XVIII ISA World Congress of Sociology (July 13-19, 2014), Jul 14, 2014
ABSTRACT There is no doubt that social sciences would benefit from opening up more toward Darwini... more ABSTRACT There is no doubt that social sciences would benefit from opening up more toward Darwinian ideas; most crucially, it would enable a more accurate grasp of the vast time periods involved in the development of our humanity and social life. As known, sociologists have had a complicated relationship with Darwinism – perhaps haunted by the specters of "Social Darwinism", the threat of "sociobiological reductionism", or other traumatic past experiences. This presentation seeks steps toward evolutionary sociology by examining, (1) the lessons taught by the currently popular "evolutionary psychology" (Tooby and Cosmides, Pinker) regarding the human nature; (2) the "Homo economicus criticisms" of evolutionary economists in the spirit of A Cooperative Species: Human Reciprocity and Its Evolution (Bowles and Gintis); (3) Geoffrey Hodgson's version of "Generalized Darwinism"; and (4) "niche-construction" approach to human "gene–culture coevolution" (Deacon, Dennett, Laland, Odling-Smee), with its evolution-historical studies on social learning and language evolution. While evolutionary psychology offers insights into humanity in a long enough timeframe, it unfortunately involves a leap from the face-to-face groups of Pleistocene era straight to modern societies, over all sociologically interesting institutional developments. Bowles and Gintis discuss the evolution of altruism against the idea of selfish individual, providing solutions to "the problem of social order" – timely in economics but familiar to sociologists already since Talcott Parsons. Hodgson's model in turn utilizes pragmatist conceptual tools well, but its level-ontology and abstractions of generalized principles of evolution remain less convincing. This paper seeks to pick out the best lessons of these three approaches and synthesize them with the fourth, niche-construction approach. The resulting organism–environment transaction model opens the brain–consciousness–language–society continuum "outside–in" rather than "inside–out" and allows understanding time periods in terms of localized organism–environment transactions by means of which evolution can in fact only be understood.
In higher education dual systems, graduates are qualified to apply for jobs in same professional ... more In higher education dual systems, graduates are qualified to apply for jobs in same professional fields along two separated educational routes. The research problem is whether the rival applicants for professional positions are treated equally in the labour market despite their different qualifications. From the graduates point of view, to be equal means to have an opportunity to be employed in accordance with one’s professional skill. Applying European survey data, the article tests to what extent the ‘distribution of work’ between university and non-university graduates seems to be based on educational qualifications or actual competence. Among 4,000 German, Dutch, Finnish, and Swiss graduates primarily in business and administration and engineering, only slight and occasional evidence of ‘status-based recruitment’ was found. All in all, the research suggests that from the view of graduate employment, the European dual HE systems work very much following the principle of ‘different but equal’.
ABSTRACT In accordance with the education policy which puts human capital at its heart, higher ed... more ABSTRACT In accordance with the education policy which puts human capital at its heart, higher education is expected to produce marketable competent professionals in response to the needs of an expansive knowledge-based economy. In one reading, to support competitive knowledge-based economy, higher education students should graduate as young and fast as possible. The article asks whether it is credible that the young & fast principle as an objective for university education would provide a feasible way of enhancing professional labour force to serve knowledge economies. The analysis of study careers of 17,000 European second cycle university graduates shows that transitions from school to higher education to professional employment vary considerably in the 12 countries. The key finding is that countries with rather slow progression in the initial part of the transition tend to do better in the end, and vice versa. Belgium (Flanders) is the most obvious example of young and fast-graduating students that need a relatively long period after graduation to start their professional careers. In Finland, Austria, and Norway, relatively old and experienced graduates are employed rapidly. The time before professional employment after graduation is short for students who have acquired relevant work experience and acquainted themselves with professional fields. The youngest professionals are found in France where they tend to have access to opportunities for professionally relevant training. However, professional employment cannot be fostered by simply trying to recruit student populations as young as possible, but rather by enriching the labour market relevance of their student careers.
Abstract This article examines the attitudes of Finnish employers, employees and the State (autho... more Abstract This article examines the attitudes of Finnish employers, employees and the State (authorities) in different times towards the various pathways of acquiring vocational competences that are needed in working life. Our focus is on two opposing models: the ...
There are realist philosophers and social scientists who believe in the indispensability of socia... more There are realist philosophers and social scientists who believe in the indispensability of social ontology. However, we argue that certain pragmatist outlines for inquiry open more fruitful roads to empirical research than such ontologizing perspectives. The pragmatist conceptual tools in a Darwinian vein-concepts like action, habit, coping and community-are in a particularly stark contrast with, for instance, the Searlean and Chomskian metaphysics of human being. In particular, we bring Searle's realist philosophy of society and mind under critical survey in this paper and contrast it with a pragmatist, sociologizing approach. Drawing from Dewey, James, and recent antirepresentationalism, we propose for research work a methodological relationalism of its own kind, altogether detached from the ontologies of society and mind. Keywords Methodological relationalism Á Ontology Á Pragmatism Á Realism Á Sociology of mind In his article ''Social Ontology and the Philosophy of Society,'' John Searle (2001) makes ''a plea for a branch of philosophy that ... does not yet exist.'' This new branch, the ''philosophy of society,'' Searle (p. 15) says, would be a subject ''centering essentially around questions of ontology.'' We wish to ask in the present paper if there is any use for such an ontology in attempting to improve empirical research in the social sciences. 1
Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 1989
In the article we examine the growth of special education, the expansion of the field and the cat... more In the article we examine the growth of special education, the expansion of the field and the categories used to classify special education students. Special education began to grow rapidly at the end of the 1960s with the advent of the comprehensive school system. This growth has occurred in both traditional classroom‐type teaching and part‐time, clinic‐type special education characteristic of
Analysing foundation charters, this article explores the various purposes universities have been ... more Analysing foundation charters, this article explores the various purposes universities have been said to serve at different periods of time, how the distinction between universities and other educational establishments has been made, and how the actions of the academic community have been justified. The data consist of 225 charters of foundation from the year 1224 to 1999. Granted by rulers,
XVIII ISA World Congress of Sociology (July 13-19, 2014), Jul 14, 2014
ABSTRACT There is no doubt that social sciences would benefit from opening up more toward Darwini... more ABSTRACT There is no doubt that social sciences would benefit from opening up more toward Darwinian ideas; most crucially, it would enable a more accurate grasp of the vast time periods involved in the development of our humanity and social life. As known, sociologists have had a complicated relationship with Darwinism – perhaps haunted by the specters of "Social Darwinism", the threat of "sociobiological reductionism", or other traumatic past experiences. This presentation seeks steps toward evolutionary sociology by examining, (1) the lessons taught by the currently popular "evolutionary psychology" (Tooby and Cosmides, Pinker) regarding the human nature; (2) the "Homo economicus criticisms" of evolutionary economists in the spirit of A Cooperative Species: Human Reciprocity and Its Evolution (Bowles and Gintis); (3) Geoffrey Hodgson's version of "Generalized Darwinism"; and (4) "niche-construction" approach to human "gene–culture coevolution" (Deacon, Dennett, Laland, Odling-Smee), with its evolution-historical studies on social learning and language evolution. While evolutionary psychology offers insights into humanity in a long enough timeframe, it unfortunately involves a leap from the face-to-face groups of Pleistocene era straight to modern societies, over all sociologically interesting institutional developments. Bowles and Gintis discuss the evolution of altruism against the idea of selfish individual, providing solutions to "the problem of social order" – timely in economics but familiar to sociologists already since Talcott Parsons. Hodgson's model in turn utilizes pragmatist conceptual tools well, but its level-ontology and abstractions of generalized principles of evolution remain less convincing. This paper seeks to pick out the best lessons of these three approaches and synthesize them with the fourth, niche-construction approach. The resulting organism–environment transaction model opens the brain–consciousness–language–society continuum "outside–in" rather than "inside–out" and allows understanding time periods in terms of localized organism–environment transactions by means of which evolution can in fact only be understood.
In higher education dual systems, graduates are qualified to apply for jobs in same professional ... more In higher education dual systems, graduates are qualified to apply for jobs in same professional fields along two separated educational routes. The research problem is whether the rival applicants for professional positions are treated equally in the labour market despite their different qualifications. From the graduates point of view, to be equal means to have an opportunity to be employed in accordance with one’s professional skill. Applying European survey data, the article tests to what extent the ‘distribution of work’ between university and non-university graduates seems to be based on educational qualifications or actual competence. Among 4,000 German, Dutch, Finnish, and Swiss graduates primarily in business and administration and engineering, only slight and occasional evidence of ‘status-based recruitment’ was found. All in all, the research suggests that from the view of graduate employment, the European dual HE systems work very much following the principle of ‘different but equal’.
ABSTRACT In accordance with the education policy which puts human capital at its heart, higher ed... more ABSTRACT In accordance with the education policy which puts human capital at its heart, higher education is expected to produce marketable competent professionals in response to the needs of an expansive knowledge-based economy. In one reading, to support competitive knowledge-based economy, higher education students should graduate as young and fast as possible. The article asks whether it is credible that the young & fast principle as an objective for university education would provide a feasible way of enhancing professional labour force to serve knowledge economies. The analysis of study careers of 17,000 European second cycle university graduates shows that transitions from school to higher education to professional employment vary considerably in the 12 countries. The key finding is that countries with rather slow progression in the initial part of the transition tend to do better in the end, and vice versa. Belgium (Flanders) is the most obvious example of young and fast-graduating students that need a relatively long period after graduation to start their professional careers. In Finland, Austria, and Norway, relatively old and experienced graduates are employed rapidly. The time before professional employment after graduation is short for students who have acquired relevant work experience and acquainted themselves with professional fields. The youngest professionals are found in France where they tend to have access to opportunities for professionally relevant training. However, professional employment cannot be fostered by simply trying to recruit student populations as young as possible, but rather by enriching the labour market relevance of their student careers.
Abstract This article examines the attitudes of Finnish employers, employees and the State (autho... more Abstract This article examines the attitudes of Finnish employers, employees and the State (authorities) in different times towards the various pathways of acquiring vocational competences that are needed in working life. Our focus is on two opposing models: the ...
There are realist philosophers and social scientists who believe in the indispensability of socia... more There are realist philosophers and social scientists who believe in the indispensability of social ontology. However, we argue that certain pragmatist outlines for inquiry open more fruitful roads to empirical research than such ontologizing perspectives. The pragmatist conceptual tools in a Darwinian vein-concepts like action, habit, coping and community-are in a particularly stark contrast with, for instance, the Searlean and Chomskian metaphysics of human being. In particular, we bring Searle's realist philosophy of society and mind under critical survey in this paper and contrast it with a pragmatist, sociologizing approach. Drawing from Dewey, James, and recent antirepresentationalism, we propose for research work a methodological relationalism of its own kind, altogether detached from the ontologies of society and mind. Keywords Methodological relationalism Á Ontology Á Pragmatism Á Realism Á Sociology of mind In his article ''Social Ontology and the Philosophy of Society,'' John Searle (2001) makes ''a plea for a branch of philosophy that ... does not yet exist.'' This new branch, the ''philosophy of society,'' Searle (p. 15) says, would be a subject ''centering essentially around questions of ontology.'' We wish to ask in the present paper if there is any use for such an ontology in attempting to improve empirical research in the social sciences. 1
Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 1989
In the article we examine the growth of special education, the expansion of the field and the cat... more In the article we examine the growth of special education, the expansion of the field and the categories used to classify special education students. Special education began to grow rapidly at the end of the 1960s with the advent of the comprehensive school system. This growth has occurred in both traditional classroom‐type teaching and part‐time, clinic‐type special education characteristic of
Analysing foundation charters, this article explores the various purposes universities have been ... more Analysing foundation charters, this article explores the various purposes universities have been said to serve at different periods of time, how the distinction between universities and other educational establishments has been made, and how the actions of the academic community have been justified. The data consist of 225 charters of foundation from the year 1224 to 1999. Granted by rulers,
Revista CS Núm. 6 (2010): Ciencia, Tecnología y Sociedad , 2010
En el presente artículo se analizan los enfoques relacionalistas de las ciencias sociales en térm... more En el presente artículo se analizan los enfoques relacionalistas de las ciencias sociales en términos de una distinción conceptual entre la “filosofización de la sociología” y la “sociologización de la filosofía”. Estos marcan dos actitudes diferentes con respecto a la metafísica filosófica y sus compromisos ontológicos. El pragmatismo de los autores tiene su origen en el relacionalismo metodológico de Dewey, el cual se compara con los enfoques realistas con un compromiso ontológico, así como con el relacionalismo metodológico de Bourdieu. Se argumenta que la filosofía pragmática de las ciencias sociales es una herramienta adecuada para ayudar a los científicos sociales en su labor metodológica, en particular en lo que respecta a los estudios de casos basados en problemas.
Revista CS Núm. 5 (2010): Indagaciones y perspectivas en Psicología Social, 2010
Las figuras legales denominadas “medidas de seguridad” permiten la reclusión de infrac... more Las figuras legales denominadas “medidas de seguridad” permiten la reclusión de infractores a la ley, considerados inimputables, en instituciones específicas, conocidas en Brasil, como Manicomios Judiciales. En este artículo se analizan las características de los discursos psiquiátricos y jurídicos que operan en estos casos, su funcionalidad institucional y social y sus consecuencias para los sujetos. Para esto, se toman como referencia las pericias psiquiátricas realizadas a los internos que cumplen estas medidas en el Ala de Tratamiento Psiquiátrico de una prisión de Brasilia, Brasil.
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