The social, cosmopolitanism and beyond

First, this article will outline the metaphysics of ‘the social’ that implicitly and explicitly connects the work of lassical and contemporary cosmopolitan sociologists as different as Durkheim, Weber, Beck and Luhmann. In a second step, I will show that the cosmopolitan outlook of classical sociology is driven by exclusive differences. In understanding human affairs, both classical sociology and contemporary cosmopolitan sociology reflect a very modernist outlook of epistemological, conceptual, methodological and disciplinary rigour that separates the cultural sphere from the natural objects of concern. I will suggest that classical sociology – in order to be cosmopolitan – is forced (1) to exclude non-social and non-human objects as part of its conceptual and methodological rigour, and (2) consequently and methodologically to rule out the non-social and the non-human. Cosmopolitan sociology imagines ‘the social’ as a global, universal explanatory device to conceive and describe the non-social and non-human. In a third and final step the article draws upon the work of the French sociologist Gabriel Tarde and offers a possible alternative to the modernist social and cultural other-logics of social sciences. It argues for a inclusive conception of ‘the social’ that gives the non-social and non-human a cosmopolitan voice as well

Ecological study of aquatic midges and some related insects with special reference to feeding habits

Die Schweiz ist ein reiches Land. Sie verfügt über viele Millionäre. Der große Reichtum konzentriert sich auf wenige Familien und Personen. In der Schweiz leben aber auch eine halbe Million der Bevölkerung (7,5 Mio.) in Haushalten von Erwerbstätigen, die weniger als das Existenzminimum verdienen. Über 200‘000 Personen sind auf Sozialhilfe angewiesen. Bei den Vermögen und den verfügbaren Einkommen hat sich in den letzten Jahren die Kluft zwischen den obersten und untersten zehn Prozent verschärft. Die Zunahme der sozialen Ungleichheit erhöht die soziale Brisanz, was mehr zu ergründen ist. Die soziale Differenzierung dokumentiert Prozesse der Globalisierung. Sie reproduziert und spezifiziert alte soziale Ungleichheiten. Wichtig ist, dass die Soziale Arbeit das thematisiert und weiter theoretisiert

In good company: risk, security and choice in young people's drug decisions

This article draws on original empirical research with young people to question the degree to which 'individualisation of risk', as developed in the work of Beck and Giddens, adequately explains the risks young people bear and take. It draws on alternative understandings and critiques of 'risk' not to refute the notion of the reflexive individual upon which 'individualisation of risk' is based but to re-read that reflexivity in a more hermeneutic way. It explores specific risk-laden moments – young people's drug use decisions – in their natural social and cultural context of the friendship group. Studying these decisions in context, it suggests, reveals the meaning of 'risk' to be not given, but constructed through group discussion, disagreement and consensus and decisions taken to be rooted in emotional relations of trust, mutual accountability and common security. The article concludes that 'the individualisation of risk' fails to take adequate account of the significance of intersubjectivity in risk-decisions. It argues also that addressing the theoretical overemphasis on the individual bearer of risk requires not only further empirical testing of the theory but appropriate methodological reflection

When the working day is through: The end of work as identity?

This article seeks to present a counter-case to the ‘end of work thesis’ advocated by writers such as Beck, Sennett and Bauman. It argues that work remains a significant locus of personal identity and that the depiction by these writers of endemic insecurity in the workplace is inaccurate and lacks empirical basis. The article draws upon case study data to illustrate how, across a range of workplaces, work remains an importance source of identity, meaning and social affiliation

Measuring non-extensitivity parameters in a turbulent Couette-Taylor flow

We investigate probability density functions of velocity differences at different distances r measured in a Couette-Taylor flow for a range of Reynolds numbers Re. There is good agreement with the predictions of a theoretical model based on non-extensive statistical mechanics (where the entropies are non-additive for independent subsystems). We extract the scale-dependent non-extensitivity parameter q(r, Re) from the laboratory data.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Comparison of two experiments on radiative neutron decay

Over 10 years ago we proposed an experiment on measuring the characteristics of radiative neutron decay in papers [1, 2]. At the same time we had published the theoretical spectrum of radiative gamma quanta, calculated within the framework of the electroweak interactions, on the basis of which we proposed the methodology for the future experiment [3,4]. However, because we were denied beam time on the intensive cold neutron beam at ILL (Grenoble, France) for a number of years, we could only conduct the experiment in 2005 on the newly opened FRMII reactor of Technical University of Muenchen. The main result of this experiment was the discovery of radiative neutron decay and the measurement of its relative intensity B.R.= (3.2+-1.6)10-3 with C.L.=99.7% for radiative gamma quanta with energy over 35 kev [5,6]. Over a year after our first announcement about the results of the conducted experiment, "Nature" [7] published a letter asserting that its authors have also measured the branching ratio of radiative neutron decay B.R.= (3.13+-0.34)10-3 with C.L.=68% and gamma quanta energy from 15 to 340 kev. This article aims to compare these two experiments. It is shown that the use of strong magnetic fields in the NIST (Washington, USA) experiment methodology not only prevents any exact measurement of the branching ratio and identification of radiative neutron decay events, but also makes registration of ordinary neutron decay events impossible.Comment: contribution on conference ISINN-1

The Football Supporter in a Cosmopolitan Epoch

Arguably, the later process of globalization served to reshape how socializations are fostered and maintained across time and space. Additionally, in the last fifteen years a new phenomenon that reinvigorated time and space compression has emerged: social media. Moreover, it is argued that the conjunction of those processes can be seen as taking place on a distinct Age - the Anthropocene or the cosmopolitan epoch. Arguably those processes have the capacity to alter the way individuals enact their football fandom In this light, this paper seeks to conceptualize one particular football support identity that takes into account this fragmented period. Based on an 18-month ethnographic research with supporters of one English Premier League, this paper conceptualizes the football fan in the Anthropocene as the cosmopolitan flâneur. I conclude by pointing out to some prospective avenues for future research based on a cosmopolitan imagination