What Hindu Sati can teach us about the sociocultural and social psychological dynamics of suicide

By leveraging the case of Hindu sati, this paper elucidates the ways in which structure and culture condition suicidal behavior by way of social psychological and emotional dynamics. Conventionally, sati falls under Durkheim's discussion of altruistic suicides, or the self‐sacrifice of underindividuated or excessively integrated peoples like widows in traditional societies. In light of the fact that Durkheim's interpretation was based on uneven data, nineteenth century Eurocentric beliefs, and a theoretical framework that can no longer resist modification and elaboration, by reconsidering sati it is possible to sketch a new model that strengthens Durkheim's theory by making it more robust and generalizable. The following model is built on five principles. First, integration and regulation are not distinct causal forces, but overlapping contextual conditions. Second, to better explain the variation in suicidality across time and space, we must also pay attention to culture as it provides the underlying meanings of suicide that can increase the odds a person or class of persons become suicidal or are protected against suicidality. Third, structure still matters, but in many cases, the role power and power‐differentials play must be considered. Fourth, understanding why and how people choose suicide depends on incorporating identity and status processes. Fifth, because the expression of social emotions like shame are patterned by structural and cultural conditions, to understand how suicidality is socioculturally patterned we must further explore the link between identity/status, social emotions, and structure and culture.     

Arguments for the cognitive social sciences

This article analyses the arguments for the integration between the cognitive and social sciences. We understand interdisciplinary integration as an umbrella term that includes different ways of bringing scientific disciplines together. Our focus is on four arguments based on different ideas about how the cognitive sciences should be integrated with the social sciences: explanatory grounding, theoretical unification, constraint and complementarity. These arguments not only provide different reasons why the cognitive social sciences—i.e. disciplines and research programs that aim to integrate the social sciences with the cognitive sciences—are needed but also subscribe to different visions as to how these sciences might look like. We discuss each argument in three stages: First, we provide a concrete example of the argument. Second, we reconstruct the argument by specifying its premises, inferential structure and conclusion. Third, we evaluate the argument by analyzing its presuppositions, the plausibility of its premises, the soundness of its inferences and potential conceptual ambiguities. In the final discussion, we compare these arguments and identify the most compelling reasons why the cognitive social sciences are needed.     

乡村振兴背景下“共同富裕”的实践探索与理论机制

“共同富裕”实现与否的关键在于乡村发展,而实现生活富裕原本就是国家乡村振兴战略“二十字方针”不可或缺的组成部分。基于长期田野调研,发现在探索“共同富裕”的道路上,浙江版“山海协作”具有可资借鉴的样本价值。在一定程度上,“山海协作”提供了促进共同富裕可复制、可推广的工作经验,其实践探索与对应学理机制值得进一步探讨。     

知识生产视野的媒介社会学历史与发展：《媒介社会学》漫谈

学术的生产传播受到宏观层面的机会结构、中观层面的社区资源,以及微观层面的个人获取资源机会的影响。美国媒介社会学发展深受芝加哥学派和哥伦比亚学派学术中心变化的影响,社会学抛弃了传播与媒介研究的“遗弃说”忽略了众多社会学理论对媒介社会学研究的作用。媒介社会学的机构性发展状况与其日益重要的社会影响力不成比例,该学科应成为一个由问题驱动的网络跨学科领域,允许学者利用学科间的结构洞进行综合研究和创新。     

媒介社会学的思想与学术

作为一个交叉领域,媒介社会学似乎时刻都需要界定自身。“同心圆”意象有助于把握媒介社会学的知识和学术状况,激发理论、方法与议题层面的对话。传播学百科和社会学手册中对媒介社会学的概括,构成了有趣的对照,也揭示出媒介研究视角和社会学视角下“媒介社会学”的内在差异和张力。在媒介社会学的理论资源中,既有“思想”也有“学术”,但重要的并非所谓“思想与学术之争”,或者在二者之间选边站,而是如何从“思想”中找回活生生的“学术”,持续不断地叩问思想或经典及其背后的假设,进而探讨媒介的社会逻辑与社会的媒介逻辑的交错。     

《诗刊》(1957-1964)"编后记"的社会学解读

<诗刊>从57年至64年发表的共13期的"编后记"反映了国家对诗歌创作的管理与监督,体现出国家对一个时期文艺创作状况的基本看法,是话语权力拥有者根据需要而向外界提供的一种特殊文本.在这个特殊文本中反映出的社会环境、社会情感和社会功能能够加深我们对1957年至1964年这一阶段社会形态的理解并对此进行重新审视.     

海上保险法国际协调的必要性及前景分析

分析各国海上保险法不统一给海上保险业带来的不利影响,探讨传统国际私法途径和海上保险业自律方法的缺陷,指出海上保险法的国际协调是海上保险法历史发展的必然,并对海上保险法的国际协调运动的前景进行了展望。     

Social context and network formation: An experimental study

Recently, there has been increasing interest in determining which social network structures emerge as a consequence of the conscious actions of actors. Motivated by the belief that “networks matter” in reaching personal objectives, it is a natural assumption that actors try to optimize their network position. Starting from the notion that an optimal network position depends on the social context, we examine how actors change their networks to reach better positions in various contexts. Distinguishing between three social contexts (a neutral context, a context in which closed triads are costly, and a context in which closed triads are beneficial), theoretical results predict that emerging networks are contingent on the incentives that are present in these contexts. Experiments are used to test whether networks that are theoretically predicted to be stable are also stable experimentally. We find that emerging networks correspond to a large extent with the predicted networks. Consequently, they are contingent on the incentives present in various social contexts. In addition, we find that subjects tend to form specific stable networks with a higher probability than predicted, namely, efficient networks and networks in which everyone is equally well off.     

音乐社会学视域下当代高校校园歌曲发展探析

在当代高校校园中,校园歌曲的创作、传播一直活跃在校园文化的舞台上,其背后折射出深层次的文化现象和人类社会生活方式。校园歌曲既不乏社会建设层面的重要性,其文化又具有特殊性。在发展方向上,校园歌曲可以从大众文化的本质发端,继续拓展其审美、娱乐功能;在多元文化的冲击下,体现对学生群体精神的关注;从音乐本体的深度着手,挖掘民族特色和传承文化传统。     

环境社会学与环境友好型社会建设

环境社会学研究中所体现出的以下一些思想为环境友好型社会建设提供了学理支撑第一,环境社会学强调环境问题的社会原因;第二,环境社会学强调社会原因的综合性;第三,环境社会学致力于推动缓解环境问题的社会变革与建设。相应地,我国环境友好型社会建设的丰富实践,也必将从很多方面促进我国环境社会学的发展。