Sociology

There is a massive amount of empirical material on (and burgeoning theoretical and conceptual approaches to) migration, but there remains a lack of a theoretical framework that can easily be applied empirically to understanding it as an ongoing process. However, various authors are beginning to suggest a structuration theory of practice might provide a fruitful way forward, especially when the theory is used critically with attempts to address the body of criticism directed towards it. This paper draws from several threads in practice theory to establish a set of useful concepts that can be applied empirically when employing practice theory as a framework for migration. I talk of ‘practice theory’ in recognition of Bourdieu’s work and acknowledgement of the difficulties in the way ‘structuration’ has been understood. A key difficulty with Giddens’ structuration theory is its over-emphasis on agency and its inability to define concepts through which to empirically identify and descri...

Issues related to racism are still pervasive in global society; and Blackness has dominated identity politics in the South African political and public debates since the downfall of apartheid. Recently, there have been questions on whether skin colour can be used as a generalised indication of being previously disadvantaged with some arguing that skin colour cannot be used as a condition for empowerment. They argue that socio-economic conditions must rather be used as the criteria for empowerment. This contribution draws on the notions of Liminality (Turner) and Third Space (Bhabha) to investigate how the lives of three black intellectuals – Steve Biko, Tambudzo Marechera, Vuyani Vellem – resembled the ‘liminal threshold’ as they underwent ‘initiation’ on black identity. The authors conclude that despite the many years of ‘chanting down Babylon’, black people still have to contend with white supremacy in the same way that Tambudzo Marechera, Steve Biko and more recently, Vuyani Vell...

Abdelnour, G. A., Abouchedid, K., Aguayo, M., Bakkali, M., Baroud, F., Belhani, A., ... Ykhlef, N. (2017). Towards recognition of Lifelong Learning. In J. B. Govantes Romero, & E. Mellado Duran (Eds.), EURO-MEDITERRANEAN INTEGRATION THROUGH LIFELONG LEARNING (EU-MILL): A memory of cooperation and dialogue on Education in the Mediterranean basin (pp. 79-121). (Divulgacion Cientifica). Universidad de Sevilla. https://doi.org/10.12795/9788447221042

PurposeThe need to alleviate poverty and achieve the United Nations (UN) 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through Universal Social Protection (USP) mechanisms is a high priority for governments and international organisations (IOs). This paper focuses on the recent introduction of a general minimum income (GMI) in Greece, in the context of the international diffusion of governing expertise. It examines whether the “universal” scheme being implemented constitutes a paradigm shift likely to offer solutions to the country's previous fragmented and unjust welfare system, and to problems the society has faced since the 2010s depression.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses critical grounded theory, with data gathering through iterative field observations and semi-structured interviews.FindingsResults highlight the elusiveness of USP normative promises: rather than enhancing people's effective freedoms to act as self-determining agents, USP pushes the poor to adapt to...

This paper is intended to express the concept and dynamics of curriculum change of Pondok Pesantren Universitas Islam Indonesia. The importance of the problem discussed is related to curriculum that is used by Pondok Pesantren as one of the foundations of the development of Islamic educational institutions that would potentially affect the development of Islamic education in Indonesia in general. The concept of curriculum which is applied does not follow the national curriculum that is used at school or college. The result of the research showed that there is a change in the destination and setting of the curriculum of Pondok Pesantren Universitas Islam Indonesia that referred to Universitas Islam Indonesia’s aim to be World Class University. The change affected the content of the curriculum, teaching materials, and the learning methods. A change impact on the activity of students who are not only prepared to be a mujtahid, but more geared to hone the ability of thinking and researc...

Vygotsky has become an authority, but the authority has more to do with justifying a sociocultural relativism than it has with his Marxist objectivist approach to psychology and pedagogy. This paper is an attempt to understand Vygotsky's perspective in relation to Marxist epistemology, and will critically examine the sociocultural interpretation of Vygotsky but within the light of his own perspective. It will be shown that the relativism of the sociocultural school not only takes Vygotsky's zone of proximal development out of its social and historical context, but as a consequence downplays the zone of proximal development as a dynamic research methodology. As an extension of the discussion of the zone of proximal development, this paper will also examine the sociocultural interpretation of Vygotsky's relation between scientific and everyday concepts, and the pedagogical consequences of such an interpretation.

Research concludes that professional socialisation in nursing is deeply problematic because new recruits start out identifying with the profession's ideals but lose this idealism as they enter and continue to work in the profession. This study set out to examine the topic focussing on the development of professional identity. Six focus groups were held with a total of 49 2nd and 3rd year BSc nursing students studying at a university in London, UK and their transcripts were subject to discourse analysis. Participants' talk was strongly dualistic and inflected with anxiety. Participants identified with caring as an innate characteristic. They described some qualified nurses as either not possessing this characteristic or as having lost it. They explained strategies for not becoming corrupted in professional practice. Their talk enacted distancing from 'bad' qualified nurses and solidarity with other students. Their talk also featured cynicism. Neophyte nurses' talk...

Meanings of ‘social’ and ‘competence’ are discussed with reference to political and practical consequences for education and work. Social competences have become a core component in all occupations: indirectly through educational processes (learning skills, problem solving and aesthetics and ethics) and directly through workplace processes (interaction and communication and collaborative skills). Social competences are connected to social capital driven by economic needs involving knowledge creation, team work and the development and maintenance of networks (communications and marketing). Social competences are also linked to key/core competences and lifelong learning. Information technology, foreign languages, entrepreneurship and social skills are key elements to being employable and active in the knowledge economy. The rhetoric of policy had degendered vocational education and training (VET) while at the same time allowing for ‘practical gendering’ on school sites and workplaces.

How can we take on board the many valuable insights of post-development theory without seeming to advocate indifference and inaction in the face of the misery that many people in the world experience daily? In this paper, I provide a partial response to this question. I begin by looking at some of the alternative strategies offered in post-development literature and set out to show that while there are several problems with these alternatives, to read post-development theory as advocating indifference or inaction is to read it uncharitably. Secondly, I draw on the experiences of the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Enda Graf Sahel in Dakar, Senegal to suggest some ways in which the insights of post-development theory, or some versions of post-development theory, can be taken into consideration without leading to inaction or indifference in the face of the suffering of those who occupy a less advantaged position in contemporary relations of power and privilege.

This paper examines on a wider scale, quality management in Italian higher education institutions, and then progresses to focus specifically on the case of the Master Course in Global Economy and Business (GLEB), held in the University of Cassino and Southern Lazio. An analysis of the way in which the University of Cassino manages quality is undertaken to identify the responsibilities of those accountable for quality assurance. A preliminary study was carried out through the completion of a digital survey distributed to GLEB graduates, to monitor the success of the course. The results obtained highlight that this course is quite appealing to students, and what also emerges is how innovation and improvement are the foundation of quality education. Being only the first step towards a more exhaustive evaluation, this analysis must be extended by collecting more data, to compare the results with similar courses in other universities through a benchmarking process.  

This paper seeks to investigate the role played by memory in the Federation of Expellees (Bund der Vertriebenen, BdV) professed attempts to enter into dialogue with Polish society. It also seeks to assess why on occasion mutual recrimination continues to tarnish the wider framework of German-Polish relations and explain the reasons for this phenomenon. The initial focus lies with explaining the continued importance of key, often disputed, elements of the historical encounter between Germans and Poles. To complement this analysis, the latter part of the article considers whether the BdV and its associated organizations have contributed to the wider process of German-Polish reconciliation, or whether the activities of the BdV act as a brake upon full resolution. The paper argues that although in recent years the BdV has attempted to make a positive contribution to German-Polish relations, its chances for success are constrained by its inability to move away from positions that are the...

This paper seeks to offer an assessment of the nature of identity among Poland's German minority and to investigate why since 1950 large numbers of that minority have migrated to Germany. It does so by examining the nature of identity in the historic Polish-German borderlands, by recounting the experiences of those Germans who remained behind in Poland after the post World War Two expulsion process was completed in 1949, and by examining the continued salience of negative stereotypes of Germans and Germany among elements of Polish society. The paper highlights a number of salient factors of importance for members of the minority in deciding whether or not to stay in Poland or to migrate to Germany.

The Evangelical Church Faced Harassment and hostility from the state in the immediate aftermath of the foundation of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in October 1949. Indeed, the struggle in which the Evangelical Church is today engaged can be seen as both a consequence and continuation of a struggle which began in 1949. The Soviet Union had gained control in 1945 of that part of Germany which was most staunchly Protestant. Initially there was no central authority for the Evangelical churches in postwar Germany. Instead there were a number of regional churches, eight of which were located in the Soviet Zone. However, in 1948 the Evangelical Church of Germany (EKD) was created as an umbrella organization for the whole country. Indeed the EKD remained intact as an all-German organization until 1969, despite the estrangement and mutual hostility which characterized inter-German relations until that year.

Nous presentons les resultats d’une etude sur les croyances comportementales, normatives et de controle percu associees au gaspillage alimentaire chez 68 adultes qui frequentent un restaurant d’entreprise. Deux questionnaires ont permis de reveler les croyances saillantes et de tester la nature des croyances revelees selon que l’on emploie le terme « gaspillage » ou une formulation plus neutre. Apres analyse des donnees, 20 categories de croyances modales ont ete identifiees. Les individus ont une attitude globalement positive vis-a-vis de la reduction du gaspillage et des consequences environnementales associees au gaspillage sont spontanement citees. Les croyances normatives soulignent le role des personnels de restauration et les croyances de controle font references a des parametres situationnels. Selon le type de questionnaire, des differences dans les frequences de citation de certaines categories de croyances sont observees. Les implications theoriques, methodologiques et man...

Purpose This paper aims to explore consumers’ experienced life and studies how practices interconnect and are organized on a daily basis. The objective is to contribute to a better understanding of how (or whether) it is possible to interfere with daily practices, as public policies pretend to do, to address several societal challenges (food waste, healthy eating, greenhouse gas reduction, social equity, etc.). Design/methodology/approach Using the concepts of routine, ritual and practice to understand the dynamics of daily life from a practice theories perspective, this study is based on a qualitative methodology combining a projective method of collage coupled with semi-structured interviews with 23 participants and, participant observation of shopping, cooking and mealtimes at home with 11 of the 23 participants. Findings Results show that the degree of systematization of practices defines different types of routine according to various systematization factors (time, commitment, ...

This scientific research was meant to encompass the meaning of economic and sociocultural consumption and its relationship to human values such as: environmental respect, commitment to health principles, solidarity among rural and urban social groups, ...