bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Gendered Enterprises
Authors: Bögenhold Dieter
Published: January 2023

In global production organizations, the production process is broken down into diverse tasks distributed across the globe depending on the comparative advantages of a particular region. This in turn has generated opportunities for paid work for hundreds of millions of workers in emerging and low‐income countries, drawing in a substantial number of women with limited previous labor market access. Those processes of gender division can be seen through a variety of different lenses including liberal, feminist, postfeminist, socialist, or poststructuralist ones. Another strand of gender and organization literature is influenced by observations and critical discussion of management and organization processes within existing companies, primarily in metropolitan regions. This type of research draws attention to the asymmetric representation of genders in the hierarchical organization of companies. A completely different topic of empirical discussion on gendered enterprises is business start‐ups, where the number of women as new business founders is increasing. Finally, advertising is not just a medium for selling products but is also a place where gender power relations are mirrored. Through advertisement processes women are increasingly used as objects to sell products or services. Gender stereotypes in advertising translate societal values and use existing values of society to promote their brands.
Global Justice as a Social Movement
Authors: Williams Matthew S.
Published: January 2023

The global justice movement (GJM) – also called the alter‐globalization, the anti‐corporate globalization, or (by its critics) the antiglobalization movement – is a transnational social movement, rooted in the confluence of the human rights, labor, environmental, indigenous, peasant, and feminist movements' shared opposition to neoliberal globalization (“free market” globalization, which GJM activists see as promoting the hyper‐exploitation of people and the environment) and in a vision of a more democratic, equitable, ecologically sustainable world. Constituent organizations range from traditional nonprofits and volunteer groups in the industrialized world to large, grassroots labor, peasant, and indigenous organizations in the developing world. The strands making up the GJM coalesced in the 1990s and became highly visible in the United States following the massive 1999 protests against the World Trade Organization in Seattle, Washington, though much current activism is more local and less visible in nature. The movement has built dense networks facilitating global coalitions and campaigns; these emerged as a result of not just the Internet but face‐to‐face global conferences such as the World Social Forum.
Health Delivery Systems
Authors: Plava Annalisa
Published: January 2023

A health delivery system (HDS) is like a machine that consists of a series of gears that – driven by general interest – contribute to the cohesion, social justice, and sustainable development of a community. Each one, with its own frame and its own history, needs to improve health, equity, responsiveness, and respect for human beings' dignity. The COVID‐19 pandemic that started in 2020 reinforced the importance of health delivery systems. A digital system can help to integrate the HDS with a standardization of information, computer‐assisted diagnosis, and treatment monitoring; and apps, blogs, and social media can help individuals to take control of their own health by self‐quantification and self‐narration. Health delivery systems are facing the challenge of supporting both short‐ and long‐term illness where the experience is not only biomedical but also social and cultural.
Health Locus of Control
Authors: Lindström Martin
Published: January 2023

“Locus of control” is a key concept in the learning theory of personality, developed by Rotter in the 1950s and 1960s. The concept has been applied to various areas of psychological research, including health psychology. People with internal locus of control (internals) tend to regard outcomes as the result of their own decisions and actions. In contrast, people with external locus of control (externals) regard outcomes as attributable to circumstances outside their own control such as fate, luck, and influential others (e.g., medical doctors). The health locus of control (HLC) concept was developed by Wallston in the 1970s. HLC is associated with various aspects of health including health‐related behaviors and involvement in the decision‐making process regarding treatment and steps in the healthcare system. Internals have a higher propensity to change health‐related behaviors in a healthy direction than externals. The multidimensional health locus of control (MHLC) scale and the health locus of control scale are the main instruments to assess HLC. The MHLC includes four independent scales with answers on a Likert‐type scale with six alternatives ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree.” Future study designs might include the assessment of HLC in a life‐course perspective.
Health and Race
Authors: Willis Leigh A. , Immerfall Stefan
Published: January 2023

Race interacts with health just as it does with other life‐determining, sociodemographic factors like class, gender, and age. Race is best understood as a shared set of cultural and social experiences common to people of the same skin color. Research has shown that the notion of distinct biological races is misleading because often more genetic variation exists within a defined “race” than between them. Race is a social construction rather than a “true” biological distinction. Yet, the manner in which it influences social relationships suggests that race is a construct with “real” repercussions. The entry looks into some of the ways in which race and racisms influence health today.
Healthy Life Expectancy
Authors: Angel Ronald J. , Angel Jacqueline L.
Published: January 2023

The phrase “compression of morbidity” refers to a hypothetical morbidity and mortality regime in which the onset of chronic disease is postponed until shortly before death, largely though preventative medical interventions and lifestyle changes, reducing the length of time one lives with illness and disability. Although life spans have increased dramatically in the latter part of the twentieth century, evidence for a significant compression of morbidity is mixed, largely because of difficulties in obtaining adequate data and complexities introduced by age, period, and cohort interactions. The data suggest, though, that to the extent that compression has occurred, it has done so among more affluent and educated segments of the population.
Historical and Comparative Methods
Authors: Emigh Rebecca Jean , O'Malley Corey S.
Published: January 2023

Historical and comparative methods comprise a diverse set of perspectives on and methodologies for examining temporality, including comparison, narrative, interpretive methods, and quantitative analysis. While many early sociologists used comparison implicitly, a more explicit comparative paradigm based on the work of Mill became influential in the late twentieth century for explaining historical causality. Critiques of these approaches led to a rise in narrative analyses, including process tracing and negative case analysis, which tend to emphasize process in explaining social change. Interpretive methods, including historical ethnography and oral history, provide tools for examining subjective meanings in historical context, including how they change over time. Finally, conventional quantitative methods, network methods, and content analysis can be used for formal analyses of history and structured comparison. Each methodology must be chosen to suit available data and specified carefully to avoid reification of the historical and causal dynamics under examination.
Hacking
Authors: Alleyne Brian W.
Published: January 2023

Hacking emerged in the 1960s at university computer science laboratories in the United States where researchers and engineers developed innovative techniques of creating and modifying computer software. The field of hacking has since expanded globally to encompass network intrusion, free and open‐source software, cybercrime and cyberterrorism, hacktivism, civic hacking, and culture hacking.
Immigration and Language
Authors: Plava Annalisa , Buoncompagni Giacomo
Published: January 2023

A narrative traffic jam emerges in the current public debate when it involves immigration and language. On the one hand, a one‐way narrative could create exclusion, labeling, disinformation; on the other, a contamination of the mother tongue could be a precious tool for intercultural dialogue. Immigration sits within economic, social, cultural, political, and technological fields whose effects – positive or negative – have global relevance, starting from language. It is a multidimensional process, continuously translated and interpreted, that shows the degree of integration that the immigrant holds within the host society; a multidimensional market that exists and resists, admits and excludes. It is also a place of encounter between diversity and hospitality, tradition and innovation; a time of possibilities off‐ and online.
Individualism
Authors: Wilkinson Jennifer
Published: January 2023

Individualism may encompass egotism, narcissism, voluntarism, individuality, privacy. Individualism challenges tradition and enables modernization. Other disciplines locate individualism within abstract political and economic systems. Sociology views individualism as a social or relational process. Individualism is necessary for modern friendship, romance, and personal life. Affective individualism means that intimacy requires individualism.
Institution
Authors: Odrowąż‐Coates Anna
Published: January 2023

Institutions are durable, socially organized elements of social structure that meet social and individual needs and in return influence and maintain social order and the continuity of social life. Institutions shape all aspects of coexistence, including new media and virtual reality. They reflect social norms, social roles, and expectations, and therefore regulate social relations, organizing social life in a structured manner.
Intergenerational Conflict
Authors: Urick Michael J.
Published: January 2023

Intergenerational conflict occurs often because of perceptions of incompatibilities between individuals of different generational categories. These perceptions may be focused on values, behaviors, or identities. In turn, intergenerational conflict may be resolved by focusing on achievements, image, or one's ego.
Jehovah's Witnesses
Authors: Hookway Nicholas
Published: January 2023

The Jehovah's Witnesses are a highly visible and distinct “world‐rejecting” fundamentalist Christian group. Despite experiencing growth throughout the twentieth century, membership appears to be declining as the movement struggles with low retention rates, reputational damage, the proliferation of the Internet, and capitalizing on its own “end time” beliefs in an era of global risk and uncertainty.
King, Martin Luther (1929–1968)
Authors: Ling Peter J.
Published: January 2023

Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King remains the most famous leader of the Civil Rights Movement, although scholars argue his pre‐eminence can be overstated. His religious background and charismatic oratory enabled him to articulate movement demands in ways that resonated with African American audiences and a broader liberal audience. He deployed nonviolence throughout his career, with particular effectiveness in Birmingham in 1963 and Selma in 1965. He was awarded the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. Journalists contrasted his advocacy of racial integration and nonviolence to the views of Malcolm X in the early 1960s and this prefigured a wider media attempt to position King as hostile to the Black Power movement. Between 1966 and 1968, King refocused on economic justice and ending the Vietnam War, and lost popularity. His murder in April 1968 and the mass disturbances that followed cemented the view that the champion of peaceful change had been lost.
Kondratieff Cycle
Authors: Nefiodow Leo
Published: January 2023

Economic and social developments exhibit periodic cycles that vary in length, with some lasting between 40 and 60 years. Academic literature refers to these cycle‐like phenomena as Kondratieff cycles or Kondratieff waves. They are triggered by groundbreaking innovations (so‐called basic innovations) that lead to a far‐reaching reorganization of the economy and society. This method combines human, social, and economic sciences and provides a framework designed to examine society as a whole. Since the beginnings of industrialization in the eighteenth century, economists have empirically proven five Kondratieff cycles. A new long cycle began at the start of the twenty‐first century: the sixth Kondratieff cycle. It is triggered and sustained by physical, psychological, mental, social, ecological, and spiritual innovations in a holistic health system.
Law, Criminal
Authors: Mungan Murat C.
Published: January 2023

In this entry, the structure of the criminal law is reviewed. The review begins by explaining the types of elements that can be used in defining crimes with an emphasis on behavioral (e.g.,actus reus) and mental (e.g.,mens rea) elements. Substantive and evidentiary defenses are categorized and are explained along with the most frequently discussed functions of punishment.
Illiteracy/Literacy
Authors: Payne Geoff
Published: January 2023

Although educationalists, psychologists, historians, and development economists have shared an interest in levels of literacy, their research and interventions have been bedeviled by poor definitions and measurements. Early studies relied on crude indicators of absolute illiteracy, while more recent studies have tried (with little success) to identify a level of literacy necessary for everyday life, that is, “functional literacy.” Despite major international studies, our estimates and comparisons of illiteracy rates remain unreliable. The outcome is that while literacy operates as a social division similar to social class, race, gender, or physical disability, it has not been fully recognized as a form of systematic social stratification.
Local Residents' Movements
Authors: Hasegawa Koichi
Published: January 2023

Local residents' movements expanded greatly in Japan after the mid‐1950s. The term “residents” indicates the local inclusiveness of the movement: anyone who lives in the area, if they are interested in a local issue, can participate and no other qualification is required. In the Japanese context, local residents' movements are quite distinct from existing labor union movements and political movements led by political parties. Major characteristics of local residents' movements include being single issue or issue‐limited, spontaneous, nonpartisan, and stressing democratic values like participation, self‐autonomy, freedom, and transparency. The concept of “citizens' movements” resembles that of residents' movements, and the terms are commonly used without distinction, almost interchangeably. However, there are subtle nuances of difference: local residents are people with loyalties bound to their particular local communities, whereas citizens are thought of as autonomous individuals pursuing generalized civic goals.
McLuhan, Marshall (1911–1980)
Authors: MacDonald Michael J.
Published: January 2023

This entry provides an overview of the life and major scholarly contributions of Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian professor of English literature whose analysis of media technologies and their effects on psychic and social life pioneered the field of media studies and anticipated many features of the information society. After sketching out McLuhan's biography, the entry traces the evolution of McLuhan's sociology of media from his dissertation to his landmark
Understanding Media
, devoting special attention to his methodological approach to media history and analysis and his principal theoretical insights into the shaping effects of media technologies on social processes and structures. Along the way, the entry clarifies the meaning of many of McLuhan's most difficult ideas and aphorisms (including “the medium is the message” and “the medium is the massage”) and shows how his work remains a vital resource for students and scholars seeking to understand the current global media ecosystem.
Magic
Authors: Otto Bernd‐Christian
Published: January 2023

The term “magic” is characterized by a complex etymology and by a multifaceted semantic field. Throughout western history, discourses on magic have typically performed one of two social functions: ostracization and othering on the one hand, and fascination and self‐identification on the other. While powerful anti‐magical discourses set the dominant social, political, and legal attitudes toward magic for millennia, at least from late antiquity onwards a practitioner discourse flourished in parallel, leading to the development of “western learned magic,” a textual‐ritual tradition that employed strikingly positive notions of magic. Such positive notions have, over the course of the last few decades, become widespread and influential motifs in popular media, contemporary spiritualities, and new religious movements. In the light of this surprising reversal of the long‐term historical trend, it seems reasonable to argue that classical sociological theories of secularization and disenchantment have been proven wrong. In sum, magic is anything but a self‐evident signifier. Rather, it is a complex cultural concept and a critical category in the study of religion that calls for nuanced modes of redefinition and retheorization.
Malinowski, Bronislaw K. (1884–1942)
Authors: Cipriani Roberto
Published: January 2023

Bronislaw Malinowski was a Polish‐born scholar. He followed ideas coming from Frazer, Durkheim, Freud, James, Mach, Mauss, Marett, and Wundt, but fundamental to the understanding of Malinowski's thought is the theory of needs. The functionalist (but also utilitarian and pragmatist) Malinowski is not only an informed and precise theorist, as he appears in
A Scientific Theory of Culture and Other Essays
; many of his ideas also come from practical fieldwork undertaken between 1914 and 1918 in New Guinea and especially in the Trobriand Islands, of which there is extensive documentation in
Argonauts of the Western Pacific
, as well as in North America in 1926 (where he made a research visit to the Hopi Indians) and – during the 1930s – in Africa. According to him, the Oedipus complex is not universal, and (against the diffusionist and evolutionist approaches) his functionalist (and physio‐psychological) point of view is that religion seems an uncommon phenomenon among the inhabitants of the Trobriand Islands. He is in favor of the application of the methods of science to the data of culture. However, he speaks of “savages” and manifests some racist evaluations.
Management Education
Authors: Sturdy Andrew
Published: January 2023

Something like 15 percent of US university students currently major in business or management, and in Western Europe it is similar. Elsewhere, business and management education is expanding its scope. A Chinese government minister is said to have called for a million MBA (master of business administration) graduates to help fuel the national economy. Such penetration and expansion in higher education systems and other educational domains have prompted considerable comment and sociological research activity. The latter has often come from outside sociology departments, in schools of management and education. While a number of concerns reflect more general educational issues such as pedagogy, vocationalism, and the social and political role of the university or academy, key areas of attention and debate center on core sociological issues: globalization, commodification, and professionalization as well as grand challenges of inequality and climate change.
Migration: Internal
Authors: Bernard Aude , Wu Jing
Published: January 2023

Emanating from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives, the literature on internal migration is diverse and broad‐ranging. Migration studies can be further differentiated by methods, levels of analysis, and theoretical approaches. Against that complex background, this entry provides an introductory review of the internal migration literature. After discussing the main data sources and measures of migration, the entry reviews key research themes, including variations in the level of internal migration between countries and over time, the impact of migration on population redistribution, the selectivity of migration, and its impact on life outcomes.
Social Construction of Mental Illness
Authors: Thompson Melissa
Published: January 2023

A social construction of mental illness approach studies how cultural conceptions and historical eras differently affect how mental illness is defined, understood, and treated. Unlike a biomedical approach, which emphasizes internal individual factors, a social constructionist approach to mental illness emphasizes the importance of cultural definitions and social inequalities in understanding how mental illness comes to be defined. Social constructionist studies highlight how those with the social power to do so define specific symptoms and behaviors as being indicators of “mental illness.” Consequently, social power and social characteristics, rather than innate characteristics of individuals, determine what symptoms are considered “abnormal” while other symptoms are ignored or considered to be “normal.”
Organizational Careers
Authors: Hermanowicz Joseph C.
Published: January 2023

Careers are shaped, constrained, and conditioned by organization. People's work lives in organizations may be customarily thought to illustrate the career concept, but careers have broader applicability. The sociological study of careers owes much of its origin to Everett Hughes and the Chicago School of sociology. A leading perspective emphasized the two‐sidedness of careers, in which people are characterized by interactive objective and subjective career characteristics. Central to the career concept are the ideas of turning points, status transitions, organizational age norms, and timetables. “Cooling out” is a central process by which career adaptations are socially executed. This process is endemic in American and in other Western societies, which calls attention to an under‐considered paradox: Careers simultaneously link individuals to stable social structures but are also vehicles by which culture engenders social pathology. Future work is necessary to examine careers as a fraught site of interchange between micro and macro dynamics.
Obesity
Authors: Ward Paul R. , Pillen Heath
Published: January 2023

Obesity is a medical label for people with “larger bodies” (variously defined) which has taken hold in the lay populace. Epidemiological studies link obesity to various noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, often leading to higher death rates. Quantitative sociological studies show how obesity is socioeconomically patterned (higher levels of obesity in more socioeconomically disadvantaged groups), with the “causes” of obesity found in the material, economic, and political foundations of society as opposed to being a “problem” of the individual. Qualitative and more theoretically oriented sociological studies have identified the medicalization of fatness as a problem, since it leads to discrimination, stigmatization, and negative mental health outcomes for people defined as “obese.” However, such research has also spurned social and academic movements such as “fat activism” and “critical fat studies” which seek to understand and work to resist such negative stereotypes.
Patriarchy
Authors: Levy Donald P.
Published: January 2023

Patriarchy – literally “rule of the fathers” – is most commonly understood as a form of social organization in which cultural and institutional beliefs and patterns accept, support, and reproduce the domination of women and younger men by older or more powerful men. Today sociologists view as patriarchal any system that contributes to the social, cultural, and economic superiority or hegemony of men. Consequently, sociologists study the manner in which societies have become and continue to be patriarchal by investigating both social institutions and commonly held cultural beliefs. At the same time, scholars investigate the consequences of patriarchy, that is, differential access to scarce societal resources including power, authority, and opportunity by gender.
Performance Measurement
Authors: Hoque Zahirul
Published: January 2023

Performance measurement is a form of organizational management tool through which organizations evaluate their employees, and business units' performance. This entry presents a critical overview of the development of this concept. First, it introduces the concept of performance measurement. This is followed by a discussion of how performance measurement can be seen as a social interaction process. Next, the concepts of balanced scorecard, strategy map, and sustainable performance measures are discussed. The final section reviews current research on performance measurement and offers some directions for future studies.
Phenomenology
Authors: Smart Barry
Published: January 2023

Phenomenology is both a philosophy and a method and it has secured a place in many disciplinary fields in the humanities and social sciences. The term is generally employed to describe developments in philosophy that have their roots in the early twentieth century. Within the social sciences, and sociology in particular, phenomenology is associated with innovative forms of theorizing, sometimes described as “social phenomenology,” as well as various approaches to research focused on exploring perception, interpretation, and meaning‐making from the perspective of subjects engaged in forms of social interaction.
Political Sociology
Authors: Bigo Didier
Published: January 2023

Political sociology is a field of inquiry at the crossroads of sociology and political science. Long dominated by the latter, political sociology is interested in the trajectories of politics in all its occurrences and questions a certain number of assumptions about the state, democracy, the mechanisms of power relations and their relationship to the political sphere. It emphasizes relationships, flows, processes, and the reflexivity necessary to understand the diversity of expressions of the political.
Pollution Zones, Linear and Planar
Authors: Hasegawa Koichi
Published: January 2023

The concept of linear and planar pollution zones refers to the geographic figurations of the polluted areas caused by, especially, high‐speed transportation pollution. Where bullet trains and high‐speed expressways create linear pollution zones, airplanes produce planar pollution zones along all their takeoff and landing routes. In the former case, the number of victims suffering severe noise pollution may be relatively limited – at most, several thousands of residents. In the latter case, though, people affected may number more than 10,000 residents spread over several cities and towns.

In general, the planar pollution zone imposes similar sufferings on the residents of whole neighborhoods. The linear pollution zone, however, does not always include whole neighborhoods, but can run through many of them. These different social impacts mean that, in the case of the planar pollution zone, organizing and mobilizing based on the neighborhood association and existing local community is relatively easy and quick: similarity of suffering makes for common interests and strong solidarity among the residents. But in the case of linear pollution zones, organizing and mobilizing in the same way is more difficult.
Professions
Authors: Adams Tracey L.
Published: January 2023

While the definition of the term
profession
is a matter of some academic controversy, it typically refers to a subset of occupations distinguished by their status, high levels of education, and expertise. Professions have also been characterized by autonomy, good working conditions, and good pay. Recently, however, workplace change has combined with regulatory change and a societal backlash against expertise to reduce professions' special status, resulting in deteriorating working conditions.
Prosocial Behavior
Authors: Bierhoff Hans‐Werner
Published: January 2023

From a conceptual viewpoint, prosocial behavior is contrasted with helping behavior, on the one hand, and altruistic behavior, on the other. Prosocial norms are inferred if people in a given social setting usually offer help. Internalized social norms represent personal norms which exhibit a stronger association with prosocial behavior than social norms. In addition, social responsibility is a key determinant of prosocial behavior which is reduced by diffusion of responsibility. The socialization of prosocial behavior is strongly influenced by parents. In general, prosocial modeling facilitates prosocial behavior in many settings. Help recipients sometimes respond defensively to receiving help. Finally, the provision of help contributes to the well‐being of the helpers.
Psychoanalytic Feminism
Authors: Wolff Kristina
Published: January 2023

Psychoanalytic feminism is a theory of oppression that asserts that men have an inherent psychological need to subjugate women. The root of men's compulsion to dominate women and women's minimal resistance to subjugation lies deep within the human psyche. This branch of feminism seeks to gain insight into how our psychic lives develop in order to better understand and change women's oppression. The pattern of oppression is also integrated into society, thus creating and sustaining patriarchy. Through the application of psychoanalytic techniques to studying differences between women and men as well as the ways in which gender is constructed, it is possible to reorganize socialization patterns at the early stages of human life. Societal change, or a “cure,” can be developed through discovering the source of domination in men's psyche and subordination in women's, which largely resides unrecognized in individuals' unconscious. This branch of feminism began to widen its focus in the early 2000s, embracing a fourth wave of psychoanalytic feminism to address and expand theoretical innovation. However, psychoanalytic feminism continues to struggle with the inclusion of addressing practical complexities of gender, race, class, and other categories of identity within society, particularly via the application of psychoanalytic feminist analysis during periods of great social unrest.
Producer Co‐Operatives
Authors: Jones Derek C.
Published: January 2023

In producer co‐operatives (PCs), decision‐making and ownership lie with the firm's workforce. Typically, the PC sector is of marginal economic significance – interest in PCs stems primarily from features such as democratic governance. Comparing PCs with capitalist firms (CFs) we find that PCs are larger, are not confined to particular industries, have a pronounced productivity edge, and have survival rates at least as good. Entry is a key problem for PCs, and formations respond pro‐cyclically to unemployment while there are important network effects. No persuasive evidence exists for the alleged tendency of PCs to degenerate or for underinvestment. While CFs adjust employment in response to product price changes and demand shocks, in response to similar perturbations PCs adjust pay more than employment. Within‐firm inequality is lower in PCs, though this may lead to loss of talent. Evidence on worker outcomes such as job satisfaction sometimes suggests poorer outcomes for workers in PCs. Significantly larger PC sectors are unlikely to result from policies promoting “recovered” companies. To better understand many issues, improved and comparative data sets – for both sets of firms and individual enterprises, and with a broader range of crucial variables – are needed. Two underdeveloped theoretical issues are the role of co‐operative networks and the relationship between PCs and social capital.
P2P (Peer to Peer)
Authors: Gandini Alessandro
Published: January 2023

The term “peer to peer” – commonly abbreviated as P2P – is characterized by a double meaning. In everyday popular culture, this expression is typically associated with the illegal sharing of copyrighted creative material such as music or film, which emerged in the late 1990s to early 2000s through services such as Napster and similar others. Nonetheless, “peer to peer” consists in much more than just file‐sharing practices. Characterized by an emphasis on collaboration and co‐operation, “peer production” has also been advocated as an organizational model for value production, a “third mode” of production, governance, and ownership that differs from both for‐profit and public, state‐owned organizational models for society at large.
Popular Culture Forms: Soap Operas
Authors: Harrington C. Lee , Bielby Denise D.
Published: January 2023

This entry begins with a discussion of the scope and impact of serial narratives on the development of national television broadcast systems worldwide, then shifts to specific focus on US daytime soap operas. Soaps engage numerous sociological issues, including social identity, sociality/community, and cultural legitimation, and study of the genre is ongoing in multiple social‐scientific and humanities‐oriented disciplines.
Race and Ethnic Politics
Authors: Rosino Michael L.
Published: January 2023

“Race and ethnic politics” refers to the role of social dynamics that takes place in the political sphere and the state in the construction of racial and ethnic categories, and the enactment of related practices and policies including racial oppression and struggles for social change and equality. This topic comprises a subfield of sociological theory and research that has expanded over the course of the discipline's development in the past century. Today, a large body of research covers the racial and ethnic dimensions of political power, relationships between racial and ethnic groups and political parties and organizations, and the role of the state and political activities in the development of racial and ethnic identities and inequalities. An especially crucial matter of racial and ethnic politics is that of political inequality and social oppression and processes of contestation in which the role of demographics, geography, and coalition formation have particular salience. Additionally, relationships between race and ethnicity, the state, and various political and legal projects are of interest. The study of racial and ethnic politics has also focused on international relations and global politics and is concerned with colonialism, imperialism, and globalized capitalism.
Religions, African
Authors: Adogame Afe
Published: January 2023

African religions embody the religions of the various African peoples, cultures, and societies. Since African religious collectivities are characterized by a complex diversity, it is problematic to homogenize them into a single whole. Although they are hardly monolithic, one can discern a common denominator in the affinities and dynamism that their historical specificities, cosmological traditions, and ritual dimensions exemplify. African religions encompass phenomena that are primarily defined in terms of their orality, cosmologies, worldviews, and ritual orientations rooted in specific local, ethnic, and geocultural landscapes. They are not static and unchanging, but dynamic and constantly in flux. African religions are a vibrant force in people's lived experiences and expressions. To define African religions from their belief systems is tantamount to putting them upside down. African cosmologies or oral narratives transmit their worldviews and describe the web of human activities within the spiritual cosmos. Social structures and cultural traditions are infused with a spirituality that cannot be easily separated from the rest of the community's life. There is not a rigid dichotomy between sacred and mundane domains. Analyzing African religions as a separate system of beliefs and practices without examining the roles of subsistence, kinship, language, politics, and the landscape is to misrepresent them.
Resocialization
Authors: Carter Michael J. , Naseif Rasha
Published: January 2023

Resocialization refers to the process of resocializing, re‐engineering, or readapting an individual to adhere to a new set of appropriate attitudes, values, and behaviors in society. Often occurring in total institutions, resocialization involves the deconstruction and rebuilding of an individual's identity (or identities). In this entry, we discuss forms of resocialization and the process by which actors (or targets) are resocialized by various agents and institutions in society.
Remittances
Authors: Üstübici Ayşen
Published: January 2023

Remittances are conventionally conceptualized as monetary transfers made by migrants to their family members, friends, and households in their places of origin. This entry summarizes the increasing interest in measuring the amount and the economic and social impact of monetary remittances as the most tangible aspect of the migration–development nexus and of transnational economic practices. Despite the decline expected in 2020, research has pointed out that monetary remittances are a reliable source of financial flows, enhancing human capital in developing countries. Yet, there are concerns over remittances euphoria putting the responsibility for development on migrants. The entry also deals with the nontangible form of social and political remittances as part of transnational practices. These are flows of ideas, values, and political principles flowing between migrants and their places of origin in a multidirectional way and potentially altering the behavior of migrants, nonmigrants, and returnees.
Said, Edward W. (1935–2003)
Authors: Brennan Timothy
Published: January 2023

A Palestinian American social critic and activist, Edward William Said was one of the most celebrated American public intellectuals of the postwar period. A professor of literature, political organizer, media celebrity, and music theorist, he was during his professional life (1963–2003) the most visible and effective partisan of Palestinian statehood and the most rhetorically gifted critic of the Zionist project. Said facilitated opening the doors of the metropolitan academy to non‐white scholars from the former colonies, helped normalize critical scholarship on imperialism in several disciplines within the university, and sought to bring the humanities to the center of public life. Akin to Jean‐Paul Sartre in France, he championed the role of the intellectual (as distinct from the media “expert” or the poet or novelist) as keeper of society's conscience, guardian of the historical record, and creator of new agendas.
Schooling, Home
Authors: Ricci Carlo
Published: January 2023

Homeschooling is an alternative approach to learning where learners do not necessarily attend a mainstream school. It is when people learn in natural and authentic ways – the way they have been learning since the beginning of time. It is the recognition that learning happens as people live their lives. It is what human beings do: They learn. Homeschooling is a powerful way of learning and of integrating people into the world in which they live. Families take charge of their own learning and create their own learning environments. Homeschoolers are a diverse group spanning a large demographic.
Science
Authors: Sullivan Teresa A.
Published: January 2023

Science is organized human activity that methodically studies the natural world and documents the findings. Merton described science as being governed by norms of communalism, universalism, disinterestedness, and organized skepticism. Counternorms have been documented, with sanctions developed against scientific misconduct. Scientific knowledge is organized by fields and revised as the scientific community accepts new knowledge through competition, conflict, and peer review. Both the general scientific method and the analytic methods of various disciplines help determine how scientific knowledge is developed, although serendipity also plays a role. Scientific findings have led to great technological advances and improved productivity. Science is a major industry, and most research is carried out in universities and laboratories, with governments and corporations serving as major funders. Despite an effort to generate scientific literacy within the citizenry, parts of the general public mistrust the science behind areas such as climate change, genetic modifications, and vaccines.
Scripting Theories
Authors: Olmstead Spencer B. , Anders Kristin M.
Published: January 2023

Scripting theories focus on the enactment of roles based on structural positions and the social and cultural norms and expectations attached to these positions. These theories are applied in a number of academic disciplines and content areas with prominent variations including sexual and gender scripts. However, across approaches, these theories emphasize that intrapersonal processes, such as the meaning that individuals give to roles, interact with context and environment to influence role enactment and social interaction. Traditional sexual scripts and gender norms around masculinity and femininity remain influential in society, including a sexual double standard for sexual activity based on gender. As egalitarian ideals and gender norms evolve, future research and application of scripting theories will also need to evolve to accommodate shifts in norms and expectations for sexual interaction and gender.
Self‐Concept
Authors: Karakayali Nedim
Published: January 2023

In sociology and social psychology, “self‐concept” refers to the thoughts, feelings, and evaluations of individuals about themselves. Researchers distinguish between multiple types (e.g., professional or physical) and “dimensions” (e.g., self‐identity and self‐esteem) of self‐concept, and a wide variety of “scales” are developed to measure those dimensions. The bulk of the studies in the literature focus on the correlation of self‐concept with various sociological variables. Sociologists have also been inquiring into several topics with broad theoretical significance, including the ways in which people's self‐concepts are related to others' conceptions about them; the mechanisms underlying the change and stability of self‐concepts; the historical changes in the content of self‐concepts; the practices that involve deliberate modifications of the self‐concept; and the possibilities that new information technologies open up for self‐concept formation.
Sexual Violence and Rape
Authors: Massey Kristina , Horvath Miranda A.H.
Published: January 2023

Rape and sexual violence have been an issue of concern for society since the 1970s when the feminist movement highlighted this as a criminological, social, and human rights issue. What has followed has been a restructuring of views on the position of women: from sexually belonging to their husbands to being independent people in their own right, a large number of new offenses being acknowledged, and changes over the years to encompass shifts in attitudes, beliefs, and advances in technology. The vast majority of victims are female and perpetrators are male. Sexual violence is an international crime, occurring all over the world across race, gender, age, religion, and socioeconomic groups. It is also very common, with the World Health Organization estimating that one in three women will be sexually victimized at some point in their life. Criminal justice systems' responses to rape and sexual violence are poor.
Sexualities and Consumption
Authors: Wood Rachel
Published: January 2023

Sexualities are performed, interpreted, and known through consumer choices and practices, and they are also constructed through representation in and by consumer spaces and media. The network of connections between sexualities and consumption has raised critical questions for researchers around the possibilities for, and limitations of, a greater visibility for marginalized sexual identities, given that visibility in consumer culture is contingent on economic value. Scholarship has explored the ways in which sexual bodies, practices, and identities are commodified, and the reproduction of power relations and social inequalities this often entails.
Social Capital and Education
Authors: Lee Moosung
Published: January 2023

This entry aims to illuminate the linkage between social capital and education. To this end, the entry begins with an overview of educational research exploring the effects of social capital. In so doing, the seminal work of Bourdieu and Coleman is briefly summarized to show the theoretical genealogy of social capital. Next, the entry discusses social capital in school contexts. Schools are key social venues where peer groups and institutional agents play roles in forming social capital, which, in turn, influences students' educational outcomes and experiences. In what follows, the entry addresses community‐based social capital with a focus on communities with neighborhood disadvantage. Finally, the entry offers a future direction for social capital research in education.
Sport: Professional
Authors: Roderick Martin
Published: January 2023

The term “professional” has always been associated with sport that is performed by athletes as a form of entertainment for audiences. The history of this term, however, is complex and tied relationally to the idea of amateurism – amateurism was a response to professionalism. Differential tensions produced by professionalism can be comprehended only in relation to the historical period in which professionalization and monetization advanced and the pattern of class relations prevailing at that stage in society. Professional sport is now characterized by spectacle, commercialism, and power politics.
State and Private Sector Employees
Authors: Jensen Carsten Strøby
Published: January 2023

In many countries, the function of the public employee has changed as a result of the development of the welfare state after World War II. This implies that many public employees are working in the social welfare sector. Elder care, social work, and education are among the core working areas for many public employees. In connection with this development, women are increasingly employed in the public sector. However, in the last 30 years financial constraints have increased the pressure on the public sector, and therefore new types of organizational principles have been implemented in order to increase productivity and efficiency in the public sector. Employees in the private sector work in a wide variety of jobs, which suggests huge differences in their economic situation and social status. Types of jobs in the private sector are very dependent on the economic development of an area or country. Historically, private sector employees performed very different types of work, depending on how societies developed from agricultural to industrial and then postindustrial societies. In many countries now, there is increasing job insecurity because employers demand more flexibility from their workers. This has resulted in an increasing number of private sector employees working in uncertain employment situations, a condition described as “precarity.”
Strategic Management (Organizations)
Authors: Rieple Alison
Published: January 2023

This entry looks at the management of the strategic direction of organizations. It focuses on four conceptualizations of organizations: as collections of people; as legal entities; as economic actors; and as collections of resources. Each of these categories provides insights into the influences on the organization's direction, whether this is intentional and planned, or comes about as the result of forces existing within or external to the organization. The entry introduces a number of theoretical models and concepts that have been used by strategists and organizational leaders over the years. Some of these sit within a rational view of the strategy process; others take a more constructivist approach, recognizing the widespread influences on organizations.