Suchergebnisse

Since Gabriel Tarde's LES LOIS DE L'IMITATION (The Laws of Imitation), many soc sci'ts have developed various theories on imitation based on the individual psychol'al approach to the study of imitative behavior. However, the sociol'al concept of imitation in its cross-cultural perspective still needs to be explored. An attempt is made to re-evaluate the concepts of imitation based on an ethnosociol'al approach. This conceptual scheme is employed to analyze the nature, motives, & limitations of imitative action in the process of intersocietal culture diffusion, esp as they relate to modernization. As the final problematic the modifiability of imitation is discussed, drawing some examples from the recent Korean accultuation experience. To conclude, phenomenological perspective is essential if one is to understand the basic motives of imitation in the transculturation process. Without modification, an attempt at modernization through sheer imitation of the West will not achieve the basic motives toward innovative soc change in the non-Western developing countries. AA.

Since the last decade, there has been a tremendous growth in the call center businesses in several metropolitan and urban cities in India. Mumbai city is no exception to this sudden boom. The call center businesses employ over 500,000 nascent employees in the age group of 18-28 yrs in Mumbai. The nature of outsourced work along with the odd working hours in this industry leads to high employee attrition in the call centers. Job satisfaction, high levels of stress, health issues, employee safety and career prospects are some of the reasons cited by industry experts as some of the factors leading to absenteeism and high employee turnover. This study facilitates the understanding of the extent of impact of call center job profile and the related challenges that its poses to the employees of call centers.

Practicing Culture seeks to revitalize the field of cultural sociology with an emphasis not on abstract theoretical debates but on showing how to put theoretical sources to work in empirical research. Each of the chapters in this book offer a provocative empirical case study of how culture works in practice and how practice makes and remakes culture. It will prove an essential tool for students and researchers of Cultural Theory, Contemporary Social Theory and Cultural Sociology

Today, interest in networks is growing by leaps and bounds, in both scientific discourse and popular culture. Networks are thought to be everywhere - from the architecture of our brains to global transportation systems. And networks are especially ubiquitous in the social world: they provide us with social support, account for the emergence of new trends and markets, and foster social protest, among other functions. Besides, who among us is not familiar with Facebook, Twitter, or, for that matter, World of Warcraft, among the myriad emerging forms of network-based virtual social interaction? It is common to think of networks simply in structural terms - the architecture of connections among objects, or the circuitry of a system. But social networks in particular are thoroughly interwoven with cultural things, in the form of tastes, norms, cultural products, styles of communication, and much more. What exactly flows through the circuitry of social networks? How are people's identities and cultural practices shaped by network structures? And, conversely, how do people's identities, their beliefs about the social world, and the kinds of messages they send affect the network structures they create? This book is designed to help readers think about how and when culture and social networks systematically penetrate one another, helping to shape each other in significant ways.