Unveiling the Non‐discursivity of the Lifeworld Experience: An Inquiry into the Taken‐for‐Grantedness of the Spousal Sexual World of Hong Kong Chinese Couples*

Although the phenomenological thesis of the lifeworld (Lebenswelt) has posited that the intersubjective experience is largely non‐discursive, sociologists seldom attend to the dimension of non‐discursivity in empirical inquiries. Based on the work of Alfred Schutz, this study first endeavors to explicate that lived experience (Erlebnis) is founded on the non‐discursivity of the lifeworld, that is, the pre‐predicative background expectancies that make possible the everyday life experience. Then, along the Schutzian line of thinking, two novel research techniques—the surface interview and answer‐aire—are designed to delve into the taken‐for‐grantedness of the lifeworld, using the spousal sexual world as a case in point. This study pioneers a way that the structures of the horizon that lie within the unsaid region of the lifeworld become sociologically and scientifically examinable.     

Bildung and intercultural understanding

The concept of Bildung, sometimes translated as self-cultivation, is located at the core of an influential tradition of educational thought. A key question concerns the relationship between Bildung and interculturality. Drawing on Wilhelm von Humboldt and Hans-Georg Gadamer, and on the so-called transformative learning theory, Bildung can be interpreted as a process of transforming one’s meaning perspective in encounters with others. A meaning perspective is a set of largely implicit presuppositions underlying one’s habitual ways of thinking, feeling and acting. Confrontation with alternative perspectives can be an opportunity to become aware of one’s own perspective, to critically assess it and to transform it. Thus conceived, Bildung is closely related to interculturality.     

Think really different: Continuity and specialization in the English dual form adverbs

This paper analyses variation between ‐ly and ‐ø in English dual form adverbs by examining conversational data from York, U.K. Using multivariate analysis and the comparative method we assess the constraint ranking, significance and relative importance of external factors (age, sex, education level) and internal factors (lexical identity, function and meaning). The results show that ‐ly is dominant and has increased dramatically in apparent time. However, cross‐tabulations with individual lexical items reveal that this correlation with speaker age is restricted to a single item–really. In conjunction with evidence from the history of English, we suggest that this does not reflect ongoing developments in English adverb formation, but is the result of continuous renewal in the encoding of ‘intensity’. In contrast, separate analysis of the other adverbs shows that variation between ‐ly and zero is retained in part as a socio‐symbolic resource, in particular for marking less educated male speech. Underlying this social meaning however, is a linguistic constraint which operates across all speakers. The zero adverb encodes concrete, objective meaning–a tendency which can be traced back 650 years or more. This provides yet another example of the interface between social and historical developments in language variation and change.     

Totally tall sounds totally younger: Intensification at the socio‐semantics interface

In two social perception experiments, we explore the relationship between the social meaning and the semantic/pragmatic properties of the intensifier totally in American English. In Experiment 1, we show that totally is perceived as a more salient index of social identity categories – measured in terms of Age, Solidarity and Status attributes – when it targets a scalar dimension grounded in the speaker's attitude, as opposed to when it occurs in contexts where the scale is provided by the subsequent predicate. In Experiment 2, we show that the social indexicality of totally is even more salient in contexts in which the intensifier, by virtue of its pragmatic contribution, invites a stance of heightened proximity and convergence between the interlocutors. These results point to a principled connection between the semantic, pragmatic and personality‐based social meanings of totally, providing new insights into the dynamics whereby different layers of meaning conspire to determine what an expression ‘says’ when deployed in interaction.     

Conference report: Sixth annual meeting of the international visual sociology association visual studies workshop,July 15, 16, 17, 1988

How does the visual construction process of news influence the resulting cultural images? In this study of Time magazine's creation of a 1990 documentary, “The Palestinians, A Long, Bloody Road to Nationhood,” I first look at possible meanings in the printed photographs, and then explore how Time's institutional processes of story conceptualization, photo assignment, editing, and layout each create parameters for meaning. The discussion shows how Time editors ultimately construct their product using visual affect as an assumed first level of meaning.     

The integration of space and time in the motion picture

Currently, visual sociology is defined as a sub‐field of qualitative sociology. This paper argues that such a view is too narrow and that the field is actually composed of three distinct, yet logically related, areas of investigation. The first is Seeing, or the study of role of sight and vision in the construction of social organization and meaning. The second is Iconic Communication, or the study of how spontaneous and deliberate construction of images and imagery communicate information and can be used to manage relationships in society. The third area I have termed Doing Sociology Visually and is concerned with how techniques of producing and decoding images can be used to empirically investigate social organization, cultural meaning and psychological processes. It includes those techniques, methodologies and concerns that have received the most attention to date and where the camera and other technologies of representation have played a crucial role in the analytic process.     

Purpose and life satisfaction during adolescence: the role of meaning in life,social support,and problematic digital use

This study examined the characteristics of youth with different types of purpose in life, as well as the associations between adolescents’ life satisfaction, purpose in life, meaning in life, social support, and problematic digital use. The sample included 193 participants aged 14–18 who completed self-report questionnaires on life satisfaction, purpose in life, meaning in life, social support, and problematic digital use. The following purpose in life clusters were found: (1) other-oriented goals (n?=?33); (2) self-oriented goals (n?=?42); and (3) both other- and self-oriented goals (n?=?107). Adolescents with both self- and other-oriented goals had significantly higher life satisfaction, meaning in life, and social support compared to the other groups. Meaning in life and greater support from parents and teachers were significantly associated with greater life satisfaction. In addition, having other-oriented goals was associated with lower life satisfaction. Finally, support from parents (p?=?0.05) mediated the association between problematic digital use and life satisfaction. Findings are discussed in light of previous research and the theoretical and practical implications are examined.     

The effects of adapting their home on the meaning of home for families with a disabled child

This article describes part of a mixed-method study investigating family and professional perspectives on home adaptations for disabled children. The methods were an online survey of staff involved in adaptations processes (n =39), semi-structured interviews with families with disabled children (n = 48) and an online survey for families (n = 16). One of the wider study’s recommendations was that families need to be enabled to engage with processes proactively. This article focuses on families’ experiences of the meaning attributed to adapting the home and highlights that, although satisfied with the completed adaptation, families were dissatisfied with the process they had been through. Thus, despite the need for the meaning of home being central to the adaptation process, families felt excluded from the process as it progressed. This had a negative impact on the continuing use of the adaptation and affected the meaning of home for families with a disabled child.     

THE EFFECTS OF FINANCIAL AND RECOGNITION INCENTIVES ACROSS WORK CONTEXTS: THE ROLE OF MEANING

We manipulate workers' perceived meaning of a job in a field experiment and interact meaning of work with both financial and recognition incentives. Results show that workers exert more effort when meaning is high. Money has a positive effect on performance that is independent of meaning. In contrast, meaning and recognition interact negatively. Our results provide new insights into the stability of incentive effects across important work contexts. They also suggest that meaning and worker recognition may operate via the same motivational channel. (JEL C93, J33, M12, M52)     

Advance Medical Directives for College Students: It's Not Your Father's Living Will

Abstract

Educators and researchers strive to use terms that reflect a replicable measure of behavior. A term commonly used to describe drinking of a problematic nature is binge drinking. Binge drinking defines behavior by a number of drinks of an alcoholic beverage consumed in a space of time. The authors argue that the term does not describe drinking behavior that students believe is problematic. They claim that students define problem drinking not in terms of quantity, but rather by the outcome (and occasionally by frequency), and attribute different negative connotations to the term binge. They suggest using a term that has shared meaning with students, such as dangerous drinking, to describe the drinking behavior that results in undesirable or unintended consequences.     

Searching for the Self: Adult International Adoptees’ Narratives of Their Search for and Reunion With Their Birth Families

In this case study, five international adoptees from Finland were interviewed about their search and reunion experiences to find out what meanings they ascribed to their identities and family relations. The thematic analysis yielded three themes: search and reunion in significant periods of life, meaning of reunion for identity, and belonging and relatedness within family. The first theme was characterized by the changing interest in birth family from the inability in childhood to fully understand the meaning of adoption and the growing interest in adolescence to adulthood where participants’ own parenthood intensified their interest. The second theme was characterized by the sense of coherence and sense of continuity that the adoptees, despite the conflicting emotions of reunion, felt they had achieved through reunion. In the third theme, reunion with their birth family appeared significant, even though belonging to a family was interpreted more as an outcome of attachment and nurture than biology. Particular for all themes was the meaning of communicating about adoption-related issues for the adoptee–adoptive parent relationship. Future research is needed to concentrate in more detail on the broad themes and to investigate how the meanings of the birth family for adoptive identity change over life courses.     

Coming back to life: From indicator to stereotype and a strange story of frequency1

In the history of Spanish there are five forms, originally from the same lexical item, co‐existing: así, asín, ansí, asina, and ansina, all meaning ‘like that’. Standard Modern Spanish includes only one of these: así. This is not the case, however, in New Mexican Spanish. This corpus‐based study examines the patterns of synchronic variation in New Mexican Spanish, as well as the near death and transformed rebirth of forms other than standard así in literature. Multivariate analysis suggests a decline in non‐standard variants in New Mexico, associated with rural activities and objects, and with older, less‐educated speakers. The synchronic idiosyncrasy of stereotypes is confirmed, while the quantitative diachronic patterns found may prove to be a regular pattern for developing stereotypes in literary texts: a slow decline in frequency followed by a sharp rise.     

Healthy organization: analysing its meaning based on the HERO Model / Organizaciones saludables: analizando su significado desde el Modelo HERO

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyse the meaning of healthy organization from an empirical-theoretical perspective based on the HERO Model (HEalthy & Resilient Organizations). Analyses were performed by four independent judges on 14 interviews carried out with 14 CEOs or human resources managers in 14 Spanish organizations using content analysis. Qualitative results show: (1) a partial overlap in the categories proposed by the theoretical model (based on the concordance index, Cohen’s Kappa and ICC); and (2) that the empirical definition mainly focuses on employees’ psychosocial health as a key element of the meaning of healthy organization. Finally, categorical matrixes provide evidence of subcategories emanating from the key elements that comprise a healthy organization. Results as well as theoretical and practical implications are discussed based on the HERO Model.     

Variations on two themes in Durkheim'sDivision du travail: Power,solidarity, and meaning in Division of Labor

This paper explores two themes that had a significant place in Durkheim's Division of Labor:the idea that people's needs and wants vary across epoches and cultures, and the conception of societies as systems. The first leads to a rejection of efficiency as the primary driving force behind advances in the division of labor. Considering power in addition to efficiency, but also the complex conditions of trust and meaning, leads into questions of interdependence and systems analysis.     

Student Veterans: Meaning in Life,Negative Career Thoughts,and Depression

Student veterans may experience challenges as they transition from military to student life, including adjusting to the academic environment, coping with mental health concerns, and redefining their identities. Research indicates that veterans may have difficulty finding meaning and purpose outside of the military (Brenner et al., 2008; Doenges, 2011). This study explored variables that may affect meaning and purpose in student veterans' lives, specifically negative career thoughts and depression. One hundred thirty-two student veterans at U.S. institutions were surveyed. The results revealed that both negative career thoughts and depression were statistically significant predictors (p < .001) of the presence of meaning in life, with 46% of the variance in the presence of meaning in life scores accounted for by participants' negative career thinking and depression levels. Pearson correlations indicated that all variables were statistically significant (p < .01). Future research could explore how other career readiness and self-assessment constructs are related to meaning and purpose in student veterans' lives, as well as the intersection of mental health and career factors. Interventions that focus both on the presence of negative career thoughts and depressive symptomatology may positively influence student veterans' report of meaning and purpose in life.     

INTERPRETING THE SOCIOLOGICAL CLASSICS: CAN THERE BE A “TRUE” MEANING OF MEAD?

Many sociologists have tried in vain to find the “true” meaning of the classic works in the discipline. An interactionist perspective suggests that this search is not a valid one for sociologists, especially symbolic interactionists. Although there can be no “true” meaning, some authors use conventions of writing that make their work more or less clear. Using Mead's Mind, Self and Society as an example, we discuss the dimensions of clarity. We then argue that the sociological classics should be read to (I) simulate new theories and research (pragmatic analysis), (2) determine how sociologists have used that classic to support or refute particular theories or perspectives (rhetorical analysis), and (3) provide information about the sociological concerns of the author and his/her contemporaries (historical analysis).     

“He Was Supposed to be With Me for the Rest of My Life”: Meaning-Making in Bereaved Siblings’ Online Stories

The present study applied relational dialectics theory to explore the competing discourses that animate bereaved siblings’ online stories about their loss, as well as to understand how the interplay of these discourses constitutes meaning of sibling bereavement. Analysis of over 70 message board postings retrieved from online support groups revealed two main discursive struggles that characterize siblings’ experiences of grief and loss: grieving as deviant behavior versus grieving as a normal process and the deceased as gone forever versus the deceased as still present. These findings illuminate the challenges bereaved siblings face as they attempt to mourn their deceased brother or sister and make sense of their grief within a societal context that oftentimes forgets or overlooks how traumatic it can be to lose a sibling.     

Institutionalization of Mongolian shamanism: from primitivism to civilization

This article traced the construction of the Mongolian term and concept böö mörgöl, which denotes ‘shamanism’, later developed to böögiin shashin meaning ‘shamanic religion’. Although the term bö’e (alternatively böge or böö), referring to spiritual practitioners such as shamans, appears early in the literature from the thirteenth century onward, the combination böö mörgöl and khara shajin meaning ‘black religion’ is fairly recent and first appeared in sources from the nineteenth century. Its latest version, böögiin shashin, has an even shorter history dating as recently to 1980s, and has spread rapidly over the last two decades. I argue that ‘shamanism’ in Mongolia has been constructed in scholarly works mostly by public involvement and shamans themselves. More precisely, academic discourses have played a key role in institutionalizing individual spiritual practitioners in two fields, first by creating a history for ‘Mongolian shamanism’ and second by creating archetypes for miscellaneous spiritual practices and practitioners. The concept böö mörgöl have been used in translating and importing the Western construction of ‘shamanism’ while in the next step of development, böögiin shashin was important in institutionalizing a national religion of shamanism versus world religions. As a result, Mongols have an original religion which has been the main building block in constructing Mongolian ‘nomadic civilization’.     

Exploring Epistemologies: Social Work Action as a Reflection of Philosophical Assumptions

Abstract

Using Habermas' (1971) Grand Theory and Schaefer's (1979) notion of Theory as Fiction, two major philosophical assumptions that undergird the literature, practice and teaching of social work are reviewed. Empiricism dominates social work theory and aims at technical control. Existentialism has been an important but marginal voice and attempts to explain subjective meaning. Two newer theoretical positions also are introduced: Critical theory, which considers humanity's ability to reflect on history to be an agent of societal change; and deconstruction, which questions the validity of any structure. The article concludes with a consideration of the implications of using each position as a context for teaching.     

In a league of their own: Mental leveling and the creation of social comparability in sport

Social measurement involves comparison across highly varying subjects, possible only when a degree of similarity is perceived among disparate events. Assuming sport as a prototype, this paper argues that such comparability derives from a three-pronged process of mental leveling.By (1) matchingopponents according to characteristics thought to influence the object or trait in question, (2) standardizingtheir performances, and (3) scalingthe resulting competitive leagues against one another, leveling yields a stratified meaning system through which individual performances can be ranked. This examination reveals that creating comparability among discrete objects is not without its price; the same mental gridwork that secures comparabilit withinleagues precludes comparison acrossthem, leading to a stratified system whose classes are separated by formidable mental and institutional boundaries. This point becomes particularly salient when one considers the invocation of this model in realms other than sport.