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The contributions in this book address the question of how to develop and foster democratic competences. This may take place via school curricula, resource materials and teaching/learning methods; in workplaces by means of formalised arrangements that encourage self-direction and through the informal processes engendered by expansive working environments; and in personal and community life, including in the course of incidental learning in social networks. The studies and analyses are somewhat nonconformist in its thematic spread and its boundary-crossing between disciplines and perspectives that conventionally live separate lives.

Significant socio-political changes in China have had great impact on Chinese discourse. Changes to the discourse have become an increasing focus of scholarship. This book examines contemporary Chinese discourse and social practice in China with a focus on the role that language plays in the on-going transformation of Chinese society. With a view to producing new insights into the interdependence between discourse and social practice, this volume explores how discourse has been changing in a context-dependent way; how social practice can lead to shifts in the use of discourse; and how identities and attitudes are constructed through language use. Largely based on empirical studies, this book indicates that Chinese discourse has not only been an integral part of social change, but also Chinese discourse itself is changing, reflecting ideologies, values, attitudes, identities and social practice. The book is a great resource for scholars in diverse disciplinary studies including linguistics, communication, education, media and political studies concerning contemporary China.

It is argued that agricultural gross margin accounting (GMA) is a social phenomenon with the characteristics of an institutionalised practice. This proposition is examined using the new institutionalism in sociology theoretical framework (NIS) drawing on evidence from the literature and interviews. Underlying social, political and functional factors (termed 'the antecedents of deinstitutionalisation' by Oliver (1992)) and the fragmentation of business processes at the farm level, suggest that the next few years will test the widespread advocacy of GMA in farm analysis by advisors and consultants.

Due to the increase in the number of elderly and people seeking medical care, the hotel market with a blend of care and leisure experiences is expected to grow in the future (Han, 2013; Karuppan & Karuppan, 2010; Laesser, 2011). The role of care hotels as an intersection between the care and the tourism sectors makes a vacation in a care hotel an interesting social practice to study. In this contribution a social practices approach (Spaargaren, 1997) is applied to investigate how demand and supply interact during a care hotel vacation. Semi-structured interviews are used to identify successful and less successful interactions or practices between senior guests and personnel in five Dutch care hotels. These interactions are related to materials (care and leisure facilities), competences (skills and empathy of the personnel) and meanings (motivations and aspirations of guests) in the care hotel practice (see Shove et al., 2012). The results show that a social practice approach combined with a qualitative research method may be more suited to analysing the complex encounters between guests and personnel during care hotel vacations than more traditional theories from service or experience quality studies. Simultaneously, this study makes clear that we need to develop alternative qualitative (and/or quantitative) research methods to study more privacy-related or intimate practices or rituals as in the case of care hotels.

In recent decades, social research on youth in Italy has explored a wide range of issues through different interpretative and methodological approaches. However, there are very few studies that seek to identify the keynote features of the juvenile condition. This article argues that collective identities and forms of identification among youth are shaped more and more frequently through the sharing of social practices, of the meanings connected to these practices, and of more comprehensive lifestyles. With reference to four main fields (sport, music, politics, religion) and focusing on youth cultures, it analyses the connections between behaviours, attitudes, values and representations of youth actively involved in each of these different fields. The aim is to identify transversal processes through which young people today elaborate and adopt social practices and cultural profiles, create new social forms, and develop innovative signification processes.

Abstract:InPractice Theory and International Relations, Silviya Lechner and Mervyn Frost make a useful distinction between 'praxis' and 'practices' and correctly insist on the importance of describing the identity of distinct practices. They also make the important point that practices have ethical value for their participants. There is much to like about Lechner and Frost's argument, including its solid philosophical grounding. However, from the perspective of a social scientist, there are some points of concern as well. First, while they champion 'description', they settle for 'naming' practices. Proper description requires more attention to detail than what the authors offer in the book. Second, the authors appear to discriminate between social practices in spatial terms rather than in functional terms. As a consequence, they end up with a description of the practices of international relations, where the different practices are all animated by the same value of freedom. As such, Lechner and Frost offer a reductionist interpretation of the ethical significance of international practices. Third, the authors push their anti-foundationalism too far. When one interprets the (ethical) significance of social practices, it is useful to bring on board philosophical–anthropological models, even if only because it opens up one's interpretive horizons.

Topics of controversy leading to the formation of the International Sociological Assoc's Research Committee on Innovative Processes in Social Change are identified. The innovative processes framework -- developed to accommodate mass-communication theory, the theory & practice of technological implementation, & modernization effects in general -- was criticized by some social scientists for its Western bias; especially in developing countries, the "diffusion-of-innovation" approach in practice led to neocolonialism, increased class differentiation, a competitive ethic, & the decline of native cultural values & practices. Opponents of this approach were not against innovation per se, but rather against its specific Western form of implementation; they recommended that innovation take the form of an awakened social consciousness among peoples of underdeveloped countries. Such thinkers are adherents of a discourse-oriented action research methodology. The form of this method, & its strengths & weaknesses, are indicated. 2 Figures. D. Dunseath.