Unifying and Decomposing Building Types: How to Analyze the Change of Use of Sacred Buildings

What do churches do? What do mosques do? Constructivist sociology has usually argued that buildings do not do anything, but are enacted by users. Conversely, actor-network theory has interpreted buildings as actants that are stabilized by architect-controlled networks. In this article, I argue for a differential theory of objects, which conceives of the specific agency of different kinds of objects. Buildings can be understood as mutable immobiles, objects that are immovable and thus likely to be changed on the level of their social classification, or in architectural terms, their building type. Drawing on fieldwork in and around Berlin, Germany, I use two different kinds of change of use to show the agency of buildings as mutable immobiles. First, I show that in the case of churches that are changed to other uses, the church attempts to discursively associate the buildings to religion primarily and then uses large scale interventions to preserve the unity of the church if change of use cannot be avoided. Second, I show that in the case of factories that are turned into mosques, very small material interventions with furniture change the buildings.     

In sickness and in health: A qualitative study of elderly men who care for wives with dementia

It is estimated that approximately 1,000,000 elderly men care for spouses with Alzheimer's disease or other forms of cognitive impairment, yet we have only a limited understanding of their work, and central questions arise. What do men caregivers do, and what meanings do they ascribe to their work? What are their distinctive strengths and vulnerabilities, and what can we learn about men and caregiving from their stories? This qualitative study was based on in-depth, open-ended interviews with 14 elderly men who are primary caregivers to wives with dementia. All interviews were taped, transcribed, and manually coded. The resulting information then underwent analysis from which three major themes emerged: feelings of isolation and invisibility of their care work, a style of caregiving that jointly utilizes management and nurturing, and feelings of commitment, responsibility, and devotion.     

Journalistic right in the “first rough draft of history”: a comparative study of news copyright in the United States and the People's Republic of China

As more and more American media products enter the Chinese market, and vice versa, it is becoming increasingly important for legal scholars and journalists to understand how news products are regulated differently by the two countries' copyright policies. This article examines the issue of copyright protection for news in both China and the United States. The following research questions are discussed and answered in order to identify major conceptual and practical differences and similarities in the news copyright regimes of the two countries: How did the copyright law on news evolve? Is news copyrightable? Who owns news products? What rights do copyright owners have? How long is news work copyright protected? What are news work copyright restrictions? What if news copyright owners are foreign citizens? The article concludes by presenting and analyzing a hypothetical case involving both the Chinese and American copyright laws.     

Restabilizing attachment to cultural objects. Aesthetics,emotions and biography

The scholarship on aesthetics and materiality has studied how objects help shape identity, social action and subjectivity. Objects, as ‘equipment[s] for living’ (Luhmann 2000), become the ‘obligatory passage points humans have to contend with in order to pursue their projects (Latour 1991). They provide patterns to which bodies can unconsciously latch onto, or help human agents work towards particular states of being (DeNora 2000, 2003). Objects are central in the long term process of taste construction, as any attachment to an object is made out of a delicate equilibrium of mediators, bodies, situations and techniques (Hennion and his collaborators (Hennion and Fouquet 2001; Hennion and Gomart 1999). In all of these accounts objects are the end result of long‐term processes of stabilization, in which the actual material object (a musical piece, a sculpture, an art installation, a glass of wine, the oeuvre of Bach as we know it) is both a result and yet a key co‐producer of its own generation. Whereas the literature has been generous and detailed in exploring the processes of assembling and sustaining object‐centered attachments, it has not sufficiently engaged with what happens when the aesthetic elements of cultural artifacts that have produced emotional resonance are transformed: what do these artifacts morph into? What explains the transition (or not) of different cultural objects? And relatedly, what happens to the key aesthetic qualities that were so central to how the objects had been defined, and to those who have emotionally attached to them? To answer these questions, this article uses as exemplars two different cases of attachment, predicated on the distinctive features of a cultural object – the transcendence of opera and the authenticity of a soccer jersey – that have undergone transformations.     

The “Three Waves” of Industrial Group Work: Historical Reflections on Current Research on Group Work

This paper deals with the three waves of the discourse on group work in social science and industrial practice that have helped pave the way for the current boom in the introduction of group work in companies. These waves are represented by the human relations approach, the sociotechnical systems approach, and the lean management debate. They are reviewed in two perspectives. The first relates to their concepts of work design and group work, following four questions: (a) What emphasis is put on work factors or on subjective orientations, on the design of working conditions or symbolic strategies? (b) How do the various approaches address the relationship between efficiency and control? (c) Which concepts of participation or democracy are involved? (d) How is the role of the social scientist in the process of industrial modernization conceptualized, explicitly or implicitly? The second perspective from a sociology of science relates to the context of production and utilization of social scientific knowledge. In general, two theses are put forward. The first states that a gap exists between the aspirations and reality of group work because the basic conflict of efficiency and control has been overlooked for ideological reasons. The second postulates that there is no linear progress in the theory and practice of group work. It seems that the socioeconomical context determines reasonably which group concept and ideology dominates certain historical phases of industrial modernization.     

An other space: between and beyond lesbian-normativity and trans-normativity

What happens when sectors of a lesbian community advocate for a space free of trans women? How do the responses to those types of policies, from within MTF trans communities, impact upon MTF trans women as a whole? How do these types of conflicts impact upon lesbians whose relationship to the term 'born female' is not straightforward? What does the focus upon these instances of conflict in the mainstream media mean and what effect does this focus have upon broader understandings about lesbians, lesbian communities and the complex intersections between lesbian and trans?     

Student portfolios as windows into intercultural knowledge and knowing

This research paper deals with intercultural knowledge and knowing as displayed in higher education student portfolios. The portfolios were written by student pairs taking a global education course at Centria University of Applied Sciences, Finland, during seven academic years. Conceptual metaphor theory and metaphor analysis were utilised to explore intercultural knowledge and knowing in the portfolio texts. The study is one of the few metaphor analyses conducted in the context of intercultural/global education. For the analysis, we selected a sample of student portfolios that represented both degree-taking students and exchange students. In this study, interculturality was defined as interaction of people representing various cultural backgrounds, world-views and identities. The research questions were the following: What conceptual metaphors and metonymies do the students utilise when writing about culture and interculturality? What main conceptions of culture and interculturality do the metaphors and metonymies reflect? In the result section of this paper, we provide citations of portfolio text to discuss the four most frequently occurring metaphors and metonymies. We also discuss our interpretations about the underlying conceptions of culture and their significance for the practice of intercultural education.     

Le temps de l'activité de la caissière : entre logique productive et logique de service

At first sight, the worktime put in by cashiers at checkout counters seems homogeneous, continuous and repetitive. An empirical study of hypermarket cashiers in France shows, on the contrary, that the time spent working is relatively discontinuous and diversified. It is similar to the time on the job put in by semiskilled workers in industry. What characterizes cashiers' work is their having to manage flows of both products and customers. Their worktime can, therefore, be understood as a compromise that comes out of balancing productivity with human relations, a compromise that sometimes causes conflict. By acquiring an “incorporated know-how”, cashiers manage to fill their assignment.     

Heavy Genealogy: Mapping the Currents,Contraflows and Conflicts of the Emergent Field of Metal Studies, 1978-2010

What is metal studies? How can we define and characterize it? How has it emerged as a body of academic enquiry? What are its dominant disciplinary strands, theoretical concepts and preferred methodologies? Which studies have claimed most attention, defined the goals of scholarship, typical research strategies and values? How has the claim for the legitimacy or symbolic value of metal scholarship been achieved (if it has): over time and through gradual acceptance or through conflict and contestation? How can this process of formation, or strategy of legitimation, be mapped, examined and interrogated and which methods of historical, institutional and cultural analysis are best suited to this task? Working with the most complete bibliography to date of published research on heavy metal, music and culture (the MSBD), this article employs Foucault’s archaeological “method” to examine the institutional, cultural and political contexts and conflicts that inform the genealogy of this scholarship. Such analysis reveals a formative, largely negative account of heavy metal to be found in the “sociology of rock”; a large volume of psychology work, examining heavy metal music preference as an indicator of youth risk, deviance and delinquency; sociological work on youth and deviancy critical of the values of this research and its links to social policy and politics; culminating in the work of Weinstein and Walser, who advocate a perspective sympathetic to the values of heavy metal fans themselves. Following Bourdieu, I interpret such symbolic strategies as claims for expertise within the academic field that are high or low in symbolic capital to the extent they can attain disciplinary autonomy. I then go on to examine the most recent strands of research, within cultural studies and ethnomusicology, concerned with the global metal music diaspora, and consider to what extent such work is constitutive of a coherent subfield of metal studies that can be distinguished from earlier work and what the implications of this might be.     

Gender Differences in the Effect of Job Characteristics on Work‐to‐Family Conflict in Japan: Application of the Job Demands‐Resources Model into Japanese Population1

This article uses the job demand‐resources (JD‐R) model to analyze the Japanese population and gender differences in work‐to‐family conflict in Japan. Using data from the International Social Survey Programme in 2015, the study addresses four main questions: (i) does the JD‐R model apply to the Japanese population? (ii) which gender is more likely to experience work‐to‐family conflict? (iii) does gender moderate the relationship between work‐related factors and work‐to‐family conflict? and (iv) do different factors predict work‐to‐family conflict between men and women? The findings show that the JD‐R model applies in part to the Japanese population, and women are more likely to experience a higher level of work‐to‐family conflict than men. There are also different factors predicting work‐to‐family conflict by gender, even though gender does not moderate the relationship between work‐related factors and work‐to‐family conflict. This article points out the peculiar Japanese social and cultural contexts that lead to gender differences in work‐to‐family conflict. It offers two solutions: (i) legal regulations to reduce working hours and the frequency of working on weekends to prevent work from intruding on family life; and (ii) changes to the work environment to make women workers more comfortable at work because of the male‐dominated workplace and Japanese culture on family gender roles in Japan.     

Progress and cumulation in the human sciences after the fall

What do we mean by progress and cumulation in the social and human sciences? Recent thinking in the philosophy and history of science has led to an abandonment of some versions of logical positivism and of verificationism that had a strong deductive and theory testing orientation. What is to replace them is less clear. This paper argues that progress and cumulation can be seen as a process of evaluation and retention within an epistemic community. Scholarly disciplines differ in their social structure and in their epistemic and normative commitments. Since sociology is a fragmented discipline, progress and cumulation differ within its multiple subdisciplines, which to varying extents represent epistemic communities. Brief sketches of progress (advance) and cumulation in several subdisciplines are offered.     

Identity Dilemmas: Toward a More Situated Understanding

When are identity dilemmas—when people possess identities that conflict with one another and both are potentially stigmatizing—most likely to occur? Are they the result of generic social processes? A review of some of the extant research on “identity work” suggests that historical “misalignments” of culture and stratification, which we refer to as “lag,” create the greatest potential for stigma and the reproduction of inequalities. Lag is exacerbated by complex, intersecting axes of hierarchy, and amplified as symbolic environments globalize and subcultures multiply. Articulating culture and structure reveals how power plays out in interaction, and highlights the omnipresence of struggles for treatment as “fully human.” We consider whether “alignment” is even possible when multiple dimensions of social location intertwine, compete, and collide. Following Schwalbe and Mason‐Schrock (1996), we argue that “subcultural” or collective identity work that brings new meanings into dominant cultural narratives may offer the greatest hope, but in the interim all coping strategies are costly.     

Young people with complex needs meet complex organizations: an interview study with Swedish professionals about sustainable work practices

ABSTRACT

This paper concerns preconditions for the well-being of young people with mental ill-health combined with social vulnerabilities, also referred to as youth with complex needs. Research questions are: What barriers to sustainable work practices for young people labelled as having complex needs do professionals encounter? What do professionals identify as possible ways to overcome these barriers? Sustainable work practices are reflected in three themes: empowerment, relationships and collaboration. The findings are based on semi-structured interviews with 24 professionals, 3 men and 21 women, working in psychiatric care and the social services in two Swedish municipalities in 2016 and 2017. Major barriers are lack of continuity and co-ordination in staff and support, and fragmentation of work practices. As a consequence of the increased specialization of human service organizations, young people have to interact with many different professionals which could cause disparate interventions. Possible ways mentioned to overcome these barriers are supported through good interactional skills, using keyworkers as well therapeutic alliances, wrap-around services and case management. Complexity is linked to organizations and work practices rather than to young people. An often dysfunctional service delivery system in organizations with rigid boundaries may also affect professionals’ aim for sustainable support.     

Lessons from the interpretation/misinterpretation of John Ogbu’s scholarship

In November 2003, the Council on Anthropology and Education honored John Ogbu with the George and Louise Spindler Award, for exemplary and long‐term contributions to educational anthropology. But in March 2003, a noted economist condemned Ogbu’s work as serving an ‘oppressive function’. In this paper, such contradictory instances are cited as the author recounts his encounters with Ogbu’s scholarship. Disparate assessments of Ogbu’s ideas and legacy raise important questions. What responsibility do educational anthropologists have for how their research is understood? Which aspects of Ogbu’s legacy should we hold onto as his work is interpreted in politicized and polarized ways?     

The nature of work and the stress of higher status

Are occupational and work conditions associated with work-to-home conflict? If so, do those associations vary by gender? Among a sample of adults in Toronto, Canada, we found that men and women in higher-status occupations reported higher levels of work-to-home conflict than workers in lower-status jobs. In addition, we observed higher levels of work-to-home conflict among workers who are self-employed and among those with more job authority, demands, involvement, and longer hours. The only significant gender-contingent effect was found for nonroutine work, which is associated positively with work-to-home conflict among men but not women. Higher levels of job demands, involvement, and hours among individuals in higher-status occupations significantly contribute to occupation-based differences in work-to-home conflict. Moreover, despite some overlap, these work conditions have largely independent associations with work-to-home conflict. Results generally support the "stress of higher status " hypothesis among both women and men. Although higher-status positions yield many rewards, such positions are not impervious to inter-role stress, and this stress may offset those rewards.     

Known-unknowns: Matthew Arnold,F. R. Leavis,and the government of culture

This essay reflects on the lives of two people whose publications, pedagogy, lectures, and crucially, whose experiences helped set the terms of the debate about so-called high culture in Cultural Studies: Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) and Frank Raymond (F. R.) Leavis (1895–1978). Who was Matthew Arnold? F. R. Leavis? What were the conditions of possibility of their work and words – that is, for the practices and positions for which they advocated? What new questions might emerge by sharing in detailed and perhaps unexpected stories of individuals who, presently, seem to function in Cultural Studies mainly as known-unknowns? The argument is that the details of both Arnold and Leavis’ lives are integral to understanding the conditions of possibility of their work, both individually and collectively, and indeed to more fully appreciating the meaning and implications their work holds for Cultural Studies. Apropos, this piece refines the methodology of keywords introduced by Raymond Williams [1958. Culture and society, 1780–1950. New York, NY: Columbia University Press; 1983.     

What’s Your Reality? Evaluating Sources and Addressing “Fake News”

It is important to know where the 2020 presidential candidates stand on today’s issues, but it’s also critical to know how they mobilize evidence to arrive at these opinions. What are their media diets? How do they decide what’s news? And how do they evaluate what news is true? What forms of expertise do they privilege in making decisions about reality? Sociologists, as experts ourselves, hold a particular stake in the answers to these questions. But when it comes to deciding what’s real, we also occupy a somewhat precarious position. We simultaneously privilege empiricism while recognizing the precarity and contingency of all knowledge.     

Relational sociology,pragmatism, transactions and social fields

Starting from the idea that relational sociology has been founded on various and incompatible social ontologies, I argue that it is at risk of losing its raison d'être if we do not answer two fundamental practical and ontological questions: (1) Why do we need relational sociology? and (2) What do we study in relational sociology? In this respect, I propose a deep, transactional sociology partly and freely inspired by the work of J. Dewey which clearly detaches relational sociology from social determinism and co-determinism.     

Magnum orbis: photographs from the end(s) of the Earth

What did globalisation look like at its modern genesis? The postwar globe demanded representation, and the photographers of the liberal internationalist Magnum cooperative found themselves in an ideal situation to oblige. This study argues that one mode of knowing the global is to explore the work of two apparently antipodal Magnum photographers who sketched the contours of their very particular globe by exploring its principle metaphorical binaries: of distance and proximity, and of citizens and refugees. The dogged Robert Capa negotiated the paradoxical distance from which atomic destruction and creation might be observed and represented. At the same time, the errant humanist David ‘Chim’ Seymour documented the eerily conjoined diffusion of refugees and global products. What remains so salient half a century after the deaths of these photographers is the extent to which the period's burgeoning patterns of globalised human experience characterise both the iconographies of their production and the photographic personae that they crafted for themselves.     

Work in unemployment - occupied or preoccupied? A review

This review explores the literature on the concept of work in unemployment and its relationship to health. A range of literature about the activities of unemployed people is reviewed and discussed with reference to three questions: What do unemployed people do?, What activities are associated with the health of unemployed people? and Do unemployed people work? From the literature, two groups of unemployed people are described: those who are characterised by active patterns of activity and those characterised by passive patterns. It is argued that the active group is psychologically healthier than the passive group. Concepts of work in both groups of unemployed individuals are presented, arguing that the active group seeks to replace employment with other work activities and that the passive group are engaged in work also, but that this presents as fret and preoccupation about their situation. These concepts of work are presented in the context of three major theoretical models of the personal impact of unemployment. Finally, implications for practice and directions for future research are suggested.