Suchergebnisse

Foreword / by Rene Girard -- Foreword / by Paul Dumouchel -- Introduction -- 1. The revolt of the slaves at the masters' banquet -- 2. Bourgeois philanthropy -- 3. The surprise box of ressentiment -- 4. The last of the scapegoats -- 5. The mimetic nature of our ressentiment -- 6. Toward a sociology of ressentiment -- 7. From victim-playing to the ethics of ressentiment -- Conclusion.

This paper is a personal attempt to rethink critically the social impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, trying to discuss about some changes, which came out in that tragic period, in the way of living time and space. There are several ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has affected these two main structural dimensions of society and the response strategies used by people, groups, and social organizations, depending on the geographical area. There are trends that have had a highly differentiated impact, which have shown that the concept of time is not the same for everyone. Other trends have had a transversal impact, reconfiguring the ideas of present and future. Precariousness and uncertainty, that coincide with an existential specific condition of our contemporary, now take on a new meaning. Before the pandemic, the neoliberal development model seemed to have no alternative. Now, the possibility of an alternative model is imaginable, not only for the critics of it, but also for a large part of public opinion, which now even considers it necessary. The possibility of an alternative becomes concrete and achievable due to the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on the structural dimensions of time and space in social life.

- This article presents the results of an interdisciplinary research based on the study of metaphors at work during the medical visits of 5 oncologists 3 males, (respectively 41, 43, and 60 year old), 2 females (respectively 41 and 58 year old) for a total of 61 clinical talks that have been videotaped at an hospital in Northern Italy. The choice to study metaphors at work in medical practice greatly depends on our research experience and the realization that both doctors and patients had recourse to them during clinic talks and the use of such metaphors played a complex role that could not merely be referred to the exemplification of clinic concepts and words. From the analysis of recorded conversations we have discovered that the use of metaphors favoured: a) the contextualization of clinic conversations within wider macro-social structures; b) the definition of behaviours, roles, and decisional processes linked to social representations; c) the creative solution for the often irreconcilable tension between the subjective and bodily aspects of what we can call illness, the objective and impersonal character of its clinic definition (disease), and its social dimension (sickness).Key-words: medicalization, metaphor, disease, illness, sickness, oncology.Parole chiave: medicalizzazione, metafora, disease, illness, sickness, oncologia.

- This article presents the results of an interdisciplinary research based on the study of metaphors at work during the medical visits of 5 oncologists - 3 males, (respectively 41, 43, and 60 year old), 2 females (respectively 41 and 58 year old) - for a total of 61 clinical talks that have been videotaped at an hospital in Northern Italy. The choice to study metaphors at work in medical practice greatly depends on our research experience and the realization that both doctors and patients had recourse to them during clinic talks and the use of such metaphors played a complex role that could not merely be referred to the exemplification of clinic concepts and words. From the analysis of recorded conversations we have discovered that the use of metaphors favoured: a) the contextualization of clinic conversations within wider macro-social structures; b) the definition of behaviours, roles, and decisional processes linked to social representations; c) the creative solution for the often irreconcilable tension between the subjective and bodily aspects of what we can call illness, the objective and impersonal character of its clinic definition (disease), and its social dimension (sickness).Key-words: medicalization, metaphor, disease, illness, sickness, oncology.Parole chiave: medicalizzazione, metafora, disease, illness, sickness, oncologia.

This article arises from the urgent need to reflect on the current situation resulting from the dramatic consequences of a crisis which appears to be epochal and which, as sociologists, questions us at first hand. This is to understand the socio-cultural, economic and technological processes that triggered it and to attempt to imagine future scenarios. At the dawn of the third millennium, it seems as if the juggernaut of modernity, with its dream of unlimited progress and cargo of unconditional trust in instrumental rationality, has abruptly slowed down. The pandemic challenges contemporary society to develop a different weltanschauung, alternative to the performative and conformist idea of social planification supported by the neoliberal paradigm. It compels us to finally acquire the consciousness that the complexity of knowledge and global interdependency require collective awareness, political participation, and shared responsibility.