Supervision und Coaching als Entscheidungsprozesse

Supervision and coaching have, among others, a threefold function. They are used for the analysis (elimination and clarification) as well as the development of possible action alternatives. The main question within the clarification phase is often which alternative, from the two or more available ones shall be chosen for its best potential for success and development. In this study a situation is analyzed where a coaching partner has to decide between a series of alternatives otherwise somebody else would take the decision instead of him. Supervision and coaching used as decision processes show in this case that the coach repeatedly focuses on the available options and assists in the decision taking process, guaranteeing by this his own action space.     

The politics of collective repair: examining object-relations in a postwork society

In this paper, we look at repair as an emergent focus of recent activism in affluent societies, where a number of groups are reclaiming practices of repair as a form of political and ecological action. Ranging from those that fight for legislative change to those groups who are trying to support ecological and social change through everyday life practices, repair is beginning to surface tensions in everyday life and as such poses opportunities for its transformation. We survey a few of the practices that make up this movement in its various articulations, to take stock of their current political import. While we suggest that these practices can be seen as an emergent lifestyle movement, they should not be seen as presenting a unified statement. Rather, we aim to show that they articulate a spectrum of political positions, particularly in relation to the three specific issues of property, pedagogy and sociality. These three dimensions are all facets of current internal discrepancies of repair practices and moreover express potential bifurcations as this movement evolves. Drawing on a diverse methodology that includes discourse analysis and participant observation, we suggest some of the ways in which this growing area of activity could play a significant role in resisting the commodification of the everyday and inventing postwork alternatives.     

Individualisation, choice and structure: a discussion of current trends in sociological analysis

In this paper we seek to explore a tendency in current sociological thought to highlight notions of choice and autonomy in writings about contemporary Western societies. We wish to draw attention to some of the consequences of leaving out discussions of the structural aspects of societies and people's lives, for individuals as well as for the development and application of sociological theory and its ability to understand the connection between history and individual biography. Our discussion is based on qualitative research that we have conducted in recent years, and draws on focus groups with young people in Norway and Britain. From this critique we seek to demonstrate how concepts that take account of context and structure as well individual subjectivities can create a better ‘fit’ with complex and diverse realties.     

Nonbiologic Objects as Actors

We generally understand interactions between human actors and nonbiologic objects (NBOs) as being indirect, with the human actor acting for the NBO and using the NBO as a “thing.” Under certain circumstances, however, human actors enter into direct interaction with NBOs and take on extra work in this process. Actors must “do mind” for the nonbiologic other to perceive “another” with whom it is possible to interact. The fiction that mind can exist where thought cannot be present is counterintuitive, making this process tenuous and heavily dependent upon the circumstances at hand. Four successive contingencies must be present to make possible the perceptual shift from object to actor. First, the actor must perceive the object in question as capable of independent action, whether or not the human actor initiates said action. Second, this separate and active status must become apparent through actions that threaten the human actor's desired goals. Third, these goals must be of sufficient urgency to warrant continuing in direct interaction with the object rather than reverting to nonanthropomorphized normal interaction. Finally, the object at hand must be necessary for completing the desired task.     

Three scenarios for the future of work

After presenting a historical overview of the concept of work and the different meanings that it has acquired over the centuries, the author analyses the value it holds for Europeans, and the impact on work and employment of the popular rhetoric about a technological revolution and its “inevitable” consequences. She then considers the future of work in the light of three scenarios: a “dismantling of labour law”, a “technological revolution” (where automation brings an end to employment), and an “environmental transition”. She argues that the latter is compatible with the imperative to take action on climate change and the expectations placed in work and employment.     

Beyond liberal vs liberating: women’s economic empowerment in the United Nations’ Women,Peace and Security agenda

This article is about women’s economic empowerment within the United Nations (UN) Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. Based on analysis of the core agenda-setting documents, it traces where two different versions of women’s economic empowerment, “liberal” (including women in the formal economy) and “liberating” (women collectively mobilizing to challenge the status quo), appear in the WPS agenda. It argues that the two exist in uneasy tension in the UN’s aspirations for women’s economic security post-war, but that when it comes to actual activities and achievements, the liberal version dominates over the liberating version. The article argues that it is important not to overstate the divide between the two approaches, and that the seeds of a liberating approach can be found within the liberal. It is initiatives to facilitate women’s economic empowerment that contain opportunities for collective action to transform the structures of the economy that WPS advocates should advocate. This would strengthen the WPS agenda and its ability to contribute to security as feminists envisage it, as encompassing freedom from want as well as freedom from fear.     

Water Insecurity: A Case for Social Policy Action by Social Workers

Abstract

This article discusses the nationally and internationally urgent water insecurity issue, and why it represents a highly relevant area for social policy action by social workers, both at local and global levels. Drawing on secondary data analysis, the paper explores the nature and scope of water insecurity as a global social work issue, discusses its social policy dimensions, and suggests a framework for social policy action by social workers. It argues that, due to the complex nature of the water insecurity issue and its consequences, particularly on the poor and disadvantaged groups, and on ecosystems, it is critical to analyse it from conservation, distribution, and access perspectives and to act. Social workers need to think creatively about the application of their knowledge, skills, and virtues to the water insecurity issue in order to bring about necessary changes in human and institutional behaviour relating to water.     

Lying in defence of privacy: anthropological and methodological observations

This article deals with three topics: lying, privacy and anthropological research. Their complex intertwinement is analysed using fieldwork notes and through engagement with relevant literature from various disciplines. Experiences of privacy, among researchers as well as among respondents, is underexposed in the literature on social research methodology. Furthermore, lying is sometimes the only effective way to protect one’s privacy. Starting from a research experience with lying respondents in Ghana, I discuss the various circumstances and reasons that lead to lying in defence of privacy, and in particular, concerns about respect in the context of research. Next, I return to the concept of privacy and explicate cultural variations in the experience of privacy. I then look at the consequences for research ethics. The paradoxical conclusion is that lying, a discredited tool of deception, is often applied in order to uphold a widely accepted basic human necessity of life – privacy. Qualitative social researchers should take these concerns about privacy and respect into account and engage in conversations that do not threaten the security of their interlocutors.     

Effects of Perceived Economic Harms and Benefits on Issue Involvement,Use of Information Sources,and Actions: A Study in Risk Communication

Using a telephone survey of 203 residents in Point Comfort and Port Lavaca, Texas, we examined the effect of perceived economic benefits or losses on issue involvement and motivation to use information sources and take action. Results indicate that perceptions of the effect that a chemical plant—as a source of risk—has on economic benefits or losses increase cognitive involvement and motivate people to strategically use information and take action. A curvilinear relation was found between involvement and economic benefits. People who perceive financial impact show high involvement (both positive and negative); those who perceive little or no economic impact experience lower involvement. People with high negative involvement are more likely to take action against the plant and become activists. As the basis of involvement, we asked people to consider financial loss or gain, as well as environrnental impact. We also compared the information-use and action-taking options of general publics to involved publics. This analysis is interpreted to confirm and expand situational theory.     

The primacy of mediated action in sociocultural studies

After a brief overview of the reasons for using “sociocultural,” as opposed to “cultural‐historical,” “sociohistorical,” or some other term, it is argued that an adequate account of the agenda for sociocultural research must be grounded in the notion of “mediated action.” Drawing on the writings of Vygotsky, Bakhtin, and others it is argued that mediated action must be understood as involving an irreducible tension between the mediational means provided by the sociocultural setting, on the one hand, and the unique, contextualized use of these means in carrying out particular concrete actions, on the other. In this view, any attempt to reduce the basic unit of analysis of mediated action to the mediational means or to the individual in isolation is misguided. It is suggested that by using mediated action as a unit of analysis the human sciences will be in a better position to address some of today's most pressing social issues.     

Cognitive Processes: Their Influence on Varying Pathways to Recovery

ABSTRACT

Cognitive processes have been known to have a significant impact on recovery from alcohol and other drugs. From a study of self-changers (natural recoverers) without treatment or self-help groups, analysis of the data has identified beliefs that influenced the change experience–from the evaluation of reasons for drinking and the consequences that instigated the motivation and determination to take action, to the individually-conceived strategies to implement and maintain abstinence, and the perceived consequences of abstaining. Belief systems and strategies of recovery are compared across three pathways to recovery–self-change, cognitively-oriented treatment, and Alcoholics Anonymous.     

From personal troubles to public compassion: charity shop volunteering as a practice of care

This article analyses charity shop volunteering in the UK as an instance of individual commitment towards organizations devoted to combating suffering. Drawing on semi‐structured interviews focused on motives, the paper argues that some respondents found in volunteer work a way of regaining meaning, structure and belonging after experiences of social dislocation such as retirement and bereavement. The transition from social dislocation to ontological security via volunteering illustrates the way in which ‘the social’ – as expressed in fellowship, laughter, work, organizations and institutions – moderates charitable practice. From this perspective, volunteering appears as a relational, processual and affective practice of care; and as a sympathy catalyst – an institution that facilitates interpersonal sympathy exchanges and support for compassionate goals. The paper endorses a view of human subjectivity which takes seriously both human vulnerability and resilience – victimhood and agency – as well as the relevance of suffering and flourishing for social action. In so doing, the paper sheds light on the link between individual biographies and the institutionalized efforts to alleviate strangers' suffering that Natan Sznaider has termed ‘public compassion’.     

Vygotsky’s Anomalous Spinozism

Abstract

This article exposes sources and influences of Spinoza in some of Vygotsky’s works, keeping in mind its meaning for the creation of a “new man” in Soviet Socialism. We try to understand the features of Vygotsky´s reading of Spinoza in an active dialogue with contemporary studies of 17th-century philosophy and its consequences for a materialist psychology. In this direction, we discuss references to Spinoza done by Vygotsky in the context of the latter’s argumentative style as well as studies of Engels, Plekhanov and Deborin as possible sources in Vygotsky´s approach to Spinoza. Paraphrasing Negri´s take on Spinoza as the “wild anomaly” of the 17th-century, we argue that Vygotsky performed an anomalous reading of Spinoza. In spite of the similarities with Deborin´s view of the modern philosopher, Vygotsky had plans that were more ambitious for Spinozist materialism and determinism. We trace the anomalous way in that the latter´s materialism reveals itself as one of randomness and contingency, against a rigidly structured projection of state, society, or model of human beings. We cannot figure out exactly which “model of man“ Vygotsky had in mind in his take on Spinoza, but we are able to recognize some core aspects in his reasoning. Roughly, these include the unity between mind and body, which can take the most diverse forms in the common body of multitude; the bases of consciousness in the affection; the integration, in the psychological systems, of affect, will, and desire; and the Spinozan ethics as a reference to life.     

Beyond the Numbers: Institutional Influences on Experiences With Diversity on Elite College Campuses

In this article we bring together the burgeoning qualitative literature on the socializing influence of residential colleges, the survey‐based literature on campus racial climate, and the literature on diversity work in organizations to analyze how two elite universities’ approaches to diversity shape students’ experiences with and feelings about diversity. We employ 77 in‐depth interviews with undergraduates at two elite universities. While the universities appear comparable on measures of student demographics and overall diversity infrastructure, they take different approaches. These varying approaches lead to important differences in student perspectives. At the university that takes a power analysis and minority support approach, students who participate in minority‐oriented activities develop a critical race theory perspective, while their white and nonparticipating minority peers frequently feel alienated from that programming. At the university that takes an integration and celebration approach, most students embrace a cosmopolitan perspective, celebrating diversity while paying less attention to power and resource differences between racial groups. The findings suggest that higher education institutions can influence the race frames of students as well as their approaches to multiculturalism, with implications for their views on a variety of important diversity‐related issues on campus and beyond.     

Market Rationality Inside Voluntary Sector: An Analysis of Five Organizations in Rio de Janeiro,Brazil

What we now understand as rational and logical in today’s world provides a mental scheme to take action, based on a framework of premises and values. These rules aim to maximize the utility of consequences, despite of any subjective value. Weber (Economy and Society, 1978) classified this scheme as an “instrumental rationality”, characterized by being guided by the goals, means, and consequence of the action. On the other hand, he also defined “substantive rationality”, postulated on the values of the subject, and not guided by any consequences of action. This study acknowledges that NGOs (non-governmental organizations) must belong to a field other than that of economic businesses, because they are based on different rationalities, especially when they encompass the observation in organizations that work for social transformation. A field study was made with five nonprofit organizations whose stated goals were social transformation, seeking to identify influences that the adoption of instrumental rationality imposes on accomplishing the expected objectives for these organizations. Contingencies were found that benefit from using instrumentality in such organizations, such as the need for self-subsistence, the area where they work, size of the organization, influence of the leader and so on. The conclusion is that the lack of consciousness of the market’s influence on them very often causes them to uncritically and bluntly absorb the typical organizational dynamics of economic business, which has strong potential to corrupt their conceptual motivations, when guiding them strategically through the consequences of actions.     

上海市民公共安全感调查报告

近年来上海公共安全状况总体可控,市民对上海公共安全状况认可度较高,但综合评分有逐渐下滑态势。上海市民公共安全意识有所增强,但公共安全知识水平有待提高,应对能力还需加强。政府管理部门有必要密切关注社会不同群体对公共安全问题的态度和倾向,以及各类社会问题及其可能引发的社会风险,号准城市安全的“脉搏”,进而采取相应的预防和应对措施,通过营造安全稳定的社会环境,提升市民的安全成喃诫市确丌肄垃右羼打下略壹篡础     

Computing brains: learning algorithms and neurocomputation in the smart city

ABSTRACT

This article examines IBM’s ‘Smarter Education’ program, part of its wider ‘Smarter Cities’ agenda, focusing specifically on its learning analytics applications (based on machine learning algorithms) and cognitive computing developments for education (which take inspiration from neuroscience for the design of brain-like neural networks algorithms and neurocomputational devices). The article conceptualizes the relationship between learning algorithms, neuroscience, and the new learning spaces of the city by combining the notion of programmable ‘code/space’ with ideas about the ‘social life of the brain’ to suggest that new kinds of ‘brain/code/spaces’ are being developed where the environment itself is imagined to possess brain-like functions of learning and ‘human qualities’ of cognition performed by algorithmic processes. IBM’s ambitions for education constitute a sociotechnical imaginary of a ‘cognitive classroom’ where the practices associated with data analytics and cognitive computing in the smart city are being translated into the neuropedagogic brain/code/spaces of the school, with significant consequences for how learners are to be addressed and acted upon. The IBM imaginary of Smarter Education is one significant instantiation of emerging smart cities that are to be governed by neurocomputational processes modelled on neuroscientific insights into the brain’s plasticity for learning, and part of a ‘neurofuture’ in-the-making where nonconscious algorithmic ‘computing brains’ embedded in urban space are intended to interact with human cognition and brain functioning.     

Avoiding drunk drivers: the level and sources of protective behavior

Drunk driving has been a concern for a decade and a half, with most discussions of its control centering on offenders. Research on the extent to which citizens engage in behaviors to avoid becoming victims of drunk drivers, however, is in short supply. This project examines the level of participation in protective behaviors, and it assesses the potential sources of self- and other-protection. Our findings indicate that substantial proportions of citizens take action to protect themselves and others from victimization by drunk drivers. We also find limited support for the fear/victimization model and no support for a collective security explanation of protective behavior.     

国际非政府组织与非传统安全

由于非传统安全主要关注非国家的非军事、非政治领域的问题,一直面临着"谁来维护非传统安全"的主体缺失困境。国家虽是国际社会的首要行为体,但并不适合作为非传统安全的首要维护主体。政府间国际组织也无法避免类似问题。在这种情况下,国际非政府组织作为一种基于公民自愿的跨国组合,以其公益性、软性治理等特征,体现出其作为非传统安全"天然促进者"的角色,但其在能力、效力、合法性方面的缺陷显而易见,未能充分担任起促进非传统安全的主体角色,不能因此否定国家在维护非传统安全方面所起的作用。只有通过安全治理框架,协同发挥非政府组织与国家、政府间国际组织的作用,才能更好地维护非传统安全。