{"title":"Non-Heteronormative Reproductive Tactics in Poland","authors":"Joanna Mizielińska, Agata Stasińska","doi":"10.1177/13607804241237339","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13607804241237339","url":null,"abstract":"In the backdrop of increasing discussions about reproductive normativity for non-heterosexual individuals in the West, this article addresses the distinct challenges faced by same-sex couples in Poland. The country’s pronatalist state policies limit their access to assisted reproductive techniques, fostering heteronormative and exclusive practices. Consequently, non-heterosexual individuals in Poland grapple with the non-recognition of their family bonds. This article explores the inventive tactics employed by LGBTIQ individuals to become parents in a restrictive environment. It analyses the legal loopholes they navigate and the various factors influencing their choices. The study’s results, drawn from a multi and mixed-method research project, contribute to broader sociological debates on family, identity, and reproductive rights, highlighting how non-heterosexual individuals in Poland persevere in forging their paths to parenthood.","PeriodicalId":509355,"journal":{"name":"Sociological Research Online","volume":"74 23","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141798249","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Collectivist Relationality and Individualistic Relationality: Pacific Mothers and Fathers Negotiating Agency and Identity in Post–Separation Care Arrangements for Children","authors":"Moeata Keil","doi":"10.1177/13607804241250292","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13607804241250292","url":null,"abstract":"The degree to which agency and identity are experienced as individualised or relational constructs have been widely debated in the sociological literature. Yet, at the centre of these debates are Western notions and understandings of individualisation and relationality, including in family research. They have relied on individualised and nuclearised understandings and approaches to being a family that more closely approximate the lives of white Western middle-class nuclear families. Drawing on semi-structured talanoa (akin to interviews) with separated heterosexual Pacific parents, specifically ten mothers and five fathers, living in New Zealand, I contribute to individualisation and relationality debates by examining how agency and identity are enacted following separation. In particular, I examine the way that Pacific mothers and fathers grapple with tenets of individualisation and relationality in terms of how and with whom they organise and negotiate care arrangements for children. My research demonstrates how Pacific gendered norms and values operated in ways that differentially shaped the kinds of decisions that mothers and fathers made about children’s care arrangements. I conclude with a discussion that highlights the significance of integrating cultural relationality into research on family life.","PeriodicalId":509355,"journal":{"name":"Sociological Research Online","volume":"34 26","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141814129","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rethinking Veganism in the Digital Age. Innovating Methodology and Typology to Explore a Decade of Facebook Discourses","authors":"Nicola Righetti, N. Bertuzzi","doi":"10.1177/13607804241248350","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13607804241248350","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, we examine the expressions of veganism on Facebook, a main social media platform worldwide, through a combination of classic qualitative social science and computational methods. Building on a foundational typology proposed by Jessica Greenebaum, we adopt Weber’s ‘ideal types’ to analyze a broad range of online vegan expressions, using Max Reinert’s algorithm to identify distinct ‘lexical worlds’ of vegan discourses in 200,000 vegan-related messages published over a decade (2010–2020). Our analysis leads to a nuanced typology based on individual versus collective focus and inward versus outward orientation, uncovering four primary functions of social media in veganism: self-documentation and resource sharing, advocacy and education, identity and community formation, and support and mobilization. The research also advances methodological approaches in social media analysis by integrating traditional qualitative insights with computational Big Data techniques.","PeriodicalId":509355,"journal":{"name":"Sociological Research Online","volume":"46 26","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141349617","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Beyond Local Domains: Connective Ontology in (Post-)Cognitive Sociology","authors":"James Rupert Fletcher","doi":"10.1177/13607804241237768","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13607804241237768","url":null,"abstract":"Ontology in cognitive science has long been dominated by cognitivism, developing computer science metaphors to position cognition as intrinsic mind-brain information-processing. Contemporary cognitivism hypothesises localised domain-specificity, disaggregating cognition into discrete subtypes, each of which exists in a dedicated brain region. Latterly, peripheral cognitive science scholarships have contested these ideas, cultivating post-cognitivist dispositions with radical ontologies, relocating cognition in active socio-material ecologies. Nonetheless, much cognitive sociology retains cognitivist ontology, treating sociological phenomena as extrinsic constraints that influence the mind-brain’s foundational cognition. I argue that cognitive sociology could fruitfully engage with post-cognitivist science. As an example, I use connective ontology, from the sociology of personal life, to conceptualise cognition as dynamically emergent and vitally animated ecological connective energies. Doing so, I show that post-cognitivism offers routes towards genuine social ontologies of cognition as a sociological matter, moving beyond cognitivism.","PeriodicalId":509355,"journal":{"name":"Sociological Research Online","volume":" 1194","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141363634","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Self in Self-Help: A Re-Appraisal of Therapeutic Culture in a Time of Crisis","authors":"Daniel Nehring","doi":"10.1177/13607804241242345","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13607804241242345","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, I analyse constructions of the self in bestselling self-help books in the United Kingdom. In doing so, I offer a re-appraisal of contemporary therapeutic culture. Therapeutic culture has long been associated with neoliberal governance, and scholars have argued that popular therapeutic narratives promote neoliberal accounts of an autonomous, masterful ‘entrepreneurial self’, able to thrive in the world on its own. However, beginning with the international financial crisis of 2008, neoliberalism has entered a period of serious and accelerating crisis and contestation. The question therefore arises to what extent popular therapeutic narratives might have changed during this period. In response, I analyse narratives of the self and self-improvement in UK self-help bestsellers between 2008 and 2022. Given their high sales and consumption, self-help books are prominent in the constitution of popular therapeutic discourse. I focus on the UK as an emblematic case, given its history of neoliberal politics, the latter’s recent crisis, and the salience of therapeutic culture in the country. Across the analysed period, my findings point to the emergence of alternative, survivalist and spiritual, therapeutic discourses that move beyond the model of the entrepreneurial self, while ultimately retaining its core assumptions about rational, autonomous behavioural modification.","PeriodicalId":509355,"journal":{"name":"Sociological Research Online","volume":"17 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141269280","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Journeys Through Genomics: Co-Producing Visual Resources to Communicate Patient Experiences","authors":"K. Lyle, Susie Weller, Anneke Lucassen","doi":"10.1177/13607804241252528","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13607804241252528","url":null,"abstract":"Journeys through Genomics is a series of illustrations co-produced with patients and families to communicate their experiences of seeking genomic explanations for a health condition and the wider impact on their lives. The resources are embedded within qualitative longitudinal research exploring patient’s experiences of genomic medicine. This research takes place as genomic medicine becomes an integral part of mainstream care within the UK healthcare system. The depiction of genomic medicine often focuses on its technological components and the speed by which genetic code can be analysed, but here, we present a dynamic and situated understanding of the challenges genomic testing presents for patients and families. We describe the process of working with research participants and an artist to co-produce visual resources that illustrate the complexity of participant’s journeys, situating genomic testing within the broader context of their lives. These resources are designed to help future patients, families, and healthcare professionals understand the process, opportunities, and challenges they may face.","PeriodicalId":509355,"journal":{"name":"Sociological Research Online","volume":"49 22","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141273705","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Walking the (Infrastructural) Line: Mobile and Embodied Explorations of Infrastructures and Their Impact on the Urban Landscape","authors":"Louise Rondel, Laura Henneke","doi":"10.1177/13607804241247713","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13607804241247713","url":null,"abstract":"Drawing on a series of Infrastructural Exploration ‘walkshops’ hosted at the Centre for Urban and Community Research (Goldsmiths), this article reflects on the possibilities offered by walking infrastructural lines to critically engage with urban infrastructure. In these walkshops, we invite participants – academic researchers, students, activists, members of the public – to join in moving through the city and to consider their embodied and emotional contact with the infrastructure we encounter. Traversing different spaces and opening our sociological imaginations to the city, we place an emphasis on collective experiences, happenstance conversations and different forms of knowing. We aim to foster a corporeal, mobile and multisensory attention to infrastructure and its impacts on the urban landscape. In this article, we propose that these embodied and affective encounters with infrastructure can attune us to questions of infrastructure’s social life, the politics of its siting, urban power dynamics, distributional (in)justice and forms of (infra)structural violence. Inspired by Shannon Mattern’s work, the article ends by offering a provocation. We ask readers, as we ask walkshop participants: then what? What are the socio-political potentials in these collective, peripatetic and visceral engagements with infrastructure?","PeriodicalId":509355,"journal":{"name":"Sociological Research Online","volume":"19 23","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141272967","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Networks on Paint! Conducting Sociograms Via Graphic Raster Editors as Embedded in Online Interviews","authors":"Mücahit Aydemir","doi":"10.1177/13607804241237773","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13607804241237773","url":null,"abstract":"This article presents a novel method for creating sociograms in online qualitative interviews. Sociograms, also known as ego-centric network maps, refer to a data visualization tool commonly used for personal network analysis. While paper-based sociogram maps have gained attention in face-to-face qualitative research, little research has been done on how to conduct them in online interviews. This article introduces a new method for conducting sociograms as embedded in online qualitative interviews. It proposes using graphic raster editor programmes, like Microsoft Paint, for carrying out sociogram maps as a part of the online interview process. The article first provides a detailed explanation of how these programmes can be used to conduct sociogram diagrams online. After that, taking a reflexive approach, it discusses the advantages and disadvantages of conducting online sociograms through graphic raster editor programmes in a larger research project on the transnational family relationships of migrant academics in Britain (Aydemir, 2022).","PeriodicalId":509355,"journal":{"name":"Sociological Research Online","volume":"13 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140979688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Living Together Apart: Size and Significance of Co-Residency Following Relationship Breakdown in Contemporary Britain","authors":"Simon Duncan, Jenny van Hooff, Julia Carter","doi":"10.1177/13607804241246411","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13607804241246411","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, we seek to establish the importance of living together apart (LTA), where ex-partners continue to co-reside following relationship breakdown. Although LTA is commonplace, it has been almost completely overlooked by family sociology and social policy. Because LTA is conceptually unrecognised, there is little empirical information and because there is so little information, it remains conceptually unrecognised. In this article, we attempt to break out from this loop. First, we place LTA within the context of partnership change. Second, we estimate the quantitative magnitude and qualitative significance of LTA in Britain. We use a survey concerned with owner-occupier LTA to indicate population characteristics and aggregate behaviour. This is accompanied by qualitative analysis of Mumsnet forums on LTA, to develop insight into understandings and relationships. Drawing on these findings, we argue that LTA is both a significant household form and important relationship type.","PeriodicalId":509355,"journal":{"name":"Sociological Research Online","volume":" 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140997585","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Young People Experiencing Multiple Mobilities: In Search of an Oasis of Youth Across Europe","authors":"Ewa Krzaklewska, Valentina Cuzzocrea","doi":"10.1177/13607804231224998","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13607804231224998","url":null,"abstract":"In this study, we look at those young Europeans who have undertaken more than one Erasmus stay abroad during their higher education to reflect on spaces for youth development. On the basis of 18 qualitative interviews with such Erasmus students, we propose the concept of an ‘oasis of youth’ to highlight the potential for the exploration of the self that occurs through participation in mobilities. We revisit and reassess J.J. Arnett’s concept of emerging adulthood to reflect on spaces for exploration for young people in Europe. As the analysis suggests, this ‘oasis of youth’ may symbolise a niche in which young people live out a youthful lifestyle ( being), while getting prepared for the transitions to adulthood ( becoming). Beyond this particular case, the concept of an oasis of youth may serve to describe the diverse social spaces that express the social value of youth allowing them to live youth momentum while in education, despite growing uncertainty and harshened structural conditions.","PeriodicalId":509355,"journal":{"name":"Sociological Research Online","volume":"55 23","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139961143","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}