Redefining the Sociological Paradigm: Emile Durkheim and the Scientific Study of Morality

Whereas Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) has long been envisioned as a structuralist, quantitative, and positivist sociologist, some materials that Durkheim produced in the later stages of his career—namely, Moral Education (1961 [1902-1903]), The Evolution of Educational Thought (1977 [1904-1905]), The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1915 [1912]), and Pragmatism and Sociology (1983 [1913-1914]) attest to a very different conception of sociology—one with particular relevance to the study of human knowing, acting, and interchange. Although scarcely known in the social sciences, Emile Durkheim’s (1993 [1887]) “La Science Positive de la Morale en Allemagne” [“The Scientific Study of Morality in Germany”] is an exceptionally important statement for establishing the base of much of Durkheim’s subsequent social thought and for comprehending the field of sociology more generally. This includes the structuralist-pragmatist divide and the more distinctively humanist approach to the study of community life that Durkheim most visibly develops later (1961 [1902-1903]; 1977 [1904-1905]; 1915 [1912]; 1983 [1913-1914]) in his career

Social Transfers and Income Inequality in Old-age: A Multi-national Perspective

This paper examines variation in old-age income inequality between industrialized nations with modern welfare systems. The analysis of income inequality across countries with different retirement income systems provides a perspective on public pension policy choices and designs and their distributional implications. Because of the progressive nature of public pension programs, we hypothesize that there is an inverse relationship between the quality of public pension benefits and old-age income inequality -- that is, countries with comprehensive, universal, and generous public pension systems will exhibit more equal distributions of income in old age. Luxembourg Income Study data indeed show that cross-national variation in old-age income inequality is partly explained by differences in the percentage of seniors' total income derived from public pension transfers. Sweden, for example, has the highest level of government transfers and the lowest level of old-age income inequality, while Israel and the U.S. have the lowest levels of dependency on government transfers and the highest levels of income inequality. A notable exception is Canada where public transfers represent only a moderate portion of elderly income, yet old-age income inequality is relatively low. This suggests that other factors besides quality of public pension benefits play a role in differences in old-age income inequality across countries.old-age; income inequality; public pension policy; government transfers

Age-specific Income Inequality and Life Expectancy: New Evidence

Objectives -- The study has two primary goals. First, to test the hypothesis that higher levels of income inequality are related to lower levels of population health with updated data from around year 2000. Second, to examine the inequality-health relationship across the life course with particular focus on old age when income distributions often shift dramatically. Design -- Correlation techniques were used to assess the relationship between income inequality (Gini ratio) at ages 0+, 25+, 65+, 75+, and 85+ and life expectancy at corresponding ages (0, 25, 65, 75, 85) by sex, before and after adjusting for average population income. Analyses were conducted on two sets of data: 18 wealthy countries and 28 wealthy and non-wealthy countries. Data sources -- International cross-sectional data on income and life expectancy from about year 2000 were derived from the Luxembourg Income Study and the United Nations Demographic Yearbook respectively. Results -- Among wealthy countries the negative effect of income inequality on life expectancy at birth becomes insignificant after controlling for average absolute income: the correlation coefficient changes from -0.603 to -0.207 for men and -0.605 to 0.024 for women. A similar pattern is observed at age 25. By contrast, the effect becomes increasingly positive and significant across old age, notably for males, regardless of adjustments for average population income or countries of observation. Conclusions -- These updated results do not support the inequality-health hypothesis. The relationship between income inequality and life expectancy at earlier ages in wealthy countries can be explained by the confounding effect of average absolute income. In old age the data are entirely contrary to the hypothesis. More research is needed to understand the mechanisms that facilitate the increasing positive effect of income inequality on life expectancy in late life.Cross-national; Income Inequality; Population Health; Life Expectancy; Age

Income Inequality over the Later-Life Course: A Comparative Analysis of Seven OECD Countries

This paper examines income inequality over stages of the later-life course (age 45 and older) and systems that can be used to mitigate this inequality. Two hypotheses are tested: (i) Levels of income inequality decline during old age because public benefits are more equally distributed than work income; (ii) Because of the progressive nature of government benefits, countries with stronger public income security programs are better able to reduce income inequalities during old age. The analysis is performed by comparing age groups within seven OECD countries (Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States) using Luxembourg Income Study data. Both hypotheses are supported. Several conclusions are drawn from the findings.retirement, income dynamics, comparative analysis, public pensions

Picie jako działanie. Analiza interakcjonistyczna

Konsumpcję alkoholu w barach rozpatrujemy nie jako czynność jednostkową, czy też zmienną kulturową, ale jako działanie społeczne. Autor koncentruje się na wyjaśnieniu jaki wpływ na spożywanie alkoholu ma obsługa baru, muzycy, strategie właścicieli barów oraz klienci

Influence Work, Resistance, and Educational Life-Worlds: Quintilian’s [Marcus Fabius Quintilianus] (35-95 CE) Analysis of Roman Oratory as an Instructive Ethnohistorical Resource and Conceptual Precursor of Symbolic Interactionist Scholarship

Despite the striking affinities of classical Greek and Latin rhetoric with the pragmatist/interactionist analysis of the situated negotiation of reality and its profound relevance for the analysis of human group life more generally, few contemporary social scientists are aware of the exceptionally astute analyses of persuasive interchange developed by Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian.Having considered the analyses of rhetoric developed by Aristotle (384-322 BCE) and Cicero (106-43 BCE) in interactionist terms (Prus 2007a; 2010), the present paper examines Quintilian’s (35-95 CE) contributions to the study of persuasive interchange more specifically and the nature of human knowing and acting more generally.Focusing on the education and practices of orators (rhetoricians), Quintilian (a practitioner as well as a distinctively thorough instructor of the craft) provides one of the most sustained, most systematic analyses of influence work and resistance to be found in the literature.Following an overview of Quintilian’s “ethnohistorical” account of Roman oratory, this paper concludes by drawing conceptual parallels between Quintilian’s analysis of influence work and the broader, transcontextual features of symbolic interactionist scholarship (Mead 1934; Blumer 1969; Prus 1996; 1997; 1999; Prus and Grills 2003). This includes “generic social processes” such as: acquiring perspectives, attending to identity, being involved, doing activity, engaging in persuasive interchange, developing relationships, experiencing emotionality, attaining linguistic fluency, and participating in collective events. Offering a great many departure points for comparative analysis, as well as ethnographic examinations of the influence process, Quintilian’s analysis is particularly instructive as he addresses these and related aspects of human knowing, acting, and interchange in highly direct, articulate, and detailed ways.Acknowledging the conceptual, methodological, and analytic affinities of The Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian with symbolic interactionism, an epilogue, Quintilian as an Intellectual Precursor to American Pragmatist Thought and the Interactionist Study of Human Group Life, addresses the relative lack of attention given to classical Greek and Latin scholarship by the American pragmatists and their intellectual progeny, as well as the importance of maintaining a more sustained transcontextual and transhistorical focus on the study of human knowing, acting, and interchange

Poetic Expression and Human Enacted Realities: Plato and Aristotle Engage Pragmatist Motifs in Greek Fictional Representations

Twórczość poetycka (poetic expressions) jako sposób wyrażania myśli może się wydawać zagadnieniem nieco oddalonym od pragmatycznie zorientowanej nauki społecznej. Jednak historia rozwoju zachodniej cywilizacji jest w swej istocie świadomym i zbeletryzowanym opisem ludzkiego doświadczenia i pojmowania świata. Owa „zbeletryzowana” wizja losów sięga czasów klasycznej Grecji (ok. 700–300 lat przed naszą erą) i po dziś dzień inspiruje naukowe próby zrozumienia sposobów, za pomocą których ludzie angażują się w świat, w którym żyją. Rzecz jasna twórczość poetycka jest jedynie jednym z obszarów wczesnej myśli greckiej i może być doceniona i zrozumiana jedynie w kontekście innych dokonań tego okresu, szczególnie zaś filozofii, religii, retoryki, polityki, historii i edukacji. Niemniej poetyckie annały są (a) świadectwem natury czy też kondycji ludzkiej, która jest centralnym zagadnieniem filozofii pragmatycznej (i nauk społecznych) oraz (b) stanowią podstawę dla rozwoju krytyki literackiej (z uwzględnieniem teorii i metod odnoszących się do społecznego konstruowania rzeczywistości przez aktorów ówczesnych dzieł dramatycznych). W niniejszym artykule, w maksymalnie wyczerpujący sposób zostaną zatem ukazane związki i wpływ poetyki okresu wczesnej Grecji na teorie mające za podstawę społeczny aspekt ustanawiania rzeczywistości społecznej.Poetic expressions may seem somewhat removed from a pragmatist social science, but the history of the development of Western civilization is such that the (knowingly) fictionalized renderings of human life-worlds that were developed in the classical Greek era (c700-300BCE) appear to have contributed consequentially to a scholarly emphasis on the ways in which people engage the world. Clearly, poetic writings constitute but one aspect of early Greek thought and are best appreciated within the context of other developments in that era, most notably those taking shape in the realms of philosophy, religion, rhetoric, politics, history, and education. These poetic materials (a) attest to views of the human condition that are central to a pragmatist philosophy (and social science) and (b) represent the foundational basis for subsequent developments in literary criticism (including theory and methods pertaining to the representation of human enacted realities in dramaturgical presentations). Thus, while not reducing social theory to poetic representation, this statement considers the relevance of early Greek poetics for the development of social theory pertaining to humanly enacted realities

Generating, Intensifying, and Redirecting Emotionality: Conceptual and Ethnographic Implications of Aristotle’s Rhetoric

In contrast to those who more characteristically approach emotion as an individual realm of experience of more distinctive physiological and/or psychological sorts, this paper addresses emotionality as a socially experienced, linguistically enabled, activity-based process. While conceptually and methodologically situated within contemporary symbolic interac - tionist thought (Mead 1934; Blumer 1969; Strauss 1993; Prus 1996; 1997; 1999; Prus and Grills 2003), this statement is centrally informed by the pragmatist considerations of emotionality that Aristotle (circa 384-322 BCE) develops in Rhetoric . Although barely known to those in the human sciences, Aristotle’s Rhetoric provides a great deal of insight into people’s definitions of, and experiences with, a wide array of emotions. Addressing matters of persuasive interchange in political, judicial, and evaluative contexts, Aristotle gives particular attention to the intensification and neutralization of people’s emotional states. This includes (1) anger and calm, (2) friendship and enmity, (3) fear and confidence, (4) shame and shamelessness, (5) kindness and inconsideration, (6) pity and indignation, and (7) envy and emulation. Following an introduction to “rhetoric” (as the study of persuasive interchange) and “emo - tionality,” this paper briefly (1) outlines a pragmatist/interactionist approach to the study of emotionality, (2) considers Aristotle as a sociological pragmatist, (3) locates Aristotle’s work within the context of classical Greek thought, (4) acknowledges the relationship of emotion - ality and morality, and (5) addresses emotionality as a generic social process. Following (6) a more sustained consideration of emotionality within the context of Aristotle’s Rhetoric , the paper concludes with (7) a short discussion of the importance of Aristotle’s work for studying emotionality as a realm of human lived experience on a contemporary plane

Therapeutic Hemoglobin Levels after Gene Transfer in β-Thalassemia Mice and in Hematopoietic Cells of β-Thalassemia and Sickle Cells Disease Patients

Preclinical and clinical studies demonstrate the feasibility of treating β-thalassemia and Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) by lentiviral-mediated transfer of the human β-globin gene. However, previous studies have not addressed whether the ability of lentiviral vectors to increase hemoglobin synthesis might vary in different patients

Neurotensin Receptor 1 Gene (NTSR1) Polymorphism Is Associated with Working Memory

BACKGROUND: Recent molecular genetics studies showed significant associations between dopamine-related genes (including genes for dopamine receptors, transporters, and degradation) and working memory, but little is known about the role of genes for dopamine modulation, such as those related to neurotensin (NT), in working memory. A recent animal study has suggested that NT antagonist administration impaired working memory in a learning task. The current study examined associations between NT genes and working memory among humans. METHODS: Four hundred and sixty healthy undergraduate students were assessed with a 2-back working memory paradigm. 5 SNPs in the NTSR1 gene were genotyped. 5 ANOVA tests were conducted to examine whether and how working memory differed by NTSR1 genotype, with each SNP variant as the independent variable and the average accuracy on the working memory task as the dependent variable. RESULTS: ANOVA results suggested that two SNPs in the NTSR1 gene (rs4334545 and rs6090453) were significantly associated with working memory. These results survived corrections for multiple comparisons. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrated that NTSR1 SNP polymorphisms were significantly associated with variance in working memory performance among healthy adults. This result extended previous rodent studies showing that the NT deficiency impairs the working memory function. Future research should replicate our findings and extend to an examination of other dopamine modulators