... As such, Protestant theology opposes church hierarchy and tends to be egalitarian. Corresponding to this egalitarian stance is another key strand of Protestant thought, namely, the idea that universally applied rules are the standards for judging appropriate behavior, rather than preferences applied in a particularistic manner or on the basis of nepotism (Lipset & Lenz, 2000;Weber, 1905Weber, /2013. A hypothesis arising from Protestants' belief that all are equal before God and that rules should be universally applied is that Protestants will endorse self-transcendence values-specifically, universalism-more than Catholics will. ...
... Compatible with these predictions regarding the dimension of selfenhancement versus self-transcendence are predictions regarding hedonism, which is adjacent to self-enhancement, and conformity, which is adjacent to self-transcendence. Regarding hedonism, Weber (1905Weber ( /2013 saw various branches of Protestantism as moralizing the mundane by valuing self-discipline, thrift, and savings (see also Rozin, 1999, on Protestant moralizations regarding health and temperance; D. Cohen et al., 2021, on Protestant moralizations about debt) and disapproving of pleasure and (if it interfered with one's work) sociability (Sanchez-Burks, 2002;Uhlmann & Sanchez-Burks, 2014). These moralizations may lead Protestants to reject hedonism to a greater degree than Catholicism does. ...
... However, the achievement items as formulated in Schwartz's circumplex are less about accomplishment from diligent work in one's calling and more about the achievement of social status. Given this, we would not expect Protestants to score higher on the achievement of social status as an end in itself on the basis of Weber (1905Weber ( /2013. ...
Protestantism, as opposed to Catholicism, is widely seen as having contributed to the rise of Western individualism. However, little is known about potential value differences between these two branches of Christianity in contemporary Europe. In the current work, we examined patterns of value endorsement among current and former Protestants and Catholics within and between 20 European countries using data from the European Social Survey (N = 163,586). Results reveal that within a given country, Protestants are more likely to endorse self-transcendence values than Catholics are, and these findings held when controlling for religiosity, differences in socioeconomic status, and differences in religious de-identification. Surprisingly, differences between Protestants and Catholics in value endorsement were sometimes larger among less (vs. more) religious respondents and were detectable even among former Protestants and Catholics, with former Protestants resembling religious respondents more than former Catholics did. Results also reveal that some Protestant–Catholic differences are consistent across cultures, whereas others—principally on the dimension of openness to change versus conservation—are moderated by which group is the majority heritage. We discuss the possible contribution of Protestantism to Western individualism’s universalistic orientation, considering the association between Protestantism and self-transcendence values.
... The reason is that people do not consider it shameful to supply goods for monetary benefits, and such type of behaviour is a cause of productive innovation and hence higher economic growth. Any discrimination based on politics, social or religion leads to inefficiency in the markets and a sub-optimal economic growth level (Weber & Kalberg, 2013). The above figure shows that India has the maximum growth rate among the selected south Asian economies, while Sri Lanka is at the bottom compared to GDP growth rates. ...
The focus of the current study is to examine the enormous effects of religious freedom and foreign direct investment on economic growth for Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. These effects are captured by investigating classical production functions where religious freedom and foreign direct investment are the major determinants of economic growth. To determine the significance of these determinants, the study examines the panel data from 1990-2016 gleaned from the World Development Indicator (WDI) and International Country Risk Guide (ICRG). The result of the Hausman test reveals the problem of endogeneity; thus, the model was empirically estimated by employing the 2SLS, and the robustness of the results was also confirmed by using the 3SLS methodology. The empirical result revealed that an increase in religious freedom surges economic activity and enhances growth. The coefficient of foreign direct investment indicates that a rise in foreign direct investment is beneficial for growth in the selected economies. These results confirm that economies with religious freedom attract foreign direct investment, boost their economic activity, and consequently, economic growth. Hence, the government should adopt those policies that promote religious freedom and enhance foreign direct investment to achieve sustained economic growth.
... The flexibilization of work that this imaginary feed is apparent in the increase in temporary positions and the "gig economy", which in the 21st century is bringing major structural changes in labor market relations and to the conditions for working life. 23 As has been illustrated in this chapter, today's ideal worker is no longer an employee of the stable bureaucracies that offered place, discipline and control along with stable long-term employment and career progression, first described by the sociologist Max Weber, 24 where the worker accumulates experience through repeating job tasks in one and the same geographical and social location. Instead, the ideal worker is flexible, rootless, quick to learn and ambitious 25 ; subjected to insecure work-contracts and gig work 26 -as well as by a blurring of the distinction between the spheres of home and work. ...
... In our analysis, we employ a qualitative approach, utilizing process-tracing (Beach & Pedersen, 2019) to examine the dismantling and capture of public policies and bureaucracies during Bolsonaro's administration. Following a comprehensive discussion on populism, we delineate the principal characteristics of Bolsonaro's administration and provide illustrative cases, focusing on specific sectors of the federal public administration in Brazil. 1 "Elective affinity" is a notion used by Max Weber in his major work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Weber, 2013), and it means that "two cultural forms-religious, intellectual, political or economic-who have certain analogies, intimate kinships or meaning affinities, enter in a relationship of reciprocal attraction and influence, mutual selection, active convergence and mutual reinforcement" (Löwi, 2004: p. 103). ...
This paper examines the governance model of President Jair Bolsonaro, which is distinguished by a movement-government approach that gives precedence to ideological agendas and social mobilization over the formulation and implementation of public policies. The tenure of President Jair Bolsonaro is characterized by a consistent disregard for effective governance principles, with a focus on the dismantling of long-standing policies and state bureaucracy. The paper elucidates the interrelationship between ideology and public policy, underscoring the cultural war as a central aspect of Bolsonaro's governance. Furthermore , the paper examines the coexistence of two extremist perspectives within the government: the neoliberal agenda of reducing the state apparatus and the anti-systemic objective of destroying the institutional structure established by the 1988 Constitution. The analysis illuminates the distinctive features of Bolsonaro's model, contrasting it with other populist movements globally, and examines the implications for public administration and policy continuity in Brazil.
... In fact, scholars are also analysing social forces of economic development, such as culture [e.g., Guiso et al., (2006), p.23ff;Maridal, 2013]. Weber (1956) discussed how Protestant religious culture has affected the economic attitude of people and the entrepreneurship within capitalistic systems. Current socio-economic analyses show that religion and culture are prime factors of economic growth and innovation (cf. ...
Fishbone diagram is a graphical technique to show the several
causes of a specific event. Fishbone diagram is applied here as a novel method of graphical representation to identify, explore and analyse the sources of innovation and especially general purpose technologies (GPTs). Firstly, the study here shows the driving forces of GPTs, such as: higher democratization, high investment in R&D, etc. Secondly, these drivers of GPTs and in general of
new technology are systematised within fishbone diagrams for technological analysis. Some examples are illustrated by applying the fishbone diagram to specific GPTs, such as steam engine and information and communication technologies (ICTs). Overall, then, fishbone diagram seems to be an appropriate and general technique of graphical representation for the technological analysis and foresight of path-breaking innovation in society.
... Weber wondered what the peculiarities of modern Western civilization consisted of and resulted from. One of these is the rationalization of the world, the detachment of individual consciousness from religious notions legitimizing the order of things, the invalidation of the absolutism of tradition, the relativization of ethics and the transfer of the justification of social action to the purposive-rational reasoning (Kuryłowicz 2021: 84). 2 Brian S. Turner points out that in one of Weber's woks, namely "Protestant Etic and the Spirit of Capitalism" (Weber 2010), there is a reference to the rationalization of the human body and diet. In this work, Weber mentioned how religious rules served as a form of control of desire. ...
This article describes the diet catering service (delivering ready-made meals to customers’ homes or work in a selected period) as an example of rationalization and professionalization of diet. The article is based on the results of interviews conducted with 15 users of dietetic catering from Poland, conducted between 2021 and 2023. The aim of the interviews was to try to answer the question of what benefits the respondents derived from using dietetic catering in their everyday life. As the results of the analysis show, respondents try to live a healthy lifestyle, which they do not always succeed in doing. Outsourcing the preparation of meals to the specialized companies allows them to save time and receive well-balanced meals, at selected times of the day adapted to their rhythm of work. There is a compromise between meeting healthy eating norms and social norms relating to food consumption, both in terms of mealtimes, the number of meals per day as well as what is meant by a ‘proper lunch’.
... Aron, 1967. 112 Weber, 1930 113 Durkheim, 1912 ...
Sociología Cristiana Fundamental
Cazın Türkiye’ye girişi İstanbul’un işgal altında bulunduğu şartlarda, cazbant denilen müzik toplulukları aracılığıyla gerçekleşti. Türkiye’de erken dönem caz yazınında 1920’ler genellikle yekpare bir dönem olarak ele alınsa da İşgal İstanbulu cazın ülkedeki serencamı açısından Cumhuriyet’in ilk yıllarından farklı bir bağlama sahipti. İşgal İstanbulu’ndaki cazbanda odaklanan bu çalışma, dönemin birinci el kaynaklarında cazbandın nasıl anlamlandırıldığını keşfetmeyi amaçlamaktadır. İlgili literatürde bu dönemin önemini vurgulayan çalışmalar olmakla birlikte, bunlar genellikle Cumhuriyet dönemine ait kaynaklara dayanmaktadır. Bu durum bazen tarihsel bağlamlardaki farklılığın göz ardı edilmesine yol açan bir kronolojik karışıklığa sebep olmaktadır. Cazın anlamlarının bu müzik türüne içkin olmayıp tarihsel ve toplumsal bağlam içinde şekillendiğini savunan bu çalışma, İşgal İstanbulu’ndaki cazın hangi temsil sistemi içinde anlamlandırıldığını keşfetmek için göstergebilimsel yaklaşımı benimsemektedir. Araştırma, 1919’dan işgalin resmen sona erdiği ve siyasî otoritenin tesis edildiği 1923 Ekim’ine kadarki dönemle sınırlandırılmış, bu döneme ait gazete-dergi yazıları, ilanlar, işgal yıllarındaki caz kültürüne ilişkin tanıklığa dayalı kurgusal veya kurgusal olmayan eserler kaynak olarak kullanılmıştır.
A philosophical perspective, explores foundational ideas shaping and constraining environmental and sustainability education (ESE). It begins by examining the broader context and interconnectivity of globalisation and policy formation before discussing the history, form and function of education that have influenced development. Social reproduction and social reconstruction are explored in relation to how education can perpetuate existing systems or foster change. The diverse personal and social factors involved in pro-environmental behaviour are discussed. There is reflection on the intersection of religion and environment, recognising how belief systems shape attitudes toward the environment. The discussion then shifts to variations of development, highlighting diverse understandings and approaches. There is consideration of governance, capitalism, and the importance of civics and critical thinking in examining how power structures influence ESE. A recognition of challenges concludes with a heuristic frame for encouraging critical examination for ESE (Vare & Scott, 2007; Stevenson R, Environ Educ Res 12(3), 277–290, 2006; Stevenson & Robottom, 2013). The narrative then engages the long history of empire building acknowledging the impact of colonisation on Indigenous populations and their environments. A space is created for connection to alternative worldviews’ and knowledges’ that can inform ESE practices, in addition to setting the scene for a focus on the Australian context.
With the establishment of field studies centres (FSC) within the NSW Department of Education used as an archetype for an analysis of bureaucratic reasoning (Weber, 1912), this chapter chronicles FSC evolution from initial vision to practical implementation. It explores the foundational roles of FSCs and the Gould League of NSW in shaping environmental education (EE). The first FSCs, Muogamarra and Wirrimbirra, led a growing demand and repurposing of non-viable primary schools into FSCs—Thalgarrah, Bournda, Awabakal, Wambangalang and Dorroughby. Early conferences resonate into the future—promotion and publicity, policy issues for the operation of the centres, and EE as a subject and its placement within the curriculum. Early challenges in distinguishing FSC-specific student outcomes from broader educational achievements and the one-teacher model and limitations in capacity are discussed. Bureaucratic pressures, including threats of closure and administrative changes are addressed. By the late 1970s, three additional FSCs—Royal National Park, Longneck Lagoon, and Brewongle—were established before an embargo for guideline development. Fostering strong relationships and an ecocentric worldview are central themes. A critique and snapshot of FSCs/EE at the close of the 1970s is developed. FSCs’ enduring importance in building environmental consciousness through innovative and adaptive educational practices is underscored.
In this chapter, we explore the concept of social comparisons and how it has been formalised in the macroeconomic literature. Our aim is twofold: first, to understand how these sociological traits influence individual behaviour, and second, to demonstrate how these concepts can be effectively integrated into a basic economic framework in a simple manner. We begin from the related concepts of the pursuit of social status, the relative income hypothesis, rank comparisons, and “keeping up/catching with the Joneses”. Other prominent instances of social comparisons include conspicuous consumption, positional goods, and wealth-based comparisons. We further explore conspicuous leisure and status related to education or occupational choice. We show how all these effects can be formalised by appropriate extensions of the utility function (“other-regarding preferences”). Such comparisons generally involve negative externalities, which affect welfare adversely through “rat races”, a theme explored next. Refinements to the status motive are also considered, bringing it to embody loss aversion (or “differential status effects”—“pains” versus “gains”). Envy, altruism, self-esteem, aspirations, reference standards, and social norms are also considered. We conclude by considering the (alleged) “capitalist spirit”.
Tradução de Sport as a meaning-making system: insights from the study of religion, publicado originalmente na revista Religion, v. 13, n. 10, 2022, com as devidas permissões dos autores, dos editores acadêmicos (Hans Zollner e Carles Salazar) da revista Religion e da editora MDPI.
The Nigerian middle class has been the subject of extensive sociological inquiry, yet the intersection of religion, education, and social mobility within this group remains underexplored, particularly among Christian communities in Lagos State. This paper examines the historical and contemporary factors shaping the emergence and reproduction of the Nigerian Christian middle class. Drawing on existing studies, the analysis highlights the role of missionary education, familial strategies, and professional advancement in fostering upward mobility. The heterogeneity of Christian denominations, stratification within religious communities, and the role of gender and migration are explored to provide a nuanced understanding of how Nigerian Christians navigate social hierarchies. The study also identifies gaps in current research, emphasizing the need for focused empirical studies to unpack the complex interplay of religion, class, and education. Findings contribute to the broader discourse on the sociology of religion and middle-class identity formation in Nigeria.
In this chapter, I attempt to go beyond Max Weber’s reading of Theravada Buddhism that often pits an irrational Primitive Buddhism against a capitalist rationale. I turn to Walter Benjamin who challenges the use of reason and breaks from this dichotomy. I point to instances where the ethical dimension not only appears in Theravada Buddhism but can also disrupt the tempo and logic of capitalism.
‘A collective of social scientists initiates with this volume a significant school of militant historiography … It deserves careful consideration by all those concerned with peasants or Indian society’. (emphasis added)—A claim made by the blurb on the back cover of Selected Subaltern Studies.
In this paper, we use data from the 2022 Cooperative Election Study to explore the relationship between partisanship, attitudes toward free markets, and corporate social responsibility. We find that while Republicans continue to express abstract support for free markets and business involvement in politics, they respond negatively to more specific descriptions of CEO activism, particularly when that activism is directed toward environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. Overall, individual support for business involvement in politics depends on the noneconomic impact of corporate behavior. In this respect, our findings echo the literature on political tolerance: abstract support for free markets slips when applied to specific environmental, social, and governance contexts. Within this context, “business involvement in politics,” which Republicans support, translates into “corporate political activity,” which Republicans oppose.
Why do humans believe in moralizing gods? Leading accounts argue that these beliefs evolved because they help societies grow and promote group cooperation. Yet recent evidence suggests that beliefs in moralizing gods are not limited to large societies and might not have strong effects on cooperation. Here, we propose that beliefs in moralizing gods develop because individuals shape supernatural beliefs to achieve strategic goals in within-group interactions. People have a strategic interest in controlling others’ cooperation, either to extort benefits from them or to gain reputational benefits for protecting the public good. Moreover, they believe, based on their folk-psychology, that others would be less likely to cheat if they feared supernatural punishment. Thus, people endorse beliefs in moralizing gods to manipulate others into cooperating. Prosocial religions emerge from a dynamic of mutual monitoring, in which each individual, lacking confidence in the cooperativeness of conspecifics, attempts to incentivize others’ cooperation by endorsing beliefs in supernatural punishment. We show how variations of this incentive structure explain the variety of cultural attractors toward which supernatural punishment converges, including extractive religions that extort benefits from exploited individuals, prosocial religions geared toward mutual benefit, and forms of prosocial religion where belief in moralizing gods is itself a moral duty. We review evidence for nine predictions of this account and use it to explain the decline of prosocial religions in modern societies. Supernatural punishment beliefs seem endorsed as long as people believe them necessary to ensure others’ cooperation, regardless of their objective effectiveness in doing so.
This paper investigates the historical roots of business familism in Southern Italy. Using a social network analysis and employing surnames as proxies for family ties, we introduce and explore various measures of business familism. Our analysis reveals that the persistent embeddedness of firms in family ties was a structural feature of the business system in the South throughout the 19th century. The analysis also documents significant variations in the trends of business familism across different economic sectors.
This chapter defines “the proletariat experiences of black womanhood,” as central to hooks’ view of capitalism, beginning in Ain’t I a Woman, and as instrumental to the way that hooks thinks Marxist thought. Placing hooks’ view of capitalism as conversant with a variety of articulations of capitalism, this chapter situates hooks’ view of capitalism as predicated on hooks’ Marxist theory of ideology, which, in itself, becomes conversant with a variety of conceptualizations of ideology, as a way of contextualizing the class-consciousness of the proletariat experiences of black womanhood. From here, this chapter explains how, for hooks, black womanhood’s class-consciousness and their proletariat experience are tied to a palpable economic situation. The capitalist significance of this, through a Marxian lens, allows hooks, in one sense, to think through systems of domination and racial imperialism, but in another sense, it allows for a Marxian conversation with intersectionality’s intellectual history and Angela Y. Davis.
The association between capitalism and Protestantism has invoked much controversy, as well as ingenuity. This paper compares Weber’s analysis against a much more contemporary theoretical framework also known as social constructivism. Constructivism as a present-day social theory offers a compelling evaluation on how capitalism may have risen. While Weber offers the Protestant work ethic as a potential catalyst for his approach, his insights argue that capitalism can only limited to a specific theology, rendering the rest of the world incapable of capitalism. Although Weber’s insights do function as Occam’s Razor, his explanation for how capitalism may flourish in other parts of the world remains restrained. As an alternative social constructivism emphasizes a much better theoretical frame for capitalism that offers better explanation for how cultures may construct capitalist norms and relations.
The chapter addresses regional institutions in an Arctic institutional landscape after the 1990s. It analyzes the conditions for the upcoming and the implementation of regional institutions as an element of state institutions’ withdrawal from Arctic regions from the 1990s; how these institutions have developed in the meeting with changes in global economies and laws subsequently affecting the Arctic afterwards; and how the successes and failures of the regional institutions have impacted the Arctic regions’ position in upcoming multilevel governance. The chapter considers the development of three regional institution cases: The Norwegian-Russian Barents Region in fisheries management and “people to people” interaction from the 1990s; the creation of a northern regional supplier organization in the global oil and gas industry from the 2000s; and the establishment of the Finnmark estate in 2006, whereby the new Norwegian regional landowner institution aimed to integrate international Indigenous people’s rights and policies into a regional institution. The chapter demonstrates regional agents’ capacity for creating and developing regional institutions in the Arctic in the period addressed, but also that the viability of the institutions was threatened by the existence of global conflicts and impacts of wars, and by international legalization of policy processes addressing important issues in the Arctic, such as the rights of Indigenous people. Policy implications are found in addressing conditions impacting regional level roles in meeting international law and global economies.
The European Reformation saw a dramatic rise of new confessional groups, sects and schisms, accompanied by widespread group hostility and violence. In a critical discussion of Elias’ ‘civilizing process’, the key changes ushered by the Reformation, from the government of state, church, and souls, are considered. As society sought to expunge its ‘ultimate enemies’, the era of reform was a time of widespread witchcraft trials, trials that are examples of horrific social disfiguration, with continued relevance to understanding modern social and group violence. Several examples of the latter are considered.
Corruption is deemed one of the main drivers of development challenges in many countries, mainly in those territories that drag the shackles of colonialism. The roots of corruption in underdeveloped countries can be traced from Colonial times from South America, Asia to Africa the pattern seems to be repeated: populations subjugated to new masters, disenfranchised indigenous people, labour and sexual exploitation, brutal punishments for those who resisted colonial power were commune features for countries that experienced colonialism. Many of those power excesses have been recognised historically, however one of the most persistent element of Colonialism that survives until nowadays is corruption. The present text aims to shine a light on the relation of colonialism and corruption in Latin America. The hypothesis raised suggests that corruption was installed through colonialism in the Latin America region. The text is presented in three parts; the first one offers some historical considerations about European colonialism, the second one describes the strategies used by colonisers and the use of corruption as a tool to impose their rule and consolidate their power, and the third one exposes the new colonial form of corruption carried out by the West, led today by the United States.
This article theorizes Islamist transformations by mapping the evolution of Sadrism in contemporary Iraq through a period of state collapse, war, and political consolidation. Using Pierre Bourdieu, this perspective emphasizes how field-based crises can synchronize and amplify homological relations between the deep-lying structures which differentiate religious from political spheres of Islamist activity. The article identifies these homological processes and structures and explains how they have patterned underlying morphologies of Sadrist politics. This differs from existing literature on Islamist movements where religion has often been contextualized in terms of material social conditions, or priority ascribed to political struggles and structures and emphasis placed on surface-level symbolic practices. By contrast, a Bourdieusian lens provides a theoretically robust approach to study the relationship between religion and politics, and an evaluative framework for Islamist transformations which is less normative than some alternatives and more generalizable beyond the context of Islamism and Islam.
Book review of Ecopoetics of Reenchantment: Liminal Realism and Poetic Echoes of the Earth.
Legislation governs both the admittance and treatment of forced migrants in the United States. Increasingly, many forced migrants are offered few welfare benefits, temporary protection, and no pathway to permanent residency. This paper explores forced migrants' legal categories and access to social welfare, focusing on five humanitarian protection statuses: Temporary Protected Status, Humanitarian Parole, Asylum Seeker, Refugee, and Asylee. Based on the concepts of welfare nationalism and the Protestant Work Ethic, our historical analysis examines the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 to see how this landmark legislation shaped access to welfare for noncitizens. We then focus on the emergence of humanitarian statuses since the 1950s and the legislation that constructed them. We conclude that immigration legislation governing forced migrants underlies an ideology of deserving, where some are treated as more meritorious than others. Thus, we call for welfare scholars to elevate immigration status as a key category in their research.
This research investigates the impact of the cow slaughter ban on different stakeholders in India. The cow is considered a sacred animal in Hinduism, and prohibition of its slaughter prevails in several states in India. India is also a secular state, as its written constitution prescribes. However, the recent ban on cow slaughter in certain states raises several interesting and important ethical questions. We use Aristotle’s Cui Bono moral framing and stakeholder theory to investigate the causes and consequences of the cow slaughter ban on business and society. To this end, our study argues that political and religious affiliations affect stakeholders’ actions and decisions and that they comply with their actions. This has implications for businesses (such as the beef business in India) and society. Based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with key stakeholders such as beef business owners, religious leaders and opposition politicians, our findings indicate that although these stakeholders have their interests, religious and political affiliations play a significant role in shaping such decision-making.
Purpose
Social psychiatry considers the ways in which mental disorders are shaped by particular social environments. This paper outlines a cultural-ecosocial approach that emphasizes the ways in which cultural meaning and practices mediate the effects of the social determinants of mental health on the mechanisms of illness, disorder, and disease.
Methods
Selective review of literature and conceptual synthesis.
Results
“The social” in psychiatry stands for the structures and dynamics of groups of people interacting on multiple scales from the intimate sphere of couple and family to neighbourhoods, communities, societies, nations, and transnational or global networks. These interactions create social contexts, niches, forms of belonging, identities, institutions, and larger systems that influence the causes, expression, course, and outcome of mental disorders. Characterizing these systems requires theory that considers the ways in which social systems constitute dynamical systems that configure material, energetic, and informational flows that give rise to human experience. Unpacking the health consequences of these local and extended systems requires an interdisciplinary approach that considers: (1) the social psychological, psychophysiological, and sociophysiological processes that mediate the impact of the environment on body, mind, and person; (2) the interactional dynamics of social systems that give rise to structural adversity and inequity as well as resilience; and (3) the recursive effects of self-understanding, agency and subjectivity.
Conclusions
In the cultural-ecosocial view, “the social” is shorthand for interactional processes that constitute material and symbolic structures that provide cultural affordances, constraints, and challenges as well as resources for healing, recovery, and adaptation.
Of the five dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation (EO), innovativeness, risk-taking, pro-activeness, competitive aggressiveness and autonomy, none explicitly reflect an ethical or religious characteristic. With a theoretical construct based on Max Weber’s Protestant Work Ethic, we offer asceticism as a valid and needed dimension for the entrepreneur. To accomplish this, we performed a proposographical study of two entrepreneurs in the hospitality industry, Conrad Hilton and Bill Marriott, who both built and sustained successful family businesses. Our findings verify the proposition that asceticism is an appropriate ethical standard for entrepreneurs and a valid dimension of EO.
This article discusses the relevance of Critical Religion to the sociology of religion. Critical Religion argues that the category of “religion” is a Western concept that through colonialism and imperialism has been superimposed over non-Western societies. In contrast, it offers a critical theory of or critical sociology of religion, which evaluates the positive and negatives aspects of what we call religion. The article provides a summary of key proponents of critical religion then uses it to discuss the secularization debate which runs through the classics and the old and new paradigms in the sociology of religion. It discusses the lived religion methodology and problematizes that through its lack of distinction between the religious and the secular, it overemphasizes the role of religion. Finally, the article offers a more scientific and neutral redefinition of the category of religion as a solution to the problems with the category raised by critical religion.
_______________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract Family businesses are one of the dominant entrepreneurial forces in today's global economy but their poor survival rate is a continuing source of concern all over the world. They are culture specific and researchers need to consider the way in which culture may be impacting positively or negatively on them as firm's culture has a relatively weak influence on an individual's core culture beliefs and values. This study therefore examined the impact of culture determinants such as age, extended family system, inheritance tradition (preference for sons, marriage, etc) and education (formal training and development) on family business succession with a focal point among small and medium enterprises in Jos Metropolis, Plateau State. Using a cross-sectional survey, structured questionnaire schedule was administered to obtain data from 372 SMEs in various sectors. Data from the questionnaire were analysed using summary statistics, binomial logistic regression analysis and Pearson correlation coefficient in establishing preliminary relationships among the study variables. The findings of the binomial logistics indicates that all the determinants of culture have significant impact on the successful succession of family businesses while the result of the Pearson correlation coefficient shows that extended family system followed by inheritance law has the highest magnitude effect on successful succession of family business. It was recommended that founders of family businesses should put in place sound policies in business operation and succession plans to forestall any problem that may arise through cultural laws such as extended family system, inheritance law etc as only through this can a long-term functioning of the business operations be ensured among others. It is hoped that the study findings and the integrated framework provide family firms, professionals, academics and policy makers with an insight to cultural factors contributing to successful succession in family firms as understanding these factors is the keystone to reducing the high mortality rate of this important segment in the economy. __________________________________________________________________________________________
This chapter conducts a discourse analysis of selected TED Talks on Islam to explore the interpretative frameworks speakers use to talk about Islam to a broader audience. It discusses how the postsecular imagination as a framework works in TED Talks on Islam by addressing questions such as: what does Islam spoken in the language familiar to a secular world look like? How do TED speakers articulate their narratives on Islam in a scenario wherein Islam encounters a secular space and experience? What is the role of non-Islamic religious traditions and secular norms in such processes? By addressing these questions, this chapter examines how a more empirical and context-oriented understanding of the concept of the postsecular would benefit considerably from examining the discursive features of the contemporary nexus of Islam, new media, popular culture, and storytelling. Four dominant discourse features are identified: (1) an emphasis on the importance of negotiating religious meaning to make it acceptable to the broader audience, (2) an emphasis on a Judeo-Christian framework, (3) the use of awe-inducing, personalised storytelling, and (4) secular translation of Islamic themes. While this emerging online-mediated discourse on Islam informs new storytelling strategies, the language used adopts a highly attenuated perception of Islamic themes and a great deal of traditional Islamic interpretation is replaced with excessively individualistic assumptions that are often tailored to cater to Western secular liberal mindsets.
This study examines the relationship between religiosity and economic growth as an indicator of modernization. It also examines the relationship between religiosity and various dimensions of development such as educational attainment, mortality rate, and urbanization. To this end, average country-level data from 6 different survey waves of the World Values Survey, spanning the period 1989-2022, and various data sources, including the World Christian Encyclopedia, Religion and State Project, Penn World Table, World Development Indicators are utilized. The analyses include a maximum of 108 countries. The ongoing secularization paradigm is experienced differently in each society, depending on the predominance of religious belief and societal characteristics, including the degree of cultural and social diversity. The Seemingly Unrelated Regression method is employed to address the potential problem of correlation between the error terms of the regressions utilizing different religiosity indicators. Estimates indicate that religiosity is negatively associated with economic growth, the presence of a state religion and religious pluralism, while it is positively associated with state regulation of the religious market. Education, which is one of the most fundamental indicators of development, is positively correlated with religiosity. Nevertheless, the most characteristic indicator of modernization and development, urbanization, is negatively related to religiosity.
The chapter discusses “Planet Foucault” (Paul Veyne) as a major reference for SKAD. Michel Foucault introduced several theoretical and methodological concepts regarding the analytics of discourse, which he illustrated through strikingly vivid material analyses of the interconnectedness of practices and discourses. He viewed social knowledge orders as emergent phenomena with their own rules. Foucault’s reflections on the (discourse-related) archaeology of knowledge formations, on the genealogy of power/knowledge regimes, and on the relationship between discourses, dispositives, and practices can be used to elaborate the various starting points that a sociological analysis of discourse must take into account. In the discussion of Foucault’s work, it nevertheless becomes clear that its discourse concepts remain unsatisfactory for social sciences research interests in some respects. Shortcomings relate, firstly, to the theoretical formulation of the link between discourse (as an overall structure) and individual discursive events. Second, they concern the theoretical conception of the relationship between social actors and discourses. And thirdly, Foucault’s reflections upon his methodology do not account for the concrete work of data analysis. The chapter concludes with a related résumé of the starting points for a sociology of knowledge based analysis of discourses.
This chapter argues the benefits of embedding discourse analysis in SK. It starts with a discussion of the relationship between signs, typifications, and discourses, followed by a consideration of the relation between discourse and discursive event (i.e., statement-event). It then addresses the conceptualization of social actors and practices implicated by SK. Finally, it introduces the relationship between public discourses, special discourses, and discursive formations, the relation between discourses, events and problematizations, and the discursive mattering of matter.
This chapter discusses the birth of modern sociology of knowledge. Its initial focus was on understanding the “existential basis” of knowledge (Merton. The sociology of science. Theoretical and empirical investigations. The University of Chicago Press, p. 12; 1973). The new perspective SK develops is that knowledge is a social creation, has a social basis; its first problem, then, is coming to terms with the social determination of collective and individual knowledge. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels resolve this problem by conceiving of the social organization of human labour as the basis for knowledge production. Karl Mannheim expands on Marx’s concepts by studying how thinkers are situationally determined by their social position or standpoint (Standortgebundenheit), and how thought is bound to social existence (Seinsverbundenheit) (“Seinsverbundheit” has been translated as “existential determination of knowledge”; see Mannheim. Ideology and Utopia: An introduction to the sociology of knowledge. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, p. 239; 1954). As a note here explains, this does not refer to a strong cause-effect sequence—the concrete correlation is a question of empirical research. Stehr and Meja (Society and knowledge: contemporary perspectives in the sociology of knowledge. Transactions, p. 2; 2005) translate “Seinsverbundenheit” as “existential connectedness”. Finally, Émile Durkheim and Marcel Mauss emphasize in a generalizing way the social functionality of the orders of knowledge, and point to social experiences of collectivity and social structures as bases for knowledge formation.
In Severance, the modern office is transformed into a forced labor camp where workers are dominated by their managers and forced into being as close to a purely rational actor as possible. Viewers can relate to innies grieving their loss of agency, their futile search for meaning within alienation, and their desperate need to make sense of their place within a world that operates outside their view. The plight of the innie is the plight of all workers in advanced-stage capitalist societies. Like the Innies of Severance, workers today are forced to live through the consequences of decisions made by distant, nameless bureaucrats. A goal of this piece is to provide additional context to the show’s critique of capitalism by reviewing the works of social theorists like Marx and Weber. In addition to expounding on the contradictions inherent to capitalism, we consider possible avenues for liberation and change.
This chapter examines how faith intersects with issues of race, gender, and class to inform national/cultural identity and belonging in Min Jin Lee’s Free Food for Millionaires (2017). In conjunction with the ways Korean American theologians, religious scholars, and sociologists have studied and utilized faith to imagine home anew, it reveals how Lee’s Presbyterian faith informs and critiques spiritual narratives of “the promised land” and “Eden” to envision new (spiritual) homes/homeland for diasporic/transnational Koreans in her novel. Lee demonstrates how the Christian faith and church have historically played an integral and ambivalent role, especially for women, in twentieth-century Korean state formation and the lives of diasporic Koreans. Lee underscores how Christianity has shaped the Korean immigrant narrative, the American Dream, and upward mobility pursued through the Protestant work ethic and national, familial, communal, and spiritual belonging. Lee illustrates how (ethnic) churches and faith communities function as interstitial spaces where character agency can be enabled, and home/homeland can be reimagined in material and immaterial ways. Lee integrates matters of faith into fiction to embody and create liminal spaces and affective realities that can turn experiences of non-belonging into new visions of home.
Following Ziya Gökalp and Ali Shariati’s assertion that Protestantism arose due to the influence of Islam in Europe in the Middle Ages, this study discusses the different discourses elaborated by the Turkish and Iranian authors based on this idea. The controversies surrounding modernity, westernization, colonialism, and Islam were a constant in their writings, despite the different geographical and historical circumstances. This paper discusses the logic of Gökalp and Shariati’s claim that Protestantism was Islamized Christianity. The aim is to provide a detailed perspective on how this claim illuminates their broader thinking about civilization, culture, and religion.
Studies show that Sierra Leoneans hated corruption. However, most of the population would simultaneously be engaged in corrupt practices or taking advantage of its prevalence. This chapter seeks to understand these contradictory trends by arguing that two moralities exist here. One draws from what I call ‘bureaucratism’ and the other from patrimonialism. Bureaucratism denotes a preference for and a disposition that extol legal-rational authority and bureaucracy as the ethically ideal and organisationally superior. Thus, patrimonialism as a deviation from that ideal is immoral and corrupt. I argue that this perception of the total ‘badness’ of patrimonialism limits understanding of the apparent contradictory stances of the populace about corruption. I distinguish between two types of patrimonialism: moral patrimonialism and rogue patrimonialism. Moral patrimonialism is based on the patron giving back to the community. Rogue patrimonialism is where the patron increasingly restricts his largesse, spending it only on himself or his immediate family. Citizens consider this illegitimate. Immoral patrimonialism has increased in recent decades. Because of this growth, there is an increasing convergence of condemnation of resource holders and diverting by patrimonialists and bureaucratists.
This chapter sets to do two main things: one analytical and the other theoretical. In the first instance, Guyana’s social structure would be isolated and assessed with regards to its role in the maintenance rather than transformation of ethnic differentiation and stratification. Secondly, based on a historical analysis of Guyana’s social structure, a tentative theoretical relationship between elements of the social structures and between relational structures and social institutions will be postulated. The theoretical point being made is that the relationship between elements of the social structures and between relational structures and social institutions is not a unidirectional, deterministic, causal relationship. On the contrary, there is a fair degree of feedback to the extent that a self-perpetuated social system is created. A strict deterministic, causal relationship between structures and institutions has already been effectively challenged to the extent that in sociology it is hardly likely to come across any work maintaining any strictly deterministic relationship between structures and institutions.
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