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Frontiers in SociologyNumber of Followers: 4
 Open Access journal ISSN (Online) 2297-7775
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- Dis/re-orienting design through norm-critical gender lenses: an
educational case in Turkey
Authors: Erman Örsan Yetiş, Yekta Bakırlıoğlu
Abstract: Design, as a practice of developing solutions beyond products, and increasingly services and policies, inevitably poses an impact on gender (in)equality which remains largely unrecognized by design practitioners. This paper advocates the urgent need for adopting gender lenses in design education for sustainable cultural transformation through proper recognition of the complexity of any societal and cultural issue, power relations and inequalities, and introduces an initial attempt through a graduate-level educational design project. Throughout the project, students critically reflected on existing orientations in designing to develop norm-critical gender lenses, contained the resultant disorientation emerging from the contrast between their critical approaches and local contexts, and explored novel directions as reorientation to address four different societal and cultural issues and develop 11 design outcomes aiming at gender equality, social justice-oriented empowerment, and cultural transformation. The authors analyzed the design processes and outcomes to reveal opportunities and challenges for developing and deploying norm-critical gender lenses in tackling complex, intersecting socio-cultural and political issues, under three themes: gender stereotypes, norms, expectations, and roles; intersectional power relations and inequalities embedded in the social structure; and social justice-oriented empowerment beyond the market-oriented individualistic neoliberal order. A shift in the perceptions of the role of designers, from creator/problem-solver to facilitator/participant, and design outcomes, from absolute solutions to intermediaries of sociological and political imaginations, is found crucial in this endeavor, which requires safe spaces for future designers to reflect on existing orientations, contain disorientation with negative capability, and explore novel ways through reorientation.
PubDate: 2024-03-28T00:00:00Z
- Intercultural communicative competence among Indonesian migrant workers in
Malaysia: a qualitative exploration
Authors: Djatmika, Bahtiar Mohamad, Riyadi Santosa, Agus Hari Wibowo
Abstract: Millions of Indonesian migrant workers have sought employment in Malaysia during the last three decades. Many of them are skilled and unskilled laborers, and their incorporation into the host society’s labor market has the potential to improve their own quality of life while also contributing significantly to the country’s economy. However, Indonesian migrant workers encounter numerous problems in their professional and personal lives. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the intercultural communicative competence (ICC) factors as one of the Indonesian migrant workers’ strategies. This is qualitative exploratory research on the factors of ICC in the integration of Indonesian migrant workers into the Malaysian labor market. Focus groups were used to obtain data from 16 Indonesian migrant workers who had already successfully integrated into the Malaysian workforce as well as newcomers who were in the process of integrating into the local culture. In addition, interviews have been conducted with the 13 employers to complement the data from the migrant workers. The data was analyzed using rounds of deductive and inductive coding and analysis based on the five components of Byram’s model. The findings suggest that practicing intercultural communication skills can help migrant employees overcome cultural difficulties in the Malaysian labor market. The Indonesian migrant workers and their employers also indicated that they have an advantage in cultural integration due to the cultural similarities. The paper discusses the implications of the findings in terms of ICC training offered to migrant workers themselves (culture and language) and to professionals who work with them, with the goal of facilitating and promoting Indonesian migrant workers’ labor market integration.
PubDate: 2024-03-27T00:00:00Z
- Women in Saudi secondary school EFL textbooks: a critical study of
women’s empowerment as enshrined in the Saudi Vision 2030
Authors: Muneer Hezam Alqahtani
Abstract: Since the launch of the Saudi Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia has undergone significant economic and social reforms in order to move away from the country’s reliance on oil and toward a more diverse and sustainable economy. One of the important chapters in this endeavour is the empowerment of Saudi women whereby they are to be given opportunities equal to men. Against this new paradigm, this study investigates whether Vision 2030’s transformative efforts surrounding women’s empowerment are reflected in the country’s EFL textbooks, or whether the traditional representation of Saudi women has remained unchanged. The analytical focal point is the pictorial representation of Saudi women in six textbooks which form part of the Mega Goal series, and which are used to teach English in Saudi secondary schools. The analysis examined the representations of females from three different angles: the percentage of appearances in the textbooks from the total human pictorials; the social roles and occupations depicted, and the activities that they are engaged in. Analysis along all three of these angles revealed that there is a remarkable imbalance between the depiction of men and women in these textbooks, in favour of men. The study concludes that the Mega Goal series’ EFL textbooks fall short of providing a realistic representation of Saudi women and fails to include representative depictions of women who, like their male counterparts, have occupied senior roles and prestigious positions in the country. This conclusion points to the need to include such representation in EFL textbooks, so that the role of women as envisaged in Saudi’s Vision 2030 complies with the Vision’s determination to provide equal opportunities for both men and women.
PubDate: 2024-03-25T00:00:00Z
- “Whatever I said didn’t register with her”: medical fatphobia and
interactional and relational disconnect in healthcare
encounters|Introduction|Methods|Results and discussion
Authors: Carolin Kost, Kimberly Jamie, Elizabeth Mohr
Abstract: IntroductionThis article focuses on medical fatphobia as a specific phenomenon structuring interactions between patients and healthcare practitioners. Throughout the article, we use ‘fat’ and ‘fatphobia’ as the preferred terms in the body positivity and fat acceptance communities. It is well documented that ‘fat’ people frequently experience negative and highly stigmatising healthcare encounters where weight is disproportionately centred and over-attributed as a cause of ill-health. This can compound and worsen disordered eating, trigger mental health problems, and lead to healthcare avoidance. Although the regularity and risks of these weight-focused encounters are well established, there does not yet exist a coherent theoretical framework for understanding such discriminatory practises.MethodsIn this article, we draw on the experiences of 15 fat women who are members of the Health at Every Size (HAES) online community to explore how they perceive their fatness impacting medical encounters.Results and discussionThrough these data and specifically drawing on the framework of ‘cultural health capital,’ we suggest that given the deep purchase of cultural tropes surrounding it, fatness is perceived to embody and therefore confer on patients’ assumptions of low cultural health capital. We argue that ubiquitously characteristic of medical fatphobia is what we call an ‘interactional and relational disconnect’ between fat patients and healthcare practitioners. We suggest that this disconnect structures fatphobic interactions by over-attributing fatness as the underlying cause of medical problems, which entrenches patient and practitioner ambivalence because of a lack of joint decision-making. We argue that interactional and relational disconnect is produced by, sustained by, and reproduces asymmetric power relations between patients and practitioners. While we demonstrate that patients develop tactics to mitigate and manage fatphobia in healthcare encounters, the persistent interactional asymmetry between doctors and patients means these attempts often fail. We conclude with a plea for sociology to take medical fatphobia seriously as a form of intersectional systemic discrimination. While movements like HAES, fat positivity, and body acceptance create kinship and support fat patients with self-advocacy in healthcare interactions, we suggest that systemic rather than individual change is necessary for effective healthcare inclusion and interaction.
PubDate: 2024-03-22T00:00:00Z
- Home-schooling and caring for children during the COVID-19 lockdown in the
UK: emotional states, systems of support and coping strategies in working
mothers|Introduction|Methods|Results|Discussion
Authors: Angeliki Kallitsoglou, Pamela-Zoe Topalli
Abstract: IntroductionWe examined the experience of the intensification of home-schooling and/or childcare in working mothers in the United Kingdom during the first national COVID-19 lockdown. Our focus was on understanding how mothers dealt with this challenging period both emotionally and practically.MethodsEligible mothers (n = 47; Mage = 39.6) participated in an anonymous online survey of openended questions.ResultsThematic analysis of responses showed that mothers found home-schooling and/or childcare to be challenging. This was particularly notable in situations where support from partners, schools, and workplaces was limited. For single working mothers, the absence of support resources was especially impactful. Mothers often felt overly stressed trying to balance work and family responsibilities, guilty for not meeting their child’s needs, and were worried over their child’s well-being and academic progress and over increasing work demands. Common strategies mothers used to cope with the challenges of home-schooling and/or childcare included adopting a positive outlook, implementing flexible family structures, increasing family connectedness, and negotiating alternative partnership models.DiscussionThe intensification of home-schooling and/or childcare during the lockdown in the United Kingdom negatively affected maternal well-being, particularly due to limited support. These findings underscore the importance of prioritizing maternal wellbeing in post-pandemic recovery efforts. Additionally, they highlight the social dimension of maternal wellbeing and suggest a comprehensive approach to support it that includes both timely access to intervention for mental health but also implementing family-friendly work policies and offering support with childcare and children’s learning as essential measures.
PubDate: 2024-03-21T00:00:00Z
- Between nature and culture – Interpreting students’ sexuality in
physical education|Introduction|Methods|Results|Discussion
Authors: Nicola Böhlke, Benjamin Zander, Daniel Rode
Abstract: IntroductionAs sexuality in physical education (PE) is often treated as a taboo subject, social media platforms, online chats, and internet forums are emerging as spaces where it is negotiated more openly and broadly by current and former actors of the field. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the discursive construction of sexuality in PE in such online communication.MethodsIn line with The Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse (SKAD) we investigate basic schemes of interpretation of sexuality with a heterogeneous sample of threads (17 threads from seven different online forums) on different PE situations in Germany. The threads are analyzed using grounded theory coding procedures.ResultsOur discourse analysis reveals that the multifaceted and often controversial online discussions are structured by two dominant schemes of interpreting students’ sexuality in PE, both of which are differentiated in complex ways: The online communication draws on – and by that reproduces – a nature and a culture perspective on constellations of body, sex, gender, and sexuality. We detail how from each perspective, different knowledge about these constellations, different everyday phenomena and problems in PE, and different norms for dealing with these phenomena and problems become important.DiscussionDiscussing these results in the context of previous literature, we argue that it is important to address sexuality in a subject-specific approach and take the discursive knowledge and fundamental schemes of interpretation into account that shape the (im-)possibilities of addressing sexuality in PE.
PubDate: 2024-03-20T00:00:00Z
- Do working parents in the United States expect work location to impact job
and family satisfaction in the post-pandemic period' Evidence from a
survey experiment
Authors: Stephanie Moller, Leah Ruppanner, Jill E. Yavorsky
Abstract: The pandemic response allowed many parents in the United States and globally to work remotely for the first time ever which, for many, continued into the recovery. It is unclear whether, after a period when a large segment of the United States labor force worked remotely, remote work is viewed favorably or unfavorably among employed parents. We present results from a survey experiment assessing whether employed parents in the United States perceive that remote work will impact a hypothetical employed parents’ job and family satisfaction and, critically, whether perceptions of work–family conflict and anticipated job rewards mediate this relationship. We find that respondents who are also employed parents perceive that hypothetical employed parents who access remote work will report lower job satisfaction and higher family satisfaction. Perceptions of work–family conflict do not mediate this association. Rather, we find that job rewards (e.g., pay, promotion, etc.) fully mediate the relationship between remote work and perceived job satisfaction. Ultimately, this indicates that employed parents perceive that remote work will bring workers like them less pay and thus lower job satisfaction but greater family satisfaction. This extends arguments about remote work in the light of the conceptualization of a flexibility stigma and a flexibility paradox. Implications for practice and theory are discussed.
PubDate: 2024-03-20T00:00:00Z
- Into the wild: uncertain frontiers and sustainable human–nature
interactions
Authors: Jennifer Patterson
Abstract: Humans seldom consider themselves as animals, and that humans are animals is a truth frequently turned into an insulting metaphor indicating “uncivilized” behavior in many cultures. Interestingly, the “civilizing” aspects of Western Culture in the Global North are historically derived from traditions of democracy based on living in cities from which the wild has been banished. This is embedded in the English language since civilizing and civilization come from the Latin for city, civitas, the place where citizens hold voting rights. Beyond the gates of civilization is the wild. How the wild and nature have been constructed and demarcated is an enormously complex and enduring challenge in western philosophy as it relates to knowledge-making, existence, truth, and reality. Indeed, whilst people generally believe they know what nature means, they rarely realize that little in nature is wild. Furthermore, the concept of uncertainty, central to the pandemic, is compounded by climate instability and a potentially disastrous future. This is breaking down what is known, requiring porous and flexible conceptual frontiers and a transdisciplinary approach. This article traces the linguistic separation of humans from their animal origins and wilder environments for political and increasingly greedy economic purposes. It explores the acknowledged complexity of healthy human–nature interactions, juxtaposing information mainly from the humanities and social sciences. Demonstrating how unhealthy the current paradigm has proven to be for humans and the natural world, it brings together conflicting information to disrupt traditional certainties using an innovative bricolage methodology. It weaves and combines different ways of knowing as it considers forms of knowledge-making, rewilding, foraging, the place of magical thinking, and vital force. It concludes that a new paradigm is needed to enable a way of working toward any vision of healthy human–nature interaction.
PubDate: 2024-03-19T00:00:00Z
- Intersections in the digital society: cancel culture, fake news, and
contemporary public discourse
Authors: Lucia Picarella
Abstract: This article critically examines the intricate relationship between cancel culture and fake news, shedding light on their collective impact on current societies. The changing social landscape, marked by the transition from the “network society” to the “platform society,” has given rise to unprecedented phenomena such as cancel culture. Rooted in social media complaints, cancel culture intersects with the dissemination of intentionally created false information, forming a complex web of dynamics. The study explores the multifaceted nature of cancel culture, its unintended consequences and the nuanced definitions surrounding it. The synthesis of erasure culture and fake news prompts critical reflections on the democratization of information, the protection of fundamental rights, and the potential risks to democracies of an unbridled online narrative. As digital networks continue to play a central role in everyday life, understanding and addressing these challenges is essential to maintaining a balanced discourse that upholds democratic values.
PubDate: 2024-03-18T00:00:00Z
- Editorial: Ethnography in the open science and digital age: new debates,
dilemmas, and issues
Authors: Colin Jerolmack, Alexandra K. Murphy, Victoria Reyes
PubDate: 2024-03-15T00:00:00Z
- Read like a man: comparing narratives of masculinity in adolescent
literature
Authors: Francisco Hernandez, Michael Macaluso
Abstract: Recent movements like #MeToo and #TimesUp have surfaced and challenged ideas about masculinity in popular conversations. In particular, these ideas have centered around “toxic masculinity”—a version of masculinity that reflects stereotyped, dated, and even dangerous expectations for manhood. This notion of masculinity can be reinforced in a number of ways, especially through pop culture, where it runs the risk of becoming commonly accepted or normalized. This study evaluates the narratives of masculinity in three different novels that are marketed toward high school-aged students in the United States: Lord of the Flies; Gabi, A Girl in Pieces; and Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. Using a critical literacy lens, this study considers the symbols, behaviors, expectations, and meanings given to masculinity in and through each novel and considers the implications of this analysis for adolescent readership inside and outside of schooling. The study concludes that the more contemporary novels showcase a range of masculine portrayals, including positive, affirming versions of masculinity, compared to a more singular and pessimistic one found in a novel traditionally used in schools. Thus, the study concludes that formal schooling may be an important way to address and disrupt unhealthy versions of masculinity.
PubDate: 2024-03-13T00:00:00Z
- Editorial: The sociology of gambling
Authors: Michael Egerer, Søren Kristiansen, Virve Marionneau, Jani Selin, Johanna Järvinen-Tassopoulos
PubDate: 2024-03-13T00:00:00Z
- Corrigendum: How Russia's war in Ukraine can change gender studies
Authors: Janet Elise Johnson
PubDate: 2024-03-13T00:00:00Z
- Is society caught up in a Death Spiral' Modeling societal demise and
its reversal
Authors: Michaéla C. Schippers, John P. A. Ioannidis, Matthias W. J. Luijks
Abstract: Just like an army of ants caught in an ant mill, individuals, groups and even whole societies are sometimes caught up in a Death Spiral, a vicious cycle of self-reinforcing dysfunctional behavior characterized by continuous flawed decision making, myopic single-minded focus on one (set of) solution(s), denial, distrust, micromanagement, dogmatic thinking and learned helplessness. We propose the term Death Spiral Effect to describe this difficult-to-break downward spiral of societal decline. Specifically, in the current theory-building review we aim to: (a) more clearly define and describe the Death Spiral Effect; (b) model the downward spiral of societal decline as well as an upward spiral; (c) describe how and why individuals, groups and even society at large might be caught up in a Death Spiral; and (d) offer a positive way forward in terms of evidence-based solutions to escape the Death Spiral Effect. Management theory hints on the occurrence of this phenomenon and offers turn-around leadership as solution. On a societal level strengthening of democracy may be important. Prior research indicates that historically, two key factors trigger this type of societal decline: rising inequalities creating an upper layer of elites and a lower layer of masses; and dwindling (access to) resources. Historical key markers of societal decline are a steep increase in inequalities, government overreach, over-integration (interdependencies in networks) and a rapidly decreasing trust in institutions and resulting collapse of legitimacy. Important issues that we aim to shed light on are the behavioral underpinnings of decline, as well as the question if and how societal decline can be reversed. We explore the extension of these theories from the company/organization level to the society level, and make use of insights from both micro-, meso-, and macro-level theories (e.g., Complex Adaptive Systems and collapsology, the study of the risks of collapse of industrial civilization) to explain this process of societal demise. Our review furthermore draws on theories such as Social Safety Theory, Conservation of Resources Theory, and management theories that describe the decline and fall of groups, companies and societies, as well as offer ways to reverse this trend.
PubDate: 2024-03-12T00:00:00Z
- Sexual experiences among multicultural adolescents in Korea: evidence from
the Korean Youth’s Risk Behavior Survey
Authors: Keuntae Kim, Se Hee Jo
Abstract: Several studies have examined adolescent sexual behaviors by family immigration status, but most of these failed to account for heterogeneity within youths’ multicultural backgrounds. To fill this gap in the literature, this paper draws data from the 2011 to 2022 rounds of the Korean Youth’s Risk Behavior Survey (N = 769,160) and compares the likelihood of sexual intercourse across four groups of adolescents. Results from logistic regression indicate that the odds of having sexual contact increased 2.8 times for youths with a non-Korean father and Korean mother, compared with those from families with two Korean parents. When both father and mother are foreign-born, the odds of being sexually active increased 4.7 times. In both cases, the discrepancies might be primarily associated with the foreign fathers’ lack of socioeconomic resources. Therefore, the father’s role deserves more examination, and sex education in schools should be tailored to reflect multicultural adolescents’ needs.
PubDate: 2024-03-12T00:00:00Z
- Editorial: Insights into gender, sex, and sexualities: 2022
Authors: Kath Woodward
PubDate: 2024-03-08T00:00:00Z
- The effect of the local economic context and local public services on
financial satisfaction among youth in European cities
Authors: Márton Medgyesi, Ábel Csathó
Abstract: The post-2008 economic recovery period has seen varying degrees of improvement in the well-being of young individuals across different countries, regions, and cities of the EU. This study contributes to the literature on the geography of well-being by examining the impact of urban economic contexts on the subjective well-being of youth in Europe, a topic that has received limited attention so far. Specifically, we investigate how the local economic context has affected financial satisfaction among the young (15–35 age group) in European cities during the recovery period after the economic crisis. We study whether living in a city with better opportunities in the labor market, on the housing market, or with better local services (e.g., education or health care) affect financial satisfaction among the young. We carried out multilevel analysis of financial satisfaction among young adults on data from the Quality of Life in European Cities survey (years 2012, 2015, 2019), which asks about aspects of quality of life among a representative sample of the population in a large number of cities in EU Member States. Overall, the results suggest that a better labor market context (where it is in general easier to find a job) has a statistically significant positive effect on financial satisfaction among the young. Our results also show that satisfaction with the financial situation among young adults is significantly higher in cities with a higher quality of local social services. On the other hand, we have found only small (and statistically non-significant) contextual effect related to the local housing market.
PubDate: 2024-03-08T00:00:00Z
- “We choose this CV because we choose diversity” – What do eye
movements say about the choices recruiters
make'|Introduction|Methods|Results
Authors: Sayaka Osanami Törngren, Carolin Schütze, Eva Van Belle, Marcus Nyström
Abstract: IntroductionA large body of research has established a consensus that racial discrimination in CV screening occurs and persists. Nevertheless, we still know very little about how recruiters look at the CV and how this is connected to the discriminatory patterns. This article examines the way recruiters view and select CVs and how they reason about their CV selection choices, as a first step in unpacking the patterns of hiring discrimination. Specifically, we explore how race and ethnicity signaled through the CV matter, and how recruiters reason about the choices they make.MethodsWe recorded data from 40 respondents (20 pairs) who are real-life recruiters with experiences in recruitment of diverse employees in three large Swedish-based firms in the finance and retail sector in two large cities. The participating firms all value diversity, equity and inclusion in their recruitment. Their task was to individually rate 10 fictious CVs where race (signaled by face image) and ethnicity (signaled by name) were systematically manipulated, select the top three candidates, and then discuss their choices in pairs to decide on a single top candidate. We examined whether respondents’ choices were associated with the parts of the CV they looked at, and how they reasoned and justified their choices through dialog.ResultsOur results show that non-White CVs were rated higher than White CVs. While we do not observe any statistically significant differences in the ratings between different racial groups, we see a statistically significant preference for Chinese over Iraqi names. There were no significant differences in time spent looking at the CV across different racial groups, but respondents looked longer at Polish names compared to Swedish names when presented next to a White face. The dialog data reveal how respondents assess different CVs by making assumptions about the candidates’ job and organizational fit through limited information on the CVs, especially when the qualifications of the candidates are evaluated to be equal.
PubDate: 2024-03-07T00:00:00Z
- From bare life and necropolitics to a feminist care ethic: ageism in the
COVID-19 pandemic and future directions
Authors: Bethany Simmonds
Abstract: This perspective paper begins with discussing how COVID-19 magnified the pre-pandemic ‘bare life’ conditions which exposed older people’s lives to risks and indignities in the health and social care system. Then, by using the concept of Necropolitics, the life and death decisions, based on age as a proxy measure for population health during the pandemic, are discussed. This discussion includes examples of ‘exceptional’ practices that were implemented in the UK during the first wave, including ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ orders, unsafe hospital discharges, not transferring to hospitals, and denying access to treatment for older people. It then goes on to renew the call for a feminist care ethic to be central to the ways in which our future health and social care systems are configured. Arguing for the need to politically reframe ageing, health and social care provision towards a radical alternative system that rethinks care relations and addresses inequality.
PubDate: 2024-03-07T00:00:00Z
- Editorial: Sociologies of health and emotions
Authors: Marci Cottingham, Rebecca E. Olson, Gillian Bendelow
PubDate: 2024-03-05T00:00:00Z
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