Reflexive Risk-Education and Cosmopolitanism in the Risk Society

Abstract

The extreme environment that students face, in terms of the global risk society, is the unintentional and high-risk consequence of the development of modern society. This paper, therefore, aims to discuss the possible strategies beyond traditional school practices for educators to think and act upon based on sociologists’ theoretical views of and empirical studies on the risk society. I will indicate that current education systems are an accomplice in producing modern risks, and will attempt to analyze the gaps between current education and reflexive risk-education. The gaps are: the experiential gap between individuals and the global society, the public-sphere gap between school and society, and the epistemological/cultural gap between eastern/nonwestern and western cultures. Three possible strategies to develop reflexive risk-education are discussed: developing an integrated curriculum through ‘critical glocal pedagogy’, assembling the social network through collaborations, such as with NGOs, and creating new social imaginations.     

Book Reviews

Book Reviewed in this article: Beavers, W. Robert. Psychotherapy and growth: A family systems perspective. Clanton, G. & Smith, L. G. Jealousy. Erickson, Gerald D. & Hogan, Terrence P. Family Therapy—An introduction to theory and technique. Scanzoni, John H. The black family in modern society. Sholevar, G. Pirooz, (Ed.). Changing sexual values and the family. Stein, Edward V., (Ed.). Fathering: Fact or Fable? Sugar, Max (Ed.). The adolescent in group and family therapy.     

Bursting With Laughter

Celio Ferreira. Palauan cosmology: dominance in a traditional Micronesian society (Gothenburg Studies in Social Anthropology 11). Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis. 1987. vi, 300 pp., figures, plates, glossary, references. SEK 200 (paper) ISBN 91 7346 183 0 ISSN 0348 4076.

Richard J. Parmentier. The sacred remains: myth, history and polity in Belau. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 1987. xxiii, 309pp., figures, maps, photographs, tables, glossary, place names, references, index. ISBN 0 226 64695 5 (hardcover) ISBN 0 226 64696 3 (paper).     

Integrating Social Justice into the Practice of CBFT: A Critical Look at Family Schemas

Many families come to therapy struggling with the negative consequence of social inequity. Family therapy modalities have been developed to address these negative consequences and attend to power and social equity (Transformative family therapy: Just families in a just society. Boston, MA: Pearson Education; Socio‐emotional relationship therapy. New York, NY: Springer). We argue that many family therapy modalities can be adapted to include social equity (Applying critical social theory in family therapy practice. AFTA Springer Series. New York, NY: Springer Publishing). Specifically, cognitive behavioral family therapy can be used to address the inequality in social systems that negatively affect the family system. We focus on schema formation and suggest an emphasis on societal schemas within the therapy milieu as a tool to help families see how societal inequality can affect the problems faced in family life.     

Book reviews

Books reviewed in this article: Sociological Theory in Transition, Mark L. Wardell and Stephen P. Turner (eds) The Category of Person, M. Carrithers, S. Collins and S. Lukes (eds) Social Relations and Spatial Structures, Derek Gregory and John Urry (eds) Nicos Poulantzas Marxist Theory and Political Strategy, Bob Jessop The View from Afar, Claude Lévi-Strauss New Approaches to Economic Life, Bryan Roberts, Ruth Finnegan and Duncan Gallie (eds) Cities in Crisis: the political economy of urban development in postwar Britain, Gareth Rees and John Lambert The Politics of Recession, R.W. Johnson Landscapes of Poverty, Jeremy Seabrook The Decline of Class Voting in Britain: Changes in the Basis of Electoral Choice, 1964–1983, Mark N. Franklin How Britain Votes, Anthony Heath, Roger Jowell and John Curtice Skilled Workers In the Class Structure, Roger Penn Managing the Police: Law, Organisation and Democracy, David Bradley, Neil Walker and Roy Wilkie Teachers' Work, R.W. Connell Sociology and School Knowledge: Curriculum theory, research and politics, Geoff Whitty Literacy in theory and practice, Brian V. Street Literacy, Language and Learning, David R. Olson, Nancy Torrance and Angela Hildyard (eds) Urban Rhythms: Pop Music and Popular Culture, Iain Chambers Painting, Language and Modernity, Michael Phillipson Advertising, The Uneasy Persuasion: Its dubious impact on American society, Michael Schudson, 1985 The Childless Marriage: an exploratory study of couples who do not want children, Elaine Campbell Sexuality and its Discontents: Meanings, myths and modern sexualities, Jeffrey Weeks     

Social orders

This review discusses the stability of social orders in light of the recent work Violence and Social Orders by Douglass North, John Wallis and Barry Weingast (hereafter NWW). The purpose of this book was to understand the two great transitions that have occurred in human society. The first, the agricultural revolution, resulted in a transition from hunter–gather society to what NWW call limited access society. This first transition occurred at various times and places, but generally about 10,000 years before the present. The second revolution, the social/industrial/technological revolution, from limited access to what NWW call open access, occurred initially in a few societies, particularly Britain and the United States, within a fairly brief period between 1600 and 1860. Currently, all the West European economies, as well the Western offshoots (the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) and Japan have crossed the economic threshold of $20,000/capita. However, inequality across the set of all political economies is extreme, and likely to increase. The paper attempts to complement the institutional analysis of NWW, deploying some theoretical ideas from social choice theory, game theory, and economics (particularly the role of factors of production, land, capital and labor). Emphasis is placed on the variation of risk preference between autocrats and other factor groups. The discussion also alludes to the notion of structural stability of dynamical social systems, and the possibility of chaos. It is argued that all the limited access societies face a Malthusian constraint, generated by the pressure of population on land. In such societies, particularly in Africa in the present day, this quandary over land is likely to lead to the exercise of power by risk preferring autocrats who will restrain any move to open access democracy.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this articles: The Readable Maths and Statistics Book, by Barry Edwards. An Introduction too Data Analysis, by Bruce D. Bowen & Herbert F. Weisberg The Sociology of Youth Culture and Youth Subcultures by Mike Brake. Law and Society: Readings in the Sociology of Law by Colin Campbell and Paul Wiles (eds.). The State, the Family and Education by Miriam E. David. The Sociology of Women: an introduction by Sara Delamont. Attitudes to Class in the English Novel, from Walter Scott to David Storey by Mary Eagleton and David Pierce. Classifications in Their Social Context by Roy F. Ellen and David Reason (eds.). Symbolic Classification by Rodney Needham. Sociology: Its Nature, Scope and Elements by Ronald Fletcher Sociology: The Study of Social Systems by Ronald Fletcher. The Making of Post-Christian Britain: A history of the secularization of modern society by Alan D. Gilbert. The Literacy Myth. Literacy and Social Structure in the Nineteenth-Century City by Harvey J. Graff. Gender and Class Consciousness by Pauline Hunt. Historical Research on Social Mobility: Western Europe and the USA in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, by Hartmut Kaelble. The Village and the State: Administration, Ethnicity and Politics in an Israeli Co-operative Village by Leonard Mars. The Breaking of the Image by David Martin A Christian Social Perspective by Alan Storkey Theories of Trade Unionism. A sociology of industrial relations by Michael Poole. The Ceremonial Order of the Clinic. Parents, Doctors and Medical Bureaucracies by P. M. Strong. The Social Production of Art by Janet Wolff. Culture by Raymond Williams.     

Welfare vs “Cyberfare”

Due to the continual reliance on an outdated paradigm, current welfare reform proposals fail to adequately address the fundamental problems behind the welfare system itself. Obstacles to welfare reform abound, yet are not insurmountable with a redefinition of the federal role and a new overall way of thinking. Through the reexamination of current and past policies and existing cultural mores, the welfare system could, be recreated to rely on a new paradigm: cyberfare. Cyberfare is an economic and social support system which addresses the issues associated with an information/technology age, global economy, and the changing role of families and social institutions. Although the incorporation of cyberfare and the reforming of the welfare system is not without its challenges, it is vital to solving the poverty problem in American society.     

‘Water divide’ in the global risk society

In contemporary society, which is also defined as global risk society, the water crisis plays a controversial but decisive role in comparison with other kinds of risk (health care, environmental, financial, warlike). However, the sociological debate does not confer to the world water crisis the right significance: the essay precisely highlights this lack and focuses on the hypothesis that it could be also connected to the lack of interest that mass media agenda-setting shows to this issue. The result is that, in most cases, industrialized countries show an irresponsible approach towards a resource which is so precious for the simple fact that it is exhaustible. Furthermore, the advantages of both development and globalization are not equally distributed from a geographic point of view, and the gap between the ‘rich’ and the ‘poor’ is getting deeper and deeper also within this phenomenon. According to the author's perspective, it would be reasonable to talk about a water divide and assume a sustainable development capable of dealing with the overall problem of drinking water availability, its quality, its public access, with a view to democratic management and the sharing of this resource.     

Quebec Sociology: A Discipline and its Object

Quebec sociology and Quebec society are categorically distinct from other sociologies and countries. Both are “communities,” both have French-speaking majorities, and both exist in Anglo-Saxon environments. As well, Quebec sociology has always been and continues to be obsessed by the national question. Interpretations proposed by sociologists—predominantly French-speaking—of and about the Quebec Question have never been independent of the struggles in which they have taken place. In fact, sociological readings of nationalism in Quebec appear to be a direct consequence of their social position and relationship with political power. Through the prism of sociology, the French-speaking collectivity in Canada has been, successively and simultaneously, characterized through categories of race, ethnic group, society, and nation. 2 This article presents five ways in which sociologists have represented Quebec society. First, the Pioneers: Léon Gérin and Marius Barbeau, or the Quebec “Difference” as a handicap. Second, the characterization of Quebec through race, territory, and soul. Third provides the external perspectives of Miner and Hughes. Fourth will examine the Laval (Quebec) School. Finally, this article will examine Quebec Society as either an ethnic or civic nation. Each theme has been set chronologically in specific periods of Quebec sociology: the Pioneers (Part 1 and 2, before 1940); the institutionalization of academic sociology (Part 3 and 4, 1940-1969); and the “nationalization” and professionalization of sociology (Part 5, 1970 to the present).     

The Movement Of People And The Adoption Of Other Cultures: the neodiffusionism of Ammerman and Cavalli-Sforza

ROXANA WATERSON The living house: an anthropology of architecture in South-East Asia. Singapore: Oxford University Press. 1990. xix, 263pp., bibliography, colour plates, figures, index, maps. $49.50 (hardback) ISBN 0 19 588941 X.

BARRETT L. McCORMICK Political reform in post-Mao China: democracy and bureaucracy in a Leninist state. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1990. xiii, 222pp., select bibliography, index. US$34.95 (hardback) ISBN 0 520 06765 7.

UNNI WIKAN Behind the veil in Arabia: women in Oman. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 1991. xiii, 314 pp., illustrations, appendix, references, index. US$14.95 (paper) ISBN 0 226 89683 8.

JANA SAWTCKI Disciplining Foucault: feminism, power and the body. New York &; London: Routiedge. 1991. xiii, 130pp., notes, index. $25.95 (paper) ISBN 0 415 90188 X.

LAMONT LINDSTROM Knowledge and power in a South Pacific society (Smithsonian Series in Ethnographic Inquiry). Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press. 1990. xvi, 224pp., references, index. US$29.95 (hardback) ISBN 0 87474 365 6; US$16.95 (paper) ISBN 0 87474 357 5.

MICHAEL J. LEAHY Explorations into highland New Guinea 1930-1935 (edited by Douglas E. Jones and with a foreword by Jane C. Goodale). Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. 1991. xiii, 254pp., plates, index. US$19.95 (paper) ISBN 0 8173 0446 0.

EDWARD L. SCHIEFFLIN and ROBERT CRITTENDEN (with contributions by Bryant Allan et al.) Like people you see in a dream: first contact in six Papuan societies. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 1991. xviii, 325pp., notes, maps, illustrations, appendixes, bibliography, index. $39.50 (hardback) ISBN 0 08047 1662 5; $12.95 (paper) ISBN 0 08047 1899 7.

MARION MELK-KOCH Auf der Suche nach der menschlichen Gesellschaft: Richard Thurnwald. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag. 1989. 352pp., maps, plates, bibliography. DM68 (hardback) ISBN 3 496 003276 6.

JOHN CONNELL and RICHARD HOWITT (eds) Mining and indigenous peoples in Australasia. Sydney: Sydney University Press in association with Oxford University Press. 1991. x, 205pp., maps, figures, tables, references, index. $22.95 (paperback) ISBN 0 424 00177 2.

L.M. ALLEN, J.C. ALTMAN and E. OWEN (with assistance from W.S. Arthur) Aborigines in the economy: a select annotated bibliography of policy-relevant research 1985-90. Canberra: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (Research Monograph No. 1). xxii, pp.242, appendixes, indexes. $20.00 (hardback) ISBN 0 7315 1199 9.

EDWARD SAPIR The collected works of Edward Sapir, Vol. 5: American Indian languages, 1 (volume editor William Bright). Berlin &; New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 1990. 584pp., plate, map, appendix, references. DM220 or US$99 (bound) ISBN 3 11 012327 4.

DICK GEERAERTS (editor-in-chief) Cognitive Linguistics Volume 1(1). Berlin &; New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 1990. 174pp., DM42 (single issue, paper) DM154 (4 issues) ISSN 0936 5907.

WILLIAM F. HANKS Referential practice: language and lived space among the Maya. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 1990. xxiii, 580pp., tables, plates, references, indexes. US$27.50 (paper) ISBN 0 226 31546 0; US$65 (hardback) ISBN 0 226 31545 2.     

Personal Network Correlates and Predictors of Homelessness for Injection Drug Users in Baltimore,Maryland

Injection drug users are at high risk for homelessness and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. This study sought to examine incidence rates and the social and economic antecedents of homelessness of impoverished inner-city injection drug users. Of the 569 participants, from a nontreatment sample who participated HW prevention study, intelViewed at baseline, 324 (57%) were reintelViewed 5.2 months late!: At baseline 48% of the participants reported that they had been homeless in the past 10 years. Of the 324, 18% reported that at both intelViews they had been homeless within the prior 6 months, 12% reported homelessness at baseline but not at follow-up, and 8% reported homelessness at follow-up but not at baseline. At baseline personal social support network characteristic of size of material aid and size of sex network was found to be associated with self-reports of homelessness. Baseline reports ofpresence of mother in personal network, size of material aid network, and network density were found to be associated with reports of homelessness at follow-up. These result suggest the need for alternative approaches to addressing issues of homelessness injection drug users.     

Social,Relational and Network Determinants of Unprotected Anal Sex and HIV Testing Among Men Who Have Sex with Men in Beirut,Lebanon

Objectives: We examined the social, relational and network determinants of condom use and HIV testing among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Beirut. Methods: Two-hundred thirteen men were recruited via respondent driven sampling and administered a survey. Results: Sixty-four percent reported unprotected anal intercourse (UAI), including 23% who had UAI with unknown HIV status partners (UAIU); 62% of participants had tested for HIV. In multivariate analysis, being in a relationship was associated with UAI and HIV testing; lower condom self-efficacy was associated with UAIU and HIV testing; gay discrimination was associated with UAIU; MSM disclosure was associated with UAI, UAIU and HIV testing; and network centralization was associated with HIV testing. Conclusions: Multi-level social factors influence sexual health in MSM.     

Interorganizational network portfolios of nonprofit organizations: Implications for collaboration management

Increasingly, nonprofit organizations engage in interorganizational collaboration to address large‐scale social problems. Scholarship typically focuses on the characteristics of both within‐sector and cross‐sector partnerships of two collaborating organizations or all partnering organizations involved in a collaboration, but we know little about the patterns of interorganizational relationships that single nonprofit organizations maintain. This research draws upon surveys from 452 nonprofits and introduces nonprofit network portfolios, which we define as the number, integration, intensity, and duration of relationships that nonprofits purposefully develop with other organizations. Using 12 network measures, Ward cluster analysis revealed three distinct network portfolios: restricted within‐sector (n = 319, 70.58%), which included limited collaboration and prioritized within‐sector partnerships; robust within‐sector (n = 80, 17.70%), which included more nonprofit partnerships than restricted within‐sector portfolios; and cross‐sector (n = 53, 11.72%), which had a rich assemblage of integrative partnerships with nonprofits, businesses, and government agencies. Further, nonprofits that maintained each type of portfolio differed in their revenue and social mission, suggesting these factors are related to the types of collaboration that nonprofits maintain. This study makes contributions to existing research on interorganizational networks and cross‐sector collaboration and suggests practical and policy implications for nonprofit network management.     

Aversion to inequality in Italy and its determinants

The main goal of this paper is to estimate the preferences of the Italian society towards equity in order to verify whether preferences (i) have changed across the years, and (ii) can be related to specific socio-demographic characteristics. Introducing equity concerns in the implementation of economic policies is a fundamental problem faced by both economists and policy makers. This paper uses a social welfare function à la Jorgenson and Slesnick to estimate societys aversion towards inequality by implement in a voting scheme for compiling individuals equity preferences in to a social choice by majority rule. The results show that preferences are highly polarized toward a low and a high concern for equity aversion and that this concern is significantly related with several sociodemographic characteristics. Among them, income plays an important role with richer people tending to favor less equity. Results also show that preferences towards equity have changed across the years.     

Motivation for and use of social networking sites: Comparisons among college students with and without histories of non-suicidal self-injury

Objective: This research examines potential differences in social network use and motivation for social network use by non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) status. Participants: 367 (73% women; M_age = 20.60) college students were recruited in November–December 2011. Methods: A random sample of 2,500 students was accessed through a university registrar to recruit students interested in an online survey assessing NSSI and various health-related behaviors. Results: Social network use and motivations for social networks did not differ by NSSI status. Conclusions: Results suggest that it is not patterns of use or motivation to use social networks that could lead to concern about online behavior (i.e., behavior increasing risk of future NSSI) among those with NSSI history. Rather, future preventive and intervention efforts should address the NSSI-related content that is available online, since this is unregulated, often explicit, and commonly includes “pro-NSSI” content that may be problematic and increase risk among vulnerable individuals.     

Anatomy of Protest in the Digital Era: A Network Analysis of Twitter and Occupy Wall Street

Two months before the first Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protest in September 2011, activists were using Twitter to organize and spread the movement. In this study, the earliest Twitter messages regarding #OccupyWallStreet were subjected to network analysis to answer these questions: What were the central hubs in the OWS discourse on Twitter in the summer of 2011? How did OWS emerge from among several social movement organizations to lead a nationwide series of demonstrations? What were the key points in the Twitter dialogue that aided the process of scale shift? By addressing these questions, this research connects social movement concepts with network centrality measures to provide a clearer picture of movements in the digital era.     

Infectious Innovations? The Diffusion of Tactical Innovation in Social Movement Networks,the Case of Suffragette Militancy

This paper explores the diffusion of a tactical innovation – militancy – within the British Suffrage Movement, 1905–1914. It concentrates upon the influences that arise from personal social networks and which affect ego's decision about whether to adopt the new tactic. UCINET is used to map and visualise the activist networks of two suffragettes who made different adoption decisions. This reveals that ‘weak ties’ to ‘innovation champions’ (i.e. suffragette ‘travelling organisers’) connected both women to opportunities to learn about, observe and adopt militancy. In order to explain why one suffragette adopted the tactic and the other did not, however, there is a need to link structural and cultural analyses of social networks together. Here, I do this by following up empirically what Fuhse [Fuhse, J. (2009). The meaning structure of social networks. Sociological Theory, 27, 51–73] has called the ‘meaning structure of the network’ consisting of interpersonal expectations and network culture. I propose that the ‘meaning structure’ of the network is linked to the structural patterning of social ties – and the subjective meanings of ego – through the communicative interaction in which they both are rooted [Mische, A. (2003). Cross-talk in movements: Rethinking the culture-network link. In M. Diani & D. McAdam (Eds.), Social movements and networks: Relational approaches to collective action (pp. 258–280). Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press]. Focusing on communicative interaction and intersubjective meanings indicates that there is value in approaching personal networks as socio-cultural ‘lifeworlds’ [Habermas, J. (1987). The theory of communicative action, volume 2: System and lifeworld. Boston, MA: Beacon Press; Passy, F., & Giugni, M. (2000). Life-spheres, networks, and sustained participation in social movements: A phenomenological approach to political commitment. Sociological Forum, 15, 117–144.). This approach is particularly valuable in highlighting the construction of a ‘moral point of view’ within networks, which fundamentally shapes the symbolic legitimacy of culturally controversial tactics.     

FINANCIAL CONTAGION ON THE INTERNATIONAL TRADE NETWORK

We combine data on international trade linkages with a network approach to map the global trading system as an interdependent complex network. This enables us to obtain indicators of how well connected a country is into the global trading system. We use these network‐based measures of connectedness to explain stock market returns during recent episodes of financial crisis. We find that a crisis is amplified if the epicenter country is better integrated into the trade network. However, target countries affected by such a shock are in turn better able to dissipate the impact if they are well integrated into the network. A network approach can help explain why the Mexican, Asian, and Russian financial crises were highly contagious, while the crises that originated in Venezuela and Argentina did not have such a virulent effect. We suggest that a network approach incorporating the cascading and diffusion of interdependent ripples when a shock hits a specific part of the global trade network provides us with an improved explanation of financial contagion. (JEL F10, F36, F40, G15)