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Societies, Volume 3, Issue 3 (September 2013) – 6 articles , Pages 261-331

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193 KiB  
Article
Camera Arriving at the Station: Cinematic Memory as Cultural Memory
by Russell J. A. Kilbourn
Societies 2013, 3(3), 316-331; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc3030316 - 18 Sep 2013
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 6829
Abstract
This paper explores the modern metropolis as an ironically concrete metaphor for the collective memory and the mourning of cinema’s passing, as it—the “city”—is digitally constructed in two recent, auteur-directed, special effects-driven blockbuster films, Inception and Hugo. The modern city, and mass [...] Read more.
This paper explores the modern metropolis as an ironically concrete metaphor for the collective memory and the mourning of cinema’s passing, as it—the “city”—is digitally constructed in two recent, auteur-directed, special effects-driven blockbuster films, Inception and Hugo. The modern city, and mass media, such as the cinema, as well as modes of mass transport, especially the train, all originate in the 19th century, but come into their own in the early 20th century in their address to a subject as the mobilised citizen-consumer who, as Anne Friedberg makes clear, is also always a viewer. Additionally, as Barbara Mennel has recently shown, the advent in Europe of trains and time zones, in their transformation of modern time and space, paved the way for cinema’s comparably cataclysmic impact upon modern subjectivity in its iconic reproduction of movement within illusory 3D space. Both films, thus, in their different ways employ cinematic remediation as a form of cultural memory whose nostalgia for cinema’s past is rendered with the latest digital effects, hidden in plain sight in the form of subjective memories (as flashback) and dreams. While a version of this reading has been advanced before (at least for Hugo), this paper goes further by connecting each film’s status as remediated dream-memory to its respective dependence upon the city as a post-cinematic three-dimensional framework within which locative and locomotive desires alike determine a subject whose psyche is indistinguishable from the cityscape that surrounds him. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ghost-towns: Cityscapes, Memories and Critical Theory)
2446 KiB  
Article
Adolescent Callous-Unemotional Traits Mediates the Longitudinal Association between Conduct Problems and Media Violence Exposure
by Kostas. A. Fanti, Maria-Zoe Hadjicharalambous and Evita Katsimicha
Societies 2013, 3(3), 298-315; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc3030298 - 16 Sep 2013
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 6996
Abstract
The current study investigates the bidirectional longitudinal association between conduct problems (CPs) and media violence exposure (MVE), with callous-unemotional (CU) traits as a potential mediator of this association. The sample consisted of 1,451 (49.9% boys) Greek Cypriot adolescents. CPs and MVE were measured [...] Read more.
The current study investigates the bidirectional longitudinal association between conduct problems (CPs) and media violence exposure (MVE), with callous-unemotional (CU) traits as a potential mediator of this association. The sample consisted of 1,451 (49.9% boys) Greek Cypriot adolescents. CPs and MVE were measured at Year 1 and Year 3 and CU traits were measured at Year 2, enabling the examination of longitudinal associations and indirect effects between these variables. A bidirectional association between CPs and MVE was identified. Further, both CPs and MVE at Year 1 were positively associated with Year 2 CU traits, and youth high on CU traits at Year 2 were more likely to exhibit CP behaviors and to be exposed to media violence at Year 3. Finally, two indirect pathways were identified, suggesting that the longitudinal bidirectional association between CPs and MVE was partially mediated by CU traits. These findings suggest that CU traits constitute an underlying mechanism explaining the longitudinal association between CPs and MVE. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Understanding Media Violence Effects)
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Introduction
Embodied Action, Embodied Theory: Understanding the Body in Society
by Jacqueline Low and Claudia Malacrida
Societies 2013, 3(3), 293-297; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc3030293 - 23 Jul 2013
Cited by 27 | Viewed by 5782
Abstract
In 2010 Jacqueline Low was invited to become an editorial board member of the then new online open-access journal Societies. In that same year, Claudia Malacrida was approached to organize a session on the sociology of the body at the 2012 International [...] Read more.
In 2010 Jacqueline Low was invited to become an editorial board member of the then new online open-access journal Societies. In that same year, Claudia Malacrida was approached to organize a session on the sociology of the body at the 2012 International Sociological Association (ISA) meetings in Buenos Aries. When the call came in 2011 from Societies for editorial board members to propose topics for special issues of the journal, it was a natural and fortuitous timing of events and we undertook to co-edit this special issue based, in part, on papers from the conference. Because of our shared history of writing about social aspects of the body, we were convinced that both the conference and the journal papers would produce interesting and important advancements in a sub-discipline that is making exciting contributions beyond its borders to social theory and empirical sociological work. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Embodied Action, Embodied Theory: Understanding the Body in Society)
221 KiB  
Article
Double Dose: High Family Conflict Enhances the Effect of Media Violence Exposure on Adolescents’ Aggression
by Karin M. Fikkers, Jessica Taylor Piotrowski, Wouter D. Weeda, Helen G. M. Vossen and Patti M. Valkenburg
Societies 2013, 3(3), 280-292; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc3030280 - 05 Jul 2013
Cited by 41 | Viewed by 17908
Abstract
We investigated how exposure to media violence and family conflict affects adolescents’ subsequent aggressive behavior. We expected a double dose effect, meaning that high media violence exposure would lead to higher levels of aggression for adolescents in high conflict families compared to low [...] Read more.
We investigated how exposure to media violence and family conflict affects adolescents’ subsequent aggressive behavior. We expected a double dose effect, meaning that high media violence exposure would lead to higher levels of aggression for adolescents in high conflict families compared to low conflict families. A total of 499 adolescents (aged 10 to 14, 48% girls) participated in a two-wave longitudinal survey (4-month interval). Survey questions assessed their exposure to violence on television and in electronic games, family conflict, and aggressive behavior. Analyses revealed a significant interaction between media violence and family conflict. In families with higher conflict, higher media violence exposure was related to increased subsequent aggression. This study is the first to show a double dose effect of media violence and family conflict on adolescents’ aggression. These findings underscore the important role of the family in shaping the effects of adolescents’ media use on their social development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Understanding Media Violence Effects)
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Article
Science Evaluation in the Czech Republic: The Case of Universities
by Dalibor Fiala
Societies 2013, 3(3), 266-279; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc3030266 - 26 Jun 2013
Cited by 29 | Viewed by 5432
Abstract
In this paper, we review the current official methodology of scientific research output evaluation in the Czech Republic and present a case study on twenty-one Czech public universities. We analyze the results of four successive official research assessment reports from 2008 to 2011 [...] Read more.
In this paper, we review the current official methodology of scientific research output evaluation in the Czech Republic and present a case study on twenty-one Czech public universities. We analyze the results of four successive official research assessment reports from 2008 to 2011 and draw the following main conclusions: (a) the overall research production of the universities more than doubled in the period under investigation, with virtually all universities increasing their absolute research output each year, (b) the total research production growth is slowing down and (c) Charles University in Prague is still the top research university in the Czech Republic in both absolute and relative terms, but its relative share in the total research performance is decreasing in favor of some smaller universities. We also show that the rankings of universities based on the current methodology are quite strongly correlated with established indicators of scientific productivity. This is the first time ever that the official present-day Czech science policy and evaluation methodology along with the results for the Czech university system has been communicated to the international public. Full article
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132 KiB  
Afterword
Afterword: Embodiment, Social Order, and the Classification of Humans as Waste
by Chris Shilling
Societies 2013, 3(3), 261-265; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc3030261 - 24 Jun 2013
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 5166
Abstract
The rise of body studies has, since its development in the early 1980s, been characterized by a resilience and creativity that shows no signs of abating. There are various reasons for this success, but two are especially worthy of note. Socially informed studies [...] Read more.
The rise of body studies has, since its development in the early 1980s, been characterized by a resilience and creativity that shows no signs of abating. There are various reasons for this success, but two are especially worthy of note. Socially informed studies of the materialities, capacities and connectedness of body subjects have maintained their capacity to advance disciplinary, cross-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary work on the subject into new agendas [1,2]. Additionally, emerging studies in the field continue to facilitate a sustained interrogation of those residual categories that have helped to define, but also restrict, the reach and ambition of sociology and related disciplines, and advance our understanding of social actions, social relationships and societies. Thus, in contrast to the traditional sociological concern with abstract ‘social facts’ that threatened, at times, to render redundant a focus on the physical constitution of those subject to them [3], sociologists of embodiment have explored the corporeal consequences of social structures, while also highlighting how the bodily components of agency and interaction were affected by, and became meaningful to people through, such factors as health, illness and dis/ability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Embodied Action, Embodied Theory: Understanding the Body in Society)
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