One Flesh, Many Bodies: Agency and Women’s Body

This chapter is a sociological rendition of the body-mind issue explored within the context of feminism and agency. Being central to the entire ecology of the feminist claims, bringing the body back into the discursive field allows the appreciation of hitherto emerging insights from the ranks of feminist scholars, notably in the area of new materiality. Problematizing the classical divide between the body and the mind as distinct yet nested spheres of one’s social being pegs the discussion in the language of performance and demonstrability, thus highlighting the agency intrinsic to the body and its movements as a material facticity

Armed conflict and the environment

The changing character of modern warfare necessitates the examination of the laws protecting the environment during armed conflict. Most of these laws and agreements are anthropocentric, premised on the assumption that the environment merits protection only because it is vital to human survival. The few agreements that are partially ecocentric, recognizing nature’s intrinsic value, remain limited by issues of applicability, enforcement, and accountabilit

Usbong na pagtatáya: Tangka sa pagpapalawig sa katuturan ng sosyolohiya sa Pilipinas (Usbong na pagtatáya: Assessing the affordance of sociology in the Philippines)

The affordance of sociology implicates not only the functionality (Fil. gamit) element, but embraces the dimension of relevance (Fil. katuturan). Henceforth, the germaneness of sociology as a discipline in exploring Philippine social realities and in making sense of the Filipino actions and interactions can no longer be gauged in terms of casual invocation/legitimation of its (Western) discursive trappings. The usefulness of sociology can only be realized if it is used as a perspective and such requires a reflective stance on the whole praxis of appropriating the practices, protocols, and principles of the Eurocentric sociology. As a corollary issue, the paper investigates the ambivalence that characterized the disciplinal identity of sociologyan identity simultaneously forged by the literary and scientif ic traditions during the Industrial Revolution period. Filipino sociologists, however, can exploit this ambivalent identity to launch a sociology that is both faithful to the demands of the individual experiences of Filipinos and fateful to their collective history. The Filipinos\u27 pakikipagkapuwa is used as a tool to lift the ideological veil that shrouds the very practice of theorizing in the social sciences in the country, and at the same time, to present an effective example of the unique affordances of an autonomous sociology that thrives in the Philippines

Lives in fiction: Auto/biographies as theoretical narratives

Sociological imagination is an open invitation to theorize from the stories we tell about ourselves and others. More than self-expression, the sociological ethos of auto/biographical narration is to extend the reality of a solipsistic and exclusive existence into a common and public experience. In order to achieve this, the narrator must convert biographies into scribed realities. The narrating process, however, has unique epistemic anchorage (memory-based) and stylistic requirement (literary) that encage lived lives in a fictional genre, giving this mode of writing a unique interpretive lens that projects new visions of the social. Consequently for theorizing purposes, auto/biographies are meaning-claims that should no longer be read exclusively in terms of their dramatic and documentary values, but more in terms of their theoretical affordances. This paper explores the implications and utility of fictionalized auto/biographical narratives in expanding the ambit of sociological theorizing. © 2014 by De La Salle University

Anticipating the social from the ecological: An ecoconstructionist reflection for sociology and environmental science

Present theories of environmental sociology are inadequate in investigating ecological challenges. This is the thesis of the present article. This is brought about by two mutually reinforcing factors: (i) by sociology\u27s limited and limiting notion of the social (as a result of its bias to modernity and to the experience of the West) and (ii) by environmental science\u27s lack of language to articulate the sociality exhibited by modern day environmental realities. Thence, the paper examines how the two disciplines\u27 disparate notions of the social given their conceptual and linguistic confinements can be bridged in order to expand the functionality of the social-- one that is capable of not only explicating likelihood and ramifications of preferred environmental futures. Using biodiversity as a test case, the paper ends by suggesting how the invigorated notion of the social can be explored via the ecoconstructionist reflection suitable for both sociology and environmental science unhampered by their respective disciplinal frontiers

Pakiramdaman : Isang tatak Filipinong lapit sa pagdadalumat sa sosyolohiya (A Filipino brand of reflective inquiry in sociology)

The article contends that neither theory-building nor theorizing is an exclusive means of understanding the social in Philippine sociological discourse. Pagdadalumat as a homegrown reflexive inquiry proves to be more proficient and powerful an approach in making sense of the foundational principles of the discipline. Henceforth, the article examines the two implicated issues of doing pagdadalumat in the production of sociological knowledge in the Philippines viz. (i) the concept of kapwa as manifestation of the nexus of the Self and Other (ii) and the epistemological affordances of pagdadalumat versus the rigid evidence-seeking temperament of scientific inquiry. At the end, an outline of a sociological model of pagdadalumat is presented - pakiramdaman - anchored on an indigenous communicative practice (pakikipagtalastasan) using four (4) Filipino social constructs - lapit, galang, hiya, lusot - and their corresponding indicators - relasyon, kapwa, sitwasyon, kahihinatnan. © 2015, University of the Philippines. All rights reserved

Methodological promises of discourse analysis in Philippine environmental research

Two situations characterize the state of environmental investigations in the Philippines: (i) the epistemic dominance of the \u27natural sciences\u27 perspective and (ii) the paucity of local resources (which advocate the use of) or which actually employed qualitative methodologies in framing environmental issues and challenges. As to the latter, the few that are available either have utilized the traditional social sciences methodologies e.g., survey and interviews as used in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and similar endeavors or innovated by attempting to hybrid several approaches. More disconcerting is the observation that this dearth of literature has had very little understanding as to the epistemological underpinnings of qualitative approaches in general. Thus, the main objective of this paper is to address these situations by demonstrating that environmental issues are, in fact, socially constructed issues and to highlight the utility and relevance of a qualitative approach-discourse analysis (DA) in making sense of this genre of social issues

Gender and rice genetic resources conservation: Issues and policy implications

Using a complementation of field research and critical review of literature, this paper invigorates the concept of gender by examining its linkage with the crop biodiversity conservation praxis explored within the context of rice production. It contends that men and women farmers, with their divergent roles and knowledge bases, contribute to sustainable crop conservation. However, global agriculture disrupted these linkages by pursuing conservation approaches that are gender insensitive. Complementation of the ex situ (genebank) and in situ (on-farm) conservation practices does not address the problem. Rather it begs methodological and ethical questions that have significant policy implications not just on gender-interfaced rice conservation practices at the community level but also for the sustainability of the overall rice conservation initiatives. This essay focuses on the genebank approach