{"title":"The performativity of objects","authors":"Jeffrey Alexander","doi":"10.37062/sf.57.22321","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37062/sf.57.22321","url":null,"abstract":"This essay, a revised version of the keynote lecture prepared for Sociologidagarna 18–20 March 2020 in Stockholm, introduces a new, cultural-sociological theory of materiality. Sociology did not metabolize the cultural turn until the 1980s. Even when cultural sociology finally did emerge, moreover, there were powerful pushbacks against it. Neo-Marxism, neo-Pragmatism, neo-institutionalism incorporated this or that cultural concept but resisted the culture turn more broadly, tying meaning to social structure and practice rather than recognizing its autonomy. Cultural sociology has flourished in recent decades, but so have new backlash movements. None has been more persistent than the turn toward the object and its reduction to materiality. Icon theory positions itself again this turn, suggesting that, in society, materiality is invested with imagination and enlivened by performativity. The surface of objects is aesthetically formed, and the meaning of such sensuous experience of outer form is structured by invisibly discursive depth. Durkheim’s sacred and profane must be complemented by Burke’s beautiful and sublime. Informed by background representations, such aesthetic-cum-moral objects are designed by artists and craft-persons; produced by creators with access to material resources; put into the scene by advertisers and PR specialists; and mediated by criticism – before they are embraced or rejected by audiences.","PeriodicalId":43127,"journal":{"name":"Sociologisk Forskning","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2020-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42710074","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"En stum värld? Om resonans, social responsivitet och utbrändhet","authors":"Christian Ståhl","doi":"10.37062/sf.57.21831","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37062/sf.57.21831","url":null,"abstract":"Denna artikel fokuserar på Hartmut Rosas begrepp resonans och Johan Asplunds begrepp social responsivitet, som relateras till varandra i egenskap av teoretiska begrepp, och som jämförs avseende hur de använts för att beskriva fenomenet utbrändhet. Båda begreppen beskriver fundamentala mänskliga relationer och hur vi blir till som individer i interaktion med andra. Begreppen rör sig delvis på olika analytisk nivå, där social responsivitet är ett mera elementärt beteende, medan resonansbegreppet även inkluderar avancerade sociala beteenden som hänför sig till sökandet efter mening i tillvaron. I begreppens användning i relation till utbrändhet framkommer både likheter och skillnader. Asplund har en snäv syn på utbrändhet som bortfallen social responsivitet, och därmed orelaterat till utmattning. Rosa beskriver utbrändhet som bristande resonans och reciprocitet i relation till världen, med utmattning som en tänkbar bakomliggande faktor. Både Rosa och Asplund delar en bredare sociologisk analys av fenomenet utbrändhet som en konsekvens av samhällets organisering. De uttrycker därför också liknande kritik mot hur fenomenet ofta hanteras, där den utbrände lämnas att ansvara för problem som ligger utanför dennes kontroll.","PeriodicalId":43127,"journal":{"name":"Sociologisk Forskning","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2020-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48208435","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The inner world of research. On academic labor","authors":"M. Hallberg","doi":"10.37062/sf.57.22324","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37062/sf.57.22324","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43127,"journal":{"name":"Sociologisk Forskning","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2020-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41684480","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Att förhålla sig till ändligheten i livet och strategier för ”framgångsrikt döende”","authors":"Janicke Andersson","doi":"10.37062/sf.57.20328","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37062/sf.57.20328","url":null,"abstract":"Denna artikel undersöker hur äldre människor förhåller sig till livets ändlighet. Till skillnad från många andra liknande studier fokuserar denna studie på äldre människor utanför palliativ vård och äldreboenden, som fortfarande är aktiva och engagerade i samhället. När och på vilka sätt blir livets ändlighet uppenbar för dem i deras vardag? Vilka strategier använder de för att hantera medvetenheten om livets ändlighet? Under 2015 samlades data in via sex fokusgruppstillfällen med personer i åldrarna 69–90 år. Resultaten visar att livets ändlighet var något som alla respondenter förhöll sig till så gott som dagligen och utifrån flera dimensioner. I de flesta fall var det något de hade ambivalenta känslor inför. Många var rädda inför ovissheten i framtiden, men ibland gjorde medvetenheten om livets ändlighet samtidigt nuet mer värdefullt. Döden var närvarande i respondenternas vardag, som något som skulle skjutas upp, planeras och administreras genom den sorts självdisciplinerande tekniker som är betydelsefulla för ”framgångsrikt åldrande”. Jag drar därför slutsatsen att dessa normer och tekniker för framgångsrikt åldrande har expanderat till att även bli normer och tekniker för framgångsrik döende.","PeriodicalId":43127,"journal":{"name":"Sociologisk Forskning","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2020-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46210386","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hope and a horizon of solidarity – An interview with Jeffrey C. Alexander","authors":"Anna Lund","doi":"10.37062/sf.57.21974","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37062/sf.57.21974","url":null,"abstract":"In this interview, Jeffrey C Alexander describes the development of cultural sociology, the importance of collaborative work, and the inspiration he takes from his political action, and from the art and humanities The interview focuses primarily on civil sphere theory (CST), and Alexander's goal in moving towards Durkheimian and away from Parsonian conceptions of solidarity Alexander addresses common misunderstandings and critiques of CST, describes the current project of the internationalization of CST, and applies the theory to the present crisis of a global pandemic and the social movement of Black Lives Matter Finally, Alexander reflects upon life in the academic world and the importance of not only analyzing meaning as a cultural sociologist but also working with meaningful projects in order to not be alienated Alexander was invited keynote speaker at the Sociologidagarna in March in Stockholm 2020, but due to the Corona pandemic the conference was cancelled This interview took place through Zoom in three different locations (Stockholm, New Haven, and Coventry, Connecticut) on 22 June 2020","PeriodicalId":43127,"journal":{"name":"Sociologisk Forskning","volume":"57 1","pages":"189-189"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2020-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69858906","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Samhället utmanat?","authors":"Rolf Lidskog","doi":"10.37062/sf.57.19591","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37062/sf.57.19591","url":null,"abstract":"Society challenged? Artificial intelligence and sociological knowledgeArtificial intelligence (AI) is a growing social phenomenon, both as a technical infrastructure and as a sociotechnical imagina ...","PeriodicalId":43127,"journal":{"name":"Sociologisk Forskning","volume":"57 1","pages":"99-120"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2020-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45587520","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Resisting the rat race","authors":"M. Sørensen","doi":"10.37062/sf.57.20307","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37062/sf.57.20307","url":null,"abstract":"When people feel they have to run faster and faster just to keep up, it is a personal experience of the acceleration that characterises late modern society. In reaction, some people attempt to escape “the rat race” by aiming to live self-sufficiently in the countryside. This article presents a text analysis of 35 letters from the magazine Ater, where people share their experiences of moving. The analysis focuses on the authors’ motivations for the move, their criticism of mainstream society and their experiences of time, temporality and competing time norms in their new life. Rosa’s concepts of acceleration, alienation and resonance, and Adam’s concept of abstract and standardised clock time, provide the theoretical framework for the analysis. The study concludes that the authors of letters search for resonance and to a large degree they have also found it, especially since the authors experience their work as meaningful and live according to their ideological values. Self-sufficiency is an individual form of coping, but simultaneously choosing to live differently is a practice of constructive resistance to mainstream consumption and work norms.","PeriodicalId":43127,"journal":{"name":"Sociologisk Forskning","volume":"57 1","pages":"121–140-121–140"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2020-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44563209","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}