Search results
predecessors have been inconclusive because of a fundamental misconception. The concept of ‘social structure’, upon which they depend, is vague, does not correspond to observable realities, and imports into social science a set of assumptions that are inappropriate if we want to understand the human world. The notion of social structure has dispatched many social theorists on wild goose chases from which they could never return with anything useful. In short, social structure is a concept without which we can, and should, learn to live. The vagueness of social
The structure/agency debate has been among the central issues in discussions of social theory. It has been widely assumed that the key theoretical task is to find a link between social structures and acting human beings to reconcile the macro with the micro, society and the individual. This book considers a general movement in which the collective concepts established by the early pioneers of modern sociological thought have been reconsidered in the light of both theoretical critique and empirical results. It argues that the contemporary sociological preoccupation with structure and agency has had disastrous effects on the understanding of Karl Marx's ideas. Through a critical evaluation of 'structuration theory' as a purported synthesis of 'structure and agency', the book also argues that the whole idea of a structure-and-agency 'problem' mythologises the fracture lines that do run through relatively recent sociological thought. Michel Foucault's ideas were used to both shore up existing positions in sociology and to instantiate (or solve) the 'new' structure-agency 'problem'. Foucault allowed sociologists to conduct 'business as usual' between the demise of structuralism and the contemporary consensus around Pierre Bourdieu-Anthony Giddens-Jurgen Habermas and the structure-agency dualisms. Habermas is one of the most prominent figures in contemporary social theory.
This book explains that Marx may legitimately be presented as a 'productive force determinist' who saw the growth of society's productive forces as the main determinant of social evolution. It also explains that Marx's own work may be invoked to provide an alternative to productive force determinism. The book shows that Marx's views of historical change and of the role of the productive forces were rather more complicated than writers such as Shaw and Cohen would suggest. A productive force determinist reading of Marx is totally valid given Marx and Engels's quite explicit claims on the matter. There were strong historical and intellectual pressures which led Marx and Engels to their productive force determinism. Marx's works contain an interpretation of social structure and historical change very different from that of productive force determinism. This alternative rejects deductive philosophies of history (such as productive force determinism) and provides the concepts which open the way to the empirical investigation of concrete hypotheses. It is an alternative based not on the thesis that the productive forces create social relations, but rather on the claim that production is itself a form of social activity. Marxist historians have been able to make little use of the claims of productive force determinism. The transition from feudalism to capitalism, a key test of the claims of productive force determinism, is used to show the redundancy of the theories of Shaw and Cohen.
chronologically in order to illustrate his views, it is more useful to define the seven major elements of his productive force determinism as it is formulated from The German Ideology (1845–6) onwards. These seven points are then used as the outline for the critique of productive force determinism offered in Chapter 7. Throughout this discussion we need to distinguish two quite separate issues: (1) Was Marx a productive force determinist? (2) Is productive force determinism a logically tenable and empirically proven explanation of social structure and of historical change? We
Elizabeth Gaskell used Gothic as a symbolic language to explore the dark side of Unitarian thought. She explores, in rationalist terms, evils origins, effects, and remedy, using Gothic tropes as metaphors for humanly created misery. Gaskell locates the roots of ‘evil’ in an unenlightened social order – in ‘The Crooked Branch’ erroneous parenting, and in ‘The Poor Clare’ wider social structures, both distorted by the ideology of privilege. ‘The Poor Clare’ also engages with the tension between moral determinism and personal responsibility, and defends a Unitarian salvation. This tale also demonstrates Gaskell‘s views on aspects of Roman Catholicism.
important in ensuring effective and sustainable measures in specific stages of the disaster lifecycle. Kenney et al. (2015) contend that the Maori population of Christchurch after the major earthquake in 2011, were able to draw on their cultural norms and social structures as a coping capacity; therefore, the social structure of indigenous populations like that of the Maori population can be harnessed to improve community resilience ( Tiernan et al. , 2018 ). Capitalising on the various conceptions of resilience as perceived by disaster-affected people especially in
interventions were taking place. MSF also has ongoing advocacy activities to ensure care home residents are not forgotten. Challenges Encountered Initial Public Health Response Excluded Care Homes In Spain, there is a decentralised system for health care that is the responsibility of each region. However, across Spain, care homes lie outside of the health system and are considered social structures. The initial focus of
, C. ( 2010 ), ‘ Discourses on ICT and Development ’, Information Technologies and International Development , 6 : 3 , 1 – 18 . Burt , R. S. ( 1992 ), Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition ( Cambridge, MA and London : Harvard University Press
moved with a plan for permanent settlement. Early on in the war refugees were largely accepted in neighboring European countries as ‘hapless wartime victims’ ( Gatrell, 2014 ). As the war continued, and as countries scrambled to accommodate the growing numbers of people who were putting a strain on economic and social structures, the image of the refugee began to change. Almost as if to respond to such anxiety, Hine made the pieta pictures and also photographed refugees orderly participating in routine activities, including registration. ‘Returned refugees to
stigmatized and discriminated’. Probably, as Arthur Kleinman affirms, the displaced ‘could speak to us of a more terrible aspect of the ontology of suffering: that the displaced can endure, survive and even adapt to the most inhuman conditions produced in their exile and with the unjust intervention of the State’ (Kleinman, 2008, cited in Das, 2010 : 515). How has this routinisation been carried out? This task is not only an epistemological operation; it has to do with power. According to Judith Butler (2009 : 2), precarious lives are formed through social structuring