Studying Local Solidarity

Studying Local Solidarity

Laurens Buijs, PhD CandidateSolidarity in the 21st Century

AIAS & AISSRUniversity of Amsterdam

www.solidariteit.info

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Contents

General Project1.What is the research project Solidarity in the 21st Century?

Qualitative Study1.What is relational sociology?2.How do I conceptualize and operationalize local solidarity in relational terms?3.What are my research design and field strategies?4.What is my research question?

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1. Research ProjectSolidarity in the 21st Century• Effects of societal changes (such as migration and

ageing) on both informal and formal forms of solidarity.

• What kind of motives, conditions and circumstances are beneficial for the sustainment of solidarity between different groups in society?

• Interdisciplinary approach: qualitative case-studies, statistical data analysis, economic experiments, media analysis.

• www.solidariteit.info3Solidarity in the 21th Century - Qualitative

Study - Laurens Buijs

2. Relational SociologyThe social as dynamic assembly• Challenging the dominant ‘substantialist’

epistemology• From static substances to relational processes• Theoretical: Tarde, Elias, Emirbayer, Latour• Empirical: Science & Technology Studies (STS)

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2. Relational SociologyThe social as dynamic assembly

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Static views Dynamic viewsSociety is a bounded collective Society is a collective in the

process of expandingThe social constitutes of distinguishable substances as fundamental units of analysis (things, beings, essences)

The social is a trail of associations between heterogeneous elements; a movement during a process of assembly

All units that make up the social act under their own power

All units derive their meaning, significance and identity from the (changing) roles they play in transaction

2. Relational SociologyThe social as dynamic assembly• How to apply relational sociology to a study

on local solidarity? Challenging three substantialist assumptions:a) From heterogeneity to social distanceb) From motives to expressionsc) From spatial units to matters of concern

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• Putnam’s social capital: ‘hunkering down’ in heterogeneous neighborhoods

Dienst Onderzoek & Statistiek, gemeente Amsterdam (2009)

3. Local Solidaritya) Heterogeneity > Social distance

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• Culturalization in a national network (Uitermark 2010). The dynamic production of social distance: consonance, resonance, and dissonance between logics

3. Local Solidaritya) Heterogeneity > Social distance

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3. Local Solidaritya) Heterogeneity > Social distance• Workings of inclusion and exclusion as

dynamic: networks form around certain matters with actors who align themselves according to their interests through similar claims, statements, publications, positions, debates, myths, issues, etc. In this production of knowledge, logics (or discourses) form

• Dynamic concepts: consonance, resonance, dissonance, networks, logics, social distance

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3. Local Solidarityb) Motives > Expressions• Homo economicus or homo empathicus?• Actors are not “made to fit” into groups;

concepts like ‘heterogeneity’ and ‘motives’ assume a static view in group formation

• “Relating to one group or another is an on-going process made up of uncertain, fragile, controversial, and ever-shifting ties” (Latour 2005: 28)

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3. Local Solidarityb) Motives > Expressions• How to study group formation?– Spokespersons– Anti-groups– Definitions

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3. Local Solidarityb) Motives > Expressions• Solidarity and the need to be social not as

‘motive’, but as human configuration that can have a range of cultural expressions (through mechanisms such as reciprocity).

• Dynamic concepts: consonance, resonance, dissonance, networks, logics, social distance, spokespersons, anti-groups, expressions

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3. Local Solidarityc) Space > Matters of concern• Units of analysis generally selected in research on

solidarity reveals substantialist perspective: static, bounded units of analysis

• Matters of concern: objects of controversies around which actors in different positions align themselves, forming a network

• Controversies as overflows: unforeseen effects, challenges established policy, institutional framework, knowledge and group delineations

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3. Local Solidarityc) Space > Matters of concern• Multiculturalism as overflow• Dynamic concepts: consonance, resonance,

dissonance, networks, logics, social distance, spokespersons, anti-groups, expressions, matters of concern, overflows

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• Starting point: increase of (relative) power of culturalization on the national level (Uitermark 2010)

• Culturalization as hostile towards interethnic solidarity, but how do people relate to that on the local level?

4. Research Design & Field StrategiesThe selection of neighborhoods

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• Neighborhoods as mere ‘finding spots’; empirical focus on matters of concern

4. Research Design & Field StrategiesThe selection of neighborhoods

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• Interviews• Ethnographic research

4. Research Design & Field StrategiesResearch methods

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5. Research Question

• What explains the dynamics between logics on the local level (formed around matters of concern) and the increasingly powerful culturalization logic on the national level, and how are these dynamics related to the production of social distance?

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[email protected]

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