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In the past quarter of century, sociology encountered several distinct attempts that assign themselves a task of ample reconstruction of disciplinary grounds. Analytical sociology grows among these, as a peculiar tangle of solutions filled with causalist language common to epistemology which preceded the relativist blow in the 1960s, focused on explaining the individual actions as „original“ sense of sociologist’s job and restoration of Merton’s mid-range theory. By following Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of scientific field and the Andrew Abbott’s model of fractal distinctions, this paper seeks to discern the emergence of analytical sociology. Unlike the two „common“ alternatives in science studies – constructivism and realism, these approaches offer richer ground for tracing of scientific flows, by focusing on amalgamations that form scientists’ practices through divisions, conventions, acclamations and mutual evaluations. Their particular advantage also is in treatment of moral dimension of scientific endeavour. After offering a brief consideration of these standpoints, we proceed by discerning the crucial segments of analytical program – its theoretical sources, the key concept of mechanism supported with specific theory of causality that prioritizes rational choices of individuals and finally, simulation method and agent-based modeling. At the end, we seek to discern the moral dimensions of both the analytical sociology and its critiques: of mechanism, as spontaneous order of social reality emerging from voluntary acts and conscious choices and the way in which a sociologist, as a professional, should treat suchlike conformity.
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Volunteering is conceptualised as an activity when time is given freely to benefit another person, group or cause. Such activity can be done through formal organisations and informal groups, but time can also be given directly to people in need. However, volunteering to formal organisations tend to predominate in there search, and our knowledge on the factors that promote such behaviour mostly comes from countries where this form of giving time is well developed, particularly from Anglo-Saxon and Western and Northern European countries. Focussingon three forms of giving time in Serbia: volunteering to formal organisations,volunteering in informal groups and helping individuals, this paper seeks to address these gaps in the literature. Data analysed in this paper come from the first encompassing national survey on pro-social behaviour (N= 1,528) carried out in Serbia in 2014. This research shows that providing direct help to people (71.2%) is by far a more common activity than volunteering to formal organisations (27.7%)and participating in the activities of informal groups (22.8%). There are differences in giving time according to socio-demographic characteristics. In general,respondents who reported giving time are likely to be found among the younger population, among students and those without health problems. Also, different socio-demographic groups of population engage in different forms of giving time.
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The aim of the paper is to point at the sources of ideologization of concept of family through presenting its definition and use in modern social, mainly sociological, thought in XIX and XX century. The analysis has been done through contextualization – interpretation of family concept definition within frameworks of various sociological theories that are embedded within socio-historical contexts of their emergence. The first part of the paper deals with main obstacles for conceptualization and exploration of family life. Analysis of sociological theories showed that both definition of family and the attitude towards modern family are in function of central theoretical proposition of the approach, whether it is set as social system integration or emancipation of an individual. Sociological studies are also burdened with normativism, since scholars view modern family as an ideological construct of „success story”, both from the standpoint of its apology or criticism, therefore neglecting reality of family life in its variety. In the concluding part, I raise the questions of possibility and a mode of comprehending and exploring particularly contemporary family without a burden of its ideologization.
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discusses the characteristics of nationalism in the “ethno-nationalized” society and pinpoints key promoters of nationalism and “ethno-nationalization” in the PostYugoslav societies. Third part of the paper is devoted to the analysis of consequencesof the process of “ethno-nationalization” of society, with an emphasis on regressiveimplications of such transformation of a given society. Last part of the paper isdevoted to the possible processes of societal reconstitution aimed at the “de-ethnonationalization” of the Post-Yugoslav societies.Process of “ethno-nationalization” of the Post-Yugoslav societies isconsidered as a crucial process of transformation of the new Post-Yugoslav societiesconstituted after the destruction of SFR Yugoslavia. In these “ethno-nationalized”societies society in totality is treated as being “owned” by the dominant ethno-nation.State’s and general societal projects and actions have the primary role to secure,enhance and promote ethno-national interests of the dominant ethno-nation. Firstpart of the paper describes essential features of the “ethno-nationalized” society indomain of social stratification, in economy, political system, cultural formation,and in relation to basic social values. Since “ethno-nationalized” society is notonly society with nationalism as the dominant ideology, second part of the paper.
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In this paper, we use trust as an interpretive lens through which we consider a set of challenges that remain crucial across decades and socio-technical phases of Internet development. Looking through this particular lens highlights several specific factors, which have persisted throughout the history of the Internet and are amplified in today’s environment: identity, privacy, and collective online social action. We examine these factors in a diachronic perspective, comparing attitudes dominant in the 1990s with the attitudes dominant today. We argue that the socio-technical environment of the Internet has become so complex that our established ways and resources for making trust decisions are no longer adequate. In such circumstances, trust decisions increasingly become a collaborative effort between the user and a set of outside institutional actors. Yet, assisting users in navigating the progressively complex web of online interactions with human and nonhuman actors can easily turn into a detrimental level of institutional control, with “unsupervised users” perceived as potential victims of untrustworthy Internet sources. Trust thus becomes one of the key driving forces of Internet development and regulation, significantly redefining the relationships between individuals and institutions, and further destabilizing aspects of Internet trust analyzed in this paper.
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The aim of this paper is to identify core topics, theoretical approaches and methodological techniques applied in the sociological study of the internet in Serbia. Moreover, the paper assesses obstacles and potentials for the establishment of a specialized sociological discipline – digital sociology – in Serbia. Method of content analysis is applied to the selection of scientific papers published in the two most important sociological journals in Serbia: Sociology and Sociological Review, in the period 1994–2018.Research findings show that topics typical for digital sociology do not receive enough attention among Serbian scholars, but that there are some indications of growing interest in the field. While there is still some lagging behind the developments of digital sociology in the world, the research findings suggest that the major trends have been followed. Empirical findings on the social impacts of digital technologies in Serbia present a valuable contribution to the international research efforts in this area of study.
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The paper examines the way audience phenomenon has been studied by national scholars with the primary goal of identifying researched topics. The content analysis has included scientific papers from the Cobiss database published during the period from 2004 until now. In the body of 34 selected articles, the findings have revealed seven different themes that are not thoroughly examined but rather just opened up. The research topics are: characteristics of the online audience, citizen journalism, traditional media transformation, online user comments, communicators’ perception of online audiences, fandom, and the structure of web spaces. The analysis has revealed the lack of empirical research and concluded that the mentioned topics are dealing with only a small segment of diverse experiences of online audience.
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The below excerpt from Superconnected: The Internet, Digital Media, and Techno-Social Life focuses on what I have learned about the reality, emotionality, and intimacy of the digital experience in the course of interviewing over 200 people and reviewing related research from a number of disciplines, including Sociology, Psychology, Communication, Media Studies, and Information Science. Over and over again, those whom I have interviewed tell me that digital life is real life and is filled with activities and moments that have great meaning for them. For more on the context for these interviews, my research methodology, and the multidisciplinary research that I reviewed and synthesized, please see thesecond edition of Superconnected, in English or in Serbian. And please note that a third edition of Superconnected is slated to be published by Sage Publications (Thousand Oaks, CA, USA) in 2020.
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Within wider approaches to defining audience in communication studies, this article aims to provide critical analysis of the terms which describe new relations that appear between individuals and respective digital communication centres. On the basis of the explicit and implicit understanding of the agency of internet users, we identify several approaches and terms characteristic of them. The first group includes concepts where power is relatively equally distributed among the actors of digital communication, with the terms such are user generated content and citizen journalism at the forefront. Terms convergence culture and produsage belong to the second group, and they see the networked individuals as empowered challengers of the linear communication flows. The third group, defines users as abstract sets of big social data without the individual agency. The fourth group, with the terms such are small acts of engagement, locates user agency in the practices of sense-making and everyday life. The key point of divergence between these approaches is found in the answers they provide to the following questions: who has the power, over what and how it is evaluated in the totality of digital communication.
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In the paper we apply a theoretical concept of technologies of the self developed by Michel Foucault to the field of lifelogging practices. Lifelogging is a global social phenomenon, a part of contemporary experience of everyday, especially in the developed societies of the West. Our hypothesis is that, despite different ways of quantifying self, lifelogging practices have some characteristics in common: they all belong to the field of biopolitics. This is demonstrated on the levels of the body, identity and subjectivity, since they are influenced and changed by lifelogging. At the same time, lifelogging practices blur the relationship between coercion and consent, power and resistance. The theoretical framework for addressing lifelogging is the concept of biopolitics, also developed by, since it refers to the mechanisms,techniques and technologies, as well as the forms of rationality that regulate life and its various manifestations. In conclusion, we claim that it is still not possible to explain lifelogging exclusively in the terms of biopower, since it has a potential for the “counter-conduct” and resistance. This also makes lifelogging practices open for development of new forms of subjectivity.
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This paper explores internet culture as a system of beliefs and rules that affect behaviour. Virtuality shapes culture through software accentuation of some aspects of simbolically processed reality. Castells believes the first wave of users arranged this symbolic mechanism. This paper focuses on the techno–meritocratic culture or scientific establishment: primarily neoliberal constructionism that influenced the network society’s informationalist mode of development. By following Fritz Machlup’s notion of knowledge, neoliberal scholarship increased the capacity of social management through technology. Castells shows network society is based on communication power: affective intelligence, political cognition or media technology serve as cultural network–making techniques. Knowledge is processed as Big Data and users are managed by computer assistance or cognitive insight applications. The crucial aspect of informationalist cybernetics is homophily, a criterion of similarity of users that receive analogous Facebook, Netflix or Amazon suggestions. The role of recommendation systems in construction of populism is discussed in second part. It is shown populism is a phenomenon constructed through a virtual network. Collective sense–making and cultural identity are informationalist products of Big Data’s symbolic mechanism. In concluding discussion, pre–digital social theories, like Bourdieu’s or Giddens’, are examined in context of cultural virtuality.
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Social media play a significant role in political informing across Europe and the rest of the world. That is why the political consequences of social media use have become one of the prominent issues in contemporary social research. In line with that, this paper investigates how the use of social media for political informing is associated with the state of democracy in European countries and how individual satisfaction with the level of democracy and the political activism of citizens are affected by social media use. We have used data from the latest European Value Survey, conducted in 2017–2018. Our data sample included 30 countries with the referent number of more than 56000 respondents involved in the survey. The main finding of our research is that a deficit of democracy leads people to use social media as a part of their political informing repertoires. This finding applies to both, those who live in undemocratic circumstances and those who live in developed democracies but have a negative personal perception of democratic procedures in their country. It seems that once citizens are “forced” to use social media for political informing, they, in turn, become influenced by media content displayed there and by other peoples’ ideas. In other words, the very use of social media makes them even more critical of democracy and consequently more politically active, which brings them back to social media.
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The ICT sector is one of the most important economic sectors in the world and the driving force behind the industry 4.0. On this basis, the paper highlights the significant ways in which industry 4.0 transforms requirements regarding essential competencies of contemporary European ICT sector`s workforce. Stemming from this the author argues that competencies of the workforce in the ICT sector are gradually shifting from strictly technical towards hybrid (i.e. combination of technical and soft). The latter is associated with the fact that industry 4.0 is not only based on technology and creativity of people applying technology, but in addition also on increasing intertwining of ICT sector with other socio-economic sectors, which results in changes of competencies of its workforce. In order to verify the thesis, the case study of Slovenian ICT companies(interviews with representatives) was implemented.
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Diaspora phenomena, it’s characteristics and functions, were changing in a resent decade along with momentum of globalization notably. This requires new research approaches. Unlike a previous period when migrants visited their homelands rarely or never, they came more often today. They contact with friends and family nearly every day. Because of that, relationships besides members of diaspora and their Motherland is changed. Communications besides migrants and nonmigrants in the homeland make transnational networks which enable that migrants investing their resources without need for return and has a big potential for a Motherland’s prosperity. Intensivity of migrations in a every part of the world have impact to expanding migrants social networks (social capital become bigger) and acquiring a new knowledge (their human capital became bigger). That is reason for interest of policy makers became greather for human and social capital although it was only for monetary remittance earlier. New knowledge and technology application together with consultation with experts all around the world are available for the Motherland because diasporas social capital. They could be very important resource for its economically, cultural and social prosperity. However, it’s important to know that interaction with a people with a different culture has impact to change and experience of personal identity by migrants. That requires modification of earlier understanding identity members of diaspora. Theirs identity had a core in a national identity earlier, but today it has a form of hybridity. In a meso level, respecting by Motherland perspective, that’s mean that national identity doesn’t main motive for diaspora investing anymore and that’s important to make a new stimulating migration policy. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to point diaspora phenomena changing – change resources and influence to the Motherland. As a first, the emphasis is on transnational networks which change communication mode and relationship members of diaspora and Motherland, but they have impact to growth of social capital of migrants which could be invested in homeland potentially. These networks enable easier to acquire a knowledge and it’s transfer. That is why human capital become more readily available for the Motherland. But, hybrid diaspora identity must be motive for change state diaspora policy which was based in an emotional component of national identity. They must change in way of making a more favorable structural conditions for diaspora investment which is a preconditions to attracting human and social capital of diaspora that could have a big impact to the Motherland’s progress.
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Although formalism is mostly often considered to be an outdated theoretical orientation in sociology, Simmel’s short essay on stranger has made a very large influence on authors throughout the twentieth century. In contemporary sociology, Simmel’s name is often mentioned in studies of migration from the Middle East because they have re-actualized the question of a strangeness and interpretative models of constructing otherness between the native population and newcomers. The aim of this paper is to show how a classical sociological concepts can serve as a valid starting point for the study of the contemporary social phenomenon. Emphasis is placed on the distinction between stranger and enemy in Simmel’s essay on the stranger which is under-explored. This distinction will be especially important when we analyse the attitude of the West towards Muslim migrants whose arrival in Europe is accompanied by discourses of risk and the alleged inevitability of conflict between civilizations.
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Contemporary Croatian social reality is determined by the epistemological and policy frameworks developed to understand and care for the post-war Yugoslav ‘traumatized citizens’ Knowledge produced in that respect exerts powerful influence on citizen’s lives thus subjecting them to detrimental effects of scientifically designed conceptual frameworks and discursive practices of conducted research (Hass, 2001). So far, researched ‘transitional life’ in post-communist/postwar Croatia is rooted in ‘knowledge power structures’ meticu lously developed inside transitional justice academic and policy works on former Yugoslav societies enabling continuous production of ‘scientifically based injustices’ (De Genova et al, 2016). Therefore, the main objective in this paper is to examine knowledge production about Croatian ‘transitional society’ and ‘trauma tized populations’ and how its discursive construction of the new ‘Other’ – ‘spoilers’ (Fisher, 2011) is scientifically rooted in ‘transitional justice’ policy application (Leebaw, 2005).Thereby, a selection of transitional justice scholarly works on Croatia and the Western Balkans along with documents produced by the intern ational organizations/institutions in the period 1997–2017 are studied. Foucauldian discourse analysis (Klos-Czerowinska, 2015) coupled with his (2003, 2007) and Agamben’s (1998, 2005) understanding of the postmodern European society are used to ‘deconstruct’ (Janks, 2005) ‘scientifically based injustices’ produced about post-war traumatized populations of ‘spoilers’ in Croatia.
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