Garfinkel’s Conception of Time

Garfinkel articulates a significant conception of time - as situated and sequential - that works in tandem with his rendering of social order in terms of situated practices. However, because his treatment of the actor, action, group and time in situated terms differs significantly from more conventional theoretical approaches, critics have often mistakenly interpreted Garfinkel as focused on the individual, and indifferent to the significance of social structures, and their relations through time. What Garfinkel focuses on are practices, not individuals, and he argues that practices constitute the essential foundations of social structure. Given this view, the time dimension of practice is the significant time dimension for any study of communication and/or social order, which are both constituted in and through situations defined by mutual orientation toward practice

Steps Toward a Socio-Technical Categorization Scheme for Communication and Information Standards

Socio-technical systems continue to grow larger and more complex, comprising increasingly significant portions of contemporary society. Yet systematic understanding of interrelationships between social and technological elements remains elusive, even as computers and information systems proliferate. In this paper, we draw on ethnomethodology to distinguish several different kinds of processes through which communication and information are constituted. We discuss the distinctive properties of each in an effort to develop systematic understanding of basic elements of socio-technical systems. In particular, we offer a basic categorization of communication and information standards, noting the constitutive importance of their accompanying social practices. Implications for theory and practice are discussed

Os Estudos de etnometodologia de Garfinkel:: uma investigação sobre os alicerces morais da vida pública moderna

Editora Vozes has published a Portuguese translation of the new second edition of Studies in ethnomethodology. To celebrate that achievement I will talk about the importance of that book and of Garfinkel’s work more generally; in theoretical, methodological and political terms. I will argue that Garfinkel took up Durkheim’s project to make Sociology uniquely suited to the study of modernity and that this explains much of the misunderstanding of his work. I also want to announce the existence of Garfinkel’s Archive of which I am the Director and Intellectual Executor. There are materials in the Archive that should become the focus of important graduate theses and books. Work on the archive is being supported by the German government through a center at Siegen University in Germany called Media of Cooperation. Garfinkel’s argument - like Durkheim’s - changes the epistemological terrain of social science, and hence the theoretical terrain of social argumentation. It shifts the domain of objects from natural to social objects - and the relevant social practices from norms, traditional rules and consensus - to constitutive practices. Because of the enormity of this shift, Ethnomethodology can only be understood by those with a theoretical grasp of what is involved. Otherwise, contradictions follow: as they have. The consequence of Garfinkel’s argument for understanding modern democratic politics is that any inequalities or exclusions that prevent people from being able to fulfill reciprocity conditions in interaction (his famous “Trust Conditions”) are a threat to coherence, meaning, and identity in modern democratic public life.A Editora Vozes publicou uma tradução em português da nova segunda edição de Estudos de etnometodologia. Para comemorar essa realização, falarei hoje a respeito da importância desse livro, da obra de Garfinkel em geral, em termos teóricos, metodológicos e políticos. Argumentarei que Garfinkel se dedicou ao projeto durkheimiano de fazer com que a sociologia se tornasse singularmente adequada para o estudo da modernidade, e que isso explica muitas das incompreensões sofridas por esta obra. Quero também anunciar as atividades do Arquivo Garfinkel (Garfinkel Archive), do qual sou hoje diretora e executora intelectual. Há materiais no arquivo que deverão se tornar o foco de importantes teses de pós-graduação e livros. O trabalho com esses arquivos vem sendo apoiado pelo governo alemão por meio de um centro na Universidade de Siegen, na Alemanha, denominado Mídia da Cooperação. O argumento de Garfinkel, assim como o de Durkheim, modifica o território epistemológico da ciência social e, com ele, o território teórico da argumentação social. Ele reorienta o domínio dos objetos, fazendo com que eles deixem de ser objetos naturais para se tornarem objetos sociais; vem como o domínio das práticas sociais relevantes, que deixam de ser normas, regras tradicionais e consensos, para se tornarem práticas constitutivas. Em razão da magnitude dessa reorientação, a etnometodologia só pode ser entendida por pessoas que já tenham uma compreensão teórica do que ela envolve. De outra forma, surgiriam contradições, o que de fato já aconteceu. A consequência do argumento de Garfinkel para entender a política democrática moderna é que quaisquer desigualdades ou exclusões que impeçam as pessoas de estar em condições de cumprir as condições de reciprocidade de uma interação (suas famosas “condições de confiabilidade”) são uma ameaça à coerência, ao significado e à identidade da vida pública democrática moderna. Tradução: Dermeval de Sena Aires Júnio

20 Years and 50 Issues

Comments of members/readers on what the Society and Mythlore have meant to them

2007 AAPP Monograph Series

The African American Professors Program (AAPP) at the University of South Carolina is proud to publish the seventh edition of its annual monograph series. Furthermore, it is an honor to celebrate the remarkable tenth anniversary of AAPP through these manuscripts. The program recognizes the significance of offering its scholars a venue to engage actively in research and publish papers related thereto. Parallel with the publication of their refereed manuscripts is the opportunity to gain visibility among scholars throughout institutions worldwide. Scholars who have contributed papers for this monograph are to be commended for adding this responsibility to their academic workload. Writing across disciplines adds to the intellectual diversity of these papers. From neophytes, relatively speaking, to an array of very experienced individuals, the chapters have been researched and comprehensively written. Founded in 1997 through the Department of Educational Leadership and Policies in the College of Education, AAPP was designed to address the underrepresentation of African American professors on college and university campuses. Its mission is to expand the pool of these professors in critical academic and research areas. Sponsored by the University of South Carolina, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the South Carolina General Assembly, the program recruits doctoral students for disciplines in which African Americans currently are underrepresented among faculty in higher education. The continuation of this monograph series is seen as responding to a window of opportunity to be sensitive to an academic expectation of graduates as they pursue career placement and, at the same time, one that allows for the dissemination of products to a broader community. The importance of this monograph series has been voiced by one of our 2002 AAPP graduates, Dr. Shundele LaTjuan Dogan, formerly an Administrative Fellow at Harvard University and a Program Officer for the Southern Education Foundation. She is currently a Program Officer for the Arthur M. Blank Foundation in Atlanta. Dr. Dogan wrote: One thing in particular that I want to thank you for is having the African American Professors Program scholars publish articles for the monograph. have to admit that writing the articles seemed like extra work at the time. However, in my recent interview process, organizations have asked me for samples of my writing. Including an article from a published monograph helped to make my portfolio much more impressive. You were \u27right on target\u27 in having us do the monograph series. (AAPP 2003 Monograph, p. xi) The African American Professors Program dedicates this 2007 tenth anniversary publication as a special contribution to its readership and hopes that each will be inspired by this interdisciplinary group of manuscripts. John McFadden, Ph.D. The Benjamin Elijah Mays Distinguished Professor Emeritus Director, African American Professors Program University of South Carolinahttps://scholarcommons.sc.edu/mcfadden_monographs/1009/thumbnail.jp

Precaution or Integrated Responsibility Approach to Nanovaccines in Fish Farming? A Critical Appraisal of the UNESCO Precautionary Principle

Nanoparticles have multifaceted advantages in drug administration as vaccine delivery and hence hold promises for improving protection of farmed fish against diseases caused by pathogens. However, there are concerns that the benefits associated with distribution of nanoparticles may also be accompanied with risks to the environment and health. The complexity of the natural and social systems involved implies that the information acquired in quantified risk assessments may be inadequate for evidence-based decisions. One controversial strategy for dealing with this kind of uncertainty is the precautionary principle. A few years ago, an UNESCO expert group suggested a new approach for implementation of the principle. Here we compare the UNESCO principle with earlier versions and explore the advantages and disadvantages by employing the UNESCO version to the use of PLGA nanoparticles for delivery of vaccines in aquaculture. Finally, we discuss whether a combined scientific and ethical analysis that involves the concept of responsibility will enable approaches that can provide a supplement to the precautionary principle as basis for decision-making in areas of scientific uncertainty, such as the application of nanoparticles in the vaccination of farmed fish

Messiness of forest governance:How technical approaches suppress politics in REDD+ and conservation projects

Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) was originally conceived to address the global problem of climate change by reducing deforestation and forest degradation at national and subnational levels in developing countries. Since its inception, REDD+ proponents have increasingly had to adapt global ideas to local demands, as the rollout process was met with on-the-ground realities, including suspicion and protest. As is typical in aid or ‘development’ projects conceived in the global North, most of the solutions advanced to improve REDD+ tend to focus on addressing issues of justice (or ‘fairness’) in distributive terms, rather than addressing more inherently political objections to REDD+ such as those based on rights or social justice. Using data collected from over 700 interviews in five countries with both REDD+ and non-REDD+ cases, we argue that the failure to incorporate political notions of justice into conservation projects such as REDD+ results in ‘messiness’ within governance systems, which is a symptom of injustice and illegitimacy. We find that, first, conservation, payment for ecosystem services, and REDD+ project proponents viewed problems through a technical rather than political lens, leading to solutions that focused on procedures, such as ‘benefit distribution.’ Second, focusing on the technical aspects of interventions came at the expense of political solutions such as the representation of local people's concerns and recognition of their rights. Third, the lack of attention to representation and recognition justices resulted in illegitimacy. This led to messiness in the governance systems, which was often addressed in technical terms, thereby perpetuating the problem. If messiness is not appreciated and addressed from appropriate notions of justice, projects such as REDD+ are destined to fail

O universalismo ético: Kohlberg e Habermas

Examina-se a concepção de universalismo ético a que Lawrence Kohlberg chegou em suas pesquisas sobre o desenvolvimento do pensamento moral, sobretudo a idéia de que esse desenvolvimento, em todos os seres humanos, culmina em uma moralidade "pós-convencional" concebida em termos de princípios de justiça. Discutem-se algumas das tentativas que foram feitas de submeter essa concepção à verificação empírica e a apreciação crítica que dela fez Jürgen Habermas.The concept of ethical universalim at which Kohlberg arrived in his researches on the development of moral reasoning is examined chiefly regarding the idea that this development culminates , in all human beings, in a "post-conventional" morality conceived in terms of principles of justice. Some attempts to submit this conception to empirical verification as well as Haberma 's reactions to it are discussed

Dreams and nightmares of liberal international law: capitalist accumulation, natural rights and state hegemony

This article develops a line of theorising the relationship between peace, war and commerce and does so via conceptualising global juridical relations as a site of contestation over questions of economic and social justice. By sketching aspects of a historical interaction between capitalist accumulation, natural rights and state hegemony, the article offers a critical account of the limits of liberal international law, and attempts to recover some ground for thinking about the emancipatory potential of international law more generally