Resolving identity ambiguity through transcending fandom

Identity construction involves accumulating cultural, social, and symbolic capital, with initial endowments being accrued through socialization into one’s habitus. This research explores the experiences of individuals that feel a lack of capital, which leads to ambiguity regarding their identities and places in the world. Through in-depth interviews, this interpretive research shows that such individuals may turn to fandom for gaining status and belonging. Fandoms are consumption fields with clear, limited forms of cultural capital. Through serial fandom and engagement with fandom in different ways, individuals were able to learn the skill of identifying and accruing relevant cultural capital. The skill became decontextualized and recontextualized, allowing individuals to transcend fandom and accrue general forms of cultural capital. Learning the skill aids individuals in dealing with the simultaneously debilitating and empowering freedom of contemporary consumer culture. Moreover, gaining cultural capital could be altogether developing into the form of the process we describe

Domestic elites and external actors in post-conflict democratisation: mapping interactions and their impact

Following the end of the Cold War, post-conflict democratisation has rarely occurred without a significant international involvement. This contribution argues that an explanation of the outcomes of post-conflict democratisation requires more than an examination of external actors, their mission mandates or their capabilities and deficiencies. In addition, there is a need to study domestic elites, their preferences and motivations, as well as their perceptions of and their reactions to external interference. Moreover, the patterns of external–internal interactions may explain the trajectory of state-building and democracy promotion efforts. These issues deserve more attention from both scholars and practitioners in the fields of peace- and state-building, democracy promotion, regime transition and elite research. Analyses of external actors and domestic elites in post-conflict democratisation should therefore address three principal issues: (1) the identification of relevant domestic elites in externally induced or monitored state-building and democratisation processes, (2) the dynamics of external–domestic interactions and (3) the impact of these interactions on the outcomes of post-conflict democratisation

Habits, Canvases, and Conversations: How I Think about Publishing

This essay responds to an invitation by the editors of Sociologica to write about publication strategy. It outlines six suggestions for how to publish not just in sociology, but more generally. They are based on the author’s own experience. Those suggestions are: (1) Write habitually; (2) Recognize and try out different canvases; (3) Don’t reinvent the wheel; (4) Be part of a conversation; (5) Respond well to criticism. It concludes by outlining (6) Five perils to things to avoid

LA DOCTRINA DEL DERECHO VIVIENTE: REPERCUSIONES DE UN CAMBIO DE PARADIGMA DEL SISTEMA TRADICIONAL DE FUENTES DEL DERECHO EN EL ORDENAMIENTO JURÍDICO COLOMBIANO

La constitucionalización del derecho ha traído consigo nuevas teorías de interpretación tendientes al reconocimiento y materialización del concepto de justicia constitucional estatuido v. gr. la teoría del Derecho Viviente, perteneciente a la corriente de escuelas antiformalistas; teoría que supone una dicotomía, pues considera que “(…) frente al derecho de los libros (o de los códigos), existe otro que surge de las dinámicas sociales y que es el que se aplica a partir de la interpretación de los órganos autorizados” (Sentencia C 418 de 2014)Esta teoría ha sido desarrollada por la doctrina y acogida por los altos tribunales, especialmente, en los eventos en los cuales existen interpretaciones contrarias frente a un mismo supuesto derivadas del ejercicio judicial de los máximos tribunales con el fn de pacifcar las posturas y adoptar la interpretación que se ajuste a la dinámica social del momento histórico; interpretación, que resulta ser referente de obligatorio(en principio) acatamiento por parte de los jueces de menor rango en virtud de fguras tales como el precedente judicial vinculante.El presente escrito tiene como propósito principal brindar un panorama teórico–conceptual frente al desarrollo de la teoría del Derecho Viviente por parte de la doctrina, el sistema jurídico italiano (quien ha hecho valiosos aportes al desarrollo del concepto) y especialmente en la jurisprudencia de la Corte Constitucional Colombiana, corporación que en los últimos años ha desarrollado una nutrida línea jurisprudencial frente a los requisitos para que se confgure este concepto y pueda ser eventualmente valorado dentro de un juicio de constitucionalidad