Understanding the dynamic relationship between culture and structure is a fundamental sociological question. Since the founding of the social sciences -- when Marx explored the connection between the 'macrostructure' and popular culture or Weber studied the development of the 'protestant ethic' -- to the present, the structure-culture dynamic has motivated and puzzled researchers. This thesis joins this longstanding conversation by focusing on social science research on poverty, or what is also called poverty knowledge. Despite the tremendous size and breadth of poverty research, historians of poverty suggest that poverty knowledge demonstrates a frame. That is, a coherent, consistent understanding (and thereby study) of poverty. Building on prior research, the thesis seeks to: (1) verify whether poverty knowledge indeed does demonstrate a frame; (2) and if a frame is present, map the contours and shape of a poverty frame. I do so by focusing on social science research focused on urban poverty published from 1960 to 2010. Conducting a content-frame analysis of 50 journal articles randomly sampled from a universe of 781 eligible articles reveals that poverty knowledge does demonstrate elements of a frame. In particular, the sampled articles understand urban poverty as primarily an individual issue, and moreover, demonstrate an ambivalent evaluation of the urban poor's behavior and culture. The pressing question that arises from this research, and which has continued to drive research on the structure-culture dynamic, is: how do existing social practices ('society') - especially systems of inequality such as racism and patriarchy -- influence our cultural understanding of urban poverty specifically and inequality generally. This is an important question for the social sciences in general, but especially for the areas of critical theory, framing research, poststructuralist discourse studies, the sociology of knowledge, and status construction theory.

Submitted by Abraão Pustrelo Damião null (dirceudamiao@hotmail.com) on 2018-01-04T14:33:18Z No. of bitstreams: 1 A CONSTRUÇÃO HISTÓRICO-SOCIAL DA MODERNIDADE E DA(S) PÓS-MODERNIDADE(S)-RUPTURAS E RESISTÊNCIAS DO DISCURSO MODERNO.pdf: 1971212 bytes, checksum: 0e79d3b60635ddb5f8e8c468469d4292 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Telma Jaqueline Dias Silveira null (telmasbl@marilia.unesp.br) on 2018-01-05T13:46:15Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 damiao_ap_dr_mar.pdf: 1840456 bytes, checksum: f8d0fd919949e1b47d8ce64141576321 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-01-05T13:46:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 damiao_ap_dr_mar.pdf: 1840456 bytes, checksum: f8d0fd919949e1b47d8ce64141576321 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-12-13 / Este trabalho busca demonstrar as rupturas e resistências encontradas pelas novas correntes epistemológicas, nomeadamente a pós-moderna e seus correlativos neologismos, no que se refere ao questionamento das correntes epistemológicas modernas. Neste sentido, o objetivo geral do trabalho é apresentar as ideias que criaram o panorama histórico-social e epistemológico responsável por um determinado tipo de pensamento social, utilizado para compreender a sociedade moderna e seus valores, para, em seguida, apontar as novas ideias que transformaram o panorama da modernidade “clássica” e exigem, atualmente, novos discursos explicativos. Para tanto, e metodologicamente, faz-se um levantamento bibliográfico acerca da história e das práticas epistemológicas que usualmente creditamos à construção social da modernidade e, desde o último século, a sua provável superação, a pós-modernidade. Com isso, este trabalho visa contribuir para a distinção e esclarecimento das mudanças socioculturais e epistemológicas responsáveis pelo juízo que o indivíduo moderno criou de si mesmo e da sociedade, comparativamente, com a perspectiva que o sujeito contemporâneo atribui a sua identidade e relações sociais. O valor desta pesquisa, portanto, reside na possibilidade de confrontação, através de uma minuciosa análise bibliográfica e comparação histórica, de quais ideias e práticas sociais se tornaram mais numerosas, quais perderam força e quais emergiram na contemporaneidade, desafiando os preceitos vigentes dentro das ciências sociais. Sobretudo para defender que o projeto moderno de emancipação e regulamentação da vida social ainda é valido e que o motivo de seu questionamento está na sobreposição do desenvolvimento capitalista e da razão instrumental e técnica sobre os paradigmas da ação política democrática e da cultura emancipatória propostas pelos primeiros modernos. / This work aims to demonstrate the ruptures and resistances encountered by the new epistemological currents, namely postmodernity and its correlative neologisms concerning the investigation of the modern epistemological currents. In this sense, the general objective of this thesis is to present the ideas that created the historical, social and epistemological theories responsible for a certain type of social thought used to understand modern society and its values. This thesis will then highlight the new ideas that have transformed the outlook of “classical” modernity which now demands original and explanatory discourses. For this reason, and methodologically, a bibliographical survey of the historic and epistemological practices, that we usually credit to the social construction of modernity and its probable overcoming, postmodernity, is conducted. Thus, this work also seeks to contribute to the explanation of the socio-cultural and epistemological distinctions and changes responsible for the judgement that the modern individual has of himself and society, compared with the perspective that the contemporary subject attributes to his identity and social relationships. Thus, through a systematic bibliographical analyze and historical comparison, the value of this research lies in the possibility of confrontation between social ideas and practices which have become more common, which have lost their influence or which have emerged in contemporaneity, defying the precepts prevailing within the social science´s policies. Above all, to defend that the modern project of emancipation and regulation of social life is still valid and that the reason for its questioning lies in the overlap of capitalist development and instrumental and technical reason over the paradigms of democratic political action and emancipatory culture proposed by the first moderns.

With the unprecedented rise in the use of visuals, and its undeniable omnipresence in organizational contexts, as well as in the individual's everyday life, organization and management science has recently started to pay closer attention to the to date under-theorized "visual mode" of discourse and meaning construction. Building primarily on insights from the phenomenological tradition in organization theory and from social semiotics, this article sets out to consolidate previous scholarly efforts and to sketch a fertile future research agenda. After briefly exploring the workings of visuals, we introduce the methodological and theoretical "roots" of visual studies in a number of disciplines that have a long-standing tradition of incorporating the visual. We then continue by extensively reviewing work in the field of organization and management studies: More specifically, we present five distinct approaches to feature visuals in research designs and to include the visual dimension in scholarly inquiry. Subsequently, we outline, in some detail, promising avenues for future research, and close with a reflection on the impact of visualization on scientific practice itself. (authors' abstract)

Orientador: Leila da Costa Ferreira / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-17T03:44:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Kanashiro_VictorUehara_M.pdf: 1386733 bytes, checksum: ef18c8c5f3baf8235ea13b0bb3203f9e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: A questão da sustentabilidade tem se estabelecido desde as últimas décadas como um dos principais desafios do século XXI. Cada vez mais presente nos discursos de governos, organismos internacionais, empresários, partidos políticos, mídia, ONGs e movimentos sociais, tem também sido internalizada no campo científico, apropriada e teorizada por cientistas de diversas áreas do saber e com os mais distintos vieses teórico-políticos. Com isso em vista, esta dissertação problematiza a discussão científica sobre sustentabilidade por meio de uma sociologia do conhecimento da questão ambiental. A partir de revisão bibliográfica, propõe concepções expressivas de sustentabilidade total e equaciona o problema da origem das divergências sobre o tema pelo conceito mannheimiano de perspectiva. Para isso, além de uma breve discussão teórica em torno da sociologia do conhecimento, o trabalho reconstrói a lógica argumentativa de cada concepção de sustentabilidade, identificando suas bases teóricas e elementos característicos. Nesse sentido, seis concepções de sustentabilidade total são propostas: a) ecoeficiência; b) decrescimento, c) condição estacionária; d) ecodesenvolvimento; e) ecossocialismo; f) sociedade do risco. Além disso, a pesquisa inclui uma análise empírica de artigos sobre sustentabilidade indexados na base Scielo Brasil. Combinando métodos quantitativos e qualitativos (análise de conteúdo), o objetivo da investigação empírica foi, a título de exercício intelectual, compreender como os acadêmicos brasileiros tendem a se apropriar do termo e do tema da sustentabilidade. Os resultados da pesquisa empírica mostram que existe uma quantidade crescente de artigos sobre o tema sendo publicados no Brasil. Essa produção é feita por cientistas de diversas áreas do saber e tem influências das várias concepções de sustentabilidade construídas, com certa predominância das concepções da ecoeficiência e do ecodesenvolvimento. A pesquisa foi realizada no contexto do Projeto Temático FAPESP (Processo 05/52317- 1) - vinculado ao Núcleo de Estudos e Pesquisas Ambientais (NEPAM) da UNICAMP - cujo objetivo foi desenvolver uma "sociologia da questão ambiental, da interdisciplinaridade e das mudanças ambientais globais", investigando se há especificidades de internalização da temática ambiental nas ciências sociais latinoamericanas, decorrentes das características socioambientais peculiares ao subcontinente / Abstract: Since the last decades, the issue of sustainability has been established as one of the main challenges of the XXI century. Increasingly present in discourses of governments, international organizations, CEOs, political parties, media, NGOs and social movements, it has also been internalized in the scientific field, appropriated and theorized by scientists of different areas and through distinct theoretical-political biases. In this sense, this dissertation analyses the scientific debate on sustainability by means of a sociology of knowledge of the environmental issue. Departing from a bibliographic review, it proposes expressive conceptions of total sustainability and equates the problem of the origin of the differences on the theme by the mannheimian concept of perspective. For this, besides a brief theoretical discussion on the sociology of knowledge, this work reconstructs the argumentative logic of each conception, identifying its theoretical bases and features. Accordingly, six conceptions of total sustainability are proposed: a) ecoefficiency; b) degrowth; c) stationary-condition; d) ecodevelopment; e) ecosocialism; f) risk society. In addition, it includes an empirical analysis on articles about sustainability indexed on Scielo Brazil database. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods (content analysis), the aim of this empirical entrepreneurship is to understand how do Brazilian academics tend to appropriate the term and the issue of sustainability. The results show that there is an increasing quantity of articles on the subject being published in Brazil, this production is made by scientists from different areas of knowledge and has been influenced by the various conceptions of sustainability, with a predominance of the ecoefficiency and ecodevelopment. The research has been developed in the context of the FAPESP project (process 05/52317-1) - held by the Center for Environmental Studies at the University of Campinas - whose aim was to develop a sociology of environmental issue, of interdisciplinarity and global changes, investigating whether specificities emerges from the internalization of environmental issues in Latin-american social sciences as a result of the socio-environmental characteristics of the subcontinent / Mestrado / Sociologia / Mestre em Sociologia

Orientador: Lea Maria Leme Strini Velho / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Geociencias / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-09T02:53:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Silva_CristianeRodriguesVianna_M.pdf: 690900 bytes, checksum: 0750b89fc5a21b50fd369cbbded19566 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: A proposta dessa dissertação vai ao encontro do reconhecimento recente por parte dos autores das mais diversas tendências de que os enfoques disciplinares para tratar a produção do conhecimento em ciência e tecnologia, em geral, e a mudança tecnológica, em particular, são insuficientes. Como resposta a esse problema, propõe a multidisciplinaridade (ou interatividade) como forma de análise para esse fenômeno. Particularmente parece existir dificuldade de diálogo entre aqueles que estudam a produção do conhecimento científico e tecnológico com abordagens sociológicas e aqueles que o fazem a partir de enfoques econômicos. Aproximar essas duas vertentes de análise, identificando suas diferenças e, principalmente, seus pontos convergentes é do que se trata essa dissertação. Enquanto a Economia tende a não incorporar elementos importantes para a compreensão desse processo, como os determinantes sociais deste tipo de produção - entre eles, os interesses dos atores envolvidos, as estruturas de poder e a influência dos aspectos políticos -, a Sociologia, em contrapartida, desconsidera muitas das características fundamentais para a estrutura econômica de produção tecnológica, como agências, instituições e sistemas econômicos. Esses diferentes aspectos enfocados por cada uma dessas linhas de pensamento permitem que surjam, em muitos momentos, espaços ociosos de análise que poderiam ser mais bem explorados caso houvesse um esforço de complementaridade entre eles. Muito embora ainda haja certa resistência na integração disciplinar, este trabalho explora as possibilidades de entrecruzamentos das linhas de pensamento econômica, representada pela Economia Evolucionista (EE), e social, representada por dois ramos da Sociologia do Conhecimento Científico: a Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) e a Actor Network Theory (ANT), partindo-se da perspectiva de que alguns de seus elementos de análise se complementam de forma a garantir uma caracterização mais consistente e ampla do objeto analisado. Para tanto, apresenta em seu primeiro capítulo uma contextualização sucinta de onde estão inseridas as três abordagens, quais são suas principais contribuições no que tange à produção tecnológica e algumas de suas principais categorias analíticas. Em seu segundo capítulo, propõe um exercício de complementaridade entre essas categorias analíticas, buscando ressaltar os pontos de interface e os pontos a partir dos quais uma suprimiria a carência analítica das outras. Em seu terceiro capítulo, ilustra, para cada uma das abordagens, um estudo de caso de desenvolvimento tecnológico, que são revisitados à luz das principais categorias de análise fornecidos por elas, para que assim possa-se identificar tanto a diferença no modo como cada um dos enfoques analisa os casos em questão quanto a possibilidade de complementaridade entre eles / Abstract: The proposal of this dissertation is based on the recent recognition by authors of the most diverse trends that disciplinary approach to study the production of knowledge in science and technology, in general, and the technological change, in particular, is insufficient. Based on this, it proposes the multidisciplinarity (or interactivity) as a form of analysis of this phenomenon. Particularly it seems to exist no dialogue between the ones who study the production of scientific and technological knowledge based on sociological approaches and those who study it based on economic tools. To integrate these two sources of analysis, identifying its differences and, mainly, its convergent points is the first aim of this dissertation. While Economics tends not to incorporate important elements for the understanding of these processes, such as the social determinants of this type of production ¿ among them, the interests of the involved actors, the emergence of power structures between them and the influence of the political aspects - , Sociology, on the other hand, disregards many of the basic economic aspects of technological production, such as economic agencies, institutions and systems. The different aspects focused by each discipline on technological production allow the appearance, in many moments, of vague spaces of analysis that could be better explored if a complementary effort existed between them. Even though there is still certain reluctance on disciplinary integration, this work explores the possibilities of dialogue between one approach of Economics thought, represented by the Evolutionary Economics (EE), and two approaches of the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge, represented by the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) and the Actor Network Theory (ANT), considering that some of its analytical elements complement each other, guaranteeing a more consistent and ample characterization of the analyzed object. For in such a way, it presents on its first chapter an introduction of these three approaches, its main contributions related to the technological production and some of its major analytical categories. Its second chapter proposes an exercise of complementarity between these analytical categories, searching to stand out the interface points and the points from which one approach would suppress the analytical fragilities of the others. The third chapter presents a technological development case study for each one of the approaches, which are revisited based on the conciliation of the three categories of analysis, allowing the application of the possibility of complementarity between them / Mestrado / Mestre em Política Científica e Tecnológica

Over the past two decades an increasing number of theorists and practitioners have called for a thorough rethinking of the underlying assumptions of the concept of rrental illness and the traditional psychiatric nodes of responding to mental disorders. The work of this group of writers has come to be referred to as the "antipsychiatry" literature. The insights of this perspective center largely about a rejection of those theories and methods of treatment that are based upon the medical model. Many writers point to the use of traditional psychiatric practice as an oppressive instrument of social control. While much of this perspective is directed toward the analysis of specifically sociological factors there have been few attempts by sociologists to provide focus for the claims that have been made. This paper proposes a synthetic sociological framework with the intention of providing sociological focus for the otherwise disparate insights found within this literature. A general model is constructed by incorporating aspects of the labeling perspective, the sociology of knowledge, and Marxian analysis. The model provides the analytical tools for investigation of the manner in which "mental illness" as a concept, and the phenemenon which it allegedly describes, are rooted in the nature of everyday life. The framework that is developed places particular emphasis upon the political dimensions . of everyday life. This dimension is especially useful in explicating the role of labeling as a device to discredit the claims of .people as they attempt to identify the oppressive aspects of .their social environment. The nature .of socialization within Western culture is analyzed in terms of the various factors which are instrumental in the mystification of consciousness and its relationship to "mental illness." The observation is made that the majority of the claims that are proffered by the "antipsychiatrists" are devoid of a firm empirical foundation in that they rely primarily upon findings from case studies and a series of loose inferences. An attempt is made to overcome this problem by mapping out the empirical points of departure for the model by developing a set of testable propositions and corollaries. It is concluded that a radical sociology of knowledge framework does provide a useful method of conceptualizing the "antipsychiatry" literature from a sociological perspective. The validity of the claims themselves, however, must wait until much more of the empirical evidence is in. It is pointed out that extreme caution be taken to avoid contentions to the effect that all mental disorders can be fruitfully Suggestions are made as to the likelihood that some diagnostic categories, more than others, may be subject to analysis by this model. It is implied that further research into the role of biopsychological factors will undoubtedly show the interactive effects of such factors with defective socialization and oppressive social relationships.

Scientists are widely regarded as high status individuals, who are smarter than the vast majority of the population. Science holds a very high status as a discipline, both within and outside of academe. This notwithstanding, popular stereotypes of scientists are often highly negative, with the image of the socially inept or even mad scientist being commonplace. This apparent contradiction is worth exploring. Additionally, we see the label scientific being used to justify pseudoscience and other results that are flatly contradicted by the bulk of scientific research (e.g., links between vaccines and autism). This is not due, as some argue, only or even primarily to a lack of understanding of science. Ultimately, there are two "sciences": science defined by the scientific methodology of the scientists, and the broader cultural use of science as a truthteller without real use of scientific methodology. This dichotomy is wrapped up in both the nature of modernity and the idea of post-modernity. This research uses a content analysis of film to examine the nature of stereotypical portrayals of scientists, and a factor analysis of NSF survey data to investigate the complex attitudes towards science and scientists.

Limited research has been conducted with regards to the applicability of topic extraction techniques in Sociology. Addressing the modern methodological opportunities, and responding to the skepticism with regards to the absence of theoretical foundations supporting the use of text analytics, I argue that Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), complemented by other text analysis techniques and multivariate techniques, can constitute a unique hybrid method that can facilitate the sociological interpretations of web-based textual data. To illustrate the applicability of the hybrid technique, I developed two case studies. My first case study is associated with the Sociology of media. It focuses on the topic extraction and sentiment polarization among partisan texts posted on two major news sites. I find evidence of highly polarized opinions on comments posted on the Huffington Post and the Daily Caller. The highest polarizing topic was associated with a commentator’s reference on Hoodies in the context of the Trayvon Martin’s incident. My findings support contemporary research suggesting that media pundits frequently use tactics of outrage to provoke polarization of public opinion. My second case study contributes to the research domain of the Sociology of knowledge. The hybrid method revealed evidence of topical divides and topical “bridges” in the intellectual landscape of the British and the American sociological journals. My findings confirm the theoretical assertions describing Sociology as a fractured field, and partially support the existence of more globalized topics in the discipline.

Novelty is a widespread notion that has not been given commensurate critical attention. This research is an ethnographically-inclined exploration of practices surrounding the accomplishment of novelty in an institution for which novelty is a central notion: the patent system of the United Kingdom. The research is based on interviews with patent examiners at the UK patent office, interviews with patent attorneys at various legal firms, and documentary analysis of legislation and numerous legal judgments. The thesis brings to bear themes from Science and Technology Studies and ethnomethodology to assess the extent to which they can account for the practices surrounding novelty in the UK patent system. As a fundamental legal requirement for the patentability of inventions, novelty is a central part of the practices of patent composition, assessment and contestation. Rather than being a straightforward technical criterion, however, novelty is shown to be a complex and heterogeneous phenomenon emerging from interwoven legal, bureaucratic and individual practices. The local resolution of whether or not a given invention is new, and the cross-institutional coherence of novelty as a practicable notion, raise questions concerning ontology, accountability, scale and inconcludability, and provide an opportunity for empirically grounded engagement with these longstanding analytical concerns.

Este trabalho é uma primeira etapa da elaboração de um conjunto conceitual que tem por objetivo fornecer uma explicação sociológica para o fenômeno do conhecimento. O ponto de partida é a reconstrução de uma possível explicação presente na sociologia de Max Weber para o fenômeno em questão. Parto da suposição que os trabalhos de Weber indiretamente explicariam-no, dado que a teoria da ação e da racionalização suscitariam inevitáveis problemas epistemológicos. Não obstante, essas duas teorias endereçariam respostas parciais aos dois problemas básicos sobre o conhecimento, a saber, o que é o conhecimento? e como o conhecimento é desenvolvido? Para respondê-las integralmente, seria necessário encontrar um fenômeno que conjugasse a teoria da ação social com a teoria da racionalização. Minha principal hipótese é que este seria o no processo de intelectualização. Com isso, a parte central deste trabalho refere- se à reconstrução do processo de intelectualização e sua solução prévia para o conhecimento. Ao esgotar todas as possibilidades de explicação, utilizo os trabalhos de Hermann Lotze e Gottlob Frege como auxiliares na compreensão e resolução de noções subjacentes ao problema do conhecimento, como as noções de sentido, significado, verdade, interpretação e intersubjetividade. Ao final, chego a uma conclusão que tenta acoplar uma teoria da linguagem sobre a explicação do conhecimento produzida pela reconstrução dos trabalhos de Weber / This study is a first stage of drafting a conceptual framework that aims to provide a sociological explanation for the phenomenon of knowledge. The starting point is the reconstruction of a possible explanation for knowledge grounded on Max Weber\'s Sociology. As a starting point, we assume that Weber\'s work indirectly explains the phenomenon of knowledge, since the theory of action and rationalization would raise inevitable epistemological problems. Nevertheless, these two theories would only address partial answers to two basic problems about knowledge, namely, what is knowledge? and how knowledge is developed? In order to answer completely such questions it would require a phenomenon that combines the theory of social action with the theory of rationalization. Our main hypothesis is that the process of intellectualization is the phenomenon would best combine both theories. Thus, the central part of this study refers to the reconstruction of the process of intellectualization and its prior solution to the knowledge. When all possibilities were exhausted, we used some works of Hermann Lotze and Gottlob Frege in order to assist the comprehension and solve some knowledge\'s underlying notions, such as meaning, sense, truth, interpretation, and intersubjectivity. In the conclusion, we attempt to attach a theory of language on the explanation of knowledge produced by the reconstruction of Weber\'s writings