Equal Rights

Zygmunt Bauman (b. 1925), Polish philosopher (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sociologists like Zygmunt Bauman often point out a fundamental tension between two social ideals:

(a) Equal Rights, including the right not to be harmed by another, and

(b) Personal Freedom

To put this into everyday terms, it’s great to have equal rights and the freedom to do what you want. But at the same time, if that freedom to do what you want impinges on another person’s human rights, a problem arises.

Problems usually arise when two or more conflicting belief systems meet head on. For instance, is a Catholic mother justly concerned about a gay high-school teacher imparting apparently “bad values” to her young and impressionable son or daughter? Should her taxes contribute to that school’s funding? On the other hand, is a lesbian woman justly concerned about a Catholic professor teaching her impressionable female partner at university? Should the lesbian woman’s taxes contribute to the funding of that college?

Another dimension of this problem comes out, especially in America, with the issue of free speech. CNN’s Andersoon Cooper talks about this problem almost on a daily basis. In a nutshell, it’s not always clear at what point the right to say what you believe conflicts with the rights of others who hold different beliefs, and who deserve to live in a world without fear of being discriminated against.

The question of free speech takes yet another interesting twist with the internet, where posters can use anonymous names, thinking that this gives them a ticket to be abusive or libelous. A recent lawsuit, however, shows just how wrong those anonymous posters can be. See That Nasty, Lying Anonymous Internet Post Could Cost $13.78 Million.

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Emic-Etic debate

Aboriginal hollow log tombs. National Gallery, Canberra, Australia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The emic-etic  debate originates from the work of linguist Kenneth L. Pike. It’s sometimes called the insider-outsider problem. The emic-etic debate has far-reaching implications for the social sciences.

In anthropology, the emic model refers to an indigenous people’s understanding of their own cultural representations, whereas the etic model is an outsider’s perspective of those indigenous cultural representations.

These categories have been roundly critiqued. Emic models are often said to have been discovered by an outside researcher but current trends question the neutrality of external observers. So formalized statements made by external observers are seen as exogenous constructions, making any supposed emic theory about a people’s beliefs unavoidably etic.

The idea that theories developed within the humanities and social sciences are social constructions instead of uncovered, formerly hidden truths leads to the area of poststructuralism and postmodernism.

Aboriginal art on a man hole by Ole Reidar Johansen via Flickr

Other questions arise that are seldom addressed by social scientists. For instance, we cannot be certain that each member of an indigenous community believes in their group’s cultural representations, or if each member believes in the same way. Could some be pretending to believe for material security or social expedience?

And concerning religious officials, might some secretly doubt but feign certainty not just for the previous reasons but also, perhaps, for fear of being wrong and offending a deity?

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Forces of Production

Karl Marx (1818-1883) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Forces of Production is a concept developed from the work of Karl Marx. Although Marx’s theory of history is variously interpreted, writers such as G. A. Cohen argue that politics, religion and economics (i.e. the social aspect of exchange) do not determine a given societal formation.

Instead, societal type is an outcome of the dominant forces of production, or ‘productive forces.’ The forces of production refers to the way a given society actually produces commodities. The forces of production include raw materials, tools, technology and the knowledge of how to organize labor power and use available tools.

While some writers apply the term ‘economics’ to include the forces of production, Cohen and other theorists say that economics more properly refers to the social relations of production. The relations of production refers to the uniquely social aspects of production in a given society, usually the legal or brute force mechanisms of exploiting labor, extracting surplus and maintaining social dominance of the few over the many.

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Antonio Gramsci

Portrait of Antonio Gramsci around 30 in the early 20s via Wikipedia

Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) was an Italian Communist founder and party leader, imprisoned by Benito Mussolini‘s Fascists for 11 years. In jail he wrote his Prison Notebooks where he outlined his ideas about hegemony.

The concept of hegemony has ancient roots, but Gramsci was the first to use hegemony to describe the idea of a ruling class socially and economically dominating others within a given society.

The contemporary sociological meaning of the term hegemony points to an entire system of cultural values and practices existing within interconnected and (apparently) legitimate social institutions (e.g. markets, legal system, government, education, religion and media) which the powerful allegedly use to oppress the powerless.

Gramsci died in Rome shortly after gaining his freedom.

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Geertz, Clifford James

Clifford Geertz 1926-2006 by xeeliz via Flickr

Clifford James Geertz (1926-2006) was an influential American anthropologist. He’s best known for his The Interpretation of Cultures (1973), which outlines the importance of symbolic thought and communication in the generation and reproduction of cultures.

Geertz argues for a so-called ‘thick interpretation’ of symbols instead of a ‘thin’ one. By this he means that anthropologists should interpret symbolic meanings within the context of a given culture. So instead of postulating the idea of inherited universals, as Carl Jung did with his theory of archetypes, Geertz wants to see how language and symbolic thought reflect and inform everyday life.

While Geertz is to be applauded for his desire to understand people within the context of their cultures, just how this is done without subjective bias remains an important question for anthropologists.

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Hegemony

Philip II of King of Macedon, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek via Wikipedia

Hegemony is a political science term with ancient roots.

In the Greco–Roman world of 5th century European Classical antiquity, the city-state of Sparta was the hegemon of the Peloponnesian League (6th – 4th centuries BC); King Philip II of Macedon was the hegemon of the League of Corinth, in 337 BC, (a kingship he willed to his son, Alexander the Great).¹

In the 19th century historians used the term to describe one nation’s power over another, and by implication, the whole notion of Imperialism.

The Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci (1891 – 1937) was the first to use hegemony to describe the idea of a ruling class socially and economically dominating others within a given society.

The contemporary sociological meaning of the term hegemony points to an entire system of cultural values and practices existing within interconnected and (apparently) legitimate social institutions (e.g. markets, legal system, government, education, religion and media) which the powerful allegedly use to oppress the powerless.

Image by AFSC Photos via Flickr

Along these lines, the French social thinker Bourdieu, Pierre (1930-2002) introduced the idea of “cultural capital” to try to explain the complex relations contributing to societal inequity, discrimination and domination.

For all its flaws, the recent “Occupy movement” (where protestors are sweeping the globe in protest of being “have-nots” apparently marginalized by a few wealthy “haves”)² raises the question of institutional legitimacy, which just a few decades ago, was certainly not a mainstream issue and hardly questioned by most people in the G8.

—

¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hegemony

² http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_movement

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Internet Addiction

Infographic on how Social Media are being used, and how everything is changed by them via Wikipedia

Internet Addiction is a term created in response to a relatively new psychosocial phenomenon, that of compulsive internet use. It may involve pornography, hacking, harassment, stalking and other unsavory activities. It may also entail an excessive use of social media, chat forums and the abuse of educational sites.

According to contemporary pop psychologists, internet use becomes a compulsion when the user finds that their activity makes them more unhappy and unduly interferes with their jobs or family life.

Internet addiction can arise as a compulsive, non-therapeutic escape from dealing with real personal problems, loneliness being just one of them. However, the American Psychiatric Association has not formally included it as a disorder specific to itself:

In 2006, the American Medical Association declined to recommend to the American Psychiatric Association that they include IAD as a formal diagnosis in DSM-V,^[11] and recommended further study of “video game overuse.”^[12] Some members of the American Society of Addiction Medicine opposed identifying Internet overuse and video game overuse as disorders.^[13] Among the research identified as necessary is to find ways to define “overuse” and to differentiate an “Internet addiction” from obsession, self-medicating for depression or other disorders, and compulsion.¹

Moreover, it would be a fallacy to say that all regular and heavy internet users are escaping reality or avoiding unresolved problems. In fact, the whole question of the legitimacy of the internet as a kind of new community type is now being reexamined, especially with the success of YouTube and other social media.

In the past, excessive TV watching hit the news headlines. Now it’s the internet. No doubt the next revolutionary technology that captures the imagination of many and compels us to relate in new ways will be demonized by those who don’t understand the importance of change. But again, like anything, too much of a good thing can ruin it, just as the perversion of a good thing can turn it into a bad thing. So the term internet addiction is by no means spurious.

—

¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_addiction_disorder

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Individual Rights and Freedoms

Detail from Corrupt Legislation. Mural by Elihu Vedder. Lobby to Main Reading Room, Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C. via Wikipedia

Individual Rights and Freedoms is an admirable political ideal that aims to defend the fundamental rights of an individual within society. However, once put into political practice, defining and upholding the idea of individual rights and freedoms usually presents an ongoing challenge.

For sociologists like Zygmunt Baumann, modern democracies exhibit an uneasy tension between individual rights on the one hand, and individual freedoms on the other hand.

The problems is this: How can individuals be perfectly free while belonging to a society which by definition requires some kind of functional interdependence? What if, for example, your neighbors’ freedom to have a party interferes with your right to sleep at night or, if you work the night shift, during the daytime?

Due to potential conflicts like these we have laws that are continually being created or modified to try to protect and promote individual rights, as well as the ideals upheld by a certain social body.

This sounds great. But some like Scott Turrow suggest that laws do not necessarily solve problems because justice systems often favor high status groups at the expense of lower status groups. And in unduly corrupt societies, legal systems tend to go lightly on some offenders while slamming others.

The following outlines some of the issues about rights and freedoms as experienced in Canada: “The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”

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Ideology

A segment of a social network via Wikipedia

The word ideology is fairly well known today but not too long ago its mention, except among sociologists and historians, would probably have been met with a blank stare.

Ideology refers to a body of social, economic or political ideas and beliefs informing a person, a group or a nation. At least, this is the standard dictionary view. Social thinkers – who tend to question dictionary definitions – argue that ideology is an often deceptive set of beliefs willingly or possibly unwittingly advanced by those with the social power to do so.

According to Karl Marx, Roland Barthes and, to some extent, Michel Foucault, the unwitting masses tend to reproduce ideologies until the point where they become aware of the shallow and deceptive character of a given ideology.

At this time the so-called ordinary person, and not just the so-called intellectuals, may try to change or even revolutionize ideologies.

It’s been argued that all religions contain an ideological component. And this may be true. But to reduce the spiritual aspect of religious experience to mere ideology is probably a mistake or, at least, incomplete.

Academic treatments of the idea of ideology are often complicated and extensive. And, one could say, that although they may appear radical and progressive to naive young students, in reality the academic treatment of ideology is still, for the most part “safe,” and thus ironically reproduces the very social structures and attendant issues which are outlined in class (along with those issues that are overlooked).

That’s a cynical view, of course. And like any opinion, it’s biased and incomplete. Another view is that it’s better to talk about some things than entirely ignore or deny their existence. And social change need not be revolutionary but can, in fact, be gradual or subtle. So, university is not necessarily just “finishing school” but can help to spark young minds into positive action.

Another thing to consider about ideology – or, more properly, academic views about ideology – is that it need not be an evil or sinister process. Ideologies can be good or, at least, better than competing ones. This point is often overlooked by derisive professors who seem to be lopsidedly critical and unfairly trash the very system that gives them their bread and butter.

In the arts, Canadian musician Bruce Cockburn had this to say in the 1980′s song, “Call it Democracy.” I’m not sure what his stance would be today.

Sinister cynical instrument
Who makes the gun into a sacrament –
The only response to the deification
Of tyranny by so-called “developed” nations’
Idolatry of ideology.¹

¹ Full lyrics and subsequent author comments (up to 2005) here: http://cockburnproject.net/songs&music/atcid.html

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Ideal types

Max Weber, sociologist via Wikipedia

We often hear the term, ‘ideal types,’ but just what does it mean? Well, anyone who’s taken a course in classical sociology should, at least, have some inkling.

Strictly speaking, ideal types are conceptual tools developed by the sociologist Max Weber. They represent an exaggerated category designed to facilitate understanding and dialogue.

Ideal types do not represent statistical averages. Nor do they accurately describe every aspect of a given phenomenon. Rather, they are abstract generalizations.

Weber argues that science cannot avoid developing concepts that are, to some extent, abstract generalizations. This is pretty obvious to anyone who thinks about language and semiotics in general. But Weber isn’t so much offering a philosophical critique of signs. Rather, he’s talking more about getting what he sees as the right balance between the range and focus of a given study. He claims that the type is created through the use of reason, and lies somewhere between meaningless details (i.e. empirical studies devoid of a meaningful, interpretive theory) and overly obscure generalizations (i.e untenable ideas and opinions not carefully thought out with reason).

While ideal types may describe ethical ideals, Weber says that the types themselves do not advocate a particular ethical ideal.

From today’s standpoint, Weber’s reliance on reason to ‘get it right’ and his apparent ability to separate ethics from the pursuit of understanding both have been roundly critiqued from several angles. Nevertheless, an updated version of Weber’s ideal type arguably remains a useful theoretical approach to typology, providing it consciously embraces not only rational but also emotional, aesthetic, intuitive and ethical components.

A good example of Weber’s ideal types is found in his distinction between ‘exemplary’ and ‘instrumental’ religious prophets.

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