Search results

1

The Hidden Curriculum in Legal Education

100%

Czarnota A., Paździora M., Stambulski M.

Krytyka Prawa. Niezależne studia nad prawem

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2018

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vol. 10

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issue 2

114-129

EN

The article raises an important problem of legal education in Poland. After covering the changes in legal education in the world, the paper moves on to focus on the role of academic and practical legal education. The authors point to the specific role of the hidden dimension of legal education, which tends to be unseen, but plays a key part in educating lawyers in Poland. The final part of the article discusses the possible changes to be made in the system of legal education.

2

Social structure and collective memory

100%

Żardecka M.

Analiza i Egzystencja. Czasopismo Filozoficzne

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2021

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vol. 53

5-24

EN

The paper explores the relation between collective memory and social theory, trying in particular to show the key role that the notion of collective memory plays in understanding the dynamics of the social process (structuration, genesis of social structure). It does it by means of a series of reinterpretations of classical authors. Investigating the phenomenon of forgetting as covering up the traces of social change (M. Halbwachs), problematized in the contemporary context (P. Bourdieu), leads us to unraveling the problematic character of social change as such in a vain effort of annulment of memory (A. Touraine), and finally to rediscovering of social memory at a deeper level, as a profound structure of social processes. This discovery points to the necessity of introducing a new, yet undeveloped method of studying the social unconscious (A. Giddens, J. Assmann, and in particular J. Alexander). Jeffrey Alexander overtly postulates such a development, identifying his major project of cultural sociology with a kind of social psychoanalysis. The paper ends with a question – where such a postulate leads us to? Perhaps we need a new kind of art of benevolent interpretation that brings along with new understanding also some kind of soothing the pain of misery, deeply inscribed in social existence.

3

1920 - A caesura in social theory?:

100%

Outhwaite W.

Sociologický časopis. Czech Sociological Review

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2020

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vol. 56

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issue 6

897-910

EN

The centenary of Max Weber's death raises the question of the wider significance of 1920 as marking a break in the history of social theory. This essay focuses on Germany and Austria, where the political break with the past was particularly sharp and the discontinuities in the social and intellectual configuration of the social sciences were most obvious. Three trends are particularly striking: the development of neo-Marxist social theory with György Lukács and Karl Korsch and the later emergence of critical theory, the polarisation between neo-positivism and interpretive sociology, and the consolidation of the sociology of knowledge.

4

Kultura popularna, kultura masowa i zagadnienie emancypacji.

100%

Wyczyński G.

Nowa Krytyka

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2016

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issue 37

173-188

EN

In the field on mass/popular culture theory one can distinguish two different aproaches – according to the first of them, culture is a tool of social control and the source of profit (this two functions can complement each other); according to the second, popular culture is a semiotic battlefield, where one can produce also opposite and subversive meanings. In this article I’m setting myself two goals. In the first part of the text I’ll compare two foregoing traditions. In the further parts I’ll confront the following question: can this two theories help us to understand the possibilities of emancipatory subjects in contemporary world? Because the emancipatory and opposite functions of popular culture are emphasized mainly by members of the second tradition, I’ll concentrate here primarily on their views.

5

The "Practice Turn" in the Contemporary Socio-Human Sciences

88%

Višňovský E.

Human Affairs

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2009

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vol. 19

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issue 4

378-396

EN

The paper provides an overview of the current situation in the socio-human sciences, which is characterised by attempts to overcome traditional one-sided approaches and look for new alternatives. One of the latest alternatives to traditional approaches in the philosophy and methodology of the social sciences is the "practice turn". It is the turn to another, non-traditional approach to practice but also to Aristotelian phronesis. The author gives an account of three main tenets of this turn with reference to both ancient Greek and modern conceptions of practice.

6

Between Rejection of Religion and World-Saving: Itineraries of Sociology and Postsecular Social Theory

88%

Hałas E.

Polish Sociological Review

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2014

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vol. 186

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issue 2

167-178

EN

Encroachments of contemporary social theory on the field of theology are the focal point of this essay. In postmodernity, theology facilitates connections with social theory. In the domain of theology, sociocultural problems are being presented as theological issues. Secularized variants of world theology meet with theologizing postsecular social theory above and beyond sociology. This is facilitated by the constant discourse of ambiguity. In this discourse, “the theological” is a vehicle of indeterminate meanings. Praxis’ oriented discourse uses the term “social theory” with its modernist connotative envelope of science and rationality, but with no obligation whatsoever to maintain objectivity of cognition. Sociology doesn’t interfere with theological discourse, but may analyze it, leaving the otherworldly outside its perspective on sociocultural phenomena. The sociotheological discourse of ambiguity, however, opposes both religion and the rationality of science.

7

When social theory is devoid of social history. Reply to “Transhumanism. Human Nature and Culture: A Preliminary Sociological Contextualization” by Markus Lipowicz

88%

Zaród M.

Studia Socjologiczne

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2022

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issue 4(247)

173-183

EN

This polemic discusses two problematic aspects to the claim of a paradigmatic shift to the new technology-centered symbolic universe, as understood by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann. The first problematic aspect is connected to the status quo ante transhumanism (before the postulated paradigmatic shift). By discussing cases from pre-modernity and peak modernity, I point out that the discussed claim does not provide satisfactory understanding of the role of technology in society. My counter-argument is built on cases of technoreligious institutions such as abbeys and rocketry research theoretical circles, using works by David Noble as the starting point. The second problematic aspect goes back to the fundamentals of Berger and Luckmann’s concept and its relation to ontology. The discussed proposal mixed this framework with the concept of culture from the Margaret Archer system, which led to a shift in ontological positioning. In effect, some preliminaries about the materiality and dynamics of Berger-Luckmann dialectics are harder to trace in the proposal. This results in problems of operationalization and loss of useful theoretical dialogue with post-constructivist tradition. In the last part of the paper, I sketch other possibilities and challenges for post Berger-Luckman applications in the case of transhumanism and late modernity.

8

An Invitation to Recover Our Imaginations

88%

Lincoln J. W.

Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture

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2023

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vol. 7

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issue 1

125-131

EN

/Review: Brandon Absher, The Rise of Neoliberal Philosophy: Human Capital, Profitable Knowledge, and the Love of Wisdom (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2021), 196 pages./ This review explores Brandon Absher’s (2021) The Rise of Neoliberal Philosophy: Human Capital, Profitable Knowledge, and the Love of Wisdom. Rise offers an accessible breakdown of Neoliberalism, its cultivation of the Neoliberal University, an argument for the claim that academic philosophy has contracted neoliberal predilections, and some thoughts about what should be done as a result. The book is, by all accounts, a strong critical deconstruction of institutionalized philosophy and the role academic philosophers often play in perpetuating many of its exclusionary practices. Absher’s work is rigorous and often echoes Herbert Marcuse’s 1937 claim that the imagination is the rational faculty of freedom.

9

Social Commitment in Amma Darko’s The Housemaid and Faceless

88%

Tayol R. T.

Language, Discourse & Society

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2019

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vol. 7

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issue 1

153-162

EN

When a literary work is conceived, it demonstrates the fact that a writer is sensitive to the world around him or her and thus, his or her work bear the responsibility of creating an impact positively on that society. This paper arises from this fact and exemplifies how Amma Darko is socially committed to shaping the moral conscience of contemporary African society using her novels – The Housemaid and Faceless. Using social theory as a theoretical bearing, the paper analyses the novels and discovers that Amma uses especially her characters and settings as forces to create a social transformation in contemporary African society.

10

The Sociological Marxism of Michael Burawoy

88%

Gdula M.

Studia Socjologiczne

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2022

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issue 4(247)

153-172

EN

Michael Burawoy’s idea of public sociology instigated a heated debate about the purpose of sociological research and bestowed its author an important place among contemporary social thinkers. The article presents the intellectual path that led Burawoy to formulate his well-known idea. Starting from his first book, he developed a coherent and original theory that was indebted to Marxism but was reaching beyond its horizons. Through grounding his conceptual work in sociological field research, Burawoy created his own understanding of such concepts as class, interest or production. By linking the participant observation of workplaces’ local regimes with the global political dynamics of social systems, the theory of sociological Marxism paved the way to formulating the new idea of sociology. Burawoy’s sociology aims at combining a realistic investigation in the interests and dispositions of social actors with utopian imaginaries of contemporary culture.

11

Practice Then and Now

88%

Turner S.

Human Affairs

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2007

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vol. 17

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issue 2

111-125

EN

"Practice theory" has a long history in philosophy, under various names, but current practice theory is a response to failures of projects of modernity or enlightenment which attempt to reduce science or politics to formulae. Heidegger, Oakeshott, and MacIntyre are each examples of philosophers who turned to practice conceptions. Foucault and Bourdieu made similar turns. Practice accounts come in different forms: some emphasize skill-like individual accomplishments, others emphasize the social character or presupposition-like character of the tacit conditions of activities. The Social Theory of Practices problematized the idea of sameness, the idea that participants in an activity had the same tacit possessions, which undermined the idea that practices were collective objects in which individuals participated. Later critics, such as Schatzki and Rouse, emphasized the normative coherence and character of practice, which has a collective aspect. Pickering and others suggested a notion of practices that was de-mentalized and focused on the objects that were part of the practical activity, which provided for the continuity and sociality of practice without collectivizing its mental content. The discovery of mirror neurons suggested a non-collective mode of transmission of practices. The implications of these developments can be seen in connection with ethics, where the conflict between the ethical and the practical can be understood in terms of the intrinsic conflict between the need to behave successfully and our learned ethical intuitions.

12

A note on the post-structuralist evolution of discourse analysis

88%

Cap P.

Heteroglossia - studia kulturoznawczo-filologiczne

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2019

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issue 9

109-128

EN

This paper gives a critical overview of various analytical approaches dominating the field of discourse studies in the last three decades, from the perspective of their philosophical and formative bases: social constructionism and linguistics. It explores different conceptions and features of the theoretical nexus between these two bases leading to the emergence of three distinct yet apparently complementary strands of thought (i-iii). The paper starts with the account of (i) Laclau and Mouffe’s classical discourse theory and its idea of ‘discursive struggle’ – a struggle of particular ways of talking of and understanding the world in an attempt to achieve discursive (and social) hegemony. Laclau and Mouffe’s assumption that no discourse is a closed entity but rather transformed through contact with other discourses is then taken as the introductory premise to present a vast, complex and heterogeneous family of (ii) critical discourse studies. Critical discourse studies are characterized in the paper as a hub of text-analytical practices that work on the link between language and social reality from the perspective of power and empowerment, explaining how discourse partakes in the production, change and negotiations of ideologically-charged meanings. Most crucially, they establish a methodological link between social theory and linguistics, providing discourse analysis with text-analytical tools and methods. Finally, the paper discusses (iii) three recent discourse analytical models: Discourse Space Theory, Critical Metaphor Analysis and Legitimization-Proximization Model. Originally located in the cognitive-psychological strand of critical discourse studies, these new models can now be seen as fully-fledged discourse theories with their own apparatus of analysis, involving concepts from cognitive linguistics, pragmatics and social psychology. It is argued that these three new theories make a further (and thus far final) step toward consolidation of the social-theoretical and linguistic bases in contemporary discourse studies. The empirical benefits of this consolidation are discussed in the last part of the paper, which includes a brief case study where the new models are used in the analysis of Polish anti-immigration discourse.

13

Economic Sociology or the Economic Structure and the Non-economic Societal Structures as Conceived of by Socio-economic Structuralism

88%

Tittenbrun J.

Warsaw Forum of Economic Sociology

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2013

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vol. 4

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issue 8

115-137

EN

This is the continuation of the paper which appeared in the previous issue of WFES (7/1/4). In this article the author further develops the theoretical foundations of the socio-economic structuralism. In particular, the notions of economic and non-economic societal structures remain in focus. The author retains the economic determinist perspective and explores the ways through which the economic structure affects other structures of the society, including work in its many variations (material work, immaterial work, and quasi-work) as well as other aspects of social life such as culture in general and language in particular.

14

An Outline of Socio-Economic Structuralism

88%

Tittenbrun J.

Warsaw Forum of Economic Sociology

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2013

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vol. 4

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issue 7

9-51

EN

This paper presents what may be regarded as a novel approach to social theory. Whilst laying stress on the economic structure, the theory views it as embedded within a broader societal context. According to the theory, society is viewed as a set of four structures. A set of categories for analysis of those structures is depicted and the most detailed presentation is devoted to the economy. In this case, it includes such innovative notions as quasi-work, lumpenwork and the whole theory of ownership of labour power. This implies an analysis of the differences between the legal and socio-economic approach to property.

15

Sociological Game Theory: Agency, Social Structures and Interaction Processes

75%

Burns T. R., Roszkowska E., Corte U., Machado N.

Optimum. Studia Ekonomiczne

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2017

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vol. 5(89)

EN

Game theory can be viewed as an important contribution to multi-agent modeling, with widespread applications in economics and other social sciences. This paper presents two distinct approaches to extending – sociologizing – classical game theory: firstly, a system/institutional approach – social science game theory (SGT), and secondly, Erving Goffman’s interactionist approach (I-game theory). The two approaches are presented and compared; they are also contrasted with the classical theory. The article ends by concluding that due to the social science game theory, sociologists and social scientists are no longer forced into the classical straightjacket with its hyper-rationality, anomic players, and the absence of any social fabric (institutional and cultural formations). Moreover, the new game theory offers a reliable toolbox of social science concepts and methods for describing, analyzing, and explaining highly diverse interaction phenomena. We claim that those two approaches have already proved themselves useful for investigating and modeling a variety of interaction processes including cooperation, conflict, and negotiation.

16

Edukacja prawnicza na poziomie Wyobrażeniowym, Symbolicznym i Realnym

75%

Stambulski M.

Krytyka Prawa. Niezależne studia nad prawem

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2016

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vol. 8

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issue 3

150-161

EN

The article is an attempt to problematize legal education in order to show its unconscious structures. Methodologically it is based on a Lacanian psychoanalysis, in particular on a three level concept of language. Considerations lead to the conclusion that the unconscious structure of legal education is opposed to conscious declaration. While declarations are talking about the transfer of knowledge, the real practices are based on enforcing discipline and subordination.

PL

Artykuł jest próbą problematyzacji edukacji prawniczej w celu ukazania jest nieświadomych struktur. Metodologicznie opiera się on na psychonalizie Lacanowskiej, w szczególności na trzypoziomowej koncepcji języka. Rozważania prowadzą do konkluzji, że nieświadoma struktura edukacji prawniczej jest przeciwstawna do świadomych deklaracji. O ile deklaracje mówią o przekazywaniu wiedzy, o tyle realne praktyki są oparte na wymuszaniu dyscypliny i podporządkowania.

17

A Culture of Resistance: Mass Media and Its Social Perception in Central and Eastern Europe

75%

Bognár B.

Polish Sociological Review

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2018

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vol. 202

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issue 2

225-243

EN

In this paper the author interprets the changing role of mass media in social processes over recent decades. Society’s perception of mass media is also investigated, with a focus on Central and Eastern Europe. The author explores mass media’s position in the societies of the region, asking how these societies interpret media messages. He analyzes the context of people’s reservations about media messages (people’s misgivings, conditioned by social history). One of the key arguments of the paper is that the majority of audiences in the countries concerned have grown more sceptical of mass media messages than have the audiences of Western European countries. According to the author, various social groups consider that the mass media is heavily politicized and that its construction of reality has little in common with their own interpretations.

18

Luhmann’s Functional Subsystems of Modern Society- The Character of Horizontal and Vertical Relationships

75%

Bognár B.

Polish Sociological Review

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2013

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vol. 182

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issue 2

137-152

EN

This study focuses on one of the basic questions of Luhmann’s social theory relating to the description of modernity, namely, on the characteristics of subsystems and, even more specifically, it is aimed at gaining new recognitions concerning the relationships between subsystems. To do this, the study starts with sporadic comments in Luhmann’s late work indicating historical and current inequalities between functional subsystems that are characterised in essence by a coordinating structure. Supplementing these recognitions by new arguments, the study concludes that besides the horizontal relationships, a variety of hierarchic (vertical) organisation forms also develop under the conditions ofmodernity. The dynamic of the subsystems is also affected by external irritations of unequal weights and frequencies of occurrence which, though not necessarily overwriting the autopoiesis of the various subsystems, definitely influences the importance of the various subsystems in the process of social communication. The other part of the study points out-by analysing the organisation’s system level among other aspects-that vertical segmentation is a characteristic of the entirety of sociality besides the horizontal structure. Consequently, the study concludes that the description of modernity in Luhmann’s social theory is in need of some adjustment.

19

Social Theory, Performativity and Professional Power-A Critical Analysis of Helping Professions in England

75%

Powell J., Carey M.

Human Affairs

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2007

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vol. 17

|

issue 1

78-94

EN

Drawing from interviews and ethnographic research, evidence is provided to suggest a sense of "anxiety" and "regret" amongst state social workers and case managers working on the "front-line" within local authority social service departments. There have been a number of theoretical approaches that have attempted to ground the concept of "power" to understand organizational practice though Foucauldian insights have been most captivating in illuminating power relations and subject positioning. In order to theoretically interrogate the relationship between social theory and professional power, we draw from the neo-Foucauldian work of American Social Philosopher Judith Butler-especially regarding Butler's (1990, 1993 and 1998) powerful work on "performativity" and its relationship to social work. We also attempt to examine the "distances" between the social work role and social workers narratives through an examination of notions of "anxiety" and "regret" in the face of the professionalisation of state social work.

20

O koncepcji nowego ducha kapitalizmu w ujęciu Luca Boltanskiego i Ève Chiapello

63%

Stachowiak J.

Przegląd Socjologiczny

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2014

|

vol. 63 (LXIII)

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issue 4

9-43

PL

Artykuł omawia i poddaje krytycznej ocenie koncepcję nowego ducha kapitalizmu według Luca Boltanskiego i Ève Chiapello. Wkrótce po publikacji książka Le nouvel esprit du capitalisme [1999] stała się jednym z najbardziej wyraźnych punktów na mapie studiów nad kulturowymi przemianami kapitalizmu i zwróciła uwagę socjologów w niemal całej Europie. Jednak w polskiej literaturze większość prac socjologicznych, także tych, które wprost nawiązują do problematyki ducha kapitalizmu, nawet nie odnotowuje tego monumentalnego opracowania. Aby choć częściowo uzupełnić tę lukę, niniejszy tekst wprowadza do lektury Le nouvel esprit du capitalisme. Zrekonstruowany zostaje teoretyczny i metodologiczny rdzeń tej pracy, leżąca u jego koncepcyjnych podstaw wizja związku między krytyką a ideologią oraz fazowe ujęcie historycznych przemian ducha kapitalizmu.

EN

This paper discusses and critically evaluates the concept of the new spirit of capitalism as developed by Luc Boltanski and Ève Chiapello. Immediately following its publication, Le nouvel esprit du capitalisme [1999] became one of the most distinct points on the map of studies on the cultural transformations of capitalism, and it has attracted the attention of sociologists around the Europe. Nevertheless, in Polish literature the majority of sociological texts omit mention of this monumental work. In order to fill this gap, at least to some extent, this paper serves as an introduction to the ideas contained in Le nouvel esprit du capitalisme. It reconstructs the theoretical and methodological core of the book, the underlying concept of the relationship between the critique and ideology, as well as idea of historical phases in the alterations of the spirit of capitalism.

Refine search results

The Hidden Curriculum in Legal Education

Social structure and collective memory

1920 - A caesura in social theory?:

Kultura popularna, kultura masowa i zagadnienie emancypacji.

The "Practice Turn" in the Contemporary Socio-Human Sciences

Between Rejection of Religion and World-Saving: Itineraries of Sociology and Postsecular Social Theory

When social theory is devoid of social history. Reply to “Transhumanism. Human Nature and Culture: A Preliminary Sociological Contextualization” by Markus Lipowicz

An Invitation to Recover Our Imaginations

Social Commitment in Amma Darko’s The Housemaid and Faceless

The Sociological Marxism of Michael Burawoy

Practice Then and Now

A note on the post-structuralist evolution of discourse analysis

Economic Sociology or the Economic Structure and the Non-economic Societal Structures as Conceived of by Socio-economic Structuralism

An Outline of Socio-Economic Structuralism

Sociological Game Theory: Agency, Social Structures and Interaction Processes

Edukacja prawnicza na poziomie Wyobrażeniowym, Symbolicznym i Realnym

A Culture of Resistance: Mass Media and Its Social Perception in Central and Eastern Europe

Luhmann’s Functional Subsystems of Modern Society- The Character of Horizontal and Vertical Relationships

Social Theory, Performativity and Professional Power-A Critical Analysis of Helping Professions in England

O koncepcji nowego ducha kapitalizmu w ujęciu Luca Boltanskiego i Ève Chiapello