This article presents a case study of a recent controversy over the use of computed tomography (CT) as a diagnostic technology in South Korean hospitals. The controversy occurred in the wake of a ...series of conflicts in the late twentieth century over the legitimate placement of healing practices, medicinal substances, and medical technologies within Korea's separate "Western Medicine" (WM) and "Korean Medicine" (KM) systems of health care and pharmaceutical distribution. The controversy concerned an attempt to use hi-tech imaging technology—the epitome of modern medicine—in a clinic that maintains a strong ideological attachment to Korean healing traditions. A close study of this dispute, based on interviews, participant observation, and documentary analysis, showed that discursive positions taken about the translatability of medical technologies changed with the context of dispute, and did not reflect a stable epistemic boundary between rival medical paradigms.
»'Wir sind das Volk.' Flüchtlingskrise und Nachhinkeffekte beim sozialen Habitus in der deutschen Gesellschaft«. In Germany, like in other European countries, one can observe the recent rise of right ...wing movements, referred to by some authors as the New Right (Bruns, Glösel and Strobel 2016). During the last years those tendencies were able to create and establish closed pictures of national identities, and promote these quite successfully through populist discourses (Speit 2016, 314). Since the so called 'Refugee-crisis,' they gained even more approval throughout German society and established the 'Muslim' as contrary to German habitus. On the contrary there are also civic movements that show explicit solidarity with refugees and offer their help to the newcomers, which was labelled as 'welcome-culture.' Since this polarisation of attitudes towards refugees is so obvious, the question that is addressed in this article concerns the motives and structural circumstances of this division of orientations throughout German society, and hints at questions of identity and habitus.
Differences between old-timers and newcomers and their effects on community social dimensions have been the object of much research. These studies have shown how extensive in-migration of people with ...different socioeconomic backgrounds, values, and perspectives contribute to heightened social conflict in some communities. Popular media accounts and some social science research referred to the conflict emerging from these differences as a culture clash. This study examines the effects that different backgrounds, attitudes, and behaviors have on community participation. Here, earlier work on differences in participation levels between seasonal and permanent residents is extended in an attempt to identify structural and interactional characteristics associated with participative citizens regardless of their residential status. A profile of participative residents was found. Knowing these characteristics helps identify people who could bring important and useful insights to local decision-making. These residents make a deliberate choice to purposively engage in community efforts. Such voluntary interaction creates a pro-community environment where needs and solutions are tackled by residents. Additionally, this interactive environment serves as a ground for the reduction of differences among community members. Through this process, community development is achieved, enhancing community well-being.
Some scholars have argued that religiously injurious speech poses a serious problem for secular liberal thought. It has been suggested that secular liberal thought and political practice often ...misrecognize the nature of the injury involved in speech that violates the sacred and that much secular thought about religious injury (and free exercise more generally) is premised on unacknowledged Protestant conceptions of what real religion is. In this essay, I argue against the ideas that secular liberalism tends to treat religion only as a matter of freely chosen belief and that the unchosen, habituated nature of much religious experience raises a problem for the defense of speech that violates the sacred. I argue that secular thought and practice should remain very concerned about the social and political harms of speech directed unambiguously at social groups but need not eliminate the gap between religious attachments and religious persons.
Various crises hit China in 2009, including an economic slowdown, social unrest, ethnic conflict, and political challenges from dissidents. The People's Republic of China's 60th anniversary was ...shadowed by the regime's fears of instability. The partystate, however, was able to manage the crises capably, although its methods yielded further problems.
In Italy, Strassoldo publishes a study on human ecology in 1977, and a conference on environmental sociology is held in 1988. The period 1993-2013 begins with Beato's essay on environmental risks, ...and continues with the 1st National Congress of Italian Environmental Sociologists (1966). In 1998, Mela et al. publishes a book on the advances in this field. Since 2000, a large number of empirical studies have been written, as well as university textbooks, such as those authored by Pieroni (2002) or Pellizzoni & Osti (2003). Today's literature is incredibly vast, with several theoretical currents (Tacchi, 2011a); usually, the sociologists criticize the big public works, often seen as sources of social conflict and of threat to the environment (Pellizzoni, 2011). Reprinted by permission
To test claims that postcolonial civil violence is a common legacy of colonialism, we create a dataset on the colonial heritage of 160 countries and explore whether a history of colonialism is ...related to indicators of inter-communal conflict, political rebellion and civil war in the years 1960-1999. The analysis provides evidence against sweeping claims that colonialism is a universal cause of civil violence but finds that some forms of colonialism increase the risk of some forms of civil violence. Specifically, the findings support claims that inter-communal violence is a common legacy of colonialism-especially of British colonialism and colonialism by minor colonial powers-but suggest that a history of colonialism has only a limited impact on political rebellion and civil war.
The 2006-2007 communal conflict in East Timor was starkly revealing of the fragility of national identity and also of the existence of deep-seated social tensions. These tensions were embodied by a ...wide range of warring social groups such as gangs, veterans groups and martial arts groups. A number of recent analyses have alluded to the political and ethnic nature of both the conflict and these groups. However, the manner in which all these groups emerged and interacted at different stages of the conflict did not always conform to static political and ethnic allegiances. This paper examines the internal dynamics of these groups' interactions; and how these groups prioritised often conflicting political, ethnic and social identities at different times during this two-year period. It argues that to frame more effective security and development responses and more effectively predict future conflict, we must first comprehend the complex, multi-layered nature of contemporary communal conflict in East Timor.
Immigration and settler literatures provide contrasting approaches to the evaluation of conflict between ‘newcomers’ and ‘indigenous’ groups. On the one hand, immigration studies emphasize that ...newcomers, particularly migrants, almost never fight civil wars; on the other hand, studies on settlers in contested territories expect inherently unstable relations between settlers and native populations affected by colonization projects. While each provides strong evidence to support its argument, neither literature has adequately accounted for hybrid cases where the settler and migrant categories have become almost indistinguishable. The article focuses on Cyprus as a paradigmatic such case. Specifically, it looks at populations transferred from Turkey to the northern part of the island after 1974 described either as settlers or immigrants by rival accounts in the Cypriot conflict. While colonization constitutes a violation of international conventions and a major obstacle to peace, settlers in such places as Cyprus, Tibet or Western Sahara often meet the profile of migrant populations more interested in daily survival issues than in territorial politics. In contrast to other historical or contemporary cases of settler colonialism such as Algeria (France) or West Bank and Gaza (Israel), what is particularly puzzling in Cyprus and elsewhere is the absence of mobilization and politicization among settlers despite perceived discrimination and fear of relocation following a negotiated peace agreement. Addressing this puzzle is essential to bridging the gaps between immigration and settler literatures and in mediating the tensions between conflicting claims over space, land and the political geography of peace settlements in deeply divided societies.
► The article examines the complexities of settler/migrant dichotomies in Cyprus. ► Natives equate colonization with territorial expansion but settlers often avoid direct conflict. ► Turkish settlers demonstrate low levels of politicization as socioeconomic features of migration trump nationalism. ► Natives might accept long-term settlers in exchange for guarantees against future colonization. ► Reserved lands and asymmetrical citizenship could balance settler vs. native concerns.
Transgender studies has emerged from a series of debates that have produced internal tensions, border wars and rifts. The rift I examine here concerns the politically volatile questions of how to ...think about and how to live gender variance. While some feminist, queer and transgender theorists have come to celebrate the critical potential of the allegedly more transgressive expressions of trans theories and lives, many transsexual theorists read this celebration as devaluing their lives and work. After outlining the transsexual critique, I examine to what extent their concerns are justified through an analysis of two key texts. I discuss strategies for challenging this rift, and argue that the potential for transforming it will depend on dismantling existing hierarchies and revaluing diverse forms of gender variance.
