Psychoanalytic Sociology and the Interpretation of Emotion

Simon Clarke, Psychoanalytic Sociology and the Interpretation of Emotion, pp. 145–163.
In this paper I explore the sociological study of emotion, contrasting constructionist and psychoanalytic accounts of envy as an emotion. I seek not to contra each vis-à-vis the other but to establish some kind of synthesis in a psychoanalytic sociology of emotion. I argue that although the constructionist approach to emotion gives us valuable insights into the social and moral dimensions of human encounters, it is unable to address the level of emotional intensity found for example in murderous rage against ethnic groups, or the emotional and often self destructive elements of terrorism. Psychoanalytic ideas do engage with these dynamics, and as such, a theory that synthesises both the social construction of reality and the psychodynamics of social life is necessary if we are to engage with these destructive emotions.     

Spatial Economy and Integrative Labor in Turkey: An Ecological,Modernization, and World-System Investigation

Abstract

General theories about urban primacy and world-system/dependency describe spatial economy in the ideal-typic developing nation as distorted and fragmented. In applying these notions to the experience of Turkey, we conclude that both urban primacy and foreign influence have been on the decline due to the emergence of a strong central government. This research views the spatial economy of Turkey as constrained by the ecological variables of (1) system size and (2) contact technology and by the level of modernization in a province. Three cross-sections of data on provinces are used to uncover the determinants of two indicators of integration: administrative occupations and integrative industries. The data analysis produces three major results. First, there is no systematic relationship between the size of a province and its level of labor performing integrative tasks. Second, more modernized provinces possess proportionately higher levels of integrative activity. Third, contact technology is not a major determinant of the level of integrative activity. Implications of these findings for the perspectives that motivated this research are discussed.     

SUBORDINATING THE SOCIAL?

The paper explores the transformation of welfare capitalism through the idea that it centres on processes of ‘subordinating the social’. Variations on this theme are examined, involving different conceptions of the social and its changing relationship to the economic. The paper then explores how these variants of a dominant tendency co-exist, and uses Raymond Williams's distinction between dominant, residual and emergent tendencies to reflect on the contested and unfinished transformations of the social.     

Becoming Pregnant

This article considers the implications of the presence of Juno's pregnant girl body in the film Juno (2007). The narrative follows the high school student Juno's pregnancy, her decision to have the baby adopted, and its birth as she attempts to determine her feelings for her friend Bleeker. As a pregnant girl, Juno persists in a state of liminality and disrupts linear ideas of becoming: becoming woman, becoming mother, becoming feminist. Having considered contemporary discourses of pregnancy, I explore Juno's representation of the pregnant body as both abject and humorous, recognising the restrictions upon girls' sexuality and moments in which they are contested. I then move to consider Juno in relation to discourses of risk and responsibility, acknowledging the ways in which the film simultaneously perpetuates and critiques the presumption that teenagers make bad parents. I argue that analysing the juncture of girl and pregnancy represented in Juno enables a move beyond simplistic expectations of “normal” feminine girlhood to recognise it as complex and messy.     

Will You Still Need Me,Will You Still Feed Me?—Paying for Care in Old Age

A major issue for social policy in the twenty-first century will be providing good-quality support and care for older people. However, recent debate about this has been driven more by ideology than by evidence. This paper examines the socio-economic, demographic and policy changes that are influencing the debate, and outlines findings from current research on attitudes towards financial planning for care in old age. This shows that the majority of people feel that the state should provide or pay for care for older people, either through a means-tested system or one which provides some basic level of protection which people can choose to enhance through their own means. However, only a minority would be willing to pay themselves for this, either directly through increased taxation or indirectly through reduced prospects of inheritance of housing capital. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of these findings.     

An Application of Non–Ignorable Non–Response Models for Gross Flows Estimation in the British Labour Force Survey

In previous work, non–response adjustments based on calibration weighting have been proposed for estimating gross flows in economic activity status from the quarterly Labour Force Survey. However, even after adjustment there may be residual non–response bias. The weighting is based on estimates of cross–sectional distributions and so cannot adjust for bias if non–response is associated with individual flows between quarters. To investigate this possibility, it was decided to apply models for estimating gross flows when non–response depends on the flows. This paper has two aims: first to describe the many problems encountered when attempting to implement these models; and second to outline a solution to the major problem that arose, namely, that comparing the model results directly with the weighting results was not possible. A simulation study was used to compare the results indirectly and it was tentatively concluded that non–response is not strongly associated with the flows and that the weighting provides an adequate adjustment.