Orientador: Milton Lahuerta / Banca: Glaucia Villas Bôas / Banca: Alejandro Blanco / Banca: Vera Alves Cepêda / Banca: José Antônio Segatto / Resumo: Esta Tese discute as abordagens teóricas e interpretativas de Florestan Fernandes e L. A. Costa Pinto sobre a mudança social no Brasil. Os dois sociólogos participaram ativamente do debate intelectual sobre o desenvolvimento travado nas décadas de 1950 e 1960, momento decisivo para a implantação do capitalismo no Brasil, marcado pela disputa de projetos sobre os rumos do país em meio à crescente articulação da sociedade civil. Nesse contexto, distanciando-se do nacionalismo hegemônico no debate intelectual e a partir de perspectivas distintas - próximas em alguns pontos, distantes em outros - Fernandes e Costa Pinto pensaram a particularidade da mudança social nos países subdesenvolvidos, enveredando-se no debate de questões epistemológicas sobre os procedimentos adequados para a sociologia contribuir com o processo de mudança social em curso, pois, para os dois autores, o conhecimento sociológico, além de produto, era visto também como coprodutor da história. O problema central de Fernandes era o processo e os obstáculos estruturais à constituição do padrão de civilização ocidental no Brasil - baseado na democracia, na racionalidade e no uso do conhecimento científico para o planejamento social. Para enfrentar essas questões o autor cunhou um arcabouço teórico-metodológico e conceitual a partir da síntese sociológica (no sentido mannheimiano) de elementos extraídos da tradição durkheimiana, marxista e weberiana e, também, do diálogo com a sociologia norte-americana. Por meio desse procedimento identificou a demora cultural como o principal obstáculo ao avanço da sociedade de classes no Brasil - na década de 1950. Em meio à radicalização da sociedade brasileira no início dos anos de 1960, ao aprofundamento do processo e do debate intelectual sobre o desenvolvimento, Fernandes passou a compreender o padrão de mudança social no Brasil como exclusivista, unilateral, formalista, irracional e... / Abstract: This thesis discuss theoretical and interpretative approaches of Florestan Fernandes and L. A. Costa Pinto about social change in Brazil. These two sociologists actively participated in the intellectual debate about the development that happened in the 1950's and 1960's, decisive moment for the implantation of Brazil's capitalism, marked by project contests about the country's routes amid the rising linkage of civil society. In that context, distancing from the hegemonic nationalism in intellectual debate e from separate perspectives - close at a certain point, distant at others - Fernandes and Costa Pinto thought about the singularities of social change in underdeveloped countries, joining the debate of epistemological questions about the apropriate procedures that would allow sociology to contribute with the social change process on course, because these two authors understand the sociological knowledge simultaneously as History products and History producers. Fernandes' main problem was the process and the structural hurdles for the constitution of Brazil's civilization standard - based on democracy, on rationality and on the use of scientific knowledge for social planning. To face these questions, the author distilled a theoretical methodological and conceptual understructure from the sociological synthesis (in Mannheim's sense) of elements extracted from Durkheim,Marx and Weber tradition and, also, from the dialogue with North American sociology. By means of this procedure he identified the cultural delay as the main obstacle for the progress of class society in Brazil - in the 1950's. Amid Brazilian society's radicalisation in the early 1960's, the deepening of intellectual process about development, Fernandes was able to understand Brazil's social change standard as exclusivist, unilateral, formalist, irrational and antidemocratic because it is conducted by elites with limited mental horizons. Costa Pinto analysed social... / Doutor

The thesis is divided generally into two sections. The first delineates the virtually invisible and yet dominating ideology (ethos) which directs advanced industrial society collectively and individually. The second portion presents the meaning of this ideology (ethos) for society and its members. More specifically, the second portion asserts that the nature of advanced industrial society mediates against the possibility of our understanding it, and further militates against the application of any understanding we might have to the resolution of the historical plight of our society. The concept of "ethos" is introduced, and a number of familiar strains in the historical development of advanced industrial society are described so as to show their interrelationship in development, and as mutual supports for one another. These strains are shown to combine in historical development to have meaning over and beyond the sum of their parts; to direct the society as the dominant ethos (ideology) — the liberal technocratic ethos. The argument holds that western man, being dominated by the need to conquer scarcity, sought to organize his activity in the most rationalized way to produce more goods. Science became the method by which he could gain control over nature. Bureaucracy was the organizational method by which the principles and prerogatives of science in its applied form,technology, could be instituted in society. Liberalism is seen as the formal philosophical explanation and justification of these changes in the organization of society. Taken together, the liberal technocratic ethos is basically and fundamentally scientific and economic. And it is the adherence to the values and prerogatives of this ethos which above all directs and determines the activity of advanced industrial society. The third chapter further describes the nature of the liberal technocratic ethos and speaks to the meaning it maintains in the society. Although it can be shown to qualify as a valid ideology, the liberal technocratic ethos is not considered as such because of its utter dominance in advanced industrial society (it "transcends" all contemporary ideological disputes because they largely accept the directives of the dominant ethos as given and thus carry on conventional debates circumscribed within this larger context); or because it is considered not to be a positive force in its own right, but rather a neutral method to apply on behalf of human needs and objectives. This is shown not to be the case, for the prerogatives of the liberal technocratic ethos make transforming demands on the whole of that which it must deal within the contemporary case, virtually every facet of our lives. Lastly, the thesis argues that advanced industrial society displays as affirmative character—that is, it serves to form its members so as to affirm itself. (The formative character of any society is granted as the process of developmnnt and socialization of any member.) On a sociological level, conformity to the values and procedures of the status quo is a bureaucratic prerogative. On a philosophical level, the philosophy of science strips other epistemological and ontological views of their validity, and thus of their ability to judge the scientific project of advanced industrial society. On a political level, the society is able to absorb alternatives into its dominant whole and further serves to transform the content of viable alternatives to that of support for the given historical project. Pluralism, philosophical and political, seems apparent, but it is feigned pluralism because no force does effectively challenge the larger dominance of the liberal technocratic ethos. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

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No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (D. Litt. et Phil.)--University of South Africa, 1997.

Thesis (D. Litt. et Phil.)--University of South Africa, 1997.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1966 E68 / Master of Science

Roller derby is an emergent women’s sport; self-organized on a not-for-profit, do-it-yourself model it initially developed outside existing sports institutions and remains un-professionalized. Roller derby thus occupies an ambivalent position of gendered alterity in relation to a broader cultural field of sport, where women’s struggles for sporting legitimacy are well rehearsed in the literature. Existing research interprets roller derby as a unique context, particularly conducive to re-configurations of both gender and sport. Despite such uniqueness, research participants increasingly claim roller derby’s similarity to other sports practices, become concerned with its recognition as a ‘real, legitimate sport’ and orientate their practice towards getting taken seriously. I develop an ‘insider’ ethnographic account from analysis of five years of participant observation with one roller derby league of approximately 100 members, including 26 in-depth interviews and a collaborative film-making project. The thesis responds to a broad question, ‘how is getting taken seriously negotiated in practice?’ and analyses shifts in participants’ gendered self-representations, the bureaucratization of a 'by the skaters, for the skaters' organizational ethos, and the institution of competition. As participants work to diminish distinctions between roller derby and ‘sport’, they enact a set of related distinctions between; what the league used to be like and what it became; who roller derby is and is not by and for; and practices that are and are not condusive to serious recognition. As participants’ definitions of roller derby move away from ‘a sport for women who don’t like sport’ towards ‘a sport for people who really, really like sport’ a second over-arching question arises; in seeking serious recognition did the league eventually become what it once defined itself in opposition to? Concentrating on moments when participants’ claims for serious recognition refuse and rework the gendered terms of such intelligibility, I argue that a sociological analysis of seriousness is crucial to understanding such fateful dilemmas. Enactments of non-/seriousness enable skaters to create new organizational and representational praxis, identities, meanings and relations, as they negotiate the possibilities and limits of working together to make something relatively new. Non-/seriousness is how participants move between roller derby, sport and gender as inevitable, singular, certain and beyond their influence and yet malleable, contingent, multiple, ambivalent and created in their own actions. Four interludes, between chapters, reflect on non-/seriousness in ‘insider’ research. The interludes interrupt and expand upon the thesis’ central analytical contentions; that analyzing non-/seriousness both enhances and unsettles our understanding of familiar sociological preoccupations with gender, organization and mid-ranges of agency between dichotomies of voluntarism and determinism.

Pakistan, a late starter in fertility transition, has been experiencing a rapid fertility decline since 1990. Although existing research often presents patriarchal family systems as a major reason for the delay of the onset of this transition, there is no empirical study investigating the transformations in these family systems or intrafamilial power relationships during the ongoing transition. Published research also often fails to reflect the complex nature and processes behind this fertility transition as it lacks diachronic analysis and remains within disciplinary boundaries. This thesis contributes to filling these gaps through investigating the social processes underpinning the fertility decline in Punjab, Pakistan by: 1. employing an interdisciplinary approach that links demography with sociology, and quantitative approaches with qualitative ones, to provide a more comprehensive analysis of fertility and family change 2. employing an intergenerational approach that enables diachronic analysis of the differences in the reproductive careers of two generations of women and the actors’ perceptions of factors contributing to these differences 3. providing multiple perspectives of family members regarding the reasons for fertility change, how reproduction is negotiated within the existing power hierarchies in the family, and how familial power relationships evolve to adjust these changes The study employs a two-phased explanatory sequential mixed methods approach. Phase one utilises two existing Demographic and Health Surveys to compare the changes in fertility preferences and behaviour of Punjabi women aged 25-34 in 1990/1 and 2006/7. Phase two is a qualitative study conducted in Punjab in 2010/11 among young women, their mothers, mothers-in-law and husbands to gather data on their perceptions of reasons for fertility change and the ways in which families and family relationships bearing on reproductive decision-making has transformed during the ongoing transition. The findings show that “planning a family”, which was seen to be in the hands of God among the older generation, has entered into the “calculus of conscious choice” among young women who have specific preferences with regard to when and how many children to have. This transition has mainly been a response to rapid socioeconomic developments and improved living conditions that are paradoxically experienced as growing economic constraints for the households through increasing costs of childbearing and rearing as well as generating aspirations for social mobility. This was also complemented by changes in values and attitudes regarding family planning, parenthood and familial relationships led by institutional changes and policy developments including expansion of family planning programme, changing religious stances about family planning, the spread of mass media, and increased (importance given to) female schooling. All of these developments also coincide with a subtle transformation of family systems in Punjab, as well as a limited dissolution of previously existing power relationships within the families by expansion of the boundaries of gender roles, honour and obedience. Although young women are expected to be obedient to their husbands and mothers-in-law with regard to fertility decisions, they have been able to influence the power dynamics between themselves and their mothers-in-law by building stronger conjugal relationships and being submissive to their husbands’ desires.