Capitalism and Modern Social Theory: An Analysis of the Writings of Marx, Durkheim and Max Weber
... From a political and economic point of view, social order is strictly connected with the concept of social capital, introduced by Lyda Hanifan (1916), Pierre Bourdieu (1972), James Samuel Coleman (1980), andRobert Putnam (1993), which represents an engage in exchanges and transfers of social resources to gain individual rewards from the outcome of a social event (J. S. Coleman, 1988). This direction of research explains the internal mechanism of social market regulation (Gottschalk & Hammerton, 2024;Hayek, 1980;Mandeville & Hundert, 1997), considering that people's actions are motivated by practical initiatives through the principle of rational choice (Giddens, 1971). It postulates that an individual performs a cost-benefit analysis in order to determine whether an option is suitable for his personal fulfilment. ...
... Firstly, the market balance approach states that social behaviour, including the commitment to deviant acts, represents the consequence of personal social interaction (Giddens, 1971;Moessinger, 2000). Weber affirms that social order is a dynamic process established by historical circumstances (Giddens, 1971), during the Industrial Revolution (Weber, Henderson, & Parsons, 1947), through the means of Protestant work ethic (Weber, 1930), ...
... Firstly, the market balance approach states that social behaviour, including the commitment to deviant acts, represents the consequence of personal social interaction (Giddens, 1971;Moessinger, 2000). Weber affirms that social order is a dynamic process established by historical circumstances (Giddens, 1971), during the Industrial Revolution (Weber, Henderson, & Parsons, 1947), through the means of Protestant work ethic (Weber, 1930), ...
This study consists of a critical presentation of deviance, focusing on an interdisciplinary investigation. With the aid of a thematic literature review, we discuss internal mechanisms of social cohesion. In this way, we observe that every domain has its own pattern of research. Deviance is a highly debated phenomenon that is strictly relevant to social functioning. On the one hand, the economists discuss the phenomenon of deviance in relation to social market regulation, stating that people’s actions can be explained through Weber’s theory of rational choice, where social order is depicted as social capital. On the other hand, the cultural approach is profoundly influenced by a metaphysical worldview, taking into consideration the religious, historical, and aesthetical experiences. Thus, their focus is the notion of morality, which is, unfortunately, not clearly defined. Another key point is the features of canon, taste, and social distinction. These are frequently criticized by sociologists, whose opinions gravitate towards the processes of norms, anomie, and social bonds. After a short portrayal of the conceptual limits of social deviance, which are reflected in the Marxist, feminist, and ecological perspectives, the paper ends with our opinion on this complex issue.
... Global integration appeared in the eyes of several authors to be a process that called for a rethinking of those definitions of society, state and politics that until then had been prioritized in the social sciences and political theory (GIDDENS 1973;SASSEN 2001;BECK & SZNAIDER 2006). Ulrich Beck was one of the most assiduous promoters of the epistemological renewal of the social sciences to be implemented, according to him, through the adoption of a "methodological cosmopolitanism". ...
This article aims to discuss the issue of political agency in the context of the climate crisis. In this regard, the article reports and analyzes the outlines of the debate on the relationship between human beings and the non-human world, and takes Bruno Latour’s theoretical proposal and some criticisms of it as a reference. For the most part, this debate revolves around ontological questions concerning the status of human beings in the world. Such questions provide arguments for better understanding whether politics represents an autonomous dimension in which human agency possesses a peculiar meaning or not.
... Thus, class status is determined by a complex set of factors and cannot be simply reduced to ownership of the means of production. Additionally, Weber distinguished class from status, considering the latter as differences in social honor or prestige [40]. Specifically, strata can be layers within a larger structure, having a gradient, while classes are categorized based on common interests or other characteristics. ...
This article examines the theoretical foundations, challenges, and future directions of class analysis in contemporary China through a comprehensive review of existing literature and frameworks. While China’s market-oriented reforms since 1978 have led to unprecedented economic growth, they have also generated complex patterns of social stratification that challenge traditional theoretical frameworks. The study critically evaluates four theoretical approaches to class analysis: Wright’s neo-Marxist framework, Goldthorpe’s neo-Weberian schema, Grusky’s neo-Durkheimian perspective, and Bourdieu’s theory of capital interplay. The analysis reveals significant limitations in applying these Western-derived frameworks to China’s unique social context, characterized by the coexistence of state and market forces, persistent institutional features such as the hukou system, and distinctive patterns of cultural capital formation. Four major challenges are identified: the inadequacy of conventional class theories in capturing China’s hybrid socialist market economy, the emergence of new forms of stratification in the digital era, political sensitivity surrounding class discourse, and methodological difficulties in measuring subjective dimensions of class experience. The study argues for developing an integrated theoretical framework that synthesizes structural analysis with cultural and symbolic dimensions while remaining sensitive to China’s specific institutional context. The findings contribute to both theoretical advancement in sociology and practical insights for addressing social inequality in China’s rapidly transforming society.
... 113 Durkheim made a distinction between material 114 social facts (e.g., institutional norms and laws in 115 society) and nonmaterial social facts (e.g., unwrit-116 ten norms, values, and belief systems) and also 117 noted that "social life must be explained not by the tem" in France (Giddens, 1971b, p. 482). In 1906, 157 Durkheim was promoted to full professor, and in (Giddens, 1971a ...
... De un modo general, el giro sistémico acepta el diagnóstico weberiano, la evolución de la sociedad en campos de acción funcionalmente autónomos unos de otros, pero no sus consecuencias, la falta de democracia. El problema, desde el giro sistémico, no es la expansión del relativismo que se desprende de la "sociedad desencantada" o la imposibilidad de aunar los valores que surgen ahora en cada campo de acción, sino la falta de herramientas adecuadas para entender todos esos cambios sociales (Giddens, 1971). En el fondo, el politeísmo de los valores y la especialización de los campos de acción abren un nuevo escenario que necesita ser abordado con herramientas distintas a las de Weber y la tradición sociológica. ...
El incremento de la desafección política en la sociedad y el creciente protagonismo de la tecnología y los actores económicos impulsan un debate sobre alternativas políticas que plantea como horizonte una democracia sin demos, sin un sujeto capaz de autodeterminarse. Uno de los elementos analíticos que sustentan este horizonte es el de las sociedades complejas. El artículo muestra cómo la reformulación sociológica del orden social como contingente y no-intencionado hace posible redefinir la política desde la pluralidad de los intereses de los individuos, pero dejándola sin ninguna influencia en este orden. El texto cuestiona la asimetría del giro sistemático de la sociología al plantear un cambio radical de la sociedad, y las relaciones dentro de ella, mientras conserva las instituciones políticas inamovibles. Se sugiere finalmente que un cambio en las formas de organización política como es el sorteo podría tener mayor afinidad con los cambios sociales que la sociología muestra, sin tener por eso que renunciar a que los individuos puedan decidir sobre las normas o las leyes que regulan su vida colectiva.
... De un modo general, el giro sistémico acepta el diagnóstico weberiano, la evolución de la sociedad en campos de acción funcionalmente autónomos unos de otros, pero no sus consecuencias, la falta de democracia. El problema, desde el giro sistémico, no es la expansión del relativismo que se desprende de la "sociedad desencantada" o la imposibilidad de aunar los valores que surgen ahora en cada campo de acción, sino la falta de herramientas adecuadas para entender todos esos cambios sociales (Giddens, 1971). En el fondo, el politeísmo de los valores y la especialización de los campos de acción abren un nuevo escenario que necesita ser abordado con herramientas distintas a las de Weber y la tradición sociológica. ...
El incremento de la desafección política en la sociedad y el creciente protagonismo de la tecnología y los actores económicos impulsan un debate sobre alternativas políticas que plantea como horizonte una democracia sin demos, sin un sujeto capaz de autodeterminarse. Uno de los elementos analíticos que sustentan este horizonte es el de las sociedades complejas. El artículo muestra cómo la reformulación sociológica del orden social como contingente y no-intencionado hace posible redefinir la política desde la pluralidad de los intereses de los individuos, pero dejándola sin ninguna influencia en este orden. El texto cuestiona la asimetría del giro sistemático de la sociología al plantear un cambio radical de la sociedad, y las relaciones dentro de ella, mientras conserva las instituciones políticas inamovibles. Se sugiere finalmente que un cambio en las formas de organización política como es el sorteo podría tener mayor afinidad con los cambios sociales que la sociología muestra, sin tener por eso que renunciar a que los individuos puedan decidir sobre las normas o las leyes que regulan su vida colectiva
... In Weber's view, traditional leadership is social order that refers to old or ancient customs and the status and rights of leaders are also determined by custom. Thus the status and rights of the leader are also largely determined by customary customs (Giddens, 1971;Grabb, 1990;Hadden, 1997;Kim, 2004;Weber, 1968Weber, , 2007. Traditional leadership is essential and part of community life (Koenane, 2018). ...
Social capital and leadership style play an important role in driving community participation. This study aims to analyze (1) community origins, customary institutions and leadership. (2) social capital and leadership styles work as determinants of social participation in industrialized societies (3) the social capital model for the sustainability of local community leadership. This research utilizes qualitative with multi case study approach. Data collection used in-depth interviews, observation, and literature study. Data analysis techniques used 3-step analysis. The results are (1) This Community is part of Maiwa tribe and believe animism. Their custom institution and leaders called A'pa Alliri. (2) social capital and leadership style as determinants of social participation. Both follow customary norms and institutions as the highest rule, both follow customary norms and institutions as the highest rules, and the community follows whatever is regulated by customary norms. (3) the social capital model of the sustainability of local community leadership is the adaptation of the role of leadership in three areas, namely the environment, economy, and social available industrial society. The conclusion is local wisdom and leadership styles that adapt to the characteristics of the industry, social participation will change and traditional leadership also shifts and has industrial characteristics.
A denúncia da seletividade político-epistêmica representada pelos clássicos da sociologia (Marx/Durkheim/Weber) tornou-se hoje um tópico recorrente da teoria sociológica contemporânea. Reagindo a esse novo consenso ortodoxo, o objetivo deste texto é interpelar, de forma crítica, aspectos da discussão internacional e brasileira que questionam um suposto cânon da sociologia. Após caracterizar, a partir da distinção entre história e sistemática, os principais modelos de crítica dos clássicos na pesquisa brasileira, identificam-se determinados problemas teóricos presentes na discussão. Em primeiro lugar, aponta-se que os parâmetros históricos utilizados são unidimensionais, e em segundo lugar, que os pressupostos epistemológicos da crítica aos clássicos tendem a conduzir a sociologia a uma inadvertida homogeneização paradigmática. Frente ao colapso da dimensão histórica da sociologia como zona de negociação teórica, a terceira parte delineia breves pistas para repensar o caráter sistemático da teoria sociológica, seja por via de uma pesquisa histórica instruída pela sistemática, seja pelo retorno a uma sociologia geral.
The critique of the political-epistemic selectivity represented by the classics of sociology (Marx/Durkheim/Weber) has become a recurring theme in contemporary sociological theory. In response to this new orthodox consensus, the aim of this study is to critically examine aspects of both international and Brazilian discussions that challenge a presumed canon of sociology. After characterizing the main approaches of criticism directed at the classics within Brazilian research, based on the distinction between history and systematics, certain theoretical problems present in the discussion were identified. First, it is noted that the historical parameters employed are unidimensional; second, the epistemological assumptions underlying the critique of the classics tend to lead sociology towards an inadvertent paradigmatic homogenization. Given the collapse of the historical dimension of sociology as a zone for theoretical negotiation, the third part of the study outlines brief suggestions for rethinking the systematic character of sociological theory, either through historically informed research guided by systematics or by returning to general sociology.
Cet article propose une relecture de l’ouvrage d’Émile Durkheim, De la division du travail social (1960), en montrant comment son analyse des liens sociaux professionnels et sa théorie de la cohésion sociale constituent la base d’une approche réaliste des classes sociales spécifiées par des microclasses, complémentaire de l’approche nominaliste des grands schémas de classes. Un nouveau type de groupe social émerge des liens professionnels, fondé sur des processus sociaux clairement identifiés par Durkheim en raison de la division du travail, tels que l’interdépendance entre les individus, la coopération, mais aussi l’égalité des chances ou encore le sentiment de justice sociale. Il reconnaît l’existence de conflits de classe mais ne leur donne pas d’effet structurant dans une société encadrée par la régulation étatique et l’action des mouvements sociaux. Les processus sociaux identifiés inspirent une nouvelle génération de travaux qui appellent à nuancer la thèse de la fin des classes sociales en distinguant les microclasses, les mésoclasses et les macroclasses.
We are grateful for the detailed attention Martyn Hammersley pays to our book, Colonialism and Modern Social Theory. It may seem a little odd to say that we also appreciate its critical character. Of course, authors will always value praise, but arguments are advanced and different understandings reached through disagreements. This was the spirit in which we wrote our book, and it is the spirit in which we would want it to be read. Here, we respond to his review of our book.
Everywhere in the world, higher education is in crisis, and institutional autonomy and academic freedom are under threat. In this article, I propose a continuum of university autonomy in relation to academic freedom, with ‘little or no autonomy’ on one end, followed by ‘low autonomy’, ‘somewhat-balanced autonomy’, and with ‘balanced autonomy’ on the other end. Then I analyse the role of the government in influencing institutional autonomy and academic freedom. My conclusion is that the government plays a key role in determining what kind of autonomy a university enjoys, and balanced autonomy can be achieved if higher education is operated as a federation where different actors, including the government, the board of trustees, the president, faculty and students, work together, one way or the other, as partners. Only then can the university as a public good rightfully fulfil its aims and purposes for the benefit of all humanity.
While recent crises have given social psychologists a chance to reflect on the values embedded within the very structure of their discipline, few have sought to interrogate in any systematic fashion the basic assumptions that guide social psychological research and practice. It is here that Marxism is in a unique position to illuminate the complex relationship between the discipline of social psychology and the economic structure of modern society. Drawing on Marx’s analysis of commodity fetishism, it becomes possible to view social psychology not as a research program for disclosing universal features of social reality but rather as a manifestation of a historically specific organization of the social relations of production.
In recent decades, anthropology has been characterized by an experiential turn that connects scholarship increasingly with practical application, on the one hand, and critical reflexivity, on the other. This article throws these trends into historical relief by synoptically considering past emphases in anthropology from the 1830s through the present. These prior developments contextualize recent trends vis-à-vis long-term patterns and permutations in the history of anthropology. In significant respects, current trends reprise in newly critical and reflexive ways aspects of anthropology that were prominent when it was first becoming a scholarly discipline in the mid-nineteenth century. Anthropology's present experiential turn is especially important as our field faces an increasingly uncertain future into the mid-twenty-first century, including dire challenges of funding for new anthropological research and teaching positions, and the risks of being deprofessionalized.
In the mapping of the field, I mainly unpack how the elderly and the transformation of the family have been understood and theorized in three strands of scholarship: (a) mainstream Chinese family studies, particularly in sociology; (b) reflexive modernity literature on individualization and emotional intimacy; and (c) critical schools relating to the Chinese family, including but not limited to labour, gender, and media studies. By underscoring these three strands’ merits, gaps, and limitations, I aim to position my approach in the field and pose my research questions in a theoretical informed manner. I highlight mediated emotions among the rural elderly as the scholarly gaps focused in this thesis in particular. Finally, I turn to my own theoretical framework and method design, which employs Raymond Williams’ “structure of feeling” as well as the concept of “mediation”.
Two closely related strategies are currently being used in efforts to ‘decolonise’ sociology: subjecting the writings normally included in the sociological ‘canon’ to close scrutiny as regards their treatment, or neglect, of colonialism; and introducing the work of people of colour into the canon, for example that of W. E. B. Du Bois. Both these strategies are used by Bhambra and Holmwood in their influential book Colonialism and Modern Social Theory. They focus mainly on the work of Tocqueville, Marx, Durkheim and Weber, emphasising the significance of colonialism, but they also include a chapter on Du Bois. In this paper I address a series of issues raised by their book. These concern: the nature of the discipline that is being decolonised; the approach that the authors take towards sociological work of the past; their rejection of stadial theory; and their arguments for the centrality of colonialism to sociology. I also critically assess their accounts of the main sociologists they discuss, suggesting that, in some key respects, these are misleading.
This study leverages Marxism as a critical theory of society, particularly the concept of capitalist irrational rationality, to argue that agri-food relations throughout the long history of capitalism have been shaped by two intertwined tendencies: planetary agriculturalization (capitalist agriculturalization of the rural-nature nexus) and the de-agriculturalization of food (the dissociation of food from its historical, ecological, social, and cultural ties to agriculture-rural-nature nexus). It proposes that these tendencies might also be conceived as the defining contradictions of the capitalist food regime. Among its contributions to the literature, the food regime concept provides a framework for analyzing the historical trajectories of agri-food relations through distinct regimes, each marked by interconnected yet unique dynamics. Building on these insights, this study seeks to deepen theoretical debates surrounding the food regime concept by exploring what unifies these distinct regimes and establishes their fundamentally capitalist character. In this regard, it contends that the concepts of planetary agriculturalization and the de-agriculturalization of food, developed and articulated in this study, serve as critical analytical tools for theorizing capitalism itself also as an encompassing food regime.
Bu çalışma, eleştirel bir toplum kuramı olarak Marksizmin, özel olarak da kapitalist irrasyonel rasyonalite kavramının sunduğu kuramsal imkânlardan yola çıkarak, kapitalizmin uzun tarihi içinde tarım-gıda ilişkilerinin, birbiriyle iç içe geçen iki eğilim üzerinden şekillendiğini iddia ediyor: gezegensel tarımsallaşma (kır-doğa aksının kapitalist tarımsallaşması) ve gıdanın tarımsızlaşması (gıda ile tarım-kır-doğa arasındaki tarihsel, ekolojik, toplumsal ve kültürel bağların kopması). Bu iki eğilimin, aynı zamanda, kapitalist gıda rejiminin tanımlayıcı çelişkileri olarak da kavramsallaştırılabileceğini tartışmaya açıyor. İlgili literatürde, gıda rejimi kavramının özgün katkılarından birisi, tarım-gıda ilişkilerinin tarihsel seyrini her biri (birbiriyle ilişkili ve fakat) farklı dinamiklerle şekillenen gıda rejimleri çerçevesinde analiz etmemize olanak tanıması olarak işaretlenebilir. Kapitalist tarım-gıda ilişkilerinin dönemlendirilmesine yönelik bu katkılardan beslenen bu çalışma da her bir farklı gıda rejimini ortak kesen ve bu farklı rejimleri kapitalist yapan nedir sorusunun peşine düşerek, gıda rejimi kavramı etrafında yürütülen kuramsal tartışmaları zenginleştirmeyi hedefliyor. Bu doğrultuda, burada önerilen ve geliştirilen gezegensel tarımsallaşma ve gıdanın tarımsızlaşması kavramlarının, kapitalizmin kendisini aynı zamanda bir gıda rejimi olarak düşünmenin analitik araçları olarak da görülebileceğini öneriyor.
The layout composing the elements of the Anatolian Neolithic symbolism (bull horns, parturient females, migrating birds, zigzagging snakes, teeth-baring animals, cross-like geometric signs and others) is remarkably systematic. Such regularity indicates that the compositions are planned in advance as if meant to convey a predefined message. Making these observations about 30 years ago, the late professor J.D. Forest (Sorbonne University) dug up concepts once much discussed in social anthropology, such as 'exogamy' and 'dualism' to apply them to the rich iconography of the site of Çatalhöyük. He obtained surprising results, though largely overlooked, as he was literally able to decipher the bulk of the message encoded therein. In the meantime, excavations at Göbekli Tepe and several other contemporary sites (Nevalı Çori, Körtik Tepe, Sayburç, etc.) uncovered an outstanding series of Neolithic pictorial compositions, mainly featuring the same signs and isomorphic arrangement (i.e., one side generally reflecting the other). In the past few years, the present author has applied Forest's method to many of these pictures with the same coherent results, confirming that, far from being random, these images are all related to the same exogamic scheme. Neolithic symbolic imagery thus appears as an archaic 'ideogram script' arranged according to a 'syntax', with each of the 75 pictures analysed here emphasising a slightly different aspect of the same general message. The latter seemingly states that the community's perpetual cycle of life and death is fundamentally dependent on the respect of the exogamic principle (which the advent of agriculture was, in the Neolithic, directly threatening). Such concepts naturally find their way into highly symbolic places since they devise an essential rule for these communities, namely the reciprocal exchange of partners. In other words, places like Göbekli Tepe and Çatalhöyük are here argued to be an 'open book' for the 'initiated' viewer of the Neolithic Symbolic Language (NSL).
This chapter offers an understanding of hooks’ Marxian view of capitalism theorizes white supremacist capitalist patriarchy as a Marxian contract between white patriarchy and black womanhood, by theorizing the white supremacist capitalist patriarchal contract(s). To contextualize this contractarianism, this chapter considers conceptualizations of the “racial contract” and the “sexual contract,” toward framing the capitalist moment for black womanhood by the capitalist utility of their sex and an underlying historical-materialist significance. Working carefully through what Marx and Engels theorize as “historical materialism,” this is read into how hooks’ theorizes the relationship between the proletariat experiences of black womanhood and white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, grounded on a contractarianism about production relations, and as that which reveals, on the one hand, the human sensuous activity of black womanhood, while, on the other hand, revealing how white supremacist capitalist patriarchy expresses itself with social validity.
This chapter is devoted to a study of Émile Durkheim's conception of sociology as a study of essentially social facts and the explanation of these facts in a sociological manner, as presented in his The Rules of Sociological Method, which first appeared in 1895. It discusses the subject matter of sociology, namely, social facts, and the methods and rules for studying them scientifically.
This chapter discusses Émile Durkheim’s political sociology, which is the most neglected of his contributions to social theory. Besides explaining the reason for this neglect, it makes out a case for revisiting the political content of his sociological thought. Towards this, it analyses in detail Durkheim’s political sociology as presented in two of his posthumous publications available in English, namely, Professional Ethics and Civic Morals (1958), and Socialism (1962). The main thread running through Durkheim’s political sociology, it is observed, is the relation between individaul and society.
The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, first brought out in 1912, was Émile Durkheim’s last major book published during his life time. In it, he yet again presented an analysis of the relation between individual and society through an original and insightful analysis of religion as a social phenomenon. This chapter discusses this book in detail. It also highlights the use of in-depth examination of an exemplar case in order to develop a thesis, what is now discussed as the case study method.
The relation between individual and society was the theme of Émile Durkheim’s epoch-making major work, The Division of Labor in Society, which first appeared in 1895. It is in this book that Durkheim first elucidated the moral basis of social order. This chapter analyses this book as a lasting contribution to the sociology of law and morality.
This paper considers the parliamentary career of Anthony Giddens, perhaps the most significant contemporary case of a sociologist achieving political office. Despite this, Giddens’ contributions to the House of Lords have been ignored by sociologists who are largely critical of his later political work. Drawing upon literature from the sociology of intellectuals, most notably positioning theory, I seek to understand Giddens’ unique positioning as an ‘intellectual in politics’ tied to a patron, in his case Tony Blair and New Labour. Following a discussion of how Giddens positioned himself to gain a peerage, I show how his spoken contributions to the Lords reflect three themes: (1) The ‘Intellectual in Politics’ positioning, (2) The role of drama and narrative in his performances, (3) The allure of a ‘Professional’ positioning and the turn towards political, rather than intellectual, interventions. I conclude by highlighting key lessons the sociology of intellectuals and sociology more generally can take from Giddens’ time in the Lords.
Introduction. In the process of fair interaction between authorities and taxpayers, a relationship of trust is created. This trust ensures support for government fiscal initiatives from the business sector. Conversely, if the relationship is not transparent and equitable, it can lead to a passive or even negative attitude towards taxes, thereby reducing the efficiency of the tax system. Problem Statement. There is a gap in Ukrainian fiscal theory, which is still underdeveloped in terms of fiscal sociology. Compared to Western countries, where fiscal sociology has already become an integral part of economic analysis, in Ukraine this issue has been studied only by a narrow circle of scholars. This limitation necessitates a deeper study and integration of sociological approaches into financial science, because without it, Ukrainian researchers and policy makers lose the opportunity to gain a more complete understanding of the interaction between economic and social processes. The purpose is to substantiate the directions of integration of fiscal sociology into Ukrainian financial theory and to develop recommendations for its inclusion into Ukrainian financial practice. Methods. The methods used are systematic, structural-functional, comparative analysis, analogy, grouping, description, comparison and generalization. Results. It is proved that by integrating fiscal sociology, Ukrainian fiscal theory can benefit from a more nuanced understanding of the socio-economic factors influencing fiscal policy. Such integration could lead to more effective policy making and a deeper understanding of the economic challenges facing Ukraine. Conclusions. Ukrainian academics and policymakers should prioritize the interdisciplinary study of fiscal policy, taking into consideration the rich tradition of fiscal sociology in the West. Joint efforts should be made to develop tax policies that strengthen state legitimacy by addressing issues of fairness, transparency, and trust. Strategies for managing public debt and improving tax morale should be a central element of fiscal policy to ensure that Ukraine's financial system can withstand socioeconomic pressures and contribute to long-term stability and development.
This article addresses the ongoing genocide in Gaza and argues that it must be understood in a larger historical context of settler colonialism. While Israel has always sought the completion of its settler-colonial project, I argue that the current genocide seeks immediate results of dispossession and annexation. My study examines the plight of refugees and contends that the right of return is at the center of Palestinians’ struggle. Return, land, and resistance are three key elements of the Palestinian identity that should be stressed in genocide studies. I argue that Israel’s approach before 7th October constituted slow-motion genocide and after that date its approach marked an accelerated form of genocide. I employ the new term Gazacide to encompass Israel’s approach in Gaza since the 1948 Nakba. To gain a deeper understanding of genocide and the destruction inflicted upon Gazans as a social group, I employ figurational sociology. I conclude with a discussion on culpability and intent and argue that all levels of the Israeli bureaucratic system as well as individuals must be held accountable.
The aim of the present work is to determine the scientific tenor of the sociology of religion through a reflection on its method and that of its sources. To these ends and in order to honor its birth, “Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism” – its foundational stone – has been chosen as the work to be analyzed. This requires a brief introduction about the concept of science – its implications and its derivations – as well as a brief description of the historical circumstance in which the production of the work under analysis took place. In the end, the study of its episteme will be developed, arriving in a timely manner to the partial and definitive conclusions.
This article discusses work ethics and how it relates to the psychological well-being of employees. Furthermore, this article will explain a study results of extracting ethical principles relevant to work from the Quran. These principles will be outlined along with their relevance to the world of work. Several applied studies that use the Quranic work ethics concept will be described to see how the principles were used as intervention in organization, and their effect on several elements of organizational behavior, including service quality and civic behavior (Organizational Citizenship behavior).
Keywords: Quranic work ethics, psychological well-being, OCB, service quality
https://proceedings.radenfatah.ac.id/index.php/gpsy/article/view/302
What is the relevance of the critique of ideology in our current age of anger and atrocity? And what can we learn from the radical sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois in this regard? Recent reappraisals of his sociological thought within the academe fall short of explicitly scraping out the lineation of a Duboisian critical theory. The following thesis modestly seeks to remedy this gap. Drawing on Du Bois’ ideology-critical works and on contemporary critical-theoretical literature emphasizing his Marxist and anti-imperialist thought and practice, it intends to discuss two objectives. First, to recover Du Bois’ historical-materialist approach and retrieve its critical potential. And second, to harness his subversive thinking to reinvigorate the essence of transformative social critique. This involves not only unveiling the conditions that enable the prevailing of structures and processes of political and epistemic domination, but also tying such criticisms to open-ended emancipatory agendas aimed at social change and ideological transformation. The thesis considers Du Bois’ revolutionary work as contributory to such programs of emancipation, whose immanent critique of the imperial is rooted in the inherent antagonisms of an existing racialized social structure of the capitalist world system, which serves as the basis for building what he called the global color line. It moreover illustrates how Du Bois transfigured the spaces and experiences embedded in the color line as an analytical anchor to locate sites of ideological struggle, solidary resistance, and other liberatory practices of worldmaking. Hence, through this transfiguration, Du Bois further complicates as well as sharpens the contours of critical theory and counterhegemonic theorizing by rethinking the normative value of the critique of ideology as an indispensable method of transdisciplinary and transformative social analysis—aimed not only at unmasking but also confronting and resisting the tenacious augmentation of the contradictions, crises, and catastrophes of our world.
Several efforts have been made in the past to try to define the relationship between economy and religion. My major starting point for the discipline of sociology remains the classic work by Max Weber on the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Weber M., 1930 [1905]).
Two different ways of naming and narrating historical periods, including the present time, involve using the terms ‘capitalism’ and ‘modernity’. Each terminological set opens certain intellectual vistas, while foreclosing others. This article argues that while ‘late capitalism’ is, despite its many problems, a meaningful concept to use today, ‘late modernity’ is not. Offering a genealogy of each term, the article considers how ascriptions of lateness to modernity result in some absurdity, while ascribing lateness to capitalism does not involve such marked risks. Nonetheless, more comprehensive and all-encompassing definitions of capitalism may be incompatible with ascriptions of lateness to capitalism. These various issues are considered in light of the need to name the current world-condition in a period of accelerating environmental crisis.
This article questions how to conceptualize the relation between different ontologies in the social sciences. Giddens' Structuration Theory is analyzed as an example of an unifying theory linking 'agent' and 'structure' ontologies. The concept of interaction is used to pinpoint Giddens' notion of the complementarity of these two. The resulting ABSTRACT unification does, however, not result in a unified social analysis. Rather it implies that we need to 'bracket' the one or the other approach in empirical observation. This raises the question: What is complementarity? In this article it is argued the notion of complementarity as developed in quantum theory (Q-complementarity) applies to the case at hand. Q-complementarity does not refer to the possible simultaneous attribution of characteristics, but establishes the validity of both attributes for describing reality depending on the circumstances of observation.
Comparisons affect various ways of perceiving and interpreting the world, characterized by distinct legitimization strategies and knowledge application routines by different actors. The contributors to this volume explore the link between change and practices of comparing, focusing on order, representation, and models. They delve into how comparing influences knowledge production, but also focus on persisting orders of knowledge. This collection centers on the role of models and modeling in relation to practices of comparing, thus highlighting the representational and operational force of comparing as a way to form and organize reality.
A paraître dans Émile Durkheim, Sociologie politique, La Découverte, Paris, 2018 (sous presse) Quel sens peut avoir en 2018 la publication en un recueil des écrits de Durkheim touchant de près ou de loin ce que nous entendons communément par politique 1 ? Et à plus forte raison, d'un recueil intitulé Sociologie politique, alors que nombre des interprètes les plus fins de l'auteur du Suicide ont affirmé de façon convaincante que celui-ci n'avait jamais élaboré une sociologie ou une science politique 2 ? Durkheim ne s'est en effet en effet jamais penché ou presque sur ce qui fait l'ordinaire de celles-ci : l'analyse des élections et des partis, celle des mouvements sociaux, l'étude des modalités de l'action publique ou des relations internationales. La réflexion durkheimienne pense surtout l'État comme une pièce majeure d'une théorie de la société, et si elle ne nie pas explicitement l'autonomie du champ politique, elle ne s'y intéresse pas.
This article explores three different methodological approaches to the UN 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees—and international refugee law (IRL) more broadly. These are termed the internal, external and dialectical approaches. It is argued that the dialectical approach, which combines elements of the internal and external approaches using a materialist postcolonial perspective helps make out in the light of changing conditions a more persuasive case for liberal interpretation and reform of the 1951 Convention. Put differently, the article is about the limitations and failings of mainstream IRL scholarship, which essentially pursues an internal approach to the 1951 Convention. It is equally about the need to decolonize and transform the pedagogy and research of IRL. This article concludes with some suggestions to advance refugee rights that would allow the 1951 Convention to respond more effectively to the protection needs of refugees around the world.
The social virtues are not discussed thematically in the Socratic writings of Plato and Xenophon, but they are on display everywhere. Taking Aristotle's accounts of these virtues as a touchstone, this paper explores the portrait of Socrates as a model of good humour in Xenophon's Symposium . While Xenophon is addressing the same issues as Aristotle, and shares some of his red lines, his conception of the ideal humourist and of virtue in general differs from Aristotle's not only in detail but also in general conception. While he never actually violates the rules Aristotle sets down for eutrapelia , Xenophon's Socrates strives not to avoid opposites but to combine them. It is the careful combining of the spoudaion and the geloion that redeems Xenophon's otherwise outrageous portrait of Socratic humour. This suggests a broader paradigm in which virtuous behaviour is a combination of opposites rather than a middle path.
The conflict resolution process and content in every society have been the ingredients of a social contract based on individual effort to make its instructive value the greatest measure to ensure sustainable peace on land matters. The infrastructure for peace concept and traditional land dispute settlement have emerged as evolving ontological and methodological approaches to arriving at a sustainable peace slant. The purpose of this review paper is to conceptualize weak states and infrastructure for peace and constructivist theory on traditional land dispute settlement in a manner that is more trustworthy, equitable, just, and fair, which provides means to reduce land conflict, and finally create a platform for African writers to critique infrastructure for peace with traditional land dispute settlement in African realities. The method for the study is purely qualitative data from interviews and observation. The findings were that the values of infrastructure for peace were the creation of an early warning system that can influence and provide an early response to conflict, collaboration, and cooperation of all states in one system using the local approach to resolve land conflict or dispute. The two approaches collaborate on the structures that can prevent, manage, resolve, and ensure sustainable peace using bottom-up approaches from weak states theory and the constructivist paradigm to bring out the infrastructure for peace on land. The use of technology and African conflict reconciliation and reintegration would help social bonds out of the adjudication process, which is more antagonistic. Lastly, the structure is familiar and easily supplements land disputes that have dominated our legal and rational dispute settlement and traditional authority in a more trusted and collaborative manner.
This paper re‐examines a key feature of Emile Durkheim's sociology of knowledge from a critical realist perspective. It is argued that Durkheim's attempt to establish a social basis for the categories in The Elementary Forms of Religious Life should be understood along ontological rather than epistemological lines. This brings to light new problems with the argument which, however, can be brought fruitfully into contact with the more recent social psychological literature on collective intentionality. This yields insights into future lines of inquiry into social cognition and theories of human conceptualizing capacities.
It is argued that there is a reciprocal relationship between Durkheim’s substantive discussion of the development of individualism and his abstract formulations of sociological methods. Durkheim is often regarded as being fervently “anti-individualist”. But in fact, his works contain a vigorous defence of individualism—understood in a specific way. In other words, Durkheim’s writings represent an attempt to detach “liberal individualism”, regarded as a conception of the characteristics of the modern social order, from “methodological individualism”.
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