Search Results

This chapter deals with the claim of sociologists that the social structure of markets matters for their performance. ‘Social structure’ is understood as ‘structure of social relationships between actors’. To understand the meaning of ‘social structure’, a reasonable starting point is social network analysis. This chapter begins with a brief description of some basic concepts of social network analysis. It then considers some of the major sociological contributions on the effect of the structure of social relationships between actors on market performance. It shows that positive market models need to include elements of existing social networks between actors to become ‘sufficiently good approximations for the purpose in hand’.

In both modern humans and non-human primates, time and cognitive constraints place an upper bound on the number of social relationships an individual can maintain at a given level of intensity. Similar constraints are likely to have operated throughout hominin evolution, shaping the size and structure of social networks. One of the key trends in human evolution, alongside an increase in brain size, is likely to have been an increase in group size, resulting in a larger number of social relationships that would have to be maintained over time. The network approach demonstrates that relationships should not be viewed as dyadic ties between two individuals, but as embedded within a larger network of ties between network members. Together with relationships based on kinship, this may have allowed for larger groups to be maintained among hominins than would be possible if such networks were based purely on dyadic ties between individuals.

This chapter argues that domination should be understood structurally, as a condition experienced by persons or groups when they are related to other persons or groups in a particular way. One of the structural features present in all social relationships characterized by domination is dependency; dependency is analyzed in terms of the costs of exit faced by the subjects of domination. This chapter also briefly considers the role of reflective equilibrium in developing a descriptive account of domination.

This chapter reviews evidence documenting how the structure and quality of women's social relationships change from childhood to middle adulthood; considering how biological, psychological, and social factors uniquely, cumulatively, and interactively influence the quantity and quality of women's social relationships over time, which might, in turn, be expected to influence women's health. Several types of relationships are considered—with mothers, with fathers, with siblings, with partners, with children, and with friends. The relative importance of early life course factors for helping to determine later life relationships and relationship quality is examined. Wherever possible, life course differences between women and men, and differences between persons of varying socioeconomic status (SES) are addressed. The chapter concludes with suggestions for future research and implications for policy.

This chapter explores those aspects of Whickham's social development that up to now have been pushed to the margins of our story. For the industrial development of Whickham and its environs involved not only economic, technological, demographic, and social-structural change, but also a reshaping of social identities and shifts in the patterns of social relationships. Change of this kind was no simple and mechanical response to the imperatives of industrial development. It was a complex and uneven process, a continuing interaction between inherited traditions and novel circumstances. The aim, therefore, is to capture something of the dynamism and historical contingency of that process as the identities of the people of Whickham, and of the emerging industrial society of Tyneside to which they belonged, were forged and reforged between the anvil of established ways and the insistent beating of the hammers of change.

This chapter begins by outlining a philosophical account of value commitments and reflective values that highlights the importance of stability, justification, and experience. This account is intended only to explicate the features that a value commitment must have in order to serve as a standard of evaluation in reflection. It is proposed that our reflective values are plural and include life-satisfaction, self-direction, social relationships, and moral ends. Two kinds of arguments are presented. The first is familiar in philosophy: it is argued that certain values are simply presupposed by the Reflective Wisdom Account. The second kind of argument uses empirical findings in psychology as a basis for claims about reflective values.

This chapter surveys prominent feminist writings that call for a relational conception of autonomy and that criticize the philosophical mainstream for lacking such an account. It shows that prominent mainstream accounts of autonomy do acknowledge the importance of social relationships, thus tending to converge on this point with the prevalent feminist view. Feminists' objections to mainstream conceptions of autonomy are considered, focusing on the charge that mainstream accounts do not take account of social relationships.

This chapter shows that although relationships with other Jews took up the majority of Jewish social life, Jews found themselves more integrated than at any time in German history. Many of their relationships with non-Jews would fall into what Georg Simmel called “differentiated friendships” that connect individuals according to common intellectual interests, common experiences, and common careers or situations in life. These friendships maintained a degree of reserve, avoiding certain areas of interest and feeling. Still, some of these links led to great affection, and some even ended in marriage.

A truism of ethnology is that death rituals and related practices are oriented more toward the living than the dead; that they seek to re-organize social relationships that have been damaged by the death of a loved one. This chapter shows how Garhwali beliefs and practices relating to death, ghosts, and exorcism accomplish this task. Fundamentally, they do so by transforming the ambivalent, dangerous ghost into a beneficent, auspicious ancestor.

This chapter focuses on the social aspects of dying and the way in which these have changed across historical periods in Western societies. It begins with an examination of dying as a social relationship and explores how the experience or understanding of dying has changed across time and within different communities. The turn from religious to medical authority is considered within a discussion of changing mores, ars moriendi, and expectations about the nature and timing of the ‘good death’. There is a discussion of physical illnesses and diseases that leads to death in previous periods followed by an examination of more contemporary forms of dying. Here, following the progress of public health reforms and medical technology, the significance of the change from acute infectious diseases to more chronic disabling illnesses is highlighted, together with the impact this has on dying in modern societies. The final section sets the discussion in the context of Kellehear's (2007) theory of the social ages of dying and considers dying in contemporary societies, highlighting popular expectations and choices — a major distinction between dying in previous era and dying today.

This chapter focuses on family and social relationships as they are impacted by the experiences of mobbing and bullying, whether those experiences are school- or workplace-based. It is proposed that there is an additive effect between health consequences suffered as a result of mobbing and their impact on family life and social relationships—the more severe the health consequences, the greater the impact on family life and on social relationships. Additionally, this chapter includes a detailed discussion of the range of possible individual responses to mobbing episodes, including individual neurophysiological responses, and looks at how those individual responses interact within family and social relationships. The potential scale and range of mobbing-related losses in both school and workplace mobbing is presented and discussed. Vignettes and examples that illustrate the impact of mobbing on family life and social relationships at work and school are provided.

Examinations of different sample populations are designed to identify associations (usually hypothesized as causal linkages) between personal traits and environmental stimulation that heighten the risk of diseases and trim down life expectancy. Since the connection between the said factors has been proven, this chapter highlights the attempt to establish the relationship between emotional contact with significant others and improved health as a result of harmonious social relationships. Along with this is the elaboration of procedures on how to attain the said goal. These include the incorporation of insights and the latest discoveries about flourishing research endeavors regarding the emotions attached in the social context. Another step is to gather information from those who explore the biological underpinnings of the social bond and its accompanying emotions. Lastly, there must be consultation from people specializing on solving the pertinent issues between interpersonal relationships and mortality.

This chapter examines how the sexual politics of domestic violence gives rise to stigma and shame, eroding women's confidence and trust in others. The analysis presented here therefore makes a new contribution to knowledge about how intimate partner violence interrupts and changes women's social relationships and affiliations in ways that have lasting effects on the capacity to exercise citizenship. In common with findings in relation to employment, housing, and mental health, this chapter shows that women do not regain the levels of social engagement they had prior to intimate partner violence, and that the nature of social participation is also changed by intimate partner violence in ways that are not wholly negative. It explores how intimate partner violence affects women's participatory citizenship and the interconnections with its impact on the three other key life domains. This chapter also examines how women rebuild the social relationships and connections in their lives.

The first section of this chapter describes the Bullock House and its inhabitants. The headman set aside for the author and his companion three rooms in the Bullock House, one of the five houses he owned in Rampura. The second section describes the author's experience as a tenant, taking notes of its peculiarities, different from urban settings. Except the richest villagers, and the Brahmins and Lingayats, the others took their bath in the central courtyard. The third section describes how he tried to win friends in the village. The fourth section takes into account Putte Gowda's suggestion to move around the village and not settle with the opinions of a few people. The fifth section describes the villagers' curiosity. The next two sections describe the anthropologist as a Brahmin, as a respected outsider. The last section describes his failures as a fieldworker.

Demonstrated here are the distinctive personality traits that matter in the discussion of rejection responses. On one hand, such reactions can be classified as emotionally rooted, cognition grounded, and behaviorally linked; while on the other, feedbacks can be based upon the level of self-confidence, conceit, anxiety, depression, attachment style, perceived social support, and sexual orientation. The extent of sensitivity to rejection is accounted for by the quality of personal relationships, which eventually establish the physical and the psychological well being of an individual. Although people are expected to experience negative emotions when faced with denunciation, refusal, or elimination (due to several factors), they react differently. Integrated and socially involved people are more likely to constructively surpass misfortunes, sudden unemployment, the unexpected death of loved ones, and other possible shocks. Similarly, people who lack healthy and affirmative social ties are more inclined to take maladaptive actions when they encounter difficult situations.

It is believed that the quality of social relationships determines a person's resistance to infection — this is the hypothesis of this chapter. On the one hand, healthy interaction with others and strong ties both facilitate a drive to be concerned about oneself, tolerate effective regulation of emotional reactions, and provide back-up during difficult situations. While on the other hand, laboratory experiments and epidemiological research have discovered that stressful circumstances with significant others and unexpected transitory events inhibit the production of cellular components for immunity functions; hence, increasing the risk of acquiring upper respiratory ailments. In addition, low involvement in society or isolation accompanies a high risk of early death, which is comparable to the high mortality rate caused by persistent smoking. Although much of the literature, along with the study in this chapter, agrees on the positive effect of social relationships to susceptibility to the common cold, there are certain factors such as lifestyle and genes that can possibly account for the same outcomes.

Our experience, that of social relationships in particular, is constructed by the delusive faculty of imagination. Our subjection to the imagination is a consequence of the Fall, without which notion human nature is incomprehensible. There is a sustained analysis of the long fragment on imagination, and of the role Pascal attributes to imagination as the medium of social relationships, as well as the screen for the fundamental historical violence underlying these. The omnipresence of imagination is one of the factors (custom is another) which prevent our apprehending a comprehensible human nature in experience (or accepting philosophical conceptions of human nature). It is impossible to formulate rational norms of behaviour, all the more because our core being (the self, le moi) is radically suffused with illusion, blinded by self-love. Only the doctrine of the Fall makes sense of our nature and plight.