Social Change

Mentality is defined as an assembly of manners of acting or thinking about someone or something. Related to the history of mentalities in the 19th century the core elements were the building of the nation and the constitutional law and only at the beginning of the 20th century the economic development and the relations between social classes. Mentalities change hard

This article aims to initiate a discussion on the demarcation of the ethics of care. This discussion is necessary because the ethics of care evolves by making use of insights from varying disciplines. As this involves the risk of contamination of the care ethical discipline, the challenge for care ethical scholars is to ensure to retain a distinct care ethical perspective. This may be supported by an open and critical debate on the criteria and boundaries of the ethics of care. As a contribution, this article proposes a tentative outline of the care ethical discipline. What is characteristic of this outline is the emphasis on relational programming, situation-specific and context-bound judgments, a political-ethical perspective, and empirical groundedness. It is argued that the ethics of care is best developed further by means of an intradisciplinary approach. Two intradisciplinary examples show how within the frame of one discipline, other disciplines are absorbed, both with their body of knowledge and their research methodology.

Este es realmente un libro fascinante una vez que se han leído las primeras páginas y entendido el esquema del código de colores, nos presenta, en increíble detalle un modelo de desarrollo espiral que nos ayuda a ver al mundo de una forma completamente diferente. Beck y Cowan se refieren a estos patrones de pensamiento como vMemes. El concepto de vMeme fue acuñado haciendo un paralelo con los Genes. Los genes del ser humano están estrechamente vinculados con su DNA, de igual forma podemos hablar que en los grupos humanos existen vMemes los cuales a su vez definen un DNA social. Lo que nos divide en la sociedad, no son nuestros genes, sino nuestros vMemes. Nos parecemos diferentes debido a nuestros genes; Pensamos y actuamos diferente debido a nuestros vMemes. Se puede pensar en los vMemes como amplios paradigmas orientadores, un esquema a través del cual interpretamos el mundo. Estos vMemes se dividen en ocho niveles, con la posibilidad de que unos más avanzados estén emergiendo en este preciso momento. A su vez, cada nivel tiene fases de entrada, clímax y declive.

The limits of the planet and of natural  resources  impede  pursuing  the  modern  project  based  on  permanent
growth  and  represent  a  major  challenge  for  humanity.  Drawing on an  agency-centred  approach,  this paper addresses two two  major  questions:
‘Who are the social actors who challenge the normative orientation at the core of modernization and promote alternative values and practices that may contribute to the rise of a global age, or may embody glimpses of a global age society?’ and ‘Can we grasp some dimensions of life and society in the global age  by studying current social movements?  ’

Il mito rappresenta [...] la forza sociale e sotterranea di una immensa rivoluzione che minava nel sottosuolo ovunque il mondo antico.

Era comodo procedere quando il Maestro faceva tacere e tremare tutti, regalando miracoli, sanando infermi, risuscitando morti, facendo cadere l'arma dalla mano dell'aggressore.

Gli operai vinceranno se capiranno che nessuno deve venire. L'attesa del Messia ed il culto del genio, spiegabili per Pietro e per Carlyle, sono per un marxista del 1953 solo misere coperture di impotenza.

La Rivoluzione si rialzerà tremenda, ma anonima.

ABSTRACT – Taking my cue from James Scott’s opening provocation-question in “Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States” (“How did Homo sapiens sapiens come, so very recently in its species history, to live in crowded, sedentary communities packed with domesticated livestock and a handful of cereal grains?” — 2017: 1), in this paper I engage with both past and present forms of mimetic density and acceleration, including current calls for radical metamorphosis (Latour 2021) and the new dawn of everything (Graeber and Wengrow 2021), to advance the counter-position I took recently around a further question: “Can we change the way we change?” (Pedriali 2021: 169). In that essay, I went on to suspect that the involved you of the reader had rather I disagreed with the implications of my question. This is why on this occasion I want to insist just once more, and put the further “Could you have stopped us?” I phrased there (2021: 169, 171) to the renewed test of productive disagreement with dominant theoretical positions on the futurability of change for our mimetic species.

HOMO MIMETICUS, ERC Project directed by Nidesh Lawtoo – http://www.homomimeticus.eu
Conference Registration Link – https://hiw.kuleuven.be/hua/events/conferences-workshops/mimetic-turn/registration/registrationform

The article examines three feature-length films produced in South Korea—director Hwang Dong-hyeok’s Silenced (2011), Song Il-gon’s Always (2011), and An Sang-hun’s Blind (2011)—that highlight a problem in contemporary disability rights cinema. While privileging individuals and groups that challenge normative understandings of character-based drama or documentary filmmaking, these motion pictures reflect an infantilizing tendency in popular culture more generally. The representations align with the standard medical approach to the topic, which sees disability as a sickness, a childlike helplessness (regardless of the person’s age) that results from an inability, a marked deficit in one’s physical or mental performance. However, it is argued that Silenced, a film that provoked legislative changes strengthening the protection of minors in South Korea, at least gestures toward the social model of disability.

Abstract: In this paper, we outline a number of features of an interdisciplinary and pluralistic approach to economics. As a suitable example of how an interdisciplinary cooperation can unfold, we focus attention on the relations between institutional economics and psychoanalysis. In the first ...

Chapter 5, Experiencing the Art Museum: Methods for Public Engagement:

Methods for interactive, socially engaged art museum experiences are explored. They examine the utility of developing larger, institutional philosophies to specific techniques via case studies at the U.C.L.A. Hammer Museum, the Oakland Museum of California, and the Walker Art Center. Employed by a spectrum of practitioners such as artists, designers, and museum professionals, these approaches created new avenues for interaction. Specifically, artists entering into visitor services to drive institutional evolution, techniques for engaging atypical visitors, and approaches for engaging with “the crowd” with ephemeral art movements.

"Re-imagining 21st century education is ambitious, an ambition born of a sadness as I reflect on a book written 30 years ago.  And I shall of course fall far short of the ambition.  Just to reiterate again the question raised in the invitation to this talk.

What sort of educational vision and practice may be fostered to underpin a new world where people matter?

This is an age-old question.  Its origins is in the idea of the good society that has long been the object of philosophical and political debate. So, specifically we can ask, what sort of education does a vision of the good society demand?  And how should schools be organised to lay a foundation for the realisation of this vision?
"

En el presente trabajo intento analizar con detenimiento el modo en que fue evolucionando el vínculo teorizado entre los actores y el cambio social en el mundo desde tiempos pretéritos, para lograr discernir en que marco de resolució￳n nos encontramos hoy en América Latina. En el texto voy a suponer que los tres componentes críticos que vienen definiendo las visiones de la relaci￳ón entre los actores y el cambio en el pensamiento social occidental son la unidad de transformaci￳ón en ultima instancia (UT), el vector de ordenamiento (VO) y el principio normativo rector (PN). Las formas concretas y los contenidos que asumieron tales componentes fueron cambiando a lo largo de la historia. Y con cada cambio se complejizó el escenario intelectual, a la vez que se fueron generando nuevos desacoples entre la progresió￳n material del mundo y su evolució￳n simbó￳lica.
Para intentar dimensionar la situaci￳ón que estamos atravesando en las ciencias sociales de nuestro continente propongo trazar una línea de progresió￳n que contempla las diferentes constelaciones intelectuales dominantes que se fueron sucediendo a lo largo de la historia occidental hasta la actualidad. En el texto distingo seis constelaciones consecutivas, cada una de las cuales se corresponde con una transformaci￳ón intelectual mayúscula, ligada a cambios histó￳ricos igualmente sustantivos. A los fines del presente trabajo cobran particular relevancia las tres últimas: i) la constelació￳n moderna clásica, ligada a un estado duradero de monopolio noreuropeo (mitad siglo XIX- mitad siglo XX), ii) la primera constelaci￳ón mundialista, de corta duraci￳ón, asociada a un momento excepcional de recreació￳n autó￳noma de América Latina (mitad siglo XX-fines década de 1970) y iii) la constelació￳n posdictatorial, de mediana duraci￳ón, cuya configuració￳n estuvo condicionada por los macroefectos producidos por la última ola de dictaduras militares desplegada en la regi￳ón (década de 1980-principios del siglo XXI). Cada una de las seis constelaciones que analizo en el trabajo fue delineando diferentes modos de articulaci￳ón, o bien de desactivaci￳ón, de los tres componentes críticos señ￱alados arriba.
Junto a ello, en el trabajo intento demostrar que desde principios del siglo XXI se viene descomponiendo en América Latina la constelaci￳ón posdictatorial de las ciencias sociales. Y señalo que ello está ocurriendo dado el mayor distanciamiento respecto a las experiencias de exterminio social de las décadas del 60 y del 70 del siglo XX, y sobre todo a partir de un conjunto de transformaciones, tanto negativas como positivas, que viene experimentando la regi￳ón en los últimos tiempos. Al final de este texto panorámico extraigo algunas conclusiones que permiten identificar algunos de los grandes desafíos que tenemos por delante para avanzar en la edificació￳n de una ciencia social unificada, aut￳ónoma y universalista, al servicio de la acci￳ón colectiva, y dotada de capacidades suficientes para escudri￱ñar el futuro latinoamericano en el torbellino de los procesos de cambio social mundial. El secreto vuelve a estar en el modo en que concebimos y articulamos la unidad de transformaci￳ón en ultima instancia (UT), el vector de ordenamiento (VO) y el principio normativo rector (PN) para repensar la relació￳n entre los actores y el cambio social en América Latina.

Wayne Vucinic Book Prize 2007, "for the most important contribution to Russian, Eurasian, and East European studies in any discipline of the humanities or social sciences." 

Endorsement by Slavoj Zizek:

"Alexei Yurchak's Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More immediately seduced me by its very title with a profound philosophical implication that eternity is a historical category--things can be eternal for some time. The same spirit of paradox runs through the entire book--it renders in wonderful details the gradual disintegration of the Soviet system from within its ideological and cultural space, making visible all the hypocrisy and misery of this process. I consider Yurchak's book by far the best work about the late epoch of the Soviet Union--it is not just history, but a pleasure to read, a true work of art." (Slavoj Zizek, author of In Defense of Lost Causes)

Abstract:

Soviet socialism was based on paradoxes that were revealed by the peculiar experience of its collapse. To the people who lived in that system the collapse seemed both completely unexpected and completely unsurprising. At the moment of collapse it suddenly became obvious that Soviet life had always seemed simultaneously eternal and stagnating, vigorous and ailing, bleak and full of promise. Although these characteristics may appear mutually exclusive, in fact they were mutually constitutive. This book explores the paradoxes of Soviet life during the period of "late socialism" (1960s-1980s) through the eyes of the last Soviet generation.

People abused by angry discipline as children, may tend to abuse or overly punish other people or themselves for perceived wrongs in their adult life. In some individuals, aggressive personality traits may be genetically inherited. The aggressive personality may feel weakened by having guidelines or boundaries for anger. Anger is a normal human emotion, and these guidelines can help express anger in a healthy way.

Economic conditions have vital role to play in people's experience and perceptions of a place. Such economic conditions affect nutritional levels, health, geographical mobility, educational attainment, and overall quality of life. Hence the more reason youth and able working class men and women despise their home land-Nigeria in search of better life in other countries of the world. This is continually so because socioeconomic status affects almost all aspects of human life. In fact, the more reason for the incessant vandalism activities within the Nigerian state. This is why change is required; the need for some drastic economic measures hence, the relevance of Vision 2020 at this point in the history of the Nigerian economy may just have been the stitch in time to save nine. The book "Vision 20-2020 and the Menace of Vandalism" therefore, is a policy guide and direction signaling material. It pictures this policy agenda called "Vision20-2020" of President Umar Musa Yar'adua as a dream towards attaining the nation's golden age, which must not be aborted. It also tends to beckon the attention of the Nigerian government as well as her economic handlers who are saddled with strategic planning and responsibilities to see the country emerge as one of the 20 most economically viable nation among other countries of the world by year 2020 to the plaque called vandalism. While, it strives at the same time to crave the indulgence of the relevant arm of the government to the fact that failure to muster and empower the concern institution/parastatal towards bringing the activities of vandals into check within the Nigerian state, untold limitations and hindrances may hijack the way to this fulfillment. It is of important therefore that this vision of our golden age as a people is not left to be choked in the fume of vandalism which has since rent the economic life of the country, especially more, considering the capacity of the oil sector in the sustainability of the socio-political and economy of the state.

ABSTRACT." Over the past three decades, Arab society in Israel has been undergoing processes of transition. These processes are mani-fested by changes in the economy, education, the status of women, family structure, and by socio-culturat changes and transformations in patterns ...

Tourism is big business – the biggest in the world. Apart from its economic aspects, the social and cultural impact of tourist activity on local societies and places deserve attention. Tourism exchanges are predominantly about the production and valuation of images and ...

Struggling with social distancing? Allow me to do my bit for #caremongering by sharing my very chonky Battle Cat, who will keep you 2 metres apart from the next body. What an incredibly useful work of art, for these testing times. https://weareunlimited.org.uk/catsuits-and-caring-in-the-time-of-covid-19/

The term ‘inertia’ is often used to describe a kind of irrational resistance to change in individuals or institutions. Institutions, ideas and power structures appear to become entrenched over time, and may become ineffective or obsolete, even if they once played a legitimate or useful role. In this paper I argue that there is a common set of problems underlying the occurrence of resistance to change in individuals, social structures and the development of knowledge. Resistance to change is not always irrational or problematic; it is also necessary to allow stable personal identities and social structures to survive in a constantly changing world. I offer a historical and theoretical framework for the question of inertia. Finally, I argue that philosophy has often seen its task to be the critique of ossified, inert or obsolete ideas and social structures, but that it has neglected the positive dimension of resistance to change.

In Spain, care in dependency has traditionally fallen to family members but this situation is changing. The existence of a model based on the family’s contribution used to enable dependent elders to remain at home; however, social changes —such as the crisis of the informal caregiving system, which has been extensively discussed in the literature— is leading to the collapse

This essay contributes to participatory critical rhetoric (PCR) by offering a Rancièrian
aesthetic approach to the rhetoric of social protest at the 2014 People’s Climate March
(PCM). Although the PCM has been praised for its democratic commitments to social
change, I argue that police reinforced a consensual aesthetic order that acquiesced with
the status quo by partitioning sensibilities of space and mobility. Demarcating acceptable
spaces for protest and requiring marchers to keep moving at all times enforced a
hierarchical aesthetic order that limited possibilities of dissensus. However, there was
one ephemeral moment of dissensus when all of the protesters stopped and observed a
moment of silence. This rhetorical performance temporarily ruptured dominant intelligibilities of police order and consummated new subjectivities, demonstrating the
radical possibilities of dissensus through silence for climate change advocacy.

This Article examines the change over the past few decades in U.S. law and societal attitudes concerning a worker’s right to job-protected, paid leave. Though common around the world, job-protected, paid leave eludes the U.S. workforce. The authors begin by considering the concept of work, its relation to identity, and the construction of safety nets for workers when they need income replacement. The Article considers the movement to establish job-protected, paid leave that encompasses and values a worker’s work, family, and personal life. The modern movement originated with pregnant workers’ need for time away from work during pregnancy. Women who believed that employer policies had discriminated against them on account of pregnancy did not fare well in early cases. As a response Congress enacted the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) in 1978, amending Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and defining discrimination on account of pregnancy as prohibited sex discrimination. This a...