Sociologie Românească (Romanian Sociology Review)
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Humour and Intertextuality: the Use of Inter-Referentiality in The Simpsons, South Park and Family Guy
Get PDFThe paper analyses how three iconic American TV shows have used humour to individualize their respective identities and intertextuality to differentiate from each other. The Simpsons, South Park and Family Guy occupy special places in American popular culture and they are chosen in this paper not only for their unique identities, but also because of the rivalry that exists between them in the media, in their content and between their fans. This rivalry puts a particular spin on the way the shows approach intertextuality in that inter referentiality took on a prominent role in defining their identity and in conveying not only the messages and meanings behind various episodes, but also the philosophy behind each show
The Red Sludge Took It All – Even Family Ties?
Get PDFIn this paper I would like to describe the function and changes of family ties after a traumatic experience. In my analysis I compared life story interviews, which have been recorded in two periods: one and a half month after the Hungarian red sludge disaster in 2010 and three years later. As I placed this case in Ulrich Beck’s theoretical framework, named ‘risk society’, I had three main questions about 1) the changing of family ties after the disaster, 2) family’s role in trauma procession and 3) individuals’ future prospects regarding family life. This paper points out that there are definite gender differences in the individuals’ family perception, and the importance of distinguishing the perceptions about immediate and distant family. Generally, no long-term changes caused by the disaster could be observed in the analysed type of family ties. I would like to point at the possibilities in family life and family ties, which can help the trauma recovery procession and which debase it. The most important result of this paper is the main role of the entire and operable family ties in coping with trauma
Amélioration de la qualité de vie à partir de la prospérité précaire. Analyse du rôle des liens sociaux et des stratégies d’adaptation des ménages en Roumanie et en Suisse: Improving the Quality of Life when Living in Precarious Prosperity. Analysis of the Role of Social Ties and of Adjustment Strategies by Households from Romania and Switzerland
No full textThis article investigates the strategies to improve the quality of life of households in precarious prosperity in urban contexts of Romania and Switzerland – two countries who are characterised by strong structural and political differences and dissimilar living conditions. The paper advances qualitative research on the topic, which is still scarce. Quality of life is approached according to the definition of Zapf and the empirical analysis is based on the concept of social bonds of Paugam. The authors undertook a longitudinal analysis on several interview waves in order to shed light on the role of the welfare state, the labour market, the family and the community for the households’ quality of life. The Swiss households perceive a greater scope of agency than the Romanian households, which depend mainly on the labour market and their family. Strategies of adaptation come to the fore in both countries, when an active modification of the living conditions is not perceived as possible. This new element goes beyond the Paugam’s concept of social bonds and allows for understanding where new social policy is needed: in the adapted cases, the welfare state and communities could actually play an active role to improve the households’ quality of life
A Hypothesis on the Origin and Synchrony of the Romanian and Western Medical Sociology
Get PDFThe present article focuses on the eating habits of the population of interwar Romania, as rendered in the monographic research of the Sociological School of Bucharest, founded and led by Professor Dimitrie Gusti. It also investigates the health state of the Romanian citizens, mainly, but not exclusively, of those from rural areas. Our sources of information on the nutrition and public health of interwar Romania consisted in the studies and research carried out in the 1918–1948 period by the Sociological School of Bucharest, published in scientific journals and books edited under the scientific authority of Professor Gusti. In this respect, we have examined, almost in its entirety, the relevant work published by the Monographic School on the subject of nutrition and public health. The present article aims, therefore, to summarize the sociological studies and research carried out in the interwar period, at national level, which we above mentioned. It also aims to bring forward, for further critical scrutiny, a hypothesis regarding the synchrony between the Romanian medical sociology (of Gustian origin) and the similar scientific movements from the Western countries
Primăriile şi competiţia fondurilor europene: cazul „punctelor albe”: Municipalities in the Contest of European Funds: the Case of 'White Spots'
No full textThis paper examines the case of ‘white spots’ in the absorption of European funds for the level of urban and rural municipalities in Romania. The ‘white spots’ are those municipalities that have not succeeded to absorb any euro from the entire volume of available European funds, for the period of 2009-2015. The paper defines the absorption of European funds as a case of attracting financial resources from the external environment, therefore as a case of organizational effectiveness for public organizations. The results of the analysis are mainly based on a secondary analysis of the local budgets execution database, for the period of 2009-2015. In addition to other quantitative data sources, a series of interviews with mayors representing ‘white spots’ has been conducted. The study identifies several characteristics of white spots municipalities, differentiated according to: i) territorial distribution; ii) fiscal capacity; iii) size of the organization and locality; iv) previous experience in European funded projects; v) local level of human development; vi) environmental factors and resource munificence as well as vii) other factors
Competing Voices of the Drive to Planning? The Cooperatist Engagement with Corporatism in Romania
Get PDFThe article inquiries into the interplay between the discourses of cooperatism and corporatism in pre-communist Romania, by locating both trends within the fold of the drive to economic planning prevalent in the 1930’s and relating them to the development of syndicalism and social policies over the long run. The sophisticated engagement of the cooperatist theorist Gromolsav Mladenatz with the spread of corporatist ideas and practice in Europe is placed at the center of the account and contextualized in the national ideological and political setting, with an emphasis on his efforts to explore the validity of the claims advanced by the contemporary economic theory with a right-wing orientation to strike a revolutionary path away from liberal capitalism, as well as on his largely negative assessment of the same claims. Mladenatz’s own searches for a way out of the economic predicament of the time is shown to have led him, at the end of the period covered, towards a departure from the tenets of dirigisme (otherwise shared, on all accounts, by the cooperatist and corporatist camps). The corresponding contextualization of Mihail Manoilescu’s view of corporatism, by relating it to the various strands of the Romanian politics of professional representation and to all the ideological attitudes of relevance, is the larger objective targeted all throughout
Către o abordare sociologică a bunăstării subiective: Towards a Sociological Approach to Subjective Well-being
No full textThis paper is a synthesis of my previous point of views (written since 1999) and linked with the articulation of a sociological theory of subjective well-being. This theory should be capable of reconciling individual phenomenon of perception of subjective well-being with the complex processes of social happiness. I began by arguing, in line recent scholars (Bartram, 2012; Thin, 2014; Zevnik, 2014; McKenzie, 2016), that happiness is a socio-cultural construct. A short review of historical ideas of happiness sets the terms of the debate about the relationship between society and subjective well-being, a debate that emerged just a few years ago in the field of sociology (see the issue of Sociological research online edited by Cieslik and Bartram (2014)). Ideas of good life are a product of ideologies and social practices. For example theories of quality of life are implicit to a given society and influence the way a person evaluate his/her life (see the conceptual referent theory by Rojas, 2007). However, a full sociological theory of subjective well-being should not limit to the cognitive dimension. Based on previous research in sociology of emotions, I explore the possibility that even the development of the emotion linked with happiness is the product of society. Using concepts of “feeling rules” (Hochschild, 2012) and “public mood” (Rahn, Kroeger and Kite, 1996), I propose a model of the way society influences not only our standards of good life, but shapes the emotion of happiness itself, which becomes normative to a society
Factors of Choosing Specializations in Higher Education Institutions of the Hungarian-Romanian Cross-Border Region
Get PDFThe aim of the paper is to examine the decisions of students from the Hungarian-Romanian Cross-Border Region to pursue higher education and to choose a career, correlated with the individual and social motivational context. Larger higher education institutions (HEIs) attract more likely students from intellectual families, with high socio-economic status, those who have more friends, speak several languages, have material values; continuing education and university choice are influenced by the mobility factor and by following a model. The factors that are relevant in the choice of specialization at smaller HEIs are: the number of spoken languages, a disadvantaged background and gender. Students who are females, who come from rural areas and who have post-material values tend to choose humanities as their specialization, while students with a high mobility factor and high education level of the father will more likely choose sciences. The results could be efficiently used in the development of higher education in the field of practice, policy and research or in career counselling. Also, they enrich the results of empirical research related to the recruitment mechanisms of cross-border higher education institutions and young students
Conversion, Personal Identity, Life History
Get PDFIn this study, the life histories of two basic groups, Krishna monks and Krishna followers were examined. During the analysis, we discovered that the different situation of the two groups has essential influence on the process and development of conversion. We found that the definition of conversion proposed by Snow and Machalek may be considered an ideal type, as its properties are present in the exact form described by the authors primarily in the case of monks. In the case of those more loosely connected to the Hare Krishna Movement, only a “minimal programme” of the new mentality is present. In their case, the properties of conversion, i.e. drastic biographical reconstruction, adoption of the new pattern of thinking and thorough embracement of the convert role, were only partially attained. In what the fourth property – iconic language – is concerned, no relevant example was found in the scholarly literature about those loosely connected to the Movement. Thus, even the members of a new religious movement with such rigorous and fundamental theology as the ISKCON should not be treated as a homogeneous group
The Role of Access to Healthcare in Self-rated Health in Romania, from a European Comparative Perspective
Get PDFThis paper investigates the contribution of the socioeconomic status and access to healthcare toward subjective health in Romania, when compared to two groups of countries: the Central and Eastern European, and the Nordic and Western countries. This data come from the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) 2012. Two models are examined, with the help of logistic regression: one testing the contribution of socioeconomic status on self-rated health, and one testing the influence of access to healthcare on self-rated health. In line with previous research, the results showed that the socioeconomic status contributes significantly to the health status in Romania, as well as the two country groups, although there was evidence of greater social and economic inequalities in Romania. Similarly, access to healthcare was proven to be a key universal factor influencing self-rated health, but in Romania, it showed a higher extent of variation in the self-perceived general health