Back to Basics: A Theory of the Emergence of Institutional Facts

In order to account for the mode of existence of social rules and norms, the author develops a theory of the emergence of institutional facts. Just as other kinds of institutional fact, rules and norms are meanings. Therefore, insight into the emergence of social rules and norms can be achieved by studying the recognition and the communication of meanings. Following accounts of meaning and factuality, institutional facts are characterized as unquestionable shared typifications. It is argued that, in becoming an institutional fact, a typification goes through two phases. First, it becomes a social habit. Second, this habit turns into an obligation by being objectified.     

都市转型背景下的领导学研究与面临的挑战

进入21世纪,以经济迅速崛起为先导的中国城市化进程步入快速发展轨道。都市化转型、内部体制变迁和不断强化的全球化趋势相互交织在一起,构成了一幅极为繁杂、壮阔的都市转型的社会图景。与近代城市工业化转型不同的是,现代都市转型呈现出了一些新的特征:第一,现代城市转型的内涵和维度正发生着深刻的变化;第二,都市的功能越来越趋于从生产型向服务型转变;第三,随着全球化、信息化的挑战,城市转型过程也是一个各种各样的新型知识互相汇聚、错综交织,从而形成一个新的知识网络与平台的过程;第四,关于城市理念的塑造,城市转型中出现的关键问题是城市品格、城市精神和城市韵律的重构。都市领袖必须深刻理解转型背景下的“城市领导”要义,即“领导”城市而非“控制”城市;政策服务而非狭义的技术技能;多视野而非单一的应急管理;具备综合知识的人文型领导而非单一学科背景的专家。因此,城市转型时代的领导学研究必须广泛吸收各种学科的思想精髓,以推动中国城市在全球化背景下的成功转型。     

中国大陆女性社会学的发展与建设

中国女性社会学并不是作为社会学的一个分支学科在 2 0世纪 70年代末至 80年代初中国大陆社会学的复兴中应运而生的 ,相反 ,它是 2 0世纪 80年代中期“妇女问题”研究的产物。在近 15年的进程中 ,中国大陆的女性社会学在研究的立场上以价值中立为主转变成价值中立、女性主义共存 ,甚至出现了某种女性主义的倾向 ;在研究的理念上 ,将妇女视作一种角色的“特殊性”逐渐转变成更多地关注妇女的多种角色 ,注意把握妇女作为“人”的整体整合性 ;在研究的方法上 ,对策研究的主倾向被打破 ,形成对策研究、纯学术研究、参与式研究三足鼎立的局面 ,而参与式研究正在成为中国女性社会学研究方法的一大特质 ;在研究内容方面 ,2 0世纪 80年代以“问题研究”为主 ,90年代上半叶以对“女人”研究为主 ,而从 90年代下半叶开始 ,“性别人”研究成为重点。这些变化的结果之一是 ,女性社会学由对社会学、妇女研究的依附走向相对独立 ,作为一个独立学科的女性社会学正在形成。     

How Is a History of the Sociology of Religion Possible?: Reflections on Roberto Cipriani's Sociology of Religion

The effort to write a history of the sociology of religion requires a delineation of the field. In turn, this requires a discrimination among the key ideas determining that field, including the notions of religion, sociology, the sacred, and a host of others. This is a prerequisite for sorting the various contributors and contributions to this field as well as determining the value of any such history to the future advance of the study of human consciousness and conduct, including religion. Cipriani's book is reviewed, and its strengths and weaknesses assayed, in light of these concerns. Several lacunae in the book are identified, such as the absence of any treatment of non-Western writers and its failure to substantially engage the work of women, including Jane Ellen Harrison's pioneering sociology of religion.     

亲亲相隐制度的现代法学价值解读

“亲亲相隐”制度存在的现代价值主要表现在它契合了法的亲伦精神和刑法的期待可能性理论,体现了法对实质公平、正义、人权价值的追求,符合立法的中人标准以及法的经济效益原理,由此为“亲亲相隐”传统在将来中国立法中实现创造性转化开辟了一种全新的理论视野。     

Literatures at the intersections of national territories: Iranian-Azerbaijani ethnic entrepreneurs in a transnational historical space

This article is an attempt to explore the territoriality of languages in the context of ethno-national mobilizations. It maps the transnational interplay between linguistic spaces that overlap national frameworks. This makes it possible to scrutinize the horizontal and vertical differentiation processes that contribute to the definition of a distinctive literary field. In order to study these processes, we favor a strong empirical anchorage by referring to the notion of transnational historical space, defined as a configuration which covers both spatial and temporal dimensions, bringing territories into contact and linking various temporalities. Our case presents a large geographic space formed by Turkey, the Republic of Azerbaijan, and Iranian Azerbaijan. This unusual scale of analysis helps in understanding how ethnic entrepreneurs can capitalize symbolic resources in their strategies to make their ethnic idiom into a national language and to invest the political field with ethnonational claims.     

Knowledge and the economy: some critical comments

Abstract

In the 1990s central banking in Europe and the United States witnessed a paradigm change. A central tenet of the new paradigm was that a central bank which acts in a transparent and predictable manner reduces uncertainty for economic actors and will be better able to control inflationary expectations. Thus, central bankers set out to enhance their institution's transparency. In this paper, I argue that transparency is not limited to the release of economic data or information about decision-making procedures. It entails producing a new type of market order and results in a new agencement. This paper focuses on the European Central Bank (ECB) and on one actor it relies on: the media. Based on ethnographic data, I analyse the role of the media in the production of a transparent market order. I find that prevailing new rules, new frames and reward systems preclude journalists from playing the role the ECB would like them to play: the instrumental role of a neutral transmitter of information. The struggle between the two actors is a struggle with words, in which both journalists and central bankers want to manipulate markets with their communicative utterances, albeit in different and frequently opposing ways.     

From permanent employment to massive lay-offs: the political economy of ‘transitional unemployment’ in urban China (1993–8)

Abstract

The idea that economic activities may be described and studied as ‘embedded’ in social relations has been central to much debate in recent economic sociology. The present paper analyses legal struggles over the status of begging in US law and argues that conflicting rhetorical accounts of begging illustrate social actors’ efforts to articulate the interconnectedness of their social world, including the ways in which economic practices are embedded in their social and institutional contexts. The paper thus suggests that embeddedness is not just something identified by social researchers, but also a problem faced by social actors as they try to understand the socio-economic order in which they live and act. By arguing for or against the claim that begging is simultaneously an economic action and the exercise of the right to freedom of expression, the voices in this debate attempted to affect the future of this marginal economic activity.     

When More Media Equals Less News: Patterns of Content Homogenization in Argentina's Leading Print and Online Newspapers

This article examines content homogeneity, understood as the degree to which different media focus on the same stories during a particular news cycle, in Argentina's leading print and online newspapers. It focuses on the role of technical practices across media and over time—during a decade for print and during 24 hours for online. The analysis shows three main patterns of homogenization: (a) an increase in the level of homogeneity in print newspapers tied to their online counterparts' practice of publishing breaking and developing stories during the day, (b) an increase in the level of homogeneity in online newspapers as the day unfolds, and (c) a densely interconnected web of homogeneity across print and online newspapers in 2005. We draw from these findings to make contributions to research on online news and media sociology and to reflect upon the direction and meaning of changes in journalistic form in the current media environment.     

The difference

Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s meant living in a time of turbulence and change. The music, literature, and films, combined with the passionate activism of the era, profoundly influenced people in my generation. My working class family struggled to raise a family and make a decent living, instilling values of social justice along the way. I knew from an early age that I wanted to make a difference, but had many internal conflicts to resolve before I could effect change. An education in sociology taught me what was wrong in the world and law school gave me the tools I needed to effect change. Working in the court system and with students has made a difference, one person at a time.