Sociology

This paper examines how sound can be a part of race-making. It draws upon empirical research and a nurse’s account of 'noisy' mourning rituals in a multicultural hospice ward, I argue that the insurgent force of noise as a manifestation of difference is a form of 'corporeal generosity' (Diprose, 2002), producing impossible dilemmas for care, whilst also provoking surprising ethical relations and potentialities. Derrida’s ideas about the aporias of the gift and absolute responsibility are used to make sense of the pushy generosity of otherness as it is made to matter through sound.

"Drawing on 66 interviews with key actors in the equality and diversity field in the UK, we operationalise Bourdieu’s conception of the field, across the axes of individualism versus collectivism, and regulation versus voluntarism and map out the location of the key actors in this field. The contribution of this paper is three-fold: First, we advance the understanding of the equality and diversity field at the national level by analysing the accounts of the influential actors, whose interests and actions shape the field, in a single piece of work. Second, the paper illustrates how the multi-actor and contested nature of the equality and diversity field manifests in the accounts of actors, thereby presents evidence in support of policy and strategic thinking which goes beyond a single-actor focus. Finally, we contribute to the theoretical maturity and expansion of the equality and diversity scholarship through the use of Bourdieuan sociology.
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""Español:
Como muchas de las estructuras surgidas en las postrimerías del capitalismo
industrial, la ciencia está entrando en crisis por uno de sus aspectos fundacionales: la
objetividad y la búsqueda de la verdad. Y eso, por cierto, no es culpa de la ciencia, sino de los
científicos. La ciencia, especialmente la social y humana, es mucho más que esa encrucijada
en especial. El problema está en lo que esconde tras de sí: un sistemático alejamiento de la
realidad por parte de quienes estamos preparados a comprenderla. ¿Dónde están puestas las
trincheras de la ciencia? Lejos del fragor de la batalla, en una especie de espacio alterno, de
suspensión social y existencial: el científico, el sociólogo, deja de ser algo (padre, madre,
ciudadano, lo que sea) para poder ser científico. De las primeras cosas que se escuchan al
entrar al claustro académico de la ciencia social y humana, están la búsqueda afanosa de la
objetividad científica, la neutralidad, en una tendencia que se matiza y recomienda al
investigador en ciernes, no sin cierto tufillo positivista, a que el investigador mantenga cierta
distancia de sus sujetos de estudio con tal de no hacerse ni muy militante pero tampoco muy
ajeno a su cotidianidad. Con este panorama, la invitación que se hace en este trabajo es clara:
trascender de estas formas científicas para dejar de ver a la ciencia y a su práctica como un
requerimiento institucional con el que hay que cumplir, un requisito escolar o, peor, un deber
supremo de iluminación universal. La ciencia debe ser un ejercicio lúdico, y el saber
disciplinario una herramienta que nos permita conocernos y reconocernos en el mundo, con su gente, en nuestro contexto, a través de una práctica reflexiva, anárquica en lo epistemológico y
libertaria en su esencia.

English:
As many of the structures born in the beginnings of industrial capitalism, science is
on a crisis because of one of its foundational aspects: objectivity and the search for truth. And
that, by the way, it’s not the fault of science, but of scientists. Science, specially the social and
human ones, it’s more than just that special quest. The problem is on what it’s hiding behind
it: a systematic restraining from reality by those who are prepared to study it. Where are the
trenches of science? Far away from the battle, in some kind of alternate space of social and
existential suspension: the scientific, the sociologist, quits being someone (father, mother,
citizen, whatever) for being scientist. One of the first lessons learned when entering academic
institutions of social and human sciences are the quest for scientific objectivity, the neutrality,
in a nuanced but insisting way recommended to the new researcher not without some positivist
bias, mainly to keep distance from study subjects in order to not become too militant with their
causes but no too strange to their every-day lives. So, with this scenario, the invitation made
on this paper is clear: to transcend these scientific forms in order to stop regard science and its
practice as an institutional requirement to accomplish, a scholar must-be or, worse, a supreme
duty of universal enlightening. Science must be regarded as a playful exercise, and
disciplinary knowledge as a tool that allow to know us and recognize us in the world, with
their people, in our context, through a reflexive, anarchical practice on the epistemological
side, and libertarian on its essence.""

Football was once characterised as one of the most dynamic and illuminating domains of globalisation, and thus of cosmopolitanisation, making it a fertile locus for social researchers’ debates in the last few decades on a wide range of topics. To this regard numerous accounts on how globalisation, chiefly its economic and cultural dimensions, impacted and changed football were presented, focusing primarily on the commodification, commercialisation and mediatisation of football. Fandom as an integral part of the football culture was also central to these debates. In this regard, in this paper I will discuss the invention of a ‘cosmopolitan’ and ‘local’ identities of two rival Brazilian football clubs’ fans through their chants. I will argue that between different processes of inventing the other within football fandom, as sexualisation, mediatisation, commodification, Internacional and Grêmio fans are primarily interested on aspects regarding ‘cosmopolitanisation’ and ‘localisation’ of their identities. I will demonstrate how Internacional fans from 2010 onwards constructed their ‘cosmopolitan’ identity in opposition to Grêmio’s ‘localised’ identity by creolisation/cosmopolitanisation their chants. In opposition to Grêmio’s ‘localised’ identity which bore mostly Argentinian and Uruguayan cultural aspects, Internacional fans sought to differentiate themselves and create a ‘cosmopolitan’ identity by mostly incorporating international tunes to local lyrics. I will further argue that Edward Said’s Orientalism is an useful framework to discuss the geographical other, and that his theories are still under theorised within the sociology of football, and in particular to fandom and globalisation. I will conclude by pointing out that while the processes of othernisation between football club fans are already well discussed in the area, the theorisation of these processes within football club fans is still at the field’s margins and thus require further analyses.

Cet article explore les modalités de la responsabilisation sociale des entreprises par le biais des consommateurs. A travers l’analyse de dix années de mobilisation d’un réseau français de parties prenantes pour la défense des droits des travailleurs du Sud fabriquant des biens à destination des consommateurs du Nord, cet article propose une réflexion sur les différentes formes de consumérisme politique visant à modifier les pratiques des enseignes de distribution dans le sens d’une meilleure prise en compte des conditions de travail dans les usines de leurs fournisseurs et sous-traitants. Ce faisant, il met en lumière toute la complexité d’un projet qui nécessite de la part du réseau mobilisateur un réajustement stratégique permanent à l’aune des réactions des entreprises mais également des consommateurs. S’appuyant sur les catégories hirschmaniennes de « défection » et de « prise de parole » (Hirschman 1970), l’article propose une réflexion sur l’usage de ces deux modes d’expression du mécontentement des consommateurs dans le cas spécifique de la « qualité sociale ». L’analyse des actions organisées par le réseau étudié met ainsi en évidence non seulement un raffinement progressif de son usage de la prise de parole, mais également le constat que son projet de label, dispositif rendant possible la défection des consommateurs, était apparemment inadapté à son objectif d’amélioration généralisée des conditions de production dans les pays du Sud.

This essay explores questions of cross-cultural aesthetic appreciation when galleries display indigenous artefacts or artists appropriate religious symbols. In such cases, the work is not necessarily treated with disrespect, and yet can deeply concern or distress to people in the cultures that produce the representation. I suggest that what underlies this response is a different understanding of the metaphysics of art, and the relationship between the symbol and what it represents. Rather than being a 'mere' symbol and conventional sign, such symbols are thought of as participating in what they represent, and the work as externalising spiritual reality. From the perspective of this metaphysical framework, how we 'should' respond to these religious objects is with recognition of the nature of that reality, and that response should express our relationship to that reality, or the order of the world. Finally I argue that such a belief is recognisable to people who do not accept that the symbols have this metaphysical structure, a,s even in contemporary Western societies, people will treat with respect images of that which they hold dear.