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+title: "Participation inequality"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participation_inequality"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:27.174307+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+In social sciences, participation inequality consists of difference between levels of participation of various groups in certain activities. Common examples include:
+
+differing levels of participation in democratic, electoral politics, by social class, race, gender, etc.
+differing levels of participation in online communities as described by Jakob Nielsen.
+In politics, participation inequality typically affects "the kinds of individuals, such as the young, the poor and those with little formal education" who tend to not take the initiative to participate in electoral and related events. State enumeration, such as was done in Canada before the implementation of the National Register of Electors in 1996, "worked to augment voter turnout among all segments of society and thus mitigated a natural tendency toward participation inequality in electoral politics".
+
+
+== Political participation inequality ==
+Political participation inequality refers to how populations differ in political participation when sorted by various characteristics. Most often these groupings are by social class, race, gender, or ethnicity. Widespread political participation inequality often describes when various groups are left out of the political sphere or excluded from various political rights.
+Participation inequality usually helps political theorists determine where democracies fail or when political institutions are not democratically responsive. When political systems are too unequal in terms of political participation, it most generally means that there is a breakdown in the ability of all citizens to politically deliberate to distribute various scarce resources, implement comprehensive public policy, or enact needed social reforms. Nations with high amounts of participation inequality are generally characterized as undemocratic although there are certain nations, like India, where low participation inequality has not helped the democratic responsiveness of Indian institutions.
+
+
+=== Robert Dahl ===
+
+In his 1971 paper Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition, Robert Dahl provided a basic framework to evaluate democracies or polyarchies (nearly/almost full democracies) based on their participation inequality. He argued that there are two dimensions: public contestation – the various rights and procedures guaranteed to citizens – and inclusiveness – how accessible these rights are to all citizens. More fully, public contestation describes the necessary functions for a liberal democracy: a competitive political atmosphere, ability to run for office, right to vote, right to assembly, etc. Inclusiveness describes what portion of the population is able to enjoy these rights and procedures.
+Participation inequality is usually represented along the dimension of inclusiveness. So, if a nation were to allow only short people to vote, this political system would have a certain level of public contestation – the right to vote being available – and a certain dimension of inclusiveness – only short people being able to enjoy this right. This system of evaluating democracies enables comparisons of political regimes based on participation inequality by comparing inclusiveness between equally publicly contestable political systems.
+
+
+=== Causes of political participation ===
+
+
+==== Dahlian causes ====
+Using Dahl’s framework, the first cause of participation inequality can be rooted in a political system’s public policy or in the Dahlian dimension of inclusiveness. Policies that exclude groups based on ethnic identity such as old apartheid South Africa or Iranian exclusion of Sunni political parties best conveys systemic political exclusion that is rooted in a regime’s citizenship requirements or public policy.
+
+
+==== Expansion of Dahl ====
+
+The more insidious cause of participation inequality stems from a third dimension that has been recently added to Dahl’s two-dimensional evaluation of political systems: institutions. In this framework, institutions implement political rights and procedures guaranteed by the state. Institutional causes for participation inequality can include literacy tests, extensive citizenship requirements, sparse voting booths in rural or poor areas, and a lack of public transportation. These all affect the ability of citizens to properly exercise guaranteed rights like voting.
+Institutional causes of participation inequality can also be mitigated or exacerbated by cultural norms. Most often high voter turnout usually is hailed as a marker for a democratically responsive nation; however, in India “the turnout rate among the poor is almost as high as for those who are either middle class or rich. A detailed study of voter participation reported for the 2009 national elections shows that voter participation rates do not seem to vary by income status at all...Recent studies report similar findings from Africa and Latin America (Bratton 2008; Boot & Seligson 2008)”. Many of these studies conclude that in developing democracies voting acts as a reassurance of social status or worth in the eyes of the state. This cultural norm has not translated to more democratically responsive institutions in that “the governments created by these elections are known to neglect the interests of the poor and treat them disrespectfully compared to other income groups”. Nations like India are considered to be exceptions to the general rule that economic status has some bearing on voter participation.
+
+
+==== Economic and educational inequality ====
+Economic inequality and educational inequality have often been pointed to as common culprits for political participation inequality. In large part, these two types of inequality are often created and reiterated by political institutions, but most political theorists differentiate these causes for political participation as separate, largely because they are not fully solved by changes in political institutions. While the outcomes of political institutions highly vary from regime to regime, most of the literature finds that high amounts of economic inequality in developed countries depress voter turnout for poorer individuals and increase voter turnout for more affluent individuals (this depends on social cohesion of societies, correlating negatively with affluent political participation when economic inequality is high). Other literature finds that educational inequality depresses voter turnout depending on one’s income level and perceived relative educational status (how one perceives one’s social status and others’ education levels).
+
+
+== See also ==
+1% rule
+Pareto principle
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passing_(sociology)-0.md

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+---
+title: "Passing (sociology)"
+chunk: 1/6
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passing_(sociology)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:28.378118+00:00"
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+---
+
+Passing is the ability of a person to be regarded as a member of an identity group or category, such as racial identity, ethnicity, caste, social class, sexual orientation, gender, religion, age or disability status, that is often different from their own. Passing may be used to increase social acceptance to cope with stigma by removing stigma from the presented self and could result in other social benefits as well. Thus, passing may serve as a form of self-preservation or self-protection if expressing one's true or prior identity may be dangerous.
+Passing may require acceptance into a community and may lead to temporary or permanent leave from another community to which an individual previously belonged. Thus, passing can result in separation from one's original self, family, friends, or previous living experiences. Successful passing may contribute to economic security, safety, and stigma avoidance, but it may take an emotional toll as a result of denial of one's previous identity and may lead to depression or self-loathing. When an individual deliberately attempts to "pass" as a member of an identity group, they may actively engage in performance of behaviors that they believe to be associated with membership of that group. Passing practices may also include information management of the passer in attempting to control or conceal any stigmatizing information that may reveal disparity from their presumed identity.
+Etymologically, the term is simply the nominalisation of the verb pass in its phrasal use with for or as, as in a counterfeit passing for the genuine article or an impostor passing as another person. It has been in popular use since at least the late 1920s.

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+title: "Passing (sociology)"
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+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passing_(sociology)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:28.378118+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Academic framework ==
+Passing, as a sociological concept, was first coined by Erving Goffman as a term for one response to possessing some kind of stigma that is often less visible. Stigma, according to Goffman's framework in his work Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity (1963), "refer[s] to an attribute that is deeply discrediting" or "an undesired differentness from what [was] anticipated".  According to Goffman, "This discrepancy, when known about or apparent, spoils his social identity; it has the effect of cutting him off from society and from himself so that he stands a discredited person facing an unaccepting world".
+Thus, inhabiting an identity associated with stigma may be particularly dangerous and harmful. According to Link and Phelan, Roschelle and Kaufman, and Marvasti, it may lead to loss of opportunities due to status loss and discrimination, alienation and marginalization, harassment and embarrassment, and social rejection. These can be a persistent source of psychological issues.
+To resist, manage, and avoid stigma and its associated consequences, individuals might choose to pass as a non-stigmatized identity. According to Nathan Shippee, "Passing communicates a seemingly "normal" self, one that does not apparently possess the stigma." According to Patrick Kermit, "To be suspected of being "not quite human" is the essence of stigmatisation, and passing is a desperate means to the end of appearing fully human in the sense of being like most other people."
+When making the decision of whether to pass or not, there are many factors stigmatized actors may consider. Firstly, there is the notion of visibility. How visible their stigma is may problematize how much ease or difficulty they may face in attempting to pass. However, how visible their stigma is may also determine the intensity and frequency of adversity they may face from others as a result of their stigma. Goffman explains, "Traditionally, the question of passing has raised the issue of the "visibility" of a particular stigma, that is, how well or how badly-the stigma is adapted to provide means of communicating that the individual possesses it." Other scholars further emphasize the cruciality of visibility and conclude that "whether a stigma is evident to the audience can mark the difference between being discredited or merely discreditable".
+Other factors may include risk, context, and intimacy. Different contexts and situations may make passing more easy or difficult and/or more safe or risky. How well others know the passer may impede their abilities as well. One scholar explains, "Individuals may pass in some situations but not others, effectively creating different arenas of life (depending on whether the stigma is known or not). Goffman claimed that actors develop theories about which situations are risky for disclosure, but risk is only one factor: intimacy with the audience can lead actors to disclose, or to feel guilty for not doing so." In addition to guilt, since passing can sometimes involve the fabrication of a false personal history to aid in concealment of their stigma, passing can complicate personal relationships and cause feelings of shame at having to be dishonest about their identity.
+According to Goffman, "It can be assumed that the possession of a discreditable secret failing takes on a deeper meaning when the persons to whom the individual has not yet revealed himself are not strangers to him but friends. Discovery prejudices not only the current social situation, but established relationships as well; not only the current image others present have of him, but also the one they will have in the future; not only appearances, but also reputation." Relating to this experience of passing, actors may have an ambivalent attachment to their stigma that can cause them to fluctuate between acceptance and rejection of their stigmatized identity. Thus, there may be times when the stigmatized individual will feel more inclined to pass and others when they feel less inclined.
+Despite the potentially-distressing and dangerous parts of passing, some passers have expressed a habituation with it. In one study, Shippee accounts that "participants often portrayed it as a normal or mundane event." For those whose stigma invites particularly hostile responses from most of society, passing may become a regular part of everyday life that is necessary to survive in that society.
+Regardless, the stigma that passers are subject to is not inherent. As Goffman explains, stigma exists not within the person but between an attribute and an audience. As a result, stigma is socially constructed and differs based on the cultural beliefs, social structures, and situational dynamics of various contexts. Thus, passing is also immersed in different contexts of the socially-structured meaning and behavior of daily life and passing implies familiarity with that knowledge.
+Passing has been interpreted in sociology and cultural studies through different analytical lenses such as that of information management by Goffman and that of as cultural performance by Bryant Keith Alexander.

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+---
+
+=== As information management ===
+Goffman defines passing as 'the management of undisclosed discrediting information about self." Similarly, other scholars add that "Passing is mostly associated with strategies of information management that the discreditable use to pass for normal [in everyday life]". Whereas some individuals' stigma is immediately apparent, passers deal with different problems in that their stigma is not always so obvious. Goffman elaborates "The issue is not that of managing tension generated during social contacts, but rather that of managing information about his failing. To display or not to display; to tell or not to tell; to let on or not to let on; to lie or not to lie; and in each case, to whom, how, when, and where."
+In Goffman's understanding, individuals possess various symbols that convey social information about us. There are prestige symbols that convey creditable information and there are stigma symbols that convey discrediting information. By managing the visibility and apparentness of their stigma symbols, passers prevent others from learning of their discredited and stigmatized status and remain discreditable. Passing may also include the adoption of certain prestige symbols and personal history or biography of social information that aids to conceal and draw attention away from their actual stigmatized status.
+Goffman also briefly notes, "The concealment of creditable facts-reverse passing-of course occurs." Reverse passing, related to terms like "blackfishing", has emerged as a topic of discourse as critics raise concerns over cultural appropriation and accuse nonstigmatized individuals, such as prominent celebrities Kim Kardashian and Ariana Grande, of concealing creditable information about themselves for some social benefit. Notions of cultural appropriation, racial fetishization, and reverse passing entered public debate particularly in 2015, after a former college instructor and president of the Spokane, Washington, NAACP, Rachel Dolezal, was discovered to be white with no black racial heritage after she had presented herself as black for several years. As many point out, reverse passing crucially differs from passing in that individuals who reverse pass are not stigmatized and therefore are not subject to the harms of stigma that may force stigmatized individuals to pass.
+
+=== As cultural performance ===
+Bryant Keith Alexander, a professor of Communication, Performance and Cultural Studies at Loyola Marymount University, defines cultural performance as "a process of delineation using performative practices to mark membership and association." Using this definition, passing is reframed as a method to maintain cultural performance and choose both consciously and unconsciously to participate in other performances. Rather than through the management of symbols and the social information they convey, passers assume "the necessary and performative strategies that signal membership." Alexander reiterates, "Cultural membership is thus maintained primarily through recognizable performative practices." Hence, to successfully pass is to have your cultural performance assessed and validated by others.
+With that interpretation, avoiding stigma by passing necessitates intimate understanding and awareness of social constructions of meaning and expected behaviors that signal membership. Shippee explains that "far from merely appraising situations to determine when concealment is required, passing encompasses active interpretations of several aspects of social life. It requires an understanding of cultural conventions, namely: what is considered "normal" and what is required to maintain it; customs of everyday interaction; and the symbolic character of the stigma itself.... Passing, then, embodies a creative mobilization of situational and cultural awareness, structural considerations, self-appraisals, and sense-making". Alexander recognizes that and then asserts that "passing is a product (an assessed state), a process (an active engagement), performative (ritualized repetition of communicative acts), and a reflection of one's positionality (politicized location), knowing that its existential accomplishment always resides in liminality."
+
+== Ethnicity and race ==
+
+Historically and genealogically, the term passing has referred to mixed-race, or biracial Americans identifying as or being perceived as belonging to a different racial group.  In Passing and the Fictions of Identity, Elaine Ginsberg cites an ad for escaped slave Edmund Kenney as an example of racial passing; Edmund Kenney, a biracial person, was able to pass as white in the United States in the 1800s. In the entry "Passing" for the GLBTQ Encyclopedia Project, Tina Gianoulis states that "for light-skinned African Americans during the times of slavery and the intense periods of racial resegregation that followed, passing for white was a survival tool that allowed them to gain education and employment that would have been denied them had they been recognized as "colored" people." The term passing has since been expanded to include other ethnicities and identity categories. Discriminated groups in North America and Europe may modify their accents, word choices, manner of dress, grooming habits, and even names in an attempt to appear to be members of a majority group or of a privileged minority group.
+Nella Larsen's 1929 novella, Passing, helped to establish the term after several years of prior use. The writer and subject of the novella is a mixed African-American/Caucasian who passes for white. The novella was written during the Harlem Renaissance, when passing was commonly found in both reality and fiction. Since the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, racial pride has decreased the weight that is given to passing as an important issue for black Americans. Still, it is possible and common for biracial people to pass based on appearance or by hiding or omitting their backgrounds.
+In "Adjusting the Borders: Bisexual Passing and Queer Theory," Lingel discusses bell hooks' notion of racial passing in conjunction with discussion of bisexual engagement in passing.
+Romani people have a history of passing as well, particularly in the United States and often tell outsiders that they belong to other ethnicities such as Latino, Greek, Middle Eastern, or Native American.

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+title: "Passing (sociology)"
+chunk: 4/6
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+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:28.378118+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Social class and caste ==
+Class passing, similar to racial and gender passing, is the concealment or misrepresentation of one's social class. In Class-Passing: Social Mobility in Film and Popular Culture, Gwendolyn Audrey Foster suggests that racial and gender passing is often stigmatized but that class passing is generally accepted as normative behavior. Class passing is common in the United States and is linked to the notions of the American Dream and of upward class mobility.
+
+=== Popular culture ===
+English-language novels that feature class passing include The Talented Mr. Ripley, Anne of Green Gables, and Horatio Alger novels. Films featuring class-passing characters include Catch Me If You Can, My Fair Lady, Pinky, ATL, and Andy Hardy Meets Debutante. Class passing also figures into reality television programs such as Joe Millionaire in which contestants are often immersed in displays of great material wealth or may have to conceal their class status.
+
+== Sexuality and gender ==
+
+The perception of an individual's sexual orientation is often based on their visual identity. The term visual identity refers to the expression of personal, social, and cultural identities through dress and appearance. In Visible Lesbians and Invisible Bisexuals: Appearance and Visual Identities Among Bisexual Women it is proposed that through the expression of a visual identity, others "read" a person's appearance and make assumptions about their wider identity. Therefore, visual identity is a prominent tool of non-verbal communication. The concept of passing is showcased in research by Jennifer Taub in her Bisexual Women and Beauty Norms. Some participants in the study stated that they attempted to dress as what they perceived as heterosexual when they partnered with a man, and others stated that they tried to dress more like a "lesbian." That exemplifies how visual identities can greatly alter people's immediate assumptions of sexuality. Therefore, presenting oneself as "heterosexual" is effectively "passing."
+Passing by sexual orientation occurs when an individual's perceived sexual orientation or sexuality differs from the sexuality or sexual orientation with which they identify. In the entry "Passing" for the GLBTQ Encyclopedia Project, Tina Gianoulis notes "the presumption of heterosexuality in most modern cultures", which in some parts of the world, such as the United States, may be effectively compulsory, "most gay men and lesbians in fact spend a great deal of their lives passing as straight even when they do not do so intentionally." The phrase "in the closet" may be used to describe individual who hide or conceal their sexual orientation. In Passing: Identity and Interpretation in Sexuality, Race, and Religion, Maria Sanchez and Linda Schlossberg state that "the dominant social order often implores gay people to stay in the closet (to pass)." Individuals may choose to remain "in the closet" or to pass as heterosexual for a variety of reasons, including a desire to maintain positive relationships with family and policies or requirements associated with employment such as "Don't ask, don't tell", a policy that required passing as heterosexual within the military or armed forces.
+Bisexual erasure causes some bisexual individuals to feel the need to engage in passing within presumed predominantly-heterosexual circles and even within LGBTQ circles for fear of stigma. In Adjusting the Borders: Bisexual Passing and Queer Theory, Jessica Lingel notes, "The ramifications of being denied a public sphere in which to practice a sexual identity that isn't labeled licentious or opportunistic leads some women to resort to manufacturing profiles of gayness or straightness to pledge membership within a community."
+Gender passing refers to individuals who are perceived as belonging to a gender identity group that differs from the gender with which they were assigned at birth. In Passing and the Fictions of Identity, Elaine Ginsberg provides the story of Brandon Teena, who was assigned female at birth but lived as a man, as an example of gender passing in the United States. In 1993, Brandon moved to Falls City, Nebraska, where he initially passed as a man. However, community members discovered that Brandon had been assigned female at birth, and two men in it shot and murdered him. Ginsberg cites for another example of gender passing Billy Tipton, a jazz musician who was also assigned female at birth but lived and performed as a man until his death in 1989.
+Within the transgender community, passing refers to the perception or recognition of trans individuals as belonging to the gender identity to which they are transitioning rather than the sex or gender they were assigned at birth.
+
+== Religion ==
+
+Passing as a member of a different religion or as not religious at all is not uncommon among minority religious communities. In the entry "Passing" for the GLBTQ Encyclopedia Project, Tina Gianoulis states "at times of rabid anti-Semitism in Europe and the Americas, many Jewish families also either converted to Christianity or passed as Christian" for the sake of survival. Circumcised Jewish males in Germany during World War II attempted to restore their foreskins as part of passing as Gentile. The film Europa, Europa explores that theme.
+Shia Islam has the doctrine of taqiyya in which one is lawfully allowed to disavow Islam and profess another faith but secretly remain a Muslim if one's life is at risk. The concept has also been practised by various minority faiths in the Middle East such as the Alawites and Druze.
+
+== Ability or disability ==
+Disability passing may refer to the intentional concealment of impairment to avoid the stigma of disability, but it may also describe the exaggeration of an ailment or impairment to receive some benefit, which may take the form of attention or care. In Disability and Passing: Blurring the Lines of Identity, Jeffrey Brune and Daniel Wilson define passing by ability or disability as "the ways that others impose, intentionally or not, a specific disability or non-disability identity on a person." Similarly, in "Compulsory Able-Bodiedness and Queer/Disabled Existence," Robert McRuer argues that "the system of compulsory able-bodiedness...produces disability."

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+title: "Passing (sociology)"
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+category: "reference"
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+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:28.378118+00:00"
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+---
+
+=== Passing as disabled ===
+People with disabilities may exaggerate their disabilities when they are evaluated for medical care or accommodations often for fear of being denied support. "There are too many agencies out there with the ostensible purpose of helping us that still believe that as long as we technically can do something, like crab-walking our way into a subway station, we should have to do it," writes Gabe Moses, a wheelchair user who has a limited ability to walk. Those pressures may result in disabled people exaggerating symptoms or tiring out their body before an evaluation so that they are seen on a "bad day," instead of a "good day."
+In sports, some mobility impaired individuals have been observed strategically exaggerating the extent of their disability to pass as more disabled than they are and be placed in divisions in which they may be more competitive. In quadriplegic rugby, or wheelchair rugby, some players are described as having "incomplete" quadriplegia in which they may retain some sensation and function in their lower limbs that may allow them to stand and walk in limited capacities. Based on a rule from the United States Quad Rugby Association (USQRA) that states that players need only a combination of upper- and lower-extremity impairment that precludes them from playing able-bodied sports, the incomplete quads may play alongside other quadriplegics who have no sensation or function in their lower limbs. That is justified by classifications the USQRA has developed in which certified physical therapists compare arm and muscle flexibility, trunk and torso movement, and ease of chair operation between players and rank them by injury level.
+However, inconsistencies between medical diagnoses of injury and those classifications allows players to perform higher levels of impairment for the classifiers and pass for being more disabled than they are. As a result, their ranking may underestimate their capacity and they may attain a competitive advantage over teams with players whose capacity is not equivalent. That policy has raised questions from some about the ethics and fairness of comparing disabilities, as well as about how competition, inclusion, and ability should be defined in the world of sports.
+
+=== Passing as non-disabled ===
+Individuals with invisible disabilities such as people with mental illness; intellectual or cognitive disabilities; or physical disabilities that are not immediately obvious to others such as IBS, Crohn's disease, or ulcerative colitis may choose whether or not to reveal their identity or to pass as "normal". Passing as non-disabled may protect against discrimination but may also result in lack of support or accusations of faking.
+Autistic people may employ strategies known as "masking" or "camouflaging" to appear non-autistic. That can involve behavior like suppressing or redirecting repetitive movements (stimming), maintaining eye contact despite discomfort, mirroring the body language and tone of others, or scripting conversations. Masking may be done to reduce the risk of ostracism or abuse. Autistic masking is often exhausting and linked to adverse mental health outcomes such as burnout, depression, and suicide. However, that perspective has been challenged in a 2023 review of autistic masking by Valentina Petrolini, Ekaine Rodríguez-Armendariz, and Agustín Vicente who question whether all autistic people see "being autistic" as a central aspect of their identity and whether all autistic people are capable of truly hiding their autistic status. Both conditions, they argue, would have to be fulfilled for the analogy to hold and conclude that only a subgroup of autistic people experiences masking as passing.
+Individuals with visible physical impairments or disabilities, such as people with mobility impairment, including individuals who use wheelchairs or scooters, face greater challenges in concealing their disability.
+In a study on individuals' experience with prosthetics, the ability of users to be able to pass as if they were "like everybody else" with their prosthetic based on the realistic or unrealistic appearance of the prosthetic was one factor in predicting whether patients would accept or reject prosthetic use. Cosmetic prosthetics that were, for example, skin-colored or had the added appearance of veins, hair, and nails were often harder to adapt to and use, but many individuals expressed a preference for them over more functional and more conspicuous prosthetics to maintain their personal conceptions of social and bodily identity.
+One user of prosthetics characterized her device as one that could "maintain her humanness ('half way human'), which in turn prevented her, quite literally, from being seen to have an 'odd' body." Users also discussed wanting prosthetics that could help them maintain a walking gait, which would attract no stares and prosthetics that could be disguised or concealed under clothes in efforts to pass as non-disabled.

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+title: "Passing (sociology)"
+chunk: 6/6
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passing_(sociology)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:28.378118+00:00"
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+---
+
+== Intersectional ==
+Though passing may occur on the basis of a single subordinate identity such as race, often people's intersectional locations involve multiple marginalized identities. Intersectionality provides a framework for seeing the interconnected nature of oppressive systems and how multiple identities interact within them. Gay Asian men possess two key subordinated identities; in combination, they create unique challenges for them when passing. Sometimes, those men must pass as straight to avoid stigma, but around other gay men, they may attempt to pass as a non-racialized person or white to avoid the disinterest or fetishization often encountered upon revealing their Asian identities. By recognizing the hidden intersection of the gendered aspects of gay and Asian male stereotypes, these two distinct experiences make even more sense. Gay men are often stereotyped as effeminate and thereby insufficiently masculine as men. Stereotypes characterizing Asian men as too sexual (overly masculine) or too feminine (hypo-masculine) or even both also exhibit the gendered nature of racial stereotypes. Thus, passing as the dominant racial or sexuality category also often means passing as gender correct.
+When Black transgender men transition in the workplace from identifying as female to passing as cisgender men, gendered racial stereotypes characterizing Black men as overly masculine and violent may affect how previously acceptable behaviors will be interpreted. One such Black trans man discovered that he had gone from "being an obnoxious Black woman to a scary Black man" and therefore had to adapt his behavior to gendered scripts to pass.
+
+== See also ==
+
+Beard (companion)
+Closeted
+Closet Jew
+Dramaturgy (sociology)
+Identity politics
+Masking (behavior)
+Minority stress
+Model minority
+"On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog"
+Stigma management
+Uncanny valley
+Undercover
+
+== Footnotes ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patchwork_religion-0.md

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+title: "Patchwork religion"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patchwork_religion"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:29.561611+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+In the sociology of religion patchwork religion indicates situations when individual or religious movement forms its own worldview from heterogeneous elements, taken from different religions or individual religious experience. Collected from these elements, this religious world view reminds of a patchwork quilt with a unique pattern. Similar social concepts are syncretism, bricolage and sheilaism.
+
+
+== History ==
+Patchwork religion was first suggested by American sociologist Robert Wuthnow. Wuthnow studies aspects of American religiosity, believing that its patchwork and avoidance of keeping to strictly defined forms are its essential features. Thus he writes:  "Now, at the end of the twentieth century, growing numbers of Americans piece together their faith like a patchwork quilt. Spirituality has become a vastly complex quest in which each person seeks in his or her own way".  Patchworks of individual religiosity do not contradict loyalty to a church's official position. In his other book Wuthnow connects patchworks with a feature of American religiosity called shopping mentality. Bearers of such mentality mostly admit the existence of God or some kind of mystical force, but believe that no religion is able to explain this mystery. The framework of each religion offers good examples of penetration into mysterious spheres of the divine.  "When God is ultimately a mystery, it is easy to assume that all religions contain insights about God but no religion provides a complete understanding of God, and thus one way to increase one`s understanding of God is by gleaning ideas from many different religious traditions".Wuthnow writes about spiritual shoppers as about people, who  "Having learned to be open-minded and to patch together ideas from many different sources".
+
+
+== Collective consciousness ==
+Originally patchwork religion was applied to individual religiosity. It later became used in descriptions of public worldview features. Patchwork appears in religious traditions that include elements not found in original practice. This explains dual faith and superstitions that can be characterized as interpolations, brought during a historical process. Some scientists claim that each religious tradition has a people's interpretation (for example, people's Catholicism, people's Buddhism etc.).
+
+
+== Notes ==

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+title: "Pay it forward"
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+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:30.753081+00:00"
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+---
+
+Pay it forward is an expression for describing the beneficiary of a good deed repaying the kindness to others rather than paying it back to the original benefactor.  It is also called serial reciprocity.
+The concept is old, but the particular phrase may have been coined by Lily Hardy Hammond in her 1916 book In the Garden of Delight. Robert Heinlein's 1951 novel Between Planets helped popularize the phrase.
+"Pay it forward" is implemented in contract law of loans in the concept of third party beneficiaries. Specifically, the creditor offers the debtor the option of paying the debt forward by lending it to a third person instead of paying it back to the original creditor. This contract may include the provision that the debtor may repay the debt in kind, lending the same amount to a similarly disadvantaged party once they have the means, and under the same conditions. Debt and payments can be monetary or by good deeds. A related type of transaction, which starts with a gift instead of a loan, is alternative giving.
+
+== History ==
+Paying forward was used as a key plot element in the denouement of a New Comedy prizewinning play by Menander, Dyskolos (roughly translated as "The Grouch") that debuted in 317 BC in Athens.
+A basic pattern of this concept is the inter-generational devotion of parents to their children, re-enacting what their own parents did for them. In her 1916 book In the Garden of Delight, Lily Hardy Hammond reflects, "I never repaid Great-aunt Letitia's love to her, any more than she repaid her mother's. You don't pay love back; you pay it forward."
+The concept is featured in the short story "The Boy Scout" by American author and former war correspondent Richard Harding Davis, published in The Metropolitan Magazine (March 1914).  In it, a young boy scout performs a good deed that eventually reverberates worldwide.
+Regarding money, the concept was described by Benjamin Franklin, in a letter to Benjamin Webb dated April 25, 1784:
+
+I do not pretend to give such a deed; I only lend it to you. When you [...] meet with another honest Man in similar Distress, you must pay me by lending this Sum to him; enjoining him to discharge the Debt by a like operation, when he shall be able, and shall meet with another opportunity. I hope it may thus go thro' many hands, before it meets with a Knave that will stop its Progress. This is a trick of mine for doing a deal of good with a little money.
+The Bible mentions a similar tenet. In Ecclesiastes 11:1 has one example: "Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days." At
+Matthew 18:21–35, Jesus indicates that paying it forward is a requirement for those who have received God's forgiveness. He presents the parable of a man who had been forgiven a huge debt by the king, because the debtor had begged for mercy. However, after being freed from the debt, he found a fellow who owed him a very small debt, by comparison. Although he had been shown a great mercy, he refused the same consideration to his fellow who had pled for more time to pay. When the king learned this, he was angry and threw the original debtor into prison until he paid the entire debt. Jesus concluded the story: "So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses."
+Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his 1841 essay "Compensation", wrote: "In the order of nature we cannot render benefits to those from whom we receive them, or only seldom. But the benefit we receive must be rendered again, line for line, deed for deed, cent for cent, to somebody." Football coach Woody Hayes (1913–1987), whose Ohio State University teams won five national titles, misquoted Emerson as "You can pay back only seldom. You can always pay forward, and you must pay line for line, deed for deed, and cent for cent." He also shortened the (mis)quotation into "You can never pay back; but you can always pay forward" and variants.
+The 1929 novel, Magnificent Obsession, by Lloyd C. Douglas, also espoused this philosophy, in combination with the concept that good deeds should be performed in confidence.
+An anonymous spokesman for Alcoholics Anonymous said in The Christian Science Monitor in 1944, "You can't pay anyone back for what has happened to you, so you try to find someone you can pay forward."
+Also in 1944, the first steps were taken in the development of what became the Heifer Project, one of whose core strategies is "Passing on the Gift".
+In Robert Heinlein's 1951 novel Between Planets, the circumstances of war place the protagonist in a country where it is illegal to spend his foreign money. He is hungry and a stranger gives him enough to pay for lunch:
+
+The banker reached into the folds of his gown, pulled out a single credit note. "But eat first—a full belly steadies the judgment. Do me the honor of accepting this as our welcome to the newcomer."
+His pride said no; his stomach said YES! Don took it and said, "Uh, thanks! That's awfully kind of you. I'll pay it back, first chance."

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+title: "Pay it forward"
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+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:30.753081+00:00"
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+---
+
+"Instead, pay it forward to some other brother who needs it."
+The mathematician Paul Erdős heard about a promising math student unable to enroll in Harvard University for financial reasons. Erdős contributed enough to allow the young man to register. Years later, the man offered to return the entire amount to Erdős, but Erdős insisted that the man rather find another student in his situation, and give the money to him.
+It is also possible for the original beneficiary to become part of the later chain of kindness. Some time in 1980, a sixteen-page supplemental Marvel comic appeared in the Chicago Tribune entitled “What Price a Life?” and was subsequently reprinted as the backup story in Marvel Team-Up #126 dated February 1983. This was a team-up between Spider-Man and The Incredible Hulk, in which Spider-Man helps the Hulk escape from police who mistakenly thought that he was attacking them. Afterwards, they meet in their secret identities, with Peter Parker warning Bruce Banner to leave town because of the Hulk's seeming attack on police. But Banner is flat broke, and cannot afford even bus fare. As a result, Parker gives Banner his last $5 bill, saying that someone had given him money when he was down on his luck, and this was how he was repaying that debt. Later, in Chicago, the Hulk confronts muggers who had just robbed an elderly retired man of his pension money, all the money he had. After corralling the muggers, the Hulk turns towards the victim. The retiree thinks that the Hulk is about to attack him as well, but instead, the Hulk gives him the $5 bill. It transpires that the very same old man had earlier given a down-on-his-luck Peter Parker a $5 bill.
+"Pay it Forward Chains" in fast food stores has become somewhat common, where people pay for the drink or food items in front of them. Starbucks, for example, frequently has long chains, including one of 378 customers at a Florida Starbucks. There has, however, been some controversy around them, as Baristas who experience them complain about mixed up orders  while other customers have found themselves stuck with significantly larger payments than the cost of their food and potential confrontations as a result. The concept of setting up a "Pay It Forward chain" in order to profit from a massive order was lampooned in an episode of the Netflix series, I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson. This resulted in an internet meme based on the order he placed, "55 Burgers, 55 Fries, 55 Tacos, 55 Pies, 55 Cokes, 100 Tater Tots, 100 Pizzas, 100 Chicken Tenders, 100 Meatballs, 100 Coffees, 55 Wings, 55 Shakes, 55 Pancakes, 55 Pastas, 55 Peppers, and 155 Taters, totaling $680" which was sold on its own t-shirt.
+
+== 1999 novel, film and subsequent projects ==
+In 1999, Catherine Ryan Hyde's novel Pay It Forward was published and then adapted in 2000 into a film of the same name, distributed by Warner Bros. and starring Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt and Haley Joel Osment. In Ryan Hyde's book and movie, it is described as an obligation to do three good deeds for others in response to a good deed that one receives. Such good deeds should accomplish things that the other person cannot accomplish on their own. In this way, the practice of helping one another can spread geometrically through society, at a ratio of three to one, creating a social movement with an impact of making the world a better place.
+The Pay it Forward Foundation was founded in the United States helping start a ripple effect of kindness acts around the world. The foundation had an idea for encouraging kindness acts by giving away Pay it Forward Bracelets that can be worn as a reminder. Since then, over a million Pay it Forward bracelets have been distributed in over 100 countries sparking acts of kindness. Few bracelets remain with their original recipients, however, as they circulate in the spirit of the reciprocal or generalized altruism.
+PIFster, a 501(c)(3) organization that democratizes the 'Pay It Forward' concept by combining micro-donations and community voting was founded in 2023 in the United States. PIFster allows users to contribute as little as $1 per month and nominate local causes they believe deserve support. The platform then facilitates community voting to determine which nominated charities receive the collected funds. This approach empowers individuals to participate in philanthropy and directly impact their communities, regardless of their financial capacity.
+In 2007, International Pay It Forward Day was founded in Australia by Blake Beattie. Pay it Forward day happens on 28 April, and has now spread to 70 countries with over 50 state and city proclamations. It is estimated that it has inspired over five million acts of kindness and has featured on 7, 9, 10, ABC, NBC, Fox 5, Fox 8 and Global News in Canada.
+On April 5, 2012, WBRZ-TV, the American Broadcasting Company affiliate for the city of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, did a story on The Newton Project, a 501(c)(3) outreach organization created to demonstrate that regardless of how big the problems of the world may seem, each person can make a difference simply by taking the time to show love, appreciation and kindness to the people around them. It is based on the classic pay-it-forward concept, but demonstrates the impact of each act on the world by tracking each wristband with a unique ID number and quantifying the lives each has touched. The Newton Project's attempt to quantify the benefits of a Pay It Forward type system can be viewed by the general public at their website.

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+---
+title: "Pay it forward"
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+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:30.753081+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Public health and medicine ==
+Pay it forward has also been used in medicine and public health. In this context, a person is offered a free health service (a test or vaccine), then asked if they would like to donate money or non-monetary support to spur subsequent uptake of services. Several clinical trials suggest that this approach can increase test uptake. More research is needed to understand how this could be scaled up.
+
+== Economic model ==
+
+Several firms have adopted the pay it forward approach as an economic model. These include Karma Kitchen, where patrons' meals have already been paid for by previous customers, and customers are then encouraged to contribute toward future patrons' meals. Heifer Project International pioneered the approach in sustainable development, and it has been utilized by microfinance lenders. Some authors advocate the pay it forward approach be utilized as the primary means of economic transaction.
+In 2024, Human Kind Cafe opened in Billericay, Essex. A charity 'kindness cafe' with a pay-it-forward model, they offer suggested donations to allow everyone that is able to, to support those in need.
+
+== Experiments and explanations ==
+Several experiments document that individuals pay forward in the sense that they pass on a behavior that they have experienced.
+Individuals who are given more money are, for example, more likely to donate to a stranger.
+Individuals who are assigned easy tasks are more likely to assign someone else to an easy tasks. Finally, drivers who experience that others are insisting on their right of way are more likely to insist on their right of way.
+Two explanations for the observed paying-it-forward have been considered. Evolutionary biologists and psychologists argue that being helped or harmed leads to an emotional reaction such as gratitude or anger, which in turn trigger the respective behavior. 
+ Being given an annoying task renders an individual angry and this is why she assigns an annoying task to the next person. Alternatively, individuals may learn from their experience what seems to be appropriate behavior (social learning theory). Being given an annoying task indicates to the individual that this assignment is 
+adequate in this context. This then leads the individual to assign the annoying task to the next person.
+Schnedler (2020) finds that individuals no longer pay forward if behavior cannot be directly imitated. This suggests that at least in the experiments so far paying forward is driven by social learning rather than emotions.
+
+== See also ==
+Charity (practice)
+Feed the Deed
+Free Money Day
+Gift economy
+Random act of kindness
+Reciprocity (social psychology)
+Reciprocity (cultural anthropology)
+Six degrees of separation
+Social business
+Social responsibility
+Suspended coffee
+
+== References ==
+
+== External links ==
+Pay it Forward Day UK
+International Pay it Forward Day
+Pay It Forward Life
+Pay It Forward movie

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+---
+title: "Peer group"
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+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer_group"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:31.972301+00:00"
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+---
+
+In sociology, a peer group is both a social group and a primary group of people who have similar interests (homophily), age, background, or social status. Members of peer groups are likely to influence each other's beliefs and behaviour.
+During adolescence, peer groups tend to face dramatic changes. Adolescents tend to spend more time with their peers and have less adult supervision. Peer groups give a sense of security and identity. A study found that during the adolescent phase as adolescents spend double time with their peers compared to the time youth spend with their parents. Adolescents' communication shifts during this time as well. They prefer to talk about school and their careers with their parents, and they enjoy talking about sex and other interpersonal relationships with their peers. Children look to join peer groups who accept them, even if the group is involved in negative activities. Children are less likely to accept those who are different from them. Friendship and support is important for people to have an active social life. Similarly, it is equally important to people with disability as it can help them to feel included, valued and happier. Social interaction among peers may influence development; quality of life outcomes. This interaction and positive relationship benefit subjective wellbeing and have a positive effect on mental and physical health.
+Cliques are small groups typically defined by common interests or by friendship. Cliques typically have 2–12 members and tend to be formed by age, gender, race, and social class. Clique members are usually the same in terms of academics and risk behaviors. Cliques can serve as an agent of socialization and social control. Being part of a clique can be advantageous since it may provide a sense of autonomy, a secure social environment, and overall well-being.
+Crowds are larger, more vaguely defined groups that may not have a friendship base. Crowds serve as peer groups, and they increase in importance during early adolescence, and decrease by late adolescence. The level of involvement in adult institutions and peer culture describes crowds.
+
+== Socialization ==
+At an early age, the peer group becomes an important part of socialization Unlike other agents of socialization, such as family and school, peer groups allow children to escape the direct supervision of adults. Among peers, children learn to form relationships on their own, and have the chance to discuss interests that adults may not share with children, such as clothing and popular music, or may not permit, such as drugs and sex. Peer groups can have great influence or peer pressure on each other's behavior, depending on the amount of pressure. However, currently more than 23 percent of children globally lack enough connections with their age group, and their cognitive, emotional and social development are delayed than other kids.
+
+== Developmental psychology ==
+Developmental psychologists, Lev Vygotsky, Jean Piaget, Erik Erikson, Harry Stack Sullivan, and social learning theorists have all argued that peer relationships provide a unique context for cognitive, social, and emotional development. Modern research echoes these sentiments, showing that social and emotional gains are indeed provided by peer interaction.
+Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory focuses on the importance of a child's culture and notes that a child is continually acting in social interactions with others. He also focuses on language development and identifies the zone of proximal development. The Zone of Proximal development is defined as the gap between what a student can do alone and what the student can achieve through teacher assistance. The values and attitudes of the peer group are essential elements in learning. Those who surround themselves with academically focused peers will be more likely to internalize this type of behavior.
+Piaget's theory of cognitive development identifies four stages of cognitive development. He believes that children actively construct their understanding of the world based on their own experiences. In addition Piaget identified with aspects of development, occurring from middle childhood onwards, for which peer groups are essential. He suggested that children's speech to peers is less egocentric than their speech to adults. Egocentric speech is referring to the speech that is not adapted to what the listener just said.
+Erikson's stages of psychosocial development include eight stages ranging from birth to old age. He has emphasized the idea that the society, not just the family, influences one's ego and identity through developmental stages. Erikson went on to describe how peer pressure is a key event during the adolescences stage of psychosocial development. In his Latency stage, which includes children from 6–12 years old and this is when the adolescents begin to develop relationships among their peers.
+Harry Stack Sullivan has developed the Theory of Interpersonal Relations. Sullivan described friendships as providing the following functions: (a) offering consensual validation, (b) bolstering feelings of self-worth, (c) providing affection and a context for intimate disclosure, (d) promoting interpersonal sensitivity, and (e) setting the foundation for romantic and parental relationships. Sullivan believed these functions developed during childhood and that true friendships were formed around the age of 9 or 10.
+Social learning theorists such as John B. Watson, B.F. Skinner, and Albert Bandura, all argue for the influences of the social group in learning and development. Behaviourism, Operant Learning Theory, and Cognitive Social Learning Theory all consider the role the social world plays on development.
+In The Nurture Assumption and No Two Alike, psychologist Judith Rich Harris suggests that an individual's peer group significantly influences their intellectual and personal development.  Several longitudinal studies support the conjecture that peer groups significantly affect scholastic achievement, particularly when adult involvement is low. Relatively few studies have examined the effect peer groups have on tests of cognitive ability. However, there is some evidence that peer groups influence tests of cognitive ability.
+
+== Positive attributes (advantages) ==

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+title: "Peer group"
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+
+=== Serve as a source of information ===
+Peer groups provide perspective outside of the individual's viewpoints. Members inside peer groups also learn to develop relationships with others in the social system. Peers, particularly group members, become important social referents for teaching other members customs, social norms, and different ideologies. Positive peer relationships improve social interaction and enhance positive engagement levels in adolescents with and without disabilities. Peers foster overall well-being by offering practical, emotional, and social support.
+
+=== Teach gender roles ===
+Peer groups can also serve as a venue for teaching members gender roles. Through gender-role socialization, group members learn about sex differences, and social and cultural expectations. While boys and girls differ greatly, there is not a one-to-one link between sex and gender roles with males always being masculine and females always being feminine. Both genders can contain different levels of masculinity and femininity. Peer groups can consist of all males, all females, or both males and females. Studies show that the majority of peer groups are unisex.
+
+=== Serve as a practicing venue to adulthood ===
+Adolescent peer groups provide support as teens assimilate into adulthood. Major changes include: decreasing dependence on parents, increasing feelings of self-sufficiency, and connecting with a much larger social network. Adolescents are expanding their perspective beyond the family and learning how to negotiate relationships with others in different parts of the social system. Peers, particularly group members, become important social referents.  Peer groups also influence individual members' attitudes and behaviours on many cultural and social issues, such as: drug use, violence, and academic achievement. and even the development and expression of prejudice.
+
+=== Teach unity and collective behaviour in life ===
+Peer groups provide an influential social setting in which group norms are developed and enforced through socialization processes that promote in-group similarity. Peer groups' cohesion is determined and maintained by such factors as group communication, group consensus, and group conformity concerning attitude and behavior. As members of peer groups interconnect and agree on what defines them as a group, a normative code arises. This normative code can become very rigid, such as when deciding on group behavior and clothing attire. Member deviation from the strict normative code can lead to rejection from the group.
+
+=== Identity formation ===
+Peer groups (friends group) can help individuals form their own identity. Identity formation is a developmental process where a person acquires a sense of self. One of the major factors that influence the formation of a person's identity is his or her peers. Studies have shown that peers provide normative regulation, and that they provide a staging ground for the practice of social behaviors. This allows individuals to experiment with roles and discover their identities. The identity formation process is an important role in an individual's development. Erik Erikson emphasized the importance of identity formation, and he illustrated the steps one takes in developing his or her sense of self. He believed this process occurs throughout one's entire life. Peer interactions have a significant impact on adolescents, developing empathy, conflict resolution, and interpersonal skills, these relationships also play a crucial role in shaping body image and satisfaction.
+
+== Negative attributes (disadvantages) ==
+
+=== Peer pressure ===
+The term peer pressure is often used to describe instances where an individual feels indirectly pressured into changing their behavior to match that of their peers. Taking up smoking and underage drinking are two of the best known examples.  In spite of the often negative connotations of the term, peer pressure can be used positively, for example, to encourage other peers to study, or not to engage in activities such as the ones discussed above. Although peer pressure is not isolated to one age group, it is usually most common during the adolescent stage. Adolescence is a period characterized by experimentation, and adolescents typically spend a lot of time with their peers in social contexts. Teenagers compel each other to go along with certain beliefs or behaviors, and studies have shown that boys are more likely to give in to it than girls. There has been much research done to gain a better understanding about the effects of peer pressure, and this research will allow parents to handle and understand their children's behaviors and obstacles they will face due to their peer groups. Learning how peer pressure impacts individuals is a step to minimizing the negative effects it leads to.
+
+=== Future problems ===
+Success of peer relationships is linked to later psychological development and to academic achievement. Therefore, if one does not have successful peer relationships it may lead to developmental delays and poor academic achievement—perhaps even in-completion of a high school degree. Children with poor peer relationships may also experience job related and marital problems later in life.
+
+=== Risk behaviors ===
+Several studies have shown that peer groups are powerful agents of risk behaviors in adolescence. Adolescents typically replace family with peers regarding social and leisure activities, and many problematic behaviors occur in the context of these groups. A study done in 2012 focused on adolescents' engagement in risk behaviors.  Participants completed a self-report measure of identity commitment, which explores values, beliefs, and aspirations, as well as a self-report that measures perceived peer group pressure and control. Both peer group pressure and control were positively related to risky behaviors. However, adolescents who were more committed to a personal identity had lower rates of risk behaviors. Overall, this study shows us that adolescent identity development may help prevent negative effects of peer pressure in high-risk adolescents.

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+---
+
+=== Aggression and prosocial behavior ===
+Social behaviors can be promoted or discouraged by social groups, and several studies have shown that aggression and prosociality are susceptible to peer influence. A longitudinal study done in 2011 focused on these two behaviors. A sample of adolescents was followed over a one-year period, and results showed that adolescents who joined an aggressive group were more likely to increase their aggression levels. Also, adolescents were likely to display prosocial behaviors that were similar to the consistent behaviors of the group they were in. An adolescent's peer group plays a role in shaping him or her into an adult, and the lack of positive behavior can lead to consequences in the future.
+
+=== Sexual promiscuity ===
+Adolescence is also characterized by physical changes, new emotions, and sexual urges, and teenagers are likely to participate in sexual activity. A longitudinal study done in 2012 followed a group of adolescents for thirteen years. Self-reports, peer nominations, teacher ratings, counselor ratings, and parent reports were collected, and results showed a strong correlation between deviant peer groups and sexual promiscuity. Many teens claimed that the reasons for having sex at a young age include peer pressure or pressure from their partner. The effects of sexual activity at a young age are of great concern. Pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases are only a few of the consequences that can occur.
+
+=== Exclusion ===
+In peer-dominated contexts, functional diversity may lead to marginalization and exclusion. Socially excluded children may have unsatisfying peer relationships, low self-esteem, and lack of achievement motivation, which affect their social and academic aspects of life, mental health, and general well-being. Individuals with disabilities encounter challenges in peer relationships, including deficits in social skills such as emotion detection, conflict resolution, and conceptual understanding.
+
+== Adolescents and their peer groups ==
+
+=== Gavin's study ===
+In one cross-sectional, correlational study, four different developmental stages were examined: preadolescence (Grades 5 and 6), early adolescence (Grades 7 and 8), middle adolescence (Grades 9 and 10) and late adolescence (Grades 11 and 12). Self-report measures were used in which adolescents completed questionnaires. First, the students rated the importance of being in a popular group. Next, positive and negative behaviour were assessed. The extent to which students were bothered by negative behaviour targeted at them by others in their groups was also assessed. Structural group properties were also examined, including: group leadership or status hierarchy, group permeability, and group conformity.
+Researchers found that middle adolescents reported placing more importance on being in a popular group and perceived more group conformity and leadership within their groups than pre- and late adolescents. Early and middle adolescents also reported more negative interactions and fewer positive interactions with group members and more negative interactions with those not part of their peer groups. Girls reported having more positive group interactions, being more bothered by negative interactions, and having more permeable group boundaries. Boys reported more negative interactions with those outside their groups and are more likely to have leaders in their peer groups. Researchers believe that the decrease in conformity throughout adolescence relates to the decrease in importance of leadership in late adolescence because having a group leader provides a person to model oneself after. They also note the relationship between the importance of being in a popular peer group and conformity. Both become less important in late adolescence, showing that it is less important to conform when the value of group membership decreases. It is believed that positive interactions outside of peer groups increase and negative interactions outside of peer groups decrease by late adolescence because older adolescents feel more comfortable and have less need to control the behaviours of others. Findings that boys have more leaders are consistent with research showing that boys partake in more dominance struggles.
+
+=== Tarrant's study ===
+A questionnaire was handed out to 58 males and 57 females, aged 14–15 in the Midlands region of the UK. The first section dealt with group structure and activities of participants' peer groups. Participants were asked how many people were in their group, the gender composition of the group, frequency of group meetings, and the group's usual meeting places. The second section addressed the participants' levels of identification with their peer groups. The next section of the questionnaire was an intergroup comparison task in which participants compared their peer group to an outgroup. The comparison referred to how sixteen different adjectives "fit" or "described" both their ingroup and outgroup. The final part of the questionnaire was designed to check the manipulation of the adjective valence. In this section, participants rated the desirability of the above sixteen adjectives in their own opinions.
+Findings supported social identity theory as participants consistently favoured the ingroup in two ways: the ingroup was always associated with a greater number of positive characteristics compared to the outgroup, and the more a participant identified with the ingroup, the higher their evaluations were for it.
+
+=== Same race peer groups ===
+Consistent with the dictionary definition of peer groups, youth tend to form groups based on similarities. It has been found that one of these similarities is by race. Preference for same race grows stronger as youth develop. When Latino and Caucasian youth were given surveys asking them to indicate who in their school they had the highest preference to spend time with, they both nominated peers of their same race over peers of different races. This is especially prevalent in classrooms and schools that have a clear cut majority and minority racial groups. Though benefits of homophily are met, preference for one's own racial group can lead to rejection of the racial out group, which can cause stress for both groups particularly in females.

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+title: "Peer group"
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+---
+
+=== Cross race peer groups ===
+For classrooms and schools that have a more equal distribution of racial groups, there can be more socialization across peer groups. Cross racial peers groups can be very beneficial, lowering prejudice and increasing prosocial behaviors. Having a cross racial friend has also been shown to give youth a higher status and feel more socially satisfied. Diverse peer groups also lower the feelings of victimization felt by youth.
+
+=== Disability and peer group ===
+An effective approach to promoting peer relationships among adolescents with disabilities may require a comprehensive strategy that addresses the individual and social aspects of support, fostering understanding. This might involve imparting information and resources on disabilities to both peers and schools, organizing meaningful social activities with friends, and providing emotional support.
+
+== See also ==
+Group dynamics – System of behaviors within or between social groups
+Social relation – Any interpersonal relationship between two or more conspecifics between/within groups
+
+== References ==
+
+Dishion, T.; Veronneau, H. (2012). "An ecological analysis of the effects of deviant peer clustering on sexual promiscuity, problem behavior, and childbearing from early adolescence to adulthood: An enhancement of the life history framework". Developmental Psychology. 48 (3): 703–717. doi:10.1037/a0027304. PMC 3523735. PMID 22409765.
+
+== Further reading ==
+An evolutionary perspective on children's motivation in the peer group. International Journal of Behavioral Development 19(1): 53–73. Full text
+Insko (2009). "Reducing intergroup conflict through the consideration of future consequences". European Journal of Social Psychology. 39 (5): 831–841. doi:10.1002/ejsp.592.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performative_interval-0.md

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+---
+title: "Performative interval"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performative_interval"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:33.339415+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The performative interval in sociology refers to a unit of analysis in the interaction order defined by the disjunct between practice and the self, or between what an actor "does" and what an actor "is".
+The concept is developed by sociologist Adam Isaiah Green, University of Toronto, as a heuristic device to illustrate the irreducibility of the self to a social category in symbolic interactionist and queer theory renderings of the subject (Green 2007). In Green's reflection on these two latter literatures, the actor "acts toward" a given social category — be it a racial, ethnic, gender or sexual orientation classification — through aligning behavior, affect and the body with norms that define the category. Nevertheless, the category is never fully realized in the self, an insight that builds directly on Judith Butler's (1997) conception of "performative failure" (for more, see the concept of performativity), but also on the earlier sociological work of Mead and Goffman, among others. According to Green, whereas pragmatist and interactionist sociological approaches to the self typically focus on how a given actor shores up the gap between "doing" and "being" in the performative interval, queer theory focuses on the inability of the self to ever realize a social category as an ontological property of the self.  Rather, for queer theorists and within poststructuralism more generally, the self is an ever-dissolving iteration of a norm absent a knowable interior or a stable core.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Outline of sociology#General sociology concepts
+
+
+== References ==
+Butler, Judith 1997. Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative, London: Routledge
+Green, Adam Isaiah. 2007. “Queer Theory and Sociology: Locating the Subject and the Self in Sexuality Studies”, Sociological Theory, 25, 1:26-45.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permissive_society-0.md

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+---
+title: "Permissive society"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permissive_society"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:34.508908+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+A permissive society, also referred to as permissive culture, is used to describe a society in which social norms become increasingly secular and liberal, especially with regard to violence, sexual freedom and profanity. The term is often used pejoratively by cultural conservatives to criticise what is seen as a breakdown in traditional values, such as greater acceptance of premarital sex, an increase in divorce rates, and acceptance of non-traditional relationships such as cohabitation and homosexuality. A. P. Herbert, an English humorist, novelist, playwright, law reformist, and Member of Parliament, has been described as the "Father of the Permissive Society," particularly for his championing of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1937, which extended the grounds for divorce. It was particularly used during the sexual revolution which peaked in the early 1970s in Western culture by opponents of the changes in attitudes of the era. During the 2000s, permissive parenting was criticized as a reason behind why some girls under the age of 16 wore thong underwear.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Cultural liberalism
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_of_color-0.md

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+---
+title: "Person of color"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_of_color"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:35.766008+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Person of color (pl.: people of color or persons of color; abbreviated POC) is a term used to describe any person who is not considered "white". In its current meaning, the term originated in, and is associated with, the United States. From the 2010s, however, it has been adopted elsewhere in the Anglosphere (often as person of colour), including relatively limited usage in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Ireland, and South Africa.
+In the United States, the term is involved in the various definitions of non-whiteness, including African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Pacific Islander Americans, multiracial Americans, and some Latino Americans, though members of these communities may prefer to view themselves through their cultural identities rather than color-related terminology. The term, as used in the United States, emphasizes common experiences of systemic racism, which some communities have faced. The term may also be used with other collective categories of people such as "communities of color", "men of color" (MOC), "women of color" (WOC), or "librarians of color". The acronym "BIPOC" refers to "black, indigenous, and other people of color" and aims to emphasize the historic oppression of black and indigenous people. The term "colored" was originally equivalent in use to the term "person of color" in American English, but usage of the appellation "colored" in the Southern United States gradually came to be restricted to "Negroes", and it is now considered a racial pejorative. Elsewhere in the world, and in other dialects of English, the term may have entirely different connotations, however; for example, in South Africa, "Coloureds" refers to multiple multiracial ethnic groups and is sometimes applied to other groups in Southern Africa, such as the Basters of Namibia.
+
+== History ==
+The American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style cites usage of "people of colour" as far back as 1796. It was initially used to refer to light-skinned people of mixed African and European heritage. French colonists used the term gens de couleur ("people of color") to refer to people of mixed African and European ancestry in the Americas who were not enslaved. In South Carolina and other parts of the Deep South, this term was used to distinguish between slaves who were mostly "black" or "Negro" and free people who were primarily "mulatto" or "mixed race". After the American Civil War, "colored" was used as a label almost exclusively for black Americans, but the term eventually fell out of favor by the mid-20th century.
+Although American activist Martin Luther King Jr. used the term "citizens of color" in 1963, the phrase in its current meaning did not catch on until the late 1970s. In the late 20th century, the term "person of color" was introduced in the United States in order to counter the condescension implied by the terms "non-white" and "minority", and racial-justice activists in the U.S., influenced by radical theorists such as Frantz Fanon, popularized it at this time. By the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was in wide circulation. Both anti-racist activists and academics sought to move the understanding of race beyond the black–white dichotomy then prevalent.
+The phrase "women of color" was developed and introduced for wide use by a group of black women activists at the National Women's Conference in 1977. The phrase was used as a method of communicating solidarity between non-white women that was, according to Loretta Ross, not based on "biological destiny" but instead a political act of naming themselves.
+In the 21st century, use of the term and the categorization continued to proliferate: For example, the Joint Council of Librarians of Color (JCLC), a recurring conference of the American Library Association, which uses the "of color" designation for its five ethnic affiliate associations. They include: the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, the American Indian Library Association, the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association, the Chinese American Librarians Association, and REFORMA: The National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking.
+
+== Political significance ==
+According to Stephen Satris of Clemson University, there are two main racial divides in the United States. The first is the "black–white" delineation; the second racial delineation is the one "between whites and everyone else", with whites being "narrowly construed" and everyone else being called "people of color". Because the term "people of color" includes vastly different people with only the common distinction of not being white, it draws attention to the perceived fundamental role of racialization in the United States. Joseph Tuman of San Francisco State University argues that the term "people of color" is attractive because it unites disparate racial and ethnic groups into a larger collective in solidarity with one another.
+Use of the term "person of color", especially in the United States, is often associated with the social-justice movement. Style guides from the American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style, the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Mount Holyoke College all recommend the term "person of color" over other alternatives. Unlike "colored", which historically referred primarily to black people and is often considered offensive, "person of color" and its variants refer inclusively to all non-European peoples—often with the notion that there is political solidarity among them—and, according to one style guide, "are virtually always considered terms of pride and respect".

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_of_color-1.md

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+---
+title: "Person of color"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_of_color"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:35.766008+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Criticism ==
+Many critics of the term, both white and non-white, object to its lack of specificity and find the phrase racially offensive. It has been argued that the term lessens the focus on individual issues facing different racial and ethnic groups, particularly African Americans whom Michael Holzman argues ignores the specific legacy of historical disadvantage in the United States. Preserving "whiteness" as an intact category while lumping every other racial group into an indiscriminate category ("of color") replicates the marginalization that the term was intended to counter. Other commentators state that the term "people of color" is a misnomer and an arbitrary term in which people who are white are mislabeled as people of color. People of color also encompasses various heterogeneous groups that have little in common, with some arguing that American culture as a whole does not deliberate on economic inequality or issues of class.
+Political scientist Angelo Falcón argues that the use of broad terms like "person of color" is offensive because it aggregates diverse communities and projects "a false unity" that "obscure[s] the needs of Latinos and Asians". Citing the sensitivity of the issue, Falcón suggested that there should be "a national summit of Black, Latino and Asian community leaders" to discuss "how can the problem of the so-called 'black/white binary' be tackled in the way it respects the diversity it ignores and helps build the broader constituency for racial social justice that is needed in the country" and to "open the way for a perhaps much-needed resetting of relations between these historically-discriminated against communities that can lead to a more useful etymology of this relationship".
+Blogger Daniel Lim criticizes the term for centering whiteness, framing non-white identities in relation to it and implying that whiteness is the default, race-neutral category. This positioning suggests that race is only relevant for non-white people, thus reinforcing the idea that whiteness is the norm and other identities are deviations. Critics argue that this dynamic marginalizes non-white groups even as the term seeks to unite them, and some individuals express discomfort with having their identities defined in relation to whiteness rather than independently.
+Comedian George Carlin described "people of color" as "an awkward, bullshit, liberal-guilt phrase that obscures meaning rather than enhancing it", adding, "What should we call white people? 'People of no color'?"
+The use of the phrase person of color to describe white Hispanic and Latino Americans and Spaniards has been criticized as inaccurate. The United States census denotes the term "Latino" as a pan-ethnic label, rather than a racial category. Although many Latinos may qualify as being "people of color", the indiscriminate labeling of all Latinos as "people of color" obscures the racial diversity that exists within the Latino population itself, and, for this reason, some commentators have found the term misleading. 
+
+=== BIPOC ===
+The acronym BIPOC, referring to "black, indigenous, (and) people of color", first appeared around 2013. By June 2020, it was, according to Sandra Garcia of The New York Times, "ubiquitous in some corners of Twitter and Instagram", as racial justice awareness grew in the United States in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. The term aims to emphasize the historic oppression of black and indigenous people, which is argued to be superlative and distinctive in U.S. history at the collective level. The BIPOC Project promotes the term in order "to highlight the unique relationship to Whiteness that Indigenous and Black (African Americans) people have, which shapes the experiences of and relationship to white supremacy for all people of color within a U.S. context".
+The term BIPOC does not appear to have originated in the black and Indigenous American communities, as it had been adopted much more widely among white Democrats than among people of color in a 2021 national poll. Asian and Latino Americans have often been confused as to whether the term includes them. The centering of black and Indigenous people in the acronym has been criticized as an unnecessary, unfounded, and divisive ranking of the oppression faced by the communities of color. The acronym's purposeful and definitional assertion that the historical and present-day suffering experienced by black and Indigenous people is more significant in kind or degree than that of other non-white groups has been described as casting communities of color in an oppression Olympics that obscures intersectional characteristics, similarities, and opportunities for solidarity in the struggle against racism. Critics argue that the systems of oppression foundational to U.S. history were not limited to the slavery and genocide suffered by black and Indigenous Americans, but also included the Asian-American and Latino-American experiences of oppression under the Chinese Exclusion Act and the doctrine of manifest destiny. Noting that "Black and Indigenous people are not at the center of every contemporary racial issue", other commentators have found it problematic that the ascendancy of the term coincided with the pronounced rise in anti-Asian hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic. By rendering Asian Americans as an unnamed "remnant", critics argue that the acronym renders the racial discrimination they experience invisible, thereby perpetuating harmful model minority and perpetual foreigner stereotypes. Some critics advocate a return to "POC" for its emphasis on coalition-building, while others call for a contextual approach that names "the groups actually included and centered in the arguments themselves". The term has also been criticized for being redundant.
+
+== See also ==
+Anglo-Indian
+Black, Asian and minority ethnic
+Colorism
+Coloureds
+Discrimination based on skin color
+Global majority
+Identity politics
+Model minority
+Oppression Olympics
+Perpetual foreigner
+Political blackness
+Political correctness
+Race
+Race and ethnicity in the United States
+Racialized person
+Visible minority
+
+== References ==
+
+=== Websites ===
+
+Bland, Trinity (April 14, 2020). "Opinion: The term 'people of color' fails to be properly inclusive of the black community".
+Falcon, Angelo (April 3, 2018). "Latinos and the 'Of Color' Problem". AL DÍA News.
+Fowler, Yara Rodrigues (November 5, 2020). "Yara Rodrigues Fowler | White Latinos · LRB 5 November 2020". LRB Blog.
+"Readers React: The problem with 'people of color': It implies whiteness is the default". Opinion. Los Angeles Times. May 4, 2019.
+Lamuye, Adebola (July 31, 2017). "I am no 'person of colour', I am a black African woman". The Independent. Retrieved January 23, 2018.
+Lind, Michael (July 4, 2016). "How to Fix America's Identity Crisis". Politico. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
+Holzman, Michael (September 19, 2015). "The Misnomer Called 'People of Color'". dropoutnation. Archived from the original on December 26, 2022. Retrieved January 25, 2021.{{cite web}}:  CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
+Khan, Razib (September 17, 2020). "How Brahmins lead the fight against white privilege". Unherd. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
+Shoneye, Tolani (April 22, 2018). "As a black woman, I hate the term 'people of colour'".
+Young, Damon (2020). "The Phrase 'People of Color' Needs to Die". GQ.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plural_society-0.md

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+---
+title: "Plural society"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plural_society"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:38.146367+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+A plural society is defined by Fredrik Barth as a society combining ethnic contrasts: the economic interdependence of those groups, and their ecological specialization (i.e., use of different environmental resources by each ethnic group). The ecological interdependence, or the lack of competition, between ethnic groups may be based on the different activities in the same region or on long–term occupation of different regions in the
+Defined by J S Furnivall as a medley of peoples - European, Chinese, Indian and native, who do mix but do not combine. Each group holds by its own religion, its own culture and language, its own ideas and ways. As individuals they meet, but only in the marketplace in buying and selling. There is a plural society, with different sections of the community living side by side, within the same political unit.
+
+
+== Democratic stability in plural societies ==
+Democracy in plural societies involves political affiliations that strongly correlate with social cleavages. For example, multiple ethnic groups may each largely vote for ethnonationalist political parties, like Bosnia and Herzegovina. 
+Plural democracies may be stable or unstable. According to Gabriel A. Almond, 'Continental European' plural democracies were inherently unstable due to the centrifugal forces of conflicting segmental interests, unlike homogeneous and majoritarian Anglo-American systems. This typification was challenged by Arend Lijphart's study of deviant cases in the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, and Belgium, each representing a plural yet stable democracy.
+Duverger and Neumann argue that there is a close relationship between the number of parties and democratic stability, but a two party system not only seems to correspond to the nature of things because it can moderate better than multiparty systems. In other words, a two party system is the best aggregation. In Switzerland, there is a multiparty system, while in Austria, there is a two party system. 
+Arend Lijphart says that there are deep divisions between different segments of the population and absence of a unifying consensus in most of the Asian, African and South American countries like Guyana, Surinam and Trinidad. According to Cliffard Geertz, Communal attachment is called “primordial loyalties”, which may be based on language, religion, custom, region, race or assumed blood ties. Each communal group hold its assumed ties, therefore there is political instability and breakdown of democracy up until now. 
+He argues that due to political development, western countries have created homogeneity among their plural societies, as idealized British society. But Gabriel Almond says that, in the Continental European political system, there is no secularism and political homogeneity, but there is cultural homogeneity. He argues that non-western countries become more comprehensive and less remote when they use this continental type, which is based on a multi-racial (multi-national) society and lacks strong consensus. 
+Furnivall states that democracy is achieved by European countries with the help of Consociationalism, and that there is fulfillment of the requirements and demands of the divided societies through appropriate processes. On the other hand, in non-western countries, there is lack of strength in social will and social unity due to the divided society, and, it is dangerous for both the democracy and political unity. 
+
+
+== Consociational democracy and the segments of plural society ==
+The concept of a plural society is central to consociational theory. The utility of consociational democracy is premised on the existence of multiple communal segments with non-overlapping social cleavages, each led by segmental elites. Power-sharing between communities in a plural society is then predicted to benefit from consociational institutions, like segmental vetoes, proportional representation, segmental autonomy, and grand coalitions.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Ethnic group
+Multiculturalism
+Polyethnicity
+Pluralism (disambiguation)
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== External links ==
+Rabushka, A. and K. Shepsle (1972) Politics in Plural Societies

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_legitimacy-0.md

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+---
+title: "Police legitimacy"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_legitimacy"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:39.329710+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Police legitimacy is the extent to which members of the public view the police as higher power authority figures, often measured in terms of the public's willingness to obey and cooperate with the police. Police legitimacy is linked to the degree of public support for, and cooperation with the police's efforts to fight crime. When a police officer's ability and authority to effectively complete their job are compromised, there is potential for a lack of police legitimacy. 
+People who experience more procedural justice in police encounters view the police as more legitimate. In contrast, order maintenance policing and widespread street stops appear to reduce police legitimacy among young men. An increase in public support and compliance can only be accomplished if fair procedures are implemented. Police legitimacy can be achieved by increasing the public involvement in police proceedings by informing and explaining to them the process of the decisions being made. The public make judgments regarding the activities of the police by evaluating their actions when conducting their duties, therefore, influencing their views about police legitimacy.
+
+
+== Procedural Justice ==
+
+Procedural justice refers to the idea that the police, courts, and other government institutions should enforce the law in an unbiased and impartial process. It consists of four main components that ensure that proper justice is administered to the public. Firstly, citizens should be allowed to participate and be informed about the proceedings before a governmental institution reaches a decision. Secondly, the procedure in question should make the public believe that the institution is reaching a decision in an unbiased manner. Thirdly, it shows that the institution in question has shown dignity and respect throughout the proceedings. Lastly, it should portray that the institution has motives in mind that benefit the citizens. Individuals who believe that they were dealt with in a procedurally just manner are more inclined to agree with the consequences they are facing for their actions. Procedural justice and police legitimacy are collectively linked meaning that a just procedure will promote the public's faith in law enforcement.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Ferguson effect – Contested possibility of violent crime increasing with reduced proactive policing
+Legal cynicism – Negative perception of law enforcement
+Legitimation crisis – Decline of trust in authority
+Defund the police – Slogan supporting reallocation of public safety funds away from policing
+Peelian principles – Philosophy defining ethical police force
+Gendarmerie – Military force tasked with law enforcement
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== Further reading ==
+Jackson, Jonathan, Bradford, Ben, Hough, Mike and Murray, K. H., ‘Compliance with the law and policing by consent: notes on police and legal legitimacy,’ in: Crawford, Adam, and Hucklesby, Anthea, (eds.) Legitimacy and Compliance in Criminal Justice (London, UK: Routledge, 2012) pp. 29-49. ISBN 9780415671569
+Jackson, Jonathan, Hough, Mike, Bradford, Ben, Hohl, Katrin and Kuha, Jouni (2012) Policing by consent: understanding the dynamics of police power and legitimacy. ESS country specific topline results series, 1. European Commission.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policy_sociology-0.md

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+---
+title: "Policy sociology"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policy_sociology"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:40.569366+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Policy sociology is a term coined by Michael Burawoy referring to a way of providing solutions to social problems. Goals are usually defined by a client, which could be the government. Policy sociology provides instrumental knowledge, that is, knowledge that can be used to solve or help a specific case in the social world. According to Burawoy, the information gathered from policy sociology is open to an extra-academic audience. It is not confined to academic boundaries.  The findings of policy sociology research are likely to have an effect on the general public as they could influence government policy.
+In recent year, policy sociology has been a popular research methodology for analysing educational policies. Sometimes it is also called critical policy sociology.
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popularity-0.md

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+---
+title: "Popularity"
+chunk: 1/6
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popularity"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:42.913586+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+In sociology, popularity is how much a person, idea, place, item or other concept is either liked or accorded status by other people. Liking can be due to reciprocal liking, interpersonal attraction, and similar factors. Social status can be due to dominance, superiority, and similar factors. For example, a kind person may be considered likable and therefore more popular than another person, and a wealthy person may be considered superior and therefore more popular than another person.
+There are two primary types of interpersonal popularity: perceived and sociometric. Perceived popularity is measured by asking people who the most popular or socially important people in their social group are. Sociometric popularity is measured by objectively measuring the number of connections a person has to others in the group. A person can have high perceived popularity without having high sociometric popularity, and vice versa.
+According to psychologist Tessa Lansu at the Radboud University Nijmegen, "Popularity [has] to do with being the middle point of a group and having influence on it."
+
+== Introduction ==
+
+The term popularity is borrowed from the Latin term popularis, which originally meant "common." The current definition of the word popular, the "fact or condition of being well liked by the people", was first seen in 1601.
+While popularity is a trait often ascribed to an individual, it is an inherently social phenomenon and thus can only be understood in the context of groups of people. Popularity is a collective perception, and individuals report the consensus of a group's feelings towards an individual or object when rating popularity. It takes a group of people to like something, so the more that people advocate for something or claim that someone is best liked, the more attention it will get, and the more popular it will be deemed.
+Notwithstanding the above, popularity as a concept can be applied, assigned, or directed towards objects such as songs, movies, websites, activities, soaps, foods etc. Together, these objects collectively make up popular culture, or the consensus of mainstream preferences in society. In essence, anything, human or non-human, can be deemed popular.
+
+== Types of interpersonal popularity ==
+For many years, popularity research focused on a definition of popularity that was based on being "well liked." Eventually, it was discovered that those who are perceived as popular are not necessarily the most well liked as originally assumed. When students are given the opportunity to freely elect those they like most and those they perceive as popular, a discrepancy often emerges. This is evidence that there are two main forms of personal popularity that social psychology recognizes, sociometric popularity and perceived popularity. Prinstein distinguishes between the two types as likeability vs. social status.
+
+=== Sociometric popularity or likeability ===
+Sociometric popularity can be defined by how liked an individual is. This liking is correlated with prosocial behaviours. Those who act in prosocial ways are likely to be deemed sociometrically popular. Often they are known for their interpersonal abilities, their empathy for others, and their willingness to cooperate non-aggressively. This is a more private judgement, characterized by likability, that will not generally be shared in a group setting. Often, it is impossible to know whom individuals find popular on this scale unless confidentiality is ensured.
+
+=== Perceived popularity or social status ===
+Perceived popularity is used to describe those individuals who are known among their peers as being popular. Unlike sociometric popularity, perceived popularity is often associated with aggression and dominance and is not dependent on prosocial behaviors. This form of popularity is often explored by the popular media. Notable works dealing with perceived popularity include Mean Girls, Odd Girl Out, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Individuals who have perceived popularity are often highly socially visible and frequently emulated but rarely liked. Since perceived popularity is a measure of visible reputation and emulation, this form of popularity is most openly discussed, agreed upon within a group, and what most people refer to when they call someone popular.
+
+== Comprehensive theories ==
+To date, only one comprehensive theory of interpersonal popularity has been proposed: that of A. L. Freedman in the book Popularity Explained. The 3 Factor Model proposed attempts to reconcile the two concepts of sociometric and perceived popularity by combining them orthogonally and providing distinct definitions for each. In doing so, it reconciles the counter intuitive fact that liking does not guarantee perceived popularity nor does perceived popularity guarantee being well liked.
+
+=== "Popularity Explained" ===
+Popularity Explained was first published as a blog before being converted to a book and various versions have been available online since 2013.
+
+==== Conceptual foundations ====
+There are four primary concepts that Popularity Explained relies on.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popularity-1.md

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+---
+title: "Popularity"
+chunk: 2/6
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popularity"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:42.913586+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Liking and attraction are not the same. The interpersonal feeling of "liking" is not the same as "attraction" and that both are responsible for different human behaviours. The neurological evidence of this comes from the research of Kent C. Berridge and his incentive salience model. Popularity Explained extrapolates the conclusions of this research and applies it to human-human interpersonal interactions.
+A hierarchy of interpersonal attraction exists in all social groups. Popularity Explained develops a very broad definition of interpersonal attraction asserting that it is based on a multitude of different factors but primarily those of: socioeconomic status; interpersonal similarity; physical appearance; and efficacy. It proposes the concept of a "Hierarchy of Attraction" which, in simple terms, is just a stylized bell curve that illustrates how attractive people are relative to each other in terms of a percentile.
+Interpersonal attraction (in the broadest sense) results in Input of Energy. Input of Energy is the interpersonal actions that an individual takes, consciously and unconsciously, when they experience an interpersonal attraction. Examples of Input of Energy given in the book include: attempts at physical proximity; changes in verbal communications; changes to non-verbal communication; biased interpersonal judgments; cognitive intrusion; and helping behaviour.
+Sociometric and perceived popularity are correlated but not equivalent. By combining these two concepts, Popularity Explained defines eight prototypical student types that can be plotted on the single graph.
+
+==== Three-factor model ====
+According to Freedman, an individual's place in the social landscape is determined by a combination of three factors: what they are; who they are; and the situation.
+
+What refers to all those aspects of a person that are objective: participation in sports, physical appearance, etc. Perceived popularity is primarily the result of what a person is. It is mediated by Input of Energy combining with the Hierarchy of Attraction. This preferential receipt of Input of Energy by a select few is what propels them to the "popular" side of the graph that combines sociometric and perceived popularity.
+Who refers to the personality of the individual and how they treat other people. It is this factor that is responsible for determining where a student sits along the "liking" and "disliking" dimensions that characterize a student. The more pro-social an individual, the more they will be liked.
+The Situation refers to the circumstances that an individual finds themself in. Different circumstances may result in different social outcomes. For example, the same student may be perceived as popular when in the social context of their church youth group but unpopular within the social context of their school as a whole.
+
+== Interpersonal causes ==
+
+One of the most widely agreed upon theories about what leads to an increased level of popularity for an individual is the perceived value which that individual brings to the group. This seems to be true for members of all groups, but is especially demonstrable in groups that exist for a specific purpose. For example, sports teams exist with the goal of being successful in competitions against other sports teams. Study groups exist so that the members of the group can mutually benefit from one another's academic knowledge. In these situations, leaders often emerge because other members of the group perceive them as adding a lot of value to the group as a whole. On a sports team, this means that the best players are usually elected captain and in study groups people might be more inclined to like an individual who has a lot of knowledge to share. It has been argued that this may be a result of our evolutionary tendencies to favor individuals who are most likely to aid in our own survival.
+The actual value which an individual brings to a group is not of consequence in determining his or her popularity; the only thing that is important is his or her value as perceived by the other members of the group. While perceived value and actual value may often overlap, this is not a requisite and it has been shown that there are instances in which an individual's actual value is relatively low, but they are perceived as highly valuable nevertheless.
+
+=== Attractiveness ===
+Attractiveness, specifically physical attractiveness, has been shown to have very profound effects on popularity. People who are physically attractive are more likely to be thought of as possessing positive traits. People who are attractive are expected to perform better on tasks and are more likely to be trusted. Additionally, they are judged to possess many other positive traits such as mental health, intelligence, social awareness, and dominance.
+Additionally, people who are of above average attractiveness are assumed to also be of above average value to the group. Research shows that attractive people are often perceived to have many positive traits based on nothing other than their looks, regardless of how accurate these perceptions are. This phenomenon is known as the Halo effect This means that, in addition to being more well-liked, attractive people are more likely to be seen as bringing actual value to the group, even when they may be of little or no value at all. In essence, physically attractive people are given the benefit of the doubt while less attractive individuals must prove that they are bringing value to the group. It has been shown empirically that being physically attractive is correlated with both sociometric and perceived popularity. Some possible explanations for this include increased social visibility and an increased level of tolerance for aggressive, social interactions that may increase perceived popularity.

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+---
+title: "Popularity"
+chunk: 3/6
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popularity"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:42.913586+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Aggression ===
+The degree to which an individual is perceived as popular is often highly correlated with the level of aggression with which that individual interacts with his or her peers. There are two main categories of aggression, relational and overt, both of which have varying consequences for popularity depending on several factors, such as the gender and attractiveness of the aggressor.
+The relationship also depends on culture. Prinstein notes that studies have found that increased aggression tends to correlate with higher social status in the United States, but lower social status in China.
+
+==== Relational aggression ====
+Relational aggression is nonviolent aggression that is emotionally damaging to another individual. Examples of relationally aggressive activities include ignoring or excluding an individual from a group, delivering personal insults to another person, and the spreading of rumors. Relational aggression is more frequently used by females than males.
+It has been found that relational aggression almost always has a strongly negative relationship with sociometric popularity but can have a positive relationship with perceived popularity depending on the perceived level of attractiveness of the aggressor. For an aggressor who is perceived as unattractive, relational aggression, by both males and females, leads to less perceived popularity. For an attractive aggressor however, relational aggression has been found to actually have a positive relationship with perceived popularity.
+The relationship between attractiveness and aggression is further intertwined by the finding that increased levels of physical attractiveness actually further decreased the sociometric popularity of relationally aggressive individuals.
+In short, the more physically attractive an individual is, the more likely they are to experience decreased levels of sociometric popularity but increased levels of perceived popularity for engaging in relationally aggressive activities.
+
+==== Overt aggression ====
+Overt aggression is aggression that involves individuals physically interacting with each other in acts such as pushing, hitting, kicking or otherwise causing physical harm or submission in the other person. This includes threats of violence and physical intimidation as well.
+It has been shown that overt aggression directly leads to perceived popularity when the aggressor is attractive. Experiments that are controlled for levels of physical attractiveness show that individuals who are attractive and overtly aggressive have a higher degree of perceived popularity than attractive non-overtly aggressive individuals. This was found to be true to a small degree for females and a large degree for males.
+Attractive individuals who are overtly aggressive barely suffer any consequences in terms of sociometric popularity. This is a key difference between overt and relational aggression because relational aggression has a strongly negative relationship on sociometric popularity, especially for attractive individuals. For unattractive individuals, there is again a strongly negative relationship between overt aggression and sociometric popularity. This means that attractive individuals stand to gain a lot of perceived popularity at the cost of very little sociometric popularity by being overtly aggressive while unattractive individuals stand to gain very little perceived popularity from acts of overt aggression but will be heavily penalized with regards to sociometric popularity.
+
+=== Cultural factors ===
+According to Talcott Parsons, as rewritten by Fons Trompenaars, there are four main types of culture, marked by:
+
+love/hate (Middle East, Mediterranean, Latin America);
+approval/criticism (United Kingdom, Canada, Scandinavia, Germanic countries);
+esteem/contempt (Japan, Eastern Asia); and
+responsiveness/rejection (the United States).
+Only the responsiveness/rejection culture results in teenagers actively trying to become popular. There is no effort for popularity in Northern or Southern Europe, Latin America or Asia. This emotional bonding is specific for the high schools in the United States. In the love/hate cultures, the family and close friends are more important than popularity. In the approval/criticism cultures, actions are more important than persons, so no strong links develop during school.
+
+=== Demographic differences ===
+
+==== Maturity ====
+Popularity is gauged primarily through social status. Because of the importance of social status, peers play the primary role in social decision making so that individuals can increase the chances that others like them. However, as children, individuals tend to do this through friendship, academics, and interpersonal conduct. By adulthood, work and romantic relationships become much more important. This peer functioning and gaining popularity is a key player in increasing interest in social networks and groups in the workplace. To succeed in such a work environment, adults then place popularity as a higher priority than any other goal, even romance.
+
+==== Gender ====
+These two types of popularity, perceived popularity and sociometric popularity, are more correlated for girls than they are for boys. However, it is said that men can possess these qualities to a larger extent, making them more likely to be a leader, more powerful, and more central in a group, but also more likely than women to be socially excluded. Boys tend to become popular based on athletic ability, coolness, toughness, and interpersonal skills; however, the more popular a boy gets, the worse he tends to do on his academic work. On the other hand, this negative view of academics is not seen at all in popular girls, who gain popularity based on family background (primarily socioeconomic status), physical appearance, and social ability. Boys are also known to be more competitive and rule focused, whereas girls have more emotional intimacy.

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+---
+title: "Popularity"
+chunk: 4/6
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popularity"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:42.913586+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+==== Race ====
+In some instances, it has been found that in predominantly white high schools, attractive non-white students are on average significantly more sociometrically popular than equally attractive white students. One theory that has been put forth to explain this phenomenon is a high degree of group cohesiveness among minority students compared with the relative lack of cohesion amongst members of the majority. Since there is more cohesion, there is more availability for one person to be liked by many since they are all in contact. This acts like Zipf's law, where the cohesion is a confounding factor that forces the greater links in the smaller minority, causing them to be more noticed and thus more popular. When considering race as a predictor for perceived popularity by asking a class how popular and important each other person is, African American students were rated most popular by their peers. Popularity in race was found to be correlated with athleticism, and because African Americans have a stereotype of being better at sports than individuals of other races, they are viewed as more popular. Additionally, White and Hispanic children were rated as more popular the better they succeeded in school and came from a higher socioeconomic background. No single factor can explain popularity, but instead the interaction between many factors such as race and athleticism vs. academics.
+
+== Effects of popularity in the workplace ==
+
+=== Importance ===
+More tasks in the workplace are being done in teams, leading to a greater need of people to seek and feel social approval. In academic settings, a high social standing among peers is associated with positive academic outcomes. Popularity also leads to students in academic environments to receive more help, have more positive relationships and stereotypes, and be more approached by peers. While this is the research found in schools, it is likely to be generalized to a workplace.
+
+=== Benefits ===
+Popularity is positively linked to job satisfaction, individual job performance, and group performance. The popular worker, besides just feeling more satisfied with his job, feels more secure, believes he has better working conditions, trusts his supervisor, and possesses more positive opportunities for communication with both management and co-workers, causing a greater feeling of responsibility and belongingness at work. Others prefer to work with popular individuals, most notably in manual labor jobs because, although they might not be the most knowledgeable for the job, they are approachable, willing to help, cooperative in group work, and are more likely to treat their coworkers as an equal. If an employee feels good-natured, genial, but not overly independent, more people will say that they most prefer to work with that employee.
+
+=== Contributing factors ===
+According to the mere-exposure effect, employees in more central positions that must relate to many others throughout the day, such as a manager, are more likely to be considered popular.
+There are many characteristics that contribute to popularity:
+
+Expressing and acting in genuine ways – others will turn away if they can detect that someone is being fake to them
+Focusing on positive energy – others will feel too drained to be around someone if their interactions are not started on a positive note or they don't have empathy to share in someone else's positive news
+Treating others with respect – others do not like to be around someone if they aren't treated equally and acknowledged for their hard work
+Create connections – others are more likely to approach individuals they have strong relationships with; these can be built by talking about more personal issues, attending work gatherings, and communicating outside the office walls
+Patience – turning away too quickly ignores that relationships take time to grow, especially in the busy and stressful environments that work often induces
+Incorporating others – others feel a sense of trust and belongingness when they are asked for help on a project
+Hands-on or servant leader – is a person that will do the work before anyone else, be the first to do the less desirable jobs, and have a positive attitude about it.
+
+=== Leadership popularity ===
+With a greater focus on groups in the workplace, it is essential that leaders effectively deal with and mediate groups to avoid clashing. Sometimes a leader does not need to be popular to be effective, but there are a few characteristics that can help a leader be more accepted and better liked by his group. Without group or team cohesiveness, there is no correlation between leadership and popularity; however, when a group is cohesive, the higher up someone is in the leadership hierarchy, the more popular they are for two reasons. First, a cohesive group feels more personal responsibility for their work, thus placing more value on better performance. Cohesive members see leaders as taking a bulk of the work and investing a lot of personal time, so when they see a job's value they can ascribe its success to the leader. This greatest contribution principle is perceived as a great asset to the team, and members view the leader more favorably and he gains popularity. Secondly, cohesive groups have well established group values. Leaders can become more popular in these groups by realizing and acting on dominant group values. Supporting group morals and standards leads to high positive valuation from the group, leading to popularity.
+
+== The popularity of objects as a consequence of social influence ==

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+---
+title: "Popularity"
+chunk: 5/6
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popularity"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:42.913586+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Information cascades ===
+Popularity is a term widely applicable to the modern era thanks primarily to social networking technology. Being "liked" has been taken to a completely different level on ubiquitous sites such as Facebook.
+Popularity is a social phenomenon but it can also be ascribed to objects that people interact with. Collective attention is the only way to make something popular, and information cascades play a large role in rapid rises in something's popularity. Rankings for things in popular culture, like movies and music, often do not reflect the public's taste, but rather the taste of the first few buyers because social influence plays a large role in determining what is popular and what is not through an information cascade.
+Information cascades have strong influence causing individuals to imitate the actions of others, whether or not they are in agreement. For example, when downloading music, people don't decide 100% independently which songs to buy. Often they are influenced by charts depicting which songs are already trending. Since people rely on what those before them do, one can manipulate what becomes popular among the public by manipulating a website's download rankings. Experts paid to predict sales often fail but not because they are bad at their jobs; instead, it is because they cannot control the information cascade that ensues after first exposure by consumers. Music is again, an excellent example. Good songs rarely perform poorly on the charts and poor songs rarely perform very well, but there is tremendous variance that still makes predicting the popularity of any one song very difficult.
+Experts can determine if a product will sell in the top 50% of related products or not, but it is difficult to be more specific than that. Due to the strong impact that influence plays, this evidence emphasizes the need for marketers. They have a significant opportunity to show their products in the best light, with the most famous people, or being in the media most often. Such constant exposure is a way of gaining more product followers. Marketers can often make the difference between an average product and a popular product. However, since popularity is primarily constructed as a general consensus of a group's attitude towards something, word-of-mouth is a more effective way to attract new attention. Websites and blogs start by recommendations from one friend to another, as they move through social networking services. Eventually, when the fad is large enough, the media catches on to the craze. This spreading by word-of-mouth is the social information cascade that allows something to grow in usage and attention throughout a social group until everyone is telling everyone else about it, at which point it is deemed popular.
+Individuals also rely on what others say when they know that the information they are given could be completely incorrect. This is known as groupthink. Relying on others to influence one's own decisions is a very powerful social influence, but can have negative impacts.
+
+=== Zipf's law ===
+
+The popularity of many different things can be described by Zipf's powerlaw, which posits that there is a low frequency of very large quantities and a high frequency of low quantities. This illustrates popularity of many different objects.
+For example, there are few very popular websites, but many websites have small followings. This is the result of interest; as many people use e-mail, it is common for sites like Yahoo! to be accessed by large numbers of people; however, a small subset of people would be interested in a blog on a particular video game. In this situation, only Yahoo! would be deemed a popular site by the public. This can additionally be seen in social networking services such as Facebook. The average number of friends on Facebook is 130, while very few people have large social networks. However, some individuals have more than 5,000 friends. This reflects that very few people can be extremely well-connected, but many people are somewhat connected. The number of friends a person has, has been a way to determine how popular an individual is, so the small number of people who have a high number of friends on social networking services, like Facebook, illustrates how only a few people are deemed popular.

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+---
+title: "Popularity"
+chunk: 6/6
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popularity"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:42.913586+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Popular people may not be those who are best liked interpersonally by their peers, but they do receive most of the positive behavior from coworkers when compared to nonpopular workers. This is a result of the differences between sociometric and perceived popularity. When asked who is most popular, employees typically respond based on perceived popularity; however, they really prefer the social interactions with those who are more sociometrically popular. For each individual to ensure that they are consistent with the group's popularity consensus, those who are high in perceived popularity are treated with the same positive behaviors as those who are more interpersonally, but privately, liked by specific individuals. Well-liked workers are most likely to get salary increases and promotions, while disliked (unpopular) workers are the first to get their salary cut back or laid off during recessions.
+During interactions with others in the work environment, more popular individuals receive more organizational citizenship behavior (helping and courteousness from others) and less counter productive work behavior (rude reactions and withheld information) than those who are considered less popular in the workplace. Coworkers agree with each other on who is and who is not popular and, as a group, treat popular coworkers more favorably. While popularity has proven to be a big determiner of getting more positive feedback and interactions from coworkers, such a quality matters less in organizations where workloads and interdependence is high, such as the medical field.
+In many instances, physical appearance has been used as one indicator of popularity. Attractiveness plays a large role in the workplace and physical appearance influences hiring, whether or not the job might benefit from it. For example, some jobs, such as salesperson, benefit from attractiveness when it comes down to the bottom line, but there have been many studies which have shown that, in general, attractiveness is not at all a valid predictor of on-the-job performance. Many individuals have previously thought this was only a phenomenon in the more individualistic cultures of the Western world, but research has shown that attractiveness also plays a role in hiring in collectivist cultures as well. Because of the prevalence of this problem during the hiring process in all cultures, researchers have recommended training a group to ignore such influencers, just like legislation has worked to control for differences in sex, race, and disabilities.
+
+== See also ==
+
+Peer group
+School bullying
+Self-esteem
+Social influence
+Social status
+
+== References ==
+
+== Further reading ==
+
+Eder, Donna (1985). "The Cycle of Popularity: Interpersonal Relations Among Female Adolescents". Sociology of Education. 58 (3): 154–165. doi:10.2307/2112416. JSTOR 2112416.
+"How to be Popular" # Dr. A. L. Freedman; PopularityExplained.com, retrieved July 19, 2015.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_penalty-0.md

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+---
+title: "Poverty penalty"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_penalty"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:44.127070+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The poverty penalty describes the phenomenon that poor people tend to pay more to eat, buy, and borrow than the rich. The term became widely known through a 2005 book by C. K. Prahalad, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid.
+An earlier exploration of this was a 1960s sociology study published as The Poor Pay More which examined the ways in which retail patterns and a lack of consumer options allowed marginal retailers such as door-to-door salesmen, "easy credit" storefronts and the sale of installment credit agreements to extract profits from low-income buyers, with fewer options and less sophisticated consumer habits.
+The impact of the poverty penalty phenomenon has been observed across a range of products and services, including energy and insurance.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Cost of poverty
+Extreme poverty
+Poverty reduction
+Progress and Poverty
+ The factors causing poverty and suffering
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== External links ==
+Brown, DeNeen L (18 May 2009). "The High Cost of Poverty: Why the Poor Pay More". Washington Post.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_(social_and_political)-0.md

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+---
+title: "Power (social and political)"
+chunk: 1/5
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_(social_and_political)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:45.314583+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+In political science, power is the ability to influence or direct the actions, beliefs, or conduct of actors, usually through law. Power does not exclusively refer to the threat or use of force (coercion) by one actor against another, but may also be exerted through diffuse means (such as institutions). 
+Power may also take structural forms, as it orders actors in relation to one another (such as distinguishing between a master and an enslaved person, a householder and their relatives, an employer and their employees, a parent and a child, a political representative and their voters, etc.), and discursive forms, as categories and language may lend legitimacy to some behaviors and groups over others. The term authority is often used for power that is perceived as legitimate or socially approved by the social structure. Scholars have distinguished between soft power and hard power.
+
+== Types ==
+
+One can classify such power types along three different dimensions:
+
+Soft and hard: Soft tactics take advantage of the relationship between the influencer and the target. They are more indirect and interpersonal (e.g., collaboration, socializing). Conversely, hard tactics are harsh, forceful, direct, and rely on concrete outcomes. However, they are not always more powerful than soft tactics. In many circumstances, fear of social exclusion can be a much stronger motivator than some kind of physical punishment.
+Rational and nonrational: Rational tactics of influence make use of reasoning, logic, and sound judgment, whereas nonrational tactics may rely on emotionality or misinformation. Examples of each include bargaining and persuasion, and evasion and put-downs, respectively.
+Unilateral and bilateral: Bilateral tactics, such as collaboration and negotiation, involve reciprocity on the part of both the person influencing and their target. Unilateral tactics, on the other hand, develop without any participation on the part of the target. These tactics include disengagement and the deployment of fait accomplis.
+People tend to vary in their use of power tactics, with different types of people opting for different tactics. For instance, interpersonally oriented people tend to use soft and rational tactics. Moreover, extroverts use a greater variety of power tactics than do introverts. People will also choose different tactics based on the group situation, and based on whom they wish to influence. People also tend to shift from soft to hard tactics when they face resistance.
+
+=== Balance of power ===
+Because power operates both relationally and reciprocally, sociologists speak of the "balance of power" between parties to a relationship:
+all parties to all relationships have some power: the sociological examination of power concerns itself with discovering and describing the relative strengths: equal or unequal, stable or subject to periodic change. Sociologists usually analyse relationships in which the parties have relatively equal or nearly equal power in terms of constraint rather than of power. In this context, "power" has a connotation of unilateralism. If this were not so, then all relationships could be described in terms of "power", and its meaning would be lost. Given that power is not innate and can be granted to others, to acquire power one must possess or control a form of power currency.
+
+=== Political power in authoritarian regimes ===
+
+In authoritarian regimes, political power is concentrated in the hands of a single leader or a small group of leaders who exercise almost complete control over the government and its institutions. Because some authoritarian leaders are not elected by a majority, their main threat is that posed by the masses. They often maintain their power through political control tactics like:
+
+Repression: The state targets actors who challenge their beliefs. Can be done directly or indirectly.
+Autocrats repress actors they perceive as having irreconcilable interests, and cooperate with those they think have reconcilable ones.
+Because of preference falsification- distinguishing between an individual's private preference and public preference- sometimes repression in itself is not enough.
+Indoctrination: The state controls public education and uses propaganda to diffuse its views and values into society.
+A one standard deviation increase in pro-regime propaganda reduces the odds of protest the following day by 15%.
+Coercive distribution: The state distributes welfare and resources to keep people dependent while offering benefits to people they know they can manipulate.
+Infiltration: The state assigns people to go into grassroot level to sway the public in favor of the authoritarian regime.
+Although several regimes follow these general forms of control, different authoritarian sub-regime types rely on different political control tactics.
+
+== Power politics ==
+
+== Effects ==
+Power changes those in the position of power and those who are targets of that power.
+
+=== Approach/inhibition theory ===
+Developed by D. Keltner and colleagues, approach/inhibition theory assumes that having power and using power alters psychological states of individuals. The theory is based on the notion that most organisms react to environmental events in two common ways. The reaction of approach is associated with action, self-promotion, seeking rewards, increased energy and movement. Inhibition, on the contrary, is associated with self-protection, avoiding threats or danger, vigilance, loss of motivation and an overall reduction in activity.
+Overall, approach/inhibition theory holds that power promotes approach tendencies, while a reduction in power promotes inhibition tendencies.
+
+=== Positive ===
+
+Power prompts people to take action
+Makes individuals more responsive to changes within a group and its environment
+Powerful people are more proactive, more likely to speak up, make the first move, and lead negotiation
+Powerful people are more focused on the goals appropriate in a given situation and tend to plan more task-related activities in a work setting
+Powerful people tend to experience more positive emotions, such as happiness and satisfaction, and they smile more than low-power individuals
+Power is associated with optimism about the future because more powerful individuals focus their attention on more positive aspects of the environment
+People with more power tend to carry out executive cognitive functions more rapidly and successfully, including internal control mechanisms that coordinate attention, decision-making, planning, and goal-selection

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+---
+title: "Power (social and political)"
+chunk: 2/5
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_(social_and_political)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:45.314583+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Negative ===
+Powerful people are prone to take risky, inappropriate, or unethical decisions and often overstep their boundaries
+They tend to generate negative emotional reactions in their subordinates, particularly when there is a conflict in the group
+When individuals gain power, their self-evaluation become more positive, while their evaluations of others become more negative
+Power tends to weaken one's social attentiveness, which leads to difficulty understanding other people's point of view
+Powerful people also spend less time collecting and processing information about their subordinates and often perceive them in a stereotypical fashion
+People with power tend to use more coercive tactics, increase social distance between themselves and subordinates, believe that non-powerful individuals are untrustworthy, and devalue work and ability of less powerful individuals
+
+== Theories ==
+
+=== Five bases of power ===
+
+In a now-classic study (1959), social psychologists John R. P. French and Bertram Raven developed a schema of sources of power by which to analyse how power plays work (or fail to work) in a specific relationship.
+According to French and Raven, power must be distinguished from influence in the following way: power is that state of affairs that holds in a given relationship, A-B, such that a given influence attempt by A over B makes A's desired change in B more likely. Conceived this way, power is fundamentally relative; it depends on the specific understandings A and B each apply to their relationship and requires B's recognition of a quality in A that would motivate B to change in the way A intends. A must draw on the 'base' or combination of bases of power appropriate to the relationship to effect the desired outcome. Drawing on the wrong power base can have unintended effects, including a reduction in A's own power.
+French and Raven argue that there are five significant categories of such qualities, while not excluding other minor categories. Further bases have since been proposed, in particular by Gareth Morgan in his 1986 book, Images of Organization.
+
+==== Expert power ====
+
+Expert power is an individual's power deriving from the skills or expertise of the person and the organization's needs for those skills and expertise. Unlike the others, this type of power is usually highly specific and limited to the particular area in which the expert is trained and qualified. When they have knowledge and skills that enable them to understand a situation, suggest solutions, use solid judgment, and generally outperform others, then people tend to listen to them. When individuals demonstrate expertise, people tend to trust them and respect what they say. As subject-matter experts, their ideas will have more value, and others will look to them for leadership in that area.
+
+==== Reward power ====
+
+In terms of cancel culture, the mass ostracization used to reconcile unchecked injustice and abuse of power is an "upward power". Policies for policing the internet against these processes as a pathway for creating due process for handling conflicts, abuses, and harm that is done through established processes are known as "downward power".
+
+==== Coercive power ====
+
+Coercive power is the application of negative influences. It includes the ability to defer or withhold other rewards. This is a type of power commonly seen in the fashion industry by coupling with legitimate power; it is referred to in the industry-specific literature as "glamorization of structural domination and exploitation".
+
+=== Principles in interpersonal relationships ===
+According to Laura K. Guerrero and Peter A. Andersen in Close Encounters: Communication in Relationships, power in relationships is multifaceted. It can be perceived, relational, resource-based, and dependent on interest and commitment levels. While power often stems from controlling valued, scarce resources or having less dependence in a relationship, it is also shaped by behavior, social skills, and how others interpret one’s actions. Power can be enabling when used with confidence and skill, but disabling when it leads to manipulation, communication breakdowns, or relational dissatisfaction.
+
+=== Cultural hegemony ===
+In the Marxist tradition, the Italian writer Antonio Gramsci elaborated on the role of ideology in creating a cultural hegemony, which becomes a means of bolstering the power of capitalism and of the nation-state. Drawing on Niccolò Machiavelli in The Prince and trying to understand why there had been no Communist revolution in Western Europe while it was claimed there had been one in Russia, Gramsci conceptualised this hegemony as a centaur, consisting of two halves. The back end, the beast, represented the more classic material image of power: power through coercion, through brute force, be it physical or economic. But the capitalist hegemony, he argued, depended even more strongly on the front end, the human face, which projected power through 'consent'. In Russia, this power was lacking, allowing for a revolution. However, in Western Europe, specifically in Italy, capitalism had succeeded in exercising consensual power, convincing the working classes that their interests were the same as those of capitalists. In this way, a revolution had been avoided.
+While Gramsci stresses the significance of ideology in power structures, Marxist-feminist writers such as Michele Barrett stress the role of ideologies in extolling the virtues of family life. The classic argument to illustrate this point of view is the use of women as a 'reserve army of labour'. In wartime, it is accepted that women perform masculine tasks, while after the war, the roles are easily reversed. Therefore, according to Barrett, the destruction of capitalist economic relations is necessary but not sufficient for the liberation of women.
+
+=== Tarnow ===
+Eugen Tarnow considers what power hijackers have over air plane passengers and draws similarities with power in the military. He shows that power over an individual can be amplified by the presence of a group. If the group conforms to the leader's commands, the leader's power over an individual is greatly enhanced, while if the group does not conform, the leader's power over an individual is non-existent.
+
+=== Foucault ===

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+---
+title: "Power (social and political)"
+chunk: 3/5
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_(social_and_political)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:45.314583+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+For Michel Foucault, the real power will always rely on the ignorance of its agents. No single human, group, or actor runs the dispositif (machine or apparatus), but power is dispersed through the apparatus as efficiently and silently as possible, ensuring its agents do whatever is necessary. It is because of this action that power is unlikely to be detected and remains elusive to 'rational' investigation. Foucault quotes a text reputedly written by political economist Jean Baptiste Antoine Auget de Montyon, entitled Recherches et considérations sur la population de la France (1778), but turns out to be written by his secretary Jean-Baptise Moheau (1745–1794), and by emphasizing biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, who constantly refers to milieus as a plural adjective and sees into the milieu as an expression as nothing more than water, air, and light confirming the genus within the milieu, in this case the human species, relates to a function of the population and its social and political interaction in which both form an artificial and natural milieu. This milieu (both artificial and natural) appears as a target of intervention for power, according to Foucault, which is radically different from the previous notions on sovereignty, territory, and disciplinary space interwoven into social and political relations that function as a species (biological species). Foucault originated and developed the concept of "docile bodies" in his book Discipline and Punish. He writes, "A body is docile that may be subjected, used, transformed and improved.
+
+=== Clegg ===
+Stewart Clegg proposes another three-dimensional model with his "circuits of power" theory. This model likens the production and organization of power to an electric circuit board consisting of three distinct interacting circuits: episodic, dispositional, and facilitative. These circuits operate at three levels: two are macro and one is micro. The episodic circuit is at the micro level and is constituted of irregular exercise of power as agents address feelings, communication, conflict, and resistance in day-to-day interrelations. The outcomes of the episodic circuit are both positive and negative. The dispositional circuit is constituted of macro level rules of practice and socially constructed meanings that inform member relations and legitimate authority. The facilitative circuit is constituted of macro level technology, environmental contingencies, job design, and networks, which empower or disempower and thus punish or reward agency in the episodic circuit. All three independent circuits interact at "obligatory passage points", which are channels for empowerment or disempowerment.
+
+=== Galbraith ===
+John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) in The Anatomy of Power (1983)
+summarizes the types of power as "condign" (based on force), "compensatory" (through the use of various resources) or "conditioned" (the result of persuasion), and the sources of power as "personality" (individuals), "property" (power-wielders' material resources), and/or "organizational" (from sitting higher in an organisational power structure).
+
+=== Gene Sharp ===
+Gene Sharp, an American professor of political science, believes that power ultimately depends on its bases. Thus, a political regime maintains power because people accept and obey its dictates, laws, and policies. Sharp cites the insight of Étienne de La Boétie.
+Sharp's key theme is that power is not monolithic; that is, it does not derive from some intrinsic quality of those who are in power. For Sharp, political power, the power of any state – regardless of its particular structural organization – ultimately derives from the subjects of the state. His fundamental belief is that any power structure relies upon the subjects' obedience to the orders of the ruler(s). If subjects do not obey, leaders have no power.
+His work is thought to have been influential in the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević, in the 2011 Arab Spring, and other nonviolent revolutions.
+
+=== Björn Kraus ===
+Björn Kraus deals with the epistemological perspective on power regarding the question of the possibilities of interpersonal influence by developing a special form of constructivism (named relational constructivism). Instead of focusing on the valuation and distribution of power, he asks first and foremost what the term can describe at all. Coming from Max Weber's definition of power, he realizes that the term power has to be split into "instructive power" and "destructive power". More precisely, instructive power means the chance to determine the actions and thoughts of another person, whereas destructive power means the chance to diminish the opportunities of another person. How significant this distinction really is, becomes evident by looking at the possibilities of rejecting power attempts: Rejecting instructive power is possible; rejecting destructive power is not. By using this distinction, proportions of power can be analyzed in a more sophisticated way, helping to sufficiently reflect on matters of responsibility. This perspective permits people to get over an "either-or-position" (either there is power or there is not), which is common, especially in epistemological discourses about power theories, and to introduce the possibility of an "as well as-position".
+
+=== Unmarked categories ===
+The idea of unmarked categories originated in feminism. As opposed to looking at social difference by focusing on what or whom is perceived to be different, theorists who use the idea of unmarked categories insist that one must also look at how whatever is "normal" comes to be perceived as unremarkable and what effects this has on social relations. Attending the unmarked category is thought to be a way to analyze linguistic and cultural practices to provide insight into how social differences, including power, are produced and articulated in everyday occurrences.
+Feminist linguist Deborah Cameron describes an "unmarked" identity as the default, which requires no explicit acknowledgment. Heterosexuality, for instance, is unmarked, assumed as the norm, unlike homosexuality, which is "marked" and requires clearer signaling as it differs from the majority. Similarly, masculinity is often unmarked, while femininity is marked, leading to studies that examine distinctive features in women's speech, whereas men's speech is treated as the neutral standard.
+Although the unmarked category is typically not explicitly noticed and often goes overlooked, it is still necessarily visible.
+
+=== Counterpower ===

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+---
+title: "Power (social and political)"
+chunk: 4/5
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_(social_and_political)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:45.314583+00:00"
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+---
+
+The term 'counter-power' (sometimes written 'counterpower') is used in a range of situations to describe the countervailing force that can be utilised by the oppressed to counterbalance or erode the power of elites. A general definition has been provided by the anthropologist David Graeber as 'a collection of social institutions set in opposition to the state and capital: from self-governing communities to radical labor unions to popular militias'. Graeber also notes that counter-power can also be referred to as 'anti-power' and 'when institutions [of counter-power] maintain themselves in the face of the state, this is usually referred to as a 'dual power' situation'. Tim Gee, in his 2011 book Counterpower: Making Change Happen, put forward the theory that those disempowered by governments' and elite groups' power can use counterpower to counter this. In Gee's model, counterpower is split into three categories: idea counterpower, economic counterpower, and physical counterpower.
+Although the term has come to prominence through its use by participants in the global justice/anti-globalization movement of the 1990s onwards, the word has been used for at least 60 years; for instance, Martin Buber's 1949 book 'Paths in Utopia' includes the line 'Power abdicates only under the stress of counter-power'.
+
+== Reactions ==
+
+=== Tactics ===
+A number of studies demonstrate that harsh power tactics (e.g. punishment (both personal and impersonal), rule-based sanctions, and non-personal rewards) are less effective than soft tactics (expert power, referent power, and personal rewards). It is probably because harsh tactics generate hostility, depression, fear, and anger, while soft tactics are often reciprocated with cooperation. Coercive and reward power can also lead group members to lose interest in their work, while instilling a feeling of autonomy in one's subordinates can sustain their interest in work and maintain high productivity even in the absence of monitoring.
+Coercive influence creates conflict that can disrupt entire group functioning. When disobedient group members are severely reprimanded, the rest of the group may become more disruptive and uninterested in their work, leading to negative and inappropriate activities spreading from one troubled member to the rest of the group. This effect is called Disruptive contagion or ripple effect and it is strongly manifested when reprimanded member has a high status within a group, and authority's requests are vague and ambiguous.
+
+=== Resistance to coercive influence ===
+Coercive influence can be tolerated when the group is successful, the leader is trusted, and the use of coercive tactics is justified by group norms. Furthermore, coercive methods are more effective when applied frequently and consistently to punish prohibited actions.
+However, in some cases, group members chose to resist the authority's influence. When low-power group members have a feeling of shared identity, they are more likely to form a Revolutionary Coalition, a subgroup formed within a larger group that seeks to disrupt and oppose the group's authority structure. Group members are more likely to form a revolutionary coalition and resist an authority when authority lacks referent power, uses coercive methods, and asks group members to carry out unpleasant assignments. It is because these conditions create reactance, individuals strive to reassert their sense of freedom by affirming their agency for their own choices and consequences.
+
+=== Kelman's compliance-identification-internalization theory of conversion ===
+Herbert Kelman identified three basic, step-like reactions that people display in response to coercive influence: compliance, identification, and internalization. This theory explains how groups convert hesitant recruits into zealous followers over time.
+At the stage of compliance, group members comply with authority's demands, but personally do not agree with them. If authority does not monitor the members, they will probably not obey.
+Identification occurs when the target of the influence admires and therefore imitates the authority, mimics authority's actions, values, characteristics, and takes on behaviours of the person with power. If prolonged and continuous, identification can lead to the final stage – internalization.
+When internalization occurs, individual adopts the induced behaviour because it is congruent with his/her value system. At this stage, group members no longer carry out authority orders but perform actions that are congruent with their personal beliefs and opinions. Extreme obedience often requires internalization.
+
+== Power literacy ==
+Power literacy refers to how one perceives power, how it is formed and accumulates, and the structures that support it and who is in control of it. Education can be helpful for heightening power literacy. In a 2014 TED talk Eric Liu notes that "we don't like to talk about power" as "we find it scary" and "somehow evil" with it having a "negative moral valence" and states that the pervasiveness of power illiteracy causes a concentration of knowledge, understanding and clout. Joe L. Kincheloe describes a "cyber-literacy of power" that is concerned with the forces that shape knowledge production and the construction and transmission of meaning, being more about engaging knowledge than "mastering" information, and a "cyber-power literacy" that is focused on transformative knowledge production and new modes of accountability.
+
+== See also ==
+Authority bias – Cognitive bias
+Authority distribution
+Causes of sexual violence – Theories that lend some explanation to the causes of sexual violence
+Discourse of power
+Economic power – Geopolitical concept
+Elite theory – Theory of the state
+Entitlement - Concept
+Pluralism (political theory) – View of politics as governmental but under heavy influence of non-governmental groups
+Power (international relations) – Concept in international relations
+Power sharing – Practice in conflict resolution
+Power vacuum – Term used in political science
+Separation of powers – Division of a state's government into branches
+Social control – Concept in the social and political sciences
+Speaking truth to power – Non-violent political tactic employed by dissidents
+
+== References ==

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+title: "Power (social and political)"
+chunk: 5/5
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_(social_and_political)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:45.314583+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Further reading ==
+Osnos, Evan, "Ruling-Class Rules: How to thrive in the power elite – while declaring it your enemy", The New Yorker, 29 January 2024, pp. 18–23. "In the nineteen-twenties... American elites, some of whom feared a Bolshevik revolution, consented to reform... Under Franklin D. Roosevelt... the U.S. raised taxes, took steps to protect unions, and established a minimum wage. The costs, [Peter] Turchin writes, 'were borne by the American ruling class.'... Between the nineteen-thirties and the nineteen-seventies, a period that scholars call the Great Compression, economic equality narrowed, except among Black Americans... But by the nineteen-eighties the Great Compression was over. As the rich grew richer than ever, they sought to turn their money into political power; spending on politics soared." (p. 22.) "[N]o democracy can function well if people are unwilling to lose power – if a generation of leaders... becomes so entrenched that it ages into gerontocracy; if one of two major parties denies the arithmetic of elections; if a cohort of the ruling class loses status that it once enjoyed and sets out to salvage it." (p. 23.)
+
+== External links ==
+
+Vatiero M. (2009), Understanding Power. A 'Law and Economics' Approach Archived 30 July 2020 at the Wayback Machine, VDM Verlag. ISBN 978-3639202656

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+---
+title: "Practice theory"
+chunk: 1/3
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+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:46.478480+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Practice theory (or praxeology, theory of social practices) is a body of social theory within anthropology and sociology that explains society and culture as the result of structure and individual agency. Practice theory emerged in the late 20th century and was first outlined in the work of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu.
+Practice theory developed in reaction to the Structuralist school of thought, developed by social scientists including Claude Lévi-Strauss, who saw human behavior and organization systems as products of innate universal structures that reflect the mental structures of humans. Structuralist theory asserted that these structures governed all human societies.
+Practice theory is also built on the concept of agency. For practice theorists, the individual agent is an active participant in the formation and reproduction of their social world.
+
+== History ==
+In 1972, French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu published Esquisse d'une théorie de la pratique (published in English as Outline of a Theory of Practice in 1977), which emerged from his ethnographic field work in French-occupied Algeria among the Kabyle at the outbreak of the Algerian War of Independence. The original goal of this work was to understand Algerian culture and its internal rules and laws in an effort to understand the conflict. Bourdieu later rejected the idea that culture and social life can be reduced to the acting-out of rules and the primacy of social structures over the individual. Instead, Bourdieu argues, culture and society are better understood as the product of dynamic interactions between social actors and structure. Anthony Giddens and Michel de Certeau were also foundational to the theory in the late 1970s and 1980s.
+
+== Premise ==
+Practices are conceptualized as "what people do," or an individual's performance carried out in everyday life. Bourdieu's theory of practice sets up a relationship between structure and the habitus and practice of the individual agent, dealing with the "relationship between the objective structures and the cognitive and motivating structures which they produce and which tend to reproduce them". What is perceived and experienced as culture is the result of dynamic interaction of internal and external structures, individual performance (practice), and strategy (strategy is based on existing structures, but it exists from the actions of individuals seeking to pursue their own interests). Bourdieu describes structure as the "products of historical practices and are constantly reproduced and transformed by historical practices whose productive principle is itself the product of the structures which it consequently tends to reproduce." According to practice theory, social actors are not just shaped by their social world, they shape it as well. Since Bourdieu's formulation, practice theory has been expanded by sociologists, anthropologists, international relation scholars, and feminist scholars, among others.
+
+=== Habitus ===
+
+Along with practices, habitus is a key concept in practice theory. Bourdieu defined habitus as "a structuring structure, which organizes practices and the perception of practices" (1984: 170). First proposed by philosopher Marcel Mauss, Bourdieu uses the term habitus to refer to patterns of thought and behavior which are deeply internalized structures. Habitus is composed of social conventions, rules, values, etc., that guide our everyday practices. These mental structures are representations of the external social structures people interact with on a daily basis. They inform our practice and give meaning to the world and are what drives us to behave in accordance with social and cultural conventions. Habitus is also influenced by external individual forces, such as confronting a new social norm, or a new way of doing things. Like structure, habitus is also the product of historical events. Practice theory is also widely usdd to analyze sicial behavior in modern societies.
+The embodied component of the habitus is the hexis. It is manifested as an individual's gait, gesture, postures, accent etc. A closely related notion to Bourdieu's habitus is Michel Foucault's concept of 'discipline'. Like habitus, discipline 'is structure and power that have been impressed on the body forming permanent dispositions'. In contrast to Bourdieu, though, Foucault laid particular emphasis on the violence through which modern regimes (e.g. prisons and asylums) are used as a form of social control. 
+Practice theory is also widely used to analyze social behavior in modern societies.
+
+=== Doxa ===
+
+Another important concept to practice theory are doxa, which are the internalized societal or field-specific presuppositions that 'go without saying' and are not up for negotiation. The doxa is a constructed vision of reality so naturalized that it appears to be the only vision of reality. It is the learned, fundamental, deep-founded, unconscious beliefs and values that are taken as self-evident universals and inform an agent's actions and thoughts within a particular field. An example is the belief that a year must have 365 days or that days must be 24 hours long. The field represents a structured social space with its own rules, schemes of domination, legitimate opinions. Bourdieu uses the concept of field instead of analyzing societies solely in terms of classes. For example, fields in modern societies include arts, education, politics, law and economy. Cultural capital is also part of practice theory and is directly related to strategy. It is the intangible assets that enable actors to mobilize cultural authority/power as part of strategy e.g., e.g., competencies, education, intellect, style of speech, dress, social networks,. This is important in terms of an individual's strategy. A later addition to practice theory is structuration, coined by Anthony Giddens.

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+title: "Practice theory"
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+category: "reference"
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+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:46.478480+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== In anthropology and sociology ==
+Cultural anthropologist Sherry Ortner defines practice theory as "a theory of history. It is a theory of how social beings, with their diverse motives and their diverse intentions, make and transform in which they live." Ortner developed what she terms "cultural schemas" to explain society's structural contradictions and agency. Her engagement with practice theory focuses on how agents "react to, cope with, or actively appropriate" external structures. These responses of agents are bound or enabled by the cultural schemas which are often rooted in the contradictions of society's structure and habitus of the agent. Agents create broader social narratives practices unique to their specific culture from multiple schemas. The many available to agents schemas woven to a social narrative help to "give society its distinctiveness and coherence" Ortner's agent is "loosely structured", their practice is constituted of how they respond to the schemas.
+British sociologist Anthony Giddens extended practice theory with his concept of structuration. Structuration is based on his previous work on the Duality of structure, the idea that the agency of social actors and structure are inseparable and co-create one another. Agency, according to Giddens, is neither free will or the intentionality of actions, but the capacity of the agent to act. The agency of individuals is constrained and enabled by structure. In turn, structure is created, transformed, and reproduced through the actions of agents. Giddens identified two forms of consciousness that inform the knowledgeable agent's actions: practical consciousness and discursive consciousness.
+
+== Influenced ==
+
+=== Gender theory ===
+Judith Butler's work on gender and sex is based on performance and practice theory. In Gender Trouble (1990) and "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution" (1988), Butler advances their concept of gender performativity. They argue that all gender and sexual identities are constructs. These identities are not real or innately natural and they do not express any inner reality. Instead, gender and sexuality are constituted by performance, meaning the everyday repetition of acts that reaffirm these identities. The individual performs gender and then that identity is validated by society.
+
+=== Communities of practice and learning as practice ===
+Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger draw from practice theory to conceptualize communities of practice as a place of learning. Roddick and Ann B. Stahl summarize communities of practice as involving "embodied action and continuously renewed relations between understanding and experience, more and less skilled practitioners, and the objects and communities with which practitioners interact."
+Communities of practice center the relationship of the agent, the activity engaged in, and community, which are co-created and relational to one another. Learning and apprenticeship within practice communities are processes that place individual experience and everyday practice in active discourse with the broader context of their society. According to Wenger and Lave, learning is "situated" through practice of novices and expert practitioners. More recent approaches extend the scope to issues such as agency, material, and interaction.
+
+== Other theories of practice ==
+
+=== Schatzki's theory of practice ===
+In the 1990s, Theodore Schatzki developed an alternative theory of practice in Social Practices (1996) and The Site of the Social (2002). His basic premise is that people do what makes sense for them to do and derives from the work of Martin Heidegger and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Practices make up people's 'horizon of intelligibility.' Schatzki defines practices as 'open-ended spatial-temporal manifolds of actions' (Schatzki, 2005, p. 471) and also as 'sets of hierarchically organized doings/sayings, tasks and projects'. Such practices consist of four main elements: (1) practical understanding – "knowing how to X, knowing how to identify X-ings, and knowing how to prompt as well as respond to X-ings" (idem, p. 77); (2) rules – "explicit formulations, principles, precepts, and instructions that enjoin, direct or remonstrate people to perform specific actions" (idem, p. 79); (3) teleo-affective structure – "a range of normativized and hierarchically ordered ends, projects and tasks, to varying degrees allied with normativized emotions and even mood" (idem, p. 80); and (4) general understanding.
+
+=== Jaeggi’s theory of social practice ===
+Another alternative theory is from philosopher Rahel Jaeggi, in A broad concept of economy - Economy as a social practice and the critique of capitalism (2018). In her theory of social practice, practices take on a comprehensive and broad meaning, being a set of individual recurrent actions that make part of the socio-cultural fabric of society. There are four primary characteristics: (1) social practices aren't just intentional actions that can be informed by explicit or implicit knowledge; (2) social practices are not given facts i.e. it must be interpreted within a specific context, for example “To see someone hiding behind a tree and understand it as part of the game ‘hide and seek’ (and not as hiding from the police) it’s implicit its connection to the set of other practices and their interpretations as other games and the interpretative concept of ‘game’” (3) social practices are regulated by norms which dictate how to carry on a practice and (4) social practices have immanent telos.
+Jaeggi seeks to propose a critique of the capitalist economic system that focuses on the economic practices of individuals, making it possible to understand the economic field in the broad sense, since it allows establishing connections between capitalist practices and the practices in other social spheres. Thus, economic practices are conceived as a subcategory of social practices, and are interconnected in various ways with other practices, forming the sociocultural fabric of society. This theoretical conception allows for a critique of the capitalist system based on the judgment of the inherent normative content of economic practices, understanding them as part of the sociocultural fabric and, therefore, flawed in themselves.
+
+== Other important theorists ==
+William Hanks
+Sherry Ortner
+Marshall Sahlins
+Andreas Reckwitz
+Jean Lave
+Davide Nicolini
+Elizabeth Shove
+Silvia Gherardi
+Michel Foucault
+Bruno Latour
+Michel Callon
+
+== References ==

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+---
+title: "Practice theory"
+chunk: 3/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Practice_theory"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:46.478480+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Bibliography ==
+Ahearn, Laura M. (2001). "Language and Agency". Annual Review of Anthropology. 30 (1). Annual Reviews: 109–137. doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.30.1.109. ISSN 0084-6570.
+Archer, Margaret S. (2003). Structure, agency and the internal conversation. Cambridge University Press.
+Bourdieu, Pierre [1972] 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Trans. Richard Nice. Cambridge University Press.
+Bourdieu, Pierre ( 1990). The Logic of Practice. Trans. Richard Nice. Polity Press.
+Calhoun, Craig, Edward LiPuma, and Moishe Postone (1993). Bourdieu: critical perspectives. University of Chicago Press.
+de Certeau, Michel (1984). "Foucault and Bourdieu". In The practice of everyday life. Trans. Rendall S. F.University of California Press.
+Gherardi, S. (2014). How to Conduct a Practice-Based Study: Problems and Methods. Edward Elgar Pub.
+Gherardi, S. (2006). Organizational Knowledge: The Texture of Workplace Learning. Wiley.Giddens, Anthony (1979). Central problems in social theory: Action, structure, and contradiction in social analysis. University of California Press.s
+Jaeggi, Rahel (2018). Economy as social practice. Journal For Cultural Research, 22 (2). https://doi.org/10.1080/14797585.2018.1461355
+Giddens, Anthony (1984). The Constitution Of Society: Outline Of A Theory Of Structuration. Polity Press.
+Moore, Jerry D.(2000). Visions of culture: An introduction to anthropological theories and theorists. Rowman Altamira.
+Morris, Rosalind C. (1995). "All made up: Performance theory and the new anthropology of sex and gender". Annual review of anthropology. 24 (1): 567–592.
+Nicolini, Davide. Practice theory, work, and organization: An introduction. OUP Oxford, 2012
+Ortner, Sherry B. (2006). Anthropology and social theory : culture, power, and the acting subject. Durham: Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-8845-6. OCLC 262341007.
+Ortner, Sherry B. (2006). "Introduction: Updating Practice Theory". Anthropology and social theory : culture, power, and the acting subject. Durham: Duke University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctv11hppcg.4. ISBN 978-0-8223-8845-6. OCLC 262341007.
+Roddick, Andrew P.; Stahl, Anne B. "Introduction: Knowledge in Motion".(2016). Knowledge in motion : constellations of learning across time and place. Ed.Andrew Roddick and Anne P. Stahl. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press.
+Turner, Stephen (1994). The Social Theory of Practices: Tradition, Tacit Knowledge, and Presuppositions. University of Chicago Press.

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+---
+
+Pre-industrial society refers to social attributes and forms of political and cultural organization that were prevalent before the advent of the Industrial Revolution, which occurred from 1750 to 1850. Pre-industrial refers to a time before there were machines and tools to help perform tasks en masse. Pre-industrial civilization dates back to centuries ago, but the main era known as the pre-industrial society occurred right before the industrial society. Pre-Industrial societies vary from region to region depending on the culture of a given area or history of social and political life. Europe was known for its feudal system and the Italian Renaissance.
+The term "pre-industrial" is also used as a benchmark for environmental conditions before the development of industrial society: for example, the
+Paris Agreement, adopted in Paris on 12 December, 2015 and in force from 4 November, 2016, "aims to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels." The date for the end of the "pre-industrial era" is not defined.
+
+
+== Common attributes ==
+Limited production
+Extreme agricultural economy
+Limited division of labor. In pre-industrial societies, production was relatively simple and the number of specialized crafts was limited.
+Limited variation of social classes
+Parochialism—Communications were limited between communities in pre-industrial societies. Few had the opportunity to see or hear beyond their own village. Industrial societies grew with the help of faster means of communication, having more information at hand about the world, allowing knowledge transfer and cultural diffusion between them.
+Populations grew at substantial rates
+Social classes: peasants and lords
+Subsistence level of living
+Population dependent on peasants for food
+People were located in villages rather than in cities
+A large amount of the population is peasants (usually around 98%)
+
+
+== Economic systems ==
+
+Hunter gather society
+Traditional economy
+Mercantilism
+Subsistence agriculture
+Subsistence
+Planned economy
+
+
+=== Labor conditions ===
+Harsh working conditions had been prevalent long before the Industrial Revolution took place. Pre-industrial society was very static, and child labour, dirty living conditions, and long working hours were not as equally prevalent before the Industrial Revolution.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Agrarian society
+Industrialisation
+Modernization theory
+Traditional society
+Dependency Theory
+Imperialism
+Hunter gatherers
+Low technology
+Transhumance
+Nomads
+Pastoral nomads
+Post-industrial society
+Proto-industrialization
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== Bibliography ==
+Grinin, L. 2007. Periodization of History: A theoretic-mathematical analysis. In: History & Mathematics. Ed. by Leonid Grinin, Victor de Munck, and Andrey Korotayev. Moscow: KomKniga/URSS. P.10-38. ISBN 978-5-484-01001-1.

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+title: "Predecessor culture"
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+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:48.930852+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Predecessor culture is a sociological phrase originating in Alasdair MacIntyre's book, After Virtue, in which he considers society before the Enlightenment's project of rationalizing all things as having an internal consistency and meaning which has been lost to us. It can be considered as having to do with the set of heroes and stories that were re-iterated in former cultures; these are called commonplaces in English literature. 
+Another use of the phrase is to refer to society before the 1960s. Not only is this considered in opposition to the sexual revolution, and various political movements and the manner in which power is expressed, such as the ways in which society is intended to accommodate feminism, but with the philosophical changes such as structuralism and post-structuralism.
+
+
+== References ==

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+title: "Prestige (sociolinguistics)"
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+---
+
+Prestige in sociolinguistics is the level of regard normally accorded a specific language or dialect within a speech community, relative to other languages or dialects. Prestige varieties are language or dialect families which are generally considered by a society to be the most "correct" or otherwise superior. In many cases, they are the standard form of the language, though there are exceptions, particularly in situations of covert prestige (where a non-standard dialect is highly valued). In addition to dialects and languages, prestige is also applied to smaller linguistic features, such as the pronunciation or usage of words or grammatical constructs, which may not be distinctive enough to constitute a separate dialect. The concept of prestige provides one explanation for the phenomenon of variation in form among speakers of a language or languages.
+The presence of prestige dialects is a result of the relationship between the prestige of a group of people and the language that they use. Generally, the language or variety that is regarded as more prestigious in that community is the one used by the more prestigious group. The level of prestige a group has can also influence whether the language that they speak is considered its own language or a dialect (implying that it does not have enough prestige to be considered its own language).
+Social class has a correlation with the language that is considered more prestigious, and studies in different communities have shown that sometimes members of a lower social class attempt to emulate the language of individuals in higher social classes to avoid how their distinct language would otherwise construct their identity. The relationship between language and identity construction as a result of prestige influences the language used by different individuals, depending on to which groups they belong or want to belong.
+Sociolinguistic prestige is especially visible in situations where two or more distinct languages are used, and in diverse, socially stratified urban areas, in which there are likely to be speakers of different languages and/or dialects interacting often. The result of language contact depends on the power relationship between the languages of the groups that are in contact.
+The prevailing view among contemporary linguists is that, regardless of perceptions that a dialect or language is "better" or "worse" than its counterparts, when dialects and languages are assessed "on purely linguistic grounds, all languages—and all dialects—have equal merit".
+Additionally, which varieties, registers or features will be considered more prestigious depends on audience and context. There are thus the concepts of overt and covert prestige. Overt prestige is related to standard and "formal" language features, and expresses power and status; covert prestige is related more to vernacular and often patois, and expresses solidarity, community and group identity more than authority.
+
+== Standard varieties and covert prestige ==
+
+Prestige varieties are those that are regarded mostly highly within a society. As such, the standard language, the form promoted by authorities—usually governmental or from those in power—and considered "correct" or otherwise superior, is often the prestige variety. However, there are many exceptions to this rule, such as Arabic, in which Egyptian Arabic is widely used in mass media aimed at international audiences, while Literary Arabic (also known as Standard Arabic) is a more prestigious form. Prestige varieties do not exhibit features, grammatically speaking, which prove them superior in terms of logic, efficacy or aesthetics. With certain exceptions, they are the language varieties of the prestigious social classes. Therefore, the prestige variety of a given language community or nation-state has symbolic significance and may act as an instrument of political power.
+The notion of a standard language in a speech community is related to the prestige of the languages spoken in the community. In general, "greater prestige tends to be attached to the notion of the standard, since it can function in higher domains, and has a written form." While there are some counterexamples, such as Arabic, "prestigious and standard varieties [tend to] coincide to the extent that the two terms can be used interchangeably."
+In countries like the United States, where citizens speak many different languages and come from a variety of national and ethnic groups, there is a "folk linguistic" belief that the most prestigious dialect is the single standard dialect of English that all people should speak. Linguist Rosina Lippi-Green argues that this belief in a standard language defends and rationalizes the preservation of the social order. Linguists believe that no variety of language is inherently better than any other, for every language serves its purpose of allowing its users to communicate. This is because every variety of a language is systematic and rule governed. These rules do not contain a hierarchy, thus certain varieties—linguistically—are not placed above another.
+The terms and conditions of prestige assigned to a language variety are subject to change depending on speaker, situation and context. A dialect or variety which is considered prestigious in one context will not carry the same status in another. The relative status of language varies according to audience, situation and other contextual elements such as geographic location. Covert prestige refers to relatively high value placed on a non-standard form of language.
+
+== Causes ==
+Different languages and dialects are accorded prestige based upon factors, including "rich literary heritage, high degree of language modernization, considerable international standing, or the prestige of its speakers". These, and other attributes and factors contribute to how the language is viewed as being of high prestige, leaving a language or dialect with few or none of these attributes to be considered to be of low prestige.
+"Language is intertwined with culture," therefore there is often a strong correlation between the prestige of a group of people and the prestige accorded to the language they speak, as linguist Laurie Bauer's description of Latin's prestige exemplifies this phenomenon:

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+
+The prestige accorded to the churchmen, lawyers and scholars who used Latin was transferred to the language itself. Latin was held to be noble and beautiful, not just the thoughts expressed in it or the people who used it. What is called 'beauty' in a language is more accurately seen as a reflection of the prestige of its speakers.
+This phenomenon is not limited to English-speaking populations. In Western Europe, multiple languages were considered to be of high prestige at some time or another, including "Italian as the Mediterranean lingua franca and as the language of the Renaissance; and the 17th-18th century French of the court culture".
+Similarly, when British philologist William Jones published:
+
+The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists: there is a similar reason, though not quite so forcible, for supposing that both the Gothic and the Celtic, though blended with a very different idiom, had the same origin with the Sanskrit.
+It started a moment in time in which Sanskrit was considered the oldest language in the world, followed by other languages increasing their prestige by claiming to be as close to a presumed Proto-Indo-European language or linked to other Proto-Indo-European mythology, both in Europe and South Asia.
+Walt Wolfram, a professor of linguistics at North Carolina State University, notes that he "can't think of any situations in the United States where low-prestige groups have high-prestige language systems". Wolfram further emphasizes this in his PBS documentary "Do You Speak American?", and explains how there is a very clear hierarchy in which "modern American English" is at the top, and African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is at the bottom, because AAVE is seldom considered "standard" English in academic settings.
+The education system is one of the primary agents in emphasizing a "standard" way of speaking. For example, Wolfram's documentary also shows how speakers of AAVE are often corrected by teachers, since it has linguistic features that are different from what has been deemed the "standard." Criticism of AAVE in schools by teachers not only insults the students that speak AAVE, but those insults also put the individuals who taught these students how to speak, such as their family members, in a subordinate position. In turn, this further reinforces stratification of social groups in a linguistic and social context. In schools around the world that teach English, speaking "proper" English is emphasized, even if other varieties are equally valid and able to communicate the same ideas. In a school in Mumbai, India, there is a large emphasis placed on speaking "good English." Thus, proficiency is not determined by ability to convey ideas, but rather the grammatical adherence of the speaker to the rules used in the "standard" English variety, and speaking English that way. This not only perpetuates the idea of a "correct" way of speaking in the classroom, but this subordination extends well outside of the classroom.
+Many films and TV shows (especially children's TV shows) use different language varieties for different characters, which constructs their identity in particular ways. For example, the protagonists of Disney animated films tend to speak Standard American English, while minor characters or antagonists are more likely to speak with other accents. This is true even when characters would not logically speak English, as in the film Aladdin, where the title character Aladdin, his love interest Jasmine, and Jasmine's father have American accents, but several other characters do not. Associating the American accent with sympathetic or prestigious characters in children's TV shows/movies can have negative implications, contributing to the formation of stereotypes and biases.
+One of the primary examples of the debate of prestige within the media is the Oakland ebonics controversy of 1996. Illustrating the pervasiveness of public views on socio-educational issues in relation to language diversity, the Oakland, California school board came to a resolution recognizing Ebonics within public education. This proposition recognized Ebonics as a language system in attempts for the city to receive public funding for bilingual situations. Heavy debate arose amongst members of Congress, newscasters, and other commentators with relatively little linguistics knowledge.
+The debate was extremely controversial, with beliefs stemming from the same beliefs that govern morality, religion, and ethics. Similar to the beliefs that govern these areas, the debate on Ebonics was believed to be inflexible. The discussion "surfaced foundational beliefs about language and language diversity and exposed an alternative, non-mainstream set of beliefs about language and language variation."
+
+== Language attitudes ==

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+
+Prestige influences whether a language variety is considered a language or a dialect. In discussing definitions of language, Dell Hymes wrote that "sometimes two communities are said to have the same, or different, languages on the grounds of mutual intelligibility, or lack thereof", but alone, this definition is often insufficient.
+Different language varieties in an area exist along a dialect continuum, and moving geographically often means a change in the local variety.
+This continuum means that despite the fact that standard German and standard Dutch are not mutually intelligible, the speech of people living near the border between Germany and the Netherlands will more closely resemble that of their neighbors across the border than the standard languages of their respective home countries. Even so, speakers near the border would describe themselves as speaking a variety of their respective standard languages, and the evolution of these dialects tends to mirror that of the standard languages as well.
+That they are classified as such reflects the fact that "language differences are not only marks of differential group membership, but also powerful triggers of group attitudes". Such fuzziness has resulted in the aphorism "A language is a dialect with an army and navy." That is, speakers of some language variety with political and social power are viewed as having a distinct language, while "'dialect' is [...] a term that suggests lower-class or rural speech".
+A canonical example of this is the Scandinavian languages, including Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian, where language differences "constitute barriers to but do not wholly block communication", but are considered distinct languages because they are spoken in different countries.

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+
+=== Social class ===
+While some differences between dialects are regional in nature, there are also social causes for differences in dialects. Very often, the "public prestige dialect of the elite in a stratified community differs from the dialect(s) of the non-elite strata (working class and other)". In fact, in an article which in part tried to motivate the study of sociolinguistics, Raven McDavid wrote that "the importance of language as a mirror of culture can be demonstrated by dialect differences in American English". Thus the relation between the way speakers use a language and their social status is a long recognized tool in sociolinguistics.
+In 1958, one of the earliest studies of the relationship between social differences and dialect differences was published by John Gumperz, who studied the speech patterns in Khalapur, a small, highly stratified village in India. In all, the village has 31 castes, ranging from Brahmins and Rajputs at the top, to Chamars and Bhangis at the bottom, and 90% of the overall population was Hindu, with the remaining 10% Muslim.
+Gumperz observed that the different castes were distinguished both phonologically and lexically, with each caste having a vocabulary specific to their subculture. Remarkably, the speech differences between Hindus and Muslims "are of the same order as those between individual touchable castes and certainly much less important than the variation between touchables and untouchables".
+Gumperz also observed that the lower prestige groups sought to imitate the higher prestige speech patterns and that over time, it had caused the evolution of the prestige away from the regional standard, as higher prestige groups sought to differentiate themselves from lower prestige groups. He concluded that in determining speech patterns in this community, "the determining factor seems to be informal friendship contacts" rather than work contacts.
+An example of this was also observed in a study in Madrid, Spain, where Latin American Spanish-speakers noticed that certain features of their Spanish were evaluated negatively by local speakers. Spanish varieties spoken in Latin American countries have linguistic differences from the way many locals in Madrid speak. Their use of Latin American Spanish is associated with "symbolic and monetary capital (such as social class and ethnicity)." The study asserted that "To be accepted, therefore, the speakers have to "correct" these "errors" and "adapt" to the local variety of Spanish, which is considered the model to follow. In other words, to be acknowledged as full participants in their respective communities, these participants have to sound like locals." Thus, social class plays a role in determining prestige, impacting the way that Latin American Spanish is acknowledged.
+One notable example of the relationship between dialect and social stratification in English is William Labov's 1966 study of the variable pronunciation of r in New York City. Labov went to three New York City department stores that catered to three clearly delineated socioeconomic groups—Saks (high), Macy's (middle), and S. Klein (low)—and studied how their employees pronounced the phrase "fourth floor". His results demonstrated that the employees at Saks pronounced r most often, Macy's employees pronounced r less often, and at S. Klein, seventy-nine percent of the respondents said no r at all. Another trend Labov noticed was that at all three of the stores, but Macy's in particular, when prompted to say "fourth floor" a second time, employees were much more likely to pronounce the r.
+Labov attributed his findings to the perceived prestige of each dialect. He noted that New York City's "dropped 'r' has its origins in posh British speech", but after World War II, "with the loss of Britain's imperial status 'r'-less British speech ceased to be regarded as 'prestige speech'". In 1966, when Labov performed his study, pronouncing words like car and guard with r was then considered an element of prestige speech. This resulted in middle-class employees, once made conscious of having to pronounce "fourth floor", altering their pronunciation in order to match that of the high prestige dialect. The prestige given to r was also evident in the hypercorrection observed in lower-class speech. Knowing that r-pronunciation was a prestigious trait, many of the lower-class speakers in another Labov study—in which speakers were asked to read from word lists—added -r to words that did not have an r at all. The difference between this study and the "fourth floor" study was the fact that speakers were closely monitoring their speech, not speaking spontaneously, and were thus careful to add r in an attempt to mimic a higher social class.
+Another prime example of covert prestige is within popular culture. The pervasiveness of hip hop music and its usage of AAVE has coined many widely used terms. Usage of AAVE has created a certain social capital, or clout, in certain social contexts. Contrastingly, in educational or hierarchical settings, usage of this variety can result in negative connotations. Due to this, practitioners are often perceived as having minimal academic prowess or being lowly educated. They can also be associated with poverty or low economic means. These inherent stigmas and biases impede the AAVE speaker from academic, social, and economic success.
+
+=== Gender and covert prestige ===

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+
+Non-standard dialects are usually considered low-prestige, but in some situations dialects "stigmatized by the education system still enjoy a covert prestige among working-class men for the very reason that they are considered incorrect". These situations occur when the speaker wants to gain recognition, acceptance, or solidarity with a specific—and non-prestigious—group of people, or to signal to other speakers their identification with that group. The idea of covert prestige was first introduced by William Labov, who noticed that even speakers who used non-standard dialects often believed that their own dialect was "bad" or "inferior". Labov realized that there must be some underlying reason for their use of the dialect, which he identified as a signal of group identity. One example is a 1998 study on the use of word-final -ing versus -in among college fraternity men in the United States. The fraternity men used "-in" rather than "-ing," from which the author concluded that the men used -in to demonstrate what they saw as working-class behavioral traits, such as 'hard-working' and 'casual,' thus creating a specific identity for themselves.
+In a study by Elaine Chun, it was noted that even though the use of African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) is not viewed as the standard in many American schools, and thus is often corrected by teachers, there are some instances where non-African Americans use AAVE to construct their identity in a particular way and enjoy covert prestige in the African American speech community. The study pointed out that "mainstream uses of AAVE 'slang' are especially prevalent in social circles that desire to create and project a heterosexual masculinity," and included examples of a Korean-American student using AAVE to gain recognition/acceptance in the African American speech community. This underscores that the relative status of language varies according to audience.
+Likewise, in studies of the speech patterns in British English, Peter Trudgill observed that more working-class women spoke the standard dialect than men. Farida Abu-Haidar performed a similar study in Baghdad of prestige in the Arabic language, after which she concluded that in Baghdadi Arabic, women are more conscious of prestige than are men. Other areas in which this has been observed include New Zealand and Guangdong in China. As explanation, Trudgill suggests that for men, there is covert prestige associated with speaking the working-class dialect. In fact, he observed men claiming to speak a less prestigious dialect than that which they actually spoke. According to this interpretation then, "women's use of prestige features simply conforms to the ordinary sociolinguistic order, while men deviate from what is expected." Elizabeth Gordon, in her study of New Zealand, suggested instead that women used higher prestige forms because of the association of sexual immorality with lower-class women. Whatever the cause, women across many cultures seem more likely than men to modify their speech towards the prestige dialect.
+Though women use prestige dialects more than men, the same gender preference for prestige languages does not seem to exist. A study of diglossic societies by John Angle and Sharlene Hesse-Biber showed that the poorer men were more likely to speak the prestige language than were poorer women, even though women were more particularly "drawn to the language of the rich." One explanation put forth for this is that poorer men are more likely to have the means of acquiring a second language than poorer women as a result of having "greater exposure" and "greater economic motivation."
+
+== Language contact ==
+When different language varieties come into contact, a variety of relationships can form between the two, all typically influenced by prestige. When they have equal power or prestige, they form adstratum, as exemplified by Old English and Old Norse, which shared elements with each other more or less equally.
+Far more common is for the two languages to have an unequal power relationship, as is the case of many colonial language contact situations. Languages that have a higher status in relation to a certain group often manifest themselves in word borrowing. One example is in English, which features many French words, as a result of the historical prestige of French. Another potential result of such contact relationships includes the creation of a pidgin or eventually creole through nativization. In the case of pidgins and creoles, it is usually noted that the low prestige language provides the phonology while the high prestige language provides the lexicon and grammatical structure.
+In addition to forming a new language, known as a creole, language contact can result in changes, such as language convergence, language shift or language death. Language convergence is when two languages have been exposed for a long period of time and they begin to have more properties in common. Language shift is when a speaker shifts from speaking a lower prestige dialect to a higher prestige dialect. Language death can happen in many ways, one of which is when speakers of a language die off, and there are no new generations learning to speak this language. The intensity of the contact between the two languages and their relative prestige levels influence the degree to which a language experiences lexical borrowing and changes to the morphology, phonology, syntax, and overall structure of the language.
+
+== Language structure ==

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+
+When two languages with an asymmetrical power relationship come into contact, such as through colonization or in a refugee situation, the creole that results is typically largely based on the prestige language; as noted above, linguists have observed that the low-prestige language usually provides the phonology while the high-prestige language provides the lexicon and grammatical structure. Over time, continued contact between the creole and the prestige language may result in decreolization, in which the creole begins to more closely resemble the prestige language. Decreolization thus creates a creole continuum, ranging from an acrolect (a version of the creole that is very similar to the prestige language), to mesolects (decreasingly similar versions), to the basilect (the most "conservative" creole). An example of decreolization described by Hock and Joseph is African American Vernacular English (AAVE), in which older, more conservative versions preserve features such as the completive marker done while newer, less conservative versions do not.
+Some instances of contact between languages with different prestige levels have resulted in diglossia, a phenomenon in which a community uses a high prestige language or dialect in certain situations, usually for newspapers, in literature, on university campuses, for religious ceremonies, and on television and the radio, but uses a low prestige language or dialect for other situations, often in conversation in the home or in letters, comic strips, and in popular culture. Linguist Charles A. Ferguson's 1959 article "Diglossia" listed the following examples of diglossic societies: in the Middle East and North Africa, Standard Arabic and vernacular Arabics; in Greece, Katharevousa and Dhimotiki; in Switzerland, Swiss Standard German and Swiss German; and in Haiti, Standard French and Haitian Creole. In most African countries, a European language serves as the official, prestige language (Standard French, English, Portuguese), while local languages (Wolof, Bambara, Yoruba) or creoles (Ivorian French, Nigerian English) serve as everyday languages of communication.
+In diglossic societies, the prestigious language tends to conservatively resist change over time while the low-prestige language, the local vernacular, undergoes normal language change. For instance, Latin, the high prestige language of Europe for many centuries, underwent minimal change while the everyday low prestige spoken languages evolved significantly. If, however, the two languages are spoken freely, the prestige language may undergo vernacularization and begin to incorporate vernacular features. An example is Sanskrit, an ancient prestige language that has incorporated the vernacular pronunciations of [tʃ] and [b] for word-initial y- and v-.
+The prestige language may also change under the influence of specific regional dialects in a process known as regionalization. For example, in medieval times, Ecclesiastical Latin developed different forms in countries such as Italy, France, Portugal, Spain, Catalonia, as well as other Roman Catholic nations, notably in pronunciation – see Latin regional pronunciation. Some of these differences were minor, such as c before i and e being pronounced [tʃ] in Italy but [s] in France, but after English underwent the Great Vowel Shift between 1200 and 1600, the vowel system in England became nearly unrecognizable to its European ecclesiastic counterparts.
+
+== See also ==
+
+Cultural cringe
+Dialect levelling
+Language attrition
+Language planning and policy in Singapore
+Linguistic imperialism
+List of prestige dialects
+Raciolinguistics
+Vergonha
+
+== References ==
+
+== General and cited references ==
+
+== External links ==
+ The dictionary definition of prestige at Wiktionary
+Do You Speak American?

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+title: "Primary socialization"
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+
+Primary socialization in sociology is the period early in a person's life during which they initially learn and develop themselves through experiences and interactions. This process starts at home through the family, in which one learns what is or is not accepted in society, social norms, and cultural practices that eventually one is likely to take up. Primary socialization through the family teaches children how to bond, create relationships, and understand important concepts including love, trust, and togetherness. Agents of primary socialization include institutions such as the family, childhood friends, the educational system, and social media. All these agents influence the socialization process of a child that they build on for the rest their life. These agents are limited to people who immediately surround a person such as friends and family—but other agents, such as social media and the educational system have a big influence on people as well. The media is an influential agent of socialization because it can provide vast amounts of knowledge about different cultures and society. It is through these processes that children learn how to behave in public versus at home, and eventually learn how they should behave as people under different circumstances; this is known as secondary socialization. A vast variety of people have contributed to the theory of primary socialization, of those include Sigmund Freud, George Herbert Mead, Charles Cooley, Jean Piaget and Talcott Parsons. However, Parsons' theories are the earliest and most significant contributions to socialization and cognitive development.
+
+== Theories ==
+
+=== Talcott Parsons ===
+Talcott Parsons believed that the family is one of the most important institutions during primary socialization and that aside from providing basic essentials such as shelter, food and safety, it teaches a child a set of cultural and social standards that guide the child through life as they mature. However, it is just as important that the child be able to internalize these standards and norms rather than just learn them, otherwise they will not be able to successfully participate in their culture or society later on. According to Parsons' theory, primary socialization prepares children for the various roles they take up as adults, and also has a big influence on the child's personality and emotional state of being. If we skip or try not to focus on primary socialization, norms of the society will not be known by the child.
+
+=== Sigmund Freud ===
+The physician and creator of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, devised a theory of personality development which states that biological instincts and societal influences shape the way a person becomes as an adult. Freud stated that the mind is composed of three components: the id, the superego and the ego. All of these three parts must cohesively work together in balance so that an individual may be able to successfully interact with and be a part of society. If any of these parts of the mind exceeds the others or becomes more dominant, the individual will face social and personal problems. Of the three components, Freud claims that the id forms first; the id makes a person act strictly for their pleasure. A newborn's mind only contains the id since all they ask for are physical desires. The superego develops as an individual moves into childhood and is described as the development of a conscience. The individual becomes aware that there are societal norms to follow and conforms to them. Lastly, the ego develops into late adolescence and adulthood and is the part of the mind that resolves conflicts between the id and the superego. The ego helps a person make rational decisions that comply with the rules of society.
+
+=== George Herbert Mead ===
+George Herbert Mead created the theory of social behaviorism, which states that the self is created by social experiences. The self is the portion of the being consisting of self-image and self-consciousness. As individuals interact with others, they build up this self. Unlike Freud, Mead believes that the self is not created by biological instincts, but rather solely by societal influences. He also stated that the use of language and exchanging of symbols to convey meaning is what societal experiences are made up of. Furthermore, one must place themselves in the other person's position to be able to understand them; they must take up the other person's role, and only by understanding the other person's role can self-awareness be achieved.
+
+=== Charles Horton Cooley ===
+
+Sociologist Charles Horton Cooley developed the theory of the looking-glass self, which is similar to Mead's theory in that it states that our societal interactions form our self-image. Cooley discussed how significant others are people whose opinions are of importance to us, and thus they have strong influences over the way we think about things and ourselves. In this case, a significant other can be any person: a friend, family member, or spouse. The theory of the looking-glass self proposes three steps for the formation of the self. In the first step, an individual thinks about how a significant other perceives them. In the second step, they imagine that a judgement about them is made by the significant other based on the perception they have of the individual. Lastly, in the third step, the individual creates a self-image based on how they believe the significant other sees them.
+
+=== Jean Piaget ===

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+---
+title: "Primary socialization"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_socialization"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:51.368906+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Psychologist Jean Piaget created the theory of cognitive development, which talks about how the mentality of children develops and matures as they grow older and further interact with society. Piaget defined four main periods of development: the sensorimotor period, the pre-operational period, the concrete operational period and the formal operational period. The sensorimotor period takes place from birth to about two years of age and is defined as the stage when infants learn by using their senses and motor skills. In this stage, the main goal is for an infant to learn that an object still exists even when it is not directly in sight; this is known as object permanence. During the pre-operational period, from roughly two to seven years of age, a child is much more capable of conceiving symbolic thought, but is not capable of reasoning yet. Also, children during this period cannot comprehend conservation, which is the ability to understand that different-looking objects can have the same measurable features, such as area, volume, and length. The next period, the concrete operational period, takes place from ages seven to eleven. In this stage, children are able to solve problems or mental operations, only in regards to real events or tangible objects, in their minds. The final stage is the formal operational period, taking place from age eleven through adulthood, and is the period in which individuals learn to solve problems based on hypothetical situations. During this stage, the individual can think logically, symbolically and abstractly.
+
+== Means of socialization ==
+
+=== The family ===
+
+Family, the closest set of people to an individual, are the ones that have the greatest impact on the socialization process. Many people, from birth to early adulthood, rely heavily on their family for support, basic necessities such as shelter and food, nurturing, and guidance. Due to this, many of the influences from the family become a part of the growing individual. The family imposes on the child their language, culture, race, religion, and class, and as a result all of these concepts contribute to the child's self. Failure of the family to be continuously present as a strong influence can lead to deviant behaviors later on in life. Various theories of primary socialization state that the degree of bonding during this process and the norms acquired during childhood may lead to deviant behavior and even drug abuse as an adult. Also, the ego levels of the adults surrounding the person during primary socialization, as well their behaviors towards others, affect the primary socialization process of the individual.
+
+=== Education and peer groups ===
+Educational systems introduce new knowledge to children as well as order and bureaucracy. In school a child learns about other cultures, races and religions different from their own. Education influences individuals to think and act certain ways that pertain to the norms and values of their current society. One example of this is gender roles; from a young age, schools teach children to act in particular manners based on their gender.
+A peer group can be identified as a group of individuals who are similar in age and social class. By joining peer groups, children begin to detach from the authority the family has imposed in them, and start making choices of their own. Negative influences from peer groups can also lead to deviant behavior, due to peer pressure. These groups in an individual's life have significant effects on the primary socialization process as they can influence an individual to think or act differently.
+
+=== Social and mass media ===
+Social and mass media are some of the most influential agents of socialization. Magazines, television, social networks, newspapers, internet, films, and radio are all forms of mass media that entertain and send messages to large audiences. As a result, all of these messages sent out by social media have an effect on the way children see themselves and the world around them. Some examples of influential messages that are constantly seen from mass media include unrealistic or even unhealthy beauty standards, racial and sexual stereotypes, and violence around the world. These messages can all impact how a child creates their self and how they act as individuals in society.
+
+== Boundaries ==
+Primary socialization takes place during infancy, childhood and early adolescence, in which an individual builds their basic core identity and personality. During this process a person forms their self-image and self-awareness through social experience. In primary socialization the family has a grand influence on the individual, as well as peer groups, educational institutions, and mass media. Overlapped with this is the process of secondary socialization, which occurs from childhood through adulthood, wherein an individual encounters new groups, and must take up new roles to successfully participate in society. However, this process involves smaller changes than those of primary socialization and is more so associated with teenagers and adults. During secondary socialization an individual begins to partake in smaller groups of larger societies, and as a result must learn to behave appropriately. The behavioral patterns that were created by the socialization agents during primary socialization are put into action in secondary socialization.
+
+== See also ==
+Developmental psychology
+Hidden curriculum
+Institutional theory
+Social constructionism
+
+== References ==

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+---
+title: "Principle of least interest"
+chunk: 1/1
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+category: "reference"
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+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:52.587182+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The principle of least interest is the idea in sociology that the person or group that has the least amount of interest in continuing a relationship has the most power over it. In the context of relationship dynamics, it suggests towards which party the balance of power tilts. The principle applies to personal, business, and other types of relationships where more than one party is involved.
+
+
+== History ==
+The term originated in 1938 by the sociologist Willard Waller in his book The Family: A Dynamic Interpretation. Throughout his research Waller found that power in a dating couple is almost never equally distributed between the two participants. One person for any variety of possible reasons will have more power in the relationship. One of the ways Waller proposed for this uneven balance was the Principle of Least Interest. In a relationship with uneven power distribution, one of the partners gets more out of a relationship, be it emotionally, physically, or monetarily than the other. The partner who receives less has less incentive to continue the relationship and therefore at the most extreme can threaten to end the relationship so that the other person bends to their demands. For the person making the demands this is of little consequence to them. For the other party however, it might be a much larger issue. This is the basis for the ideas behind principle of least interest.
+The first major study to test the principle came in 1972 in a paper by Kenneth Eslinger, Alfred D Clarke and Russell R Dynes. In the paper the researchers interviewed 113 randomly selected college students that were enrolled in sociology courses to find out if a difference in emotional involvement existed in relationships and whether or not the level of involvement was affected by how the person was raised.  The methods of raising children that were considered by the study were: bureaucratically or entrepreneurially. The study confirmed that there was a difference in involvement between how you were raised and how involved in a relationship you were. Furthermore, the study showed a large gap in involvement between males and females, with the lowest female mean score four points higher than the highest male mean score. This showed that males as a group were significantly less interested in maintaining their relationship and could use the principle of least interest for their own benefit.
+These studies were further reinforced in 1984 by a study that focused on the balance of power in lesbian relationships. Nearly 40% of those taking part reported an unequal balance of power. Furthermore, those who reported an unequal balance of power reported that they felt the person who was less dependent on the relationship had more power.
+In 1994 a study of 413 heterosexual American adults found correlations between the power balance between the partners and the emotional involvement of them to be both negative and significant. The researchers also noted that the perception of being powerless in a relationship grew as the emotional involvements in the relationship grew. 39% of the respondents reported that the woman was more emotionally involved compared to only 21% reporting the man to be more emotionally involved. Building on this study in 2006 a study by Susan Sprecher and Diane Felmlee of 101 heterosexual American dating couples found that the partners who perceived themselves as more emotionally involved also perceived themselves as having less power.
+The most recent study on the principle of least interest took place in 2012. In it 30 in-depth interviews with 15 unmarried African-American couples were performed. The study found that the partner less emotionally involved typically made the decisions about how to handle the couple's birth control.
+
+
+== Sociological perspective ==
+The principle of least interest falls primarily in the Conflict viewpoint of sociology. The principle of least interest dictates how power is distributed in a relationship and how it is almost always unequally balanced. This unequal balance of power can lead the weaker person to struggle to get a grasp on some of the power. This struggle leads to a conflict between the one with the power and the one without.
+
+
+== Outside of relationships ==
+While typically the principle of least interest is used in sociology to describe relationships, it has also been used to explain business deals. It can explain why in marketing an excessively aggressive pitch can be less likely to be accepted. Another example is in negotiations, when one party leaves the negotiation in order to make the other party improve their offer.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Brinkmanship
+Principle of least effort
+Moral hazard
+
+
+== References ==

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+---
+title: "Private sphere"
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+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:53.830680+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The private sphere is the complement or opposite to the public sphere. The private sphere is a certain sector of societal life in which an individual enjoys a degree of authority and tradition, unhampered by interventions from governmental, economic or other institutions. Examples of the private sphere are high society, religion, sex, family and home.
+In public-sphere theory, on the bourgeois model, the private sphere is that domain of one's life in which one works for oneself. In that domain, people work, exchange goods, and maintain their families; it is therefore, in that sense, separate from the rest of society.
+
+
+== Shifting boundaries ==
+The parameters separating public and private spheres are not fixed but vary both in (cultural) space and in time.
+In the classical world, economic life was the prerogative of the household, only matters which could not be dealt with by the household alone entered the public realm of the polis. In the modern world, the public economy permeates the home, providing the main access to the public sphere for the citizen become consumer.
+In classical times, crime and punishment was the concern of the kinship group, a concept only slowly challenged by ideas of public justice. Similarly in medieval Europe the blood feud only slowly gave way to legal control, whereas in modern Europe only the vendetta would still attempt to keep the avenging of violent crime within the private sphere.
+Conversely, in early modern Europe, religion was a central public concern, essential to the maintenance of the state, so that details of private worship were hotly debated and controverted in the public sphere. Similarly, sexual behavior was subject to a generally agreed code publicly enforced by both formal and informal social control. In postmodern society, both religion and sex are now generally seen as matters of private choice.
+
+
+=== Gender politics ===
+Throughout many decades, the public and private sphere have incorporated traditional gender roles. Women were mostly kept to the private sphere by staying at home, taking care of their children and attending to house chores. They were not able to participate in the public sphere, which was dominated by men. 
+The private sphere was long regarded as women's "proper place" whereas men were supposed to inhabit the public sphere.  Although feminist researchers such as V. Spike Peterson have discovered roots of the exclusion of women from the public sphere in ancient Athenian times, a distinct ideology that prescribed separate spheres for women and men emerged during the Industrial Revolution because of the severance of the workplace from places of residence that occurred with the build up of urban centres of work. Even writing was traditionally considered forbidden, as "In the anxious comments provoked by the 'female pen' it [was] easy enough to detect fear of the writing woman as a kind of castrating female whose grasp upon that instrument seems an arrogation of its generative power".
+Feminists have challenged the ascription in a number of (not always commensurate) ways. In the first place, the slogan "the personal is political" attempted to open up the 'private' sphere of home and child-rearing to public scrutiny as well as call to attention how the exclusion of women from the public sphere makes the private sphere political. At the same time, there was a new valorisation of the personal – of experiential knowledge and the world of the body – as against the (traditional) male preserves of public speech and theory.
+All the while, due to the activism of feminists, the public sphere of work, business, politics and ideas were increasingly opened up to female participation.
+
+
+== Critical theory ==
+Martin Heidegger argued that it is only in the private sphere that one can be one's authentic self, as opposed to the impersonal and identikit They of the public realm.
+Contrary to Heidegger, Hannah Arendt argued that (public) action is the only way to manifest "who" somebody is, as opposed to describing "what" they are. She argued that only in public realm it is possible to fully express oneself. 
+Richard Sennett opposed what he saw as the Romantic idealization of the private realm of intimate relations, as opposed to the public sphere of action at a distance.
+Deleuze and Guattari saw postmodernism as challenging the traditional split between private and public spheres, producing instead the supersaturated space of immediate presence and media-scrutiny of late capitalism.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Bertold Brecht
+Dasein
+Gender studies
+Glass ceiling
+Lana Rakow
+Privacy
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== Further reading ==
+Hannah Arendt,  The Human Condition (1958)
+Zizi A. Papacharissi, A Private Sphere (2013)
+Alan F. Westin, Privacy and Freedom (1967)

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+title: "Professional responsibility"
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+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Professional responsibility is a set of duties within the concept of professional ethics for those who exercise a unique set of knowledge and skill as professionals.
+Professional responsibility applies to those professionals making judgments, applying their unique skills, and reaching informed decisions for, or on behalf, of others, as professionals. Professionals must be seen to exercise due care and responsibility in their areas of specialisation – known as professions.
+What makes professionals unique, is that the general public would not ordinarily be expected to know in detail the skills and knowledge of a profession independently.
+In a  modern context, professional responsibility encompasses an array of the personal, corporate, and humanitarian standards of behaviour, as expected by clients, fellow professionals, and professional bodies.
+
+== Origins and history ==
+Professional responsibility historically applied to secularly-taught professions including medicine, law, and divinity or religion. The origins of this phrase date back to 1695, with the aforementioned split of the concept into three areas. The term continued to evolve alongside generally accepted responsibilities for professionals to become all-encompassing as it accommodated new emerging professions in  modern societies.
+
+In the earlier history of the phrase 'professional responsibility', Thomas Percival (1740-1804) published one of the most notable professional codes for medical ethics, specifically for practising physicians in the United States governing their professional responsibilities as practitioners. Percival was also accomplished in founding one of the first known professional responsibility codes to be adopted by a professional body: The American Medical Association (AMA).
+More recently, modern professionals and their networks continue to adopt the various codes of professional responsibility to suit their evolving modern professions. Research has shown that through implementation of common behavioural standards, the likelihood of interpersonal conflict decreases where honour and respect is encouraged. Professional responsibility acts as an organisational framework permitting professionals to assert practical independence in their fields, away from nominal employers, by way of service to their clients.
+
+== Implementation ==
+Professional responsibility is typically implemented by an organisation or institution's management, through what is commonly referred to as a code of ethics or similar guiding document of standards.  A code of ethics sets out principles and rules to assist professionals and organisations to govern their implementation of the ideals of professional responsibility. A code of ethics also establishes a general idea of the ethical standards for businesses or other organizations.
+Because professionals are persons conducting unique skills in their career of choice, ethics, responsibility guidelines and professional responsibility principles, should be applied simultaneously through organisations professionals work within, but also implemented in the individual's character, demeanour, and personal life. Professional responsibility is implemented to assess the moral dimension of human activity in occupations that have professional status, concerned with the moral conduct and standards governing the profession and its members.
+Professional responsibility is defined by professional accepted standards of personal behaviour, moral values, and personal guiding principles. Codes for professional responsibility may be established by professional bodies or organizations to guide members in performing functions to a consistent ethical set of principles. In the rapidly globalised world, developments in technology for many occupations in different fields, mean that professionals must pay particular attention to this rapid growth.
+Professional responsibility helps professionals to choose how to react to problems, by making choices and other approaches, drawing on perspectives through professional ethics. These perspectives can be reached through virtues, values, rules, other ethical theories, moral stances, moral decisions and moral compasses.
+
+=== Common competencies of professional responsibility ===
+Professional responsibility should be implemented through several components as general guidance for members of professional bodies. These competencies include:
+
+Honesty - being trustworthy, loyal, sincere, and fair
+Integrity - consistency between actions, values, expectations, and outcomes
+Transparency - operating where others can see what actions are performed
+Accountability - taking responsibility for actions and their outcomes wherever due
+Objectivity - having a well-informed unbiased view on practical matters
+Respectfulness - treating colleagues and clients with care and compassion
+Obedience to the law – adhering to regulatory and governmental guidelines
+
+== Examples ==
+
+=== The legal profession ===
+Legal professionals and associates of the legal profession are bound by general codes of ethics, with governing principals of client privilege, confidentiality, completeness, and professional courtesy. This profession's responsibilities vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but generally form a similar perspective internationally.
+
+=== The medical profession ===
+The American Medical Association imposes its code of ethics on practising medical professionals in the USA, which discusses issues ranging from workplace interpersonal relationships with staff, to the handling of critical information regarding patient care. Internationally, medical professionals often take the Hippocratic Oath, an oath of Greek origins, which encompasses the 'first do not harm' responsibility.
+
+=== The business world ===
+Businesses have codes of ethics to assist workers deducing whether behaviours would be considered appropriate or acceptable wherever dealing with clients and stakeholders. Some businesses will require their staff to attend recurring monthly or yearly training on business ethics. In some cases, employees may be required to sign declarations that they will adhere to the organisations ethical guidelines as laid out by the employer.
+
+=== Teachers and education ===
+Teachers and education professionals – such as those in tertiary institutions – often act as role models to students. Their code of ethics usually protects their students against mistreatment and protects the value of sharing knowledge through responsible communication.
+
+=== Social protection ===
+Welfare agencies and their professional staff have a duty to enquire about circumstances and not to take initial appearances and answers to questions at face value. Certain agencies in England were criticised in 2013 for "a woeful lack of professional curiosity" which should have informed their child protection work.
+
+=== Table on common professional responsibilities ===
+
+== Examples of common violations in one field ==
+Common violations in the legal field include:

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+title: "Professional responsibility"
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+
+Conflicts of interest. This occurs where the same lawyer or firm is representing both sides in a lawsuit, or previously represented one side. In countries with the adversarial system of justice, a conflict of interest violates the right of each client to the undivided, zealous loyalty of his lawyer. Conflicts may also occur if the lawyer's ability to represent a client is materially limited by the lawyer's loyalty to another client, a personal relationship, or other reasons.
+Incompetent representation. Attorneys have a duty to provide competent representation, and the failure to observe deadlines or conduct thorough research is considered a breach of ethics.
+Mishandling of client money. Clients often advance money to lawyers for a variety of reasons. The money must be kept in special client trust accounts until it is actually earned by the lawyer or spent on court fees or other expenses.
+Fee-splitting arrangements. Attorneys may not split fees with non-attorneys, or with other attorneys who have not worked on the matter for which the client is represented.
+Disclosure of confidential information. Lawyers are under a strict duty of confidentiality to keep information received in the course of their representations secret. Absent law to the contrary, lawyers may not reveal or use this information to the detriment of their clients.
+Communication with represented parties. An attorney may not communicate directly with a person who they know to be represented by counsel with respect to a matter for which the attorney is seeking to communicate. For example, in a civil suit, the plaintiff's attorney may not speak to the defendant directly if the attorney knows that the defendant is represented by counsel without their attorney's express consent.
+Proper solicitation and advertising. Attorneys generally may solicit business by personally offering their services to potential clients who are not already close friends or family members. Advertising by attorneys is also strictly regulated, to prevent puffery and other misleading assertions regarding potential results.
+Reports of violations will activate that profession's regulator to investigate and perhaps discipline the professional concerned.
+
+== In the United States ==
+
+=== In U.S. law schools ===
+Following the Watergate scandal, which involved questionable behavior by a number of lawyers, the American Bar Association ("ABA") mandated that all American law schools incorporate a required course on this topic. This is typically offered as an upper-level course, most often taken in the second year. Professional responsibility courses include matters pertaining to basic legal ethics, as well as bar admissions, legal advertising, disbarment proceedings, ineffective assistance of counsel, and judicial misconduct.
+Maynard Pirsig, published one of the first course books on legal ethics, Cases and Materials on Legal Ethics, 1949, later Cases and Materials on the Standards of the Legal Profession, 1957, and Cases and Materials on Professional Responsibility, 1965.
+Maynard Pirsig also published the definition of legal ethics in Encyclopedia Britannica, 1974.
+
+=== Examinations ===
+Every state in the United States tests prospective attorneys on their knowledge of professional responsibility. Forty-seven states and the District of Columbia require bar applicants to pass an exam called the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE). The remaining three states test professional responsibility on their local bar examinations. Furthermore, the ABA promulgated the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct. in 1983; when Maine adopted the model rules in August 2009, California became the only remaining U.S. jurisdiction not to have adopted the model rules in whole or in part. Most states have only minor variations from the model rules, if any. Attorneys who violate professional responsibility rules may be subject to sanctions ranging from reprimands to temporary suspension to permanent disbarment.
+
+== See also ==
+Legal malpractice
+Professional
+Professional abuse
+Professional ethics
+Professional negligence in English Law
+Category:United States professional responsibility case law
+
+== References ==

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+title: "Professionalization"
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+
+Professionalization or professionalisation is a social process by which any trade or occupation transforms itself into a true "profession of the highest integrity and competence." The definition of what constitutes a profession is often contested. Professionalization tends to result in establishing acceptable qualifications, one or more professional associations to recommend best practice and to oversee the conduct of members of the profession, and some degree of demarcation of the qualified from unqualified amateurs (that is, professional certification). It is also likely to create "occupational closure", closing the profession and activities it encompasses to entry from outsiders, amateurs and the unqualified.
+Occupations not fully professionalized are sometimes called semiprofessions. Critique of professionalization views overzealous versions driven by perverse incentives (essentially, a modern analogue of the negative aspects of guilds) as a form of credentialism.
+
+== Process ==
+The process of professionalization creates "a hierarchical divide between the knowledge-authorities in the professions and a deferential citizenry." This demarcation is often termed "occupational closure", as it means that the profession then becomes closed to entry from outsiders, amateurs and the unqualified: a stratified occupation "defined by professional demarcation and grade." The origin of this process is said to have been with guilds during the Middle Ages, when they fought for exclusive rights to practice their trades as journeymen, and to engage unpaid apprentices. It has also been called credentialism, a reliance on formal qualifications or certifications to determine whether someone is permitted to undertake a task or to speak as an expert. It has also been defined as "excessive reliance on credentials, especially academic degrees, in determining hiring or promotion policies.". It has been further defined as where the credentials for a job or a position are upgraded, even though, there is no skill change that makes this increase necessary.
+Professions also possess power, prestige, high income, high social status and privileges; their members soon come to comprise an elite class of people, cut off to some extent from the common people, and occupying an elevated station in society: "a narrow elite ... a hierarchical social system: a system of ranked orders and classes."
+The professionalization process tends to establish the group norms of conduct and qualification of members of a profession and tends also to insist that members of the profession achieve "conformity to the norm." and abide more or less strictly with the established procedures and any agreed code of conduct, which is policed by professional bodies, for "accreditation assures conformity to general expectations of the profession." Different professions are organized differently. For example, doctors desire autonomy over entrepreneurship. Professions want authority because of their expertise. Professionals are encouraged to have a lifetime commitment to their field of work.
+Eliot Freidson (1923–2005) is considered one of the founders of the sociology of professions
+
+== History ==
+Very few professions existed before the 19th century, although most of the societies always valued someone who was competent and skilled in a particular discipline. The government was especially in need of skilled people to complete various duties. Professionalism as an ideology only started in the early 19th century in North America and Western Europe.
+Professions began to emerge rapidly. However, a person who wanted to become a professional had to gain the approval of members of the existing profession beforehand and only they could judge whether he or she had reached the level of expertise needed to be a professional. Official associations and credentialing boards were created by the end of the 19th century, but initially membership was informal. A person was a professional if enough people said they were a professional.
+Adam Smith expressed support for professionalization, as he believed that professionals made a worthwhile contribution to society. They deserved power and high salaries due to the difficulties inherent in gaining entry to professional fields and living up to the rigorous demands of professionalism.
+State licensure insured that experience could not be substituted for certification, and decreased outside competition. A code of ethics for professionals ensured that the public receiving the service was well served and set guidelines for their behavior in their professions. This code also ensured that penalties were put in place for those who failed to meet up to the standards stated.  This could include termination of their license to practice. After the Second World War, professions were state controlled.
+The degree of legislation and autonomy of self-regulated and regular professions varied across Canada. Possible causes include societal infrastructure, population density, social ideologies, and political mandates. Physicians and engineers were among the most successful at professionalization of their work.  Medicine was consistently regulated before the confederation. Medicine and engineering became self-regulated and had their regulatory legislation altered five decades after the confederation even though some other occupations were not able to. This meant these professions could oversee entry to practice, education, and the behavior of those practicing.

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+
+Although medical techniques did approve in the nineteenth century, attempts to deny rights for the other competing professions in the health field made it seem like medical doctors wanted to monopolize medical care and seek their own interests rather the public welfare.

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+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:56.331947+00:00"
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+---
+
+== Engineers ==
+Engineering, as it became a profession, had fewer restrictions in the 19th century. As it did not have mandatory licensing for entrants, competition was bigger. Unlike physicians, engineers could not enjoy protection from competition. For instance, a person without a college degree could still become an engineer. Engineers could be independent. It was a semi-autonomous profession because it could still require extended training and it formed body of specialized knowledge. The nature of their work meant that they were always influenced by business and industry. In many cases they did want to be independent. Oftentimes, they sought power through their connection with an organization. The engineer profession was much more collaborative.
+In Canada, Interprofessional conflict, differences in organization, and state lobby caused the differences in timing and legislature of occupations such as engineering.
+In engineering,  the profession was initially just organized on a national or cross-provincial basis. For example, the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers was formed in 1887 before it was regulated in each province. Even then, legislation from province to province varied. This was due to the resistance and oppositions of the people in all provinces. For example, in Ontario, the act on engineering did not pass until 1922, and it had to be altered to exempt all mining operations from the bill. This was because the mining industry was afraid the act would alert business and the ability to hire whoever they wanted During times of rapid growth, regulations were added or altered to starve off over crowding.
+In the 19th century, an engineer qualified to practice in England would not have trouble practicing in Canada. To obtain an engineer's certificate from them these countries, many demands which had to be met. For example, in Ontario Canada, for each different class of engineer certificate obtained, certain math skills must be met first. To practice as a water supply engineer in Victoria, Australia, a person had to obtain a certificate. This certificate was only granted if the provisions under the state's Water Act 1890 (No. 1156) were met.
+In England, because production was controlled by craftsmen, creativity and quality of the product was seen as dominant factors in the emerging engineering profession. During the Industrial revolution, whereas the United States focused its attention to standardization for mass production, England focused on methods of small-scale manufacturing. English engineers still emphasized quality in their work. Learning by practical experience was also strongly encouraged and training new engineers became like an apprenticeship.
+In France, they were more concern with the theoretical aspect of engineering, specifically understanding the mathematical aspect of it. They built “grandes écoles" of engineering and state employment was the most predominant work for engineering. Engineering practices and education depended upon cultural values and preferences. Oftentimes in the US, business and engineer managers influenced engineer work.
+In the United States, engineering was more focused on experience and achieving material and commercial success. Manual labor was seen as something positive. It was influenced by France to build schools for engineering training rather than on the site training, in the late 19th century. Professional status was gained through corporate training. Unlike the other emerging professions mentioned earlier, engineering as a profession did not reply on the approval of their peers but rather of corporate and government hierarchies (private industry).
+The number of engineers increased by 2000 percent in the period between 1880 and 1920 in the United States. The Industrial revolution created a demand for them. Their main competition was Germany. Industries encouraged engineering to change from a craft to a profession. The standardization of practices during this time helped established their professional image as expertise. That being said, many factory and business and factory owners did not particularly like this standardization because they felt threaten that engineers would increase their authority and territory. This was also desired by engineers themselves to end labor troubles. It was believed that it would increase production and predictability.
+Civil engineers were overtaken by mechanical engineers. In fact, the numbers of professional mechanical engineers increased by 600 percent and college enrollment in this specialization outnumbered civil engineering. Now, they were more needed. Engineers were okay being classified "professionals of a corporation", because they were still mostly industry workers anyway and valued the ideology of no government intervention in the economy.
+Shortly before, and during the Progressive Era, better organization of various fields of work including engineering took place because it encouraged professionalism, equality, and progress. Systematization was a big part of it. For example, The American Society of Mechanical Engineer was founded in 1880, and met twice a year. Professional codes of ethics were also established for this profession.  However, the growing profession of engineering had still difficulty in organizing itself.
+Making a professional image of engineers was difficult because of its prominent association with manual labor. It struggles to this day to gain similar status as members of autonomous, self-regulating professions such as lawyers and physicians.
+
+== See also ==
+Grade inflation
+Occupational licensing
+
+== References ==

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+title: "Professionalization"
+chunk: 5/5
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professionalization"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:56.331947+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Bibliography ==
+Andrew Delano Abbott, The System of Professions: Essay on the Division of Expert Labour, University of Chicago Press, 1988
+Adams, Tracey L. (August 2009). "Regulating Professions in Canada: Interprovincial Differences across Five Provinces". Journal of Canadian Studies. 43 (3): 194–221. doi:10.3138/jcs.43.3.194. S2CID 141980888. Project MUSE 390309.
+Jeffrey L. Berlant, Profession and Monopoly: A Study of Medicine in the United States and Great Britain, University of California Press, 1975. (ISBN 0-520-02734-5)
+Charlotte G. Borst, Catching Babies: Professionalization of Childbirth, 1870–1920, Harvard University Press, 1995
+Darity, William A., ed. (2008). "Professionalization". International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Vol. 6. pp. 515–517. Gale CX3045302074.
+Robert Dingwall, Essays on Professions. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2008.
+Eyre and Spottiswoode, Professional handbook, dealing with professions in the colonies / issued by the Emigrants Information Office Early Canadiana Online., 1892.
+Eliot Freidson, Profession of Medicine: A Study of the Sociology of Applied Knowledge, University of Chicago Press, 1970
+Howell, Colin D. (1981). "Reform and the Monopolistic Impulse: The Professionalization of Medicine in the Maritimes". Acadiensis. 11 (1): 3–22. JSTOR 30302689. PMID 11620109.
+Hall, Richard H. (1968). "Professionalization and Bureaucratization". American Sociological Review. 33 (1): 92–104.
+Merle Jacobs and Stephen, E Bosanac, The Professionalization of Work, Whitby, ON: de Sitter Publications, 2006
+Montagna, Paul D. (1968). "Professionalization and Bureaucratization in Large Professional Organizations". American Journal of Sociology. 74 (2): 138–145.
+Johnson, Terence James (1972). Professions and Power. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-13430-6.
+Benton, John F. (1985). "Trotula, Women's Problems, and the Professionalization of Medicine in the Middle Ages". Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 59 (1): 30–53. JSTOR 44452036. PMID 3886049. ProQuest 1296295309.
+Alice Beck Kehoe, Mary Beth Emmerichs, and Alfred Bendiner, Assembling the Past: Studies in the Professionalization of Archaeology, University of New Mexico Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0-8263-1939-5.
+Lori Kenschaft, Professions and Professionalization.,  Oxford University Press, 2008
+Lachmund, Jens (November 1998). "Between Scrutiny and Treatment: Physical Diagnosis and the Restructuring of 19th Century Medical Practice". Sociology of Health & Illness. 20 (6): 779–801. doi:10.1111/1467-9566.00129.
+Magali Sarfatti Larson, The Rise of Professionalism: a Sociological Analysis, Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1978
+Gary R. Lowe and P. Nelson Reid, The Professionalization of Poverty: Social Work and the Poor in the Twentieth Century (Modern Applications of Social Work), Aldine de Gruyter, 1999
+Downey, Gary Lee; Lucena, Juan C. (December 2004). "Knowledge and professional identity in engineering: code-switching and the metrics of progress". History and Technology. 20 (4): 393–420. doi:10.1080/0734151042000304358. S2CID 110549230.
+Keith M. Macdonald, The Sociology of the Professions, Sage, 1995
+Linda Reeser, Linda Cherrey, and Irwin Epstein, Professionalization and Activism in Social Work, Columbia University Press, 1990, ISBN 0-231-06788-7
+Patricia M. Schwirian, Professionalization of Nursing: Current Issues and Trends, Philadelphia: Lippencott, 1998, ISBN 0-7817-1045-6
+Shenhav, Yehouda (1995). "From Chaos to Systems: The Engineering Foundations of Organization Theory, 1879-1932". Administrative Science Quarterly. 40 (4): 557–585. doi:10.2307/2393754. JSTOR 2393754. Gale A18194328 ProQuest 203973104.
+Howard M Vollmer, and D L Mills, Professionalization, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1966
+Waddington, I (3 October 1990). "The movement towards the professionalization of medicine". BMJ. 301 (6754): 688–690. doi:10.1136/bmj.301.6754.688. JSTOR 29709099. PMC 1664090. PMID 2224238.
+Anne Witz, Professions and Patriarchy, London: Routledge, 1992
+Donald Wright, The Professionalization of History in English, University of Toronto Press, 2005
+
+== External links ==
+Article abstracts on this theme
+ESA research network on sociology of professions
+University of Aberdeen reading list: Sociology of Professions
+An issue of Current Sociology devoted to this topic

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+---
+title: "Prosopographical network"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopographical_network"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:57.557274+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+A prosopographical network is a system which represents a historical group made up by individual actors and their interactions within a delimited spatial and temporal range. The network science methodology offers an alternative way of analyzing the patterns of relationships, composition and activities of people studied in their own historical context. Since prosopography examines the whole of a past society, its individuals who made it up, and its structure, this independent science of social history uses a collective study of biographies of a well-defined group, in a multiple career analysis, for collecting and interpreting relevant quantities of data, these same set of data can be employed for constructing a network of the studied group. Prosopographical network studies have emerged as a young and dynamic field in historical research; nevertheless, the category of prosopographical network is in its formative, initial phase and as a consequence it is hard to view as a stable and defined notion in history and beyond social network analysis. See also narrative network.
+
+== Overview ==
+With the advent of the study of complex systems, graph theory provides analysts of historical groups and collective lives with relatively simple tools for answering questions such as: how many degrees of separation on average separate all members of the prosopographical group? Which historical character is connected to the most other members of the studied range? How densely or loosely connected was the group as a whole? Such questions hold a natural interest for prosopographers, who can then begin to look for certain characteristics –class, office, occupation, gender, faction, ethnic background – and identify patterns of connectivity that they might have otherwise missed when confronted with a mass of data too large for normal synthetic approaches. The concepts and methods of social network analysis in historical research are recently being used not only as a mere metaphor but are increasingly applied in practice
+
+== Background ==
+The analysis and interpretation of prosopographical networks is an interdisciplinary field of study in social studies and humanities. This field emerged from philology, history, genealogical studies, and sociology and social network analysis. The term "prosopography" comes from the word prosopoeia, a figure in classical rhetoric in which an imagined person is figured and represented as if present. Claude Nicolet defined the main of prosopography as the history of groups as elements in political and social history, achieved by isolating series of persons having certain political or social characteristics in common and then analyzing each series in terms of multiple criteria, in order both to obtain information specific to individuals and to identify the constants and the variables among the data for whole groups.
+According to British historian Lawrence Stone, prosopography had become a two-fold tool for historical research: 1) it helps to unveil interests and connections hidden or unclear in the narrative (i.e. rhetoric, historiography, etc.), and 2) it allows analysing the shifting roles in a community and the changing composition of society though genealogy, legal-institutional position, and inter-personal relations. For both uses, understanding connections and studying the evolution of a group, network analysis presents a helpful and feasible methodological framework for measuring quantities and interpreting data. By applying the methods of social network analysis, the approaches of prosopography can be quantified, graphed, and assessed. Together with other complex systems studies, prosopographical networks form part of the field of network science.
+In the field of historical studies, the term network has been used in a metaphorical sense alone for a long time. The sociological focus, despite the vast spectrum of tools and methods at its disposal, does not deal with limited extraction of relational data from fragmentary and even contradictory sources. Along with the paucity of sources, this hampers the comprehensive, valid and meaningful application of methods drawn from social network analysis. Despite these obstacles, the relational perspective of network analysis has helped historical research and prosopography to gain an entirely new methodological vantage point. Social network theory may be able to overcome conceptual and epistemological difficulties presented by historical objects of study and historical sources. Constructing a prosopographical network can offer an alternative, more fluid interpretation of communities in the past, which allows us to take account of coexisting, sometimes overlapping, networks of different sources and geographical delimitations.

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+---
+title: "Prosopographical network"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopographical_network"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:57.557274+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Pioneer works ==
+Ruffini, Giovanni, and Shawn Graham. “Network Analysis and Greco-Roman Prosopography.” In Prosopography approaches and applications: A handbook. Edited by K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, 325–36. Oxford: Unit for Prosopographical Research, Linacre College, University of Oxford, 2007.
+Josie M. Abbott used prosopography to construct a group biography of women secretarial workers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in The Angel in the Office (2009).
+Sociologist Michael Erben explored the use of prosopography to investigate what might be called a street biography in "A Preliminary Prosopography of the Victorian Street", (1996). Sourced mainly from census records, the data used included not only the demography but also the spatial classifications, occupations, and domestic arrangements of a street in Victorian Oxford. This material forms what Erben describes as an Unaffiliated or Disinterested Group, i.e.  spatial locale may be all inhabitants had in common, unlike Intentional Groups, with explicit shared interests, found in more traditional prosopography.  The work shows that such Unaffiliated Groups can yield much information on subjects such as social mobility in a given place and time.
+Debra Nails compiled a prosopography of Plato and other Socratics by exploring the biographies of each person mentioned in the Socratic literature in an attempt to explore how Socrates interacted with others. Plato mentions many contemporaries of Socrates, from political figures to sophists, often using them as characters in the dialogs and foils for his criticism.
+Building on Robert M. Hartwell's initial work, Peter Bol (Harvard), Michael Fuller (UC Irvine), Deng Xiaonan (Peking University), and Lau Nap-yin (academia Sinica) launched the China Biographical Database project in 2005 as an online and stand-alone relational database of the careers, kinship, associations, writings, and other data of Chinese men and women, mainly from the 7th century into the early 20th. CBDB exports query results in formats for statistical, network analysis and GIS.
+
+== References ==
+
+=== Citations ===
+
+=== Further reading ===
+Abbott, Josie M., The Angel in the Office. British Sociological Association, 2009.
+Bearman, Peter S., James Moody, and Robert Faris. “Networks and History.” Complexity, no. 8 (2012): 61–71.
+Bernád, Ágoston, Christine Gruber and Maximilian Kaiser (eds.), Europa baut auf Biographien. Aspekte, Bausteine, Normen und Standards für eine europäische Biographik, Wien 2017. https://www.oeaw.ac.at/fileadmin/Institute/INZ/Europa_baut_auf_Biographien.pdf.
+Bernád, Ágoston and Maximilian Kaiser, The Biographical Formula: Types and Dimensions of biographical networks, in: A. Fokkens et al., Proceedings of the Second Conference on Biographical Data in a Digital World 2017, Linz Ars Electronica Centre 6.-7.2017. http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2119/paper8.pdf.
+Carney, T. F. "Prosopography: Payoffs and Pitfalls" Phoenix 27.2 (Summer, 1973), pp. 156–179. Assessing results of prosopography applied to Roman Republican history.
+Düring, Marten, and Martin Stark. “Historical Network Analysis.” In Encyclopedia of Social Networks. Edited by George A. Barnett. 2 vols. London: Sage Publishing, 2011.
+Erben, Michael, "A Preliminary Prosopography of the Victorian Street", Auto/Biography Vol 4, 2/3, 1996.
+Erickson, Bonnie H. “Social Networks and History: A Review Essay.” Historical Methods 30, no. 3 (1997): 149–157.
+Beech, George, "Prosopography" in Medieval studies: an introduction, ed. James M. Powell, Syracuse University Press, 1992.
+Eidinow, Esther. CNetworks and Narratives: A Model for Ancient Greek Religion.” Kernos [Online] 24 (2011). http://kernos.revues.org/1925; DOI : 10.4000/kernos.1925.
+Fangerau, Heiner. "Evolution of knowledge from a network perspective: recognition as a selective factor in the history of science". In Classification and Evolution in Biology, Linguistics and the History of Science. Concepts, Methods, Visualization, eds. Heiner Fangerau, Hans Geisler, Thorsten Halling, William Martin, Stuttgart: Steiner, 2013, p. 11-32. http://www.steiner-verlag.de/fileadmin/Dateien/Steiner/EBook/9783515105897_eb.pdf.
+Ferreira-Lopes, P. and Pinto Puerto, F. 2018. “GIS and Graph Models for Social, Temporal and Spatial Digital Analysis in Heritage: The Case-Study of Ancient Kingdom of Seville Late Gothic Production.” Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.daach.2018.e00074.
+Gould, Roger V. “Uses of Network Tools in Comparative Historical Research.” In Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences. Edited by James Mahoney and Dietrich Rueschemeyer. 1st ed., 241–69. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
+Keats-Rohan, Katherine S. B. (ed)., Prosopography Approaches and Applications: A Handbook. Oxford : Prosopographica et Genealogica, 2007.
+Lemercier, Claire. “Analyse de réseaux et histoire.” Revue d’Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine 52, no. 2 (2005): 88–112. http://www.cairn.info/load_pdf.php?ID_ARTICLE=RHMC_522_0088.
+Lemercier, Claire, Claire Guzzi-Heeb, and Michel Bertrand. “Introduction à l’analyse des réseaux et l’histoire: outils, approches problèmes.” Redes. Revista hispana para el análisis de redes sociales 21, no. 1 (2011). http://revista-redes.rediris.es/pdf-vol21/vol21_1f.pdf.
+Lindgren, M., 'People of Pylos: Prosopographical and Methodological Studies in the Pylos Archives (Boreas). Uppsala (1973)
+Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire. Cambridge: University Press, 1971–92.
+Radner, K. (ed.), The Prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Helsinki, 1998–2002. [1]
+Stark, David, and Balazs Vedres. “Social Times of Network Spaces: Network Sequences and Foreign Investment in Hungary.” American Journal of Sociology 111, no. 5 (2006): 1367–1411. http://www.thesenseofdissonance.com/media/paper_social_times_of_network_spaces.pdf.
+Stark, Martin. “Netzwerke in der Geschichtswissenschaft.” In Gläubiger, Schuldner, Arme. Netzwerke und die Rolle des Vertrauens. Edited by Curt W. Hergenröder, 187–90. Wiesbaden: VS, 2010.
+Wellman, Barry and Steven Berkowitz, eds. Social Structures: A Network Approach. Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
+
+== External links ==
+Guide to the Principles and Practice of Prosopography – A prosopography portal from Oxford's Modern History Research Unit that includes a short guide, a lengthy bibliography, an interactive tutorial, and an international directory of current projects and researchers.
+Historical Network Research, a website that aims to be a platform for scholars to present their work, enable collaboration and provide those new to network analysis with some helpful first information.
+Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England – a project designed to provide a comprehensive biographical register of recorded inhabitants of Anglo-Saxon England (c. 450–1066), to be accessible in the form of a searchable on-line database, and intended to facilitate further research in many different aspects of Anglo-Saxon studies.
+Prosopography of the Byzantine World, an online database compiled from Byzantine sources from 1025–1150.
+http://www.biographynet.nl/ BiographyNet is a multidisciplinary project that combines expertise from history, computer science and computational linguistics.
+https://apis.acdh.oeaw.ac.at/, The research project APIS deals with the semantic enrichment of the Austrian Biographical Dictionary. 1815–1950 with digital humanities methods.
+https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/cbdb China Biographical Database. Biographical data on over 420,000 historical figures in China's history. Ongoing project.

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+---
+title: "Pseudospeciation"
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+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:58.763535+00:00"
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+---
+
+Pseudospeciation is a form of othering, the treatment of different human groups as if they were different biological species. It begins with the fact that cultural differences cause humans to separate into different social groups, with different language, dress, customs, etc. These cultural differences are claimed to be analogous to the formation of different biological species (speciation). In the extreme, pseudospeciation leads to dehumanization of other cultural groups (out-groups).
+Pseudospeciation, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, refers to the tendency of members of in-groups to consider members of out-groups to have evolved genetically into different, separate, and inferior species to their own. The term was first used by Erik Erikson in 1966, according to his biographer, Lawrence J. Friedman. Dehumanization is one possible outcome of pseudospeciation, as is ethnic discrimination or genocide.
+Francisco Gil-White proposed in 2001 that humans evolved in such a way that the brain perceives different ethnic groups to be equivalent to different biological 'species', thus suggesting that pseudospeciation is innate. His hypothesis has yet to receive widespread empirical support. His theory and data are found in Current Anthropology, Vol. 42, No. 4, pp. 515–554.
+Pseudospeciation is an especially virulent form of ethnocentrism. Karl Marlantes, in his book What It Is Like to Go to War (Grove Press, 2011), referred to pseudospeciation by American soldiers in World War II and in the Vietnam War as a coping mechanism for dealing with Japanese and Vietnamese soldiers differently from European (Germans and Italians for instance) soldiers in those wars. Since an underlying precept of pseudospeciation is the dehumanization of the enemy, it helps the soldiers rationalize barbaric or socially unacceptable behavior visited upon soldiers of a race and culture visually and contextually different from their own. One example Marlantes posits is the treatment of prisoners, or what might be characterized as the murder of soldiers attempting to surrender.
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-0.md

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+title: "Public"
+chunk: 1/1
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+---
+
+In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the Öffentlichkeit or public sphere. 
+The concept of a public has also been defined in political science, psychology, marketing, and advertising.  In public relations and communication science, it is one of the more ambiguous concepts in the field.
+Although it has definitions in the theory of the field that have been formulated from the early 20th century onward, in more recent years it has suffered from being blurred, as a result of conflation of the idea of a public with the notions of audience, market segment, community, constituency, and stakeholder.
+
+
+== Etymology and definitions ==
+The name "public" originates with the Latin publicus (also poplicus), from populus,  to the English word 'populace', and in general denotes some mass population ("the people") in association with some matter of common interest. So in political science and history, a public is a population of individuals in association with civic affairs, or affairs of office or state.  In social psychology, marketing, and public relations, a public has a more situational definition. John Dewey defined (Dewey 1927) public as a group of people who, in facing a similar problem, recognize it and organize themselves to address it. Dewey's definition of a public is thus situational: people organized about a situation. Built upon this situational definition of a public is the situational theory of publics by James E. Grunig (Grunig 1983), which talks of nonpublics (who have no problem), latent publics (who have a problem), aware publics (who recognize that they have a problem), and active publics (who do something about their problem).
+In public relations and communication theory, a public is distinct from a stakeholder or a market. A public is a subset of the set of stakeholders for an organization, that comprises those people concerned with a specific issue. Whilst a market has an exchange relationship with an organization, and is usually a passive entity that is created by the organization, public does not necessarily have an exchange relationship, and is both self-creating and self-organizing. Publics are targeted by public relations efforts. In this, target publics are those publics whose involvement is necessary for achieving organization goals; intervening publics are opinion formers and mediators, who pass information to the target publics; and influentials are publics that the target publics turn to for consultation, whose value judgements are influential upon how a target public will judge any public relations material. The public is often targeted especially in regard to political agendas as their vote is necessary in order to further the progression of the cause. As seen in Massachusetts between 2003 and 2004, it was necessary to "win a critical mass of states and a critical mass of public support" in order to get same-sex marriage passed in the commonwealth.
+Public relations theory perspectives on publics are situational, per Dewey and Grunig; mass, where a public is simply viewed as a population of individuals; agenda-building, where a public is viewed as a condition of political involvement that is not transitory; and "homo narrans", where a public is (in the words of Gabriel M. Vasquez, assistant professor in the School of Communication at the University of Houston) a collection of "individuals that develop a group consciousness around a problematic situation and act to solve the problematic situations" (Vasquez 1993, pp. 209). Public schools are often under controversy for their "agenda-building," especially in debates over whether to teach a religious or secular curriculum.  The promotion of an agenda is commonplace whenever one is in a public environment, but schools have exceptional power in that regard.
+One non-situational concept of a public is that of Kirk Hallahan, professor at Colorado State University, who defines a public as "a group of people who relate to an organization, who demonstrate varying degrees of activity—passivity, and who might (or might not) interact with others concerning their relationship with the organization".
+Samuel Mateus's 2011 paper "Public as Social Experience" considered to view the concept by an alternative point of view: the public "is neither a simple audience constituted by media consumers nor just a rational-critical agency of a Public Sphere". He argued "the concept should also be seen in the light of a publicness principle, beyond a critic and manipulative publicity (...). In accordance, the public may be regarded as the result of the social activities made by individuals sharing symbolic representations and common emotions in publicness. Seen with lower-case, the concept is a set of subjectivities who look publicly for a feeling of belonging. So, in this perspective, the public is still a fundamental notion to social life although in a different manner in comparison to 18th century Public Sphere's Public. He means above all the social textures and configurations where successive layers of social experience are built up."
+
+
+== Social publics ==
+Social publics are groups of people united by common ideas, ideology, or hobbies. Networked publics are social publics which have been socially restructured by the networking of technologies. As such, they are simultaneously both (1) the space constructed through networked technologies and (2) the imagined collective which consequently emerges as a result of the intersection of human persons, shared technologies, and their practices.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Community
+Nation
+People
+Public sphere
+Res publica
+Volk
+
+
+== Citations ==
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== Further reading ==

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+title: "Public morality"
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+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Public morality refers to moral and ethical standards enforced in a society, by law or police work or social pressure, and applied to public life, to the content of the media, and to conduct in public places. 
+Public morality often means regulation of sexual matters, including prostitution and homosexuality, but also matters of dress and nudity, pornography, acceptability in social terms of cohabitation before marriage, and the protection of children. It is a main justification for censorship; it can lead to campaigns against profanity, and so be at odds with freedom of speech. Gambling is generally controlled: casinos have been considered much more of a threat than large-scale lotteries or football pools. Public drunkenness is quite unacceptable in some societies, and legal control of consumption of alcohol is often justified in terms of public morality, just as much as for medical reasons or to limit alcohol-related crime. Drug legislation, historically speaking, has sometimes followed on similar reasoning. Abortion is sometimes treated as an aspect of public morality, even if it is legally defined, regulated by medical professionals, and almost entirely hidden from public view. AIDS as a health policy issue is linked to public morality in a complicated manner. A famous remark on male homosexuality of Mrs Patrick Campbell, that she did not care what people did as long as they "didn't frighten the horses", shows that in some sense even high tolerance expects a public limitation on behaviour. At the opposite extreme a theocracy may equate public morality with religious instruction, and give both the equal force of law.
+Views on public morality do change over time. Public views on which things are acceptable often move towards wider tolerance. Rapid shifts the other way are often characterised by moral panics, as in the shutting down of theatres a generation after Shakespeare's death by the English Puritans.
+It may also be applied to the morals of public life. Political corruption, or the telling of lies in public statements, tarnish not only individual politicians, but the entire conduct of political life, whether at local or national level. These are fairly universally regarded as blots on reputations, though in some cases there is a grey area between corruption and legitimate fund-raising. Whether the private lives of politicians are a public morals issue is not a matter of agreement, internationally speaking; the existence of an extramarital relationship of a prime minister or even a president would in some countries be considered a revelation well within the sphere of the public interest, while in other countries it would be considered quite irrelevant.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Family values
+Islamic religious police
+Moral panic
+Morality
+Public-order crime
+Social conservatism
+Victorian morality
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_participation_(decision_making)-0.md

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+---
+title: "Public participation (decision making)"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_participation_(decision_making)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:25.922289+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Citizen participation or public participation in social science refers to different mechanisms for the public to express opinions—and ideally exert influence—regarding political, economic, managerial, or other social decisions. Participatory decision-making can take place along any realm of human social activity, including economic (i.e. participatory economics), political (i.e. participatory democracy or parpolity), management (i.e. participatory management), cultural (i.e. polyculturalism) or familial (i.e. feminism).
+For well-informed participation to occur, some scholars argue that a degree of transparency, such as radical transparency, is necessary but not sufficient. It has also been argued that those most affected by a decision should have the most say, while those least affected should have the least say.
+
+== Classifying participation ==
+
+Sherry Arnstein discusses eight types of participation in A Ladder of Citizen Participation (1969). Often termed as "Arnstein's ladder of citizen participation ", these are broadly categorized as:
+
+Citizen Power: Citizen Control, Delegated Power, Partnership.
+Tokenism: Placation, Consultation, Informing.
+Non-participation: Therapy, Manipulation.
+She defines citizen participation as the redistribution of power that enables the have-not citizens, presently excluded from the political and economic processes, to be deliberately included in the future.
+Robert Silverman expanded on Arnstein's ladder of citizen participation with the introduction of his "citizen participation continuum." In this extension to Arnstein's work he takes the groups that drive participation into consideration and the forms of participation they pursue. Consequently, Silverman's continuum distinguishes between grassroots participation and instrumental participation.
+Archon Fung presents another classification of participation based on three key questions: Who is allowed to participate, and are they representative of the population? What is the method of communication or decision-making? And how much influence or authority is granted to the participation?
+Other "ladders" of participation have been presented by D.M. Connor,
+Wiedemann and Femers,
+A. Dorcey et al., Jules N. Pretty
+and E.M. Rocha.
+The International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) has developed a 'spectrum of public participation' based on five levels: information, consultation, involvement, collaboration and empowerment.
+
+== Specific participation activities ==
+Town hall meeting
+Advisory committee
+Citizens' assembly
+Opinion poll
+Participatory design
+Participatory budgeting
+Referendum
+Protest
+Vote
+
+== Corporate participation ==
+Participation in the corporate sector has been studied as a way to improve business related processes starting from productivity to employee satisfaction.
+
+== Cross-cultural participation ==
+A cultural variation of participation can be seen through the actions of Indigenous American Cultures. Participation draws from two aspects: respect and commitment to their community and family. The respect is seen through their participation in non-obligated participation in various aspects of their lives, ranging from housework to fieldwork.
+Often the participation in these communities is a social interaction occurring as a progression for the community, rather than that of the individual. Participation in these communities can serve as a "learning service". This learning ranges from everyday activities, in which community members gain a new skill to complete a task or participate through social events to keep their cultural practices alive. These social participation events allow newer generations to see the events and learn from this ongoing participation to continue these practices. Although there are different domains and objectives of participation in these communities, the bottom line to this participation is that it is non obligated and often community oriented.
+One social interaction that continues to thrive because of this high level of non-obligation is the everyday act of translating.
+
+== Objectives of participation ==
+Participation activities may be motivated from an administrative perspective or a citizen perspective on a governmental, corporate or social level. From the administrative viewpoint, participation can build public support for activities. It can educate the public about an agency's activities. It can also facilitate useful information exchange regarding local conditions. Furthermore, participation is often legally mandated. From the citizen viewpoint, participation enables individuals and groups to influence agency decisions in a representational manner. The different types of political participation depend on motivation. When a group is determined to work to solve a community problem, this may include organizing marches or campaigning for candidates. Most immigrant racial groups have higher motivation since there is an increase in geographical dispersion and are faster growing racial groups. How well participation can influence the relation between citizen and their local government, how it increases trust and boosts peoples willingness to participate Giovanni Allegretti explains in an interview using the example of participatory budgeting.
+
+== Participatory decision-making in science ==
+Public participation in decision-making has been studied as a way to align value judgements and risk trade-offs with public values and attitudes about acceptable risk. This research is of interest for emerging areas of science, including controversial technologies and new applications.
+In the United States, studies have demonstrated public support for increased participation in science. While public trust in scientists remains generally high in the United States, the public may rate scientists' ability to make decisions on behalf of society less highly. For example, a 2016–2017 survey of public opinion on CRISPR gene editing technology showed a "relatively broad consensus among all groups in support of the idea that the scientific community 'should consult with the public before applying gene editing to humans,'" providing a "broad mandate for public engagement."
+The scientific community has struggled to involve the public in scientific decision-making. Abuses of scientific research participants, including well-known examples like the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, may continue to erode trust in scientists among vulnerable populations.
+Additionally, past efforts to come to scientific consensus on controversial issues have excluded the public, and as a result narrowed the scope of technological risks considered. For example, at the 1975 Asilomar conference on recombinant DNA, scientists addressed the risks of biological contamination during laboratory experiments, but failed to consider the more varied public concerns that would surface with commercial adoption of genetically modified crops.
+Researchers acknowledge that further infrastructure and investment is needed to facilitate effective participatory decision-making in science. A five-part approach has been suggested:

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+---
+title: "Public participation (decision making)"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_participation_(decision_making)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:25.922289+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Support effective science communication and engagement
+Capitalize on the strength of diverse coalitions
+Build capacity to deal with moving targets
+Focus on shared values
+Build trusting relationships through applied research and feedback loops
+
+== Participation in heritage ==
+Communities can be involved in local, regional and national cultural heritage initiatives, in the processes of creation, organisation, access, use and preservation. The internet has facilitated this, particularly via crowdsourcing, where the general public is asked to help contribute to shared goals, creating content, but also as a form of mutually beneficial engagement particularly with the collections and research of Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums (GLAM). An example of this is the Transcribe Bentham project, where volunteers are asked to transcribe the manuscripts of the philosopher Jeremy Bentham. Challenges include: how to manage copyright, ownership, orphan works, access to open data from heritage organisations, how to build relationships with cultural heritage amateurs, sustainable preservation, and attitudes towards openness.
+
+== Critiques of participation ==
+Efforts to promote public participation have been widely critiqued. There is particular concern regarding the potential capture of the public into the sphere of influence of governance stakeholders, leaving communities frustrated by public participation initiatives, marginalized and ignored.
+
+== Civic opportunity gap ==
+Youth participation in civic activities has been found to be linked to a student's race, academic track, and their school's socioeconomic status. The American Political Science Task Force on Inequality and American Democracy has found that those with higher socioeconomic status participate at higher rates than those with lower status. A collection of surveys on student participation in 2008 found that "Students who are more academically successful or white and those with parents of higher socioeconomic status receive more classroom-based civic learning opportunities." Youth from disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to report participation in school-based service or service-learning than other students. Students with more highly educated parents and higher household incomes are more likely to have the opportunity to participate in student government, give a speech, or develop debating skills in school.
+
+== See also ==
+
+== References ==
+
+== External links ==
+p-Government: Online participatory government
+Reed, Mark S. (2008). "Stakeholder participation for environmental management: a literature review" (PDF). Biological Conservation. 141 (10): 2417–2431. Bibcode:2008BCons.141.2417R. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2008.07.014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-08-09. (for final published version see: https://web.archive.org/web/20110608090645/http://www.wiley.com/bw/journal.asp?ref=0888-8892)
+Participatory Economics Book Page (Participatory Decision Making)
+"Future in the Alps" Database with best practice examples of new forms of decision-making in the Alps
+"Participatory Learning and Action series" A leading informal journal on participatory learning and action approaches and methods, providing a forum for those engaged in participatory work - community workers, activists and researchers - to share their experiences, conceptual reflections and methodological innovations with others.
+"Participation and the FAO" The Participation Website was established in 1999 by the Informal Working Group on Participatory Approaches and Methods to Support Sustainable Livelihoods and Food Security (IWG-PA) from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The objective of the Participation Website is to bring together under one virtual roof, a broad cross-section of stakeholders interested in participatory approaches and methods in support of sustainable rural livelihoods and food security.
+"p-Government" The author proposes a new model of electronic governance based on the shared vision and collaboration of all the stakeholders. This new governance model shall be known as p-government or participatory government.
+Accountability and Participation Research with the focus on political participation by the GIGA - German Institute of Global and Area Studies]

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+---
+title: "Public sphere"
+chunk: 1/7
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_sphere"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:02.428103+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The public sphere (German: Öffentlichkeit) is an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion, influence political action. A "Public" is "of or concerning the people as a whole." Such a discussion is called public debate and is defined as the expression of views on matters that are of concern to the public—often, but not always, with opposing or diverging views being expressed by participants in the discussion. Public debate takes place mostly through the mass media, but also at meetings or through social media, academic publications, and government policy documents.
+The term was originally coined by German philosopher Jürgen Habermas who defined the public sphere as "made up of private people gathered together as a public and articulating the needs of society with the state". Communication scholar Gerard A. Hauser defines it as "a discursive space in which individuals and groups associate to discuss matters of mutual interest and, where possible, to reach a common judgment about them". The public sphere can be seen as "a theater in modern societies in which political participation is enacted through the medium of talk"  and "a realm of social life in which public opinion can be formed".
+
+== History ==
+Describing the emergence of the public sphere in the 18th century, Habermas noted that the public realm, or sphere, originally was "coextensive with public authority", while "the private sphere comprised civil society in the narrower sense, that is to say, the realm of commodity exchange and of social labor". Whereas the "sphere of public authority" dealt with the state, or realm of the police, and the ruling class, or the feudal authorities (church, princes and nobility) the "authentic 'public sphere'", in a political sense, arose at that time from within the private realm, specifically, in connection with literary activities, the world of letters. This new public sphere spanned the public and the private realms, and "through the vehicle of public opinion it put the state in touch with the needs of society". "This area is conceptually distinct from the state: it [is] a site for the production and circulation of discourses that can in principle be critical of the state." The public sphere "is also distinct from the official economy; it is not an arena of market relations but rather one of the discursive relations, a theater for debating and deliberating rather than for buying and selling". These distinctions between "state apparatuses, economic markets, and democratic associations... are essential to democratic theory". The people themselves came to see the public sphere as a regulatory institution against the authority of the state. The study of the public sphere centers on the idea of participatory democracy, and how public opinion becomes political action. 
+The ideology of the public sphere theory is that the government's laws and policies should be steered by the public sphere and that the only legitimate governments are those that listen to the public sphere. "Democratic governance rests on the capacity of and opportunity for citizens to engage in enlightened debate". Much of the debate over the public sphere involves what is the basic theoretical structure of the public sphere, how information is deliberated in the public sphere, and what influence the public sphere has over society.
+
+== Definitions ==
+Jürgen Habermas claims "We call events and occasions 'public' when they are open to all, in contrast to closed or exclusive affairs".
+This 'public sphere' is a "realm of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed. Access is guaranteed to all citizens".
+This notion of the public becomes evident in terms such as public health, public education, public opinion, or public ownership. They are opposed to the notions of private health, private education, private opinion, and private ownership. The notion of the public is intrinsically connected to the notion of the private.
+Habermas stresses that the notion of the public is related to the notion of the common. For Hannah Arendt, the public sphere is therefore "the common world" that "gathers us together and yet prevents our falling over each other".
+Habermas defines the public sphere as a "society engaged in critical public debate".
+Conditions of the public sphere are according to Habermas:
+
+The formation of public opinion
+All citizens have access
+Conference in unrestricted fashion (based on the freedom of assembly, the freedom of association, the freedom to expression and publication of opinions) about matters of general interest, which implies freedom from economic and political control.
+Debate over the general rules governing relations.
+
+== Jürgen Habermas: bourgeois public sphere ==
+
+Most contemporary conceptualizations of the public sphere are based on the ideas expressed in Jürgen Habermas' book The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere – An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society, which is a translation of his Habilitationsschrift, Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit:Untersuchungen zu einer Kategorie der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft. The German term Öffentlichkeit (public sphere) encompasses a variety of meanings and it implies a spatial concept, the social sites or arenas where meanings are articulated, distributed, and negotiated, as well as the collective body constituted by, and in this process, "the public". The work is still considered the foundation of contemporary public sphere theories, and most theorists cite it when discussing their own theories.

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+---
+title: "Public sphere"
+chunk: 2/7
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_sphere"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:02.428103+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The bourgeois public sphere may be conceived above all as the sphere of private people come together as a public; they soon claimed the public sphere regulated from above against the public authorities themselves, to engage them in a debate over the general rules governing relations in the basically privatized but publicly relevant sphere of commodity exchange and social labor.
+Through this work, he gave a historical-sociological account of the creation, brief flourishing, and demise of a "bourgeois" public sphere based on rational-critical debate and discussion: Habermas stipulates that, due to specific historical circumstances, a new civic society emerged in the eighteenth century. Driven by a need for open commercial arenas where news and matters of common concern could be freely exchanged and discussed—accompanied by growing rates of literacy, accessibility to literature, and a new kind of critical journalism—a separate domain from ruling authorities started to evolve across Europe. "In its clash with the arcane and bureaucratic practices of the absolutist state, the emergent bourgeoisie gradually replaced a public sphere in which the ruler's power was merely represented before the people with a sphere in which state authority was publicly monitored through informed and critical discourse by the people".
+In his historical analysis, Habermas points out three so-called "'institutional criteria" as preconditions for the emergence of the new public sphere. The discursive arenas, such as Britain's coffee houses, France's salons, and Germany's Tischgesellschaften "may have differed in the size and compositions of their publics, the style of their proceedings, the climate of their debates, and their topical orientations", but "they all organized discussion among people that tended to be ongoing; hence they had a number of institutional criteria in common":
+
+Disregard of status: Preservation of "a kind of social intercourse that, far from presupposing the equality of status, disregarded status altogether. ... Not that this idea of the public was actually realized in earnest in the coffee houses, salons, and the societies; but as an idea, it had become institutionalized and thereby stated as an objective claim. If not realized, it was at least consequential." (loc.  cit.)
+Domain of common concern: "... discussion within such a public presupposed the problematization of areas that until then had not been questioned. The domain of 'common concern' which was the object of public critical attention remained a preserve in which church and state authorities had the monopoly of interpretation. ... The private people for whom the cultural product became available as a commodity profaned it inasmuch as they had to determine its meaning on their own (by way of rational communication with one another), verbalize it, and thus state explicitly what precisely in its implicitness for so long could assert its authority." (loc. cit.)
+Inclusivity: However exclusive the public might be in any given instance, it could never close itself off entirely and become consolidated as a clique; for it always understood and found itself immersed within a more inclusive public of all private people, persons who – insofar as they were propertied and educated – as readers, listeners, and spectators could avail themselves via the market of the objects that were subject to discussion. The issues discussed became 'general' not merely in their significance, but also in their accessibility: everyone had to be able to participate. ... Wherever the public established itself institutionally as a stable group of discussants, it did not equate itself with the public but at most claimed to act as its mouthpiece, in its name, perhaps even as its educator – the new form of bourgeois representation" (loc. cit.).
+Habermas argued that the bourgeois society cultivated and upheld these criteria. The public sphere was well established in various locations including coffee shops and salons, areas of society where various people could gather and discuss matters that concerned them. The coffee houses in London society at this time became the centers of art and literary criticism, which gradually widened to include even the economic and the political disputes as matters of discussion. In French salons, as Habermas says, "opinion became emancipated from the bonds of economic dependence". Any new work, or a book or a musical composition had to get its legitimacy in these places. It not only paved a forum for self-expression but in fact had become a platform for airing one's opinions and agendas for public discussion.
+
+The emergence of a bourgeois public sphere was particularly supported by the 18th-century liberal democracy making resources available to this new political class to establish a network of institutions like publishing enterprises, newspapers and discussion forums, and the democratic press was the main tool to execute this. The key feature of this public sphere was its separation from the power of both the church and the government due to its access to a variety of resources, both economic and social.
+As Habermas argues, in due course, this sphere of rational and universalistic politics, free from both the economy and the State, was destroyed by the same forces that initially established it. This collapse was due to the consumeristic drive that infiltrated society, so citizens became more concerned about consumption than political actions. Furthermore, the growth of capitalistic economy led to an uneven distribution of wealth, thus widening economic polarity. Suddenly the media became a tool of political forces and a medium for advertising rather than the medium from which the public got their information on political matters. This resulted in limiting access to the public sphere and the political control of the public sphere was inevitable for the modern capitalistic forces to operate and thrive in the competitive economy.

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+---
+title: "Public sphere"
+chunk: 3/7
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_sphere"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:02.428103+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Therewith emerged a new sort of influence, i.e., media power, which, used for purposes of manipulation, once and for all took care of the innocence of the principle of publicity. The public sphere, simultaneously restructured and dominated by the mass media, developed into an arena infiltrated by power in which, by means of topic selection and topical contributions, a battle is fought not only over influence but over the control of communication flows that affect behavior while their strategic intentions are kept hidden as much as possible.
+
+== Counterpublics, feminist critiques and expansions ==
+Although Structural Transformation was (and is) one of the most influential works in contemporary German philosophy and political science, it took 27 years until an English version appeared on the market in 1989. Based on a conference on the occasion of the English translation, at which Habermas himself attended, Craig Calhoun (1992) edited Habermas and the Public Sphere – a thorough dissection of Habermas' bourgeois public sphere by scholars from various academic disciplines. The core criticism at the conference was directed towards the above stated "institutional criteria":
+
+Hegemonic dominance and exclusion: In "Rethinking the Public Sphere," Nancy Fraser offers a feminist revision of Habermas' historical description of the public sphere, and confronts it with "recent revisionist historiography". She refers to other scholars, like Joan Landes, Mary P. Ryan and Geoff Eley, when she argues that the bourgeois public sphere was in fact constituted by a "number of significant exclusions." In contrast to Habermas' assertions on disregard of status and inclusivity, Fraser claims that the bourgeois public sphere discriminated against women and other historically marginalized groups: "... this network of clubs and associations – philanthropic, civic, professional, and cultural – was anything but accessible to everyone. On the contrary, it was the arena, the training ground and eventually the power base of a stratum of bourgeois men who were coming to see themselves as a "universal class" and preparing to assert their fitness to govern." Thus, she stipulates a hegemonic tendency of the male bourgeois public sphere, which dominated at the cost of alternative publics (for example by gender, social status, ethnicity and property ownership), thereby averting other groups from articulating their particular concerns.
+Bracketing of inequalities: Fraser makes us recall that "the bourgeois conception of the public sphere requires bracketing inequalities of status". The "public sphere was to be an arena in which interlocutors would set aside such characteristics as a difference in birth and fortune and speak to one another as if they were social and economic peers". Fraser refers to feminist research by Jane Mansbridge, which notes several relevant "ways in which deliberation can serve as a mask for domination". Consequently, she argues that "such bracketing usually works to the advantage of dominant groups in society and to the disadvantage of subordinates." Thus, she concludes: "In most cases, it would be more appropriate to unbracket inequalities in the sense of explicitly thematizing them – a point that accords with the spirit of Habermas' later communicative ethics".
+The problematic definition of "common concern": Nancy Fraser points out that "there are no naturally given, a priori boundaries" between matters that are generally conceived as private, and ones we typically label as public (i.e. of "common concern"). As an example, she refers to the historic shift in the general conception of domestic violence, from previously being a matter of primarily private concern, to now generally being accepted as a common one: "Eventually, after sustained discursive contestation we succeeded in making it a common concern".

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+title: "Public sphere"
+chunk: 4/7
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_sphere"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:02.428103+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Nancy Fraser identified the fact that marginalized groups are excluded from a universal public sphere, and thus it was impossible to claim that one group would, in fact, be inclusive. However, she claimed that marginalized groups formed their own public spheres, and termed this concept a subaltern counter public or counter-public.
+Fraser worked from Habermas' basic theory because she saw it to be "an indispensable resource" but questioned the actual structure and attempted to address her concerns. She made the observation that "Habermas stops short of developing a new, post-bourgeois model of the public sphere". Fraser attempted to evaluate Habermas' bourgeois public sphere, discuss some assumptions within his model, and offer a modern conception of the public sphere.
+In the historical reevaluation of the bourgeois public sphere, Fraser argues that rather than opening up the political realm to everyone, the bourgeois public sphere shifted political power from "a repressive mode of domination to a hegemonic one". Rather than rule by power, there was now rule by the majority ideology. To deal with this hegemonic domination, Fraser argues that repressed groups form "Subaltern counter-publics" that are "parallel discursive arenas where members of subordinated social groups invent and circulate counterdiscourses to formulate oppositional interpretations of their identities, interests, and needs".
+Benhabib notes that in Habermas' idea of the public sphere, the distinction between public and private issues separates issues that normally affect women (issues of "reproduction, nurture and care for the young, the sick, and the elderly") into the private realm and out of the discussion in the public sphere. She argues that if the public sphere is to be open to any discussion that affects the population, there cannot be distinctions between "what is" and "what is not" discussed. Benhabib argues for feminists to counter the popular public discourse in their own counter public.
+The public sphere was long regarded as men's domain whereas women were supposed to inhabit the private domestic sphere. A distinct ideology that prescribed separate spheres for women and men emerged during the Industrial Revolution.
+The concept of heteronormativity is used to describe the way in which those who fall outside of the basic male/female dichotomy of gender or whose sexual orientations are other than heterosexual cannot meaningfully claim their identities, causing a disconnect between their public selves and their private selves. Michael Warner made the observation that the idea of an inclusive public sphere makes the assumption that we are all the same without judgments about our fellows. He argues that we must achieve some sort of disembodied state to participate in a universal public sphere without being judged. His observations point to a homosexual counter public, and offers the idea that homosexuals must otherwise remain "closeted" to participate in the larger public discourse.
+
+== Rhetorical ==
+
+Gerard Hauser proposed a different direction for the public sphere than previous models. He foregrounds the rhetorical nature of public spheres, suggesting that public spheres form around "the ongoing dialogue on public issues" rather than the identity of the group engaged in the discourse.
+Rather than arguing for an all-inclusive public sphere, or the analysis of tension between public spheres, he suggested that publics were formed by active members of society around issues. They are a group of interested individuals who engage in vernacular discourse about a specific issue. "Publics may be repressed, distorted, or responsible, but any evaluation of their actual state requires that we inspect the rhetorical environment as well as the rhetorical act out of which they evolved, for these are the conditions that constitute their individual character". These people formed rhetorical public spheres that were based in discourse, not necessarily orderly discourse but any interactions whereby the interested public engages each other. This interaction can take the form of institutional actors as well as the basic "street rhetoric" that "open[s] a dialogue between competing factions." The spheres themselves formed around the issues that were being deliberated. The discussion itself would reproduce itself across the spectrum of interested publics "even though we lack personal acquaintance with all but a few of its participants and are seldom in contexts where we and they directly interact, we join these exchanges because they are discussing the same matters". To communicate within the public sphere, "those who enter any given arena must share a reference world for their discourse to produce awareness for shared interests and public opinions about them". This world consists of common meanings and cultural norms from which interaction can take place.
+The rhetorical public sphere has several primary features:
+
+it is discourse-based, rather than class-based.
+the critical norms are derived from actual discursive practices. Taking a universal reasonableness out of the picture, arguments are judged by how well they resonate with the population that is discussing the issue.
+intermediate bracketing of discursive exchanges. Rather than a conversation that goes on across a population as a whole, the public sphere is composed of many intermediate dialogs that merge later on in the discussion.
+The rhetorical public sphere was characterized by five rhetorical norms from which it can be gauged and criticized. How well the public sphere adheres to these norms determine the effectiveness of the public sphere under the rhetorical model. Those norms are:

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+---
+title: "Public sphere"
+chunk: 5/7
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_sphere"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:02.428103+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+permeable boundaries: Although a public sphere may have a specific membership as with any social movement or deliberative assembly, people outside the group can participate in the discussion.
+activity: Publics are active rather than passive. They do not just hear the issue and applaud, but rather they actively engage the issue and the publics surrounding the issue.
+contextualized language: They require that participants adhere to the rhetorical norm of contextualized language to render their respective experiences intelligible to one another.
+believable appearance: The public sphere must appear to be believable to each other and the outside public.
+tolerance: In order to maintain a vibrant discourse, others opinions need to be allowed to enter the arena.
+In all this Hauser believes a public sphere is a "discursive space in which strangers discuss issues they perceive to be of consequence for them and their group. Its rhetorical exchanges are the bases for shared awareness of common issues, shared interests, tendencies of extent and strength of difference and agreement, and self-constitution as a public whose opinions bear on the organization of society."
+This concept that the public sphere acts as a medium in which public opinion is formed as analogous to a lava lamp. Just as the lamp's structure changes, with its lava separating and forming new shapes, so does the public sphere's creation of opportunities for discourse to address public opinion, thereby forming new discussions of rhetoric. The lava of the public which holds together the public arguments is the public conversation.
+
+== Media ==
+Habermas argues that the public sphere requires "specific means for transmitting information and influencing those who receive it". By definition, this means that media are fundamental for constituting and maintaining a public sphere. 
+
+=== As actors in the political public sphere ===
+According to Habermas, there are two types of actors without whom no political public sphere could be put to work: professionals in the media system and politicians.
+For Habermas, there are five types of actors who make their appearance on the virtual stage of an established public sphere:
+
+(a) Lobbyists who represent special interest groups;
+(b) Advocates who either represent general interest groups or substitute for a lack of representation of marginalized groups that are unable to voice their interests effectively;
+(c) Experts who are credited with professional or scientific knowledge in some specialized area and are invited to give advice;
+(d) Moral entrepreneurs who generate public attention for supposedly neglected issues;
+
+(e) Intellectuals who have gained, unlike advocates or moral entrepreneurs, a perceived personal reputation in some field (e.g., as writers or academics) and who engage, unlike experts and lobbyists, spontaneously in public discourse with the declared intention of promoting general interests.
+Libraries have been inextricably tied to educational institutions in the modern era having developed within democratic societies. Libraries took on aspects of the public sphere (as did classrooms), even while public spheres transformed in the macro sense. These contextual conditions led to a fundamental conservative rethinking of civil society institutions like schools and libraries.
+
+=== YouTube ===
+Habermas argues that under certain conditions, the media act to facilitate discourse in a public sphere. The rise of the Internet has brought about a resurgence of scholars applying theories of the public sphere to Internet technologies.
+For example, a study by S. Edgerly et al.
+focused on the ability of YouTube to serve as an online public sphere. The researchers examined a large sample of video comments using the California Proposition 8 (2008) as an example. The authors argue that some scholars think the online public sphere is a space where a wide range of voices can be expressed due to the "low barrier of entry" and interactivity. However, they also point out a number of limitations. Edgerly et al. say that the affirmative discourse presupposes that YouTube can be an influential player in the political process and that it can serve as an influential force to politically mobilize young people. YouTube has allowed anyone and everyone to be able to get any political knowledge they wish. The authors mention critiques that say YouTube is built around the popularity of videos with sensationalist content. It has also allowed people to broadcast themselves for a large public sphere, where people can form their own opinions and discuss different things in the comments. The research by Edgerly, et al. found that the analysed YouTube comments were diverse. They argue that this is a possible indicator that YouTube provides space for public discussion. They also found that YouTube videos' style influences the nature of the commentary. Finally, they concluded that the video's ideological stances influenced the language of the comments. The findings of the work suggest that YouTube is a public sphere platform.
+Additional work by S. Buckley reflected on the role that news content, specifically US cable news, contributed towards the formation of the public sphere. His research analysed a total of 1239 videos uploaded by five news organisations and investigated the link between content and user engagement. Through both content and sentiment analysis, it was suggested that the sentiment of the language used in the titles of the videos had an impact upon the public, with negatively sentimental titles generated more user engagement. Buckley suggested that due to the aspect of emotionality that is present in news content that due to the ongoing process of media hybridization, a new conceptual framework of the public sphere that acknowledges how both thoughtful discussions as well as ones which express feelings in an overt way needs to be developed.

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+---
+title: "Public sphere"
+chunk: 6/7
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_sphere"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:02.428103+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Limitations of media and the internet ===
+Some, like Colin Sparks, note that a new global public sphere ought to be created in the wake of increasing globalization and global institutions, which operate at the supranational level. However, the key questions for him were, whether any media exists in terms of size and access to fulfil this role. The traditional media, he notes, are close to the public sphere in this true sense. Nevertheless, limitations are imposed by the market and concentration of ownership. At present, the global media fail to constitute the basis of a public sphere for at least three reasons. Similarly, he notes that the internet, for all its potential, does not meet the criteria for a public sphere and that unless these are "overcome, there will be no sign of a global public sphere".
+German scholars Jürgen Gerhards and Mike S. Schäfer conducted a study in 2009 to establish whether the Internet offers a better and broader communication environment compared to quality newspapers. They analysed how the issue of human genome research was portrayed between 1999 and 2001 in popular quality newspapers in both Germany and the United States in comparison to the way it appeared on search engines at the time of their research. Their intention was to analyse what actors and what sort of opinions the subject generated in both print and the Internet and verify whether the online space proved to be a more democratic public sphere, with a wider range of sources and views. Gerhards and Schäfer say they have found "only minimal evidence to support the idea that the internet is a better communication space as compared to print media". "In both media, communication is dominated by (bio- and natural) scientific actors; popular inclusion does not occur". The scholars argue that the search algorithms select the sources of information based on the popularity of their links. "Their gatekeeping, in contrast to the old mass media, relies mainly on technical characteristics of websites". For Gerhards and Schäfer the Internet is not an alternative public sphere because less prominent voices end up being silenced by the search engines' algorithms. "Search engines might actually silence societal debate by giving more space to established actors and institutions". Another tactic that supports this view is astroturfing. The Guardian columnist George Monbiot said that Astroturfing software, "has the potential to destroy the internet as a forum for constructive debate. It jeopardizes the notion of online democracy".
+
+=== Virtual ===
+There has been an academic debate about how social media impacts the public sphere. The sociologists Brian Loader and Dan Mercea give an overview of this discussion. They argue that social media offers increasing opportunities for political communication and enable democratic capacities for political discussion within the virtual public sphere. The effect would be that citizens could challenge governments and corporations' political and economic power. Additionally, new forms of political participation and information sources for the users emerge with the Internet that can be used, for example, in online campaigns. However, the two authors point out that social media's dominant uses are entertainment, consumerism, and content sharing among friends. Loader and Mercea point out that "individual preferences reveal an unequal spread of social ties with a few giant nodes such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook and YouTube attracting the majority of users". They also stress that some critics have voiced the concern that there is a lack of seriousness in political communication on social media platforms. Moreover, lines between professional media coverage and user-generated content would blur on social media.
+The authors conclude that social media provides new opportunities for political participation; however, they warn users of the risks of accessing unreliable sources. The Internet impacts the virtual public sphere in many ways, but is not a free utopian platform as some observers argued at the beginning of its history.
+
+=== Mediated publicness ===
+John Thompson criticises the traditional idea of public sphere by Habermas, as it is centred mainly in face-to-face interactions. On the contrary, Thompson argues that modern society is characterized by a new form of "mediated publicness", whose main characteristics are:
+
+Despatialized (there is a rupture of time/space. People can see more things, as they do not need to share the same physical location, but this extended vision always has an angle, which people do not have control over).
+Non dialogical (unidirectional. For example, presenters on TV are not able to adapt their discourse to the reactions of the audience, since they are visible to a wide audience but that audience is not directly visible to them. However, internet allows a bigger interactivity).
+Wider and more diverse audiences. (The same message can reach people with different education, different social class, different values and beliefs, and so on.)
+This mediated publicness has altered the power relations in a way in which not only the many are visible to the few but the few can also now see the many:
+
+ "Whereas the Panopticon renders many people visible to a few and enables power to be exercised over the many by subjecting them to a state of permanent visibility, the development of communication media provides a means by which many people can gather information about a few and, at the same time, a few can appear before many; thanks to the media, it is primarily those who exercise power, rather than those over whom power is exercised, who are subjected to a certain kind of visibility".  
+However, Thompson also acknowledges that "media and visibility is a double-edged sword" meaning that even though they can be used to show an improved image (by managing the visibility), individuals are not in full control of their self-presentation. Mistakes, gaffes or scandals are now recorded therefore they are harder to deny, as they can be replayed by the media.

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+---
+title: "Public sphere"
+chunk: 7/7
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_sphere"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:02.428103+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== The public service model ===
+Examples of the public service model include BBC in Britain, and the ABC and SBS in Australia. The political function and effect of modes of public communication have traditionally continued with the dichotomy between Hegelian State and civil society. The dominant theory of this mode includes the liberal theory of the free press. However, the public service, state-regulated model, whether publicly or privately funded, has always been seen not as a positive good but as an unfortunate necessity imposed by the technical limitations of frequency scarcity.
+According to Habermas's concept of the public sphere, the strength of this concept is that it identifies and stresses the importance for democratic politics of a sphere distinct from the economy and the State. On the other hand, this concept challenges the liberal free press tradition form the grounds of its materiality, and it challenges the Marxist critique of that tradition from the grounds of the specificity of politics as well.
+From Garnham's critique, three great virtues of Habermas's public sphere are mentioned. Firstly, it focuses on the indissoluble link between the institutions and practices of mass public communication and the institutions and practices of democratic politics. The second virtue of Habermas's approach concentrates on the necessary material resource base for anti-public. Its third virtue is to escape from the simple dichotomy of free market versus state control that dominates so much thinking about media policy.
+
+== Non-liberal theories ==
+Oskar Negt & Alexander Kluge  took a non-liberal view of public spheres, and argued that Habermas' reflections on the bourgeois public sphere should be supplemented with reflections on the proletarian public spheres and the public spheres of production.
+
+=== Proletarian ===
+The distinction between bourgeois and proletarian public spheres is not mainly a distinction between classes. The proletarian public sphere is rather to be conceived of as the "excluded", vague, unarticulated impulses of resistance or resentment. The proletarian public sphere carries the subjective feelings, the egocentric malaise with the common public narrative, interests that are not socially valorized
+
+"As extraeconomic interests, they exist—precisely in the forbidden zones of fantasy beneath the surface of taboos—as stereotypes of a proletarian context of living that is organized in a merely rudimentary form."
+The bourgeois and proletarian public spheres are mutually defining: The proletarian public sphere carries the "left-overs" from the bourgeois public sphere, while the bourgeois public is based upon the productive forces of the underlying resentment:
+
+"In this respect, they " [i.e. the proletarian public spheres] " have two characteristics: in their defensive attitude toward society, their conservatism, and their subcultural character, they are once again mere objects; but they are, at the same time, the block of real life that goes against the valorization interest. As long as capital is dependent on living labor as a source of wealth, this element of the proletarian context of living cannot be extinguished through repression."
+Stephen Thompson considered the existence of a proletarian public sphere from c.1900 to 1948 in South Wales though his examination of the working class provision of medical attendance. He concluded that: 'there existed in South Wales a proletarian public sphere founded on alternative values to the bourgeois, Liberal hegemony ...' Furthermore, 'with a strong tradition of self-sufficiency, the people of south Wales set about organizing their medical services on their own terms and in a way that addressed their particular needs.'
+
+=== Production ===
+Negt and Kluge furthermore point out the necessity of considering a third dimension of the public spheres: The public spheres of production. The public spheres of production collect the impulses of resentment and instrumentalise them in the productive spheres. The public spheres of production are wholly instrumental and have no critical impulse (unlike the bourgeois and proletarian spheres). The interests that are incorporated in the public sphere of production are given capitalist shape, and questions of their legitimacy are thus neutralized.
+
+=== Biopolitical public ===
+By the end of the 20th century, the discussions about public spheres got a new biopolitical twist. Traditionally the public spheres had been contemplated as to how free agents transgress the private spheres. Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri have, drawing on the late Michel Foucault's writings on biopolitics, suggested that we reconsider the very distinction between public and private spheres. They argue that the traditional distinction is founded on a certain (capitalist) account of property that presupposes clear-cut separations between interests. This account of property is (according to Hardt and Negri) based upon a scarcity economy. The scarcity economy is characterized by the impossibility of sharing the goods. If "agent A" eats the bread, "agent B" cannot have it. The interests of agents are thus, generally, clearly separated.
+However, with the evolving shift in the economy towards an informational materiality, in which value is based upon the informational significance, or the narratives surrounding the products, the clear-cut subjective separation is no longer obvious. Hardt and Negri see the open source approaches as examples of new ways of co-operation that illustrate how economic value is not founded upon exclusive possession, but rather upon collective potentialities. Informational materiality is characterized by gaining value only through being shared. Hardt and Negri thus suggest that the commons become the focal point of analyses of public relations. The point being that with this shift it becomes possible to analyze how the very distinctions between the private and public are evolving.
+
+== See also ==
+Argumentation theory
+Commons
+Interpersonal relationship
+Online deliberation
+Project for Public Spaces
+Public hypersphere
+The Public Sphere: An Encyclopedia Article (1964)
+Res publica
+Rule according to higher law
+Richard Sennett
+The Lives of Others – A film that describes the monitoring of the cultural scene of East Berlin by agents of the Stasi during the Cold War
+
+== References ==
+
+== External links ==
+Public Sphere Guide, a research and teaching guide, and resource for the renewal of the Public Sphere
+Transformations of the Public Sphere Essay Forum
+Jürgen Habermas, "The Public Sphere: An Encyclopedia Article," New German Critique 3 (1974)
+Spark summary of Habermas' public sphere book

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_of_life-0.md

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+---
+title: "Quality of life"
+chunk: 1/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_of_life"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:03.583904+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Quality of life (QOL) is defined by the World Health Organization as "an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns". 
+Standard indicators of the quality of life include wealth, employment, the environment, physical and mental health, education, recreation and leisure time, social belonging, religious beliefs, safety, security and freedom. QOL has a wide range of contexts, including the fields of international development, healthcare, politics and employment. Health related QOL (HRQOL) is an evaluation of QOL and its relationship with health.
+
+== Engaged theory ==
+One approach, called the engaged theory, outlined in the journal of Applied Research in the Quality of Life, posits four domains in assessing quality of life: ecology, economics, politics and culture. In the domain of culture, for example, it includes the following subdomains of quality of life:
+
+Beliefs and ideas
+Creativity and recreation
+Enquiry and learning
+Gender and generations
+Identity and engagement
+Memory and projection
+Well-being and health
+Under this conception, other frequently related concepts include freedom, human rights, and happiness. However, since happiness is subjective and difficult to measure, other measures are generally given priority. It has also been shown that happiness, as much as it can be measured, does not necessarily increase correspondingly with the comfort that results from increasing income. As a result, the standard of living should not be taken to be a measure of happiness. Also, sometimes considered related is the concept of human security, though the latter may be considered at a more basic level and for all people.
+
+== Quantitative measurement ==
+Unlike per capita GDP or standard of living, both of which can be measured in financial terms, it is harder to make objective or long-term measurements of the quality of life experienced by nations or other groups of people. Researchers have begun in recent times to distinguish two aspects of personal well-being: Emotional well-being, in which respondents are asked about the quality of their everyday emotional experiences – the frequency and intensity of their experiences of, for example, joy, stress, sadness, anger and affection – and life evaluation, in which respondents are asked to think about their life in general and evaluate it against a scale. Such and other systems and scales of measurement have been in use for some time. Research has attempted to examine the relationship between quality of life and productivity. 
+There are many different methods of measuring quality of life in terms of health care, wealth, and materialistic goods. However, it is much more difficult to measure meaningful expression of one's desires. One way to do so is to evaluate the extent to which individuals have fulfilled their own ideals. Quality of life can simply mean happiness, which is the subjective state of mind. By using that mentality, citizens of a developing country appreciate more since they are content with the basic necessities of health care, education and child protection.
+
+According to ecological economist Robert Costanza:While Quality of Life (QOL) has long been an explicit or implicit policy goal, adequate definition and measurement have been elusive. Diverse "objective" and "subjective" indicators across a range of disciplines and scales, and recent work on subjective well-being (SWB) surveys and the psychology of happiness have spurred renewed interest.
+
+=== Human Development Index ===
+
+Perhaps the most commonly used international measure of development is the Human Development Index (HDI), which combines measures of life expectancy, education, and standard of living, in an attempt to quantify the options available to individuals within a given society. The HDI is used by the United Nations Development Programme in their Human Development Report. However, since 2010, The Human Development Report introduced an Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI). While the original HDI remains useful, it stated that "the IHDI is the actual level of human development (accounting for inequality), while the original HDI can be viewed as an index of 'potential' human development (or the maximum level of HDI) that could be achieved if there was no inequality."
+
+=== World Happiness Report ===
+
+The World Happiness Report is a landmark survey on the state of global happiness. It ranks 156 countries by their happiness levels, reflecting growing global interest in using happiness and substantial well-being as an indicator of the quality of human development. Its growing purpose has allowed governments, communities and organizations to use appropriate data to record happiness in order to enable policies to provide better lives. The reports review the state of happiness in the world today and show how the science of happiness explains personal and national variations in happiness. 
+Developed once again by the United Nations and published recently, along with the HDI, this report combines both objective and subjective measures to rank countries by happiness, which is deemed the ultimate outcome of a high quality of life. It uses surveys from Gallup, real GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on, perceived freedom to make life choices, freedom from corruption, and generosity to derive the final score. Happiness is already recognized as an important concept in global public policy. The World Happiness Report indicates that some regions have, in recent years, been experiencing progressive inequality of happiness.

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+---
+title: "Quality of life"
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+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_of_life"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:03.583904+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Other measures ===
+The Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI) is a measure developed by sociologist M. D. Morris in the 1970s, based on basic literacy, infant mortality, and life expectancy. Although not as complex as other measures, and now essentially replaced by the Human Development Index, the PQLI is notable for Morris's attempt to show a "less fatalistic pessimistic picture" by focusing on three areas where global quality of life was generally improving at the time, while ignoring gross national product and other possible indicators that were not improving.
+The Happy Planet Index, introduced in 2006, is unique among quality of life measures in that, in addition to standard determinants of well-being, it uses each country's ecological footprint as an indicator. As a result, European and North American nations do not dominate this measure. The 2012 list is instead topped by Costa Rica, Vietnam and Colombia.
+In 2010, Gallup researchers trying to find the world's happiest countries found Denmark to be at the top of the list. For the period 2014–2016, Norway surpasses Denmark to be at the top of the list.
+A 2010 study by two Princeton University professors looked at 1,000 randomly selected U.S. residents over an extended period. It concludes that their life evaluations – that is, their considered evaluations of their life against a stated scale of one to ten – rise steadily with income. On the other hand, their reported quality of emotional daily experiences (their reported experiences of joy, affection, stress, sadness, or anger) levels off after a certain income level (approximately $75,000 per year in 2010); income above $75,000 does not lead to more experiences of happiness nor to further relief of unhappiness or stress. Below this income level, respondents reported decreasing happiness and increasing sadness and stress, implying the pain of life's misfortunes, including disease, divorce, and being alone, is exacerbated by poverty.
+Gross national happiness and other subjective measures of happiness are being used by the governments of Bhutan and the United Kingdom. The World Happiness report, issued by Columbia University is a meta-analysis of happiness globally and provides an overview of countries and grassroots activists using GNH. The OECD issued a guide for the use of subjective well-being metrics in 2013. In the U.S., cities and communities are using a GNH metric at a grassroots level.
+The Social Progress Index measures the extent to which countries provide for the social and environmental needs of their citizens. Fifty-two indicators in the areas of basic human needs, foundations of wellbeing, and opportunity show the relative performance of nations. The index uses outcome measures when there is sufficient data available or the closest possible proxies.
+Day-Reconstruction Method was another way of measuring happiness, in which researchers asked their subjects to recall various things they did on the previous day and describe their mood during each activity. Being simple and approachable, this method required memory and the experiments have confirmed that the answers that people give are similar to those who repeatedly recalled each subject. The method eventually declined as it called for more effort and thoughtful responses, which often included interpretations and outcomes that do not occur to people who are asked to record every action in their daily lives.
+The Digital Quality of Life Index - a yearly study on digital well-being across 121 countries created by Surfshark. It indexes each country according to five pillars that impact a population's digital quality of life: internet affordability, internet quality, electronic infrastructure, electronic security, and electronic government.
+
+=== Livability ===
+
+The term quality of life is also used by politicians and economists to measure the livability of a given city or nation. Two widely known measures of livability are the Economist Intelligence Unit's Where-to-be-born Index and Mercer's Quality of Living Reports. These two measures calculate the livability of countries and cities around the world, respectively, through a combination of subjective life-satisfaction surveys and objective determinants of quality of life such as divorce rates, safety, and infrastructure. Such measures relate more broadly to the population of a city, state, or country, not to individual quality of life. Livability has a long history and tradition in urban design, and neighborhoods design standards such as LEED-ND are often used in an attempt to influence livability.  
+
+==== Crimes ====
+Some crimes against property (e.g., graffiti and vandalism) and some "victimless crimes" have been referred to as "quality-of-life crimes". American sociologist James Q. Wilson encapsulated this argument as the broken windows theory, which asserts that relatively minor problems left unattended (such as litter, graffiti, or public urination by homeless individuals) send a subliminal message that disorder, in general, is being tolerated, and as a result, more serious crimes will end up being committed (the analogy being that a broken window left broken shows an image of general dilapidation).
+Wilson's theories have been used to justify the implementation of zero tolerance policies by many prominent American mayors, most notably Oscar Goodman in Las Vegas, Richard Riordan in Los Angeles, Rudolph Giuliani in New York City and Gavin Newsom in San Francisco. Such policies refuse to tolerate even minor crimes; proponents argue that this will improve the quality of life of local residents. However, critics of zero tolerance policies believe that such policies neglect investigation on a case-by-case basis and may lead to unreasonably harsh penalties for crimes.
+
+== In healthcare ==

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+---
+title: "Quality of life"
+chunk: 3/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_of_life"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:03.583904+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Within the field of healthcare, quality of life is often regarded in terms of how a certain ailment affects a patient on an individual level. This may be a debilitating weakness that is not life-threatening; life-threatening illness that is not terminal; terminal illness; the predictable, natural decline in the health of an elder; an unforeseen mental/physical decline of a loved one; or chronic, end-stage disease processes. Researchers at the University of Toronto's Quality of Life Research Unit define quality of life as "The degree to which a person enjoys the important possibilities of his or her life". Their Quality of Life Model is based on the categories "being", "belonging", and "becoming"; respectively who one is, how one is connected to one's environment, and whether one achieves one's personal goals, hopes, and aspirations.
+Experience sampling studies show substantial between-person variability in within-person associations between somatic symptoms and quality of life. Hecht and Shiel measure quality of life as "the patient's ability to enjoy normal life activities" since life quality is strongly related to wellbeing without suffering from sickness and treatment.
+
+== In international development ==
+Quality of life has been deemed an important concept in the field of international development because it allows development to be analyzed on a measure that is generally accepted as more comprehensive than standard of living. Within development theory, however, there are varying ideas concerning what constitutes desirable change for a particular society. The different ways that quality of life is defined by institutions, therefore, shape how these organizations work for its improvement as a whole.
+Organisations such as the World Bank, for example, declare a goal of "working for a world free of poverty", with poverty defined as a lack of basic human needs, such as food, water, shelter, freedom, access to education, healthcare, or employment. In other words, poverty is defined as a low quality of life. Using this definition, the World Bank works towards improving quality of life through the stated goal of lowering poverty and helping people afford a better quality of life.
+Other organizations, however, may also work towards improved global quality of life using a slightly different definition and substantially different methods. Many NGOs do not focus at all on reducing poverty on a national or international scale, but rather attempt to improve the quality of life for individuals or communities. One example would be sponsorship programs that provide material aid for specific individuals. Although many organizations of this type may still talk about fighting poverty, the methods are significantly different.
+Improving quality of life involves action not only by NGOs but also by governments. Global health has the potential to achieve greater political presence if governments were to incorporate aspects of human security into foreign policy. Stressing individuals' basic rights to health, food, shelter, and freedom addresses prominent inter-sectoral problems negatively impacting today's society, and may lead to greater action and resources. Integration of global health concerns into foreign policy may be hampered by approaches that are shaped by the overarching roles of defense and diplomacy.
+
+== See also ==
+
+=== Indices ===
+
+=== Journals ===
+Journal of Business Ethics
+Social Indicators Research
+
+== References ==
+
+== Further reading ==
+Nussbaum, Martha; Sen, Amartya, eds. (2003). The Quality of Life. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191596704.
+
+== External links ==
+
+Ethical Markets Quality of Life Indicators; Archived 11 January 2022 at the Wayback Machine
+The First European Quality of Life Survey 2003; Archived 7 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine
+Quality of Life in a Changing Europe; Archived 3 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine, A research project on the quality of lives and work of European citizens
+Ensuring Quality of Life in Europe's Cities and Towns, European Environment Agency—2009 report
+AQoL Instruments, Quality of Life Assessment Instruments – Centre for Health Economics, Monash University Australia
+The Quality-of-Life-Recorder (Shareware/Freeware) – An electronic questionnaire platform for MS Windows and Java with preconfigured adoptions of numerous important Quality-of-Life instruments (including SF-36, EORTC QLQ-C30) in multiple languages
+After 2015: '3D Human Wellbeing', policy briefing on the value of refocusing development on 3D human wellbeing for pro-poor policy change, from the Institute of Development Studies, UK
+Mercer Quality of Living survey
+Basic Guide to the World: Quality of Life Throughout the World
+Family database, OECD
+Journals
+Applied Research in Quality of Life, the official journal of the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies
+Child Indicators Research, the official journal of the International Society for Child Indicators
+Quality of Life Research, an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care, and rehabilitation – official journal of the International Society of Quality of Life Research

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+---
+title: "Quality time"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_time"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:04.820148+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Quality time is a sociology expression referring to a proactive interaction between individuals, set aside for paying undivided attention, usually to express love or accomplish a shared goal.
+Sometimes abbreviated QT, it is an informal reference to time spent with close family, partners, or friends that is in some way important, special, productive or profitable to one or everyone involved. Having conversations, solving jigsaw puzzles, collaborating on projects, and conversing during road trips can be examples of quality time. It may also refer to the effective use of time in educational settings, or time spent alone performing a favorite activity (i.e., self-care).
+In his 1992 book, Baptist pastor and Relationship counselor Gary Chapman suggests that quality time is one of five "Love Languages" which are used (more or less, preferentially, by a given individual) to express love and gratitude for another.
+
+
+== History ==
+Its use as a noun expression ("quality time") began in the 1970s. One of the earliest records of this phrase in print was in the Annapolis newspaper The Capital, January 1973, in the article "How To Be Liberated":
+
+The major goal of each of these role changes is to give a woman time to herself, Ms. Burton explained. "A woman's right and responsibility is to be self fulfilling," she said. She gives "quality time" rather than "quantity time" to each task, whether it be writing, cleaning the house or tending the children.
+In the context of public schooling, the National Commission on Excellence in Education began to use the phrase circa 1983. "Quality time" was described in a 1983 letter by the principal of Hampton High School to U.S. Secretary of Education Terrell Bell. Principal Scholtz wrote, "Quality time will be enhanced by reducing that time spent by teachers on discipline and on administrative duties" and thereby "freeing teachers to do what they do best...teach".
+By 1985, the phrase was in common use in books about parenting and parenting styles. Examples include A Parents' Guide to Quality Time with Preschoolers (1984), The Quality Time Almanac: A Sourcebook of Ideas and Activities for Parents and Kids (1986),  and Parentips: Quality Time with Kids (1986).
+Gary Champan's 1992 book The Five Love Languages defined and popularized the phrase's contemporary usage. 
+Quality Time is also the title of a 1996 fiction (likely romance) novel by British author Norma Curtis.
+The Time Bind, a 1997 book, was mentioned in Newsweek's multi-page feature about "The Myth of Quality Time". The same issue of Newsweek had a full-page review of another 1997 book, Time for Life, which emphasizes that most people have a flawed "ability to separate faulty perception of time use from reality." Author Robinson's diary-based research shows that 15 hours per week of "free time" (the greatest category of time used) goes into TV viewing.
+
+
+== Examples ==
+
+
+== See also ==
+Dialogue
+Double burden
+Gemütlichkeit
+Kids' club
+Work–family balance in the United States
+Work–family conflict
+Work–life balance
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== External links ==
+The Idioms
+The Phrase Finder

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_relations-0.md

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+---
+title: "Race relations"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_relations"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:06.133399+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Race relations is a sociological concept that emerged in Chicago in connection with the work of sociologist Robert E. Park and the Chicago race riot of 1919. Race relations designates a paradigm or field in sociology and a legal concept in the United Kingdom. As a sociological field, race relations attempts to explain how racial groups relate to each other. These relations vary depending on historical, social, and cultural context. The term is used in a generic way to designate race related interactions, dynamics, and issues.
+In the 1960s, the prevailing understanding of race relations was underdeveloped and was acknowledged by sociologists for its failure to predict the anti-racist struggles. It was critiqued for being explicitly used to give an explanation of violence connected to race. The use of paradigm was criticized for overlooking the power differential between races, implying that the source of violence is disharmony rather than racist power structures. Race relations are divided into positive and negative. Positive or good race relations promote equality, empathy, and inclusivity, while negative race relations generate tension, conflict, and social divisions.
+Detractors of the term "race relations" have called it as a euphemism for white supremacy or racism. Opinion polls, such as Gallup polls, use the term "race relations" to group together various responses connected to race. University level sociology courses are often named "Race and Ethnic Relations".
+
+== In the United States ==
+Robert E. Park of the University of Chicago formulated a theory known as "race relations cycle," which is currently discredited. He believed race relations have a universal pattern: when races come into contact, at first they are hostile, but thaw over time. However, Park only conducted minimal studies related to it and did not examine its validity across ethnic groups to ensure its accuracy in representing reality.
+The cycle was postulated to be driven by subjective attitudes that members of races feel toward other races. The steps in Park's cycle were contact, competition, accommodation, and assimilation. Park's students tested his ideas by studying communities of Chinese and Japanese origin living in the United States and found that, contrary to Park's theory, adopting white culture did not lead to acceptance by white Americans. However, Park did not discard his theory in spite of the failures to verify it.
+In 1919, white residents of Chicago instigated the mass murder of black residents, an event known as the Chicago race riot of 1919. After this violent event, city authorities established the Chicago Commission on Race Relations. The commission was composed entirely of men, six African Americans and six European Americans.
+Sociologist Everett Hughes published a collection of Park's articles in 1950, seven years after Park's death. The beginnings of the civil rights movement in the 1950s caused interest in the study of race, and Park's work became a founding text in the emerging field named "race relations."
+Because race relations model imagined steady progress of whites, it failed to predict the radical upheavals of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Everett Hughes delivered an address at the American Sociological Association (of which he was president) titled Race Relations and the Sociological Imagination in which Hughes confessed the failure of prediction: "Why did social scientists — and sociologists in particular — not foresee the explosion of collective action of Negro Americans demanding immediate full integration into American society?" African American scholars had little more than token representation in this field. Race relations model was considered by them as a failure of white social science.
+The Kerner Report, commissioned by the US government in 1967 to study the causes of 1960s race riots, said that the Watts riots of 1965 "shocked all who had been confident that race relations were improving in the North." The report clarified that the major cause of the riots was white racism, and recommended job creation measures and police reform. President Lyndon B. Johnson discarded the report's recommendations.
+In the 1970s, some sociologists in America sought to replace the term race relations with racial oppression, because that was the better notion of what race meant in that period. For example, the 1972 book Racial Oppression in America by Bob Blauner challenged the race relations paradigm on negative effects, he explained that the source of the problem between races is not because of some naturally inherent racial animosity but is deeply rooted in the way societal systems are or the society is organized and structured.
+In 2020, the world witnessed the murder of George Floyd, an African American man, by Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, in a live-streamed video. This event triggered a significant shift in the US and around the world, leading to a new awareness and consciousness about race relations. The dominant culture started engaging in discussions about racial justice and anti-racist practices, as well as seeking ways to understand and address racial issues. The need to reduce negative race relations practices and promote racial justice became more apparent after the George Floyd incident. Efforts were reinforced to ensure equality, dismantle systemic racism, and address historical and present-day discrimination that affects marginalized racial and ethnic groups. To rectify the impacts of past and ongoing racial disparities, specific policies and practices like affirmative action gained importance. Affirmative action is not considered as a solution to negative race relations, but it is seen as one of the steps to counteract the effects of past discrimination and create a more level playing field where dominant racist social structures are present. This allows underrepresented groups to have access to the same opportunities, presence, and benefits as others. The goal is to correct the imbalances caused by historical discrimination, to interrupt the cycle of culturally reproduced discrimination, and foster greater inclusion and diversity in society.
+
+== In the United Kingdom ==
+The concept of race relations became institutionally significant in the United Kingdom through the establishment of the Department of Social Anthropology under the leadership of Kenneth Little at the University of Edinburgh.

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+---
+title: "Race relations"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_relations"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:06.133399+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Institutions ===
+The Institute of Race Relations was established in 1958. Its remit was to research, publish and collect resources on race relations across the world. However, in 1972, the membership of the institute supported the staff in the radical transformation of the organization: rather than being a policy-oriented academic institution  it became an anti-racist think tank.
+The Race Relations Board was created following the passing of the Race Relations Act 1965 as a body "to assess and resolve individual cases of discrimination." Its remit was originally restricted to places of public resort and regarding disposal of tenancies, but this was expanded with the passage of the Race Relations Act 1968.
+
+=== Legislation in the UK ===
+Race Relations Acts have been adopted in the United Kingdom to outlaw racial discrimination and to tackle institutional racism:
+
+Race Relations Act 1965
+Race Relations Act 1968
+Race Relations Act 1976
+The Equality Act 2010 superseded and consolidated previous discrimination law in the UK.
+
+== Criticism ==
+The concept of race relations has been criticized for implying a matched relationship between races. Stephen Steinberg of CUNY contends that the term "racial oppression" should be used in unevenly matched instances instead of negative race relation or simply "race relations":
+
+While the term "race relations" is meant to convey value neutrality, on closer examination it is riddled with value. Indeed, its rhetorical function is to obfuscate the true nature of "race relations", which is a system of racial domination and exploitation based on violence, resulting in the suppression and dehumanization of an entire people over centuries of American history.
+The term "race relations" describes more the relationship between two groups of people rather than the discrimination against them. Journalist Charles M. Blow observes that Americans who were polled on their "satisfaction with race relations" reported lower satisfaction after the rise of Black Lives Matter, an anti-racism movement. The term "race relations", according to Blow, "suggests a relationship that swings from harmony to disharmony". Objecting to racism creates awareness of disharmony, whereas silently submitting to racial oppression creates a false impression of harmonious race relations. Because of this counterintuitive result, Blow argues that the terms "race relations," "racial tension", and "racial division" are unhelpful euphemisms for what should properly be called white supremacy.
+
+== Reconciliation ==
+
+Reconciliation is a term used in truth and reconciliation commissions around the world, and used in various countries when referring to improving relations between their First Nations peoples and the rest of the population. Reconciliation in Australia has been part of Australian Government policy since 1991, and the term is also used in New Zealand, Canada, the United States (as in the Maine Wabanaki-State Truth and Reconciliation Commission), and in Europe.
+
+== See also ==
+Sociology of race and ethnic relations
+Anti-oppressive practice
+
+== References ==
+
+== Further reading ==
+Park, Robert Ezra (1950). Race and Culture. Free Press. OCLC 265130.
+Steinberg, Stephen (2007). Race Relations: a Critique. Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804763233.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_literacy-0.md

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+---
+title: "Racial literacy"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_literacy"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:07.322017+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Racial literacy is a concept developed by sociologist France Winddance Twine. She describes it as "a form of racial socialization and antiracist training that ... parents of African-descent children practiced in their efforts to defend their children against racism" in her research done in the United Kingdom with mixed-race families.
+She further describes it as "cultural strategies and practices designed and employed by parents to teach children of African and Caribbean heritage (1) detect, document, and name antiblack racist ideologies, semiotics, and practices; (2) provide discursive resources that counter racism; and (3) provide aesthetic and material resources (including art, toys, books, music) that valorize and strengthen their connections to the transatlantic culture of black people in Africa, the Caribbean and the United States".
+Twine's concept of racial literacy is to be distinguished from the term 'race literacy' as conceptualized by Lani Guinier, a professor of law and critical race scholar at Harvard University. The concept of racial literacy as conceptualized by Twine refers to a set of practices designed by parents and others to teach their children how to recognize, respond to and counter forms of everyday racism. The emphasis here is on teaching children as well as adults how to identify routine forms of racism and to develop strategies for countering it and coping with it.
+
+
+== References ==
+
+1999a. "Bearing Blackness in Britain: the meaning of racial difference for white birth mothers of African-descent children," in Social Identities: Journal of Race, Nation and Culture, Vol. 5, no.2 (1999): 185–210.
+1999b. "Transracial Mothering and Antiracism: The Case of White Birth Mothers of 'Black' Children in Britain." Feminist Studies 25, no. 3 (Fall): 729–46.
+2003. "Racial Literary in Britain: Antiracist Projects, Black Children and White Parents," in Contours: A Journal of the African Diaspora, Vol, 1, no. 2 (Fall 2003): 129–153.
+"A White Side of Black Britain: The Concept of Racial Literacy," in Ethnic and Racial Studies, (a special issue on racial hierarchy) vol. 27, no. 6 (November 2004): 1–30.
+Guiner, L. (2004). "From racial liberalism to racial literacy: Brown v. Board of Education and the interest-divergence dilemma," Journal of American History, 91(1), 92–118.
+
+
+== External links ==
+Advancing Racial Literacy in Tech, a project under Data & Society’s Fellowship Program

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_uplift-0.md

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+---
+title: "Racial uplift"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_uplift"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:08.493127+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Racial uplift is an ideology within the African-American community that describes a response of activists,   leaders, and spokespersons  to the racism found in the United States, particularly in the South during the post-Reconstruction era.
+
+
+== History ==
+This concept traced back to the late 1800s, introduced by black elites, such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, and African-American musicians like Florence Price, who were significant contributors. During the beginnings of racial uplift, hymns and negro spirituals played a vital role in shaping the spiritual culture of African Americans. Although these musical selections are mainly prevalent inside the black church, contemporary gospel music has been utilized for the liberation and uplift of the oppressed black race. 
+Aside from music, African-American leaders have used concepts such as Du Bois's double consciousness that describe the idea of blackness and the complexities of identity in the various lens in which the black race envisions themselves in American society.  Du Bois, in his influential 1903 book The Souls of Black Folk, echoed the earlier sentiments of Frederick Douglass, by rejecting the notion that the Negro problem was the responsibility or burden of African Americans. In the very first paragraph,  Du Bois established the theme of the book, asking "How does it feel to be a problem?"  He wrote:
+
+"... while it is a great truth to say that the Negro must strive and strive mightily to help himself, it is equally true that unless his striving be not simply seconded, but rather aroused and encouraged, by the initiative of the richer and wiser environing group, he cannot hope for great success. In his failure to realize and impress this last point, Mr. Washington is especially to be criticised. His doctrine has tended to make the whites, North and South, shift the burden of the Negro problem to      the Negro's shoulders and stand aside as critical and rather pessimistic spectators; when in fact the burden belongs to the nation, and the hands of none of us are clean if we bend not our energies to righting these great wrongs."
+Historian Kevin Gaines cites Du Bois as an example of a Black leader that utilized racial uplift ideology to combat the racism evidenced by the frequent use of the phrase "Negro problem" by whites.
+The talented tenth is a primary example of racial uplift for African Americans. Du Bois was one of the black elites that steered the talented tenth to become prevalent and of importance. Struggling to make racial uplift become relevant, he believed that the black leaders that were sent out to be representatives of their community did not always return to their communities.
+
+
+== Connection with eugenics ==
+Eugenics is seen throughout the time of racial uplift due to the control that was placed on people of African-American descent. Eugenics play a role in how racial uplift is viewed, which includes how people are made to think, look, and create community. Some African Americans, both then and now, are said to take on roles which are prevailing in other cultures, making them alter the way in which they choose to live their life. In W. E. B. Du Bois's book, The Souls of Black Folk, he discusses his view on how African Americans are perceived both to themselves and to the ones who are around them, with the term double consciousness. Du Bois himself is known as the father of sociology and pan-Africanism, the idea of all people from African descent becoming unified across the world.
+Other African-American authors such as Nathan Hare have written books which attest to eugenics not only being seen in the African-American community but also its promotion of liberation through racial uplift. In Nathan Hare's The Black Anglo-Saxons, he writes about how African Americans had begun to conform with other races and abandon their own cultural identity. Although they are now seen as a higher class, these individuals do not engage in racial uplift to guide other African Americans to where they are. Like many other Nathan Hare books, this book has caused African Americans to realize that not everyone who succeeds in life is willing to come back and give to their community. Nathan Hare himself has written many books which deal with the concept of racial uplift and how African Americans operate in a society where eugenics exist.
+
+
+== Beauty culture ==
+With racial uplift being seen as "self-help" for black people, other aspects focused on which African Americans were able to receive an education. The beauty culture played a role in who was sent out as a representative for the African-American community. In W. E. B. Du Bois's book The Souls of Black Folk, he discusses how hair type, color, and attitude determined who was capable of receiving an education and could return to help the black community with racial uplift. If the "wrong" individuals are sent out, then the community will be considered doomed due to that individual's incapability to perform at a certain level. Touching on eugenics, many African Americans were unaware of how the way they look, their mannerisms, and how they interact with those around them affected their capability to be well educated. With the color of a person's skin being the first physical feature people saw during this time, this led to rising colorism, a contradicting approach to racial uplift.
+
+
+=== Colorism ===
+Colorism, sometimes known as shadism, is when someone is treated differently due to the color of their skin by someone in their own race. People of light shades are said to be more favorable and according to W. E. B. Du Bois, these were the individuals that would have an easier time with receiving an education and passing that knowledge on to their communities. During this time, a test known as the "brown paper bag test" was used to assess the shade of an African American. This test was not only used to determine who could attend historically black colleges during the late 1800s and early 1900s, but also to be seen as a leader or relevant to their own kind.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Their Eyes Were Watching God
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radicalization-0.md

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+title: "Radicalization"
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+
+Radicalization (or radicalisation), also known as extremization (or extremisation), is the process by which an individual or a group comes to adopt increasingly radical views in opposition to a political, social, or religious status quo. The ideas of society at large shape the outcomes of radicalization. Radicalization can result in both violent and nonviolent action – academic literature focuses on radicalization into violent extremism (RVE) or radicalisation leading to acts of terrorism. Multiple separate pathways can promote the process of radicalization, which can be independent but are usually mutually  reinforcing.
+Radicalization that occurs across multiple reinforcing pathways greatly increases a group's resilience and lethality. Furthermore, by compromising a group's ability to blend in with non-radical society and to participate in a modern, national or international economy, radicalization serves as a kind of sociological trap that gives individuals no other place to go to satisfy their material and spiritual needs.
+
+== Definitions ==
+There is no universally accepted definition of radicalization. One of the difficulties with defining radicalization appears to be the importance of the context and political perspective to determine what is perceived as radicalization. A study found pinpointing the threshold for radicalization as difficult, except when involving illegal or violent behavior. Radicalization can mean different things to different people. Presented below is a list of definitions used by different governments.
+
+=== European Union ===
+The European Commission defined the term "radicalization" in the year 2005 as follows: "Violent radicalisation" is the phenomenon of people embracing opinions, views and ideas which could lead to acts of terrorism as defined in Article 1 of the Framework Decision on Combating Terrorism. The term "violent radicalisation" originated in EU policy circles and was coined after the Madrid bombing of 11 March 2004. It was not widely used in social science as a concept but it obviously refers to a process of socialisation leading to the use of violence. In an initiating report of the European Commission's Expert Group on Violent Radicalisation – based on four deepening studies – the research paradigm has been opened for further scientific research, also flanked by research grants and funding via different security research programs.
+
+=== United Kingdom ===
+The UK Home Office, MI5's parent agency, defines radicalisation as "The process by which people come to support terrorism and violent extremism and, in some cases, then join terrorist groups." The MI5 report closes by saying that no single measure will reduce radicalisation in the UK and that the only way to combat it is by targeting the at-risk vulnerable groups and trying to assimilate them into society. This may include helping young people find jobs, better integrating immigrant populations into the local culture, and effectively reintegrating ex-prisoners into society.
+
+=== Canada ===
+The Royal Canadian Mounted Police defines radicalization as "the process by which individuals—usually young people—are introduced to an overtly ideological message and belief system that encourages movement from moderate, mainstream beliefs towards extreme views." While radical thinking is by no means problematic in itself, it becomes a threat to national security when Canadian citizens or residents espouse or engage in violence or direct action as a means of promoting political, ideological or religious extremism. Sometimes referred to as "homegrown terrorism", this process of radicalization is more correctly referred to as domestic radicalization leading to terrorist violence.
+
+=== Denmark ===
+The Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) defines radicalization as "A process by which a person to an increasing extent accepts the use of undemocratic or violent means, including terrorism, in an attempt to reach a specific political/ideological objective."
+
+=== UNESCO ===
+In a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) research report on the impact of the Internet and social media on youth and violent extremism, the difficulty of defining radicalization is discussed. A distinction is drawn "between a process of radicalization, a process of violent radicalization (legitimizing the adoption of violence), and acts of violence." For the purposes of the UNESCO report, radicalization is defined by these three points:
+
+"The individual person's search for fundamental meaning, origin and return to a root ideology;
+"The individual as part of a group's adoption of a violent form of expansion of root ideologies and related oppositionist objectives;
+"The polarization of the social space and the collective construction of a threatened ideal 'us' against 'them,' where the others are dehumanized by a process of scapegoating."
+
+== Varieties and commonalities ==
+
+Despite being composed of multifarious pathways that lead to different outcomes and sometimes diametrically opposed ideological purposes, radicalization can be traced to a common set of pathways that translate real or perceived grievances into increasingly extreme ideas and readiness to participate in political action beyond the status quo. Shira Fishman, a researcher at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, wrote "Radicalization is a dynamic process that varies for each individual, but shares some underlying commonalities that can be explored." Though there are many end products of the process of radicalization, to include all manner of extremist groups both violent and nonviolent, a common series of dynamics have been consistently demonstrated in the course of academic inquiry. 
+
+=== Islamic ===
+
+Jihadis have a "tried and tested model" of contact with different vulnerable, and extremist individuals through online messaging services or social media platforms, and then rapidly manipulating them towards participating in violent action in their name. It was reported that Raffia Hayat of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association warned that jailed extremists attempt to recruit violent criminals into radical groups so they carry out attacks on the public once released. There have been several notable criticisms of radicalization theories for focusing disproportionately on Islam.
+ There have been concerns that converts to Islam are more susceptible to violent radicalization than individuals born into the faith. Dr. Abdul Haqq Baker developed the Convert's Cognitive Development Framework that describes how new converts conceptualize Islam and the stages where they are most vulnerable to radicalization.

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+title: "Radicalization"
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+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:09.809487+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Right-wing ===
+ 
+Radical right-wing terrorism is motivated by a variety of different right-wing/far-right ideologies, most prominently neo-fascism, neo-Nazism, white nationalism and to a lesser extent "Patriot"/Sovereign citizen beliefs and anti-abortion sentiment. Modern radical right-wing terrorism appeared in Western Europe, Central Europe and the United States in the 1970s, and Eastern Europe following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Groups associated with right-wing radicals include white power skinhead gangs, right-wing/far-right hooligans, and sympathizers.
+Examples of right-wing/far-right radical organizations and individuals include Aryan Nations, Aryan Republican Army (ARA), Atomwaffen Division (AWD), Army of God (AOG), Anders Behring Breivik, Alexandre Bissonnette, Brenton Harrison Tarrant, Cesar Sayoc, Cliven Bundy, Dylann Roof, David Koresh, David Lane, Eric Robert Rudolph, Frazier Glenn Miller, James Mason, James Alex Fields, John T. Earnest, Jim David Adkisson, Ku Klux Klan (KKK), National Action (NA), National Socialist Underground (NSU), Timothy McVeigh, Robert Bowers, Thomas Mair, The Order and Wade Michael Page. From 2008 to 2016, there were more right-wing terror attacks both attempted and accomplished in the US than Islamist and left-wing attacks combined.
+Right-wing populism by those who support ethnocentrism (usually white nationalism) and oppose immigration creates a climate of "us versus them" leading to radicalization. The growth of white nationalism in a political climate of polarization has provided an opportunity for both on- and offline radicalization and recruitment as an alternative to increasingly distrusted traditional mainstream choices. In 2009, the United States Department of Homeland Security identified economic and political conditions as leading to a rise in right-wing radicalization and recruitment.
+The Anti-Defamation League reports that white supremacist propaganda and recruitment efforts on and around college campuses have been increasing sharply, with 1,187 incidents in 2018 compared to 421 in 2017, far exceeding any previous year. Far-right terrorists rely on a variety of strategies such as leafleting, violent rituals, and house parties to recruit, targeting angry and marginalized youth looking for solutions to their problems. But their most effective recruitment tool is extremist music, which avoids monitoring by moderating parties such as parents and school authorities. Risk factors for recruitment include exposure to racism during childhood, dysfunctional families such as divorced parents, physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, neglect, and disillusionment.
+In 2018, researchers from the Data & Society think tank identified the YouTube recommendation system as promoting a range of political positions from mainstream libertarianism and conservatism to overt white nationalism. Many other online discussion groups and forums are used for online right-wing radicalization. Facebook was found to be offering advertisements targeted to 168,000 users in a white genocide conspiracy theory category, which they removed shortly after being contacted by journalists in the wake of the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. After the Christchurch mosque shootings on March 15, 2019, Facebook announced that they have banned white nationalist and white separatist content along with white supremacy.
+
+=== Left-wing ===
+Left-wing terrorism is terrorism committed with the aim of overthrowing current capitalist systems and replacing them with Marxist–Leninist or socialist societies. Left-wing terrorism can also occur within already socialist states as criminal action against the current ruling government. Most left-wing terrorist groups that had operated in the 1970s and 1980s disappeared by the mid-1990s. One exception was the Greek Revolutionary Organization 17 November (17N), which lasted until 2002. Since then, left-wing terrorism has been relatively minor in the Western world in comparison with other forms, and is now mostly carried out by insurgent groups in the developing world.
+According to Sarah Brockhoff, Tim Krieger and Daniel Meierrieks, while left-wing terrorism is ideologically motivated, nationalist-separatist terrorism is ethnically motivated. They argue that the revolutionary goal of left-wing terrorism is non-negotiable whereas nationalist terrorists are willing to make concessions. They suggest that rigidity of the demands of left-wing terrorists may explain their lack of support relative to nationalist groups. Nevertheless, many on the revolutionary left have shown solidarity for national liberation groups employing terrorism, such as Irish nationalists, the Palestine Liberation Organization and the South American Tupamaros, seeing them as engaged in a global struggle against capitalism. Since the nationalist sentiment is fueled by socio-economic conditions, some separatist movements, including the Basque ETA, the Provisional Irish Republican Army and the Irish National Liberation Army, incorporated communist and socialist ideology into their policies.

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+title: "Radicalization"
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+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Role of the Internet and social media ===
+UNESCO explored the role of the Internet and social media on the development of radicalization among youth in a 2017 research report, Youth and violent extremism on social media: mapping the research. The report explores violent extremism in the countries within Europe, North America, Latin America, and the Caribbean; violent radicalization in the Arab world and Africa; and, violent radicalization in Asia. At this time, more research is available on this issue within Europe, North America, Latin America, and the Caribbean than is available in the Arab world, Africa, and Asia. The report expresses a need for continued research on this topic overall as there are multiple types of radicalization (political, religious, psychosocial) that can be explored in relation to youth and the role the Internet and social media play. Some theorists like Pariser (2011) suggest that with the rise of personalisation on the web through filters and algorithms, consumers are increasingly becoming isolated in ‘filter bubbles’ which limit and determine what we are exposed to online, meaning that familiarity in information is favoured and personal beliefs are reinforced. However, research is mixed on whether polarisation and filter bubbles cause radicalization, with one key conclusion of the UNESCO report suggesting that “social media constitutes a facilitating environment rather than a driving force for violent radicalization or the actual commission of violence." 
+As stated before the authors of the 2017 UNESCO report repeatedly call for the support of more research into the study of online violent radicalization. Especially as it relates to young people and women as available research has been gendered. Online radicalization of women towards misandry has been found. Gaps in research also apply to specific areas of the world. There is a notable absence of research on this topic when it comes to the Arab world, Africa, and Asia. So much so, that the authors of this report had difficulty developing specific conclusions about the connections between the Internet and social media, radicalization, and youth in these three areas of the world. The authors see these multiple gaps in research as opportunities for future studies, but also admit that there are specific challenges in carrying out research in this area successfully. They discuss empirical, methodological, and ethical challenges. For example, if youth and the influence of the Internet and social media on radicalizing them are to be studied, there are ethical concerns when it comes to the age of the youth being studied as well as the privacy and safety of these youth. The authors conclude their report with general recommendations as well as recommendations for government entities, the private sector, and civil society.
+
+==== Algorithmic radicalization ====

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+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radicalization"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:09.809487+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Mutual aid ==
+Eli Berman's 2009 book Radical, Religious, and Violent: the New Economics of Terrorism applies a rational choice model to the process of radicalization, demonstrating that the presence of mutual aid networks increase the resilience of radical groups. When those groups decide to use violence, they also enjoy a heightened level of lethality and are protected from defection and other forms of intervention by states and outside groups. 
+All organizations insofar as they include the possibility of free riders by extension experience defection constraints. Within the context of a violent extremist organization, defection means either defection to a counterintelligence or security apparatus, or defection to a non-radical criminal apparatus. Both of these outcomes spoil specific plans to exercise violence in the name of the group at large. The "defection constraint" is similar to a threshold price-point in that it denotes what rewards would justify the defection of any one individual within the context of an organization. Berman uses the example of a Taliban protection racket for convoys of consumer goods moving through Afghanistan: checkpoints are set up at several points along a trade route, and each checkpoint's team is given a small percentage of the convoy's total value if it arrives safely at its destination. The incentive for any one checkpoint's team deciding to simply hijack a convoy as it passes through, sell the goods off, and escape, increases as the value of the convoy increases. The same dynamic applies to attacks; while an individual in a terrorist group may not feel drawn by the reward of alerting the police to an impending low level crime, the reward for alerting the police to an impending high-profile attack, such as a mass bombing, becomes more attractive. While non-radicalized and criminal organizations can only rely on organizational cohesion through a calculus of greed, fear, and perhaps familial loyalty, Berman argues that religious radicalization greatly increases the defection constraints of radical terrorist organizations by requiring outsized demonstrations of commitment to the cause prior to recruiting operatives.
+Mutual aid is the voluntary and reciprocal exchange of goods within an organization. Examples in various religious antecedents include Judaic Tzedakah, Islamic Zakat, and various Christian institutions of charity, as described in the Acts of the Apostles. Berman argues that religious organizations experience economic risks by extending mutual aid to all alleged believers—theological assent is cheap, action can be costly. By imposing a series of outwardly visible social rules, such as restrictions (or prescriptions) on dress, diet, language, and social interactions, groups impose a cost on entering into a mutual aid partnership, diminishing the occurrence of free riding.
+These restrictions have a dual effect in radical groups. Not only do they ensure that an individual is committed to the cause, but they also diminish individual's access to consumption opportunities and social interaction that might persuade them to distance themselves from the cause. As individuals become more involved with radical activities, their social circles become more constrained, which diminishes contact with non-radicalized persons and further entrenches radicalized thinking. For example, when a young man spends several years in a Yeshiva in order to establish himself within a Haredi community, he foregoes future earnings that would be accessible should he choose a secular education. To quote Berman "As consumption opportunities are limited, work for pay becomes less appealing, freeing up even more time for community activities." This sunk cost figures into future calculations, and raises the defection constraint in a way that non-radicalized group dynamics cannot. Going back to the Taliban convoy example, not only have the two footsoldiers in question have been vetted by demonstrating commitment to the cause, they also have had their exterior options limited such that it would be difficult to blend into a new environment for lack of skills and cultural understanding. As such, the threshold price point to defect, as represented by the value of the convoy, increases to include both the price of losing their existing support network and non-quantifiable factors such as friends, family, safety, and other goods over the course of their lives.
+
+== Leading theories ==
+While the overall arch of radicalization usually involves multiple reinforcing processes, scholars have identified a series of individual pathways to radicalization.
+
+=== McCauley and Mosalenko ===
+Clark McCauley and Sofia Mosalenko's 2009 book Friction: How Radicalization Happens to Them and Us identifies 12 following sociological and psychodynamic pathways:
+
+==== Individual-level factors ====
+
+===== Personal grievance =====
+This pathway emphasizes revenge for real or perceived harm inflicted upon oneself by an outside party. This initial offense triggers other psychodynamic mechanisms, such as thinking in more stark in-group and out-group terms, lowered inhibitions to violence, and lessened incentives to avoid violence. Chechen "Shahidka" also known as Black Widows, women who have lost husbands, children, or other close family members in conflict with Russian forces are a good example.

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+title: "Radicalization"
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+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:09.809487+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+===== Group grievance =====
+"Group grievance" radicalization dynamics are similar to those that are primed by personal grievances; the difference is that the subject perceives harm inflicted on a group that she belongs to or has sympathy for. This pathway accounts for the larger portion of political and ethnic radical violence, in which action is taken on behalf of the group at large rather than as an act of personal revenge. Radicalization out of sympathy for an outgroup is rarer, but can be observed in the Weather Underground's attempted alignment with the Black Panthers and Viet Cong. The tie between radicalization into violent extremism through group grievance and suicide bombing has also been quantifiably demonstrated: perceived threats to proximal identity such as the presence of foreign troops or invasion accounts for the majority of suicide bombings.
+Some commentators believe that the anger and suspicion directed toward innocent Muslims living in Western countries after the September 11 attacks and the indignities inflicted upon them by security forces and the general public contributes to radicalization of new recruits. Such "us vs. them" hostility cited by commentators includes political positions such as the Trump travel ban which Donald Trump initially campaigned for as "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States", or ironically Senator Ted Cruz's call to "patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized".
+
+===== Slippery slope =====
+The "Slippery slope" represents gradual radicalization through activities that incrementally narrow the individual's social circle, narrow their mindset, and in some cases desensitize them to violence. This has also been called the "True Believer" syndrome, as a product of which one becomes increasingly serious about their political, social, and religious beliefs as a product of "taking the next step". One can begin by participating in nonviolent activities such as mutual aid, wherein the best way to raise one's in-group social status is to demonstrate seriousness about the cause and increase the level of commitment in terms of beliefs and activities. As an individual commits act after act, sunk costs are developed. Even if activity is initially only ideological or only criminal, the process of radicalization equates the two such that criminal acts are justified for intellectually radical purposes, and radical purposes are invoked to justify what are ultimately criminal acts.
+
+===== Love =====
+Romantic and familial entanglement is often an overlooked factor in radicalization. Several violent extremist organizations, especially at their origin, owe their structure to a tight-knit group of friends who share religious, economic, social, and sexual bonds. While this example is evident in more extreme cases, such as those of Charles Manson's "Family" and other radical cults, it also applies to radicalization in secular and orthodox religious environments. Love can serve as a connection between influential figures, connecting their networks of followers through a combination of attraction and loyalty. This particular force was especially notable in New Left radical groups, such as the American Weather Underground and the German Red Army Faction. The connections between Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, or between Gudrun Ensslin and Andreas Baader served as the organizational and intellectual nucleus of these groups.
+
+===== Risk and status =====
+Within a radical group, high-risk behavior, if successful, offers a pathway to status insofar as it becomes re-construed as bravery and commitment to the cause. As such, violence or other radical activity provides a pathway to success, social acceptance, and physical rewards that might otherwise be out of reach.  Disproportionate involvement in risk taking and status seeking is particularly true of those young men who come from disadvantaged family backgrounds, have lower IQ levels, are of lower socioeconomic status, and who therefore have less opportunity to succeed in society along a traditional career path. These young men are more likely to be involved in gang activity, violent crime, and other high-risk behavior.
+James Pugel conducted a study in which Liberian ex-combatants indicated that their radicalization was motivated by the opportunity to increase their economic and social status within their community. There was a belief that radicalized individuals lived better than non-radicalized individuals. Specifically, extremists groups offered compensatory employment, which provided the means for basic needs to be met such as food and housing. In addition, radicalization provided protection and safety from local violence (i.e. abductions) for their entire family. Other researchers such as Alpaslan Ozerdem and Sukanya Podder contend that radicalization "can become the only route to survival, offering protection from torture, abuse, and politically instigated killing." Furthermore, individuals that do not join radical groups may be subjected to an indefinite "insufferable social burden that included demeaning names and labels".
+
+===== Unfreezing =====
+Loss of social connection can open an individual to new ideas and a new identity that may include political radicalization. Isolated from friends, family, or other basic needs, individuals may begin to associate with unlike parties, to include political, religious, or cultural radicals. This is especially noted in prison radicalization, where individuals bind together over racial, religious, and gang identity to a greater degree than in the outside world and often bring their newfound radical identity beyond prison to connect with radical organizations in the populace at large.
+
+==== Group-level factors ====
+Insofar as a group is a dynamic system with a common goal or set of values it is possible that the group's mindset as a whole can affect individuals such that those individuals become more radical. An ideologically aligned milieu can encourage or constrain radicalization.

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+title: "Radicalization"
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+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:09.809487+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+===== Polarization =====
+Discussion, interaction, and experience within a radical group can result in an aggregate increase in commitment to the cause, and in some cases can contribute to the formation of divergent conceptions of the group's purpose and preferred tactics. Within a radical group, internal dynamics can contribute to the formation of different factions as a result of internal disillusionment (or, conversely, ambitions) with the group's activities as a whole, especially when it comes to a choice between violent terrorism and nonviolent activism. The Weather Underground's split with Students for a Democratic Society is one of many examples. The dynamics of group polarization imply that members of this larger group must either commit to one faction and demonstrate their loyalty through further radicalization, or leave the group entirely.
+
+===== Isolation =====
+Isolation reinforces the influence of radical thinking by allowing serious and or persuasive members of the group to disproportionately define the body's agenda. When an individual only has access to one in-group social environment, that group gains a totalizing influence over the individual—disapproval would be tantamount to social death, personal isolation, and often a lack of access to the basic services that mutual aid communities fulfill. As an isolated minority, Islamic groups in the West are especially vulnerable to this form of radicalization. Being cut off from society at large through language barriers, cultural difference, and occasionally discriminatory treatment, Muslim communities become more vulnerable to additional pathways of radicalization.
+One such additional pathway of radicalization of individuals that feel isolated is the Internet. Utilizing data compiled by the Internet World Stats, Robin Thompson contends that the  rate of Middle East and North African Internet usage is "above average" in comparison to other countries, yet in countries where Internet availability is more widespread, individuals are "more likely to be recruited and radicalized via the Internet." Hence, the Internet, specifically social media sites such as extremists' chat rooms and blogs, "lures its users with a promise of friendship, acceptance, or a sense of purpose."
+
+===== Competition =====
+Groups can become radicalized vis-a-vis other groups as they compete for legitimacy and prestige with the general populace. This pathway emphasizes increased radicalization in an effort to outdo other groups, whether that increase is in violence, time spent in religious ritual, economic and physical hardship endured, or all four. Religious movements and the terrorist elements that form in their name display this characteristic.  While in some cases there may be doctrinal or ethnic differences that motivate this kind of competition, its greatest outward sign is an increased demand by the group for commitment to radical actions. 
+
+==== Mass radicalization ====
+
+===== Jiujitsu politics =====
+Also called "the logic of political violence", Jiujitsu politics is a form of asymmetrical political warfare in which radical groups act to provoke governments to crack down on the populace at large and produce domestic blowback that legitimates further violent action. The primary purpose of a radical group using this tactic is not to destroy the enemy outright, but to make the enemy strike at political and ideological moderates, such that the existing political order loses its claim on legitimacy while the radical group gains legitimacy. By destroying moderates, radical groups encourage a bifurcated society and use state's reactions to violence as a justification for further violence.
+Al-Qaeda's strategy of luring the West, specifically the United States, into ground wars in Islamic states that polarize the Ummah against the West while avoiding engagements that would allow the American military to draw on its technical superiority is an example of jiujitsu politics. David Kilcullen, Counterinsurgency advisor to David Petraeus during the Iraq Surge, has called this the "accidental guerrilla syndrome". This tactic is also pillar of Maoist insurgency and serves both the purposes of tactical and ideological advantage.
+
+===== Hatred =====
+In protracted conflicts the enemy is increasingly seen as less human, such that their common humanity does not readily trigger natural inhibitions against violence. This involves "essentializing" both the self and enemies as respectively good and evil entities. The Islamist use of Takfirism, or (apostasy), to justify the murder of non-radical Muslims and nonbelievers (kafir: "pagans") is an example of this. Hannah Arendt, in The Origins of Totalitarianism outlines a similar dynamic that contributed to the ideologies of pan-slavism, Nazism, and antisemitism, where an in-group constructs an exalted self identity for political purposes and mobilizes against out-groups in order to solidify that identity. This dynamic of hatred is not unique to rightist groups. The Weather Underground Organization and Red Army Faction often characterized police officers and government officials as "pigs" worthy of death and subhuman treatment.
+
+===== Martyrdom =====
+Martyrdom implies that the person in question died for a cause or is willing to die for a cause. The symbolic impact of martyrdom varies across cultures, but within the field of radicalization the act or pursuit of martyrdom denotes the absolute value of a radical's way of life.
+
+=== Barrett ===
+Robert Barrett is one of the leading researchers in field research with Nigerian terrorist groups. Barrett contributes a unique perspective to this type of research because his studies are conducted with current, not former, members of insurgent groups. Barrett's 2008 field research study revealed unique typologies and motivations for radicalization as reported by insurgent groups. For instance, individuals that were radicalized expressed sentiments of volunteerism, yet extremist recruiters conveyed that their objective was to make "coercion feel like volunteerism." Barrett asserted that the motivations to become radicalized can be characterized as: ideologue, combatant, criminals, pragmatist, soldier, and follower.
+
+==== Ideologues ====
+Ideologues uphold a belief that ethnic supremacy is necessary and violence was the means to achieve this truth. Ideologues maintain a "readiness to die for the ethnic group if necessary; survival and preservation of the group or community is more important than survival or preservation of oneself".
+
+==== Combatants ====
+Combatants' express concerns that their basic survival depends on joining extremist groups. Hence, combatants are not motivated by ideologies and their primary objective is self-preservation.

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+title: "Radicalization"
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+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:09.809487+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+==== Criminals ====
+Criminals are predominantly motivated by their "freedom to carry out activities that would otherwise be deemed illegal". As such, criminals thrive on instant self-gratification of engaging in violent acts against their enemies. Criminals thrive on conflict and in a sense believe their actions are heroic.
+
+==== Pragmatists ====
+Pragmatists are interested in the benefits of economic and social status mobility. Their goals are in "preserving the structures and environment conducive to either continued success or to newfound success" in wealth, land ownership, and/or mining rights.
+
+==== Soldiers ====
+Soldiers believe "injustice and insecurity" are mitigating factors for radicalization. Prominent feelings that they have a duty to fight against injustices. Soldiers are motivated by a sense that they can instrumentally affect positive change. Followers desire a sense of group dependence and attachment to overcome feelings of being an outsider. They are overwhelmingly concerned with social perception. "Ensuring one's acceptance and preserving or enhancing one's social status within the community was the most important factor promoting membership".
+
+== Misconceptions ==
+
+=== Poverty ===
+The association between radicalization and poverty is a myth. Many terrorists come from middle-class backgrounds and have university-level educations, particularly in the technical sciences and engineering. There is no statistical association between poverty and militant radicalization. As outlined above, poverty and disadvantage may incentivize joining a mutual aid organization with radical tendencies, but this does not mean that poverty proper is responsible for radicalization.
+
+=== Mental illness ===
+Though personal psychology does play a significant part in radicalization, mental illness is not a root cause of terrorism specifically or ideological radicalization broadly. Even in the case of suicide terrorism, psychological pathologies, such as depression and schizophrenia are largely absent. In the case of lone wolf terrorism rather than group terrorism, the case is less clear. Compared to the general population, lone wolf terrorists are significantly more likely to have been diagnosed with a mental illness, although it is not an accurate profiler. Studies have found that roughly a third of lone wolf terrorists have been diagnosed at some point in their life with a mental illness. This puts lone wolves as being 13.5 times more likely to suffer from a mental illness than a member of an organized terrorist group, such as al-Qaeda or ISIS.
+
+== Prevention and de-radicalization ==
+
+Deradicalization is the process of prevention and stigmatisation of utilizing violence. 
+
+== See also ==
+By any means necessary
+Clandestine cell system
+Cumulative radicalization
+Dehumanization
+Diversity of tactics
+Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United States
+Flanderization
+International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence
+Islamic extremism in the United States
+Martyrdom video
+Memory erasure
+Moderation theory
+Nonviolent extremism
+Online youth radicalization
+Radical politics
+Ten stages of genocide
+Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007
+
+== References ==
+
+== Sources ==
+ This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. Text taken from Youth and violent extremism on social media: mapping the research​, 1–167, Alava, Séraphin, Divina Frau-Meigs, and Ghayada Hassan, UNESCO. UNESCO Digital Library.
+
+== Further reading ==
+Alex P. Schmid, Radicalisation, De-Radicalisation, Counter-Radicalisation: A Conceptual Discussion and Literature Review (International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague, 2014) Archived 2019-12-07 at the Wayback Machine
+Bibi van Ginkel, Incitement to Terrorism: A Matter of Prevention or Repression? (International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague, 2011) Archived 2022-12-07 at the Wayback Machine
+Alava, Séraphin, Divina Frau-Meigs, Ghayda Hassan, Youth and Violent Extremism on Social Media: Mapping the Research (UNESCO Digital Library), 2017.
+Christmann, K. "Preventing Religious Radicalisation and Violent Extremism: A Systematic Review of the Research Evidence". Youth Justice Board, UK (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/396030/preventing-violent-extremism-systematic-review.pdf )

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+title: "Rational-legal authority"
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+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational-legal_authority"
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+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:11.013871+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Rational-legal authority, also known as rational authority, legal authority, rational domination, legal domination, or bureaucratic authority, is a form of leadership in which the authority of an organization or a ruling regime is largely tied to legal rationality, legal legitimacy and bureaucracy. The majority of the modern states of the 20th and 21st centuries are rational-legal authorities, according to those who use this form of classification. Scholars such as Max Weber and Charles Perrow characterized the rational-legal bureaucracy as the most efficient form of administration. Critics challenge whether rational-legal authority is as rational and unbiased as presented, as well as challenge that it is effective.
+
+== Rational-legal authority ==
+In sociology, the concept of rational-legal domination comes from Max Weber's tripartite classification of authority (one of several classifications of government used by sociologists); the other two forms being traditional authority and charismatic authority. All of those three domination types represent an example of his ideal type concept. Weber noted that in history those ideal types of domination are always found in combinations. In traditional authority, the legitimacy of the authority comes from tradition. Charismatic authority is legitimized by the personality and leadership qualities of the ruling individual. Finally, rational-legal authority derives its powers from the system of bureaucracy and legality.
+
+== Legal rationality and legitimate authority ==
+Under rational-legal authority, legitimacy is seen as coming from a legal order and the laws that have been enacted in it (see also natural law and legal positivism). Weber defined legal order as a system where the rules are enacted and obeyed as legitimate because they are in line with other laws on how they can be enacted and how they should be obeyed. Further, they are enforced by a government that monopolizes their enactment and the legitimate use of physical force. If society, as a whole, approves the exercise of the power in a certain way, then the power is considered "legitimate authority".
+
+== Max Weber's theory: type of authority ==
+Weber broke down legitimate authority into three different types of societies: traditional authority, rational-legal authority, and charismatic authority. Each of these authorities have their own unique complex societies that have evolved from simple definitions.
+
+=== Traditional authority: traditional grounds ===
+It is the type of power that has been around longer, and is traditionally rooted in beliefs and the practices of society. This authority is liked by many individuals for two main reasons: the inheritance of past generations and religiousness that the societies have.
+Traditional authority is based on a tradition or custom that is followed by the traditional leaders. In traditional authority, status is a key concept. There are no requirements to serving as a traditional leader but there are no salaries. The consequences to traditional authority are discouragement of education and rational calculation.
+Traditional authority consists of a dominant profile, one who embodies tradition and rule. This type of leadership exemplifies the power to construct order.
+
+=== Rational-legal authority: rational grounds ===
+Acquired from law and is constructed from the reliance of society's rules and laws. This type of authority has the confidence to leave the right of leaders to undertake the decisions and set the policy. Rational-legal authority is the basis of modern democracies. Examples of this type of authority: officials elected by voters, rules that are in the constitution, or policies that are written in a formal document.
+Rational-legal authority is built on a structure of bureaucracy. In a rational-legal authority one ascends in their career paths through promotion and they eventually retire. Some of the benefits of rational-legal authority are transportation, large-scale industry, mass communication and an income economy. Other outcomes of rational-legal authority are tendencies towards equal opportunity and a promotion of education.
+Rational-legal authority requires a logical and systematic approach to leadership. Weber's rational leadership prevails in decision making.
+Finally, rational-legal authority derives its power from the system of bureaucracy and legality.
+
+=== Charismatic authority: charismatic grounds ===
+Comes from individuals and their personal qualities. Certain individuals are influential to others with their unique qualities which help them gain followers. The span of a "charismatic" individual's power and authority can vary from a specific group to an entire society. Examples of charismatic leaders include: Joan of Arc, Adolf Hitler, Martin Luther King Jr, Jesus Christ.
+Charismatic authority has no clear structure; it is based on individual influence. One is chosen to be staff by their charismatic characteristics. Someone under a charismatic authority lives under gifts not salary. As long as someone has influence they will be a legitimate power.
+In charismatic authority, confidence is the driving force for leadership. With charismatic authority leadership has the ability to connect distinct groups and lead them to the finish line.
+
+== Emergence of the modern state ==
+Weber wrote that the modern state based on rational-legal authority emerged from the patrimonial and feudal struggle for power (see traditional authority) uniquely in the Occidental civilization. The prerequisites for the modern Western state are:
+
+Monopolization by central authority of the means of administration and control based on a centralized and stable system of taxation and use of physical force
+Monopolization of legislative
+Organization of an officialdom, dependent upon the central authority
+Weber argued that some of those attributes have existed in various time or places, but together they existed only in Occidental civilization. The conditions that favoured this were
+
+Emergence of rational-legal rationality (various status groups in the Occident promoted that emergence)
+Emergence of modern officialdom (bureaucracy), which required
+Development of the money economy, where officials are compensated in money instead of kind (usually land grants)
+Quantitative and qualitative expansion of administrative tasks
+Centralization and increased efficiency of administration.
+Weber's belief that rational-legal authority did not exist in Imperial China has been heavily criticized, and does not have many supporters in the early 21st century.
+
+== Modern state ==
+According to Weber, a modern state exists where a political community has:

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+title: "Rational-legal authority"
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+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational-legal_authority"
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+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:11.013871+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+An administrative and legal order that has been created and can be changed by legislation that also determines its role
+Binding authority over citizens and actions in its jurisdiction
+The right to legitimately use the physical force in its jurisdiction
+An important attribute of Weber's definition of a modern state was that it is a bureaucracy. The vast majority of the modern states from the 20th century onward fall under the rational-legal authority category.
+
+== Rational-legal leaders ==
+The majority of modern bureaucratic officials and political leaders represent this type of authority.
+Officials:
+
+Are personally free.
+Serve a higher authority.
+Are appointed on the basis of conduct and their technical qualifications.
+Are responsible for the impartial execution of assigned tasks.
+Their work is a full-time occupation.
+Their work is methodical and rational
+Their work is rewarded by a salary and prospects of career advancement.
+Politicians:
+
+Are solely responsible for independent action.
+Must recognize that public actions that conflict with their basic policy must be rejected.
+Should have charismatic appeal to win elections under conditions of universal suffrage.
+Weber provided ten necessities addressing: "how individual officials are appointed and work". The administrative staff are under the supreme authority for legal authority in a bureaucratic administrative style.
+
+They are personally free and subject to authority only with respect to their impersonal official obligation.
+They are organized in a clearly defined hierarchy of offices.
+Each office has a clearly defined sphere of competence in the legal sense.
+The office is filled by a free contractual relationship or free selection.
+Candidates are selected on the basis of technical qualification.
+They are remunerated by fixed salaries in money for the most part, with a right to pensions.
+The office is treated as the sole, or at least primary, occupation of incumbent.
+It constitutes a career. Promotions are dependent on the judgement of superiors.
+The official works entirely separated from ownership of the means of administration and without appropriation of his/her position.
+He is subject to strict and systematic discipline and control in the conduct of the office.
+
+== See also ==
+Power (social and political)
+
+== References ==
+
+== Further reading ==
+Gerald K. Harrison (2015). "Morality, Inescapable Rational Authority, and a God's Wishes". Journal of Religious Ethics. 43 (3): 454–474. doi:10.1111/jore.12105. Categorical reasons, Divine command theory, Inescapable rational authority, Meta-ethics, Rationalized Bonds of Office
+Perrow, Charles (1986). Complex organizations : a critical essay. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-07-554799-0. OCLC 12312230.
+
+== External links ==
+
+http://oyc.yale.edu/sociology/socy-151/lecture-20
+http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/sociology-comprehensive-edition/s17-01-power-and-authority.html
+http://opinion.inquirer.net/85293/max-webers-3-types-of-authority
+http://davidboje.com/horsesense/psl/pages/bureaucracydefined2.html
+http://atheism.about.com/od/religiousauthority/a/types_4.htm Archived 2017-01-16 at the Wayback Machine

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+---
+title: "Rationalization (sociology)"
+chunk: 1/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationalization_(sociology)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:12.172119+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+In sociology, the term rationalization was coined by Max Weber, a German sociologist, jurist, and economist. Rationalization (or rationalisation) is the replacement of traditions, values, and emotions as motivators for behavior in society with concepts based on rationality and reason. The term rational is seen in the context of people, their expressions, and or their actions. This term can be applied to people who can perform speech or in general any action, in addition to the views of rationality within people it can be seen in the perspective of something such as a worldview or perspective (idea). For example, the implementation of bureaucracies in government is a kind of rationalization, as is the construction of high-efficiency living spaces in architecture and urban planning. A potential reason as to why rationalization of a culture may take place in the modern era is the process of globalization. Countries are becoming increasingly interlinked, and with the rise of technology, it is easier for countries to influence each other through social networking, the media and politics. An example of rationalization in place would be the case of witch doctors in certain parts of Africa. Whilst many locals view them as an important part of their culture and traditions, development initiatives and aid workers have tried to rationalize the practice in order to educate the local people in modern medicine and practice.
+Many sociologists, critical theorists and contemporary philosophers have argued that rationalization, falsely assumed as progress, has had a negative and dehumanizing effect on society, moving modernity away from the central tenets of Enlightenment. The founders of sociology had critical reaction to rationalization:
+
+Marx and Engels associated the emergence of modern society above all with the development of capitalism; for Durkheim it was connected in particular with industrialization and the new social division of labour which this brought about; for Weber it had to do with the emergence of a distinctive way of thinking, the rational calculation which he associated with the Protestant Ethic (more or less what Marx and Engels speak of in terms of those 'icy waves of egotistical calculation').
+
+== Capitalism ==
+Rationalization formed a central concept in the foundation of classical sociology, particularly with respect to the emphasis the discipline placed – by contrast with anthropology – on the nature of modern Western societies. The term was presented by the profoundly influential German antipositivist Max Weber, though its themes bear parallel with the critiques of modernity set forth by a number of scholars. 
+
+Weber demonstrated rationalization in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, in which the aims of certain Protestant Theologies, particularly Calvinism, are shown to have shifted towards rational means of economic gain as a way of dealing with their 'salvation anxiety'. The rational consequences of this doctrine, he argued, soon grew incompatible with its religious roots, and so the latter were eventually discarded. Weber continues his investigation into this matter in later works, notably in his studies on bureaucracy and on the classifications of authority. In these works he alludes to an inevitable move towards rationalization.
+Weber believed that a move towards rational-legal authority was inevitable. In charismatic authority, the death of a leader effectively ends the power of that authority, and only through a rationalized and bureaucratic base can this authority be passed on. Traditional authorities in rationalized societies also tend to develop a rational-legal base to better ensure a stable accession. (See also: Tripartite classification of authority)
+
+What Weber depicted was not only the secularization of Western culture, but also and especially the development of modern societies from the viewpoint of rationalization. The new structures of society were marked by the differentiation of the two functionally intermeshing systems that had taken shape around the organizational cores of the capitalist enterprise and the bureaucratic state apparatus. Weber understood this process as the institutionalization of purposive-rational economic and administrative action. To the degree that everyday life was affected by this cultural and societal rationalization, traditional forms of life – which in the early modern period were differentiated primarily according to one's trade – were dissolved.
+Whereas in traditional societies such as feudalism governing is managed under the traditional leadership of, for example, a queen or tribal chief, modern societies operate under rational-legal systems. For example, democratic systems attempt to remedy qualitative concerns (such as racial discrimination) with rationalized, quantitative means (for example, civil rights legislation). Weber described the eventual effects of rationalization in his Economy and Society as leading to a "polar night of icy darkness", in which increasing rationalization of human life traps individuals in an "iron cage" (or "steel-hard casing") of rule-based, rational control.
+Jürgen Habermas has argued that understanding rationalization properly requires going beyond Weber's notion of rationalization. It requires distinguishing between instrumental rationality, which involves calculation and efficiency (in other words, reducing all relationships to those of means and ends), and communicative rationality, which involves expanding the scope of mutual understanding in communication, the ability to expand this understanding  through reflective discourse about communication, and making social and political life subject to this expanded understanding.

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+---
+title: "Rationalization (sociology)"
+chunk: 2/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationalization_(sociology)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:12.172119+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+It is clear that in The Theory of Communicative Action Weber is playing something like the role that Hegel played for Marx. Weber, for Habermas, must be not so much stood on his head (or put back the right way up) as persuaded to stand on two legs rather than one, to support his theory of modernity with more systematic and structural analyses than those of the (purposive-rational) rationalization of action ... Weber 'parts company with a theory of communicative action' when he defines action in terms of the actor attaching a subjective meaning to it. He does not elucidate "meaning" in connection with the model of speech; he does not relate it to the linguistic medium of possible understanding, but to the beliefs and intentions of an acting subject, taken to being with in isolation. This leads him to his familiar distinction between value-rational, purposive-rational, traditional and affectual action. What Weber should have done instead was to concentrate not on orientations of action but on the general structures of the lifeworld to which acting subjects belong.
+
+=== The Holocaust, modernity and ambivalence ===
+
+For Zygmunt Bauman, rationalization as a manifestation of modernity may be closely associated with the events of the Holocaust. In Modernity and Ambivalence, Bauman attempted to give an account of the different approaches modern society adopts toward the stranger. He argued that, on the one hand, in a consumer-oriented economy the strange and the unfamiliar is always enticing; in different styles of food, different fashions and in tourism it is possible to experience the allure of what is unfamiliar.
+Yet this strange-ness also has a more negative side. The stranger, because he cannot be controlled and ordered, is always the object of fear; he is the potential mugger, the person outside of society's borders who is constantly threatening. Bauman's most famous book, Modernity and the Holocaust, is an attempt to give a full account of the dangers of these kinds of fears. Drawing upon Hannah Arendt and Theodor W. Adorno's books on totalitarianism and the Enlightenment, Bauman argues that the Holocaust should not simply be considered to be an event in Jewish history, nor a regression to pre-modern barbarism. Rather, he says, the Holocaust should be seen as deeply connected to modernity and its order-making efforts. Procedural rationality, the division of labour into smaller and smaller tasks, the taxonomic categorization of different species, and the tendency to view rule-following as morally good all played their role in the Holocaust coming to pass.
+For this reason, Bauman argues that modern societies have not fully taken on board the lessons of the Holocaust; it is generally viewed – to use Bauman's metaphor – like a picture hanging on a wall, offering few lessons. In Bauman's analysis, the Jews became 'strangers' par excellence in Europe; the Final Solution was pictured by him as an extreme example of the attempts made by societies to excise the uncomfortable and indeterminate elements existing within them. Bauman, like the philosopher Giorgio Agamben, contended that the same processes of exclusion that were at work in the Holocaust could, and to an extent do, still come into play today.
+
+=== Adorno and Horkheimer's definition of "enlightenment" ===
+The term enlightenment is understood to describe the widest sense of thought advancement. When reaching a sense of enlightenment an individual will be liberated of their fears and will be installed within society as 'masters'. This term in the sense of rationalization is seen to refine levels of cogency with formal logic, creating discourse in the framework of being a rational being as it no longer poses the same importance, individuals will want to reach full enlightenment rather than use full rationality. In their analysis of contemporary western society, Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944, revised 1947), Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer developed a wide and pessimistic concept of enlightenment. In their analysis, enlightenment had its dark side: while trying to abolish superstition and myths by 'foundationalist' philosophy, it ignored its own 'mythical' basis. Its strivings towards totality and certainty led to an increasing instrumentalization of reason. In their view, the enlightenment itself should be enlightened and not posed as a 'myth-free' view of the world. For Marxist philosophy in general, rationalization is closely associated with the concept of "commodity fetishism", for the reason that not only are products designed to fulfill certain tasks, but employees are hired to fulfill specific tasks as well.
+
+== Consumption ==
+
+Modern food consumption typifies the process of rationalization. Where food preparation in traditional societies is more laborious and technically inefficient, modern society has strived towards speed and precision in its delivery. Fast-food restaurants, designed to maximise profit, have strived toward total efficiency since their conception, and continue to do so. A strict level of efficiency has been accomplished in several ways, including stricter control of its workers' actions, the replacement of more complicated systems with simpler, less time-consuming ones, simple numbered systems of value meals and the addition of drive-through windows.
+Rationalization is also observable in the replacement of more traditional stores, which may offer subjective advantages to consumers, such as what sociologists consider a less regulated, more natural environment, with modern stores offering the objective advantage of lower prices to consumers. The case of Walmart is one strong example demonstrating this transition. While Walmarts have attracted considerable criticism for effectively displacing more traditional stores, these subjective social-value concerns have held minimal effectiveness in limiting expansion of the enterprise, particularly in more rationalized nations, due to the preferences of the public for lower prices over the advantages sociologists claim for more traditional stores.
+The sociologist George Ritzer has used the term McDonaldization to refer, not just to the actions of the fast food restaurant, but to the general process of rationalization. Ritzer distinguishes four primary components of McDonaldization:

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+---
+title: "Rationalization (sociology)"
+chunk: 3/3
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+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:12.172119+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Efficiency – the optimal method for accomplishing a task; the fastest method to get from point A to point B. Efficiency in McDonaldization means that every aspect of the organization is geared toward the minimization of time.
+Calculability – goals are quantifiable (i.e., sales, money) rather than subjective (i.e., taste, labour). McDonaldization developed the notion that quantity equals quality, and that a large amount of product delivered to the customer in a short amount of time is the same as a high quality product. "They run their organization in such a way that a person can walk into any McDonald's and receive the same sandwiches prepared in precisely the same way. This results in a highly rational system that specifies every action and leaves nothing to chance".
+Predictability – standardized and uniform services.  "Predictability" means that no matter where a person goes, they will receive the same service and receive the same product at every interaction with the corporation. This also applies to the workers in those organizations; their tasks are highly repetitive and predictable routines.
+Control – standardized and uniform employees, replacement of human by non-human technologies.
+
+== Further objects of rationalization ==
+One rational tendency is towards increasing the efficiency and output of the human body. Several means can be employed in reaching this end, including trends towards regular exercise, dieting, increased hygiene, drugs, and an emphasis on optimal nutrition. As well as increasing lifespans, these allow for stronger, leaner, more optimized bodies for quickly performing tasks.
+
+== See also ==
+
+Conformity – Matching opinions and behaviors to group norms
+Consumerism – Acquisition of goods beyond essential needs
+Disenchantment – Cultural rationalization and devaluation of religion
+Justice#Fairness – Concept of moral fairness and administration of the law
+Just-world fallacy – Idea that everyone faces consequence as they deserve
+Knowledge economy – Approach to generating value
+Legitimating ideology
+Might makes right – View that morality is, or ought to be, determined by those in power
+Postmodernity – Societal state after modernity
+Reductionism – Philosophical view explaining systems in terms of smaller parts
+Urbanization – Process of population movement to cities
+McDonaldization – Sociological concept
+
+== References ==
+
+== Further reading ==
+
+Adorno, Theodor. Negative Dialectics. Translated by E.B. Ashton, London: Routledge, 1973
+Bauman, Zygmunt. Modernity and The Holocaust. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press 1989. ISBN 0-8014-2397-X
+Green, Robert W. (ed.). Protestantism, Capitalism, and Social Science. Lexington, MA: Heath, 1973.
+"McDonaldzation principles",  Macionis, J., and Gerber, L. (2010). Sociology, 7th edition

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactive_ethnicity-0.md

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+---
+title: "Reactive ethnicity"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactive_ethnicity"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:13.800830+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Reactive ethnicity is the phenomenon where actions intended to limit or ban a practice cause people to continue the practice in protest. Jeffery Reitz has used this term to explain why the French restrictions on traditional Islamic veils are provoking even unveiled Muslim women to wear Islamic veils.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Backfire effect
+Civil disobedience
+Identity politics
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== External links ==
+Reactive Ethnicity and Anticipated Discrimination among American Muslims in Southeastern Michigan
+"Reactive Ethnicity" or "Assimilation"?
+
+
+== Further reading ==
+Rumbaut, Rubén G. (April 11, 2008). "Reaping What You Sow: Immigration, Youth, and Reactive Ethnicity". Applied Developmental Science. 12 (2): 108–111. doi:10.1080/10888690801997341. ISSN 1088-8691. S2CID 144390794.
+Diehl, Claudia; Schnell, Rainer (December 1, 2006). ""Reactive Ethnicity" or "Assimilation"? Statements, Arguments, and First Empirical Evidence for Labor Migrants in Germany". International Migration Review. 40 (4): 786–816. doi:10.1111/j.1747-7379.2006.00044.x. ISSN 0197-9183. S2CID 9046538.
+Çelik, Çetin (July 15, 2015). "'Having a German passport will not make me German': reactive ethnicity and oppositional identity among disadvantaged male Turkish second-generation youth in Germany". Ethnic and Racial Studies. 38 (9): 1646–1662. doi:10.1080/01419870.2015.1018298. ISSN 0141-9870. S2CID 144301973.
+Herda, Daniel (July 3, 2018). "Reactive Ethnicity and Anticipated Discrimination among American Muslims in Southeastern Michigan". Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. 38 (3): 372–391. doi:10.1080/13602004.2018.1524136. ISSN 1360-2004. S2CID 150306874.
+Jiang, Qiaolei; Rajiv, George; Chib, Arul (January 1, 2015). "Silent but Brewing: Reactive Ethnicity and Interculturality among Chinese Students in Singapore". Journal of Intercultural Communication.
+Weilenmann, Markus (January 1, 2000). "Reactive ethnicity: some thoughts on political psychology based on the developments in Burundi, Rwanda and South-Kivu". Journal of Psychology in Africa. 10 (1): 01–25. ISSN 1433-0237.
+Portes, Alejandro, and Bryan Lagae. "Immigration, social change, and reactive ethnicity in the second generation." US Latinization: Education and the New Latino South (2017): 251–271. ISBN 9781438464992.
+St-Hilaire, Aonghas (January 1, 2001). "Ethnicity, assimilation and nation in plural Suriname". Ethnic and Racial Studies. 24 (6): 998–1019. doi:10.1080/01419870120077940. ISSN 0141-9870. PMID 19177691. S2CID 35306759.
+Heath, Anthony (January 2, 2014). "Introduction: Patterns of generational change: convergent, reactive or emergent?". Ethnic and Racial Studies. 37 (1): 1–9. doi:10.1080/01419870.2014.844845. ISSN 0141-9870. S2CID 144713423.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_distortion_field-0.md

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+title: "Reality distortion field"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_distortion_field"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:14.993219+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Reality distortion field (RDF) is a term first used by Bud Tribble at Apple Computer in 1981, to describe company co-founder Steve Jobs's charisma and its effects on the developers working on the Macintosh project. Tribble said that the term came from Star Trek, where it is used to describe how the aliens encountered by the crew of the starship USS Enterprise created their own new world through mental force. 
+
+
+== Steve Jobs ==
+In the book Steve Jobs, biographer Walter Isaacson states that around 1972, while Jobs was attending Reed College, Robert Friedland "taught Steve the reality distortion field." The RDF was said by Andy Hertzfeld to be Jobs's ability to convince himself, and others around him, to believe almost anything with a mix of charm, charisma, bravado, hyperbole, marketing, appeasement and persistence. It was said to distort his co-workers' sense of proportion and scales of difficulties and to make them believe that whatever impossible task he had at hand was possible. Jobs could also use the reality distortion field to appropriate others' ideas as his own, sometimes proposing an idea back to its originator, only a week after dismissing it.
+The term has been used to refer to Jobs's keynote speeches (or "Stevenotes") by observers and devoted users of Apple computers and products, and derisively by Apple's competitors in criticisms of Apple, for example a post on Research In Motion's official BlackBerry blog titled "RIM Responds to Apple's 'Distortion Field'".
+Bill Gates talked in an interview about Steve Jobs using his reality distortion field to "cast spells" on people. Gates considered himself immune to Jobs's reality distortion field, saying, "I was like a minor wizard because he would be casting spells, and I would see people mesmerized, but because I'm a minor wizard, the spells don't work on me."
+
+
+== Other instances ==
+The term has been extended, with a mixture of awe and scorn, to other managers and leaders in industry who try to convince their employees to become passionately committed to projects without regard to their overall difficulty or to competitive forces in the market. It is sometimes used with regard to excessively hyped products that are not necessarily connected with any one person.
+
+Bill Clinton's charisma has been called a reality distortion field.
+The "Jedi Mind Trick" in Star Wars: A New Hope is almost identical to the operation of the RDF
+The chess champion Bobby Fischer was said to have a "Fischer aura" surrounding him that disoriented Boris Spassky and other opponents.
+The term has been also associated with Donald Trump's approach to running his 2016 campaign for United States President and his presidency.
+Financial Times used the term when describing Elon Musk.
+WeWork founder Adam Neumann has been described as having a reality distortion field.
+A parody of a reality distortion field appeared in a 2010 Dilbert strip in which a reality distortion field emitter is used during a keynote speech by Dogbert.
+Columnist Yen Makabenta of The Manila Times opined that Rodrigo Duterte's rise to prominence and appeal to the masses—in spite of allegations of human rights violations and Duterte's obscene remarks towards individuals and organizations such as the Roman Catholic Church, which the Philippines has a significant population of adherents—have generated a reality distortion field. He added that while Duterte's vulgar and sexually charged comments during his presidential campaign have alarmed many and were initially seen as detrimental to his victory as a presidential candidate, he exhibited charisma which accounted for why people still campaigned for him in spite of this behavior.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Brainwashing
+Charismatic authority
+Gaslighting
+Locus of control
+Magical thinking
+Suggestibility
+Suspension of disbelief
+
+
+== Notes ==
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recognition_(sociology)-0.md

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+---
+title: "Recognition (sociology)"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recognition_(sociology)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:16.162351+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Recognition is the public acknowledgment of a person's social status or merits (achievements, virtues, service, etc.).
+Another example is when some person is accorded some special status, such as title or classification.
+
+
+== In politics ==
+According to philosopher Charles Taylor, recognition of one's identity is both a fundamental need and a right, and non- or misrecognition is a form of oppression.
+
+
+== In psychology ==
+In the workplace, recognition has been suggested to increase employee engagement, continuous improvement behaviour, trust in the organization, intention to stay, and satisfaction with management. Others, like Alfie Kohn in Punished by Rewards, point out the dangers of using praise to show recognition, since it may induce compliance in the short-term, but negatively impact quality in the workplace long-term.
+In psychology, excessively seeking for recognition is regarded as one of the defining traits of a  narcissistic personality disorder.
+
+
+== Recognition justice ==
+
+
+== See also ==
+
+Respect
+Posthumous recognition
+Name recognition
+Donor recognition wall
+Glory (honor)
+Axel Honneth
+Michel Seymour
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recuperation_(politics)-0.md

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+---
+title: "Recuperation (politics)"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recuperation_(politics)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:17.360492+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+In the sociological sense, recuperation is the process by which politically radical ideas and images are twisted, co-opted, absorbed, defused, incorporated, annexed or commodified within media culture and bourgeois society, and thus become interpreted through a neutralized, innocuous or more socially conventional perspective. More broadly, it may refer to the cultural appropriation of any subversive symbols or ideas by mainstream culture.
+The concept of recuperation was formulated by members of the Situationist International, its first published instance in 1960. The term conveys a negative connotation because recuperation generally bears the intentional consequence (whether perceived or not) of fundamentally altering the meaning behind radical ideas due to their appropriation or being co-opted into the dominant discourse. It was originally conceived as the opposite of their concept of détournement, in which images and other cultural artifacts are appropriated from mainstream sources and repurposed with radical intentions.
+
+
+== Examples ==
+Some former means of countercultural expression that have been identified by critics as recuperated (at least in part) are punk music and fashion like mohawk hairdos, ripped jeans, and bondage accessories like dog collars; tattoos; street art and participatory art.
+Environmental justice proponents who center social movements and resistance in the transformation to environmental sustainability see the language of transitions to sustainability being recuperated by those seeking to delay and manage the transition.
+Pointing to "the erosion of publicly owned media" and capitalist realism, Aaron Bastani wrote of the "recuperation of the internet by capital" and says that the consequences of this persistent corporate media recuperation included a reinforcement of status quo, repression of dissent and artistic expression.
+Social justice advocates have identified the popular discourse of The New Jim Crow as recuperative, saying that it obscures an analysis of mass incarceration in the United States by adhering to a counterrevolutionary contextual framework.
+The popular conception of Martin Luther King Jr. has also been recuperated, with his democratic socialist ideas such as wealth redistribution and guaranteed jobs being largely scrubbed from America's cultural memory.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Avant-garde
+Censorship
+Controversy
+Embrace, extend and extinguish
+Fourth branch of government
+Harold Rosenberg
+Obliteration by incorporation
+Unitary urbanism
+
+
+== Notes ==
+
+
+== Further reading ==
+Marcus, Greil (1989).  Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century.
+
+
+== External links ==
+Essay on the topic

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referent_power-0.md

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+---
+title: "Referent power"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referent_power"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:18.578362+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Referent power is a form of reverence gained by a leader who has strong interpersonal relationship skills. Referent power, as an aspect of personal power, becomes particularly important as organizational leadership becomes increasingly about collaboration and influence and less about command and control.
+In an organizational setting, referent power is most easily seen in the charismatic leader who excels in making others feel comfortable in his or her presence. Staff typically express their excitement about work in terms of their attraction to their leader's personal characteristics and charisma. They commit to their work because of the leader's likability, and they base their self-esteem and sense of accomplishment on their leader's approval.
+Referent power may be defined as 'the ability of a leader to influence a follower due to the follower's admiration, respect, or identification with the leader'. It has been suggested  that the term referent power may reflect a misspelling, with a more appropriate label being reverent power. The Cambridge English Dictionary defines reverent as "showing great respect and admiration", whereas "referent" is typically defined as "the thing that a symbol stands for, or refers to". Bertram Raven states that "Referent power stems from the target identifying with the agent, or seeing the agent as a model that the target would want to emulate".
+
+
+== See also ==
+Power (social and political)
+French and Raven's bases of power
+Information power 
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== Further reading ==
+French, J., & Raven, B. The bases of social power. Studies in social power (1959).
+Taylor, Peplau, & Sears (2006). Social Psychology (12th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN 0-13-193281-0
+Joseph C. Thomas. "Leadership Effectiveness of Referent Power as a Distinction of Personal Power", Regent University Center for Leadership Studies, LEAD605 Foundations of Effective Leadership, 18-Feb-2002

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflexive_modernization-0.md

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+---
+title: "Reflexive modernization"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflexive_modernization"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:51:19.787453+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The concept of reflexive modernization or reflexive modernity was launched by a joint effort of three of the leading European sociologists: Anthony Giddens, Ulrich Beck and Scott Lash. The introduction of this concept served a double purpose: to reassess sociology as a science of the present (moving beyond the early-20th-century conceptual framework), and to provide a counterbalance to the postmodernist paradigm offering a re-constructive view alongside deconstruction.
+The concept built upon previous notions such as post-industrial society (Daniel Bell) and postmaterial society, but stresses how in reflexive modernization, modernity directs its attention to the process of modernization itself.
+
+
+== Completion of modernity ==
+The main thesis deals with the changes brought on by the realization of modernity's ideals, such as universal suffrage and education, the welfare state, civil and political rights, changes that marked the shift to the second modernity. The authors consider it a reflexive modernity because it opposes its earlier version, in the same way as the first modernity opposed feudal traditionalism. As a consequence, the institutions of the first modernity are beginning to crumble in the face of economic and cultural globalization. The state is starting to lose its importance with the rise of transnational forces (corporations, NGOs), the family is splitting apart with rising divorce rates favoured by the flexibility of work and the women's liberation, losing its supportive function in the process, religion is reduced to a cultural artifact, traditional political action is boycotted because of a lack of identification with the parties' goals. Therefore all previous sources of solidarity lose momentum with the rise of individualization.
+
+
+== Consequences ==
+Ulrich Beck focuses on the dissolution of traditional institutions and the rise of transnational forces, while promoting a new type solidarity in the face of the human made dangers of the risk society, exacerbated by the inherent limits being discovered to all forms of social knowing. Anthony Giddens proposes a third way of social policies aimed at tackling the new challenges to identity and life choices created by the biographical risks and uncertainties of reflexive modernity. Zygmunt Bauman talks about the social effects of globalization, as it seems to create new divisions between the people connected to the global flux of information (the "tourists") and those excluded from them, not needed as workforce anymore (the "bums").
+Ronald Inglehart studies the shift of human values from material to post-material in the Western societies by analysing the World Values Survey databases; and Pippa Norris stresses the importance of cultural globalization over economical globalization, while also talking about the new divisions, such as the digital divide.
+
+
+== Characteristics ==
+
+Reflexive modernization is a process of modernization that is characteristic of risk society whereby progress is achieved through reorganization and "reform". Science and technology as it is used for the purpose of reflexive modernization is less concerned with expanding the resource base, but rather with re-evaluating that which is already being used by society. There is a constant flow of information between science and industry, and progress is achieved through the resulting reforms, optimizations and adaptations. Examples of reflexive modernization that have recently gained political momentum are sustainability and the precautionary principle. The new social movements (feminist, green, and pirate parties) are also considered to be an expression of reflexive modernization.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Jean Baudrillard
+Ecological modernization
+Liquid modernity
+Jean-François Lyotard
+Post-structuralism
+Unintended consequences
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+=== Footnotes ===
+
+
+=== Bibliography ===
+
+
+== Further reading ==

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+title: "Reflexivity (social theory)"
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+
+In epistemology, and more specifically, the sociology of knowledge, reflexivity refers to circular relationships between cause and effect, especially as embedded in human belief structures. A reflexive relationship is multi-directional when the causes and the effects affect the reflexive agent in a layered or complex sociological relationship. The complexity of this relationship can be furthered when epistemology includes religion.
+Within sociology more broadly—the field of origin—reflexivity means an act of self-reference where existence engenders examination, by which the thinking action "bends back on", refers to, and affects the entity instigating the action or examination. It commonly refers to the capacity of an agent to recognise forces of socialisation and alter their place in the social structure. A low level of reflexivity would result in individuals shaped largely by their environment (or "society"). A high level of social reflexivity would be defined by individuals shaping their own norms, tastes, politics, desires, and so on. This is similar to the notion of autonomy. (See also structure and agency and social mobility.)
+Within economics, reflexivity refers to the self-reinforcing effect of market sentiment, whereby rising prices attract buyers whose actions drive prices higher still until the process becomes unsustainable.  This is an instance of a positive feedback loop. The same process can operate in reverse leading to a catastrophic collapse in prices.
+
+== Overview ==
+In social theory, reflexivity may occur when theories in a discipline should apply equally to the discipline itself; for example, in the case that the theories of knowledge construction in the field of sociology of scientific knowledge should apply equally to knowledge construction by sociology of scientific knowledge practitioners, or when the subject matter of a discipline should apply equally to the individual practitioners of that discipline (e.g., when psychological theory should explain the psychological processes of psychologists). More broadly, reflexivity is considered to occur when the observations of observers in the social system affect the very situations they are observing, or when theory being formulated is disseminated to and affects the behaviour of the individuals or systems the theory is meant to be objectively modelling. Thus, for example, an anthropologist living in an isolated village may affect the village and the behaviour of its citizens under study. The observations are not independent of the participation of the observer.
+Reflexivity is, therefore, a methodological issue in the social sciences analogous to the observer effect. Within that part of recent sociology of science that has been called the strong programme, reflexivity is suggested as a methodological norm or principle, meaning that a full theoretical account of the social construction of, say, scientific, religious or ethical knowledge systems, should itself be explainable by the same principles and methods as used for accounting for these other knowledge systems. This points to a general feature of naturalised epistemologies, that such theories of knowledge allow for specific fields of research to elucidate other fields as part of an overall self-reflective process: any particular field of research occupied with aspects of knowledge processes in general (e.g., history of science, cognitive science, sociology of science, psychology of perception, semiotics, logic, neuroscience) may reflexively study other such fields yielding to an overall improved reflection on the conditions for creating knowledge.
+Reflexivity includes both a subjective process of self-consciousness inquiry and the study of social behaviour with reference to theories about social relationships.

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+---
+
+== History ==
+The principle of reflexivity was perhaps first enunciated by the sociologists William I. Thomas and Dorothy Swaine Thomas, in their 1928 book The child in America: "If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences". The theory was later termed the "Thomas theorem".
+Sociologist Robert K. Merton (1948, 1949) built on the Thomas principle to define the notion of a self-fulfilling prophecy: that once a prediction or prophecy is made, actors may accommodate their behaviours and actions so that a statement that would have been false becomes true or, conversely, a statement that would have been true becomes false - as a consequence of the prediction or prophecy being made. The prophecy has a constitutive impact on the outcome or result, changing the outcome from what would otherwise have happened.
+Reflexivity was taken up as an issue in science in general by Karl Popper (1957), who in his book The Poverty of Historicism highlighted the influence of a prediction upon the event predicted, calling this the 'Oedipus effect' in reference to the Greek tale in which the sequence of events fulfilling the Oracle's prophecy is greatly influenced by the prophecy itself. Popper initially considered such self-fulfilling prophecy a distinguishing feature of social science, but later came to see that in the natural sciences, particularly biology and even molecular biology, something equivalent to expectation comes into play and can act to bring about that which has been expected. It was also taken up by Ernest Nagel (1961). Reflexivity presents a problem for science because if a prediction can lead to changes in the system that the prediction is made in relation to, it becomes difficult to assess scientific hypotheses by comparing the predictions they entail with the events that actually occur. The problem is even more difficult in the social sciences.
+Reflexivity has been taken up as the issue of "reflexive prediction" in economic science by Grunberg and Modigliani (1954) and Herbert A. Simon (1954), has been debated as a major issue in relation to the Lucas critique, and has been raised as a methodological issue in economic science arising from the issue of reflexivity in the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) literature.
+Reflexivity has emerged as both an issue and a solution in modern approaches to the problem of structure and agency, for example in the work of Anthony Giddens in his structuration theory and Pierre Bourdieu in his genetic structuralism.
+Giddens, for example, noted that constitutive reflexivity is possible in any social system, and that this presents a distinct methodological problem for the social sciences. Giddens accentuated this theme with his notion of "reflexive modernity" – the argument that, over time, society is becoming increasingly more self-aware, reflective, and hence reflexive.
+Bourdieu argued that the social scientist is inherently laden with biases, and only by becoming reflexively aware of those biases can the social scientists free themselves from them and aspire to the practice of an objective science. For Bourdieu, therefore, reflexivity is part of the solution, not the problem.
+Michel Foucault's The order of things can be said to touch on the issue of Reflexivity. Foucault examines the history of Western thought since the Renaissance and argues that each historical epoch (he identifies three and proposes a fourth) has an episteme, or "a historical a priori", that structures and organises knowledge. Foucault argues that the concept of man emerged in the early 19th century, what he calls the "Age of Man", with the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. He finishes the book by posing the problem of the age of man and our pursuit of knowledge- where "man is both knowing subject and the object of his own study"; thus, Foucault argues that the social sciences, far from being objective, produce truth in their own mutually exclusive discourses.

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+
+== In economics ==
+Economic philosopher George Soros, influenced by ideas put forward by his tutor, Karl Popper (1957), has been an active promoter of the relevance of reflexivity to economics, first propounding it publicly in his 1987 book The alchemy of finance.  He regards his insights into market behaviour from applying the principle as a major factor in the success of his financial career.
+Reflexivity is inconsistent with general equilibrium theory, which stipulates that markets move towards equilibrium and that non-equilibrium fluctuations are merely random noise that will soon be corrected. In equilibrium theory, prices in the long run at equilibrium reflect the underlying economic fundamentals, which are unaffected by prices. Reflexivity asserts that prices do in fact influence the fundamentals and that these newly influenced sets of fundamentals then proceed to change expectations, thus influencing prices; the process continues in a self-reinforcing pattern. Because the pattern is self-reinforcing, markets tend towards disequilibrium.  Sooner or later they reach a point where the sentiment is reversed and negative expectations become self-reinforcing in the downward direction, thereby explaining the familiar pattern of boom and bust cycles.  An example Soros cites is the procyclical nature of lending, that is, the willingness of banks to ease lending standards for real estate loans when prices are rising, then raising standards when real estate prices are falling, reinforcing the boom and bust cycle. He further suggests that property price inflation is essentially a reflexive phenomenon: house prices are influenced by the sums that banks are prepared to advance for their purchase, and these sums are determined by the banks' estimation of the prices that the property would command.
+Soros has often claimed that his grasp of the principle of reflexivity is what has given him his "edge" and that it is the major factor contributing to his successes as a trader. For several decades there was little sign of the principle being accepted in mainstream economic circles, but there has been an increase of interest following the crash of 2008, with academic journals, economists, and investors discussing his theories.
+Economist and former columnist of the Financial Times, Anatole Kaletsky, argued that Soros' concept of reflexivity is useful in understanding China's economy and how the Chinese government manages it.
+In 2009, Soros funded the launch of the Institute for New Economic Thinking with the hope that it would develop reflexivity further.  The Institute works with several types of heterodox economics, particularly the post-Keynesian branch.
+
+== In sociology ==
+Margaret Archer has written extensively on laypeople's reflexivity. For her, human reflexivity is a mediating mechanism between structural properties, or the individual's social context, and action, or the individual's ultimate concerns. Reflexive activity, according to Archer, increasingly takes the place of habitual action in late modernity since routine forms prove ineffective in dealing with the complexity of modern life trajectories.
+While Archer emphasises the agentic aspect of reflexivity, reflexive orientations can themselves be seen as being "socially and temporally embedded". For example, Elster points out that reflexivity cannot be understood without taking into account the fact that it draws on background configurations (e.g., shared meanings, as well as past social engagement and lived experiences of the social world) to be operative.