Bourdieu, Smith and disinterested judgement

The paper presents a sympathetic critique of Bourdieu7rsquo;s work in terms of the tension between its critical intentions and its leanings towards sociological reductionism. Although Bourdieu argues against such reductionism in his methodological pronouncements, his empirical studies tend to reduce actors' putative disinterested judgements to functions of their habitus in relation to the social field and to unconscious strategies of distinction. Further, his concept of (non-monetary) forms of capital occludes the difference between use-value and exchange-value and the corresponding distinction between the pursuit of goods and the pursuit of distinction, which are vital for both explanation and critique. Moreover his suspicion of normative judgement on the part of social science and his concealment of his own normative standpoint subvert his critiques. Thus in relation to Bourdieu's analysis of the role of mis-recognition in social life I argue that this requires a delineation of the extent of justified recognition. In developing the argument I draw upon Adam Smith's analysis of moral sentiments and his critique of undeserved recognition and the pursuit of distinction. Where Bourdieu is dismissive about moral issues, Smith treats moral sentiments as irreducible to interest or instrumental action and as a significant element in the reproduction of social order. The paper concludes with some implications for the nature of critique in social theory.     

A. B. and C. versus Ireland

This article analyses some possible political implications of the case and the decision in A. B. and C. v. Ireland at the European Court of Human Rights. This case was heard in a public hearing on 9 December 2009; the judgment was provided in December 2010. I argue that the three applicants in this case employed a novel strategy, not previously considered, to access legal abortion in the Republic of Ireland. By highlighting the varied circumstances of unintended pregnancy in more than a single instance, the applicants utilized an offensive manoeuvre to which the government is unlikely to respond consistently over time. They exposed Irish governments' use of clandestine political negotiations in relation to European treaties, the questionable exertion of governments' authority to uphold political and moral agendas and racialized constructions of Irishness and national interests. The applicants also raised serious questions about state practices in the Republic of Ireland in relation to its legal obligation to uphold human rights under the European Convention. However, I argue that it is unlikely that this novel strategy and legal decision and their political implications are enough to adequately address the lack of access to legal abortion in the Republic of Ireland.     

Moral harassment of public schools teachers

Programs geared towards the occupational health of public workers, that include the prevention of moral harassment, have been created in Santa Catarina. Any institution identified for its poor records in regards to moral harassment will end up having its image tainted before society at large. This is due to its use of arbitrary and embarrassing means for accomplishing everyday tasks. This article aims to consider Workplace Psychological Harassment (WPH), its risks and implications for the health of public workers. The methodology chosen was a teacher's case study, which consisted of document research, interviews, anamnesis and observation, all in order to relate both theory and practice. The results indicate that WPH is a complex phenomenon, which can be studied in a variety of ways. WPH risks the biopsychosocial health of the worker, causing the deterioration in social-professional relations, illness, and incapacity, as well as higher costs and certain degradation in production. It is difficult to prove incidents and their impact. Nevertheless, this research concluded that WPH has harmful consequences for the physical and mental health of workers, and is in the ergonomic field, since part of this profession's role is to seek understanding of work in order to reorganize it.     

WORK AND THE DIVISION OF LABOR

The paper is an attempt to conceptualize the division of labor in terms of work. This perspective leads to a necessary distinction between work and workers, and its implications. Among the main considerations discussed are actor, accountability, division of rights versus division of labor, work patterns and interactional styles, rapidly changing organizations and industries in relation to their divisions of labor, and reciprocal macro and micro impacts. Some research implications are also discussed.     

'Learning Difficulties', the Social Model of Disability and Impairment: Challenging epistemologies

Critical researchers enter into an investigation with their assumptions on the table, so no one is confused concerning the epistemological and political baggage they bring with them to the research site (Kincheloe & McLaren, 1998, p. 265). A theory of disability as oppression recognises and, in the present context, emphasies the social origins of impairment. (Abberley, 1987, in Barton and Oliver, 1997, p176, my emphasis.) Identification with the label of 'learning difficulties' has contradictory personal and political implications for people so-labelled. While this identification has allowed people to organise collectively through the self-advocacy movement, pervasive understandings of 'learning difficulties' that permeate many societal settings tend to be framed in ways that directly confirm a personal tragedy model of disability and impairment. This paper argues for a reconsideration of impairment in relation to 'learning difficulties', to challenge pervasive assumptions in relation to 'learning difficulties' - at the level of epistemology - and to construct four inclusive epistemological foundations . The first, deconstructing impairment , draws upon a body of literature that has exposed the social nature of diagnostic criteria and destabilised naturalised notions of 'learning difficulties'. The second, impairment, as storied , brings in the accounts of people with 'learning difficulties' that locate impairment in, and as, personal and social narratives. Thirdly, reculturising impairment highlights emergent resilient cultures of people with 'learning difficulties' that re-culturise impairment. Fourthly, epistemological impacts , grounds the analysis by calling for an attention to the ways in which assumptions about the origins of 'learning difficulties' impact upon the treatment of people so-labelled.     

Moral Incongruence and Pornography Use: A Critical Review and Integration

Internet pornography use (IPU) remains a controversial topic within sexual behavior research fields. Whereas some people report feeling dysregulated in their use of pornography, mental health and medical communities are divided as to whether IPU can be addictive. The present review sought to examine this issue more closely, with a focus on how variables other than pornography use, such as moral disapproval and moral incongruence (i.e., feeling as if one’s behaviors and one’s values about those behaviors are misaligned), might specifically contribute to self-perceived problems around pornography use. Through an examination of recent literature, the present work reviews evidence that moral incongruence about IPU is a common phenomenon and that it is associated with outcomes relevant to current debates about pornography addiction. Specifically, moral incongruence regarding IPU appears to be associated with greater distress about IPU, greater psychological distress in general, greater reports of problems related to IPU, and greater reports of perceived addiction to IPU. The implications of this body of evidence for both clinical and research communities are discussed, and future directions for research are considered.     

(Micro)mobility,disability and resilience: exploring well-being among youth with physical disabilities

This paper explores the daily (micro)mobilities that youth with a visual or auditory impairment use to sustain well-being. Geographical research suggests that mobility is a universal phenomenon referred to the capacity to navigate one’s way through different spaces and places. Using a qualitative cross-cultural, visual methods approach to research with vulnerable youth, including four participants with visual or auditory impairments, we demonstrate that everyday patterns of (micro)mobilities through the youth’s home, school and community help disabled youth create pathways to resilience. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to services that promote resilience against ableist beliefs.     

Curriculum Access for Pupils with Disabilities: an Irish experience

For young people with physical disabilities in Ireland, gaining access to a school represents only the first tentative step on the way to full participation in the curriculum alongside their peers. While government policy explicitly favours the inclusion of young people with disabilities within mainstream education there is little evidence of planning at a systemic level to facilitate this process. This small scale, qualitative study attempts to ascertain the reality of inclusion within mainstream settings for young people with physical disabilities. The results indicate that the young people often experienced exclusion from full curricular access. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to developing inclusive structures that facilitate curricular access for young people with disabilities within Irish post-primary schools.     

The moral economy of austerity: analysing UK welfare reform

This paper notes the contemporary emergence of ‘morality’ in both sociological argument and political rhetoric, and analyses its significance in relation to ongoing UK welfare reforms. It revisits the idea of ‘moral economy’ and identifies two strands in its contemporary application; that all economies depend on an internal moral schema, and that some external moral evaluation is desirable. UK welfare reform is analysed as an example of the former, with reference to three distinct orientations advanced in the work of Freeden ( 1996 ), Laclau ( 2014 ), and Lockwood ( 1996 ). In this light, the paper then considers challenges to the reform agenda, drawn from third sector and other public sources. It outlines the forms of argument present in these challenges, based respectively on rationality, legality, and morality, which together provide a basis for evaluation of the welfare reforms and for an alternative ‘moral economy’.     

Morality as the enemy of equality: Law,economy, and moral responsibility in the early Mormon church

The Law of Consecration and Stewardship, revealed to the prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., in 1831, sought to establish obligations of mutual moral responsibility that would simultaneously serve to promote economic equality among members of the early Mormon church. The failure of the law, leading to its demise in 1834, is considered with reference to some current conceptions of the bases of human moral responsibility and their implications regarding moral stratification. This analysis suggests that by seeking to create a system of moral responsibility in the interests of economic equality, the law would necessarily have impaired the expression of a disposition to act morally on the part of individual Mormons. This inhibition of the capacity for personal moral action as much, if not more than, an uncharitable human nature may have undermined the law.     

Metabolism and colonization. Modes of production and the physical exchange between societies and nature

Written by a sociologist and a biologist, this paper attempts an interdisciplinary approach to describing the basic exchange relations between human societies and their natural environments. One type of exchange relation is termed ‘metabolism’ and related to the biological metabolism member organisms of societies require. A historical overview (part 1) demonstrates this exchange relation in terms of mass throughput per inhabitant to have grown in the course of human cultural evolution—without necessarily increasing the quality of life of those concerned—to the twentyfold it now amounts to in industrial societies (as is demonstrated empirically for Austria in part 3). A strategy of ‘contraction of physical metabolism’ (reduction of physical growth irrespective of ‘economic’ growth) of industrial societies is proposed as a strategic means of survival and possible ways to this goal are discussed quantitatively. The other exchange relation termed ‘colonization’ refers to treatments of natural environments that purposively change some components to render better exploitability (for the purpose of social metabolism), while still relying upon their basic self‐regenerating qualities. It is sketched how colonization strategies developed historically, and it is demonstrated empirically that industrial societies now use about 50% of the available plant biomass (the energetic basis of all animal life) upon their territories for human purposes (part 4). Part 5 classifies different ‘paradigms’ for judging the ‘harmfulness’ of social interventions into the environment and outlines the logic of an information system that would enable society to generate an awareness of its own interventions into nature. On the whole the paper presents a theoretical as well as an empirical attempt to view societies as physical systems (among other physical systems on this planet) and confront sociology with the paradigmatic task to analyze the social regulation of these physical processes.     

Culture: A Possible Predictor of Morality for African American Adolescents

This study examined the ways in which cultural orientation (communalism and material well‐being) and empathy influence the moral reasoning of African American middle to late adolescents. Specifically, this study utilized path analysis to investigate Ward's (1995) hypothesis that a communal orientation would promote morality among African American adolescents, while a material well‐being orientation would mitigate against it. In addition, it was hypothesized that empathy would mediate the relationship between cultural orientation and moral reasoning. Thirty‐seven high school students and 35 college students participated in the study. Results revealed that communalism was a significant predictor of empathy. Despite prediction, communalism and material well‐being were not predictors of moral reasoning. The findings did not yield support for empathy functioning as a mediator between communalism and moral reasoning. These findings are discussed in terms of previous findings, methodological limitations, and implications for future research.     

Observing abuse: Professional ethics and personal morality in field research

Based on the author's participant observation research in a state institution for the mentally retarded, this article deals with moral and ethical dilemmas that occur in research at settings characterized by routine human abuse. After a discussion of the choices posed by these dilemmas, the author presents preferred solutions. The importance of anticipating potential moral and ethical dilemmas prior to entering the field and delineating the relation between professional ethics and personal morality are discussed as implications of this problem.The author would like to thank Robert Bogdan and Shulamit Reinharz for their extensive comments on previous drafts of this article.Partial support for this article was provided through cooperative agreement No. G0085C03503 with the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. The opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author.     

The Asylum‐Integration Paradox: Comparing Asylum Support Systems and Refugee Integration in The Netherlands and the UK

This article explores the impact of asylum support systems on refugee integration focusing on the UK and the Netherlands. Both have adopted deterrent approaches to asylum support. The Dutch favour the use of asylum accommodation centres, segregating asylum seekers from the general population. The UK disperses asylum seekers to housing within deprived areas, embedding them within communities. Both countries have been criticized for these practices, which are viewed as potentially anti‐integrative: something of a paradox given that both promote the importance of refugee integration. We analyse national refugee integration surveys in both countries and provide original empirical evidence of negative associations between asylum support systems and refugees’ health, which differ in relation to mental and physical health. The integration and asylum policy implications of these findings are discussed.     

Disability Discourses for Online Identities

Beneficial effects of the online medium have been reported for disabled people in terms of providing a 'levelling ground' where they can be treated on their merits as a person, rather than as a disabled person. If this occurs because impairment is invisible online, how then are disabled people managing disability disclosure within this social context? This paper addresses this issue discursively. Participants were recruited from various disability organisations in New Zealand and were invited to take part in an online interview. A 'choice to disclose' repertoire was identified and was organised around three key resources: relevance, anonymity and normality. Embedded within each resource is the idea that the presence or absence of impairment is constructed as a feature controlled by the individual. Positioning identity within a subjectivity removed from impairment was made possible through these resources and was valued by participants. Political implications associated with the absence of impairment are discussed.     

Desperately seeking social approval: Adam Smith, Thorstein Veblen and the moral limits of capitalist culture

Adam Smith and Thorstein Veblen shared much in matters of economic ontology. Both dismissed the very notion of an autonomous economic self and instead investigated the processes through which self and other are mutually constituted under changing cultural traditions of individual aspiration. Their strikingly similar critiques of status-oriented consumption and concern for the moral basis of the market economy are established in this manner. However, the political implications of their analyses point in different directions, with Veblen being the more radical. The Smithian individual can always use spectatorial insights to assert through genuinely praiseworthy behaviour personal moral distance from social norms of status-oriented consumption. The Veblenian individual, by contrast, has no such capacity for elevating abstract moral principles above socially-situated conduct, as mind and environment co-evolve in line with changing material circumstances of life. For Veblen, the rise of status-oriented consumption itself acted as a form of moral self-education that more deeply entrenched the social norms of ownership out of which it arose, thus the impossibility of an autonomous economic self was matched by the impossibility of an autonomous moral self. To his way of thinking, moral degradation in conspicuous consumption was irredeemably inscribed into the whole cultural structure of capitalism.     

Charitable giving and lay morality: understanding sympathy,moral evaluations and social positions

This paper examines how charitable giving offers an example of lay morality, reflecting people's capacity for fellow‐feeling, moral sentiments, personal reflexivity, ethical dispositions, moral norms and moral discourses. Lay morality refers to how people should treat others and be treated by them, matters that are important for their subjective and objective well‐being. It is a first person evaluative relation to the world (about things that matter to people). While the paper is sympathetic to the ‘moral boundaries’ approach, which seeks to address the neglect of moral evaluations in sociology, it reveals this approach to have some shortcomings. The paper argues that although morality is always mediated by cultural discourses and shaped by structural factors, it also has a universalizing character because people have fellow‐feelings, shared human conditions, and have reason to value.     

The social implications of population displacement and resettlement: an overview with a focus on the Arab Middle East

"Recent decades have witnessed a global increase in the collective displacement of populations as a result of natural disasters, wars and development projects. The social implications of displacement, and its corollary process of resettlement, are explored in this article, with a focus on the Arab world....[The author suggests that] an approach which emphasizes the relation between the causes and consequences of displacement, examines cases in their historical contexts, and selects the appropriate unit of analysis is essential in developing an adequate framework of analysis."     

Diversity,civic virtues and ecological austerity

A single global culture and a unique set of world institutional arrangements, based on an ever-increasing consumption of natural resources and environmental pollution is not sustainable nor can be sustained. In this paper some key ideological and moral com­ponents of the urgently required changes towards a culture of sustainability are examined, together with the implications, difficulties and requirements for its embodiment both in individual practices and in social institutions. In particular, it is argued that the values and attitudes which promote the protection and integration of diversity—both cultural and biological—and restrain the current trends in natural resource consumption and environmental pollution are to be developed by the citizenry if global societies are to survive. In the domains of political participation, rational dialogue and civic virtue, sustainability is akin to the inherited republican ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity. Sustainability must now become an indispensable fourth moral pillar in the structuration of society and, in particular, in the coming world republican polity, which will necessarily take account of the diversity of cultures and institutions. It is shown that, otherwise, the now developing unsustainable global society would otherwise cease to exist.     

Moral codes of mothering and the introduction of welfare-to-work in Ontario

In this paper, I trace how the reform of social assistance in Ontario, especially the post-1990s enforcement of lone mothers' employability via welfare-to-work programs, parallels shifts in dominant moral codes of mothering, from "mother-carer" to "mother-worker." Additionally, I use this case as an entry point to consider the implications of public and policy allegiance to these moral codes for all mothers. The central argument I make is that the introduction of welfare-to-work programs in Ontario did not occur in a neoliberal state-sanctioned vacuum but also involved the circulation of ideas about moral mothering outside of policy into policy.