Committing Canadian sociology: developing a Canadian sociology and a sociology of Canada.

This paper is a slightly revised version of the author's "Outstanding Career Award Lecture" presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Sociological Association in Victoria, British Columbia on June 6, 2013. The paper distinguishes between Canadian Sociology and the Sociology of Canada. The former involves the explanatory stance that one takes to understanding Canada. The latter addresses the significant social dimensions that underlie Canadian social organization, culture, and behavior. I make a case for a Canadian Sociology that focuses on the unique features of Canadian society rather than adopting a comparative perspective. I also argue that there is a continuing need within the Sociology of Canada to address the issues of staples development. However, I argue that "new" staples analysis must have a directional change from that of the past, in that social processes now largely determine the pattern of staples development. Moreover, new staples analysis must include issues that were never part of earlier staples analysis, such as issues of environmental impacts and of staples depletion under conditions, such as climate change. The paper concludes by analyzing four factors that provide the dominant social contexts for analyzing modern staples development: (1) the rise of neoliberal government, (2) the implementation of globalization and its social consequences, (3) the assumption of aboriginal rights and entitlement, and (4) the rise of environmentalism. These factors were generally not considered in earlier staples approaches. They are critical to understanding the role of staples development and its impact on Canada in the present time.

Object-oriented sociology and organizing in the face of emergency: Bruno Latour, Graham Harman and the material turn.

This paper explores the material turn in sociology and the tools it provides for understanding organizational problems highlighted by the Royal Commission into the 2009 'Black Saturday' bushfires during which 173 people died in the Australian State of Victoria. Often inspired by Bruno Latour's material-semiotic sociology of associations, organization scholars employing these tools focus on the messy details of organization otherwise overlooked by approaches assuming a macroscopic frame of analysis. In Latour's approach no object is reducible to something else - such as nature, the social, or atoms - it is instead a stabilized set of relations. A Latourian approach allows us to highlight how the Royal Commission and macroscopic models of organizing do unwitting damage to their objects of inquiry by purifying the 'natural' from the 'social'. Performative elements in their schemas are mistaken for descriptive ones. However, a long standing critique of this approach claims that it becomes its own form of reduction, to nothing but relations. Graham Harman, in his object-oriented philosophy develops this critique by showing that a 'relationist' metaphysics cannot properly accommodate the capacity of 'objects' to cause or mediate surprises. Through our case of the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission, we argue that a purely relational model of objects loosens a productive tension between the structural and ephemeral that drives sociological analysis. By drawing on elements of Harman's ontology of objects we argue that it is necessary for material-semiotic sociology to retain a central place for the emergence of sociological objects.

[Where are we in general sociology ?]. / Où en est la sociologie générale?

Over the last two decades, history and social sciences have experienced a kind of merging, and a vast number of specialized domains have emerged. Yet the durkheim - ian register of "general sociology" seems somehow neglected. Firstly, this article analyzes the reasons for this neglect, and secondly, it indicates how, through a long-term reflexivity, one can formulate a new agenda for general sociology.

Building psychosocial programming in geriatrics fellowships: a consortium model.

Geriatric psychosocial problems are prevalent and significantly affect the physical health and overall well-being of older adults. Geriatrics fellows require psychosocial education, and yet to date, geriatrics fellowship programs have not developed a comprehensive geriatric psychosocial curriculum. Fellowship programs in the New York tristate area collaboratively created the New York Metropolitan Area Consortium to Strengthen Psychosocial Programming in Geriatrics Fellowships in 2007 to address this shortfall. The goal of the Consortium is to develop model educational programs for geriatrics fellows that highlight psychosocial issues affecting elder care, share interinstitutional resources, and energize fellowship program directors and faculty. In 2008, 2009, and 2010, Consortium faculty collaboratively designed and implemented a psychosocial educational conference for geriatrics fellows. Cumulative participation at the conferences included 146 geriatrics fellows from 20 academic institutions taught by interdisciplinary Consortium faculty. Formal evaluations from the participants indicated that the conference: a) positively affected fellows' knowledge of, interest in, and comfort with psychosocial issues; b) would have a positive impact on the quality of care provided to older patients; and c) encouraged valuable interactions with fellows and faculty from other institutions. The Consortium, as an educational model for psychosocial learning, has a positive impact on geriatrics fellowship training and may be replicable in other localities.

Sociology's misfortune: disciplines, interdisciplinarity and the impact of audit culture.

This paper is about tendencies to the subversion of sociology as a discipline. It connects external factors of the wider socio-political environment of higher education in the UK, especially those associated with the audit culture and new systems of governance, with the internal organization of the discipline. While the environment is similar for all social science subjects, the paper argues that there are specific consequences for sociology because of characteristics peculiar to the discipline. The paper discusses these consequences in terms of the changing relationship between sociology and the growing interdisciplinary area of applied social studies as a form of 'mode 2 knowledge'. It argues that while sociology 'exports' concepts, methodologies and personnel it lacks the internal disciplinary integrity of other 'exporter' disciplines, such as economics, political science and anthropology. The consequence is an increasingly blurred distinction between sociology as a discipline and the interdisciplinary area of applied social studies with a potential loss of disciplinary identity. The paper concludes with a discussion of how this loss of identity is associated with a reduced ability to reproduce a critical sensibility within sociology and absorption to the constraints of audit culture with its preferred form of mode 2 knowledge.

A world apart? Bridging the gap between theory and applied social gerontology.

This article is based on the premise that there is inadequate attention to the link between theory and applied research in social gerontology. The article contends that applied research studies do not often or effectively employ a theoretical framework and that theory-based articles, including theory-based research, are not often focused on questions related to applied social gerontology. We explore the extent to which theory and applied research could reasonably be expected to overlap, present data from an analysis of 5 years of articles in three leading journals, and posit some possible explanations for the current divide between theory and applied social gerontology research. We argue that the divide weakens research and inhibits the functions that theory can play in helping to organize the accumulation of knowledge, and we offer some suggestions about how the field can address this challenge, including changes to the journal review and submission process to reflect the importance of the link between theory and/or conceptual models and research, and an expansion of professional conference opportunities to link research and practice.

Agency, reflexivity and risk: cosmopolitan, neurotic or prudential citizen?

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the turn to risk within sociology and to survey the relationship between structure and agency as conceived by popular strands of risk theorizing. To this end, we appraise the risk society, culture of fear and governmentality perspectives and we consider the different imaginings of the citizen constructed by each of these approaches. The paper goes on to explore what each of these visions of citizenship implies for understandings of the structure/agency dynamic as it pertains to the question of reflexivity. In order to transcend uni-dimensional notions of citizenship and to reinvigorate sociological debates about risk, we call for conceptual analyses that are contextually rooted. Exampling the importance of knowledge contests around contemporary security threats and warnings of the deleterious effects of pre-emptive modes of regulation that derive from the 'risk turn' within social science, we argue for a more nuanced embrace of reflexivity within risk theorising in order to facilitate a more dynamic critique of the images of citizenship that such theorizing promotes.

Gestão como doença social: ideologia, poder gerencialista e fragmentação social

Sob uma aparência pragmática, a gestão constitui uma ideologia que legitima a guerra econômica e a obsessão pelo rendimento financeiro. Os gestionários instalam, na verdade, um novo poder gerencialista. Trata-se não tanto de um poder autoritário e hierárquico, e sim de uma incitação ao investimento ilimitado de si no trabalho, para tentar satisfazer os próprios pendores narcísicos e as próprias necessidades de reconhecimento. Trata-se de instilar nas mentes uma representação do mundo e da pessoa humana, de modo que o único caminho de realização de si consista em se lançar totalmente na luta pelos lugares e na corrida para a produtividade. Ora, a fim de melhor garantir seu empreendimento, essa lógica transborda seu campo e coloniza toda a sociedade. Hoje, tudo é gerenciado — as cidades, as administrações, as instituições, mas igualmente a família, as relações amorosas, a sexualidade... O Ego de cada indivíduo se tornou um capital que ele deve fazer frutificar...Essa cultura do alto desempenho, porém, e o clima de competição generalizada, põe o mundo sob pressão. O assédio se banaliza, acarretando o esgotamento profissional, o estresse e o sofrimento no trabalho. A sociedade é apenas um mercado, um campo de batalha insensata, em que o remédio proposto aos malefícios da guerra econômica consiste sempre em agravar a luta. Diante dessas transformações, a política, contaminada por sua vez pelo realismo gestionário, parece impotente para delinear os contornos de uma sociedade harmoniosa, preocupada com o bem comum.

Uma concepçäo sociológica dos acidentes do trabalho / A sociologycal conception of industrial accidents

Este artigo situa o desenvolvimento da noçäo moderna do acidente do trabalho no seu contexto histórico,fornecido pelo movimento de uma sociedade pré-industrial a uma sociedade industrial. Esta noçäo teoriza as causas dos acidentes em termos de condiçöes inseguras e atos falhos,e está na base das abordagens que dominam a prevençäo de acidentes hoje. Esta noçäo está agora entrando em colapso. Delinea-se uma teoria sociológica da produçäo dos acidentes do trabalho na qual os acidentes säo concebidos como produtos de relaçöes sociais do trabalho. Postula-se que uma perspectiva sociológica tem um papel a desempenhar na construçäo de novas práticas de prevençäo

Organizaciones al servicio del hombre / Organizations in service of man

"Los organismos, dependencias y centros de asistencia -tanto públicos como privados- destinados al servicio y tratamiento de la ciudadanía -desde orfelinatos, clínicas y hospitales hasta tribunales y centros correccionales- son estudiados en esta obra, en sus aspectos sociológico y administrativo. Se examina a las organizaciones al servico del hombre en las condiciones económicas, sociodemográficas, culturales y político-legales en que efectivamente desempeñan su función, haciendo siempre hincapié en las relaciones del personal de servicios con los usuarios. Además, con oportuna referencia a Max Weber y otros sociólogos, se expone el aspecto teórico de estas organizaciones en forma clara y directa:" (ED). Los capítulos del libro son: Prefacio. I) Ubicuidad de las organizaciones al servicio del hombre. II) Enfoques teóricos sobre las organizaciones de servicios humanos. III) Relaciones de la organización con el medio. IV) Metas organizacionales. V) Tecnología organizacional. VI) Estructura, poder y control. VII) Relaciones usuarios-organización. VIII) Valoración del desempeño de la organización. IX) Proceso de cambio en las organizaciones al servicio del hombre. Conclusión