Engram Studies: A Call for Historical, Philosophical, and Sociological Approaches.

In this chapter, we identify three distinct avenues of research on the philosophical, historical, and sociopolitical dimensions of engram research. First, we single out the need to refine philosophical understandings of memory within neuroscientific research on the engram. Specifically, we question the place of constructivist and preservationist philosophical claims on memory in the formulation of the engram concept and its operationalization in contemporary neuroscience research. Second, we delve into the received historiography of the engram claiming its disappearance after Richard Semon's (1859-1918) coinage of the concept. Differently from this view, we underline that Semon's legacy is still largely undocumented: Unknown are the ways the engram circulated within studies of organic memory as well as the role Semon's ideas had in specific national contexts of research in neurosciences. Finally, another research gap on the engram concerns a socio-anthropological documentation of the factual and normative resources this research offers to think about memory in healthcare and society. Representations of memory in this research, experimental strategies of intervention into the engram, as well as their translational potential for neurodegenerative (e.g., Alzheimer's disease) and psychiatric (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder) conditions have not yet received scrutiny notwithstanding their obvious social and political relevance.All these knowledge gaps combined call for a strong commitment towards interdisciplinarity to align the ambitions of a foundational neuroscience of the engram with a socially responsible circulation of this knowledge. What role can the facts, metaphors, and interventional strategies of engram research play in the wider society? With what implications for philosophical questions at the foundation of memory, which have accompanied its study from antiquity? And what can neuro- and social scientists do jointly to shape the social and political framings of engram research?

Proxy failures in practice: Examples from the sociology of science.

Following John et al., we provide examples of failing proxies that might help to contextualize the role of proxy failures in applied research. We focus on examples from the sociology of science and illustrate how the notion of proxy failure can sharpen applied analysis, if used in a way that does not obscure other dysfunctional effects of proxies.

The problem of context revisited: Moving beyond the resources model.

The problem of context, which explores relations between societal conditions and science, has a long and contentious tradition in the history, philosophy, and sociology of science. While the problem has received little explicit attention in recent years, two contemporary positions remain evident. First is the resources model, which seeks to maintain the autonomy of scientists by denying contextual influence, restricting the role of contexts to providing a pool of 'novel inputs'. Second is the contextual shaping position which recognizes that societal conditions influence science but remains conceptually vague and theoretically undeveloped. This paper argues, given current disciplinary conditions, the problem of context deserves renewed attention. In this paper I first review the history of the debate from the 1930s, highlighting several anxieties that continue to hamper the open study of the problem. After this historical review, I provide a critique of the resources model and assess the possibilities and shortfalls of the contextual shaping position. By addressing past and present perspectives, my goal is to move firmly beyond narrow accounts of context, as exemplified by the resources model. Instead, I propose a renewed program of research in which rich empirical studies are combined with equally rich theoretical work directed toward developing conceptual tools better able to capture the multiple intricacies evident in context-science relations.

[United in difference: on the vocation of Brazilian sociology at the Instituto Universitário de Pesquisas do Rio de Janeiro, 1973-1977]. / Unidos na diferença: sobre a vocação da sociologia brasileira no Instituto Universitário de Pesquisas do Rio de Janeiro, 1973-1977.

This article investigates the first generation (1973-1977) of researchers trained in the Graduate Program in Sociology at the Instituto Universitário de Pesquisas do Rio de Janeiro (IUPERJ). While IUPERJ is known as the birthplace of modern Brazilian political science, sociology there is less well known. Using documentary resources, interviews, and the secondary literature, we take a nuanced look at this generation, which has been described as both excessively heterogeneous and less original in comparison to political science at IUPERJ. For them, theoretical and methodological specialization was seen as central to a political sociology that sought responses to the demands of a society at the crossroads between modernization and redemocratization.

Este artigo busca compreender a vocação científica consagrada pela primeira geração (1973-1977) de pesquisadores do Programa de Pós-graduação em Sociologia do Instituto Universitário de Pesquisas do Rio de Janeiro (Iuperj). Embora o Iuperj seja visto como berço da moderna ciência política brasileira, pouco se sabe sobre sua sociologia. Para tal, baseamo-nos em documentos, entrevistas e bibliografia secundária. Queremos nuançar diagnósticos sobre essa geração, ora vista como excessivamente heterogênea, ora como pouco original se comparada à ciência política iuperjiana. Na vocação daquela geração, o elogio à especialização teórico-metodológica era parte central de uma sociologia política que buscava dar respostas às demandas de uma sociedade na encruzilhada entre modernização e redemocratização.

Pragmatism and medical sociology: Three precepts.

While medical sociology has long incorporated insights from pragmatist philosophy, recent contributions call for a more explicit engagement with this tradition. Complementing Greenhalgh and Engebretsen's (2022) call for a pragmatist analysis of public health policymaking and crisis, we systemize medical sociology's engagement with pragmatism. We suggest three precepts of pragmatist philosophy as they relate to medical sociology: First, a focus on consequences in action, or understanding medical phenomena through what is done rather than established definitions; Second, problem solving, or how medical actors move between habit and creativity; And third, negotiation of meaning, or analyzing patient-provider communication through ongoing action and interpretation. Such systematization, we argue, would enrich both new and existing topics in medical sociology, from medicalization to mask-wearing.

Is it time sociology started researching incompetence?

There appears to be a mismatch between apparent incompetence in the world and the amount of sociological research it attracts. The aim of this article is to outline a sociology of incompetence and justify its value. I begin by defining incompetence as unsatisfactory performance relative to standards. Incompetence is thus intrinsically sociological in being negotiated and socially (re)constituted. The next section foregrounds how widespread and serious incompetence is. This renders effective sociological understanding crucial to welfare. The article then systematically analyses uses of the term in the British Journal of Sociology (a good quality general journal) to assess the current state of research. This analysis fully confirms the neglect of incompetence as a research topic. The next section proposes suitable methods for preliminary incompetence research addressing distinctive challenges like the stigma of being incompetent. These sections then allow incompetence to be better contextualised by other contributing concepts like power, bureaucracy and meritocracy. The final section justifies suggestions about directions for future research.

Diagnosing by anticipation: Coordinating patient trajectories within and across social systems.

Anticipation is a fundamental aspect of social life and, following Weber, the hallmark of social action-it means trying to take others' responses to our actions into account when acting. In this article, we propose and argue the relevance of anticipation to the sociological study of diagnosis. To that end, we introduce and elaborate on the concept of diagnosing by anticipation. To diagnose by anticipation is to consider diagnoses as cultural objects imbued with meaning, to anticipate how others will respond to their meaning in situ and to adapt the choice of diagnosis to secure a desired outcome. Unlike prognosis, which seeks to predict the development of a disease, diagnosing by anticipation entails seeking to predict the development of a case and the effect of different diagnostic categories on its trajectory. Analytically, diagnosing by anticipation therefore involves a shift in diagnostic footing, from trying to identify what the case is a case of, to trying to identify which diagnosis will yield the desired case trajectory. This shift also implies a stronger focus on the mundane organisational work of operating diagnostic systems and coordinating case trajectories within and across social systems, to the benefit of the sociology of diagnosis.

The Norm of Reciprocity in Intergroup Context: A Normative-Identity Model.

Reciprocity, regarded as a fundamental psychological phenomenon, may underlie a wide range of interpersonal and intergroup behaviors. Various disciplines such as behavioral economics, anthropology, sociology, and psychology as well documented how reciprocity is a strong determinant of human behavior. On the other hand, less is known about intergroup reciprocity, its functions and consequences as well as the psychological mechanisms through which these effects manifest, remain mostly unknown. In this paper, we propose a model to understand how the reciprocity norm operates in the intergroup contexts, through employing the Personal Norm of Reciprocity model (Perugini et al., 2003) and the Self-Categorization Theory (Turner et al., 1987). We suggest that the conditions that give rise to intergroup reciprocal behavior are ingroup identification, labeling outgroup behavior as a favor or transgression, and the internalization of the reciprocity norm. We also propose that the intergroup outcomes, such as ingroup favoritism, discrimination, collective action, and conflict resolution, might become more understandable when taking into account the reciprocity as an explanatory variable.

Diagnosis and the practices of patienthood: How diagnostic journeys shape illness experiences.

Sociologists have a rich history of studying the process of diagnosis and how people experience illness. Yet, the sociology of diagnosis and illness experience literatures have seldom been fully integrated. Instead, these literatures highlight one element of the illness journey, wherein scholars either primarily study diagnostic processes and categories or people's illness experiences. Drawing on empirical studies that examine diagnosis and experiences of illness in varied settings (diagnosis during breast cancer surveillance, diagnosis and experience of autoimmune illness and incarcerated women's experiences of diagnoses and illness), in this article we build on our concept of regimes of patienthood to explain how diagnostic journeys, and the relations and power dynamics that manifest during this time, shape the illness experience and practices of patienthood. We construct a classification of diagnostic processes grounded in our empirical research that span (1) sudden diagnoses, (2) long, changing diagnostic journeys and (3) diagnostic journeys marked by disbelief and denial of care. Our findings demonstrate how diagnostic journeys and illness experiences are intertwined, with different diagnostic pathways impacting how illness is experienced. Analysing these categories collectively demonstrates that diagnostic journeys, while heterogenous, shape the practices that patients develop to manage health conditions and navigate unequal health-care encounters.

Disorder or difference? How clinician-patient interaction and patient age shape the process and meaning of autism diagnosis.

This article follows Blaxter's foundational call for a sociology of diagnosis that addresses the dual aspects of diagnosis-as-category and diagnosis-as-process. Drawing on video recordings from an autism clinic, we show how the process of attaching the diagnosis to a child involves interactions between clinicians, parents and children, and that in the course of such interactions, a diagnostic category officially defined in terms of deficits can instead be formulated in terms of valuable social and cognitive differences. More specifically, we show that the child's age is crucial for how clinicians formulate the diagnosis: with younger children, clinicians treat autism exclusively as a deficit to be remedied, whereas with older children, clinicians may treat autism either as a deficit or as a social-cognitive difference. Further, because older children are often co-recipients of diagnostic news, we find that clinicians carefully manage the implications such news may have for their self/identity. Finally, we suggest that (1) the equation of a diagnostic category with dysfunction is achieved in interaction; (2) the meaning of a diagnosis may vary with characteristics of its recipients; and (3) that meaning can be worked up by clinicians and recipients in ways that centre difference rather than deficit.

Examining the role of nurse executives in homecare through the lens of the Sociology of Ignorance and Critical Management Studies.

This article presents a novel theoretical approach to explore nurse executives' paradoxical identity and agency of executive and nurse in homecare organizations. This complex phenomenon has yet to be well theorized or analyzed. Through a synthesis of literature, we demonstrate that Critical Management Studies, as informed by Foucault, and the Sociology of Ignorance, can create a different understanding of the complex interplay between knowledge and nonknowledge (ignorance) that positions nurse executives in both influential and precarious ways in homecare organizations. This theoretical framework has the potential to allow for the explicit exploration of nurse executives' strategic epistemic and discursive positioning and highlights hierarchal power structures within homecare organizations. We posit that this framework, that spans nursing, management and sociology disciplines, sets a different understanding of homecare organizations as epistemic landscapes, exposing institutional knowledge and ignorance dynamics that remain largely concealed and unchallenged, yet are integral to understanding nurse executives' epistemic agency.

Völkerpsychologie as a field science: José Miguel de Barandiarán and Basque ethnology.

José Miguel de Barandiarán considered the central figure of Basque anthropology, played a prominent role in the Basque people's cultural rescue (material and spiritual). His dual status as an ethnologist and priest prepared him to study collective mentalities and rural societies. However, the scientific approach of the Völkerpsychologie (roughly translated as ethnic psychology), as proposed by Wilhelm Wundt, greatly influenced him and aroused broad interests of ethnological and sociological-religious concerns. This essay examines the scope and depth of Wundt's influence on Barandiarán, and suggests that, by combining the techniques of folklore with those of ethnography, Barandiarán stamped Basque anthropology with a unique defining quality in Europe.

Radicalisation studies: An emerging interdisciplinary field.

This research note provides an overview of Radicalisation Studies as an emerging interdisciplinary field aimed at developing more holistic understandings of how and why individuals and groups turn to extreme ideologies and political violence. It traces the evolution of radicalisation research across core social science disciplines, including sociology, psychology, anthropology, and political science. While this burgeoning scholarship has expanded knowledge, persistent gaps remain due to studying radicalisation in disciplinary silos. To address this fragmentation, the research note proposes an integrated Radicalisation Studies approach grounded in critical social theory and reflexivity. This paradigm synthesises concepts and mechanisms from across disciplines to investigate the complex interplay between individual vulnerabilities, group dynamics, and broader socio-political contexts in generating radicalisation. The note outlines theoretical foundations, guiding research questions, and methodological strategies for this new field focused on mixed-methods, multi-level analysis. Radicalisation Studies holds promise for advancing theoretical integration, contextualised explanations, critical perspectives on radicalisation discourse, and evidence-based preventative policies. While challenges remain in institutionalising this emerging field, Radicalisation Studies has the potential to steer research towards greater interdisciplinarity and the nuanced understandings necessary to elucidate this complex phenomenon. The research note aims to spur debate on constructing Radicalisation Studies as a viable scholarly enterprise.

Animism and science in European perspective.

The European tradition makes a sharp distinction between animism and science. On the basis of this distinction, either animism is reproved for failing to reach the heights of science, or science is reproved for failing to reach the heights of animism. In this essay, I draw on work in the history and philosophy and science, combined with a method from the sociology of scientific knowledge, to question the sharpness of this distinction. Along the way, I also take guidance from the research of North American Indigenous scholars. As it turns out, there is a rich, if largely overlooked, tradition of Aristotelian animism running through the history of modern European science, and this tradition sometimes resonates with Indigenous perspectives. By challenging the entrenched distinction between animism and science, I aim to help reconcile ongoing tensions between Indigenous and European scientific groups, and so strengthen prospects for their mutually beneficial cooperation.

Psychiatric epidemiology and the Chicago School of Sociology.

This article explores the Chicago School of Sociology's influence on psychiatric epidemiology. While the Chicago School text usually associated with psychiatric epidemiology is the 1939 book by Faris and Dunham, it is important to acknowledge the influence of earlier Chicago School projects during the 1920s. These projects, tackling everything from homelessness and delinquency to the ghetto and suicide, provided models not only for Faris and Dunham, but also for numerous methodological and theoretical insights for the social psychiatry projects that would emerge after World War II. The social sciences and the humanities still have important roles to play in informing contemporary approaches to psychiatric epidemiology and deriving ways to tackle the socio-economic problems that contribute to mental illness.

Detecting value(s): Digital biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease and the valuation of new diagnostic technologies.

This article explores how the meanings and values of diagnosis are being reconfigured at the interface between technological innovation and imaginaries of precision medicine. From genome sequencing to biological and digital 'markers' of disease, technological innovation occupies an increasingly central space in the way we imagine future health and illness. These imaginaries are usually centred on the promise of faster, more precise and personalised diagnosis, and the associated hope that if detected early enough disease can be effectively treated and prevented. Underpinning and reproduced through these narratives of the future is a re-conceptualisation of diagnostic processes and categories around the anticipation of future risk, as noted by recent theoretical developments in the sociology of diagnosis and related disciplines. Adding to this literature, in this article we explore what makes these emerging diagnostic arrangements valuable, to whom and how. Drawing on interviews with experts involved in the development of digital biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease, we trace how multiple and at times conflicting applications of the tools, and the value(s) attached to them, are coproduced. We thus ask what possibilities are pursued, or foreclosed, through the work of imagining the future of diagnosis.

Generations, events, and social movement legacies: Unpacking social change in English football (1980-2023).

This article critically employs the case of association football in England, from 1980 to 2023, as a social movement timescape, to examine the political consciousness and long-term mobilisations of a generation of football supporter activists, and their capacity to influence politics, and respond to new, emerging, critical junctures, through networks of trust and shared memories of historical events. This is of crucial importance to sociology because it reveals the tensions between what are considered legitimate and illegitimate social practices which characterise contemporary society's moral economy. Focusing on temporal contestations over regulation, policing, governance and cultural rituals, the article deconstructs the role of generations in social movements, and critically synthesises relational-temporal sociology and classic and contemporary work on the sociology of generations, to show how legacy operates as a multifaceted maturing concept of power and time. In English football's neoliberal timescape, the supporters' movement has reached a critical juncture; the future will require a new generation of activists, to negotiate, resist and contest the new hegemonic politics of social control and supporter engagement.