Limits may be placed on sociability through a sense of social superiority (middle‐class people separating themselves from working‐class on a housing estate), through strength of…
Abstract
Limits may be placed on sociability through a sense of social superiority (middle‐class people separating themselves from working‐class on a housing estate), through strength of sociability within the nuclear family limiting outside contacts, or through placing a value on solitude and personal privacy. Inadequate attention has been paid to those who actually “choose” social isolation; in particular, the group formed by those who never marry but choose the single life and its attendant type of social isolation would be worth study, giving consideration to the reasons behind such choices.
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This article deals with a social phenomenon in which individuals organise locally to promote their personal safety.
This chapter reviews the conceptual developments in neighbour studies, charting the shift and bringing together older work on the ‘distance-closeness’ dynamic of neighbour…
Abstract
This chapter reviews the conceptual developments in neighbour studies, charting the shift and bringing together older work on the ‘distance-closeness’ dynamic of neighbour relations with newer ‘equality of neighbours’ approaches. It seeks to empirically extend the sociology of neighbours through an analysis of the experiential narratives of neighbours living in contexts of urban multiculture in the United Kingdom. Drawing on two previous studies of urban multicultural social life and a small street study of neighbours in London, this chapter explores the everyday ‘publicness’ of the neighbour and examines the ways in which recent work on social infrastructure can be productively applied to neighbour relations. This chapter concludes that where cultural and social difference is a very ordinary – although not necessarily easy – experience, neighbour relations offer the potential to work as radical sites of pragmatic multiculturalism.
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The purpose of this paper is to serve as a commentary on the work reported by Hilary Johnson and her colleagues, which used partnership working as a lever for developing community…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to serve as a commentary on the work reported by Hilary Johnson and her colleagues, which used partnership working as a lever for developing community inclusion for people with complex communication needs.
Design/methodology/approach
The commentary uses the wider literature on social inclusion as well as narrative from current policy in England on the development of “Transforming Care Partnerships” to explore some of the issues raised by the research.
Findings
The conclusion is that physical integration is only the starting point for a vision where people with the most complex needs live the “included life” which evolves by developing partnership working and reciprocal relationships between people with and without disabilities.
Originality/value
This paper attempts to highlight relevant key research in the area of social integration as a way of reviewing the likely impact of recent policy on the lives of people with intellectual disabilities and the most complex needs.
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My main point is that the 1920s Chicago School got its scholastic or school-like quality primarily from its notion of what a human being is, from its social psychology, and only…
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My main point is that the 1920s Chicago School got its scholastic or school-like quality primarily from its notion of what a human being is, from its social psychology, and only secondarily from its sociology. These sociologists developed the novel idea that humans are constituted by symbolic or cultural elements, not biological forces or instincts. They applied Franz Boas's discovery of culture to human nature and the self. In particular, they showed that ethnic groups and their subcultures are not biologically determined or driven by fixed instincts. In the 1910s and 1920s, the Americanization movement held that ethnic groups could be ranked on how intelligent, how criminal, and therefore how fit for democracy they were. This powerful movement, the extreme wing of which was lead by the Northern Ku Klux Klan, advocated different levels of citizenship for different ethnic groups. The Chicago sociologists spear-headed the idea that humans have a universal nature, are all the same ontologically, and therefore all the same morally and legally. In this way, they strengthened the foundations of civil liberties. The Chicago professors advanced their position in a quiet, low-keyed manner, the avoidance of open political controversy being the academic style of the time. Their position was nevertheless quite potent and effective. The actual sociology of the school, also quite important, was largely an expression of the democratic social psychology. In addition, the sociology was dignified and elevated by the moral capital of their theory of human nature.
The prospect that technological and social innovation in the use of communication and information technologies are bringing about an end to sovereignty has been a source of…
Abstract
The prospect that technological and social innovation in the use of communication and information technologies are bringing about an end to sovereignty has been a source of optimism, pessimism and ambivalence. It has captured the popular imagination and it can be found in the anxieties of national leaders about the mingling and collision of cultures and cultural products within and across their borders, and about growing awareness that environmental threats bow to no flag. According to much of this discourse, national governments are becoming increasingly powerless in their battles against real or imagined plights of cultural imperialism (and sub‐imperialism, that is, cultural imperialism within states) and capital mobility, as well as in their efforts to effectively exercise political control through surveillance and censorship. The end of sovereignty is a theme in political discussions about new pressures brought on by global regimes of trade and investment, and by unprecedented levels of global criminal networks for drug trafficking, money laundering and trade in human flesh. Social movements and non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) have reflected this by recognizing the need to match the scale of the problems they confront with appropriately scaled collective action. This article examines the discourse about the end of sovereignty and therise of new institutions of global governance. Particular emphasis is given to how advancements in the means of communication have produced the ambivalent outcomes of threatening the democratic governance of sovereign states, and serving as foundations for the assertion of democratic rights and popular sovereignty on a global scale.
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Women's movements played a significant role in the recent campaigns for constitutional reform in the UK. Their aim was to overturn the prevailing male domination in politics. This…
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Women's movements played a significant role in the recent campaigns for constitutional reform in the UK. Their aim was to overturn the prevailing male domination in politics. This article explores this process in Wales, a polity where the women's movement was comparatively weak and fragmented. In contrast to more familiar patterns of mass mobilization, “strategic women” used elite advocacy and “insider strategies” to engender the process of constitutional reform. Thus, this case study tests three widely held theoretical assumptions: that engendering state restructuring must be combined with broader activism; that insider strategies are more effective in influencing state actions; and, that the elite nature of such strategies means they can be neither democratic nor inclusive. The research findings detail the ensuing rise of state feminism and gains in women's representation and provide evidence of a paradox whereby elite action may translate into greater democratization in contexts where women's movements are comparatively underdeveloped.
A review essay on Social Science and Policy Making: A Search for Relevance in the Twentieth Century, David L. Featherman and Maris A. Vinovskis, Eds. University of Michigan Press…
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A review essay on Social Science and Policy Making: A Search for Relevance in the Twentieth Century, David L. Featherman and Maris A. Vinovskis, Eds. University of Michigan Press, 2001, pp. ix, 228. This volume contains eight papers occasioned by the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Institute of Social Research at the University of Michigan. Most of the essays can be bracketed into two distinct groups. The first surveys the interactions between academic social scientists and decision-makers on public policies as they have evolved in the United States. The second is built around case studies of the influence (or lack thereof) of social scientists in the shaping of policies for Head Start, the various attempts to “fix” welfare programs, and potential programs to assist the elderly in an aging society. The thread connecting these contributions is signaled in the sub-title. Whether the insights of social sciences have lost relevance in public decision-making and, if so, how they might regain it, pose questions that are very much worth asking.