{"title":"On the difference between the social and the cultural: Reconstructing historical-geographical materialism 1","authors":"Ercan Gündoğan","doi":"10.1177/0539018420987826","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0539018420987826","url":null,"abstract":"At the background of this article lies the question of how social sciences can internalize spatial and cultural phenomena and, in the most general sense, the ‘principle of difference’. Therefore, it has more than one problem and tries to see many seemingly contradictory phenomena as parts of a whole by employing a complex dialectical method. It looks at the relationships between the following phenomena: social and cultural; natural and cultural; universal and particular; similar and different. The article proceeds according to this method: it relates the opposites to each other through space and thus tries to show the following dialectical transitions: the social is produced as culture through the social space and the production of the social space itself. The article suggests that the transition between universal and particular constitutes the problematic of space, that space realizes the social as culture, and that this is the only realization of the social. The articles argues that the social is universalizing, and the cultural is particularizing, and that the social/universal can fulfill itself as necessarily cultural/particular. It also defends the principle of universality by stating that differences occur in relation to a whole. The article critically exploits classical social theory, specifically Marxist social theory and spatial Marxists such as Henri Lefebvre and David Harvey, some recent historical sociology, some postcolonial ideas, planetary urbanization theory, and tries to support the development of the theory of historical-geographical materialism.","PeriodicalId":47697,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Information Sur Les Sciences Sociales","volume":"60 1","pages":"27 - 62"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0539018420987826","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44095377","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":"Stop evaluating science: A historical-sociological argument","authors":"Olof Hallonsten","doi":"10.1177/0539018421992204","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0539018421992204","url":null,"abstract":"Although science has been a formidably successful force of social and technological development in the modern era, and a main reason for the wealth and well-being of current societies compared to previous times, a fundamental distrust characterizes its current status in society. According to prevalent discourse, science is insufficiently productive and in need of stricter governance and bureaucratic management, with performance evaluation by the means of quantitative metrics as a key tool to increase efficiency. The basis of this notion appears to be a belief that the key or only purpose of science is to drive economic growth, or sustainable development in combination with economic growth. In this article, these beliefs are analyzed and deconstructed with the help of a theoretical toolbox from the classic sociology of science and recent conceptualizations of economization, democratization, and commodification of scientific knowledge and the institution of science, connecting these beliefs to broader themes of market fundamentalism and to the metric fixation of current society. With the help of a historical-sociological analysis, this article shows that the current ubiquity of performance evaluation in science for the most part is pointless and counterproductive, and that this state of science policy is in dire need of reevaluation in order to secure science’s continued productivity and contribution to social and technological innovation.","PeriodicalId":47697,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Information Sur Les Sciences Sociales","volume":"60 1","pages":"7 - 26"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0539018421992204","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42122235","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":"Honor killing as a dark side of modernity: Prevalence, common discourses, and a critical view","authors":"Arash Heydari, A. Teymoori, R. Trappes","doi":"10.1177/0539018421994777","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0539018421994777","url":null,"abstract":"Honor killing is a serious social problem in some countries that is yet to be adequately explained and addressed. We start with an overview of the conceptualization of this phenomenon and review its global prevalence. We argue that honor killing cannot be fully explained by focusing only on religion and sexism. We present a feminist Durkheimian analysis of honor killing as a form of informal social control and argue that honor killing represents a ‘dark side of modernity’ in which the systematic marginalization and stigmatization of minorities and social groups have led them to rely more on traditional honor codes as a kind of informal social control, exacerbating honor crimes. We discuss how a more effective approach to combat honor killing requires not only addressing the issues of sexism and religious fundamentalism, but also the systematic exclusion and stigmatization of local groups and minorities.","PeriodicalId":47697,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Information Sur Les Sciences Sociales","volume":"60 1","pages":"86 - 106"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0539018421994777","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45320796","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":"Sociology of a disciplinary bifurcation: Bruno Latour and his move from philosophy/theology to sociology in the early 1970s","authors":"J. Lamy","doi":"10.1177/0539018420984053","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0539018420984053","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyzes Bruno Latour’s transition from theology to sociology between the late 1960s and the mid-1970s. The study cross-analyzes the philosophical field of the 1970s with the progress of interaction rituals specific to disciplinary integration. By examining his Master’s degree in philosophy and a lecture carried out during his thesis, plus the report of his stay in Ivory Coast, it is possible to identify several stages of a disciplinary bifurcation. First anchored to the metaphysical sector of the philosophical field, Latour – like his masters André Malet, Jean Brun and Claude Bruaire – tried to dissolve the boundary between philosophy and theology. Nourished with Rudolf Bultmann’s hermeneutics – which generates a particularly powerful emotional energy –, the young philosopher drew from the new theological resources provided by Vatican II Council the instruments for a conversion to sociology. Before that, following in the Council’s focus on prayer as the very core of the practice of believers, he had tried to turn prayer into an adequate mode of litany for analyzing texts. He then drew on the post-colonial opening of Vatican II to engage in the field of sociology, the Council having exhausted classical metaphysical questions. His discovery of the effects of colonial domination also played a fundamental role in mobilizing once again some emotional energy. Latour’s disciplinary reclassification just before beginning his laboratory ethnography in California is based on a reassessment of the epistemological possibilities born from the theological innovations of Vatican II.","PeriodicalId":47697,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Information Sur Les Sciences Sociales","volume":"60 1","pages":"107 - 130"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0539018420984053","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48020014","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":"Evaluating science: Opening a debate","authors":"David Jaclin, P. Wagner","doi":"10.1177/0539018421993021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0539018421993021","url":null,"abstract":"This article briefly reviews the long-lasting commitment of Social Science Information to the critical analysis of orders of knowledge and the conditions for their creation to, subsequently, reflect on the current co-existence of a plurality of orders of justification across society, including the institutions of knowledge production. Furthermore, it suggests that recent social transformations have accentuated an asymmetry within this plurality, namely towards those forms of judgement that operate with quantitative measures and that are geared towards enhancing performance.","PeriodicalId":47697,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Information Sur Les Sciences Sociales","volume":"60 1","pages":"3 - 6"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0539018421993021","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42329109","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":"Social representations of psychology: When paradoxes become a strength","authors":"Sabine Caillaud, V. Haas, E. Drozda-Senkowska","doi":"10.1177/0539018420982543","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0539018420982543","url":null,"abstract":"This article investigates the understanding by different groups of what psychology is and what psychologists do. We first recall some of the tensions that fuelled the discipline and underpinned its institutionalization in France. Then, drawing on social representations (SR) theory and on the wind-rose model, we explore how SR of psychology and of the psychologist are developed in two different groups and when these groups come together. The first study shows how future psychologists construct, during their studies, a paradoxical understanding of the discipline and of the profession, which echoes some historical tensions: they neither abandon common-sense ideas, nor do they integrate the different psychological dimensions to develop a global approach to the person. The second study, conducted in a context of legal innovation faced by multi-professional teams in charge of assessing disabilities, shows how very different representations of the discipline and of the profession are developed in order to serve local power relationships. Finally, the third study looks at SR constructed through psychological practices by analyzing reports written by psychologists and addressed to these teams. Through their writings, psychologists reconstruct historical tensions, but they also strategically emphasize the different facets of the discipline depending on the issue at play. Thus, when they address these teams with various representations of the discipline and diverse expectations of psychologists, the tensions structuring psychology may become a strength and serve their legitimacy. All in all, the social representations of psychology and of the psychologist appears as a dynamic and interactive process.","PeriodicalId":47697,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Information Sur Les Sciences Sociales","volume":"60 1","pages":"131 - 153"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0539018420982543","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47291004","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 Swedish space of lifestyles and symbolic domination","authors":"W. Atkinson","doi":"10.1177/0539018421991785","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0539018421991785","url":null,"abstract":"This article constructs a model of the space of lifestyles in Sweden. It does so not simply to test whether its structure conforms to that discovered by Pierre Bourdieu and his colleagues in 1970s’ France, and confirmed by others across the globe, but to examine the extent to which it is wrapped up with symbolic domination. It draws on data from an unusually rich survey of consumption patterns and taste fielded in 2017–2018 (n=1,498) and deploys the technique of multiple correspondence analysis in combination with cluster analysis. Oppositions between exclusive and accessible culture and between ‘highbrow’ culture and materialistic/appearance-oriented practices are revealed and the correspondences with capital, age, gender and other factors explored. The cluster analysis suggests that the force of capital composition in differentiating lifestyles relative to age varies in proportion to capital volume. Crucially, analysis suggests it is the economically rich, rather than those rich in cultural capital, who are most confident in their tastes and lifestyles.","PeriodicalId":47697,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Information Sur Les Sciences Sociales","volume":"60 1","pages":"63 - 85"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0539018421991785","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45569672","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":"Take politics off the table: A study of Italian youth’s self-managed dairy restriction and healthy consumerism","authors":"Niccolò Morelli, T. Vitale","doi":"10.1177/0539018420973596","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0539018420973596","url":null,"abstract":"The last 20 years have been characterized by very different dynamics: massive reduction of milk and, to a lesser extent, dairy consumption; fewer positive attitudes towards milk; no reclaims for affordable, public dairy production; the development of a large conversation about the presumed risks associated with the intake of lactose; and semantic battles on non-dairy ‘milk’ alternatives. These new attitudes haven’t been systematically studied. We explore here the links between milk/dairy consumption, health concerns, and trust in medical expertise. Through an online survey of highly educated youth in Italy (N=378) we have investigated: milk and dairy consumption; attitudes towards items carried out by vegan movements; attitudes towards medical expertise and trust in counseling by general practitioners. Results show that anti-speciesist and vegan movements are very little known among consumers. Data display very limited impact of the ideas and concepts of anti-milk movements within our sample. The results highlight that milk consumption shrinking is due to health concern and an unfavorable perception of dangerous consequences in lactose intake, and additionally to a general distrust towards medical expertise and evidence-based arguments. Indeed, we observe a tendency to self-diagnose intolerance/allergies, questioning the role of physicians and medical knowledge in advising for dietary choices among highly educated youth. The analysis of the patterns of consumption and motives clearly shows that health considerations, not politics, are behind the Italian youth’s dairy restrictions. Healthy consumerism emerges as a concept fitting better than political consumerism for interpreting our results.","PeriodicalId":47697,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Information Sur Les Sciences Sociales","volume":"59 1","pages":"679 - 703"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2020-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0539018420973596","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41476391","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":"Dona Flor and Scarlett O’Hara: One dilemma, two love stories in Brazilian and American cultures","authors":"Everardo Rocha, Marina Frid","doi":"10.1177/0539018420973926","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0539018420973926","url":null,"abstract":"In this article we analyze two popular films, one from Brazil and another from the United States. Specifically, we examine and compare Bruno Barreto’s Dona Flor and her Two Husbands (Brazil, 1976) and Victor Fleming’s Gone with the Wind (USA, 1939). Both films have as a central plot a love triangle in which a woman, Flor and Scarlett respectively, is torn between two very different romantic interests. However, Flor’s decision to commit to two men contrasts with Scarlett’s solitary end. We demonstrate that the films express distinct ways of reconciling values associated to ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’ through the heroines’ romantic relationships and, above all, their opposite endings.","PeriodicalId":47697,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Information Sur Les Sciences Sociales","volume":"59 1","pages":"730 - 750"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2020-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0539018420973926","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48001918","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":"Rationality, strategic interactions, and theories of middle range","authors":"Tobias Wolbring","doi":"10.1177/0539018420964390","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0539018420964390","url":null,"abstract":"Various versions of rational choice theories exist. In the face of common misconceptions of the approach, this comment aims to make two contributions. First, it informs about different variants and emphasizes the essential component of strategic uncertainty in game theory. Second, this article highlights the role of bridge assumptions when applying rational choice theories in practice. Hence, the rational choice approach is not a theory which can be directly applied in practice without further assumptions. Instead the rational choice approach is an analytical framework which leads to theories of middle range by combining a theoretical core with additional auxiliary assumptions which are tailor-made for a specific explanatory problem.","PeriodicalId":47697,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Information Sur Les Sciences Sociales","volume":"59 1","pages":"569 - 574"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2020-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0539018420964390","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46649957","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}