Prek?rer Wohlstand und nachhaltiger Konsum

The article addresses a question that so far has been neglected in environmental sociology: How do social vulnerabilities and precarious situations affect opportunities for sustainable consumption? Firstly, I will show that both the sociology of inequality and environmental sociology have hardly made any systematic attempt to clarify the relation between the physical environment and social inequality. Subsequently, I will distinguish different dimensions in the physical use of the environment and ask whether and to what extent they are relevant to social inequality. I will then demonstrate that private households are the appropriate focus of research for a promising sociology of inequality approach to the distributive issues involved in using the environment. Finally, I propose that environmental research on sustainable consumption pay greater attention to the findings from recent research on precarization.     

Soziologische Emotionskonzepte und ihre Probleme

The sociology of emotions not only faces the challenge to develop an analytical theory framework by which emotions and their significance for social behavior and social relations can be analyzed, it has also to account for the complexity of emotions as far as ‘emotions’ constitute a diverse, heterogeneous phenomenon area which can be identified only in functional respect. However, in sociology as well as in emotion research in general, very often a rather reduced, single-sided understanding of emotions occurs that is based on everyday concepts. As a result, the relationship between emotionality and sociality can be grasped only sub-complexely. The following article presents a modular theory of the sociology of emotions which integrates different levels of emotions in the form of base emotions and cognitive emotions and by which different forms of social and cultural influenceability of emotions can be identified. With the example of the theory of the structure theoretical individualism of Hartmut Esser we examine how such a modular theory can be integrated into a sociological theory framework in an analytically sound way.     

Structural Analysis of a Consumption-Based Stratification Indicator: Relational Proximity of Household Expenditures

This paper proposes a new analysis of consumption inequality using relational methods, derived from network images of social structure. We combine structural analysis with theoretical concerns in consumer research to propose a relational theory of consumption space, to construct a stratification indicator, and to demonstrate its analytical efficacy with aggregate consumption data. This allows us to emphasize the multi-dimensionality of the relationship between social groups and consumption patterns in the context of a stratification perspective. We utilize the concept of structural equivalence, derived from network models of social structure, to recover relational proximity between social groups and between consumption categories. Additionally, we use relational proximity to construct a new indicator of consumption hierarchy and we test its predictive ability in estimating consumption behavior. We discuss the theoretical implications of our findings for a spatial theory of stratification, as well as possible directions for future research.     

Assessment of consumer research for a valuation of a quality-of-life policy

This paper evaluates the allocation, coordination, priority assignments and new directions in the research efforts towards a consumer policy. The formulation of a consumer policy is an essential component of a quality-of-life policy. It is shown how interdisciplinary efforts could foster this endeavor. The consumer welfare should be central to the political economy system. Thus a detailed analysis of the primary elements that interrelate to produce possible levels of welfare are examined. In depth consideration of the following five points consitute the bulk of the paper: (i) consumer choice and freedom, (ii) controls available to consumers over their environment, (iii) the demographic characteristics of consumer populations over the life-cycle, (iv) the interaction between the individual and the group emerging from the hierarchies of influence at the individual, group and society levels, (v) structure of the markets, degree of concentration and business practices related to sales. As a result of this analysis it can be concluded that several policy measure can redress the balance of power between consumers, business and government, however there is an urgent need for action by the consumers themselves. The initiative for effective social action in consumerism rests in the last resort with the consumers themselves. They can and do form coalitions which can be effective in influencing the course of events.     

Spare Rib,Second-Wave Feminism and the Politics of Consumption

This article examines the significance of representations of both consumer culture and consumption practices in the British feminist magazine Spare Rib during its initial years of publication from 1972 to 1974. The analysis identifies how the magazine combined an established feminist critique of consumer culture with guidance on responsible consumption practices. The dispositions towards consumption that are recommended to readers are shaped by four key values: these are health, the natural, economy and craft production. These values underpin a politics of consumption during a period in which Spare Rib attempted to negotiate a feminist identity. However, once this feminist identity was established, content centred around consumption rapidly diminished as it was apparently not “feminist” enough. The article questions how a “conventional” position was established against both consumer culture and consumption practices within second-wave feminism and raises questions about the impact of this position on feminism's relationship to both consumer culture and consumption practices today.     

浅论“丁克”家庭形成原因及其社会影响

作为一种新型的家庭形式,“丁克”家庭的出现极大地冲击了中国传统的生育观,并对当今社会产生了深远地影响。由此,“丁克”家庭也引起了学者们的关注。本文在对国内近几年相关研究论文进行梳理的基础上,进一步对“丁克”家庭产生的原因及其社会影响进行了分析。     

Kunstkonsum und Kunstsozialisation

The dependence of art consumption on the social stratum is one of the basic findings of the sociology of art. During the last decades, both the discussion of social inequality as well as differentiations within the various art fields have undergone considerable changes. These processes should effect the consumption of art. The empirical analysis of data on the profiles of visitors to art galleries and art museums shows various effects: as before the educational background determines the consumption of art, however there is also a certain hierarchy of the locations in which art is consumed. Cluster analysis results in a typology of visitors that shows that the importance of education varies within the different clusters.     

Soziale Klasse in der Arbeitssoziologie. Zur Relevanz eines totgesagten Begriffs

Social class as analytical term has a longstanding tradition in sociology. Starting with Karl Marx and Max Weber international class analysis has developed heterogenous theoretical and empirical approaches. The paper outlines trends in the usage of social class in industrial sociology and the sociology of work in German-speaking countries from the after-war period to the paradigmatic shift heralded by Becks individualization thesis. The displacement of social class is interpreted as manifestation of symbolic struggles over the legitimate view of social reality, which has created considerable blind spots in the analysis of social inequalities. With reference to recent international developments in class research Pierre Bourdieu’s approach is used to explore ways to connect current subject-orientated approaches with questions of social class. Focussing on the class formation of subjectivity draws attention to the development of different orientations towards work and the dealing with the exigencies of work.     

The Intermediate Linkage Between Materialism and Luxury Consumption: Evidence from the Emerging Market of China

The emerging materialism and strong demand for luxury goods in China have attracted a great deal of attention. But the mechanism through which materialism influences luxury consumption remains largely unexplored in the social science literature. This study examines the mediating roles of consumer perceived values as purchase motives in luxury consumption. The mediation effects are tested based on an original survey of 613 participants in eastern China. The results show that the three types of consumer perceived values, namely social, emotional and quality values, mediate the relationship between materialism and luxury purchase intentions. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Repetitive Visiting as a Pre‐return Transnational Strategy among Youthful Trinidadian Returnees

Abstract

This paper will develop and illustrate a concept of institutional viscosity to balance the more agentive concept of motility with a theoretical account of structural conditions. The argument articulates with two bodies of work: broad social theory of reflexivity as negotiating agency and social structures; and sociology of mobility and mobility systems . It then illustrates the concept of viscosity as a variable (low to high viscosity) through two empirical studies conducted in the sociology of education that help demonstrate how degrees of viscosity interact with degrees of motility, and how this interaction can impact on motility over time. The first study explored how Australian Defence Force families cope with their children’s disrupted education given frequent forced relocations. The other study explored how middle class professionals relate to career and educational opportunities in rural and remote Queensland. These two life conditions have produced very different institutional practices to make relocations thinkable and doable, by variously constraining or enabling mobility. In turn, the degrees of viscosity mobile individuals meet with over time can erode or elevate their motility.     

“四二一”结构:一种特殊的社会、家庭和代际关系的混合体

"四二一"结构不属于传统社会学中"家庭"概念的范畴,也不具有家庭的基本特征。"四二一"结构是独生子女政策的必然产物,是一种特殊的家庭之间和代际之间关系的混合体。真正社会学意义上的"四二一"家庭在我国不会成为一种普遍现象。"四二一"结构的大量出现给我国带来的不仅是养老问题,而且会带来全新的家庭和社会问题。大量"类丁克"家庭的出现和独生子女夫妇父母之间的矛盾关系是"四二一"结构最突出的矛盾特征。     

The differentiation of material life styles: 1925 to 1966

The relevance of consumer behavior to social differentiation is considered and its independence from income is documented. Earlier studies of household consumer traits by Sewell and others are taken as baseline data and compared to the 1966 Detroit Area Study. In the baseline data, published between 1925 and 1940, high correlations were observed among consumer traits. The 1966 study revealed weaker relationships among similar traits. Taking correlations and factor loadings as social indicators, material life styles appear to have become more differentiated. After assessing the robustness and relevance of this inference, the author discusses how trends in material life styles may run counter to other social trends.     

Auf gute Nachbarschaft?

Starting with the beginning of feminist and gender studies, the paper asks for the relations between them and sociology. It can be shown that, on the one hand, they are moving and, on the other hand, a pattern already found at the beginning is persistent. This pattern is the distinction between the universal and the particular, which takes up the consideration of the human being as implicitly male and women as gender. How it shapes the relations between feminist or gender studies and sociology and what nevertheless is changing is shown for three fields of actual research: the development of the disciplinary profile of gender studies and their issues; the gender sensible sociology in relation to feminist theory and intersectionality; the actual mapping of the field of gender studies and the sociology of work.     

Die analytische Soziologie: Soziale Mechanismen, DBO-Theorie und Agentenbasierte Modelle

Within the analytical sociology, Peter Hedström — professor at School of Social Sciences of the Singapore Management University — developed an approach to come to valid explanations of social phenomena. In this article, his approach will be described and critically assessed. The approach is based on the micro-macro view in sociology. With the assistance of the so called DBO-theory, certain social mechanisms are formulated on the micro- and macro levels to come to a sufficient (middle-range) theory for the explanation of social phenomena. To investigate the validity of the theory, agent-based models are calculated.     

Therapeutic implications of viewing sexual identity in terms of essentialist and constructionist theories

One of the most challenging developments in recent historical studies and in empirical research in sociology has been constructionist theories relating to "sexual personalities." The "constructionist" view is that sexual identity is labile and can be therapeutically modified. In clinical work, this has presented an alternative view of the development of social sex-role and sexual orientation. Previously, views of sexual identity as a fixed personal characteristic (the "essentialist" view) provided clinicians with ways of treating psychologically distressed people either by transsexual conversion or aversion therapy. This article reviews some implications of "constructionist" and "essentialist" theory. It describes the author's clinical attempts to present constructionist views to clients who are in conflict about their sexual orientation and social sex-role. The article concludes that constructionist therapy has not taken into account clinical evidence that clients may adhere to "essentialist" beliefs.     

Visuelle Wissenssoziologie der Fotografie

The article sketches the outlines to a visual sociology of knowledge of photography. It begins with a discussion of the epistemological and methodical approaches to photography by Roland Barthes and Pierre Bourdieu, and it reflects upon the theoretical and analytic conceptions of the art historians Erwin Panofsky and Max Imdahl in regard to their significance for an empirical visual sociology. Based on this, Erving Goffmans metaphor of the frame is introduced for the sociological analysis of photographs between single frames, picture contexts, and social milieus. A photograph taken from current everyday communication is used for the illustration and for the empirical testing of the methodological and methodical considerations.     

Soziologie und Geschlechterforschung in entsicherten Verhältnissen — Plädoyer für eine praxeologische Öffnung

Starting point of the article are the upheavals in post-Fordist societies. The author argues that the sometimes paradoxical social dynamics of these radical changes produce situations of social uncertainty. This is a great challenge for the analytic abilities of sociology and gender studies which are both strongly influenced by the thought patterns of ?organized modernity“. On the (empirical) example of a praxeological sociology of gender, the author tries to show what gender studies and sociology can contribute mutually to an opening of their own terms and categories.     

Walking a well-being tightrope: young people in Australia

The economic and social contribution young people make to society is increasingly important as the population ages. Yet a substantial number of young people face economic and social challenges that have an impact on their current and future well-being. Independent indicators are often used to describe what we know about how young people are faring, but these fail to show how young people are doing holistically, across their whole life. If we are to better understand and improve young people??s well-being and their lives more generally, it is critical that research establishes the connections and interactions between life domains. This paper uses a well-being framework and secondary analysis of national statistics to begin to understand how young people are faring when we cross economic outcomes with other social indicators. It argues that some Australian young people fare poorly across a large number of other social indicators and thus may be walking a tightrope in regard to their well-being and well-becoming. This paper also aims to generate a dialogue about using a well-being framework for future research with and about young people.     

Soziologie und soziale Ontologie

Recent philosophical work attempts to describe social phenomena in general categories, an approach also interesting for sociologists. The questions as of what constitutes social objects or facts and whether there is a common structure of social phenomena are mostly neglected in sociology. This neglect is problematic because basic questions about conceptualisation and explanation in sociology cannot be pursued without a clear understanding of social phenomena. The philosophical discussions take place vis-à-vis the doctrine of ontological individualism which means that social phenomena are shadow phenomena without reality. Only the actions of individuals and the mental processes being constitutive elements of the actions are real. In opposition to this dogma, Gilbert, Searle and Ruben argue that social phenomena cannot be reduced to actions. Quite the contrary, actions can only be understood if the existence of the phenomena is presupposed. From a sociological point of view there are three remarkable aspects: First, all three authors offer good arguments against ontological individualism. Second, their arguments are based on the reconstruction of the use of everyday concepts referring to social phenomena and are therefore comprehensible. Third, the understanding of social phenomena merely as collective subjects, intentions or systems of interlocking beliefs is too restrictive. Despite this failure these theories show a way to gain a more realistic understanding of social phenomena.