda Farrin, Christopher McKevitt, John Murray, Julie Phillips, Judith Stevens, David Clarke","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2025.1434353","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fsoc.2025.1434353","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Returning to work is a goal for many stroke survivors, with benefits for individuals and society. The ReTurn to work After stroKE (RETAKE) trial, which aimed to improve stroke survivors' work outcomes through early stroke-specific vocational rehabilitation (ESSVR), was ongoing during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to understand the impact of the pandemic on stroke survivors' work ability and return-to work support.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Nine stroke survivors and five employers were interviewed. Thematic analysis informed by Normalisation Process Theory, found that biographical disruption experienced as a result of stroke was compounded by disruption on a global scale due to the pandemic.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Attempts to mobilise resources in response to disruption were hampered by pandemic-related issues. Although returning to work offered continuity in pre-stroke identity, businesses were also disrupted by the pandemic. Findings suggest that returning to work was easier for stroke survivors able to work from home and those receiving ESSVR. The opportunity to work from home helped stroke survivors adapt to new ways of working necessitated by the impact of stroke and social distancing rules during the pandemic.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>Post-pandemic, remote working is more acceptable, which may benefit future stroke survivors aiming to return to work whilst managing post-stroke fatigue. This may mitigate disruption to lives and post-stroke identities.</p>","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"10 ","pages":"1434353"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12263687/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144650805","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Frontiers in SociologyPub Date : 2025-07-02eCollection Date: 2025-01-01DOI: 10.3389/fsoc.2025.1561532
Aleryk Fricker
{"title":"Yarning as decolonial praxis in initial teacher training: an Australian context.","authors":"Aleryk Fricker","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2025.1561532","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fsoc.2025.1561532","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Yarning has been a widespread practice for First Nations people across the Australian continent for approximately 70,000 years. Yarning as a process of communication has been designed to support authentic and relational connections between people, Country, ancestors, spirits, and the more-than-human realms. In recent scholarship, the process of yarning has emerged in a western context as being a legitimate research method for gathering rich qualitative data. It has also been found to be able to support social connections, collaborations, and processing and sharing trauma. This paper explores collaborative yarning as a pedagogical process in initial teacher training in Australia through auto-ethnographic reflections, and how engaging with yarning as a pedagogical process can challenge the neo-colonial pedagogies that have dominated higher education in Australia for over a century. This paper has found that when engaging with yarning in Higher Education, it can provide an important opportunity to reduce the neo-colonial violence present.</p>","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"10 ","pages":"1561532"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12263940/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144650807","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Frontiers in SociologyPub Date : 2025-07-02eCollection Date: 2025-01-01DOI: 10.3389/fsoc.2025.1482987
Claudia Mock
{"title":"White Adultocene. Rethinking modernity through figures of the Child in the history of racial oppression.","authors":"Claudia Mock","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2025.1482987","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fsoc.2025.1482987","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This paper explores how the figure of the Child has been used to uphold colonial anti-Black racial oppression. By examining adultism-the subordination of Children within the Child-adult binary-I trace its roots to Western philosophical ideas about nature. I furthermore show, how these ideas of nature informed racism within the modern constitution, where Children and Black people have been framed as \"incomplete\" or \"not fully human\", revealing important intersections between racial and age-based inequalities. I introduce the concept of <i>white adultism</i>-the racialized separation of \"being human\" from \"becoming human\"-as a key feature of modernity and the Anthropocene. Recognizing this challenges the universalizing language used in the social sciences when discussing the \"human\" as the dominant force in this geo-social epoch. To critically engage with the colonial legacies within Western theories of modernization and to advance discussions on adultism in decolonial studies, I propose the notion of <i>becoming(s) in figuration</i>, which moves beyond fixed and developmental imaginaries of \"being\" to rethink the entanglements of race and age in the Anthropocene.</p>","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"10 ","pages":"1482987"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12265918/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144650806","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Frontiers in SociologyPub Date : 2025-07-01eCollection Date: 2025-01-01DOI: 10.3389/fsoc.2025.1554275
Elif Baykal, Sevil Surucu
{"title":"A battle in the hive against the Queen Bee: reaction of female subordinates' unconcious mind.","authors":"Elif Baykal, Sevil Surucu","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2025.1554275","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fsoc.2025.1554275","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>When women in leadership roles act antagonistically toward female subordinates, it's referred to as the Queen Bee Syndrome. Though it often appears as a top-down dynamic, little is known regarding possible subordinate blowback. With the goal to look into the unconscious reactions of female subordinates performing under female leaders in male-dominated workplaces, this exploratory study utilized a qualitative method. Nine female professionals from an array of industries took part in semi-structured interviews, and MAXQDA was employed to assess the data using both inductive as well as deductive content analysis. Preference for male leaders, perceived difficulties with female managers (such as meticulousness and emotional reactivity), divergent views about female leadership, and the effect of social expectations were the primary four themes that emerged. Findings show that subconscious biases against female superiors may be prevalent among female subordinates, that are comparable to the behaviors typically linked to Queen Bee Syndrome. The \"Worker Bee Syndrome,\" a reversal dynamic in which workers show bias against female leaders, is introduced in the study. The significance of resolving entrenched biases and workplace gender imbalances is made apparent by these bilateral tensions, which raise doubt on assumptions of unidirectional workplace enmity.</p>","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"10 ","pages":"1554275"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12259625/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144643721","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Frontiers in SociologyPub Date : 2025-06-30eCollection Date: 2025-01-01DOI: 10.3389/fsoc.2025.1571633
Eveline Ammann Dula, Gesine Fuchs
{"title":"Homestay accommodation as care work: a case study of private accommodation for refugees from Ukraine in Switzerland.","authors":"Eveline Ammann Dula, Gesine Fuchs","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2025.1571633","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fsoc.2025.1571633","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this paper we conceptualize homestay accommodation as care, through the feminist lens of Joan C. Tronto's seminal works on the subject, based on a qualitative and quantitative survey of Ukrainian refugees in Switzerland. We used Tronto's definition of care as an analytical framework to analyze care providing, giving, and refusing as negotiation processes in the context of unequal power relations between hosts and refugees, but also between civil society and the state. We identified a practical dimension of care, seen through the way hosts take care of the wellbeing of refugees. This form of care requires a lot of planning, coordination and organization, but also emotional engagement. For hosts, this means a large mental load, feeling responsible and providing this support in addition to their regular work and family life. On the other hand, refugees are not only receiving care, but also providing care or refusing care for different reasons. These negotiations can lead to conflicts and are embedded in power relations between hosts and refugees. Hosts often took on tasks that should actually be the responsibility of the authorities. The provision of private accommodation for refugees can be seen as an act of civil society to support the authorities, thus improving their capacity to accommodate refugees, often in line with official migration policy by incorporating expectations regarding the integration of refugees. However, there were also cases in which the host criticized state policy and showed solidarity with the refugees. The care perspective allows us to analyze the power relations that permeate relationships between hosts and refugees. We argue that the dynamics of private accommodation reflects or confirms current power relations between refugees and the host, but also has the potential to shift power relations between the state and civil society-as persons offering homestay accommodation address conflicts about the provision of care at the institutional and political level. It is in this way that the transfer of responsibility from the state to civil society is being questioned. Private accommodation has therefore the capacity to build forms of solidarity between refugees and civil society, linked to different forms of care providing and care needs.</p>","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"10 ","pages":"1571633"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12258043/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144638324","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}