Embodiment and the Construction of Social Knowledge: Towards an Integration of Embodiment and Social Representations Theory

Recent developments in the psychological and social sciences have seen a surge of attention to concepts of embodiment. The burgeoning field of embodied cognition, as well as the long‐standing tradition of phenomenological philosophy, offer valuable insights for theorising how people come to understand the world around them. However, the implications of human embodiment have been largely neglected by one of the key frameworks for conceptualising the development of social knowledge: Social Representations Theory. This article seeks to spark a dialogue between Social Representations Theory and embodiment research. It outlines the position the body occupies in the existing theoretical and empirical social representations literature, and argues that incorporating concepts gleaned from embodiment research may facilitate a more comprehensive account of the aetiology of social representations. The value of analytic attention to embodiment is illustrated with reference to a recent study of social representations of neuroscience, which suggested that embodied experience can shape the extent to which people engage with certain topics, the conditions under which they do so, and the conceptual and affective content of the ensuing representations. The article argues that expanding Social Representations Theory's methodological and conceptual toolkit, in order to illuminate the interplay between embodied experience and social communication in the development of common‐sense knowledge, promises productive directions for empirical and theoretical advancement.     

身体写作：一种“野蛮主义”的现代性

现代性是一个含义颇多、歧义丛生、因此显得极为暧昧的概念.一般情况下,我们喜欢把它简化为两种,即"启蒙/社会现代性"和"审美/文化现代性";这实际是对现代性概念多元性、复杂性的掩盖.在多元的现代性中,"野蛮主义潜藏于现代性的核心",并且在20世纪90年代以来中国文学的"身体写作"中鲜明地表露出来.在现代性视角的观照下,身体写作的成就与缺失清晰可辨.这为众生藉此走近人性和生活的真相,去贴切感悟意义复制世界对生命积习已久的尘封,提供了一个绝佳的契机和切入口.     

Social Worker Manpower,Community Economic Disadvantage,and Family Violence: Initial Evidence from Taiwan

This study is the first to explore the effect of social worker manpower on family violence incidents. In addition, it is the first study to investigate the geography of family violence in Taiwan. Using data from the County‐Level Important Indicator Query System, this study performs panel regressions to analyze the determinants of county‐level family violence incidents between 2005 and 2011. The empirical results clearly indicate that family violence incidents tend to be higher in counties that suffer economic disadvantage and in which there is an inadequate deployment of social worker manpower. The findings have important implications for combating family violence.     

Debate: Social resistance and the absent utopia: comments on Hartley Dean's article Social rights and social resistance

This article focuses on conceptual and methodological problems in the transition from normative conceptions of social rights to more general strategies of social policy. In a discussion of Hartley Dean's article Social Rights and Social Resistance, the author argues that relevant rights strategies within social policy in general transcends the traditional dichotomy, assumed by Dean, between structural approaches and more agent-oriented approaches. In line with this, arguments are presented for the view that the denial of strategies concerning social rights, categorised as opportunistic or anarchistic by Dean, necessitates the formulation of realistic and substantial goal for strivings within social policy. Furthermore, the author claims that the conceptual elaboration of social rights does not in itself have any definite and direct consequences for the field of social policy, where material and symbolic power is more relevant. To transcend the criticised approaches of anarchism and opportunism, there still remains to be formulated a strategy of action.     

The Flesh and the World: Intercorporeal Body-selves,Ageing and Dancing

ABSTRACT

In this paper I address the role that embodiment, embodied consciousness and what can be termed “extradiscursive” experiences such as body memory and ekstasis as a form of ecstatic experience assume in understanding the body-self of mature dancers. I argue that the body-self of the dancer becomes increasingly intersubjective in maturity through her/his bodily practice, and that this can be understood in terms of the notions of intercorporeity, and of the “flesh” derived from the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty. I argue that ways of manifestation of intercorporeity in bodily experience are discursively elusive, drawing on two forms of bodily experience—body memory and ekstasis—and examining experiences narrated by mature dancers who were interviewed in my Ph. D. study on ageing, gender and dancers' bodies. I contend that the experience of ekstasis is the “glue” of a corporeal subjectivity that transforms itself through momentary identification with the world, that calls on the invisible as well as the visible. Body memory also challenges Western dualist conceptions of consciousness and bodily experience, and is more easily aligned with Eastern understandings of consciousness as embodied. Finally, I suggest that the concept of body memory is useful for imbuing the body-subject with a cohesion and authenticity through the body's capacity for nonconscious remembrance of movement through a proprioceptively stored “body history,” which enables the constitution of a coherent body-self in older age.     

社会网研究的架构:以组织理论与管理研究为例

本文认为社会网研究存在于七大领域之中。根据各研究领域,本文以组织与管理研究为例说明每一领域要研究的内容,并阐述了社会网结构与社会关系如何在集体行动与个体行动之间搭起一座桥,而其间的自组织现象更使得集体行动绝非个体行动的线性加总,而有着复杂现象的特性——不同的自组织会产生分歧的行动结果,相同的个体行动可能在不同的结构中产生完全相反的集体行动。解开此非线性行为之谜,正是未来社会网研究要继续努力的重要方向。     

社会发展:涵义、结构和功能

社会发展是一个评价性范畴,其本质是社会实践,其核心是人的发展,其形式是社会时间和社会空间.社会发展既有自己内在的基本要素,又有外在的基本形式,其结构是内在要素与外在形式的统一.社会发展有四大功能改造变革的功能、满足维护的功能、调控功能和创新功能.     

The Moral Arc as a Pretzel: Social Justice in the Trenches

This article explores how social justice has been defined in social work practice and contests the claim of some in our profession that direct practice and social welfare programs are incompatible with social justice, drawing on Foucault’s work on the inextricable link between power and knowledge. This article proposes that social justice “in the trenches” needs further theorizing. Literature supporting a view that direct practice is congruent with a social justice perspective is reviewed. Theory of recognition is introduced as a possible overarching theory to ground direct practice within a social justice framework.     

由心至身:阶层影响身体的社会心理机制

本研究应用2010年中国综合社会调查(CGSS2010)数据分析身体健康与社会阶层的关系及其社会心理机制。在区分身体健康和心理健康的基础上,整合社会学和心理学相关理智资源,将在社会科学领域中越来越具有理论意义的身体研究延伸至经验研究层面。研究表明,个体身体的健康程度在某种程度上是社会阶层在个体身上印刻的结果,而这种印刻过程是通过阶层认同、群际伤害、习得性无助和情感支持等心理过程得以达成。     

社会转型中的象征二元结构:以农民工群体为中心的微观权力分析

关于中国社会结构转型需要从微观和象征的角度予以理解。从“象征社会”的分析视角看,城市社会中的一系列媒介信息与象征标记往往成为社会身份的分类工具与生产机制。随着城乡社会流动的增加,农民工群体所承载的诸多象征标记使城乡界线由“城乡之间”移入“城市之中”,进而凸显出“城市中的城乡二元结构”。这种社会结构常常是文化性的、隐秘的,可用“象征二元结构”概括之。“象征二元结构”意为表达不同群体社会身份的象征系统及其运作呈现出二元对立或两极趋势,它彰显了不同群体在身份、地位、声望等方面的二分化与不平等。“象征二元结构”所包含的“问题化农村”与“梦想化城市”的逻辑成为国家建构现代性形象的手段与策略,以弥合“客观现代性”与“表达现代性”的距离。     

预防与抑制：社会资本在婚姻——暴力中的影响机制初探

本文使用一项大规模抽样调查数据,分析了女性的社会资本对婚姻暴力的影响及其机制。研究使用网络规模、网络结构和网络资源衡量社会资本的不同方面,结果发现,网络规模和网络结构对婚姻暴力的发生具有预防作用,网络资源没有预防作用;网络结构对婚姻暴力的严重程度没有明显影响,网络规模和网络资源对婚姻暴力升级有抑制作用,但存在明显的城乡差异。本文对这些结果作了一些理论性探讨。     

Social workers' attitudes towards female victims of domestic violence: A study in one English local authority

This paper aims to explore childcare social workers' attitudes towards female victims of domestic violence in England. The study discusses the concept of “mothering” and the processes through which mothers are potentially denigrated rather than empowered. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with social workers in a single child protection agency to investigate their perceptions of domestic violence, its gendered nature, and the implications for their practice. Participants' responses were coded using thematic analysis. The results demonstrated social workers' cognisance of the challenges domestic violence poses for abused mothers in terms of the ability to safely parent their children. Although the study is not without its limitations, it nevertheless indicates the need for a more holistic approach to safeguarding children within domestic violence settings. Moreover, it underscores the necessity for improving awareness about the prevalence and importance of domestic violence as a child safeguarding concern within social work training. Indeed, improved training would help to develop social workers' knowledge and understanding of service provisions and partner agencies, thus potentially improving practice in this critically important area.     

通向市场的社会实践理论：一种再转向

市场的社会结构理论对新古典市场理论构成了重大挑战,然而,以“嵌入性”假设为基础的结构主义分析方法又在很大程度上限制了该理论的发展。作为反思的市场的新制度主义理论,虽然旨在建立一种以扩展的“嵌入性”概念为基础的制度与结构的相互关系分析,但是,其并未能将此思想运用到对市场建构及其运作的研究中。而作为一种转向的经济制度的社会建构理论,虽然内含了若干弥补社会结构分析的概念,但是,其概念之间存在的方法论上的内在矛盾,又决定这种弥补或修正是有限度的。为此,本文主张,当代市场社会学进一步修正或转向,应当朝着建立一种基于特殊行动理论,即自我行动的逻辑的市场的社会实践理论迈进。     

改革深水区个体极端暴力事件应对与社会治理创新

中国改革进入深水区后个体极端暴力事件呈高发态势,暴露出的是政府与社会关系长期疏离致使社会进入转型期后一些社会个体境遇问题愈益突出和复杂,而基于传统管制思维的公共危机管理应对乏力。治本之策是立足“以人为本”,从国家治理体系和政府治理能力现代化层面推动创新社会管理向创新社会治理转变,构建善治意义上的治理服务型政府,通过改进社会治理方式解决公共安全问题,为民造福。     

Frontline social service as a battlefield: Insights from street-level bureaucrats' interactions with violent clients

How do different types of social service providers experience and respond to violent clients? The street-level social service environment is a fertile ground for manifestations of violence by dissatisfied clients. This study examines the violence, verbal, and physical, to which street-level bureaucrats are exposed, and the different coping strategies they adopt. We explore these issues using interviews with 71 Israeli social service providers. Our results indicate that while some street-level bureaucrats are tolerant of client violence, others refuse to accept it. The former weigh their words, express empathy and seek to satisfy demands. The latter recruit the support of additional players and server relationships.     

Social work education: state of the art

In assessing the appropriateness of contemporary social work education to its context, the article assumes that social work practice and education must relate to its social reality. The article argues that, since the 1970s, that reality has changed in relation to the role of the welfare state, perceptions of economic growth and the independence of the state. As a result, the roles of civil society, the community and welfare personnel have changed, with implications for social work. At the same time, the earlier tendency of social work to avoid the major social issues of the day is no longer appropriate, and the article outlines five major issues needing to be addressed by social work. In conclusion, the article presents four options that social work education should, as a total profession, address, if the profession is to play the roles demanded of it by its contemporary social reality.     

Risk and Protective Factors for Depressive Symptoms Among Indigenous Older Adults: Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and Social Support

Research on depression and intimate partner violence (IPV) experienced by Indigenous older adults is virtually nonexistent. Given the associations between IPV and depression and their disproportionately high rates among Indigenous peoples in a context of historical oppression, the purpose of this inquiry is to examine how IPV and social support are associated with depressive symptoms for Indigenous older adults. We expand the knowledge base on IPV in later life, which primarily focuses on female samples, by including older men. We predicted: (a) IPV will be positively associated with depressive symptoms and (b) levels of social support will be negatively associated with depressive symptoms. Hierarchical regression analyses of data from a sample of Indigenous older adults (N = 233) in the Upper Midwest indicated that physical aggression (but not psychological aggression, sexual coercion, injury, or negotiation) was positively associated with depressive symptoms, whereas social support was negatively associated with depressive symptoms.     

Supporting Family Members to View the Body after a Violent or Sudden Death: A Role for Social Work

Supporting family members to view the body of their relative after a traumatic death is a critical role for social workers in hospital and morgue settings; however, this role has had little attention in the literature. In-depth interviews with 48 bereaved family members explored their experiences of helpful and unhelpful aspects of support when viewing the body of their deceased relative. A central theme of “support as a relational interaction” was identified. Aspects of the connection and communication valued by participants within this relational interaction included: “permissions and possibilities,” “information and preparation,” “presenting with care,” “time and timing,” and “tuning to family.” These results are considered with grief practice and theory, to suggest the need for social workers to actively engage with working in the interface between the deceased body and the grieving family. This includes advocating a private location for time with the body and using interpersonal skills to provide paced and dosed information for preparation to view that is consistent with the capacities and needs of the individual and family.     

我国中间阶层的发展现状与未来中国社会结构走势

在世界中间阶层迅速扩展的同时,随着我国社会主义市场经济的发展,我国社会的中间阶层也发展起来,他们在许多方面逐渐显现出一些既不同于西方社会的新中产阶级,也有别于当今中国社会的其他各个阶层的新特征。中间阶层将成为未来中国社会结构中的主流。     

Mental health in women experiencing intimate partner violence as the efficiency goal of social welfare functions

In this article, we propose that psychological goal functions, such as mental health, as well as income are important elements of social welfare. We examine the relationship between income, depression, social welfare (food stamps and Medicaid) and intimate partner violence, using a person-orientation in a sample from the United States. Data from four time points of a longitudinal study of intimate partner violence are analysed. Clusters of women are derived based on whether or not they received or did not receive food stamps and Medicaid at each of the four time periods. These clusters differ on income and intimate partner violence as well as the trajectory of depression. However, a series of linear models suggests that only intimate partner violence (not income and social welfare variables) predict the development and level of depression over time. The effects of the social welfare variables we examined seem to be domain specific and do not influence the mental health of women receiving these services.