Positioning theory, embodiment, and the moral orders of objects in social dynamics: How positioning theory has neglected the body and artifactual knowing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary B. McVee ◽  
Katarina N. Silvestri ◽  
Kelly A. Schucker ◽  
Aijuan Cun
Keyword(s):  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Positioning Theory ◽  
The Body

Multimodal positioning of artifacts in interaction in a collaborative elementary engineering club

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarina Silvestri ◽  
Mary McVee ◽  
Christopher Jarmark ◽  
Lynn Shanahan ◽  
Kenneth English
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Multimodal Interaction ◽  
Positioning Theory ◽  
Video Data ◽  
Multimodal Discourse ◽  
Elementary Engineering ◽  
Role Based ◽  
Positioning Analysis ◽  
Communicative Actions

Abstract This exploratory case study uses multimodal positioning analysis to determine and describe how a purposefully crafted emergent artifact comes to influence and/or manipulate social dynamics, structure, and positionings of one design team comprised of five third-graders in an afterschool elementary engineering and literacy club. In addition to social semiotic theories of multimodality (e.g., Kress, G. (2010). Multimodality: a social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. New York, NY: Routledge) and multimodal interactional analysis (Norris, S. (2004). Analyzing multimodal interaction: a methodological framework. New York, NY: Routledge, Norris, S. (2019). Systematically working with multimodal data: research methods in multimodal discourse analysis. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell), Positioning Theory (Harré, R. and Van Langenhove, L. (1991). Varieties of positioning. J. Theor. Soc. Behav. 21: 393–407) is used to examine group interactions with the artifact, with observational data collected from audio, video, researcher field notes, analytic memos, photographs, student artifacts (e.g., drawn designs, built designs), and transcriptions of audio and video data. Analysis of interactions of the artifact as it unfolds demonstrates multiple types of role-based positioning with students (e.g., builder, helper, idea-sharer). Foregrounding analysis of the artifact, rather than the student participants, exposed students’ alignment or opposition with their groupmates during the project. This study contributes to multimodal and artifactual scholarship through a close examination of positions emergent across time through multimodal communicative actions and illustrates how perspectives on multimodality may be analytically combined with Positioning Theory.

Transformation by Fire: Changes in Funerary Customs from the Early Agricultural to Early Preclassic Period among Prehispanic Populations of Southern Arizona

2019 ◽  
Vol 85 (1) ◽  
pp. 132-151
Author(s):  
Jessica I. Cerezo-Román ◽  
James T. Watson
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Body Position ◽  
The Body ◽  
Collective Memories ◽  
Mortuary Ritual ◽  
Preclassic Period ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Early Agricultural Period ◽  
Funerary Customs

We examine the changes in funerary rituals from the Early Agricultural period (2100 BC–AD 50) to the Early Preclassic period (AD 475–750) and how these changes concurrently reflect changes in social relationships between the dead, their families, and the community. The predominant mortuary ritual in the Early Agricultural period was inhumation, possibly emphasizing a variety of identity intersections of the dead and the mourners in the treatment of the body while creating collective memories and remembrances through shared ways of commemorating the dead. An innovation in funerary practices in the form of secondary cremation appeared in the Early Agricultural period and was slowly but broadly adopted, representing new social dynamics within the society. Thereafter, secondary cremation became the main funeral custom. During the Early Preclassic period, the variation in body position and the type and quantity of objects found with individuals decreased. It is possible that the vehicle for displaying different identity intersections changed and was not placed in the body, per se, as much as in previous periods. However, the transformation characteristics of these funeral rituals and the increase in community investment could have fostered the building or reinforcing of stronger social ties that highlighted a “collective identity.”

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew B. Roller
Keyword(s):  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Social Hierarchy ◽  
The Body ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of The Body ◽  
Physical Environments ◽  
Sociocultural Approach ◽  
History Of

This introductory chapter talks about the upsurge of scholarly interest, over the past fifteen years, in Roman dining practices and foodways. The concerted attention of historians, archaeologists, and literary critics has greatly enhanced their understanding of the physical environments, social dynamics, and symbolic operations of the Roman convivium. The positions assigned to the guests, the kinds of food and entertainment on offer, and even the give-and-take of convivial conversation all participate in the construction and maintenance of social hierarchies. Being concerned with how bodily bearing relates to social hierarchy, the chapter pursues this sociocultural approach. It also seeks to contribute to a second area of burgeoning scholarly interest: the history of the body, and specifically of the ways in which a Roman's social position and subjectivity were expressed in and constructed through bodily dispositions and movements.

Toward a Sociology of the Body

2020 ◽  
pp. xviii-20
Author(s):  
Katherine Mason ◽  
Natalie Boero
Keyword(s):  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
The Body ◽  
Social Body ◽  
Sociology Of The Body ◽  
Methodological Choices ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Detailed Outline

This essay is designed to establish the theoretical framework and goals for The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Body and Embodiment, foremost of which is delineating what a sociology of the body must entail. Critically, a sociology of the body must recognize bodies as both cause and consequence of societal forces. It must also investigate how bodies change in response to their surroundings: not just through the centuries-long process of evolution but within a single individual’s lifetime. We also suggest not only a sociology of the body but also the body in sociology. This approach holds that consideration of bodies—including both the body of the researcher as well as that of the researched—can help to enrich sociological understandings of a wide range of social dynamics and institutions. In sociological subfields ranging from law to labor, and from medicine to migration, attending to the social body has the potential to newly illuminate the mechanisms that underlie our social institutions. This handbook’s early chapters focus primarily on method, debating and elaborating the method(s) that the authors find most useful for studying the body in society. Subsequent chapters shift focus toward the presentation of empirical findings and analysis, but with a continuing focus on detailing their methodological choices and innovations. A detailed outline exploring the twenty-seven chapters of the handbook is provided in this essay.

Representing utility and deploying the body

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Spurrett
Keyword(s):  
Functional Activity ◽  
Degrees Of Freedom ◽  
The Body ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Processing Demands ◽  
The Many

Abstract Comprehensive accounts of resource-rational attempts to maximise utility shouldn't ignore the demands of constructing utility representations. This can be onerous when, as in humans, there are many rewarding modalities. Another thing best not ignored is the processing demands of making functional activity out of the many degrees of freedom of a body. The target article is almost silent on both.

Neuron-glia relationship during the early postembryonic development of the nervous system in some oligochaetes

1978 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 600-601
Author(s):  
Wiktor Djaczenko ◽  
Carmen Calenda Cimmino
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Glial Cells ◽  
Early Period ◽  
Postembryonic Development ◽  
Ruthenium Red ◽  
The Body ◽  
Tubifex Tubifex ◽  
Growth Stages ◽  
Cell Processes ◽  
Cytoplasmic Processes

The simplicity of the developing nervous system of oligochaetes makes of it an excellent model for the study of the relationships between glia and neurons. In the present communication we describe the relationships between glia and neurons in the early periods of post-embryonic development in some species of oligochaetes.Tubifex tubifex (Mull. ) and Octolasium complanatum (Dugès) specimens starting from 0. 3 mm of body length were collected from laboratory cultures divided into three groups each group fixed separately by one of the following methods: (a) 4% glutaraldehyde and 1% acrolein fixation followed by osmium tetroxide, (b) TAPO technique, (c) ruthenium red method.Our observations concern the early period of the postembryonic development of the nervous system in oligochaetes. During this period neurons occupy fixed positions in the body the only observable change being the increase in volume of their perikaryons. Perikaryons of glial cells were located at some distance from neurons. Long cytoplasmic processes of glial cells tended to approach the neurons. The superimposed contours of glial cell processes designed from electron micrographs, taken at the same magnification, typical for five successive growth stages of the nervous system of Octolasium complanatum are shown in Fig. 1. Neuron is designed symbolically to facilitate the understanding of the kinetics of the growth process.

Flagellar Attachment in Selected Trypanosomes

1973 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 496-497
Author(s):  
J. J. Paulin
Keyword(s):  
Cell Membrane ◽  
Lateral Surface ◽  
The Body ◽  
Flagellar Pocket ◽  
Integral Component ◽  
Free Flagellum ◽  
Flagellar Axoneme

Movement in epimastigote and trypomastigote stages of trypanosomes is accomplished by planar sinusoidal beating of the anteriorly directed flagellum and associated undulating membrane. The flagellum emerges from a bottle-shaped depression, the flagellar pocket, opening on the lateral surface of the cell. The limiting cell membrane envelopes not only the body of the trypanosome but is continuous with and insheathes the flagellar axoneme forming the undulating membrane. In some species a paraxial rod parallels the axoneme from its point of emergence at the flagellar pocket and is an integral component of the undulating membrane. A portion of the flagellum may extend beyond the anterior apex of the cell as a free flagellum; the length is variable in different species of trypanosomes.

Otoconia formation in the chick embryo

1983 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 572-573
Author(s):  
C.D. Fermin ◽  
M. Igarashi
Keyword(s):  
Chick Embryo ◽  
Inner Ear ◽  
Gallus Domesticus ◽  
The Body ◽  
Abnormal Behavior ◽  
Intensive Study ◽  
Basic Fuchsin ◽  
Gestational Period ◽  
Sensory Epithelia ◽  
Transmission Electron

Otoconia are microscopic geometric structures that cover the sensory epithelia of the utricle and saccule (gravitational receptors) of mammals, and the lagena macula of birds. The importance of otoconia for maintanance of the body balance is evidenced by the abnormal behavior of species with genetic defects of otolith. Although a few reports have dealt with otoconia formation, some basic questions remain unanswered. The chick embryo is desirable for studying otoconial formation because its inner ear structures are easily accessible, and its gestational period is short (21 days of incubation).The results described here are part of an intensive study intended to examine the morphogenesis of the otoconia in the chick embryo (Gallus- domesticus) inner ear. We used chick embryos from the 4th day of incubation until hatching, and examined the specimens with light (LM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The embryos were decapitated, and fixed by immersion with 3% cold glutaraldehyde. The ears and their parts were dissected out under the microscope; no decalcification was used. For LM, the ears were embedded in JB-4 plastic, cut serially at 5 micra and stained with 0.2% toluidine blue and 0.1% basic fuchsin in 25% alcohol.

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