Academic literature on the topic 'Sociology – encyclopedias'

Current sociology doesn’t have a settled view on what to do with a phenomenon that in the literature has been titled as “artificial intelligence” (AI). Sociological textbooks, handbooks, encyclopedias, and sociology classes’ syllabi typically either don’t have entries about AI at all or talk about it haphazardly with a stress on AI’s social effects and without discerning the underlying logic that moves the prodigy on. This paper is an invitation to a professional conversation about what and how social sciences can/should study “artificial intelligence”. It is based on a discussion of the preliminary results of an on-going three-year research project that has been launched at the ISA Congress in Toronto. The paper examines AI in relation with ‘artificial sociality’. It argues that research on AI-based technologies is flourishing mainly outside established disciplinary boundaries. Thus, social sciences have to look for new theoretical and methodological frameworks to approach AI and ‘artificial sociality’.

This article stresses the heuristic power of the concept of community today, with particular attention to urban sociology. The authors distinguish between a cultural and a spatial meaning, focusing on the American debate through the concepts of community (cultural) and neighborhood (spatial). They look up these concepts in many Anglo-American encyclopedias; then, they consider the works of Barry Wellman and Robert Sampson. Wellman stresses the liberation of community from a place and the importance of mapping social ties and contacts. Sampson stresses the liberation of neighborhood from the logic of primary group relationships, so neighbor- hoods are seen as more ecological than affective units. So, the American debate seems to confirm that two notions of community are required: community is connected to individuals, networks and strong ties, neighborhood is connected to socio-spatial organization and "collective efficacy".

This article explores the association between racial thought and the idea of Europe in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain. It begins by noting the complexities surrounding the word “race” in this period, before considering whether—and on what grounds—contemporary race thinkers identify a “European race” or “races”. This reveals important ambiguities and correlations between anatomical, genealogical and cultural understandings of human difference. The essay then discusses how some of these ideas find expression in British encyclopedias, histories and geographical books. In this way, it shows how racial ideas are disseminated, not just in dedicated volumes on anatomy and biological classification, but also in general works which purport to summarize and transmit contemporary received knowledge. The article draws upon entries on “Europe” in every British encyclopedia completed between 1771 and 1830, as well as named source texts for those articles, tracing how the word “Europe” was used and what racial connotations it carried. Some entries imply that “European” is either a separate race entirely, or a subcategory of a single human race. Others, however, reject the idea of a distinctive European people to identify competing racial groups in Europe. These complexities reveal increasing interest in the delineation of European identities, an interest which emerges partly from long-standing eighteenth-century debates about the categorization and comprehension of human difference. In addition, they show the diffusion of (contending) racial ideas in non-specialist media, foreshadowing the growing prominence of racial thought in the later nineteenth century.

Abstract The article raises the question of how the multiplication of topics, turns, and perspectives in the currents of the study of religions can be explained. After the concept of a paradigm shift (Thomas Kuhn) is introduced, the study examines the epistemological consequences of the question What is religion? It is based on analyzing the practice of defining “religion” in German-language encyclopedias of the past three centuries. Surprisingly, the structure of these articles is largely persistent throughout this long period and consists mainly of etymology, definition (Wesensbestimmung), and a typology of “religion.” From this, an Aristotelian paradigm can be deduced. The claim for universality entailed in this paradigm ultimately led to a crisis and since the 1960s the study of religions has developed alternative approaches that emphasize aspects of human interaction, communication, and reciprocal relationships. I propose to subsume these new perspectives under the term “a relational paradigm.” Examples and consequences for this paradigm are offered in the conclusion.

Abstract Archaeology and anthropology treat the presence of animals in mythology and folklore as axiomatically about a culture’s ideas of nature. Sociology often assumes modernity no longer has such myths, but animal imagery abounds. In this article, the authors argue that our relationships with animals and nature are not primarily rational or scientific but formed through these images and the mythologies that come with them. The authors call these images “modern bestiaries” in reference to the medieval proto-encyclopedias that cataloged animals for moral instruction. Modern bestiaries (including alphabet books, sports teams, and car names, among others) generate a holistic worldview that marries a deep love of animals and “nature” to a fundamentally anti-ecological cosmology. The authors examine a particular modern bestiary—the menagerie of gummi animals in the candy aisle. Eating a gummi bear is never merely gastronomic but also an act of mimesis, sympathetic magic, and storytelling in which cultural relationships to animals are formed.

The article concerns the changes in the definition of the word “priest” in encyclopedias and lexicographical works in the course of shaping of the European culture of Modernity. The article argues that the notion of sacrum (as related to God), which directly correlated with the position of priest and defined its meaning until the 17th century, later, through the 18th century, was replaced by the notion of the community, in which the priest performs some cultic functions. The definitions of Enlightenment partly discredited the priestly power and position often representing them as dangerous for society and contradicting the civic duty of the priest. This shift is interpreted as reflecting the main changes in the modern worldview, when the hierarchical unity of social and cosmological orders was replaced by the functional understanding of society.

The article presents some of the results of the Center for the Study of the Battle of Stalingrad for five years of work. Information is given about published collections of documents and materials, encyclopedias and reference books prepared as a result of the interaction of scientific, educational, public organizations and cultural institutions dedicated to the history of the great battle on the Volga. The paper informs about the scientific seminars held at the Center on little-studied issues of the history of the Battle of Stalingrad. The study of genuine sources and the introduction into scientific circulation of arrays of archival documents are aimed at preventing the falsification of historical events, the formation of impartial judgments and the preservation of collective memory of the war.

AbstractWestern studies of Buddhism emphasize doctrine and meditation, but almost completely ignore devotional practice. Yet, obeisance to Buddha is the primary religious practice of the majority of Asian Buddhists. To account for this disparity, I explore the history of Protestant attitudes towards bowing. In English and German anti-Catholic polemics (and Catholic responses), Chinese and Catholic obeisance are conflated, the lowness of their prostrations emphasized, in contrast to the erectness of Protestant posture in worship. I survey two important encyclopedias of religion (Hastings' of 1914 and Eliade's of 1987), and the work of one of the founders of Sociology, Herbert Spencer, to show the persistance of these perspectives on obeisance.Eighteenth and nineteenth-century Protestants worked to challenge the Jesuit representation of China as enlightened and originally monotheistic. Chinese religiosity was depicted as passive, lazy, infantile, and mindless, lacking any coherent doctrinal system. At times, the Protestant narrative of Christian history (from original pure community to institutional degeneration into idolatry) was superimposed on Chinese history. Obeisance itself was taken as sufficient proof of idolatry, the deceptive “holy mummeries” of Chinese/Catholic ritual.These tensions came to a head when King George III of England sent Lord Macartney to have an audience with emperor Qianlong of China, and Macartney refused to bow. A brief analysis of this well-documented mission reveals the confluence of religious, political, bodily, and gender dimensions. Recent treatments of that mission have missed the Protestant/Catholic dimensions of the issue.Finally I suggest possible extentions of the theoretical concerns of this paper.

Des dels inicis de l’enciclopedisme modern amb l’Encyclopédie fins a finals del segle XIX, l’evolució del gènere ha sofert una transformació que, en certa, manera ha vulnerat els seus principis ideals d’objectivitat i universalitat en la transmissió i fixació del saber. El reeixit projecte de la Britannica i els efectes a Alemanya, i Europa, de la ‘revolució Lexikon’ convertiren el coneixement enciclopèdic, i a la seva substància, el discurs enciclopèdic, en un instrument de construcció nacional. França (Grand dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle de Pierre Larousse), el Regne Unit i el món anglosaxó (Encyclopaedia Britannica), Alemanya amb l’Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste, així com els productes enciclopèdics de Brockhaus i Meyers, i l’Estat espanyol (Enciclopedia universal ilustrada europeo-americana) són els referents de l’anomenat enciclopedisme nacional. D’entre els principals referents europeus, només Itàlia no disposava d’una enciclopèdia que respongués a aquesta inquietud de construir, fixar i difondre un coneixement enciclopèdic que interpretés el saber, i les qüestions que afectessin a la seva construcció social, des d’un punt de vista genuïnament italià, i nacional. L’objectiu de la tesi és, doncs, evidenciar com un fet de la transcendència capital per l’esdevenir d’Itàlia com fou la Primera Guerra Mundial (1914-1918) condicionà no sols la creació d’un coneixement i discurs específic sobre la guerra i les seves conseqüències, sinó que fou determinant per a que l’enciclopedisme italià prengués consciència de la seva importància com a factor de construcció nacional. L’exponent d’aquest renaixement del gènere a Itàlia fou l’aparició al 1929 de l’Enciclopedìa italiana di sciènze, lèttere ed arti. El rol del coneixement enciclopèdic sobre la Gran Guerra a Itàlia, i el seu paper com a element de configuració i construcció nacional durant el període d’entreguerres ha estat l’element nuclear de la investigació. L’ús i manipulació de la Gran Guerra enciclopèdica depenent del context sociopolític (1918-1922 Itàlia tardoliberal i 1922-1939/1940 Itàlia feixista) ha permès copsar com els respectius governs, els sectors socioculturals, els medis acadèmics i el món editorial van configurar un coneixement, i un discurs, enciclopèdic totalment afí amb la versió de la guerra que es volia transmetre a la seva respectiva opinió pública. La transcendència i prestigi del gènere enciclopèdic es posà, com ja succeïa a la resta d’Europa des de mitjan segle XIX, a disposició de la construcció d’una determinada visió del coneixement, del saber i de la pròpia història (nacional). La italiana no fou una excepció, ben al contrari. La metodologia s’ha basat en un model ex novo d’anàlisi de textos i discursos enciclopèdics, juntament amb l’estudi en deteniment dels principals fets cabdals del conflicte i la seva translació a la substància (discurs) enciclopèdica. Així mateix, s’ha investigat en detall els processos en la producció i creació dels respectius textos enciclopèdics, en alguns casos amb material d’arxiu (documentació epistolar entre col·laboradors). Per últim, s’han estudiat a fons tant l’evolució del sector editorial italià entre 1915-1940 com les relacions d’aquest amb els medis acadèmics, polítics i socials. A través de l’anàlisi del discurs enciclopèdic de la producció enciclopèdica italiana dels anys 1915 a 1940 s’han extret els elements que han permès corroborar i contrastar allò ja insinuat a l’inici: les realitats polítiques, socials i culturals italianes d’entreguerres interpretaren l’experiència italiana a la Primera Guerra Mundial d’acord amb uns interessos predeterminats a la seva pròpia contingència. En el cas de la darrera Itàlia liberal (1918-1922), la guerra fou justificada i interpretada com la darrera fase en la emancipació d’Itàlia com a nació (Quarta guerra per l’indipendenza). Pel que fa a la Itàlia feixista, la guerra fou el gresol on es forjà la Nova Itàlia feixista sorgida de les trinxeres amb un destí imperial.
From the beginnings of modern Encyclopaedism (Encyclopédie) until the 20th century, the evolution of the this genre has undergone a transformation that, in a certain way, has violated its main principles of objectivity and universality in the transmission and fixation of knowledge. The successful project of the Britannica and the effects in Germany, and Europe, of the 'Lexikon revolution' transform encyclopedic knowledge, and its substance, the encyclopaedic discourse, into a national construction tool. France (Grand dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle by Pierre Larousse), the United Kingdom and the Anglo-Saxon world with the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Germany with the Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste, as well as the encyclopaedic products of Brockhaus and Meyers, and Spain (Enciclopedia universal ilustrada europeo-americana) are the referents and the exponents of the so-called national encyclopedism. Among the main European referents, only Italy did not have an encyclopedia that responded to this desire to build, fix and disseminate an encyclopaedic knowledge that interpreted knowledge, and issues that affected its social construction, from one genuinely Italian, and national point of view. The objective of the thesis is, then, to demonstrate how a fact of the capital importance for the evolution of Italy, such as the First World War (1914-1918), determined not only the creation of a knowledge and discourse specific about the war and its consequences, but was decisive for the Italian encyclopedism to become aware of its importance as a factor of national construction. As a conclusion, and through the analysis of the encyclopaedic discourse of the Italian encyclopaedic production from 1915 to 1940, the elements that have allowed to corroborate and contrast what has already been suggested at the beginning have been extracted: political realities, Italian social and cultural interwar interpreted the Italian experience in the First World War in accordance with predetermined interests to their own contingency. In the case of the last liberal Italy (1918-1922), war was justified and interpreted as the last phase in the emancipation of Italy as a nation (Fourth war for independence). With regard to fascist Italy, war was the crucible where New Fascist Italy (Nova Italia) emerged from trenches with an imperial destiny.

Савайда О.І. Енциклопедія права в системі юридичних наук: дисертація на здобуття наукового ступеня кандидата юридичних наук за спеціальністю 12.00.12 – філософія права / Савайда Олена Іванівна. – Львів: Львівський державний університет внутрішніх справ, 2011. - 197 с.
У дисертації здійснено комплексне наукове дослідження філософського аспекту енциклопедії права. Розкрито основні теоретико-методологічні підходи щодо дослідження юридичної природи енциклопедії права через аналіз сутності, особливостей її утворення, функціонування в різних країнах під впливом різних філософських напрямів. Обґрунтовані методологічні концепції предмета енциклопедії права та з’ясовано ідеалістичну інтерпретацію філософського та правового розвитку енциклопедії права. Досліджено з історико-порівняльного аспекту взаємозв’язок енциклопедії права з іншими юридичними дисциплінами в системі юридичних наук. З’ясовано природне та інформаційне значення енциклопедії права для сучасної правової науки. Охарактеризовано енциклопедію права як науку, яка за час свого існування укомплектувала правові та філософські поняття й категорії у цілісний системний організм, відтак набула форми суспільного явища, що охоплює, зокрема, такі сфери людського існування, як правова, природна та філософська. The thesis presents a comprehensive scientific study of philosophical aspects of encyclopedia of law. There were developed the basic theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of legal nature of the law encyclopedia through analysis of essence, peculiarities of its formation, operation in different countries under the influence of different philosophical directions. The methodological concept of law subject encyclopedias and clarified its interpretation of the idealist philosophical and legal development. The interconnection of law encyclopedia with other legal disciplines was studied from historical and comparative aspects. The natural and informational value of law encyclopedia for modern legal sciences has been settled. Characterized as an encyclopedia of law science, which during its existence ukomplektuvala legal and philosophical concepts and categories in the entire body system, and then took the form of a social phenomenon that includes, among others, aspects of human existence as legal, natural and philosophical.

The main subject and aim of this master thesis is the development and practical testing of a collaboration schema between Czech Encyclopedia of Sociology (Sociologická encyklopedie) and the Czech Wikipedia and its sociology-related content. The collaboration between these two information resources is based on the idea that the Encyclopedia of Sociology can serve as a quality resource for writing and editing Wikipedia and vice versa, Wikipedia can potentially increase Encyclopedia of Sociology's visibility and findability. The theoretical part of the thesis presents information about academic knowledge resources and open collaboration knowledge resources. Last but not least the theoretical part contains information about current practices of collaboration between Academia and Wikipedia. The research part of the thesis presents the development of the collaboration schema and its testing. Methods of semi-structured interviews and field experiment are used within this research. In the first part, one conducts interviews with Czech sociology experts and Wikipedians who are active in the field of sociology or related social sciences. The second part of the research then uses a field experiment to verify to some extent the information from the interviews and to induce reaction from the Wikipedian...