It is typically believed by students of sociology that the Chicago School invented the participant observation method, thereby giving rise to a new, participatory way to carryout research based on the involvement of social actors. According to some authors, however, it is simply a myth to associate the Chicago School with the foundation of the participatory approach, whereas according to others this connection represents the truth. This paper seeks to resolve this issue through critical analysis of some of the Chicago School’s most important studies. In particular, it will select certain inquiries carried out by the first and second generation of the School in order to understand what type of relationship was actually created between researchers and social actors in the various investigatory stages of the studies considered.
The main aim of this essay is to show how the social dimension and the subjective dimension are not two irreconcilable moments in the definition of the peculiar nature of emotions. The hypothesis will be primarily developed by reference to George Herbert Mead’s social theory. The first section shows how Mead’s peculiarity consists precisely in being able to provide, at the same time, both a theoretical-epistemological foothold for problems of a general nature that concern reflection on emotions and a reference that allows the declination of those same problems in purely sociological terms. The second section focuses in a more circumscribed way on the field of sociology of emotions, showing how the issues developed in the first section have found development in the context of sociological positions explicitly influenced by Mead’s theory. The last section will show how such positions are partially unsatisfactory from the point of view of the Meadian interpretation of emotional phenomena: emotional experience can be adequately understood in sociological terms as a cooperative experience, never subtracted to a dimension of practical intersubjectivity.
Many observers have pointed out that in the western countries the emergence of the new populism has a strong territorial connotation, to the point that the urban-rural and centre-periphery cleavages are returning to the limelight of the analysis. The territorial reading of the phenomenon is probably much more complex, but the hypothesis of this contribution is that even in Italy there is a rural variant of the new populism. Through the theoretical approach of recognition inequalities, the paper wants to highlight how in the Italian rural areas there is a strong demand for de-stigmatization, which finds in populist rhetoric the ability to collect specific instances of recognition and protection coming from the countryside. The different declinations of the rural dimension of the recognition are explored starting from the analysis of the content of the materials produced as part of the implementation of a public policy dedicated to the development of the most peripheral areas of our country: the National Strategy for Inner Areas.
The concept of citizenship is central to European history and has a great importance in the social sciences. However, its polysemic nature generates an inflation of meanings and reduces its analytical capacity. After a review of the dimensions of citizenship, this article proposes a new definition that encompasses the formal and the material dimensions. In this genuinely sociological reading of citizenship, by merging the theory of rights and the capacities approach, status and practices take centerstage.
Within each American university campus, a Department of Public Safety (DPS) is designated to send students emails, labelled as crime alert, whenever a crime is committed on campus or in the surrounding area. This study sought to investigate the extent to which information sharing about criminal events through new technology devices (including apps and emails) may alter risk perception and therefore lead students to modify their behaviour. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with students (10) and DPS staff (10) and participant observation (7 months) on two US university campuses. Using the governmentality approach in reading the results, new elements, related to risk and its social manifestation, emerged. The notification system of notifications is preceded by an internal selection process in which it is decided what to send or not to the students. Specifically, on the basis of evidence it is argued that some crimes, including sexual violence, are never mentioned even though they are the main issue within the campuses. Emphasizing some risks and leaving out others produces a “truth” around the risk itself.
Article analyzes the relationship between immigration, legality and the territory of Naples in an original and specific perspective. It has been asked whether certain characteristics present in the territory – which appears to be affected by a high degree of “informality”, which often involves multiple violations of regulations, particularly in administrative terms - can guide migration processes. This, both in relation to the entry, permanence and exit of migrants and with respect to the selection of the same “quality” of migration, which involves certain characteristics existing in the individual immigrant communities. The emerging issues can also be connected to some characteristics of the individual migrant communities, in particular the Sinhalese and Ukrainian communities.
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