bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Cultural Revolution on the Border: Yunnan's 'Political Frontier Defence'
Authors: Schoenhals Michael
Published: January 2018

This paper addresses an important but so far neglected episode in the post-1949 history of China – the impact of the so-called 'Cultural Revolution' on the country's ethnic minority populations. Specifically, it attempts to deal with the movement as it unfolded in the province of Yunnan where, at one stage, it became an attempt by a political leadership in the provincial capital, dominated by military officers and supported by members of the central authorities in Beijing, to alter the landscape of the ethnic minority populations along the frontier. Using information culled from local histories and contemporary sources, the paper traces the history of what even by the standards of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) came to be regarded as an exceptionally flawed and counterproductive policy. It foregrounds the human cost of its implementation and, for the first time, goes some way towards explaining – in more than simply general terms of labels like 'excesses' and 'ultra-leftism' – the trauma of those who survived it, a trauma that to this day still lingers in popular memory.
Southeast Asian Press Coverage of Terrorism and the Bali Bombing
Authors: Ambrosio De Nelson Sonia
Published: January 2018

The war against terrorism is being carried out not only in Afghanistan where it was first declared but also in the media around the world. Southeast Asia became a focus of international attention after the U.S. administration identified the region as the second front in the fight against terrorism following the attacks in the United States on 11 September 2001. The perception that the region is a cradle for terrorism was reinforced by the Bali bombing in October 2002. The event was the first major terrorist attack after 11 September, and the worst act of violence against foreigners in Indonesia, a country that has been under continuous international pressure to be decisive in the fight against terrorism. Although the media can function as the source of people's information, it can provide interpretations of the social construction of ideas and images. Like the media in all parts of the world, the media in Southeast Asia function within some form of governmental, societal, and economic constraints. Journalists are encouraged to support their governments' efforts to develop the nation and instil a sense of national identity. In such a setting journalists, consciously or not, end up not only reflecting but also spreading the dominant view of the society's elite. This transnational comparative study involving three mainstream English-language newspapers from Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore examines the reportage of the Bali bombing.
Bearing Witness: Maoism as Religion
Authors: Apter David E.
Published: January 2018

The role of foreign witnesses in describing exceptional historical events can contribute to the way those events unfold. Three examples serve to illustrate this: Edgar Snow, Anna Louise Strong and Agnes Smedley. At the start of the Chinese communist revolution each of these commentators offered personal testimony to and validation of what became a political myth and was elevated to the status of a state political religion with Mao the central figure. This paper discusses the differences between political religion and religion tout court. It suggests that the former is more ephemeral while the latter is more capable of self-replenishment, leading to the ritualization of the first in the exercise of state power. It also deals with the question of socialism as proto-religion and the problems posed by its disappearance.
The Renewal of Chinese Marxism: Debates over the Character of the Political Economy
Authors: Falkin James
Published: January 2018

This is a study of those Chinese political economists and political philosophers in the early 1950s who sought to distance China's transition to socialism from the Soviet model for development. Writing for the leading economic and philosophical journals, Xin Jianshe [New Construction] and Xuexi [Study], these theorists attempted to apply Mao's 1937 call for a sinified Marxism to their contemporary reality by insisting upon a national strategy for socialist construction. Their arguments provided a source for the later break with the Soviet command economy. And it is the emphasis upon Chinese solutions to national problems that forms a line that connects this past with China's present.
Mod en europæisk velfærds- og arbejdsmarkedsmodel
Authors: Jensen Carsten Strøby
Published: January 2018

Towards a European welfare and labour market model: an analysis of the genesis of
an institutional order

During the past decade, cooperation in the European Union has intensified in the field of social- and labour mar-ket policy and has led to a supranational system of wel-fare and labour market regulation. This article analyses the establishment of a European industrial relations system as an ‘institutional order’ and discusses how and why the system has developed. Three crucial situations are ana-lysed as to their contribution to the development of this institutional order. The first is the EU Commission’s three proposals for directives on atypical work in the beginning of 1990. The second is from October 199l when negotiators from three labour market organisations: UNICE, ETUC, and CEEP signed an agreement concerning possibilities of negotiating collective agreements at the European level. The third crucial situation is from Novem-ber 1995 and concerns the first agreement these organi-sations signed concerning maternity leave. The article argues that these events make up crucial situations on the road to the establishment of a European labour market model.
Sociologiens tredje
Authors: Bech Henning
Published: January 2018

The third field of sociology

It is generally agreed that politics and the economy are essential parts of con¬temporary societies; and indeed, most social social scientists work with topics related to these fields. There is much more debate about the nature of the rest of the social world, and how it should be con¬ceptualized. Some speak of „civil socie¬ty“, others of „culture“, and yet others of „communication“. In this article, a diffe¬rent view is presented of this „third“ field, focusing on a vital and materially heavy conglomeration of visual media, city, gender problematics, sexuality, ae¬stheticizing, apparatus of self-analysis, sensitivity and parliamentary complex. The article presents an overview of Bechs studies in this field, as well as of the par¬ticular approaches, methods and style of these studies.
Sociologiens første århundrede - og det næste
Authors: Therborn Göran
Published: January 2018

The First Century of Sociology - and the Next

Sociology got many of its first institutions just one century ago - important and still existing journals and departments of sociology were founded in the last de¬cade of the 19th Century. Sociology of the early 20th Century - the period after the classics - was occupied by the origins and rise of capitalism and its evolution and progress. It is important to notice, that all three fundamental conceptions of classical sociology could be, and were, by the classical protagonists themselves, given different meanings and expressed with different accents. The social world was, above all, a world in evolution, a world historically evolved. In this per¬spective, the origins of things socially had an absolutely central place of inte¬rest. The conditions for social relations and how to create and maintain social solidarity were crucial issues among the first generations of sociologists. It was the dynamic of the modernisation pro¬cesses which concerned sociology while its focus was primarily around the soci¬al space of nation-states - its institutions as well as its theoretical approaches were tuned by nationality and were state-bounded.
This contrasts strongly with today´s sociology which is globally focusing on variability and communication. By the end of the present century strategy and contingency have replaced evolution and progress as the dominant concepts of sociology. Undestanding and discour¬se seem to be the predominant models of cognition in contemporary sociology. It is in this perspective that social labelling, as a way of grasping and conveying the sense of contemporary world, becomes so central to sociologists of prime-time aspirations. Are we living in post-mo¬dernity, or in reflexive modernity, or perhaps in a second modernity. The repertoire of possible sense-making labels is an indefinite quantity. In this context we would need a critical sociology of bad sociology, and of other bad academic out¬puts, analyzing sloppiness and shallow¬ness as institutional effects, rather than as individual deficiences.
Spatially, the practice of sociology has a three-dimensional location - the in¬stitutional space, the stage of performan¬ce and its space of imagination and inve¬stigation. Sociology of this century has been national and European in its approach to the social and society. A global sociology has to turn away from its euro¬centric past and present and to focus mo¬re on global issues such as information technology, capital and social move¬ments analysed in cross-continental perspectives. The paper concludes in a rather optimistic mood emphasizing the huge accummulation of sociological knowledge which has taken place du¬ring its first century. Here can be mentio¬ned recent work on identities - it may be ethnic, sexual or national - studies of in¬stitutionalisation in making political sy¬stems, and new knowledge concerning the dynamics of collective actions and the gendering of social systems as im¬portant achievements which were large¬ly unstated a century ago.
Er emotioner som vilde galoperende heste? En mikrosociologisk anvendelse af Nobert Elias´ emotionsbegreb med elitesport som eksempel
Authors: Thing Lone Friis
Published: January 2018

Are emotions like wild galloping horses? Application of Norbert Elias’ concept of emotion to elite sport

In an effort to challenge the concept of emotion based on Freud in the figurational thinking of sport, this article argues that the psychology of pleasure in sport is not exhausted by Freud. With a sociological perspective on emotions, this article reconsiders the knowledge that emotions involve both cognitive and affective dimensions. Elias and Dunning say that violent emotions are tabooed and connected with repugnance and shame, and that centralization of power and monopolization of violence in the civilizing process resulted in a refinement of manners, tastes and behavior. Their framework has been fruitful in understanding the roots of aggressive behavior in sport, which I have analyzed in female elite sport.
Den moralske forfatning. Højreekstremisme og fremmedhad i det genforenede Tyskland
Authors: Kupferberg Feiwel
Published: January 2018

The Moral Constitution. Right-wing extremism and xenophobia in reunited Germany.

Most theories about right-wing extremism tend to focus upon either the perpetrators and their social background or, alternatively, the public debate on immigration policies. This article focus upon a third, relatively neglected dimension, the moral constitution of society or the presence of a civic ethos that can keep right-wing extremism under control. This control-theoretical approach is illustrated by a study on the differences between right-wing extremism and xenophobia in the old and new states in reunited Germany. The study suggests that the question of the national heritage and how it is coped with in a decisive manner influences the moral constitution and thus the conditions for creating a civic ethos, that is strong enough to contain right-wing extremism and xenophobia.
Socialpolitik eller social struktur? Inkomsttransfereringar, socio-demografiska faktorer och fattigdom i Frankrike och de nordiska länderna
Authors: Kangas Olli , Ritakallio Veli-Matti
Published: January 2018

Social Policy or Social Structure?

Income Transfers, Socio demographic Factors and Poverty in the Nordic Countries and in France

The paper compares poverty in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and France. We have (1) descriptive/analytical and (2) methodological goals.

(1) We pool the four Nordic countries into a single data set and compare France with this “Scandinavia”. The results give strong evidence to the existence of the homogenous Scandinavian model in terms of incidence of poverty, poverty profiles, and the effectiveness of social policy.

(2) The methodological objective is to “change the world” and simulate what would happen if France had the Scandinavian social structure – but its own social policy – and vice versa. Our re-weighting simulations show that the results of the “Scandinavization” of France depend on the method of simulation.

First, a static simulation, changing the socio-economic structure, but preserving the present median incomes and poverty lines as they are, would almost eradicate poverty in France. The „Francofication“ of Scandinavia would lead to dramatic results in Scandinavia: the number of persons totally dependent on social transfers would increase, the effectiveness of transfer systems would decrease, and the poverty rate would rise near to the actual French figures.

Second, in dynamic simulation we also change poverty lines to correspond actual median income (in “Scandi-France” the median income would rise – because of increased female labor force participation – and in “Franco-Scandinavia” decrease – because of lower female employ-ment). In “Scandi-France” the poverty rate would decrease close to the present Scandinavian figures, but the poor would be richer that the poor actually are in France. In “Franco-Scandinavia” the extension of poverty would be about the same as nowadays but the poor would be worse-off than they now are.

In sum, differences in the French and Scandinavian poverty rates are explained by the dynamic interplay between social security and structural variables. However, differences in the family structure and in labor market behavior seem to be more important explanatory factors: about 2/3 of differences between countries are explained by these structural factors, while 1/3 is explained by income transfer systems. However, it is important to remember that these background factors are greatly affected by the institutional set-ups of the welfare states.
Komparation i kritisk realistisk perspektiv
Authors: Wad Peter
Published: January 2018

Comparison in a critical realist perspective

With the rise of critical realist social science, time has come to ask whether this approach can enhance comparative methodology in sociology.

This article contends that although critical realist sociologists argue in favour of comparative studies, they are yet to formulate a genuine comparative methodology (paradox 1). They refer to the comparative tradition without scrutinizing it from a critical realist perspective. When such an assessment is made of core comparative methodologies, the conclusion is that postwar comparative sociology has serious methodological flaws which are rooted in Mill’s inductive logic from 1843 and modern empirical-analytical science philosophy (paradox 2). However, a closer examination of Charles Ragin’s quali-tative comparative analysis and Thomas Janoski & Alexander M. Hicks’ new comparative political economy indicates that it is possible to develop a substantial and complex comparative methodology from these contri-butions and even to address the enhanced ’Dalton Problem’ of our time: globalisation. The conclusion is that a pertinent and critical realist comparative methodology can emerge from the contemporary

stream of comparative sociology.
Diskursens materialitet
Authors: Neumann Iver
Published: January 2018

The materiality of discourse

The promise held out by discourse analysis is to integrate the study of social meaning, institutions and the stuff the world is made of, all in one sweeping catch. In order to fulfil this promise, the major task confronting the discourse analyst is how to engage the question of materiality. It may well be that everything is discourse and that there are detrimental effects emanating from attempts to delineate materiality from non-materiality. However, inas-much as this way of framing an answer seems to bracket the question of materiality, it does not move the discourse on discourse any further, which may be an even greater loss. The article begins to operationalise the question by drawing some distinctions between the materiality of the text and the materiality of the dis-course, and between materiality understood as formalis-ed patterns of interaction and physical infra-structure. The bulk of the argument tries to demonstrate by means of examples how it is easier to include a study of materiality into the analysis if one begins with an object of study such as a process, a subject position or a specific institution, rather than with a text or a corpus of texts. In conclusion, a model first put forward by Janice Bially is presented, where discourse appears as a circle of three interdependent concepts: values, institutions and reality.
Om humaniora og samfundsvidenskab: konkurrens, konvergens eller hvad?
Authors: Bertilsson Margareta
Published: January 2018

The Humanities and Social Science: Convergence, Competition or What?

The logic of the humanities and the social sciences, however embedded they are at the present, can be conceived of as two distinct and competing research strategies that developed antagonistically with he onset of modernity. The two distinct research strategies are those of historicism and positivism respectively. In the case of sociology the two strategies were in ardent strife and depending upon local conditions. The discipline of sociology evolved in accordance with one or the other of the two overriding cognitive strategies. The article addresses the origin of the strife between positivism and historicism and seeks to trace its modern forms of representation.
Hvad er social kapital?
Authors: Svendsen Gunnar Lind Haase
Published: January 2018

What is social capital?

What is social capital and how is it defined? “Social capital” has been introduced as a concept capable of linking together the human sciences. Social capital has been defined as the profits of network co-operation, that is, as a resource in line with financial and human capital. Cross-disciplinary human science research has shown that social capital can be accumulated both at micro- and macro-levels. This article analyses the various definitions and applications of the concept. Taking Bourdieu’s definition as a starting point, it shows how the concept has been elaborated by American sociologists and political scientists.
Verdenssamfunnet
Authors: Moe Sverre
Published: January 2018

The world society

If we live in the world society, this must be the only society existing on earth today encompassing all kinds of social life on the globe; hence the ultimate reference of any sociological theory. It is no wonder then that most social theorists avoid the notion of a world society and prefer to speak in terms of ‘internationalisation’ and ‘globalization’. The article discusses four theories of the world society: functionalism (Parsons), world-system-theory (Wallerstein), neo-institutionalism (Thomas Meyer, etc.) and the theory of autopoietic social systems (Luhmann). The article argues that Luhmann managed to speak of a world society without merely reproducing traditional notions of society that imply homogeneity, unity, equality and centrality (as the other theories tend to do). In Luhmann’s view society must be understood in terms of communication, evolution and differentiation. Thus the world society is a functionally differentiated society that makes it possible to connect and synchronize communication anywhere on the globe with communication anywhere else. Luhmann’s notion of the world society should however be debated. For instance one can ask if he is emptying the concept of a “society” or how he can speak of the world society as a system.
Selvdannelse og nye former for socialitet - technofesten som eksempel
Authors: Hammershøj Lars Geer
Published: January 2018

Self Bildung and new forms of sociality: the technorave as example

One of the most significant traits of late modernity is increasing individualization. This article deals with the question of what this radical individualization does to forms of sociality by analyzing individualization as self Bildung or formation of the self. The concept of Bildung is interesting in this regard, since the central conception is that personality and sociality are created in the same process. The Danish social analyst Lars Henrik Schmidt uses the concept of post traditional Bildung or simply self Bildung and outlines how Bildung may be conceived under late modern conditions. For him it is a type of Bildung that takes place on the individual’s terms. The article uses this concept of self Bildung as a point of departure to propose an interpretation of how to conceive sociality under these conditions. Finally as an example of such a form of sociality the articles analyses technorave (this kind of music and dance culture). It concludes that the new forms of sociality tend to resemble sociability in its pure form. The technorave is a form of controlled dionysiac sociality that is oriented towards experiencing union with others. Finally these forms of sociality are characterized by being orient-ed more by tunings than by reasons and interests. Therefore they can be described as a type of sociality that is less articulated but ‘broader’ than traditional forms of sociality.
Sammenlignende overvejelser over kodifikationsmetoden i Grounded Theory og i den biografiske metode
Authors: Kontos Maria
Published: January 2018

Comparative considerations about the codification procedures in Grounded Theory and in the biographical method.

The interest for biographical research in Europe has grown rapidly in the last years. The richness of dissertations that have been completed with the help of biographical methods stands against relatively few contributions about the methods and their rules though. Moreover there are several varieties of the biographical method. In this paper I would like to discuss the rules and procedures of the particular variety of the biographical method that has emerged in the Federal Republic of Germany in the context of Fritz Schützes work.
Biographical researchers are happy to refer to Grounded Theory ( Glaser and Strauss) as the basic context of the biographical method in the social sciences. But whereas the sampling procedures of Grounded Theory can be applied relatively easily to the biographical method, it remains unclear how the codification paradigm of Ground-ed Theory is related to the codification procedures of the biographical method. The focus of the paper is the discus-sion and comparison of the codification procedures of the two methodological approaches, related to the detailed analysis of a case, and aiming at the core of the qualitative research process.
In the first part of the paper I will relate the codification procedures of the biographical method, as it has been suggested by F. Schütze in terms of the two steps of “structural description” and “analytical abstraction” to the codification procedures suggested by Grounded Theory. The theoretical foundations of the narrative and biographical aspects of “structural descriptions” will be discussed and similarities to and differences with the codification procedures of Grounded Theory will be presented. In order to make the logic of “structural des-criptions” transparent, this methodological procedure will be illustrated by a concluding concrete example.
En analyse av institusjonaliseringsteoriens potensiale ved hjelp av livhistorisk materiale
Authors: Danielsen Kirsten
Published: January 2018

Institutionalisation of the life course - what does it explain?

There has been an ongoing debate about the characteristic features of the modern life course. Some claim that the life course have become more predictable and institutionalised while others indicate the emergence of a post modern or deconstructed life course. By the means of the analytical distinction between two different types of live events - culturally prescribed transitions and occasional incidents I will scrutinise the hypnotises of the institutionalisation of the life course. The institutionalised life course is a new historical phenomena and only possible under certain demographic and social conditions. Of specific importance is the emergence of the welfare state. The data I base my analysis upon are life history interviews with 97 men and women born before the First World War. This generation is interesting in this respect because they grew up and became old under different welfare regimes.
Børns problemer - det sociales problem
Authors: Nissen Marie Appel , Henriksen Lars Skov
Published: January 2018

A Social problems’ approach to the conceptualization of the normal/deviant child

Interest in children, childhood and child welfare seems to have increased during the last 10-15 years in Denmark. One example of this interest is the various governmental child commissions that have been set up. The general pur-pose of this commission work has been to put children’s rights and children’s needs on the political agenda. This work has in part been guided by concern for the skills and competences needed for participation in a late modern and highly differentiated society. In this article we analyze the evolution of political communication about children from the beginning of the 20th century until today. The distinc-tion between the normal and the deviant child seems to be a primary code for the political construction of the child as well as for decision making about children. This is a code that produces new categories of deviant children. We argue that increasing complexity in society pushes the differentiation of problem compensating systems forward. The result is an increasing internal (political) contingency which can only be dealt with by locating (a social) problem within the generalized individual child. We suggest how-ever that problems related to the child should also be conceptualized and dealt with as social problems.
At komme til magten - magt, køn og kønnede aktører i det politiske felt
Authors: Højgaard Lis
Published: January 2018

Obtaining Power – power, gender and gendered actors in the political arena

The gendering of politics in Denmark is no longer manifested in large differences in representation in important political positions or in unambiguous gender specific ways of doing politics or of climbing the political hierarchy. A discourse analysis of interviews with top male and female politicians shows that gender and political are woven together in multifarious ways, while revealing gendered patterns in discursive practices. There are no sharp differences in male and female politicians’ discourses on doing politics, on obtaining top positions in the political hierarchy or on gender and politics. Gendered patterns appear in the way male and female politicians combine discourses on how to get power and in their discourses on the meaning of gender in politics. The interviews revealed three discourses on how to get power: the fight, the party community and the personal stake. These represent distinct ways of characterizing the processes involved in becoming politically powerful. The interviews also revealed two main discourses on the meaning of gender: gender as an explicitly important dimension of political praxis, and gender as unimportant in relation to political praxis. The gendered agents combine these discourses in different ways, which opens different spaces of action and nego-tiation as well as different possibilities for positioning in the political field, possibilities that are reflected by a meta-discourse expressing processes of inclusion and exclusion in the field of politics.
Folket på gaden - struktureret hverdagsliv i det offentlige rum
Authors: Caswell Dorte , Schultz Ida
Published: January 2018

Dorte Caswell and Ida Schultz: People in the Street

Bag people are different from other people who live on the street. Pictures of bag people are employed both literally and metaphorically to illustrate homelessness, but there is scant research in Denmark about this group of homeless. The purpose of this article is to shed light on the everyday life of the bag people of Copenhagen. The article is based on a “reflexive field study“ employing the reflexive sociology of Bourdieu and symbolic interactionism of Becker and Goffman. By using these approaches it was possible to dissolve the analytical dichotomy of normality, which seems ever present in research on marginalisation and social exclusion. The results show how resourceful and structured the “marginalised“ and “socially excluded“ bag people also are.
Det onde i Danmark
Authors: Bech Henning
Published: January 2018

Henning Bech: Evil in Denmark

During the late 19th century, the homosexual emerged as a special sociocultural creation. Since then, he and she have played a significant role as incarnations of evil in the symbolic universes of the modern West. From the 1980s, changes occur, although with various impact in different countries. In Denmark, major groups now live in ways similar to those hitherto considered characteristic of the homosexuals, e.g. in relation to gender performance or sexual mores. Consequently, the homosexual is in the process of vanishing as a popular incarnation of evil. Sexual preference is increasingly experienced in terms of taste. New symbolic incarnations of evil appear, who are experienced as threats to the ways and norms of life in late modern Danish society, among them “Moslem immigrants”. The changes are investigated through analyses of fresh qualitative and quantitative data.
Moraliseringen af seeren
Authors: Chouliaraki Lilie
Published: January 2018

Lilie Chouliaraki: The Moralisation of the Spectator. On the September 11th live footage

In this paper, I discuss extracts of the September 11th live footage on television from the vantage point of discourse, that is of how the reported event “comes to mean“, how it becomes intelligible through television’s meaning-making operations. Specifically, I study the mediation of the September 11th as a mediation of “distant suffering“, drawing upon the work of Luc Boltanski (1999) on “morality, media and politics“. My aim is to identify the ways in which the September 11th television spectacle engages the affective potential of the spectator and evokes a specific disposition to act upon the suffering – that is, to act politically. My perspective on the September 11th thus concerns the televisual mediation of distant suffering and its moralising effects on the spectator. First, I introduce the problematic of representing distant suffering in terms of, what Boltanski calls, a “politics of pity“ – a politics that aims to resolve the Spacetime dimensions of mediation in order to establish a sense of “proximity“ to the events and, so, engage the spectator emotionally and ethically. Second, I contrast three different modes (or “topics“) of representing suffering, by reference to three live footage extracts from the Danish national television channel (DR): street shots of Manhattan, just after the Twin Towers’ collapse; the summary of the day events, with shots from the second plane collision and President Bush’s first public statement; a long shot of the Manhattan skyline burning.

I describe each “topic“ in terms of its Spacetime dimensions, its distinctive semiotic elements, and the affective mode and moral horizon it opens up for the spectator. In concluding, I briefly touch upon implications for the “moralisation“ of the spectator, involved in the September 11th “topics“ of suffering.
Børns tarv og børns ret: Varetages de nødvendige hensyn til barnet i børneforsorgssager?
Authors: Egelund Tine
Published: January 2018

Tine Egelund: Children’s interests and children’s rights: do cases about child support take necessary consideration of the child

This article questions whether the Child Protective Services Act is in the best interest of the child and respects the rights of the child. The article illustrates the idea of the best interest of the child by reviewing the discourses on children’s needs in the Convention on the rights of the child, Danish legislation on child protection, and research on child neglect and abuse. It is argued that none of these sources offer clear guidelines for practice as to how to take the best interest of the child into consideration. In reality, the best interest of the child is decided by the individual social worker, who works within a framework with few legal restrictions, and whose assessments are based on scanty knowledge. The article demonstrates that children have few and limited rights in Danish legislation, and that the most important decisions about their fate rest on professional assessments, for which there are only few standards. In addition, studies show that the child protection services often violate the few rights that children have.
Hvad med Mozart? Hvad med mord?
Authors: Becker Howard S.
Published: January 2018

Howard S. Becker: What about Mozart? What about murder?

The sociologies of science, art, and deviance have a ommon problem. All three challenge conventional thinking about the objects they study. The sociology of art makes problematic the status of objects as “real art,“ the sociology of deviance challenges conventional definitions

of right and wrong, and the sociology of science questions the unthinking acceptance of the results of scientific work. In all three fields, empirical sociological research is supplanting philosophical reasoning. Good sociological work requires us to avoid accepting conventional definitions of the phenomena we study.
Kritik, tilpasning, autenticitet og kommunikation - kreativitetsregimer i moderniteten
Authors: Kupferberg Feiwel
Published: January 2018

Feiwel Kupferberg: Criticism, adaptation, authenticity and

communication. Creativity regimes in modernity

Creativity is not, as psychologists tend to think, the result of some underlying personal quality, that is independent of

the institutionalised or professional context in which it is articulated. It is a social construction, and how we see it depends on the type of life world or social field we tend to identify with or construct our meanings for. What is defined as expected and as socially recognized as creativity varies with the particular creativity regime in which creative agents seek social recognition. In this article, I compare four different types of creativity regimes: science, industry, art and pedagogy, and try to identify the particular norms and practices that characterize these different creativity regimes in modernity, including possible hybrid forms in contemporary modernity.
Aktør-netværkteori: A-moderne (sociologisk?) teori
Authors: Arnoldi Jakob
Published: January 2018

Jakob Arnoldi: Actor Network Theory: A-modern

(Sociological?) Theory

This article is a critical analysis of Bruno Latour’s actor network theory. It outlines two main conceptual moves in Latour’s work. The first is the move from an “irreductionist“ sociology of science to a critique

of the so-called “Modern Constitution“. The second is a move from a double dialectic between knowledge and on

the one hand the objectively given world, on the other the subjectively given world, to a notion of hybridization. The article outlines a range of positive aspects of the theory. It highlights the many possibilities for empirical research which actor network theory provides. And it argues that

the theory is a valuable tool for research in areas such as risk, technology, and environment. However, the article remains critical of several aspects of Latour’s theory. First of all, it argues that the theory is unnecessarily polemic. Secondly, and much more importantly, it argues that Latour’s theory is haunted by a lack of reflexivity as it remains trapped inside the conceptual framework, the Modern Constitution, which the theory is attacking.

The article argues that Latour retains a dialectical form of reasoning and that the critique of the poles nature and culture is based on the very distinction between these poles.
En klassiker - død eller levende?
Authors: Bruun Hans Henrik
Published: January 2018

Hans Henrik Bruun: A Classic – Dead or Alive? What Use is Max Weber today?

This article, based on the author’s Inaugural Lecture, discusses two related questions. The first question is how to deal with the great classics of sociology. And the second is to what extent Max Weber – arguably the greatest sociological classic of them all – is still relevant today. As for the study of sociological classics, it is important to keep the original context of their ideas firmly in mind, in order to avoid the dangers of misunderstanding, misattribution and banalization. The analysis of the place in contemporary sociology of Weber’s core methodological concepts of value freedom, objectivity and the ideal type, as well as his Protestantism thesis, concludes that, to a significant extent, they have now fallen prey to one or more of these dangers. On the other hand, Weber’s ideas continue to fascinate because of the exceptional lack of closure of his thought, and, more generally, because his approach reflects, with paradigmatic clarity, the tension between intentionality and necessity inherent in social action. Moreover, Weber’s insistence that scholars be passionate in their pursuit of and respect for truth, however uncomfortable the results of their endeavours, remains a durable ethical legacy to the discipline of sociology.
De plukkes ikke som blomster på en mark: Tendenser i kvantitativ metodelitteratur vedr. konstruktion og kvalitetssikring af surveydata
Authors: Olsen Henning
Published: January 2018

Henning Olsen: They are picked as flowers in a field: Tendencies in the literature on quantitative research methods and the quality assurance of survey data

This article discusses the manner in which survey data should be constructed and quality ensured as recommended by authors of methodology literature. It is based on a textual analysis of English and Scandinavian literature on quantitative research methodology. The article explores issues such as: common sense proposals regarding the construction of questionnaires, recommendations concerning question construction based on research about respondents’ understanding of question of questions and information retrieval and recommendations relating to the carrying out of survey interviews. In addition the article discusses the question of procedural guidelines for ensuring the quality of survey data, e.g. cognitive laboratory interview and split sample experiments. Finally it raises the question as to whether the data constructing aspects of survey methodology are as standardized as usually assumed.
Er skadeskulturen i sport en machokultur
Authors: Thing Lone Friis
Published: January 2018

Lone Friis Thing: Is sport injury gendered?

This article discusses how sport injuries in female handball in a non-professional context intersect with masculinity codes. It asks whether dominant forms of masculinity involve learned behaviours that cause risk taking, violence or disregard for health. The article is based on data from 17 qualitative interviews with women handball players, with cross ligament (acl-ligament) injuries and field observations from the physiotherapy clinic where the players went for therapy. Masculinity codes are not articulated when it comes to recommencing sport after injury. Danish female handball players do not hurry back to play and they do not ignore their health. But the female players do silence the pain connected with injury and therapy. Pain is a non-spoken subject, and the players adopt techniques to help to displace the centrality of pain in their sports lives.
Demokratisering af fattigdommen?: En kritisk analyse af indkomstbaserede fattigdomsundersøgelser
Authors: Bak Carsten Kronborg
Published: January 2018

Carsten Kronborg Bak:

Democratisation of poverty: an analysis of dynamic poverty studies

The German Sociologist Ulrich Beck is best known for his book about “Risk Society“ which has been discussed extensively; however Beck’s claims about modern poverty have not received the same attention among poverty researchers. The individualization perspective views poverty as a relatively transient phenomenon and the democratisation perspective views the risk of poverty as spread equally in the population. Both perspectives challenge the mainstream tradition of class analysis, and therefore both view poverty as largely independent of traditional stratification factors. In this article, I argue that Beck’s thesis about the democratisation of poverty is based on narrow income based definitions and that (possible) empirical verification depends on the definitions of poverty and approaches used to examine poverty. My analyses show that the dynamic perspective (using income as measure of poverty) largely supports the democratisation of poverty. But my other analyses of relative poverty and social exclusion do not support Beck’s argument.
Det mindst ringe spørgeskema?
Authors: Olsen Henning
Published: January 2018

The least inferior questionnaire?

This article discusses strategies for the construction of questionnaires utilized in the implementation of survey investi¬gations in social research. The delinea¬tion of these strategies is based on a Da¬nish project about language comprehen¬sion and memory as causes of measure¬ment problems in sociological and politological survey investigations. The detailed results are expected to be published at the end of 1998.

The project had three phases. The first phase consisted of text analyses of questionnaires from approximately 50 Danish social research surveys. The text analyses were based on theoretical con¬cepts from linguistics and cognition the¬ory. The second phase consisted of se¬manticcognitive interviews with 32 in¬formants from seven regions in Denmark and analysis of the interview tran¬scripts. These qualitative analyses were followed by a split sample analysis of the linguistic sensitivity of approxima¬tely 2000 adult Danes as a generator of measurement problems in survey in¬vestigations, which was based on mailed questionnaires. On the basis of these three phases new methodological stra¬tegies for the reduction of measurement problems in survey investigations have been developed.
Frivillig repatriering - en beskrivelse og kritik af et ideal
Authors: Hansen Peter
Published: January 2018

Voluntary repatriation. Description and

critique of an ideal

Voluntary repatriation is often considered a natural, ideal and nonproblematic solution to the refugee problem. This idealization is based mainly on an implicit understanding of refugees and identity, not on positive experiences from earlier repatriation projects. In lo¬calizing the logic behind the idealiza¬tion of voluntary repatriation, it is ne¬cessary to explicate a perception of the world with a sedentarist metaphysics at its core. This perception divides the world into nation states inhabited by es¬sentialized cultural communities and sees acquisition of identity as coming from these cultural roots. A refugee is a challenge to a sedentarist metaphysics merely because the refugee is not seden¬tary. The refugee has lost his/her identi¬ty and membership of a natural given community, his/her home. To repatriate is to reestablish the national order of things.

Empirical studies problematize the idealization and naturalness of volunta¬ry repatriation. Living miles away from one’s home land is not necessarily the same thing as having lost one’s identity. The decision to repatriate is not always the natural choice, and repatriation and reintegration into one’s home land is ra¬rely a nonproblematic return to things as they were before exile. The idealiza¬tion of voluntary repatriation is based on a problematic conception of refugee identity. In contrast to a sedentarist me¬taphysics, this article suggests that iden¬tities are not static and solely given by the location of a person’s roots, but are always in the process of being construc¬ted. Therefore voluntary repatriation can never reestablish things as they we¬re before, since both the refugees and those who stay behind have changed. A viable solution to the refugee problem must take into consideration the context of repatriation which includes different actors with potentially conflicting inter¬pretations and experiences and should not resort entirely to the implicit logic of the natural order of things.
Kroppens stemthed - en undersøgelse af stress i hverdagslivet
Authors: Bloch Charlotte
Published: January 2018

The body’s inflextion: a study of stress in everyday life

Stress is a common term in our langu¬a¬ge of everyday life. This article discus¬ses the results of an empirical investiga¬tion of stress experiences in everyday life. Data were collected by means of interviews with 36 employees of a public organization. The analysis of the data was conducted in two phases: a pheno¬menological analysis of the qualitative dimensions of stress and an analysis of social and cultural aspects structuring these stress experiences. The results presented here concern the first phase whereas the second phase only is indi¬cated by an example. The phenomeno¬logical analysis yielded a distinction be¬tween three phenomenological struc¬tures, metaphorically termed, ‘fight’, ‘blocking’ and ‘boiling over’. These re¬sults are discussed in relation to such phenomenological concepts as intentio¬nality, time, subjectivity and moods. The analysis of the social and cultural aspects structuring the experiences of stress illustrates that actor’s interpreta¬tion of stress experiences is structured by the dominant discourse of stress, but resistance towards this discourse is found. In conclusion, the results of the two analytical approaches are latched together: the results of the phenomeno¬logical analysis suggest a base for the construction of a new discourse of stress in everyday life; the results of the soci¬al and cultural analysis suggest that ac¬tors might be receptive for other dis¬courses than the available discourses of stress.These results taken together urge us to develop new discourses of stress in everyday life.
Investigating Okunâ€™s Law in Nigeria through the Dynamic Model
Authors: ADEYEYE Patrick Olufemi , ODELEYE Anthonia T. , ALUKO Olufemi Adewale
Published: January 2018

Unemployment is a persistent challenge for countries, especially the developing ones. Nigeria as a developing country faces a herculean task reducing the increasing spate of joblessness amongst her citizens. Okunâ€™s law explains the relationship between unemployment and economic growth in an economy. This study therefore investigates Okunâ€™s law in Nigeria between 1985 and 2015 through the dynamic model. The generalized method of moments estimation result reveals that that present and past output growth are negatively related to unemployment rate. However, only past output growth has a significant effect on unemployment rate. It also shows that past unemployment rate is significantly and positively associated with present unemployment rate. The Toda-Yamamoto Granger non-causality test finds that there is no causality between unemployment and economic growth. This study presents evidence to partially support Okunâ€™s law of inverse relationship between unemployment and output growth and suggests that promoting economic growth can be a policy tool for reducing unemployment rate in Nigeria.