Society最新文献

Research on conspiracy theories has proliferated since 2016, in part due to the US election of President Trump, the COVID-19 pandemic, and increasingly threatening environmental conditions. In the rush to publication given these concerning social consequences, researchers have increasingly treated as definitive a 2016 paper by Michael Wood (Political Psychology, 37(5), 695–705, 2016) that concludes that the phrase “conspiracy theory” has no negative effect upon people’s willingness to endorse a claim. We revisit Wood’s findings and its (re)uptake in the recent literature. Is the label “conspiracy theory” a pejorative? If so, does it sway or affect people’s belief in specific claims of conspiracy (i.e. particular conspiracy theories), or is the effect one that concerns claims of conspiracy more generally (i.e. all conspiracy theories)? Through an examination of the conceptual and methodological scope of Wood’s work and the results of our similar quasi-experimental design, we argue that it is premature to suggest the label “conspiracy theory” has no impact on the believability of a claim, or that it has no rhetorical power.

California is currently grappling with a severe homeless crisis, with Los Angeles and particularly Skid Row, harboring the largest homeless population in the nation. The escalating prevalence of homelessness necessitates evidence-based practices for effective intervention. Despite extensive research on homeless services, the issue’s complexity leaves us without a definitive solution for addressing the diverse needs of homeless individuals. The spectrum of approaches, ranging from stringent criminalization to supportive services, poses a challenge for agencies dedicated to serving this population, requiring them to navigate conflicting ideologies. This study delves into the impact of collaborations between opposing service providers on homeless services, drawing insights from interviews with homeless service workers in Skid Row, Los Angeles. Situated within the institutional logics framework, the research theoretically explores how institutions with conflicting ideologies can collaborate. Furthermore, the study introduces the concept of adjacent logics as a novel way to understand collaboration amidst conflicting ideologies. This study contributes to our understanding of homeless services and provides a nuanced framework for comprehending collaboration in the face of conflicting ideologies. This study addresses a critical gap in our knowledge, offering insights that can inform scholars and practitioners on collaborative strategies and reforms to benefit individuals experiencing homelessness and similar interacting populations.

Throughout the nineteenth century, women suspected of practising prostitution in India were registered under a local lock hospital and given a registration ticket. Paying careful attention to these documents discloses unprecedented details of the lock hospital system in Madras. At first glance, the ticket’s purpose seems to be record-keeping and surveillance. Yet, this article will argue, firstly, that registration tickets in lock hospitals functioned not just as tools of surveillance but also as a medium to study Indian women’s bodies. Thus, they evidence the anthropometric undertones of lock hospital registration systems. Secondly, the article will emphasise how the use of the speculum vaginae within these lock hospitals contributed to defining the ideas around ‘deviant bodies’. I argue that by pointing out the physical difference between Indian and European bodies, the colonial government tried to mark Indian women’s bodies as deviant and, hence, justified surveillance over them. However, this physical categorisation to define someone’s character was not introduced by colonialism but was already prevalent within Indian society as a way of categorising caste hierarchies. This physiognomic categorisation intensified in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries under colonialism, where the physiognomic categorisation of lower-caste women or men by upper-caste elite men had a ‘scientific’ validation in the form of anthropometry.

Since the late nineteenth century, state actions have aimed at alleviating poverty and inequality involved in the development of capitalism. For the particular case of Argentina, we have highlighted in other works some attributes of the state’s interventions on vulnerable populations over the last decades. These attributes include their mass character, that is, the large number of programs and subjects receiving them (De Sena, 2011); their lifetime coverage, where at each stage of life (from pregnancy to old age) there is a subsidy for the poor subject; and reciprocity, that is to say, receiving aid in the form of a lifetime subsidy in response to conditions of poverty always has a conditionality, a “task” or “activity” that the person who receives it must carry out. This article outlines the narratives that the recipients themselves of social policies produce and that imply their practices of feeling regarding hope. Sixty-four interviews were conducted in the districts of La Matanza and the City of Buenos Aires between 2014 and 2019; the interviews include their stories and their hopes regarding the future of their children.