Suchergebnisse

Resumo: O artigo combina discussão teórica com análise empírica, em um esforço para discutir mudanças em curso na teoria e na prática. Tomando ideias e ações como componentes entrelaçados dos processos sociais, focaliza-se uma mudança intelectual ampla e uma inovação institucional empírica como fenômenos que se espelham. No nível teórico, aborda-se a tendência a conceber a sociedade de uma forma que difere do cânone vigente até há bem pouco, argumentando que o ressurgimento da sociedade civil no discurso público, a ascensão de novos movimentos sociais e a difusão de ideais cosmopolitas são alguns dos indícios de transformação que exigem dos cientistas sociais novas lentes teóricas. No nível empírico, considera-se o mundo das organizações não governamentais ilustrativo da nova imagem da sociedade. Sugere-se que a elevação de tais organizações à condição de parceiro ou de alternativa para os mecanismos de autoridade sinaliza uma nova forma de enquadrar as relações entre Estado e sociedade.

This paper discusses data from a survey and in-depth interviews on elite perceptions of poverty in Brazil. De Swaan tried to identify the circumstances under which elites are willing to mobilize resources in order to promote poverty reduction. This paper questions if de Swaan's analysis applies to Brazil. The main finding is that two parts of de Swaan's thesis do apply: that poverty is a problem for the rich in the sense that it generates negative externalities that they would like to reduce; and that the elite believe that there are effective remedies. What is missing for Brazilian elites is the third element, namely that the elite see poverty as their responsibility to do something about it.

Die Verfasserin setzt sich mit zwei Fragen auseinander: (1) In wie fern hat die politische Demokratie zum Wohlergehen der Menschen in Lateinamerika beigetragen? (2) Ist die Demokratie in Lateinamerika stabil institutionalisiert? Die Verfasserin setzt sich zunächst mit dem Problem demokratischer Güter auseinander und wendet sich gegen eine zu enge, rein materialistische Perspektive bei der Beantwortung dieser Frage. Sie behandelt überdies die Zusammenhänge zwischen politischer Bildung und politischer Partizipation und zwischen effektiver Staatsbürgerschaft und Demokratie. Die Verfasserin kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass die erste der genannten Frage zu bejahen ist, dass jedoch von einer stabilen Institutionalisierung der Demokratie noch keine Rede sein kann. (ICE2).

The merger of authority and solidarity that the nation-state accomplished for about 200 years is now threatened by the winds of globalization. As a consequence, the author emphasizes the ways in which the state interacts with both market and civil society are changing significantly. New developments such as the private provision of law and order, the adoption of managerial principles and values in state administration, and the spread of corporate social responsibility ideologies into the universe of firms, all discussed in subsequent articles, make it clear that the very idea of market and authority as contrasting principles of social organization is now being called into question.

The author calls attention to the need to contemplate systematic spatial comparisons and to embrace an explicit commitment to the analysis of processes with greater determination. In her view, the option for recontextualizing disembodied social players may contribute to a sharper picture of the present day malaise, and hopefully also elicit new interpretations or explanations. She envisages an enlarged role for sociologists as an international community of scholars based upon investigations that incorporate an awareness of the historical transformations of the very concepts in use. As she puts it, to take into account changes in sociologys conceptual universe is, in itself, a way to re-embody time, to reintroduce history into the self-reflexive transformation in process.

Applies Edward Banfield's (1958) notion of amoral familism to problems related to solidary & social integration in Latin American contexts of dramatic social inequality. Banfield developed his term to explain the truncation of community in rural areas of southern Italy in the 1950s caused by social inequalities that prevented individuals from working together for the common good. Traditionally, Latin American societies had overcome this kind of malaise by implementing a state-led, corporatist & nationalist ideology that maintained social solidarity. However, in the 1990s, the state has lost its place as ideological leader in favor of privatization & neoliberalism. In this context, elitism & populism have competed to reconstruct an organic notion of social solidarity. However, the loss of a notion of collective identity built around the nation-state has eroded any conception of civil society, & individuals have begun to pursue their individual self-interests. This situation is likened to the amoral familism characteristic of southern Italy in the 1950s. 36 References. D. Ryfe