Societies

248 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Conflict or Concert? Extending the Simmelian Triad to Account for Positive Third Party Presence in Face-to-Face Interviews with People Living with Parkinson’s Disease

by Jacqueline Low

Societies 2012, 2(3), 210-221; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/soc2030210 - 17 Sep 2012

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 5490

Abstract

A number of sociologists and other researchers have focused on the role of third parties since Simmel’s seminal conceptualization of the social organization of the triad. However, less attention has been given to third party presence in qualitative interviews, despite the fact that [...] Read more.

A number of sociologists and other researchers have focused on the role of third parties since Simmel’s seminal conceptualization of the social organization of the triad. However, less attention has been given to third party presence in qualitative interviews, despite the fact that third party participation in interviews with people with chronic illness and/or disability occurs frequently. Here too it is assumed that third party presence promotes conflict, ignoring the role of third parties as facilitators who enable informants to articulate their perspectives. Therefore, I focus on Simmel’s concept of the triad, concluding that the role of facilitator must be added to the types he describes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exemplars in Social Research)

308 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Youth for Sale: Using Critical Disability Perspectives to Examine the Embodiment of ‘Youth’

by Jenny Slater

Societies 2012, 2(3), 195-209; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/soc2030195 - 13 Sep 2012

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 7265

Abstract

‘Youth’ is more complicated than an age-bound period of life; although implicitly paired with developmentalism, youth is surrounded by contradictory discourses. In other work [1], I have asserted that young people are demonized as risky and rebellious, whilst simultaneously criticized for being lazy [...] Read more.

‘Youth’ is more complicated than an age-bound period of life; although implicitly paired with developmentalism, youth is surrounded by contradictory discourses. In other work [1], I have asserted that young people are demonized as risky and rebellious, whilst simultaneously criticized for being lazy and apathetic; two intertwining, yet conflicting discourses meaning that young people’s here-and-now experiences take a backseat to a focus on reaching idealized, neoliberal adulthood [2]. Critical examination of adulthood ideals, however, shows us that ‘youthfulness’ is itself presented as a goal of adulthood [3–5], as there is a desire, as adults, to remain forever young [6]. As Blatterer puts it, the ideal is to be “adult and youthful but not adolescent” ([3], p. 74). This paper attempts to untangle some of the youth/adult confusion by asking how the aspiration/expectation of a youthful body plays out in the embodied lives of young dis/abled people. To do this, I use a feminist-disability lens to consider youth in an abstracted form, not as a life-stage, but as the end goal of an aesthetic project of the self that we are all (to differing degrees) encouraged to set out upon. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Embodied Action, Embodied Theory: Understanding the Body in Society)

201 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Child Murder in Nazi Germany: The Memory of Nazi Medical Crimes and Commemoration of “Children’s Euthanasia” Victims at Two Facilities (Eichberg, Kalmenhof)

by Lutz Kaelber

Societies 2012, 2(3), 157-194; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/soc2030157 - 12 Sep 2012

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 25359

Abstract

Nazi Germany’s “children’s euthanasia” was a unique program in the history of mankind, seeking to realize a social Darwinist vision of a society by means of the systematic murder of disabled children and youths. Perpetrators extinguished “unworthy life” during childhood and adolescence by [...] Read more.

Nazi Germany’s “children’s euthanasia” was a unique program in the history of mankind, seeking to realize a social Darwinist vision of a society by means of the systematic murder of disabled children and youths. Perpetrators extinguished “unworthy life” during childhood and adolescence by establishing killing stations, misleadingly labeled Kinderfachabteilungen (“special children’s wards”), in existing medical or other care facilities. Part of a research project on Nazi “euthanasia” crimes and their victims, this paper uses a comparative historical perspective to trace memories of the crimes and the memorialization of their victims at the sites of two of these wards (Eichberg and Kalmenhof in Hesse, Germany). It also discusses the implications of the findings for theorizing mnemonic practices and analyzing ways in which memorials and other sites of memory deal with past trauma and atrocity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exemplars in Social Research)

236 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Place of Disgust: Disability, Class and Gender in Spaces of Workfare

by Karen Soldatic and Helen Meekosha

Societies 2012, 2(3), 139-156; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/soc2030139 - 12 Sep 2012

Cited by 37 | Viewed by 9972

Abstract

This paper explores the role of disgust in mediating disabled women's experience of workfare in the Australian state. As global social policy has been restructured along neoliberal lines in Western nations, the notion of ‘workfare’ has been widely promulgated. This paper draws on [...] Read more.

This paper explores the role of disgust in mediating disabled women's experience of workfare in the Australian state. As global social policy has been restructured along neoliberal lines in Western nations, the notion of ‘workfare’ has been widely promulgated. This paper draws on nine case studies from across Australia to explore how this has resulted in disabled women being coerced to participate in a range of workfare programs that are highly bureaucratised, sanitised and moralised. The findings suggest that with the advent of Australian neoliberal welfare reform, some disabled women are increasingly framed in negative affective terms. A primary emotion that appears to govern disabled women forced to participate in Australian neoliberal workfare programs is disgust. The experience of the participants interviewed for this study suggests that the naming of them in negative emotional terms requires disabled women to perform a respectable unruly corporeality to ensure that they gain and maintain access to a range of services and supports, which are vital to their wellbeing. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Embodied Action, Embodied Theory: Understanding the Body in Society)

314 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Does Migration Lead to Development? Or is it Contributing to a Global Divide?

by Annelies Zoomers and Gery Nijenhuis

Societies 2012, 2(3), 122-138; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/soc2030122 - 12 Sep 2012

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 7446

Abstract

This article aims to show that the benefits of international migration (often presented as a ‘global flow’) very much depend on the positionality of the areas involved, as well as the regional particularities. It is argued that countries producing south-north migration or diasporic [...] Read more.

This article aims to show that the benefits of international migration (often presented as a ‘global flow’) very much depend on the positionality of the areas involved, as well as the regional particularities. It is argued that countries producing south-north migration or diasporic states are in a more favorable position to benefit from international migration than countries that are mainly involved in south-south migration. In addition, the opportunity to benefit from international migration very much depends on geographical particularities. For example, international migration in the context of Latin America/USA is in many respects not comparable to what is happening in Africa, Asia, the EU and the Gulf States. Even though international migration is often described in terms of a growing connectedness in the age of globalization, it progresses also hand in hand with new gaps and regional divides. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue On the Move: Human Migration Past, Present and Future)

762 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Passive Flora? Reconsidering Nature’s Agency through Human-Plant Studies (HPS)

by John Charles Ryan

Societies 2012, 2(3), 101-121; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/soc2030101 - 14 Aug 2012

Cited by 43 | Viewed by 15475

Abstract

Plants have been—and, for reasons of human sustenance and creative inspiration, will continue to be—centrally important to societies globally. Yet, plants—including herbs, shrubs, and trees—are commonly characterized in Western thought as passive, sessile, and silent automatons lacking a brain, as accessories or backdrops [...] Read more.

Plants have been—and, for reasons of human sustenance and creative inspiration, will continue to be—centrally important to societies globally. Yet, plants—including herbs, shrubs, and trees—are commonly characterized in Western thought as passive, sessile, and silent automatons lacking a brain, as accessories or backdrops to human affairs. Paradoxically, the qualities considered absent in plants are those employed by biologists to argue for intelligence in animals. Yet an emerging body of research in the sciences and humanities challenges animal-centred biases in determining consciousness, intelligence, volition, and complex communication capacities amongst living beings. In light of recent theoretical developments in our understandings of plants, this article proposes an interdisciplinary framework for researching flora: human-plant studies (HPS). Building upon the conceptual formations of the humanities, social sciences, and plant sciences as advanced by Val Plumwood, Deborah Bird Rose, Libby Robin, and most importantly Matthew Hall and Anthony Trewavas, as well as precedents in the emerging areas of human-animal studies (HAS), I will sketch the conceptual basis for the further consideration and exploration of this interdisciplinary framework. Full article

► Show Figures

Figure 1

906 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Circuits of Memory: The War Memory Boom in Western Australia

by John R. Stephens

Societies 2012, 2(3), 84-100; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/soc2030084 - 07 Aug 2012

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 6518

Abstract

In some Australian academic circles in the 1980s it was believed that, as the numbers of soldiers of the world wars declined over time, so would attendances at war remembrance ceremonies on Anzac Day and interest in war commemoration in general. Contrary to [...] Read more.

In some Australian academic circles in the 1980s it was believed that, as the numbers of soldiers of the world wars declined over time, so would attendances at war remembrance ceremonies on Anzac Day and interest in war commemoration in general. Contrary to expectation, however, there has been a steady rise in eagerness for war memory in Australia over the past three decades manifest in media interest and increasing attendance at Anzac Day services. Rather than dying out, ‘Anzac’ is being reinvented for new generations. Emerging from this phenomenon has been a concomitant rise in war memorial and commemorative landscape building across Australia fuelled by government funding (mostly federal) and our relentless search for a national story. Many more memorial landscapes have been built in Western Australia over the past thirty years than at the end of either of the World Wars, a trend set to peak in 2014 with the Centenary of Anzac. This paper examines the origins and progress of this boom in memorial building in Western Australia and argues that these new memorial settings establish ‘circuits of memory’ which ultimately re-enchant and reinforce the Anzac renaissance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue War/Wars and Society)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

120 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Expanding Ableism: Taking down the Ghettoization of Impact of Disability Studies Scholars

by Gregor Wolbring

Societies 2012, 2(3), 75-83; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/soc2030075 - 06 Jul 2012

Cited by 69 | Viewed by 16534

Abstract

This paper highlights the utility of an expanded ableism concept beyond how it is used in disability studies; expanding the concept of ableism so it connects with all aspects of societies and making ableism applicable to many academic fields. It introduces this expanded [...] Read more.

This paper highlights the utility of an expanded ableism concept beyond how it is used in disability studies; expanding the concept of ableism so it connects with all aspects of societies and making ableism applicable to many academic fields. It introduces this expanded form of ableism as a new angle of cultural research and suggests it to be one possible venue for disability studies scholars to escape the ghettoization of their impact. Full article

292 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Family Migration: Fulfilling the Gap between Law and Social Processes

by Laura Zanfrini

Societies 2012, 2(3), 63-74; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/soc2030063 - 05 Jul 2012

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 5528

Abstract

In the last twenty-five years, the family entity has been imposed as a crucial actor in understanding migratory strategies and behaviors, the study of the integration into the host society, the analysis of the impact of migrations for the sending and receiving countries [...] Read more.

In the last twenty-five years, the family entity has been imposed as a crucial actor in understanding migratory strategies and behaviors, the study of the integration into the host society, the analysis of the impact of migrations for the sending and receiving countries and, last but not least, the evaluation of migratory policies and practices. This article recalls the main theoretical prospects that put specific emphasis on family; identifies some “ideological traps” that frequently influence family immigration policies and practices; then develops some considerations about the advantages and disadvantages of family migration for both the sending and the receiving countries; finally, it devotes a specific analysis to the family reunification issue, describing how this right is ruled by the EU legislation. In the conclusion, the Author observes that, notwithstanding the fact that family constitutes a crucial actor in the process of human mobility, both the legislation and the receiving societies’ expectations concerning migration continues to be founded on an individualistic conception. Among other consequences of this asymmetry, there is the fact that family reunion is not always the best solution if the well-being of all family members and the life chances of migrants’ offspring are taken into account. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue On the Move: Human Migration Past, Present and Future)

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Societies, Volume 2, Issue 3 (September 2012) – 9 articles , Pages 63-221

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI