Margaret Archer investigated the human person, and her relational constitution, like no other scholar before. The essay traces the development of the Archerian theory on the person, from the first works to the last ones. The author distinguishes two phases, theoretical and temporal, of Archer’s way of conceptualizing the person. In the first phase, she investigates the physical human person, from birth to full social development. Her masterpiece remains the book Being Human (2000). In the second phase, she expands the concept of person also to artificial entities, such as AI robots, adhering to Lynne Rudder Baker’s vision according to which every entity that is capable of acting in the first person, whatever the body, is a person. The author critically comments on this vision of the human person which modifies the relationship between the person’s mind and body at will, and risks attributing the character of a human person to robots.
The article hypothesizes that technological languages orient relationships, perceptual fields, patterns of choice and behavior in individuals exposed to them, constructing technologically oriented forms of life. An algorithm, while being the product of the linguistic play of the engineers and mathematicians who made it, itself generates technological language games, that is, grammars and order systems for many communicative processes. Such performative capacity of technological grammars influences the way humans speak, think and act and their symbolic exchange. This way of interpreting human communication and interaction and the related flows of meaning presupposes that language and thought influence each other. The work sits theoretically between the phenomenological sociology of micro-relationships, how humans act in taken-for-granted reality, and the second Wittgenstein’s theory of language, particularly the ways in which meaning is attributed and social facts are interpreted. Indeed, language allows for the classification and typification of social experiences and contributes to the construction of the subject’s reality from primary socialization. At the same time, however, it can force the subject into narrow spaces of signification, a risk that is amplified by the technological grammars.
The article deals with some processes of naming society, against the background of the emotions that the different names evoke. Society is an abstraction – sociology equally – but the use of names allows us to evoke specific images, which outline the contours of an essentially dynamic reality, which exactly is society, giving substance to the object to be analysed. The idea of this work is that, by historicizing the nomenclature of society it is possible not only to focus on its transformations, but also to imagine what society could be, in the perspective of a close interrelation between past, present, and future. A specific idea of sociology follows from this perspective: sociology as science of the present, with the aspiration towards a better future; a “possible society”, that may be imagined and realized.
This study aims to explore the relationship between relational reflexivity and the well-being of young couples with children. The research involved 154 individuals belonging to 77 young couples with children, and we used a dyadic approach (Actor-Partner Interdependence Model) to explore the association between the two dimensions of relational reflexivity (self-detachment and relational agency) and the well-being of parents. To study relational reflexivity, we collected data on self-detachment and we validated a measure to approach relational commitment and functioning within the couple (family relational agency). Then, we explored differences in couple’s well-being (relationship satisfaction and generativity). Results showed that the two dimensions of reflexivity are differently associated with the well-being of the couple. Important differences emerged between on actor and partner effects, suggesting that couple generativity and quality of marriage outcomes are differently related to relational reflexivity, which are linked to gender differences.
In order to promote community wellbeing that is capable of addressing social problems by valuing the actions of community members, it is important for practitioners to develop interventions in a participatory way. Community Network Dialogues are a structured decision-making process that supports the equal participation of service users, family members, citizens, social workers and policy makers. The paper presents the results of action research carried out in Lombardy with the aim of experimenting and exploring Community Network Dialogues in the planning of community-based interventions. It presents the design results of 10 dialogue sessions involving 126 people, including families and individual citizens, volunteers from non-profit organisations, policy makers and professionals. The study, conducted through analysis of the drafts written at the end of each dialogue and the questionnaires completed by the participants, highlights the concerns as well as the coping strategies shared. The data also show that the level of concern about the social problem decreases significantly at the end of the dialogue session. The research highlights the potential of Community Network Dialogues as a structured method for participatory planning of community care interventions.
The Covid-19 pandemic forced the Cultural and Creative Industries to face the shift into the digital sphere. While so far research observed how Covid-19 accelerated the process, on the basis of interviews with seventeen CCIs in Bologna, this contribution deepens how digitalization impacts the reorganization of work and audiences’ engagement, and what function digital technologies have for CCIs’ innovation. Moreover, it delves into the perspectives and needs of cultural and creative workers about the political-administrative, economic, and cultural factors which hinder the sustainable development of the cultural and creative Italian sector.
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