Economic viability of the traditional farming system in the Ghouta, Oasis of Damascus, Syria

2003 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 196-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sameer K. Alhamidi ◽  
Bengt Håkansson ◽  
Mats Gustafsson
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Farming System ◽  
Labor Costs ◽  
Traditional Farming ◽  
Continuous Contact ◽  
The Social ◽  
Economic Forces ◽  
High Level ◽  
Satisfactory Income

AbstractThe traditional farming system (TFS) in the Ghouta has been an integral pan of the social life and has contributed to the food supply of Damascus for millennia. Very little is known about this traditional and sustainable system, considered by many as a hindrance to development. This study is an attempt to analyze the economic perfonnance of this system. The objective is to evaluate the economic performance of the TFS and its impact on system viability. Three farms, representing the three different agricultural strategies in this area, were selected for data-collection. Participant observation was used to derive estimates of labor, costs and revenues, which are not recorded by farmers. These three farms formed a base for continuous contact with other farmers in the Ghouta. The average values, after cross-checking with these estimates and other farmers, were used in the economic analysis at three levels: production, family and market level. The production system of the Ghouta is adaptable to economic forces of a major city as the high level of market orientation of the TFS stimulates diversity of farms. It is concluded that the diversified farms managed by farmers in this area provide a satisfactory income, which is in harmony both with the social values and with preserving the system, the overall objective of the farmers.

scholarly journals Sustainable Model of Organic Agriculture: A Case study of Nepalese Farmers

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raj Kumar Banjara ◽  
Meena Poudel
Keyword(s):  
Organic Agriculture ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Farming System ◽  
Infrastructure Development ◽  
Family Farming ◽  
Modern Agriculture ◽  
The Social ◽  
Changing Trend

Epistemology of organic agriculture is logically and practically associated with the conventional farming practices. Organic agriculture can contribute in the social life of people by improving health and ecology. It is even more important for the preservation of natural resources. In relation to the importance of organic agriculture, the main objective of this study was to develop the sustainable model of organic agriculture. The study was based on the inductive approach; qualitative design. Study was conducted in 4 districts of Nepal among the 614 respondents. The result found that there was significant contribution made by the organic agriculture to improve the socio-economic status of farmers as well as to care the relationship between the human being and their environment. Family farming system is the fundamental base for changing trend of agriculture in worldwide practices. There is need to protect and enhance family farming through farmers’ cooperative for the sustainability of organic agriculture. The study developed the sustainable model covering the need of infrastructure development, policy improvement, and motivational factors for farmers and changing process of modern agriculture to organic agriculture. The roles of government, non-government, private sectors, individual farmers and consumers are equally important for the sustainability of organic agriculture. The model focuses on the collective effort of all responsible stakeholders. There is need to test the effectiveness of this model.

scholarly journals DAKWAH DAN MORALITAS PEMUDA (Analisis Gerakan Dakwah Jamaah Hadrah Nurul Mustofa dalam Membentengi Moral Pemuda)

AKADEMIKA ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Sofiatul Iman
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Theoretical Description ◽  
The Social ◽  
Missionary Movement ◽  
General Meaning ◽  
Structural Descriptions ◽  
Youth Community

Abstract: Da'wah messages can be accepted among the (youth) community through da'wah packages that attract the attention of da'wah objects (mad'u). In packing da'wah messages, it is necessary to understand the mad'u situation, as done by jam'iyyah Hadrah Nurul Mustofa, which is much favored by young people, especially in Darungan-Cangkring-Jenggawah-Jember. The da'wah activities carried out by the Hadrah Nurul Mustofa have a special attraction for members and the community in general as their madú. Because the design of the da'wah movement is carried out in balance with the social conditions of young people who incidentally are alcoholic addicts. The purpose of this study is to understand the propaganda movement carried out by the Hadrah Nurul Mustofa to provide academic contributions with a theoretical description in the missionary movement, in addition it also provides a broad understanding for readers regarding the missionary movement, especially for Muslims who have the obligation to convey religious messages through da'wah. In this study, the researcher uses descriptive qualitative methods to explore data. This type of research uses a phenomenological approach that describes the general meaning of a number of individuals on various life experiences, so that the researcher can explore data relating to the tendency of youth and general habits already inherent in their social life. Collecting data in this study with active participant observation, non-structural in-depth interviews so that the data needed can be explored as deeply as possible. Data analysis uses a combined description of the phenomenon being studied by including textural descriptions and structural descriptions. This is the essence of individual experience that is the object of research and displays the peak aspects of phenomenological studies. The validity of the research data uses data triangulation which includes source triangulation, technique triangulation and time triangulation. The conclusion of this research is that the Majlis Shalawat Nurul Mustofa in fortifying youth morality is by using an emotional approach so that they have self-motivation in leaving all the wrong behaviors and doing good deeds or positive attitudes.Keyword: Da'wah, Moral, Youth

scholarly journals PARTICIPACIÓN DE LAS MUJERES EN LAS UNIDADES PRODUCTIVAS FAMILIARES RURALES, ROSITA, RAAN

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-113
Author(s):  
Sonia Del Carmen García Aguilar ◽  
Argentina García Solórzano
Keyword(s):  
Participant Observation ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Production Cycle ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
Toma De Decisiones ◽  
Las Mujeres ◽  
High Level ◽  
Document Review

Se identificó el nivel de desempeño de las mujeres en las Unidades Productivas Familiares (UPF) y la relación existente entre las familias de la comunidad El Zopilote, municipio de Rosita, Región Autónoma Atlántico Norte. El estudio es cualitativo, se han descrito situaciones, personas, interacciones, actitudes y comportamientos observables. Los fundamentos teórico-metodológicos tienen como enfoque el interaccionismo simbólico porque se reflexiona sobre los significados sociales que las personas asignan al mundo que les rodea para valorar o visibilizar la participación de las mujeres en el trabajo y en la toma de decisiones en las UPF. Las técnicas fueron entrevistas, observación participante, grupos focales, mapeo de las unidades productivas seleccionadas y revisión documental. Se encontró que las mujeres de la comunidad El Zopilote están involucradas en diferentes actividades dentro de las Unidades Productivas Familiares. Tienen un alto nivel de participación en todo el ciclo productivo, evidenciándose así que tienen parte en algunas decisiones y que es menor sobre los rubros de mayor valor para la comercialización de los productos. El estudio aporta la facilitación de nuevas estrategias a todas las ONG e instituciones del Estado que desean trabajar en la comunidad con temas relacionados al estudiado. SUMMARY We identified the level of performance of women in the Family Production Units (FPU) and the relationship between the families of the community El Zopilote, municipality of Rosita, North Atlantic Autonomous Region. The study is qualitative and it describes situations, people, interactions, attitudes and observable behaviors. The theoretical and methodological approach are focus on a symbolic interactionism because it examines the social meanings that people put on the world that surrounds them to assess and highlight women participation in the work and decision-making in the FPU. The techniques that were applied are: interviews, participant observation, focus groups, mapping of the selected production units and document review. Among the results we found that the women of the community El Zopilote are involved in different activities within the family production units. They have a high level of participation in the entire production cycle, and this is evident that they are taken into consideration in some decisions which are less on the items of greater value for the marketing of products. The study provides new strategies to the NGO’s and state institutions who are interested to work in the community on issues related to this study.

Building social capital: Polish football supporters through the lens of James Coleman’s conception

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 459-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mateusz Grodecki
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
External Factors ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Internal Factors ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
The Social

The purpose of the presented study is to understand and describe the mechanisms for generating social capital in the groups of devoted football supporters in Poland, by: (a) exploring those features of football supporters’ social structures that are essential for creating social capital and enabling them to maintain it within those groups; and (b) trying to identify the historical processes which foster emergence of these features in supporters’ social structures. The presented analysis is part of a wider research project on Polish football supporters’ social capital. It draws on a qualitative approach based on the triangulation of a variety of methods: on-going ethnography, participant observation, individual interviews and content analysis (internet forums, book biographies, magazines, zines and qualitative research materials from previous research). Drawing on Coleman’s concept, this study identifies the presence of specific forms of social capital ( appropriate social organization, obligations and expectations, norms and effective sanctions and information channels) and internal factors ( ideology, closure and stability) facilitating maintenance of this ‘source’ in the structures of devoted supporters’ groups in Poland. The results show also that social capital is created on the stands and then transferred to the other areas of social life. Furthermore, the social capital used in areas other than where it was first created can strengthen efficiency and trust in the original organization. Further, external factors like the co-production process and ‘war’ with the state are considered as variables fostering the emergence of social capital in the analysed structures. However, these same external factors also made those structures very exclusive.

Buskers of New Orleans: Transgressive Sociology in the Urban Underbelly

2016 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 306-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Marina
Keyword(s):  
New Orleans ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Sociological Analysis ◽  
Structural Problems ◽  
The Social ◽  
Full Immersion ◽  
Tourist Economy ◽  
Late Modern

This article is based on extensive ethnographic research involving living and working on the urban fringes of the postindustrial, tourist-intensive economy of New Orleans. As this late modern metropolis has experienced great structural transformations, and as new urban dwellers have emerged with their own unique cultural solutions to the structural problems posed in late modernity, this work captures the culture of urban dwellers living on the social periphery of New Orleans. The analysis reveals the less-seen spaces of New Orleans, intimately depicting the social life of the new creative urban buskers through sociological analysis and reflexive ethnographic interpretation. Revealing the underbelly of New Orleans requires not only traditional interviews and participant observation but also full immersion into the subcultures of buskers through my performing on the streets with buskers in the tourist economy as they carve out creative and transgressive lives on the urban fringes.

scholarly journals It’s All about Distinction: The Lifestyle Embeddedness of Fair Trade Consumption

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 10997
Author(s):  
Patrick Schenk ◽  
Jörg Rössel ◽  
Sebastian Weingartner
Keyword(s):  
Fair Trade ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Ethical Consumption ◽  
High Status ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Social Prestige ◽  
Political Views ◽  
The Social ◽  
Resource Endowment ◽  
High Level

Social scientists have argued that ethical consumption is embedded into broader lifestyles running across various domains of social life. For instance, fair trade consumption might be part of a distinctive lifestyle, including behaviors such as going to fancy restaurants or the opera. We, therefore, investigate the relationships of the main dimensions of broader lifestyles to various aspects of fair trade consumption—from purchase frequency, to visiting specialized stores, to the identification with fair trade. The analysis relies on data collected in the Summer of 2011 in Zurich, Switzerland. Since per capita consumption of fair trade products in this country was on a comparatively high level, the results are also important for other societies experiencing only currently the mainstreaming of fair trade. The first dimension, distinctiveness of lifestyles, denoting orientations and behaviors with high social prestige in society, emerges as a substantial and important determinant of all included aspects of fair trade consumption. The second dimension, modernity, is only correlated with a subset of these aspects. These effects are robust, even when taking ethical and political orientations and resource endowment into account. Hence, differences between lifestyle groups do not simply reflect the social position of high-status consumers or their ethical and political views. They reflect orientations, mental representations and routines specific to these social groups. Broader lifestyles are, therefore, a relevant addition to explanations of fair trade consumption.

METHODOLOGICAL PROBLEMS OF GENDER PEDAGOGY

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 14-19
Author(s):  
A.K. Iigibaeva ◽  
◽  
A.D. Toleukhanova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Educational System ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Gender Issues ◽  
Spiritual Values ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Level Of Activity ◽  
The Social ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
High Level

The high level of activity in the social life of both men and women in modern conditions requires new methodological approaches to the study of gender issues. Of particular importance is the issue of studying the experience of implementing a gender approach in the educational system. The article analyzes the main theoretical approaches in research on gender pedagogy in the context of cultural and national values. An excursion into the history of the problem is made.Based on the analysis of scientific research by Russian and domestic scientists, an attempt is made to determine the main methodological approaches in gender pedagogy. In considering this issue, special attention should be paid to the historical, cultural and spiritual values of the ethnic group, together with modern socio-cultural realities.The need for interdisciplinary research on gender issues is being updated. The high level of activity in the social life of both men and women requires new methodological approaches in the study of gender issues. Of particular importance is the issue of studying the experience of implementing a gender approach in the educational system. The article analyzes the main theoretical approaches in gender pedagogy of Russian and Kazakh researchers in the context of cultural and nationalvalues.

Dagara bagr: ritualising myth of social foundation

Africa ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 595-633
Author(s):  
Alexis B. Tengan
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Secret Society ◽  
North West ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Events ◽  
South West ◽  
The Social ◽  
Form Part ◽  
Private And Public

AbstractThe article explores the ritualising processes of a myth of social foundation, the bagr myth, among the Dagara of north-west Ghana and south-west Burkina Faso. It describes how rituals form part of the daily life of the Dagara and shows how bagr rituals form a series of private and public events lasting the whole year or the bagr season. The article describes the social life in the neighbourhood within which most ritual activities take place and outlines the historical events which are possibly responsible for the creation of the bagr myth itself as a narrative text. The rest of the article is devoted to the ritualising processes of the bagr myth. Much of the article, particularly this section, is structured around the author's own experiences and participant observation of ritual activities. The aim is to show why the public rituals of bagr are not about initiating particular individuals into a secret society or lodges but are about how Dagara society constitutes itself. The day and night ritual narration of the bagr myth involving different segments of society and described in detail in the second half of the article seems to justify this claim. The article includes excerpts from bagr narratives recorded by the author to illustrate how the text is being constructed and the sort of information it is intended to communicate.

Facilitating resident community in nursing homes: a slippery slope? An analysis on collectivistic and individualistic approaches

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 469-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gudmund Ågotnes ◽  
Christine Øye
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Home ◽  
Nursing Homes ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Nursing Home Residents ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Everyday Life Activities

Residents in nursing homes are old and frail and are dependent on constant care, medical, or otherwise, by trained professionals. But they are also social beings, secluded in an institutional setting which is both total and foreign. In this setting, most of the residents most of the time must relate to other residents: other residents are the nursing home residents’ peers, companions, and perhaps even significant others. In this article, we will discuss how resident communities in nursing homes are influenced by the approaches of nursing home staff. Two nursing homes have been included in this article—one from Canada and one from Norway. Participant observation was conducted at these two nursing homes, predominantly focusing on everyday-life activities. The cases from Norway and Canada are illustrative of two very different general approaches to residents: one collectivistic and one individualistic. These general approaches produce different contexts for the formation and content of resident communities, greatly affecting nursing home residents. The significance of these approaches to resident community is profound and also somewhat unanticipated; the approaches of staff provide residents with different opportunities and limitations and also yield unintended consequences for the social life of residents. The two different general approaches are, we suggest, “cultural expressions,” conditioned by more than official preferences and recommendations. The difference between the institutions is, in other words, anchored in ideas and ideologies that are not explicitly addressed.

scholarly journals Escapism: Between Nature and Culture

2021 ◽  
pp. 125-134
Author(s):  
Elena O. Trufanova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Second Nature ◽  
Mass Society ◽  
Nature And Culture ◽  
Internet Users ◽  
The Social ◽  
Creative Force ◽  
Human Need ◽  
High Level

This paper dwells on the phenomenon of escapism and suggests regarding it as a natural human need that has not only a negative, but also a productive form. The author analyses the idea of escapism as a human escape from natural threats by creating culture and “second nature” (proposed by the cultural geographer Yi-Fu Tuan). It is shown that, indeed, even those human societies that are closest to nature cannot survive without culture and technologies. Further, it is demonstrated that in the late 18th – early 19th centuries because of scientific and industrial revolutions the cultural trend of Romanticism rejects the technogenic society and rationality. Instead, it takes interest in nature as reflecting the emotional, intuitive components of the human spirit. Wild natural landscapes, to which a romanticist wishes to escape, are attractive not just in themselves, but because their contemplation becomes a way for a person to better understand his/her inner world. Wild nature is also appealing to a romanticist because being alone with it a person is free from the pressure of the society that is turning into a mass society with high level of bureaucracy. With the onset of the Internet era, many people tend at first to escape to the virtual world with no limitations, but over time the Internet becomes an integral part of the social life of all people, thus losing its escapist appeal. On the contrary, another wish emerges: to escape from the Internet (which can be regarded as “third nature”) and from the total social control exercised by other Internet users back to the “real” – offline – world. Thus, a conclusion is drawn that escapism is not provoked just by natural threats or social pressure: a person wishes to escape not from nature or culture, but from the situation where he/she feels bad to a better situation, and while searching for such a place a person can act as a creative force that changes the world.

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