Love, Marriage, and Social Change: Letters to the Advice Column of a West African Newspaper

Africa ◽  
1959 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gustav Jahoda

Opening ParagraphThe effects of major changes in the social system on the mental state of individuals have been the subject of a recent controversy. Miss Ward (1956), in a paper discussing the significance of an alleged increase in the number of witch-finding cults in Ashanti, argued that this can be taken as evidence of a widespread rise in the general level of anxiety resulting from rapid structural changes. In a subsequent rejoinder Goody (1957) challenged not only the view that such cults have in fact become more numerous, but also the underlying assumption, shared by many social scientists, that rapid social change produces an emotional malaise in the people caught up in it.

Author(s):  
Rafael Vidal Jiménez

Es tiempo para reflexionar sobre las consecuencias que, para el pensamiento historiográfico, significan los nuevos modos de representación simbólica del tiempo relacionados con los cambios materiales e intelectuales de fin de siglo. Los viejos paradigmas positivistas y estructuralistas, de naturaleza moderna (racionalidad, explicación, objetividad, linealidad, teleología, necesidad, normativismo, universalidad), van dando paso a nuevos modelos de construcción del relato histórico según patrones fenomenológico-hermenéuticos (interpretación, ruptura, azar, relativismo, localismo). La crisis de la idea ilustrada de progreso está impulsando una nueva concepción "anti-histórica», en la medida en que la historia se convierte en espacio temporal pluridimensional, ambiguo, efímero, atemporal. El nuevo tiempo de la historia deja de ser proyectivo. ¿No estaremos ante la elaboración simbólica de una experiencia vital verdaderamente ahistóríca? ¿Qué puede representar ello en lo que respecta al cambio social? ¿Paralización? ¿Congelación y perpetuación del nuevo orden? ¿Es posible ya la anticipación del futuro desde un presente desligado de toda secuencia racionalmente inteligible para el sujeto?.It's time to think about the consequences which, to the historiographic though, mean the new ways of symbolic representation of time related to the material and intelectual changes at the end of this century. The old positivist and structuralist paradigms, of modern nature (rationality, explanation, objectivity, lineality, teleology, necessity, universality), are giving way to the new models of construction of the historical discourse following phenomenological-hermeneutical patterns (interpretation, rupture, chance, relativism, localism). The crisis of the enlightened idea of progress is urging a new non-historie conception, as for as history turns inte temporal space which is also multi-dimensional, ambiguous, ephemeral, nontemporal. The new time of history is no longer projecting to the future. Isn´t it possible we are facing a symbolic elaboratlon of a vital experience which is truely nonhistorie? What can it represent in the social change? Can it be paralysation? Can it be freezing and perpetuation of a new order? Is it already possible the anticipation of the future from a present which is detached from any sequence rationaly understandable to the subject?


Author(s):  
Seyfeddin Kara

The development of Shīʿi jurisprudence has mostly been studied from the perspective of its relation to political authority. A handful of works that have examined the subject from a purely legal perspective, neglected the influence of Muslim societies on the evolution of Shīʿi legal theory. The paper examines the development of Shīʿi jurisprudence from a legal perspective and argues that there is an intrinsic connection between Islamic law (both Sunni and Shiʿi laws) and Muslim societies. Therefore, the changing values and expectations of society prompt changes in Islamic rulings. In this sense, the evolution of Shīʿi legal theory is no different to Sunni legal theory, and there are striking similarities between Khomeini's theory of Wilāyat al-Faqīh and the Sunni legal notion of maṣlaḥa which both aim to respond to the exigencies of the social change.


1994 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-22
Author(s):  
Morton Deutsch ◽  
Ellen Brickman

An Orientation to Conflict Conflict is like sex: it is an important and pervasive aspect of life. It should be enjoyed and should occur with a reasonable degree of frequency, and after a conflict is over the people involved should feel better than they did before. Some psychiatrists and social scientists have given conflict a bad reputation by linking it with psychopathology, social disorder, and war. Conflict can be dysfunctional, but it also can be productive. It has many positive functions, including preventing stagnation and stimulating interest and curiosity. It is the medium through which problems can be aired and solutions developed. It is the root of personal and social change. The practical and scientific issue is not how to eliminate or prevent conflict but rather how to have lively controversy rather than deadly quarrels. A conflict exists whenever incompatible activities occur. The incompatible actions may originate in one person, group, or nation (intrapersonal, intragroup, or intranational) or they may reflect incompatible actions of two or more persons, groups, or nations (interpersonal, intergroup, or international). An action that is incompatible with another action prevents, obstructs, interferes, injures, or in some way makes the latter less likely or effective. A potential conflict exists when the parties involved perceive themselves to have incompatible values, interests, goals, needs, or beliefs.


Author(s):  
Kirill G. Morgunov

During the period of liberal reforms of Emperor Alexander II in Russia in 1864, the zemstvo reform began, which was a continuation of the peasant reform of 1861. Zemstvo institutions were introduced in the country, in the Tauride province they appear two years later - in 1866, zemstvo institutions were in charge of local social and economic issues. One of the important issues that fell on the shoulders of the zemstvos was the issue of the development of medicine. Taking care of the people's health was not one of the mandatory zemstvo duties, but the growth of infectious diseases and the high mortality rate largely prompted the zemstvo authorities to promote the development of medical affairs. The work of the zemstvo bodies was especially difficult at the very beginning of the formation of zemstvo medicine, when the zemstvos had to raise to a new level everything that they had inherited in 1866. The first decade of zemstvo activity for the development of medical science is the subject of this study. The article deals with the regional features of the districts of the Tauride province and their importance in the development of public health in the region. The relevance and novelty of the study is added by the reflection of the influence of the social composition of the county zemstvo vowels on the modernization of the social sphere of the province. In conclusion, information is provided on the results achieved by local self-government bodies by the end of the third zemstvo triennial in relation to 1866. The results of the research provide information on the state of medical affairs of the Tauride province in 1875 in relation to the rest of the zemstvo provinces of the Russian Empire.


2009 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 671-696 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Mesny

This paper attempts to clarify or to reposition some of the controversies generated by Burawoy’s defense of public sociology and by his vision of the mutually stimulating relationship between the different forms of sociology. Before arguing if, why, and how, sociology should or could be more ‘public’, it might be useful to reflect upon what it is we think we, as sociologists, know that ‘lay people’ do not. This paper thus explores the public sociology debate’s epistemological core, namely the issue of the relationship between sociologists’ and non-sociologists’ knowledge of the social world. Four positions regarding the status of sociologists’ knowledge versus lay people’s knowledge are explored: superiority (sociologists’ knowledge of the social world is more accurate, objective and reflexive than lay people’s knowledge, thanks to science’s methods and norms), homology (when they are made explicit, lay theories about the social world often parallel social scientists’ theories), complementarity (lay people’s and social scientists’ knowledge complement one another. The former’s local, embedded knowledge is essential to the latter’s general, disembedded knowledge), and circularity (sociologists’ knowledge continuously infuses commonsensical knowledge, and scientific knowledge about the social world is itself rooted in common sense knowledge. Each form of knowledge feeds the other). For each of these positions, implications are drawn regarding the terms, possibilities and conditions of a dialogue between sociologists and their publics, especially if we are to take the circularity thesis seriously. Conclusions point to the accountability we face towards the people we study, and to the idea that sociology is always performative, a point that has, to some extent, been obscured by Burawoy’s distinctions between professional, critical, policy and public sociologies.


1969 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 110-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Leonard ◽  
Reta Artz

In his widely read book, The Organization Man, W. H. Whyte, Jr., identifies what he believes is a drift in American ideology away from the "Protestant Ethic" toward the "Social Ethic." As a part of this trend, he sees a major shift in business management ideology. This is a shift away from preference for hiring the rough-and-ready individualist, toward the conformist organization man. The old individualist philosophy was most concerned with getting the job done, and the devil with the people in the way. The new philosophy favors the team player who is skilled in handling people and in keeping the organization going without rocking the boat. Whyte saw this shift appearing in junior executives and trainees for executive positions and predicted its increase. At the forefront of this trend, and promoting it, were the Business Administration schools and the personnel departments of the business organizations. Although Whyte's basis for this theory was largely impressionistic and literary, he did include data from a survey of corporation personnel managers. Whyte's "organization man" concept has received some attention from social scientists, but little empirical evidence has been offered. Our purpose here is to reexamine Whyte's hypotheses with data from a replication, of his original survey of personnel managers.


Rural History ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Reay

More bad history has been written about sex than any other subject. Our ignorance about the sexual attitudes and behaviour of people in the past is compounded by a desire to rush to rash generalisation. This is unfortunate, for (consciously or not) our perceptions of the present are shaped by our assumptions about the past. Britain's current preoccupation with ‘Victorian values’ is but a politically visible example of a more general phenomenon. And, more specifically, we do not know a great deal about lower-class sexuality in nineteenth-century England. There are studies of bourgeois desires and sensibilities, but little on the mores of the vast bulk of the population.As Jean Robin has demonstrated recently, one of the most fruitful approaches to the subject is the detailed local study – the micro-study. It may not appeal to those with a penchant for the broad sweep, but such an approach can provide a useful entry into the sexual habits of the people of the past. This article is intended as a follow-up to Robin's work. It deals with a part of rural Kent and, like Robin's work, it covers an aspect of nineteenth-century sexuality – in this case, the social context of illegitimacy. More particularly, this study (and here I differ from Robin) will question the usefulness of the concept of a ‘bastardy-prone sub-society’ (more of which later), a term still favoured by many historical sociologists. The experience of rural Kent suggests that bearing children outside marriage should be seen not as a form of deviancy but rather as part of normal sexual culture.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 331-356
Author(s):  
Lilit Biati ◽  
Ridwan ◽  
Arif Hariyanto

the use of plastics can provide convenience and practicality, plastic also has a particularly bad impact on the environment. Plastics contain artificial inorganic materials which are composed of chemicals that are dangerous enough for the environment. This waste of plastic is very difficult to decompose naturally. To decompose plastic waste itself, it takes approximately 80 years to completely degrade. Currently the government is increasingly active in providing awareness to the public to reduce the use of plastics in life, then providing teaching on how to treat plastic waste into goods that are beneficial to life. Participatory action research has three word elements, all of which have a connection between Participation, Action and Research. In the process of carrying out social change for the better, it must involve all levels of society who are the object or target as well as the subject where the social change must be carried out. utilization of organic waste which can be used as various kinds of valuable creativity and has a selling price that can improve the community's economy, and also make the environment clean and healthy. Making society in a harmonious and peaceful environment. There won't be any problems. The village will be safe and secure.


Author(s):  
Leehu Zysberg

Abstract The summer of 2011 has seen the first mass-scale social protest in Israel in its 70 years of existence. This social wave that shook the country, showed unique characteristics a-typical of most social and political uprisings, that go largely unexplained by social theories of social change and crowd psychology. In this article I am analyzing published reports of the social protest of 2011, and draw the analogy with the concept of ‘Agoral Gathering’ that may account for these events and support discussion of their aftermath.


Author(s):  
Sergey N. Smolnikov ◽  

The article considers the place of social justice in modern law. Various aspects are noted: its relationship with the social state, legal state, civilizational particularities, historical features. The question of the significance of choice between the legality and legitimacy of power as a factor in the establishment of social justice is considered. The article raises the issue of the subject-object essence of social justice. It provides a comparison of two approaches to social justice in modern Russia — liberal and conservative, and notes the contradictory nature of both. Attention is drawn to the role of elites, the intelligentsia and the people in the embodiment of the liberal project. The author reveals the historical and civilizational prerequisites for the conservative project domination, its being in demand on the part of both the authorities and significant segments of the population, and its correspondence to the historical moment. The similarity of the conservative response to the challenges facing the society in the United States, Japan, Britain and Russia is substantiated. A sociological comparison of positions on the issues of law as social justice in the West and in Russia is given. There is an increasing divergence in understanding social justice both in the countries of the West (destruction of the social contract, welfare state) and between the West and the rest of the world. The theme of justice is increasingly playing a role in causing mutual claims rather than in stabilizing and maintaining international and civil peace. The paper considers attempts to create domestic models of a just society. Social justice is regarded as a projective concept and presupposes the existence of models of the expected and ideal future of society. The world trend towards change in the ideas of the subject of law and of the paradigm shift from liberalism to transhumanism is noted. It is argued that it is impossible to identify law with social justice.


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