The politics of figurational sociology

Figurational sociology is so often said to distance itself from the political issues of the day. Whilst this is certainly true with regards to the present day, it in no way follows that figurational sociology seeks to distance itself from politics as such. On the contrary, as will be shown within this paper, politics is and always has been a central concern for figurational sociologists. This political concern, however, is an exclusively long term concern; figurational sociology purposively postpones present political engagement for the sake of developing a sufficiently detached sociology that would eventually facilitate in the delivery of effective practical and political measures. This paper discusses the stakes involved in, as well as the reasoning behind, the assignment of such a place to politics. It gestures towards two distinct and separate concepts of social control that exist within figurational sociology and then proceeds to offer a critical consideration of the consequences that can be derived from any temporal demarcation of the political done on their basis. The paper ultimately suggests that figurational sociology's position on politics raises a series of as yet unanswered questions, questions which can no longer remain unanswered by the contemporary figurational sociologist.     

Maximizing Probability Bounds Under Moment-Matching Restrictions

The problem of characterizing a distribution by its moments dates to work by Chebyshev in the mid-nineteenth century. There are clear (and close) connections with characteristic functions, moment spaces, quadrature, and other very classical mathematical pursuits. Lindsay and Basak posed the specific question of how far from normality could a distribution be if it matches k normal moments. They provided a bound on the maximal difference in cdfs, and implied that these bounds were attained. It will be shown here that in fact the bound is not attained if the number of even moments matched is odd. An explicit solution is developed as a symmetric distribution with a finite number of mass points when the number of even moments matched is even, and this bound for the even case is shown to hold as an explicit limit for the subsequent odd case. As Lindsay noted, the discrepancies can be sizable even for a moderate number of matched moments. Some comments on implications are proffered.     

Circuits of schooling: A sociological exploration of parental choice of school in social class contexts

Parental choice of school is one of the main platforms of government education policy and is the centre piece of the Parents Charter. But sociological understanding of choice and choice-making is woefully underdeveloped. This paper draws on an ESRC study of market forces in education to explore social class variations in choice of school in one specific locality. The complexity of choice-making is portrayed using data from interviews with parents and it is argued that middle-class parents are taking full advantage of ‘the market’ to sustain or re-assert their class advantages.     

Coupling Social Solidarity and Social Harmony in Hong Kong

The various forms of social solidarity are empirically uncharted, especially in relation to social harmony. With respect to resource exchange theory, inclusive solidarity or intergroup acceptance is more conducive to social harmony than mechanical, organic, distributive, and dialogic forms of solidarity. The theoretical prediction holds in the present study that surveyed 1,093 Hong Kong Chinese. Importantly, one??s experience of inclusive solidarity tended to contribute to one??s practice of social harmony and experience of societal social harmony. Moreover, results show that experiences of organic, distributive, and dialogic solidarity also appeared to induce the practice of social harmony. In contrast, mechanical solidarity did not seem to be helpful for sustaining social harmony. Different forms of solidarity thereby exhibit differential impacts on social harmony.     

Maternal mental health in Australia and New Zealand: A review of longitudinal studies

AimThe aim of this paper is to describe the factors that impact on the mental health of Australian and New Zealand (NZ) women in the perinatal period (pregnancy and the year following birth), and to determine the impact of perinatal mental health on women's subsequent health by summarising findings from prospective longitudinal studies conducted in Australia and NZ.MethodsA systematic search was conducted using the databases, Scopus, Medline, PsychInfo and Health Source to identify prospective longitudinal studies focused on women's social and emotional health in the perinatal period. Forty-eight papers from eight longitudinal studies were included.ResultsThe proportion of women reporting depressive symptoms in the first year after birth was between 10 and 20% and this has remained stable over 25 years. The two strongest predictors for depression and anxiety were previous history of depression and poor partner relationship. Importantly, women's mood appears to be better in the first year after birth, when compared to pregnancy and five years later. Becoming a mother at a young age is by itself not a risk factor unless coupled with social disadvantage. Women report a high number of stressors in pregnancy and following birth and the rate of intimate partner violence reported is worryingly high.ConclusionMidwives have an important role in the identification, support and referral of women experiencing mental health problems. As many women do not seek help from mental health services, the potential for a known midwife to impact on women's mental health warrants further examination.     

Assessing Value Differences Between Leaders of Two Social Venture Types: Benefit Corporations and Nonprofit Organizations

This study considers key value differences between leaders of two types of social ventures: for-profit social benefit corporations and nonprofit organizations. The research question asks to what degree the value sets of leaders of benefit corporations are congruent with those of similarly situated individuals in nonprofit organizations. The results show the values of leaders working in benefit corporations and nonprofit organizations are in many ways aligned, but there are notable statistical differences. A sectoral association of values is also present with employees in both types of organization, especially when the previous work experience of employees is considered.     

Reputation Work in Selling Film and Television: Life in the Hollywood Talent Industry

Reputation is an important feature in the interactional contexts of work in “culture industries” such as film and television production. But few accounts have examined how reputations are produced in the everyday worlds in which cultural producers live and work. This paper introduces the concept of “reputation work” to describe the front stage and back stage interactional processes through which cultural producers continuously strive to produce their reputations. Drawing on participant observation data gathered at a Hollywood talent management company and a business school course on the talent industry, this paper shows how Hollywood agents and managers perform four types of reputation work. These include how Hollywood talent representatives work to adhere to institutionalized conventions for reputable physical settings, group contexts, giftgiving practices, and selfhoods. Such reputation work performances are done for the sake of “impression management,” but show how this strategic interaction is governed by industry-wide institutions that govern legitimacy.

Into the divide: community identities and the visualisation of place

This article discusses the experience of place in a profoundly divided urban area of Sheffield. At a time when the gap between affluence and poverty has reached its widest point since the 1960s, this article explores the relationship between individuals and their sense of place and of the trenchant divisions separating communities. The study employs various methods but centres upon the use of hand-drawn maps; creating a dialogue between the interviewers and a number of local residents. These maps and the accompanying commentaries demonstrate the diverse individual sense of a particular place and a dialectical sense of space. The resulting picture is one of both the persistence of historical divisions, suggesting regulation and control through planning and policing, but also of complex entanglements of social identities, habitus and place which defy easy categorisation.