This paper deals with custom in action, namely, with the relationship between custom and action against the background of Amedeo Giovanni Conte's nomotropism. Starting with Frerichs' provocation of ...the peculiarity of saying 'handeln nach der Sitte' (acting according to custom) in favor of 'sich handelnd nach was ublich ist' (acting after what is usual), this paper will begin an exploratory research regarding the semantics and the ontology of custom to investigate the possibility of a nomotropic behavior in the field of custom. Therefore, this paper will quote, at first, Rudolf von Jhering's theory, and, at second, Ferdinand Tonnies' theory. In conclusion, this paper suggests that an inquiry into custom in action (and in particular Tonnies' ontology of the normative) could benefit from the nomotropic categories of analysis--such as adeontic and deontic regularities. keywords nomotropism, normative behavior, customs, Tonnies, Jhering
In rural sociology and rural studies, rurality in many countries is commonly constructed as an idyllic space in which crime is perceived as an urban problem. In other countries, however, rurality is ...constructed as a place where the individual is vulnerable and the population is socially beyond the urban. This article questions the construction of rurality as idyllic by reporting on research in rural areas which demonstrates that crime, in particular illicit and illegal enterprise based crime, is becoming more prevalent in the UK countryside. In urban areas, illicit and illegal forms of entrepreneurship are distinctive in terms of how they are construed and enacted – so why would it not be similar in rural areas? The paper presents a theoretical framework based on the work of Ferdinand Tönnies which demonstrates that contemporary examples of roguery exist in the UK countryside. We make more visible what previously was invisible, or ignored in the literature. Five stories of illegal rural enterprise are presented which provide a counterargument to Mingay's rural idyll. Since illicit and/or illegal rural enterprise is under-researched this constitutes an original attempt to frame an emerging phenomenon of interest.
•We question the presentation of rural life as idyllic.•We present five stories of illegal rural enterprise.•We argue that roguery is endemic in rural culture.•We theorise that rural culture is criminologically distinct from urban culture.
Ferdinand Tönnies and Georg Simmel had many things in common, but their divergences included a difference in understanding and appreciating Friedrich Nietzsche. Tönnies began as an early and ...enthusiastic follower of Nietzsche but soon became disillusioned by the nature as well as the tone of his mature works. Simmel's first philosophical interests centred on Kant, but he quickly came to value Nietzsche's philosophical insights. During the 1890s and 1900s Tönnies and Simmel wrote frequently on Nietzsche; Tönnies cautioned against Nietzsche's immorality and warned of the grave dangers of the growing Nietzsche cult. In contrast, Simmel defended Nietzsche as both a profound moral thinker and an even greater psychologist. Reading their writings on Nietzsche is instructive about that thinker, but also provides a better understanding of Tönnies and Simmel. While the present paper focuses on three important thinkers from the past, it also explores two crucial ways in which people can, and do, address significant problems. Tönnies did not want to confront modernity so much as to retreat into an idyllic past. In contrast, Simmel happily confronted modernity, embracing its ambiguities and conflicts. In respect to their readings of Nietzsche, Tönnies and Simmel are radically different, but taken together they help illustrate different ways in which we can face the complexities and difficulties of the future.
This paper traces the main lines of a process of ‘entrepreneurization’ of a local community in Argentina. It highlights how the development of the community in working spaces generated through the ...interaction between community members and external actors fosters the creation of an entrepreneurial culture and of new communitarian roles and structures. We further argue that the process of entrepreneurization enables to rethink the construct of community, by illustrating how Gemeinschaft-like mutual and tight relationships within the community are constantly mixed up with Gesellschaft-like interactions with external actors and processes of internal segmentation. If the paper shows the importance of central elements of the ‘traditional’ Gemeinschaft for the community to develop an effective entrepreneurial culture, it also suggests that the emergence of working spaces and the community segmentation into specific “sub-worlds” contributes to foster the capacity of community members to take entrepreneurial initiatives so as to participate in the construction of the structures shaping their future lives.
This essay explores the way in which Schiller problematizes power legitimation in his dramatic fragment Demetrius, and demonstrates how relevant this unfinished text was to early twentieth-century ...political thinking on legitimacy in Germany. This is not a matter of mere speculation: there is evidence, both direct and indirect, of the influence of Schiller, and in particular of his Demetrius, on three important intellectuals: Ferdinand Tönnies, Max Weber, and Carl Schmitt. Rather than discuss the reception of Schiller's text by legal philosophers, this essay shows, via a close reading of the play, how Schiller's theater around 1800 reveals the problematic nature of various aspects of power legitimation and how these emerged with particular force during the early twentieth century, when they intersected with the legal and political reflections of the time.
Abstract We conducted a qualitative interview study with people of different professions working with lonely elderly people. The rationale of the study was to examine how these respondents explain ...loneliness among the elderly. The present article focuses on the social explanations, i.e. explanations that identify causes of loneliness in the structure of modern society. We found that many of the social explanations given are aspects of a more encompassing and general pattern underlying all the reasoning about loneliness among the elderly. This pattern is the expression of two contrasting images of society which the classical sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies termed Gemeinschaft (community) and Gesellschaft (society). The former refers to traditional or small-size rural communities characterized by high degrees of social cohesion, integration, solidarity, proximity and familiarity, whereas the latter refers to functional differentiation, distance, individualization, exchanged-based social relations and anonymity. Loneliness among the elderly is explained by the lack of Gemeinschaft and its characteristics in contemporary society. This explanatory pattern goes hand in hand with a critical view of contemporary society and a nostalgic yearning for the lost communities of past societies, where inhabitants find their staked-out place and sense of belonging, and thus loneliness hardly seems to occur. We summarized this view under the label the “lost Gemeinschaft ”.
Toplumun ve insan ilişkilerinin sosyal şekiller tarafından biçimlenmesi görüşü özellikle Tönnies ve Simmel Taraından ortaya konulmuştur. Sosyal şekiller zaman ve bölge ayrımı olmadan iletişimin ve ...ilişkilerin belirlenmesinde önemli bir faktör olarak görülmektedir. hatta bir çok durumda içerikten bağımsız olarak, toplum ve topluluk tipolojisi ile grupların üye sayısının benzer ilişki ve iletişim deneyimlerinin oluşmasında önemli katkıları bulunmaktadır.
Toplumun ve insan ilişkilerinin sosyal şekiller tarafından biçimlenmesi görüşü özellikle Tönnies ve Simmel Taraından ortaya konulmuştur.Sosyal şekiller zaman ve bölge ayrımı olmadan iletişimin ve ...ilişkilerin belirlenmesinde önemli bir faktör olarak görülmektedir. hatta bir çok durumda içerikten bağımsız olarak, toplum ve topluluk tipolojisi ile grupların üye sayısının benzer ilişki ve iletişim deneyimlerinin oluşmasında önemli katkıları bulunmaktadır.
Die prekären Arbeits- und Beschäftigungsbedingungen in der Fleischindustrie sind seit geraumer Zeit Gegenstand von Regulierungsversuchen. Eine dreifache Krise – der europäischen Integration, der ...Arbeitsbeziehungen und der Naturverhältnisse – zog in der Vergangenheit jedoch keine substanzielle Regulierung nach sich. Unser Artikel zeigt, dass die pandemiebedingte Ausweitung der Konsequenzen auf Betroffene außerhalb der Fleischindustrie (etwa Anrainer:innen von Schlachthöfen) die Relevanz und den Handlungsdruck erheblich erhöht hat. Auch die symbolische Relevanz des Themas stieg im Zuge der Corona-Krise, weil die Regulierungen im Zusammenhang mit der Pandemiebekämpfung der Bundesregierung insgesamt gedeutet wurden. Unsere These lautet, dass sich die bemerkenswerte Geschwindigkeit der Re-Regulierung nur auf Basis der vorgängigen, dreifachen Krisendynamik der Fleischproduktion erklären lässt. Die Analyse des Policy-Wandels hat ergeben, dass die Debatte um Arbeit und Beschäftigung in der Fleischindustrie bereits seit 2007 geführt wird. Zögerliche Regulierungsversuche sahen zwar bereits 2014 einen branchenweiten Mindestlohn vor, der jedoch großflächig unterwandert wurde. Ob die neuen Regulierungen der Bundesregierung dies nun verhindern können, indem sie Leiharbeit und Werkverträge schrittweise verboten, bleibt abzuwarten.
Complex organisations require coherence to achieve adaptive goals through agency. This paper introduces Mindset Agency Theory (MAT), a metatheoretical framework designed for modelling and diagnosing ...agency within culturally diverse populations. MAT, a cybernetic multi-ontology framework, delineates five formative traits defining agency character. Its cognitive style trait (with bipolar values of Patterning–Dramatising) elucidates how agencies acquire information. Examining diverse agencies requires an appreciation of the social relationships that exist there, but MAT is currently devoid of this capability. Using the configuration approach to enable the integration of Tönnies’ social organisation theory into MAT, social relationships can be suitably explored, thus enhancing its capacity to investigate agency coherence. Tönnies’ theory of social organisation (with bipolar values of Gemeinschaft-Gesellschaft) that frames inter-agent interactions is configured within MAT. This integration births a new formative trait, pairing cognitive style with social organisation, and is thus capable of indicating the likelihood of operative coherence. Configuration is applied by relating propositional attributes of a holding metatheory framework such as MAT, with an entry theory such as Tönnies’ social organisation theory as determined from the literature. The elaborated MAT serves as a diagnostic tool, linking trait instabilities with agency pathologies that deliver dysfunction. A subsequent paper will apply this framework to ASEAN, a regional intergovernmental organisation addressing cultural diversity issues. The study aims to evaluate ASEAN’s mindset and diagnose its pathologies, such as narcissism and paradoxical behaviour.
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