An investigation of the social learning and symbolic interaction models for the development of self-concepts and self-esteem

Two studies were conducted to investigate empirical support for two models relating to the development of self-concepts and self-esteem in upper-primary school children. The first study investigated the social learning model by examining the relationship between mothers' and fathers' self-reported self-concepts and self-esteem and the self-reported self-concepts and self-esteem of their children. The second study investigated the symbolic interaction model by examining the relationship between children's perception of the frequency of positive and negative statements made by parents and their self-reported self-concepts and self-esteem. The results of these studies suggested that what parents say to their children and how they interact with them is more closely related to their children's self-perceptions than the role of modelling parental attitudes and behaviours. The findings highlight the benefits of parents talking positively to their children.

Clergy Sexual Abuse Litigation: Survivors Seeking Justice By Jennifer M. Balboni (Boulder: First Forum Press, 2011, 180pp. £43.77)

Balboni identifies her interest as being the processes of official disclosure and the path taken to civil litigation by survivors of child sexual abuse by Roman Catholic Clergy. The empirical data, on which this work is based, come in the form of in-depth face-to-face interviews with 22 survivors of clergy sexual abuse who have pursued litigation and 13 of their advocates. Balboni provides a space for survivors’ accounts of the ‘why’ behind their decision making and the impact of civil litigation on their lives to be heard, discussed and contextualized with both clarity and sensitivity. She acknowledges the breadth and depth of survivor responses, and the perspectives of their legal advocates, employing defiance theory, symbolic interaction and other points of analysis, to capture the journey of survivors towards litigation and beyond. Balboni’s work is deeply poignant in its recognition of survivors’ voices, the complex transformative capacity of litigation, the effects of community forming amongst survivors and the complex nature of ‘empowerment’ obtained by survivors through civil litigation. Acknowledging that, for many survivors, litigation becomes a means of identity change and truth telling, Balboni admits that ‘these survivors helped me understand that litigation is more about voice than monetary settlement’ (p. 149). This work is not deeply analytical or theoretically rich but privileges the voices of survivors and their advocates with sufficient frameworks to contextualize and explain participants’ perspectives and experiences.

Beyond homo economicus: Recognition, self-realization and social work

This paper builds on Ferguson's important contribution to the debate on personalization in social work that appeared in the British Journal of Social Work in 2007. Whereas Ferguson approached the topic through the lens of political philosophy, the account below draws on critical social theory to examine not only the nature of personalization, but also its supportive pillar of individualization. In particular, Axel Honneth's critique of individualization in modern society is presented before setting out his ideas on the need for self-realization through inter-subjective recognition. The implications of Honneth's position are then considered in terms of four interrelated dimensions of social work practice, namely: (i) social work as symbolic interaction; (ii) social work as care; (iii) social work as respect; and (iv) social work as validation. It is argued that this constellation of practices poses a direct and necessary challenge to a social work of personalization.

Procesos de privatización del agua en América Latina: análisis y seguimiento de la interacción estratégica entre movimientos sociales versus multinacionales en Bolivia, Uruguay y México. Período 2000 – 2006

El presente escrito, constituye una aproximación a los procesos de privatización del agua en América Latina. Lo anterior, en el marco de la acción colectiva, específicamente de los movimientos sociales y su interacción estratégica con oponentes como las compañías multinacionales, las organizaciones financieras internacionales y el Estado. Tomando como referencia las luchas ocurridas en Bolivia, Uruguay y México, con especial énfasis en La Guerra del Agua en Cochabamba (Bolivia).

La reacción de las Potencias frente al programa nuclear iraní en la redefinición de la identidad de la República Islámica (2005-2013)

La presente monografía tiene como objetivo explicar el papel de las sanciones y discursos de Estados Unidos, la Unión Europea e Israel frente al Programa Nuclear Iraní en la redefinición de la identidad de la República Islámica. En este sentido, se defenderá que las acciones punitivas emprendidas por las potencias mencionadas, han incidido en la auto-comprensión de la identidad nacional de Irán al reafirmar su carácter revisionista con la identificación por parte de las potencias, de los valores de la República Islámica con una amenaza para la seguridad regional e internacional. Para comprobarlo, se utilizará el concepto de identidad y de proceso de interacción simbólica, propios del enfoque constructivista. Así mismo, será necesario realizar un diseño documental e histórico, realizando de esta manera un análisis explicativo y analítico de los discursos de los líderes tanto de las potencias que se oponen al Programa Nuclear como de la controversial República Islámica.

Growth of transcendental meditation: a sociological study

Sociology, in concerning itself with methodology and cultural determinism,may have overlooked the value of human experience in determining social action. We feel that the structural-functionalist point of view is not mutually exclusive with that of symbolic interaction theory. The field of collective behavior has not adequately explained a certain incidence of human activity called Transcendental Meditation. This paper will define Transcendental Meditation in sociological terms and explore its growth in terms of structural-functionalism,as well as in terms of the symbol-making faculty of human experience. In the first chapter, the author will state his biases and background as well as the problem and purpose of the paper. In the second chapter, Transcendental Meditation will be defined through an explanation of its concepts in sociological terms. A view of the TM program will also be reported. Following this in the third chapter, the origins of TM will be discussed~showing its basis to be in a tradition of Indian gurus and following its development in the United states until the present. The history of TM will proceed through biography of leading figures, with special mention of innovations in the TM institution of teaching and events in the growth of the 'movement' of TOO that are of key importance. Having set down the history of TM, in the fourth chapter we will discuss TM in terms of various sociological models. We will try to identify TM as either a social movement; a charismatic organization or a bureaucracy. In the fifth chapter we will look more closely at the structure of the organization that teaches TM in regard to its own functioning; that is, compliance, communication, socialization and recruitment, and also in regard to its relationship with national institutions, such as military, industry, religion, and government. Finally, we will explore TM in terms of individual and group goals and offer an explanation defining the growth of TM. Throughout-the paper, sociological perspectives will be applied to phenomena that exist in the society today. It is not within the scope of this paper to verify all the sociological implications and appraisals offered. It is hoped that this will not invalidate the ensuing discussion. It is also hoped that this paper will expand the horizons of sociology and offer some direction in future studies of collective behavior. If this is accomplished, the author will be gratified and indebted to his teachers. If not the author takes full responsibility. This paper is dedicated therefore to Mr. Birge, Mr Morrione, Mr. Geib as well as to my parents who have encouraged me, my friends whom I have interviewed, and to His Holiness, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi whose teaching has uplifted hundred of thousands of people in the world and may bring about the development of new thresholds of peace and prosperity for mankind.

RELIGIÃO E MARKETING PESSOAL: UMA ANÁLISE DA IMAGEM PESSOAL DOS BISPOS, PASTORES, OBREIROS E OBREIRAS DA IGREJA UNIVERSAL DO REINO DE DEUS

Este trabalho tem por objetivo analisar a forma de construção da imagem dos bispos, pastores, obreiros e obreiras da Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (IURD), por meio da ferramenta de marketing pessoal (MP). A utilização do MP por tais agentes religiosos é uma maneira de melhorar a interação simbólica entre líderes e fiéis e atrair o público para os templos. A IURD foi escolhida para esta análise por usar de vários procedimentos que estão relacionados com as técnicas de MP, no sentido de sofisticar a aparência visual de sua liderança, a fim de representar um discurso de prosperidade disseminado pela instituição. Cremos que é dessa forma que a IURD atrai o público por meio da imagem criada dos líderes, mediante uma aparência visual sofisticada. Na pesquisa dessa Igreja, encontramos que a ferramenta de MP usada pelos seus membros hierárquicos contribui para o crescimento e a consolidação desse empreendimento no mercado religioso. A construção da imagem que estamos tratando é planejada a partir da matriz imagética do líder principal da Igreja Universal, Edir Bezerra Macedo. Por meio da imagem central do bispo Macedo é que a liderança é marcada ou estigmatizada com um perfil estético respaldado por uma noção de sucesso. Utilizamos a pesquisa bibliográfica e observação participante como método de pesquisa e ainda, pesquisamos o jornal Folha Universal e averiguamos alguns programas televisivos exibidos na TV Record, analisando o marketing pessoal da liderança em questão. Assim, verificamos que as interfaces de presentação da boa imagem produzida por meio de técnicas corporais, roupas e acessórios, favorece a representação desses líderes nos seus principais canais de comunicação, templos e televisão.(AU)

RELIGIÃO E MARKETING PESSOAL: UMA ANÁLISE DA IMAGEM PESSOAL DOS BISPOS, PASTORES, OBREIROS E OBREIRAS DA IGREJA UNIVERSAL DO REINO DE DEUS

Este trabalho tem por objetivo analisar a forma de construção da imagem dos bispos, pastores, obreiros e obreiras da Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (IURD), por meio da ferramenta de marketing pessoal (MP). A utilização do MP por tais agentes religiosos é uma maneira de melhorar a interação simbólica entre líderes e fiéis e atrair o público para os templos. A IURD foi escolhida para esta análise por usar de vários procedimentos que estão relacionados com as técnicas de MP, no sentido de sofisticar a aparência visual de sua liderança, a fim de representar um discurso de prosperidade disseminado pela instituição. Cremos que é dessa forma que a IURD atrai o público por meio da imagem criada dos líderes, mediante uma aparência visual sofisticada. Na pesquisa dessa Igreja, encontramos que a ferramenta de MP usada pelos seus membros hierárquicos contribui para o crescimento e a consolidação desse empreendimento no mercado religioso. A construção da imagem que estamos tratando é planejada a partir da matriz imagética do líder principal da Igreja Universal, Edir Bezerra Macedo. Por meio da imagem central do bispo Macedo é que a liderança é marcada ou estigmatizada com um perfil estético respaldado por uma noção de sucesso. Utilizamos a pesquisa bibliográfica e observação participante como método de pesquisa e ainda, pesquisamos o jornal Folha Universal e averiguamos alguns programas televisivos exibidos na TV Record, analisando o marketing pessoal da liderança em questão. Assim, verificamos que as interfaces de presentação da boa imagem produzida por meio de técnicas corporais, roupas e acessórios, favorece a representação desses líderes nos seus principais canais de comunicação, templos e televisão.(AU)

RELIGIÃO E MARKETING PESSOAL: UMA ANÁLISE DA IMAGEM PESSOAL DOS BISPOS, PASTORES, OBREIROS E OBREIRAS DA IGREJA UNIVERSAL DO REINO DE DEUS

Este trabalho tem por objetivo analisar a forma de construção da imagem dos bispos, pastores, obreiros e obreiras da Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (IURD), por meio da ferramenta de marketing pessoal (MP). A utilização do MP por tais agentes religiosos é uma maneira de melhorar a interação simbólica entre líderes e fiéis e atrair o público para os templos. A IURD foi escolhida para esta análise por usar de vários procedimentos que estão relacionados com as técnicas de MP, no sentido de sofisticar a aparência visual de sua liderança, a fim de representar um discurso de prosperidade disseminado pela instituição. Cremos que é dessa forma que a IURD atrai o público por meio da imagem criada dos líderes, mediante uma aparência visual sofisticada. Na pesquisa dessa Igreja, encontramos que a ferramenta de MP usada pelos seus membros hierárquicos contribui para o crescimento e a consolidação desse empreendimento no mercado religioso. A construção da imagem que estamos tratando é planejada a partir da matriz imagética do líder principal da Igreja Universal, Edir Bezerra Macedo. Por meio da imagem central do bispo Macedo é que a liderança é marcada ou estigmatizada com um perfil estético respaldado por uma noção de sucesso. Utilizamos a pesquisa bibliográfica e observação participante como método de pesquisa e ainda, pesquisamos o jornal Folha Universal e averiguamos alguns programas televisivos exibidos na TV Record, analisando o marketing pessoal da liderança em questão. Assim, verificamos que as interfaces de presentação da boa imagem produzida por meio de técnicas corporais, roupas e acessórios, favorece a representação desses líderes nos seus principais canais de comunicação, templos e televisão.(AU)

Emergens i Meads sociologi : Process, interaktion och det sociala livets villkor

Emergence in the sociology of Mead: Process, interaction and the conditions ofsocial life. Within sociology, and especially in the symbolic interaction genre thereof, emergence have been used in order to analyze the process between different dichotomies such as structure and agency, individual and collective, improvisation and the pre-determined as well as the relationship between a now, a past and a present. The aim of this article is to, based on mentioned dichotomies, discuss the possibilities and the limitations of emergence. In terms of possibilities emergence can be used as an analytical and theoretical tool for analyzing the process between different social phenomena. In terms of limitations, emergence could (and have been) criticized for not acknowledging the pre-conditioned aspects of social life. Hence, this article is concluded in a discussion on how to integrate pre-conditioned aspects of social life, such as power, dominance and subordination in the analysis of the emergent and dynamic social life.

Chinese Men and "Leftover Women" : How do Chinese Men Position Themselves in Relation to the Concept of Labelling Women as "Leftover"?

In recent years there has been a resurgence of gender inequality in China. Today, women are pressured to get married by the state and their social surroundings, as they told if they remain unmarried and have the "three highs"; high age, education and salary, they will become leftovers on the marriage market. Previous research on the concept of labelling women as "leftover" has 4 shown that labelling women as "leftover" can have several different negative impacts. In this thesis, both the theory of masculine hegemony and the theory of symbolic interaction have been used. The concept creates a hegemonic masculinity as it is a normative practice that promotes the subordination of women. However, as the concept is based on the notion that all Chinese men, or at least those of relevant social standing, would find the "three highs" undesirable, it is relevant to see how Chinese men in fact do position themselves in relation to the hegemonic masculinity on an individual level. In symbolic interaction, the concept of gender is created through social construction when people attach special meanings to the sex of a person, a process which is called "doing gender". Therefore symbolic interaction is used to see what special meaning Chinese men attach to women having the "three highs" and masculine hegemony to put their answers into a larger context. If it could be shown that Chinese men do not comply with the hegemonic masculinity, Chinese women would not have to feel obliged to adjust to the hegemonic masculinity and thereby making it easier for them to pursue higher education, high paying jobs and marrying at a later age. However, as this thesis is a qualitative study, and therefore a limited number of data subjects, the generalizability of the result should not be exaggerated. The interviews that were conducted for this thesis showed that the data subjects were familiar with the concept and that they considered it to be natural for there to be women China labelled as "leftover". Nevertheless, in relation to their own marital choices, the data subjects did not attach the negative meaning as set out by the hegemonic masculinity, a result which to some extent was confirmed by the data subjects’ experiences and other control questions. The result is interesting, and enforces Connell and MesserSchmidt’s theory, that even though a hegemonic masculinity is normative, not everyone has to comply with it. As the cornerstone of the concept is that Chinese men find women with the "three highs" undesirable, the result of the study shows that there is a need for the concept to be further examined and questioned.

Anticipatory Accounts

C. Wright Mills called for a truly sociological analysis of actors’ “motive talk,” which decouples the commonsense link between the reasons actors give for their actions and their mental state prior to those actions. Subsequent theoretical and empirical work has focused almost entirely on actors’ retrospective accounting for untoward conduct that has already taken place. The other aspect of Mills’s program, the reasons actors give for potentially untoward future conduct and in particular the empirical investigation of the link between the availability of an acceptable vocabulary of motives for anticipated conduct and the eventual enactment of that conduct, has been largely ignored. This article seeks to rehabilitate these lost dimensions using data from a longitudinal study of mothers’ infant feeding choices and practices. It examines how mothers account, in advance, for the possibility that they may eventually feed their babies in ways they consider suboptimal. Thirty of the thirty-six women interviewed indicated that they intended to breastfeed, emphasizing the benefits of this practice to their babies. However, seventeen of these women also anticipated that they might abandon breastfeeding and presented elaborate accounts of the motives that could lead them to do so. The findings support Mills’s claim that the availability of an acceptable vocabulary of motives for untoward conduct increases the probability that one will engage in such conduct. Mothers who had offered elaborate anticipatory accounts for abandoning breastfeeding were much more likely to do so than those who did not offer such accounts.

La comunicación política en la administración de Gustavo Petro 2012-2014

El objetivo central de esta tesis es analizar cómo ha sido la comunicación política de la administración de Gustavo Petro entre 2012 y 2014, determinando el nivel de democratización presente en esta. Desde sus inicios, la alcaldía de Gustavo Petro mostro una gran preocupación por el ámbito de comunicación, sin embargo, como se puede ver en el plan de desarrollo, le apunta a una comunicación participativa en donde la ciudadanía haga parte de la construcción, diseño e implementación de los programas de gobierno. Por lo tanto se parte de la hipótesis de que la comunicación política durante esta administración ha sido democrática en tanto que ha permitido hacer partícipe a la ciudadanía de su propio desarrollo, a través del dialogo constante. Lo anterior será visto desde una perspectiva teórica sobre la comunicación política democrática, para lo cual las variables direccionalidad y centralidad serán claves.

Principals’ and teacher leaders’ perceptions of their role and interaction under current Chinese reform : a case study in Shandong province

This study aims to explore the perceptions of principals and teacher leaders regarding their roles and the interaction between these roles in Chinese urban primary schools at the time of unprecedented curriculum reform. This involves a complexity of factors such as the influence of globalisation, the impact of traditional Chinese cultural attitudes towards education through Confucianism, and the implementation requirements of the current education reforms. All of these wider contextual factors help to shape the leadership practices that are described in the study. A qualitative exploratory case study approach has been utilised to undertake this investigation. The conceptual framework for this study draws upon scholars‘ work from Western countries but has been adapted in order to address three research questions for the study‘s focus on the context in Shandong province, Mainland China. Three research questions were addressed: First, what are principals‘ perceptions of their leadership roles in Mainland China under current educational reform? Second, what are teacher leaders‘ perceptions of their leadership roles in Mainland China under current educational reform? And finally, what are principals‘ and teacher leaders‘ perceptions of how their roles interact? With reference to the principals in the study, the findings confirm Gurr‘s (2008) comprehensive leadership model relating to four roles, specifically, learning and teaching, symbolic and cultural awareness, future orientation, and accountability. Significantly, some sub-roles that emerge from the data are uniquely Chinese. For example, school culture construction is a very deliberate process in which principals and their staff talked openly about and were involved in creating a positive school climate comprising spiritual, material, and system dimensions. Another finding relates to school feature construction. This refers to the process that principals and staff used to make their schools distinctive and different from other schools and included such features as the school‘s philosophy and the school-based curriculum. In seeking to understand the nature of teacher leadership in Chinese primary schools, this research confirms some findings identified in Western literature. For instance, teacher leaders in Shandong province were involved in decision-making, working with parents and community members, undertaking and planning professional development for staff, and mediating between colleagues (Day & Harris, 2002; Harrison & Killion, 2007; Leithwood, Jantzi, & Steinbach, 1999; Muijs & Harris, 2006; Smylie, 1992). However, some new aspects, such as a heightened awareness of the importance of accountability, emerge from this study. The study‘s conceptual framework also draws upon some significant insights from micropolitics and, in particular, two core constructs, namely cooperation and conflict (Blase, 1991), to explore the interactions between principals and teacher leaders. In this study, principals and teacher leaders employed exchange and facilitation as two strategies in cooperative processes; and they adopted enforcement and compromise in conflictive processes. Finally, the study‘s findings indicate that principals and teacher leaders were developing new ways of interacting in response to the requirements of significant education reform. Most principals were exercising their power through (Blase, 1991) their teacher leaders who in turn, were working in alignment with their principals to achieve the desired outcomes in schools. It was significant that this form of 'parallel leadership' (Crowther, Ferguson, & Ham, 2009) characterised the teacher leadership roles at this period of change to the curriculum in Mainland China.