五饼二鱼:社区运动与都市生活

本文以台北市的一个邻里社区为例 ,记录了都市居民寻求新生活意义的一段过程 ,主要讨论 2 0世纪 90年代末期的社区动员对都市社会生活与文化意义的影响 ,试图了解一个因公园保存运动激起市民参与的都市移民社区 ,其居民生活受到何种程度的影响 ,这个影响又如何改变社区运动的进程。本文认为都市居民寻求安身立命是一动态、开放且有时充满矛盾冲突的过程 ,都市空间陌生与快速变动的特性 ,都市问题的琐碎与复杂性 ,以及都市移民离乡背井的心灵冲击 ,使得都市生活充满不确定与挑战性 ,社区运动因此代表一个集体的寻求地方感觉和在地想象的过程 ,以及改变都市社会现状的期盼。     

“‘社区’研究”与“社区研究”——近年来我国城市社区研究述评

本文区分了本体论意义上的‘社区’研究和方法论意义上的社区研究。前者将社区本身视为一个以社会团结为特征的、具体的客观对象来研究,后者则将社区看作一个多元主体互动博弈的特殊社会场域和理解其他理论问题的透镜。在此基础上,文章从国家—社会与行动者、社区参与、社会资本与社会网络、日常生活与阶层、社区的分化与分化的社区五个主题梳理了国内社区研究的新进展。最后,笔者提出了一个理解中国城市社区和社区研究的基本框架,并针对现有研究的不足提出了建议。     

理解“社区”与我国城市社区的建设

社区,是人类社会的基本单元,兼有人群与地域两大要素,是人类生存和发展的基层社会关系共同体,是社会有机体系统中相对独立的微观社会空间。社区发展是社会现代化和城市化的重要组成,是社会发展的重要内容。本文通过对社区这个概念的阐释,从制约城市社区发展变量的角度来提出建设我国城市社区的一些建议。     

社区养老是解决城市人口老龄化问题的有效途径——对城市社区养老模式的思考

进入21世纪，我国迎来了人口迅速老龄化的时代。据统计，目前我国60岁以上的老年人口已达1．44亿，占总人口的11％。今后一个时期，我国的老年人口还将以较快的速度增长，到2015年60岁以上人口将达到2．4亿，约占总人口的16％，老龄化问题已成为全社会共同关注的焦点。在社会主义初级阶段，面对这一迅猛而来的庞大老年人群，我国的社会养老事业特别是以国家保障体系为主的城市人口养老面临着巨大的压力和挑战。因此，研究探索一种既能满足城市老年人口的需求，又能适合我国国情的新的养老模式，已迫在眉捷。从国内外的实践情况来看，城市社区养老服务具有操作简单、针对性强、融资渠道宽、服务形式多等优点，它不仅满足了不同年龄老人对社会养老服务的多方需求，又弥补了当前政府财政和服务能力相对不足的矛盾，是解决城市人口老龄化问题的有效途径，值得大力推广。     

作为国家治理单元的社区——对城市社区建设运动过程中居民社区参与和社区认知的个案研究

本文分析了不同居民群体社区参与的具体过程,提出了4种参与类型:福利性参与、志愿性参与、娱乐性参与和权益性参与。通过对居民社区参与过程和社区认知的探讨,作者认为,社会转型和社区建设运动背景下的中国城市社区是为了解决单位制解体后城市社会整合与社会控制问题的自上而下建构起来的国家治理单元,而不是一个可以促进公共领域形成或市民社会发育的地域社会生活共同体。     

“社区老年教育活动”模式研究——基于“职业院校+社区”视角

从职业院校+社区视角,探讨联合开展社区老年教育活动模式,利用职业院校的丰富资源,为社区老年教育活动发展提供核心动力;同时,为职业院校提供了理论—实践的检验平台;有利于提升职业院校社会服务能力,促进职业院校资源利用效率的最大化,搭建双方共同发展的平台,实现资源共建共享。     

人口老龄化下的养老模式——以社区养老为例

老龄化速度加快是我国人口现状的一个突出特点,我国的老龄化问题较西方发达国家更为严峻。在老龄化的浪潮中,我国的养老方式日趋多元,传统的居家养老地位逐渐衰落,以房养老、社区养老、机构养老等方式逐渐兴起。在众多的养老方式中,社区养老优势明显。本文主要是以社区养老为切入点,对社区养老在国内的实践情况进行分析,以便获得更适合我国的社区养老模式。     

我国城市社区社会组织的主要类型与特点

自中央提出发展社会建设以来,社会组织的研究就成为我国理论和实践关注的重点;而社区社会组织由于与社会建设和社区建设都有着密切的联系,同样,也将成为今后我国社会发展的重要领域。在对全国六个城市进行实证调查的基础上进行研究,对我国城市社区社会组织的主要类型、组织结构、经费来源、主要活动进行了分析,并且指出了当前我国城市社区社会组织发展的六个主要特点。     

滕尼斯的社区理论与中国的社区建设

1887年，斐迪南·滕尼斯（以下简称滕尼斯）发表了他的代表作——《社区与社会》。该书不仅奠定了他在社会学史上的地位，也开创了社会学社区研究的先河，对后世社会学产生了重大影响。特别是1912年该书再版后，在社会学界形成了广泛的社区研究热潮，芝加哥学派等一大批卓有影响的社会学派和社会学家由此起步，对社会学发展作出了巨大贡献。     

Conspiracy theories and social movements studies: A research agenda

It is surprising to note the scarcity of contributions in social movement literature related to so-called conspiracy theories. A considerable amount of the work on these topics has been produced in political science, history, media studies, social psychology and other disciplines. These accounts have often adopted a stigmatizing approach, looking at conspiracy theories as forms of pathologies (whether psychological, social or political). Moving from such a perspective to a constructivist one, I argue that conspiracy theories should represent an object of interest for social movement scholars: conspiracies supporters go into the streets to highlight their issues, protest against authority, propose alternative lifestyles and often claim to look for a better/different society. Applying the social movements toolkit can allow to better understand this phenomenon and apply critical perspectives in a more effective manner. On the basis of this premise, the first part of this article reviews the existing literature on conspiracy theories, also identifying the main lacunae; the second part outlines some possible research questions and lines of inquiry, moving beyond the classical theories in the field of social movement studies. The paper also introduces a number of new concepts, such as conspiracy mobilizations and conspiracy coalitions.     

Using Social Network Analysis to Explore Social Movements: A Relational Approach

This paper uses a ‘relational’ approach to network analysis to demonstrate the linkages between different types of environmental organizations in London. A ‘relational’ approach was used to avoid problems associated with ‘positional’ approaches such as structural determinism, subjectively defined and misleadingly labelled blocks of ‘approximately’ equivalent actors, and reification of the action/issue basis of networks. The paper also explores definitions of social/environmental movements. Whilst broadly agreeing with Diani's consensual definition of a social movement, it argues that we need to be much more precise about the type and intensity of networking required; it must be more than informal or cursory, and should bind individuals and organizations into collaborative networks. Evidence from a survey of 149 environmental organizations and qualitative interviews with key campaigners suggests that whilst many organizations might share information, it is often stockpiled or ignored, hardly creating the kinds of network links that might lead to shared movement identity. The kinds of links that do bind movements are collaborative. In practice, in the environmental movement in London, conservationists tend neither to share information nor to engage in the collective action events of reformist or radical organizations, suggesting that conservationists should perhaps not be considered part of the movement.     

The Importance of Social Movements

This discussion was conducted with Professor Alain Touraine by Tim Jordan on 20 September in Paris. The discussion has been divided into headings that correspond to the areas of questions that were asked. The social context for the discussion is important in understanding Professor Touraine's comments because the discussion occurred 9 days after the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks but before the bombing of Afghanistan began and with no chance of knowing what would follow.     

Social networks and social movements: Multiorganizational fields and recruitment to Mississippi Freedom Summer

This study explores the role of multiorganizational fields in recruitment to social movements. We study applicants to the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer project from two sites: the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Using network analysis, we develop a model of recruitment that predicts participation on the basis of the structural positions of individuals within the multiorganizational fields, as well as on the basis of individual background factors. We also study the role that the recruitment context plays, by comparing the results at these two universities. Independent of the individual background factors, structural position in the multiorganizational field predicts participation in Freedom Summer at Wisconsin, but not at Berkeley. The effects of individual background factors on participation are also contingent on the recruitment context. We discuss the theoretical implications of our results for the study of the effects of multiorganizational fields and recruitment contexts on participation in social movements.     

Toward a Class-Cultural Theory of Social Movements: Reinterpreting New Social Movements

This paper examines the relationship between social class and social mobilization through reviewing the case of new social movements. The middle-class membership of new social movements is well documented but poorly explained by current New Class, New Social Movement, and Cultural Shift theories. These theories fail to recognize the interdependence between interests, values, and expressed ideas. Class culture provides an alternative framework for interpreting the complex relationships between class interests and consciousness in these movements. Through a comparison of working- and middle-class cultures, it is proposed that social class orders consciousness and shapes the interpretation of interests. Class cultures produce distinct class forms of political and organizational behavior while not defining any particular content of movement issues or politics. In particular, the middle-class membership of new social movements is explained by the cultural form of these movements which is distinctly middle class.     

A New Breed of Social Actionist Comes to Social Work: The Community Organization Student

Professionals in all fields are pressing for more autonomy in their work. Social work has never achieved full professional status because of its reluctance to grant autonomy to practitioners. The hierarchical bureaucratic structure of social agencies, which enforces prolonged individual supervision of workers, has achieved uniformity of practice at the expense of creativity and innovation. The author proposes Georg Simmel's model of superordination—subordination as a framework for considering new forms of supervision. Peer group supervision, consultation, and in-service training are potentially more democratic training methods than individual supervision, and could encourage self-confidence and creativity.     

The unity of social movements

A coherent intellectual structure for social movement studies has recently been emerging over a range of theoretical and empirical studies. This structure counterposes ‘within social movements’ a diverse range of collective actions against the unity imposed by a collective identity. However, theorisations of this collective identity have so far failed to address the contradiction between structure and agency. A definition of collective identity for social movements that is not caught in the structure/agency divide is proposed by defining the appropriate level of abstraction for such a definition, defining why movements are unified and then how.     

Learning to feel: the neglected sociology of social movements

This paper discusses the experience and ideology of emotions among animal rights activists, and more broadly, the applicability of the sociology of emotions to the field of social movements. I examine the case of a social movement which relies heavily on empathy in its initial recruitment, and which has been derisively labeled by outsiders as ‘emotional’. I explain recruitment to animal rights activism by showing how activists develop a ‘vocabulary of emotions’ to rationalize their participation to others and themselves, along with managing the emotional tone of the movement by limiting the kinds of people who can take part in debates about animal cruelty. The interactive nature in which emotions develop in social movements is stressed over previous approaches to emotions in the social movement literature, which treat emotions as impulsive or irrational.