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SOCIOLOGICAL DISCOURSE
SCIENCE MAGAZINE IN THE FIELD OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Year IV, No. 7
Banja Luka, April 2014
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CONTENTS
BOJAN MACUH, JANA GORIUP
The social role of mother after the cessation
of marital and extra-marital relationship .................................................................... 5
SLAVO KUKIĆ
Methodological issues in contemporary
sociology of Bosnia and Herzegovina ....................................................................... 21
SRDJAN VUKADINOVIĆ
Methodological complementarity of sociology and
history in the study of demographic processes ......................................................... 39
SAMIR FORIĆ
Sociology of law and the problem of normative closing the discourse ...................... 49
DŽELAL IBRAKOVIĆ
Profession in front of the mirror .............................................................................. 67
VANJA NIŠIĆ, DIVNA PLAVŠIĆ
The role of media in the construction of social reality .............................................. 73
INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS ..................................................................... 82
INSTRUCTIONS TO REVIEWERS..................................................................... 85
Bojan Macuh1
Fakulty of FKPV
Celje
Jana Goriup2
Original research paper
UDC 305-055.2+347.628
DOI: 10.7251/SOCEN1407005M
Accepted 21. 1. 2014.
University of Maribor
Faculty of Health
The social role of mother after the cessation of
marital and extra-marital relationship
Abstract
The article deals with the role of mother during the time of marital relation
and after its cessation from the sociological point of view. It presents several
theoretical lines of the institution of motherhood together with the historical
development of mother’s role. It also provides a description of marital relationship, as well as reasons that lead to its breakup (divorce). In addition, it
also gives an outline of consequences related to the execution of mother’s and
father’s social role. After the cessation of marital and extra-marital relationship the role of mothers is significantly increased, whereas the role of fathers
is importantly diminished. However, such scenario is not in accordance with
mothers’ expectations. Both parents are usually prepared to keep contact and
to co-operate for well-being of their children because they perceive such co-operation as important and needed. Mothers often expect fathers’ co-operation if
they see the father’s influence on their child(ren) as positive. Nonetheless, there
are some mothers who reject any contact with the father of their child(ren)
after the divorce, yet they are prepared to seek help concerning the counselling,
and express their overall contentment with the functioning of the existing
state institutions. Yet, they often don’t have any oversight and are not familiar
with NGO’s and their operation.
Keywords: motherhood, marital relation, family, divorce/cessation of marital relationship,
the role of father.
1
2
Senior lecturer, MA in Sociology, e-mail: [email protected]
Full professor of Sociology
5
Sociological discourse, year 4, number 7 / April 2014
5 – 20
Introduction
Today, the family still represents the basic cell of every society. The way of
life, lifestyle, rhythm and role change have led to the point where a woman
who once was confined only to her roles of mother and housewife assumed the
functions of the role that, in the past, was ascribed to men only. Consequently,
men nowadays frequently find themselves in a role not really suitable to their
disposition. Nevertheless, most of them come to terms with its requirements,
thereby confirming that their ability to take care of children is far from being
merely accidental. The new state of affairs already amounts to the fact that they
are quite capable of looking after for their descendants, together with the role(s)
they have to fulfill outside their families.
A more active role of man/father within the family is definitely of interest
to most of women - this way, they can pursue their career and other activities
to a much greater extent. During the observation of this role, however, we were
mainly interested in performance of mothers’ role after the cessation of marital
or extra-marital relationship in ever growing cases of children staying with their
fathers.
In modern Slovene society, we can observe an increase in cessation of extra-marital relationships and partner co-habitats compared to newly registered
marital relationships. The number of single mothers is growing, and that phenomenon, of course, raises the question about the role of father after marital
and extra-marital relationship cessation. The relation between mother and father after the end of their relationship invariably exerts a direct influence on the
development of their children. Still, the fact mentioned is often neglected by
society - with respect to both parents. Such findings are confirmed by the countless complications with the legal allocation of children to one of their parents
where the society and public opinion are still, in most cases, biased in favour of
child’s mother.
1. Some sociological features of the post-modern family
The family is defined as a group of persons living in common household that
consists of at least one child and at least one adult; further, the group is mutually connected by marital relationship - either by co-habitation, and/or parental
relationship.3
3
Antonella Pinnelli, Hans Joachim, Hoffmann-Nowotny and Beat Fux, Fecondita e nuove forme
di unione in Europa, Milano: Sapere, 2004. pp.28.
6
Bojan Macuh et al.
The social role of mother after the cessation
of marital and extra-marital relationship
In sociological research, Brown’s typology4 of families was widely used. The
classification is as follows:
– nuclear families (families with two or more parents);
– classical extended families (vertically and horizontally extended families
consisting of more nuclear families connected by relation of kinship and
joined location of living);
– modified extended families (families that are geographically separated but
keep regular family connections and offer mutual support);
– single-parent families;
– reorganised families (re-established families with at least one social, but
not biological parent).
Ideal type image of nuclear family according to one of classical authors of
funcionalist sociology Talcott Parsons is made up of a married couple (an employed father and a mother who is a housewife) together with their children.
Astonishingly, this type today accords with less than 20 per cent of families in
Europe5.
Similarly to other countries, the statistical monitoring of household and
families in our county is performed by The Statistical Office of the Republic
of Slovenia, but most of the research is done at various institutes and research
centers of different faculties.
The topics of research reports, monographies and articles of professional scientists from the Faculty of Social Sciences are very diverse: conceptualization of
family policies, integration relationships, gender relationships, sexual structure
of privacy, family typology, social networks and social support of families, quality of family life, harmonization of family life and employment, sexual hierarchy, natality, “new fatherhood” and parenthood6.
2. Family in Slovenia
Number of families in Slovenia grows slower than the number of households. According to the data of 2002 census people in Slovenia then lived in
685,000 households and 556,000 families that, on average, had 3 members.
Among private households there were 552,000 (76%) family households and
4
Ken Brown, An Introduction to Sociology, Cambridge: Blackwell Publischer. 1992. Pp. 210-212.
John Muncie and Michael Langan, Introduction: Public defintions and privates. U: Muncie and
et.: “Understanding the Family”, London: Sage and The Open Un iversity Press. 1997. p.11.
6
Tanja Rener, Alenka Švab, Tjaša Žakelj i Živa Humer, Analiza očetovstva ter predlogi za izboljšave
družinske politike na področju usklajevanja dela in družine. Zaključno poročilo (CRP)), Ljubljana:
ARRS, MDDSZ, Fakulteta za družbene vede, Center za socialno psihologijo, 2006. p. 28
5
7
Sociological discourse, year 4, number 7 / April 2014
5 – 20
153,000 (24%) non-family households (150,000 single-member and 13,000
multi-member households).
According to 2002 census, 150,000 lived on their own (single-member
households), among them were almost twice as many women (62%) than men
(38%). These numbers are 2,2-times bigger than 1948 data, thus representing
the biggest share of single-member households after the Second World War. As
to the last census, the single-member households were inhabited by younger
men and men in their later active years, whereas most of women in singlemember households had already reached their sixtieth year of age.
Number of families in Slovenia is growing, but the number of their members
is smaller. The most frequent type of family is married couple with children. An
average family with children consequently has 3,4 members.
Family statistically consists of parents and their children living in the same
household and not yet having a family of their own. Family can also be made
up of a husband and wife only, or (two) partners in extra-marital community
that live together. When a child becomes a parent or gets married, it starts living
in an extra-marital community, or leaves his/her original family, he or she stops
being statistically considered as a member of his/her parental family.7
3. Role of woman/mother in the current
post-modern Slovenian society
Both sexes are biologically so dependend on each other and their tasks are so
intimately intertwined and so complementary that almost every disagreement
among them can have serious consequences for both, individual and society.
Jogan states that material and moral overburdening of women still represents
a universal feature of Slovenian post-modern society.8 They are much more overloaded with family and household tasks than men despite their usual employment activity outside home. As for the institution of household, she now has the
opportunity of taking advantage of modern technology that has become affordable due to higher family income, for the most part with the supposition that it
will ease common family works. But the help of technology can be considered
relative. In reality, it even increases their overloading in a given field of work,
whereas the reduced amount of time calls for entirely different type of tasks. For
even if modern technology support can be said to include ever higher number
of appliances together with their equipment, from specially adapted spoon to
digitally-led oven, it has not, as some expected, stimulated a decrease in share
7
8
8
www.stat.si/novice_poglej.asp?ID=549
Maca Jogan, Seksizem v vsakdanjem življenju, Ljubljana: FDV, 2001. p. 185.
Bojan Macuh et al.
The social role of mother after the cessation
of marital and extra-marital relationship
of Slovenian women with full-time employment. Probably such development
of things came about due to the fact that women’s work within the household
was always understood as work devoid of economic value, for the most part as a
kind of free domestic service.
Often the family members see the female household work as something selfevident and thus “taken for granted because it has always been like that…” Last but not least, statistical data confirm the imbalance: adult Slovenian man
spends for his household activity approx. 7 hours on average, compared to 28.5
hours that are on average spent for household work by Slovenian women. Slovenian men spend approx 17.8 hours on average per week for taking care of
and educating of their children, whereas women devote to the same work on
average 27.3 hours weekly. It is through learning of such experience (by stereotypization) that children become familiar with the role of woman in the sphere
of private - when they acquire adequate sexual preferences, abilities, personal
attributes, behaviour and concept of themselves that includes the process of
sexual typification.
3.1. Role of mother in Slovenian Society
The role of mother in modern society is undergoing a significant change.
Therefore, a comparison with the past is possible only in the sense of her direct
family role, yet even about the change we could argue that on the basis of the
father’s role it shifted in favour of mother (we shall mention only a possibility of
taking a paternal leave for father, for example).
A modern mother can occur in several different functions simultaneously,
ranging from housewife, mother, wife, employed woman, creative person and
researcher, up to sportswoman that is capable of achieving top results in her career. All this and even more is conditioned by favourable family policy and the
role of man/father within the family or modern society.
Still, we could list a number of problems when addressing a relationship
between family and work. One of them is certainly parental leave. In Slovenia,
we distinguish four different kinds: maternal leave, paternal leave, nursing-andcustody leave, and adoption leave.9
4. Marital relationship
Marriage, wedded life and having family with children still remains one of
principal goals for many young people that enter the world of adulthood. In
9
Alenka Švab, Skrb med delom in družino, Ljubljana:Teorija in praksa, Letnik 40, št. 6. p.121.
9
Sociological discourse, year 4, number 7 / April 2014
5 – 20
the countries of developed world marry and start family life about nine tenths
of people. Marriage, wedlock and family thus still represent social and cultural
norm.
In Western cultural society today it is normal for the process of marital partner to be based upon body contact, mutual attraction and love.
Similarities and other factors that have influence on mutual attraction and
partnership, sooner or later become important for development of closer partnership relations. Still, the highest share of marriages is contracted among the
persons of similar social position, social-economic status, race, nationality and
religion.10
4.1. Dissolution of marriage
Divorce or dissolution of legal marital relationship becomes a usual part of
family development. Supposedly, the highest share of divorced marriages can be
observed among younger adult couples with small children who separate already
during the first years of marital relationship. Divorce, especially if it happens at
an earlier stage of life, is often followed by the reorganization of families and
many children have to go through another marriage of at least one, if not both,
parents.
Statistical data for Slovenia show an increase in number of divorced marriages, and a continuation of such trend is very likely. Unfortunately, apart from
the official statistics there has been no additional recent research on family life
in relation to divorce and reorganization of families as a segment of family development. According to same estimations, the share of reorganised families in
Slovenia is around 30% ; as for the current family trends it is highly probable
that the divorce share will grow.11 The formation of the reorganized families
means a lot of change also in the relationship within the family, as well as between the families. Therefore, reorganized families establish new family relations
and practices, previously unknown to our society12.
In Slovenia, the number of new marriages in 2005 fell under 6 thousand for
the first time, and the number of divorced couples increased by 10% in comparison with the previous year. However, the trend can be observed not only in
Slovenia, but also in other member states of EU.
Yet, even if in Slovenia the number of divorced marriages appears to be exceptionally high when compared to the number of the newly wedded couples it
10
Janek Musek, Ljubezen, družina, vrednote. Ljubljana: Educy, 1995. pp. 130-131.
Tanja Rener, Alenka Švab, Tjaša Žakelj i Živa Humer, Analiza očetovstva ter predlogi za izboljšave
družinske politike na področju usklajevanja dela in družine. Zaključno poročilo (CRP)), Ljubljana:
ARRS, MDDSZ, Fakulteta za družbene vede, Center za socialno psihologijo, 2006. Str. 28
12
Carol Smart and Brene Neale, Family fragments? Cambridge - Oxford: Polity Press, 1999.
11
10
The social role of mother after the cessation
of marital and extra-marital relationship
Bojan Macuh et al.
should be emphasised that the share of divorced marriages in 2004 was one of
the lowest among the EU states.
Marriages that fell apart in 2005, had been lasting approx. for 16 years.
Three decades ago, among all divorced marriages there was about a third of relationships that fell apart during the first three years of marriages, about a fourth
of marriages that before the separation were lasting from 5 to 9 years, and only
about 12 per cent of marriages were divorced after 20 years of matrimony.13
Table 1. Marriages and divorce from 1977 to 2007.
Newly conducted marriages
Divorced marriages
Per 1000 inhabitants
Newly conducted marriages
Divorced marriages
Number of divorced couples per
1000 new marriages
Average age
of the bridegroom
of the bride
at their first conducted marriage
of the bridegrooom
of the bride
1977
1987
1997
2006
2007
15.026
10.307
7.500
6.368
6.373
2.406
2.163
1.996
2.334
2.617
8,2
1,3
5,2
1,1
3,8
1,0
3,2
1,2
3,2
1,3
160,1
209,9
266,1
366,5
411,0
27,5
27,0
30,7
32,8
33,2
24,2
23,7
27,6
30,0
30,3
25,8
25,6
28,5
30,6
30,7
22,6
22,5
25,6
28,1
28,1
(Source: Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia)
4.2. Reasons for divorce in Slovenian society
In Slovenia, the dissolution of marriage is defined under the seventh paragraph of the second part of the Matrimonial Relationship and Family Relationships Act (7. točki II. Dela ZZZDR) under the title “Cessation of Matrimonial
Relationship” in 65th and 66th Article of the Act. Among the ways for cessation
of matrimonial relationship listed under 63th Article are: death of a spouse,
declaration of spouse’s death and dissolution of marital relationship.
In Slovenia, too, the combination of guilt factor with the principle of undermined marital relationship is no longer acknowledged, and is fully substituted
with the system of undermined marital relationship. As the main reason for
divorce Slovenia inferred the insupportability of marital relationship that, at the
same time, is the only reason for divorce it acknowledges. In the Matrimonial
Relationship and Family Relationships Act, Slovenia also allows for the possibility of consensual divorce. (Geč – Korošec, Kraljić, 1997, 103).
13
http://www.stat.si/novica_prikazi.aspx?id=363
11
Sociological discourse, year 4, number 7 / April 2014
5 – 20
5. Extra-marital relationship
R. Celster supposed that the extra-marital relationship in most cases applies
to some temporary period, as most of persons living together in that manner
gets married sooner or later. In some cases, one of the partners could be separated, but not formally divorced from his/her previous partner, and consequently
cannot re-marry. Others treat the period of extra-marital relationship as experimental relation, and intend to marry if it proves satisfactory for both parties.
Most of couples living in an extra-marital relationship intend to get married and
do so especially if they have children.
Nonetheless, J. Chandler represents a different opinion arguing that the time
which the couples spend together in an extra-marital community seemingly becomes ever longer thus representing a long-term alternative to marital relationship14 (Haralambos, 2001, 378–379).
6. Research
Our research included a population of women and men (all of them after the
cessation of extra-marital relationship) with children of school age, or kids that
have to be cared for, as well as men and women with adult children.The research
was based on method applied to the quote sample of divorced men and women
living in Slovenia.
In the following sub-chapters we will present some our findings. The research included two questionnaires, one for mothers and one for fathers. We
gathered the results by the help of postal service, via the internet and snowball
questioning. I also asked for the assistance of Social work centers. The total sum
of questionnaires was 450; 260 of them were intended for mothers and 190 for
fathers. 203 questionnaires were also returned - 144 from mothers and 59 from
fathers.
6.1. Analysis of the gathered empirical results
For the needs of empirical work, the following hypotheses were verified:
Hypothesis 1, where we assumed that the majority of kids after the cessation of
marital and extra-marital relationships is assigned to the custody of their mothers is
confirmed because the empirical data exemplified the fact that the vast majority of
children (90.1%) after separation of partners comes to live with their mothers.
14
See in: Michael Haralambos, Sociologija: Teme in pogledi, Ljubljana: DZS.2001. str. 378-379.
12
The social role of mother after the cessation
of marital and extra-marital relationship
Bojan Macuh et al.
Table 2. Who got the children?
Sex
I did.
Who got the
children?
My partner did.
Shared custody
Other
Total
Count
% within Sex
Count
% within Sex
Count
% within Sex
Count
% within Sex
Count
% within Sex
male
female
12
20.0%
42
70.0%
3
5.0%
3
5.0%
60
100.0%
127
90.1%
1
7%
11
7.8%
2
1.4%
141
100.0%
Total
139
69.2%
43
21.4%
14
7.0%
5
2.5%
201
100.0%
The obtained empirical data show that majority of kids after the cessation
of marital and extra-marital relationships is assigned to the custody of their
mothers regardless if we analyse the answers of mothers or fathers (90.1% of
mothers and 70.0% of fathers), although we can observe certain discrepancy in
a sense that, according to some answers of divorced mothers, these numbers also
included men that took care for their children more frequently; this means that
cases where kids would live with both of their separated parents were relatively
rare, irrespective of divorced mothers (7.8%) or fathers (5.0%).
Hypothesis 2, where we assumed that the level of compliance with the official
decision on parental custody would differ according to the sex of parent can be seen as
confirmed because the vast majority of female interviewees (89.3%) and vast majority of male interviewees (83.1%) agreed with the final court decision.
Table 3. Agreeing with the final court decision
Sex
Total
male
female
49
125
174
% within Sex
Count
83.1%
8
89.3%
5
87.4%
13
% within Sex
Count
13.6%
2
3.6%
10
6.5%
12
% within Sex
Count
3.4%
59
7.1%
140
6.0%
199
% within Sex
100.0%
100.0%
100.0%
Count
yes
Agreeing with
the final court
decision
no
MA
Total
Legend: MA – missing answers
13
Sociological discourse, year 4, number 7 / April 2014
5 – 20
On the basis of the given results we could imply that the majority of interviews agreed with the final official decision of assigning the child to his/
her mother, although there is statistically significant difference (p<0,05) among
both sexes - after all, men showed higher level of disagreement with the official
decision. It is interesting that within the group who disagrees with the final
court decision we also find three cases who disagree with court’s rule, although
the custody over children was assigned to them (amounting to 13% or 6.5%).
Two of these cases apply to men, which according to sexual representation within this pattern may indicate a wish or tendency for their children not to be assigned to them, but to their mothers.
The biggest share of parents not living with their child (ren) (totalling 55, of
which there are 46 men and 9 women) get to see their sons or daughters once a
week. The share of those who could see them every day is only 3.6%.
Hypothesis 3, where we assumed that parents after the cessation of their (extra-)
marital relationship are not prepared for common taking over of parental responsibilities is confirmed. According to the answers obtained, mothers and fathers reject
the common taking over of parental responsibilities, unless they regard it as beneficial
with respect to their children.
Table 4. Frequential distribution: Are you, otherwise, prepared to meet other parent
for the sake of child’s well-being?
Frequency
Percent
Valid
Percent
Cumulative
Percent
39
63.9 %
81.3 %
81.3 %
no
9
14.8 %
18.8%
100.0 %
Total
48
78.7 %
100.0 %
Sex
yes
Valid
male
Missing
System
13
21.3 %
61
100.0 %
111
78.2 %
No
20
Total
131
Total
Yes
Valid
female
Missing
Total
System
84.7 %
84.7 %
14.1 %
15.3 %
100.0 %
92.3 %
100.0 %
11
7.7 %
142
100.0 %
In most cases, female (84.7%) and male (81.3%) interviewees are prepared to
meet their previous partner(s), if the well-being of their child(ren) is concerned.
Hypothesis 4, where we assume that differences in performance of parental roles
before and after the cessation of marital relationship occur for different reasons, is
rejected because the results of empirical research show that the role of fathers before
and after the cessation of marital relationship did not diminish significantly.
14
The social role of mother after the cessation
of marital and extra-marital relationship
Bojan Macuh et al.
In that respect, however, we may presume that, according to the differences
regarding the assignment of children, the role of fathers, after all, became somewhat lessened.
Table 5. Who has the fewer roles after the cessation of relationship?
Valid
Missing
Total
Frequency
Percent
Valid
Percent
Cumulative
Percent
father
48
23.6 %
34.0 %
34,0 %
mother
52
25.6 %
36.9 %
70.9 %
both equally
28
13.8 %
19.9 %
90.8 %
no difference
13
6.4 %
9.2 %
100.0 %
Total
141
69.5 %
100.0 %
System
62
30.5 %
203
100.0 %
The data from the table above show just the opposite. According to the estimations of interviews, after the cessation of relationship both sexes have approximately the same amount of roles to fulfill when taking care of their offspring
(men 23.6%; women 25.6%). In relation to the category of sex the results are
very close. Yet, interestingly, male interviewees are convinced that upon the cessation of relationship, fewer parental roles are performed by their female counterparts, whereas women are convinced the truth is quite the opposite. Probably,
such discrepancies indicate the absence in perceiving change concerning the
fulfilment of parental roles which can be said of both sexes. In that case, it is
perhaps the most worrying aspect (irrespective to the group) that most of those
who answered the question (about 70%) think the parental role(s) - either fathers' or mothers' after their separation decreased. Nonetheless, the majority of
interviewees provided no answer to that question.
Hypothesis 5, by which we assumed that the most of parents are convinced
their contacts after the cessation of marital or extra-marital are more or less necessary, is confirmed. With the help of empirical research I came to the finding that all
interviews consider keeping their contacts even after their separation as important.
Interviewed mothers argue that they do not prevent their child (ren)’s father(s) from
having contacts with their descendants. Most of them even state that fathers want
to keep frequent contacts with their common children and to participate, directly or
indirectly, in their education and upbringing.
15
Sociological discourse, year 4, number 7 / April 2014
5 – 20
Table 6. After the cessation of partner relationship, I allow my former partner to
participate in the education and upbringing of our child(ren)
Valid
Missing
Total
Frequency
Percent
Valid
Percent
Cumulative
Percent
I completely agree.
14
6,9
9,5
9,5
2,00
1
,5
,7
10,1
3,00
10
4,9
6,8
16,9
4,00
Popolnoma se ne
Strinjam.
Total
15
7,4
10,1
27,0
108
53,2
73,0
100,0
148
72,9
100,0
System
55
27,1
203
100.0
Female interviews categorically deny that they would prevent their former
partners to participate in the education and upbringing of their children. Negative answers to that statement were given by 53.2% of female interviews, but
only 6.9% of female interviewees answered positively.
Hypothesis 6, by which we assumed that traditional form of marriage bears no
importance with respect to the functioning of society is confirmed, although a lot of
interviews still believe for marital relationship to be important, but not conditional
in relation to society’s normal functioning.
On the basis of the given results therefore, we can conclude that the contacts between father and his child after the breakup of marital and extra-marital
relationship are considered important, as most of the interviewed fathers and
mothers agree on that point.
Concerning the hypothesis 7, by which we assumed that the interviewees do
not perceive the traditional form of marriage as necessary for the functioning of
society I conclude that most of the interviewees believe the marital relationship is
important or necessary with respect to the functioning of society, as the average value
of answers inclined towards 2 which means “often”. In other words, most of the
interviewees believe that the marital relationship is necessary or often necessary for
the society’s functioning, but it should be mentioned that also relatively big share of
the interviews expressed the opinion that marital relationship is gradually losing its
importance for its proper functioning.
The results of average comparison (t-test) showed that, in this case, there is
no statistically significant difference between the average answers of men and
women (p>0,05).
16
The social role of mother after the cessation
of marital and extra-marital relationship
Bojan Macuh et al.
Graph 1. The importance of marital relationship - shares and the averages according
to the category of sex.
Marital relaonship - is it really necessary for the funconing of society?
6,97% 0,50%
31,34%
20,90%
yes
oen
less and less
no
depending on
the environment
other
21,89%
18,41%
95% Interval of
trust for M
Min
(1=yes)
Lower
sp. meja zg. meja Bound
Max
(4=no)
Upper
Bound
N
Lower
Bound
M
Upper
Bound
SD
Lower
Bound
SE
Upper
Bound
male
55
2,3273
1,13944
,15364
2,0192
2,6353
1,00
4,00
female
131
2,3588
1,18366
,10342
2,1542
2,5634
1,00
4,00
Total
186
2,3495
1,16778
,08563
2,1805
2,5184
1,00
4,00
Note: The data exclude all persons who chose categories “depending on the environment” and “other”
Hypothesis 8, by which we assumed that most of the interviews believe that
marital relationship is necessary for the education and the upbringing of children,
according to the results indicates that most of the respondents are in favour of opinion
that it has a positive influence on the upbringing and education. To be more specific,
almost 8% believe for marital relationship to be necessary for the successful upbringing and education of children, whilst 39% of them think it is needed; apart from
that, next 38% of interviewees believe it represents a welcome circumstance, and
only 14% consider marital relationship as irrelevant for the successful upbringing
and education of children.
Similarly, the analysis in this case yielded no statistically significant difference (p>0,05) in relation to the category of sex.
17
Sociological discourse, year 4, number 7 / April 2014
5 – 20
Graph 3: Is marital relationship necessary for the successful education and
upbringing of the children (percentage shares).
In relaon to successful upbringing mariage is:
1,00%
7,96%
37,81%
necessary
needed
irrelevant
welcome
other
38,81%
14,43%
95% Interval of
trust for M
Min
Max
(1=nec- (4=irrelessary) evant)
Upper
sp. meja zg. meja Lower
Bound Bound
N
Lower
Bound
M
Upper
Bound
SD
Lower
Bound
SE
Upper
Bound
male
55
2,4727
,93995
,12674
2,2186
2,7268
1,00
4,00
female
128
2,6406
,79104
,06992
2,5023
2,7790
1,00
4,00
Total
183
2,5902
,83949
,06206
2,4677
2,7126
1,00
4,00
Opomba: 1=necessary, 2=needed, 3=welcome, 4=irrelevant
We find at least persons in favour of mentioned belief among the age group
ranging from 20 to 29 years, whereas the most persons who are in favour of it
belong to the age groups ‘younger than 20’ and ‘50 or more’ years.
Hypothesis 9, by which we assumed that divorced parents’ trust into the existing state institutions authorised for resolving problems related to children was rather
low, is confirmed, because divorced parents, after the breakup of either marital or
extra-marital relationship, seek help with the state institutions thus having a lot of
experience with their advisors. Higher level of trust is shown by female respondents
whereas their male counterparts’ trust is much lower. We may relevantly conclude
that such situation arises due to the decisions on the assignment of custody rights over
their children and following agreements defining the frequency of contacts among the
divorced fathers and their descendants.
39.3% of male respondents and 34.5% of female interviewees was ready to
get included into various civil associations that provide help to the divorced persons after the breakup of their marital and extra-marital relationship. Neverthe18
The social role of mother after the cessation
of marital and extra-marital relationship
Bojan Macuh et al.
less, a considerable number of them are not interested in that kind of assistance
(27.9% of male and 28.1% of female interviewees).
Table 9. Readiness for participation in the associations for support
Sex
yes
no
male
Valid
do not know
Total
yes
no
Valid
do not know
female
Total
Missing System
Total
Frequency
Percent
24
17
20
61
48
39
52
139
3
142
39.3%
27.9%
32.8%
100.0%
33.8%
27.5%
36.6%
97.9%
2.1%
100.0%
Valid
Percent
Cumulative
Percent
39.3%
27.9%
32.8%
100.0%
34.5%
28.1%
37.4%
100.0%
39.3%
67.2%
100.0%
34.5%
62.6%
100.0%
7. Concluding remarks
Social role of mother after the cessation of marital and extra-marital relationship in Slovenian post-modern society has changed significantly in the last few
decades. We can estimate that the role of father in Slovenian family is becoming
increasingly important in relation to the discussed as well as other situations.
In years since the introduction of democracy, however, the role of mother in
our society is undergoing even more substantial change. The process can be
observed with regard to almost every field of social interest, reaching from the
educational structure to the increasingly equalised conditions of acquiring the
necessary qualifications for (better) employment and working place.
Within her family, woman - mother does not fulfil only her primary role of
housewife but can boast with important achievements in the course of her education and career, thus obtaining very important social position(s) within the
narrow, Slovenian as well as broader global framework.
Hence, entering a marital relationship gradually becomes the crucial part of
reflection on every relationship. The partners take more time for the preparational
period and are thinking about themselves and each other. Perhaps, when doing so
they are led by some kind of anxiety related to the possibility of future common
life because, on average, a third of mariages in Slovenian society end in divorce.
Also, the concept of motherhood is gaining more and more importance within modern Slovenian society. Next to their usual roles of mother and housewife
they dedicate an increasing amount of time also to themselves. They are becom19
Sociological discourse, year 4, number 7 / April 2014
5 – 20
ing an important factor in Slovenian politics which can also be observed with the
assignement of several important ministries within the Slovenian government to
female candidates. Their educational and professional capacities can be proved in
the top administration of some economic and non-economic institutions. Due
to the simultaneous role of woman as mother we can also spot some tendency for
the improvement of their career promotion possibilities by guaranteeing them
free nursing and care for children (free nursery school for second child).
References
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Bezenšek, Jana. 2004, Slovenska ženska v vlogi uspešne poslovne ženske in matere.
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Zaključno poročilo (CRP)), Ljubljana: ARRS, MDDSZ, Fakulteta za družbene
vede, Center za socialno psihologijo. 2006.
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Švab, Alenka. Skrb med delom in družino, Ljubljana:Teorija in praksa, Letnik
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Ur. l. Republike Slovenije, št. 97/2001.
20
Slavo Kukić1
University of Mostar
Faculty of Economics
Mostar
[email protected]
Original research paper
UDC 316.1 (497.6)
DOI: 10.7251/SOCEN1407021K
Accepted 12. 3. 2014.
Methodological issues in contemporary
sociology of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Abstract
Contemporary sociological science is increasingly being characterized by a
positivist, therefore, the orientation on the empirical research of social problems. If there is, however, about the Bosnian-Herzegovinian sociology, there
are many unexplored issues in the field of empirical sociological research - and
the greater is the number of causes of it. Methodological problems, of course,
are one of the major manifestations of those causes- the problems in the area
of quantitative as well as those in the field of qualitative sociological research.
Some of the other dimensions of the problem should not be ignored - the issue
of ethics in sociological research, the problem of a single database in the field
of sociology, as well as the research in the field of social sciences in general, and
the like. And all of that is analyzed in the context of this paper.
Keywords: sociological research, white spots, methodological problems, quantitative research, qualitative research, ethics, database
1. Introduction
The development of sociology as a separate scientific discipline has, as far
as the former Yugoslavia, and thus the area of BiH is concerned, on the surface, among other things, launched and conceptual differences concerning the
fundamental epistemological and methodological issues. Theoretical discussions
about them, however, have not hindered, but were a driver of further development of sociology as a science. In addition, after all, are witnessing a number of
new works, but also the sociological names in the last forty years or something
more.
1
Full time professor, the corresponding member of ANUBiH, e-mail: [email protected]
21
Sociological discourse, year 4, number 7 / April 2014
21 – 38
All this, however, does not mean that all problems are thus adapted to the
field of sociology as a science. On the contrary, many of them burden this science and today. Their detection is again invaluable for the further development
of this discipline. What are those problems? And to which of them, because of
the importance that they have for the sociology, we would have to pay attention
first? The aim of this paper is to emphasize some of them, especially those of
methodological nature.
2. Orientation on the empirical research as a new trend
Since the seventies of the twentieth century in the BiH sociology - as well as
in the other parts of the former state - is more and more pronounced the orientation towards the empirical research.2 In the first plan, in other words, is begining to puncture the positivist approach to the study of social problems. The step
forward in the empirical research, however, is notably characterized by the time
after the 1990. The reason for this is, among other things, related to the fact
that that time, but also the first thirteen years of the century in which we live,
is characterized by social crisis - the time of the dissolution of the former state
and the establishment of the new one, the time of war, and political and social
transition, the time of the social turmoil with which we live and so on. And such
is the inexhaustible source of the sociological empirical research.
Pursuant the emphasized, in the last fifteen or more years have been realized
the large number of empirical sociological research. In relation to them, unfortunately, there is no single database in order for more accurate assessment to
be possible. However, a large part of the research is possible to be reached, due
to, primarily, the possibilities of the web browser, but also the other sources of
scientific information.
If you rely, however, on the information that can be reached by that route,
and if it is taken as a criterion for grouping the research, the holder, the research
financier behind the biggest part of the research are various international associations and institutions3, but also the international foundations4. It would
2
In addition to the theoretical premises that have been realized, a significant impact on this
orientation had the appearance of the Supek study “The Examination of the Public Opinion” whose first edition was printed already in 1961, after which it underwent three editions. Its meaning is directly related to the fact that it showed that every knowledge about man and society, and
about man’s social behavior, has its empirical dimension.
3
Among them, among others, are emphasized UNDP, Transparency International, Gallup Balkan Monitor, etc..
4
Among them are, among others, USAID, the Open Society Fund, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung,
Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, the Heinrich Boell Stiftung and others.
22
Slavo Kukić
Methodological issues in contemporary
sociology of Bosnia and Herzegovina
be unfair, in the end, to ignore and the results of the national institutions dealing with research and theoretical work - results primarily of the faculties of
social sciences and humanities, and individuals from their compositions, but
also some institutes, whether they are operating within the faculty or as a standalone institutions.5
3. Problems in the area of sociological research
3.1. Unexplored issues in the field of the empirical sociological research
If we look at the research in the last fifteen years, according to the object
of their interest, in them, with no doubt, are touching the edges of the various
social problems, characteristic of BiH as a state and as a society. But only some
of them were, at least as far as the available databases are concerned, able to
extract as fields with respect to which the scientific research curiosity has the
constant sign - the phenomenon of corruption, first of all, that after the war is
in the focus of everyone whose research interest was the Bosnian-Herzegovinian
empiricism.6
But sociological research would be wrong to be reduced only to the dimension of the corruption investigations. Outside the range of interest, namely, are
some social problems. A large number of public opinion surveys is organized,
for example, to monitor citizens’ attitudes towards BiH as a country, to explore
the phenomenon of social capital and social trust, to examine the perception of
trends that are expected in the future, to assess the level of individual optimism
or pessimism, to research the estimates and expectations with respect to the
Euro-integration and so on.
Many social problems have, however, remained beyond the reach of empirical research, and with the vocabulary of Josip Županov 7, they appear as a kind
5
Among them, with no doubt, the most prominent position belongs to the Institute for Social
Research, Faculty of Political Science, University of Sarajevo, under whose auspices has been the
largest concentration of sociological and political science studies in the last ten or twelve years.
6
The study of corruption, however, in the emphasized the time, is mostly done among the international organizations and associations - primarily Transparency International - which is known
for the continuous measurement of the index of perception of corruption - then the European
and American foundations and institutes which in BiH have their offices, and domestic institutes
and non-governmental organizations.
7
Josip Županov (1923-2004) is a prominent Croatian sociologist, the member of the Academy,
one of the leading sociologists in the former Yugoslavia.
23
Sociological discourse, year 4, number 7 / April 2014
21 – 38
of “white spots” in sociological research.8 In the context of this type of analysis,
them, or at least some of them, are possible only to touch.9
One of the major problems of contemporary Bosnian society is, without any
doubt, the question of its social stratification - and the consequences it leaves
behind. Separating the narrow layer of the social rich on one, and the mass of
disenfranchised and without basic prerequisites for the existence on the other
side must produce social tensions, social frustration and hostility. In addition,
the more insignificant is becoming the middle social class, and this fact imposes
the necessitates of thinking how in the Bosnian experience can be confirmed
the thesis about social bipolarization as the trend of social development which is
observed and globally, difficult to bypass in the future.
In direct relation to this, however, is another social problem - the phenomenon of unemployment. And it would, with no doubt, had to be detailed and
continuously engaged in sociological science, both because of the phenomenon,
and the fact that related to it are many others.10 This phenomenon is, in fact,
in BH sociology of the twenty first century touched only sporadically. Or more
specifically, in relation to it, according to the available data, in the past ten years
has been no serious sociological monograph published.
Directly related to unemployment are, then, as a social problem and the
problem of poverty and social resistance. And they are, as well as unemployment
touched only in the context of other research or questioning of public opinion
that under the magnifying glass, and extremely limited, have a growing number
8
Raising the question what would that spots mean, Županov answered that under them is to
understand the social phenomena of which we have no scientific or empirical data, or we have
it very little. In other words, if there where were no systematic sociological research we would
face the stark whiteness (Josip Županov, Preface to the book, The Young shortly before the third
millennium, in: Vlasta Ilišin and Furio Radin, The Young shortly before the third millennium,
Zagreb: Institute for Social Research in Zagreb, National Institute for the Protection of Family,
Motherhood and Youth. 2002, p.9).
9
In the following analysis, attention is reserved only for a part of a broad spectrum of BH. social
problems which, objectively, represent an inexhaustible source of sociological research and sociological theoretical interest.
10
Unemployment in BiH in the late 2013 was at the level of 45% (according to unionized
champions, it exceeds that figure). In July of 2013, for example, in Bosnia and Herzegovina were
employed 685,773 people, while in the same month was registered 553,036 of unemployed. If
we compare, however, the unemployment rate with others in Europe, the figures are even more
worrying - almost twice higher than, for example, one in Spain as the country with the highest percentage of unemployed in the EU (24%), more than double the rate in Greece (22%)
and so on. Equally, or even more, warns the fact that youth unemployment reaches 60% of the
total youth population (see Business Journal, http://www.poslovni.hr/svijet-i-regija/bih-skupoplaca-nezaposlenost-mladih-253207, and http://www.poslovni.hr/svijet-i-regija/u-bih-bez-posla553-tisuce-osoba-253091)
24
Slavo Kukić
Methodological issues in contemporary
sociology of Bosnia and Herzegovina
of social problems at the same time. About a systematic sociological approach,
however, can be difficult to speak.
One of the problems that would, with no doubt, had to be comprehensively
addressed is the public role of religion in post-communism. Sociology would,
for example, had to turn to questioning the relations of the church - including
lay movements - against a number of social issues. Among them, among others,
is possible to stress the relationship of the church and state, the issue of religion
and sex education in schools, the issue of Sunday work, the equality of smaller
religious communities, and the like. It should then turn to analyzing the issues
related to the fact of the high trust of public in the Church, but also the problems of modern development in relation to the issue of secularism and separation of church and state - the public, according to some estimates, is characterized by a relatively high level of criticism towards binding the church with the
state and so on. Questionably would then be to engage in a comparative analysis
of the situation in BiH and the european region, but also in a number of other
issues regarding the public role of religion.
In the post-war BiH sociology needed attention has not been paid even to
the sociology of the old. Among sociologists, namely, if there is to judge by the
available data, there is no need of genuine interest in the study of the difficulties of the social life of older population, and the causes of those problems - the
problem of the social vulnerability of pensioners above all, but also many others in direct contact with them. Sociological studies of this kind, however, are
gaining in importance. The reasons for this are manifold - increasing the share
of pensioners in the total population, the demographic aging of the population,
as well as some others.
The questions are, with no doubt, everywhere the inexhaustible source of
sociological research. But in the Bosnian society they are more pronounced
than in the societies in recent history that have not experienced a fundamental
change in the political and social system. Such a change, namely, as a result had
a radical changes in the social system, but also in the value of the system at all.
In the place of the collectivist, for example, come the individualistic values - the
values of materialism and pragmatism above all. This change in the system of
values, and the form and intensity of its manifestations have not been explored
sufficiently. Indeed.
On the other hand, the BiH experienced and the terrible war, and a war with
pronounced ethnic sign, and it was not even bypassed by the ethnic conflicts
that have kept the premise and after its completion. Accordingly, in respect of
the time prior to the nineties of the twentieth century, is changed the nature of
the collectivist values. In the place of the former collectivist values of the socialist system - that are related to the phenomena of class and brotherhood and
25
Sociological discourse, year 4, number 7 / April 2014
21 – 38
unity - have the breakthrough the values of the nation and the heroic code.11 In
the connection with the emphasized, one of the areas that sociological science
should take more seriously than in the past, is the question of the consequences
of the last war on the social relations, especially on the inter-ethnic relations.12
The consequences of the post-war climate of the inter-ethnic relations can be
experienced in other areas as well. From the perspective of sociological research,
and they are, of course, of the great interest. One of them, certainly - although it
is extremely wrong to tie it with the inter-ethnic relations - is the phenomenon
of violence as a serious social problem. Let us recall, for example, only the most
radical forms of the supporter riots and violence that accompanies it. And that,
in contrast to the BH environment13, here almost has no serious sociological
treatment. In addition, in the terms of Bosnian society, this phenomenon goes
beyond the cheerleading rampage - although the consequences in that context
are also warning.14
The issue of alcoholism and drug addiction, and the various forms of its
abuse, is the part of the social problems of the modern world. Spared of them,
however, is neither the Bosnian society. Both alcoholism and drug abuse are a
problem in the focus of interest of scientists with different profiles. With the
search of available databases, however, it is evident that they as a social problem
in BiH are dealt primarily by medics, psychiatrists in particular, and a little less
intense by psychologists. The interest of sociology as a science is, unfortunately,
largely absent. We emphasize “unfortunately” because both alcoholism and drug
addiction produce effects that are sociologically extremely indicative. In addition, the war actions were the one and the other type of addiction - drug addiction in particular - further stimulated as a form of “strengthening” the war
moral. The end of the war and the processes of the post-conflict stabilization,
were not used enough for one or the other type of addiction to be discouraged.
And that, again, has the other negative social effects - all worthy of more serious
research of sociological approach than that which is given to mark today.
There is a large area of the sociological research interest and in the field of
rural sociology and city. Both spaces today represent an inexhaustible source of
sociological interest. Sociologists would, for example, more intense than before,
11
Josip Županov, The Same, p. 11.
This is a question, indeed, that in the last ten years, as part of the “Early Warning System”, is
delt by an expert team of UNDP. However, for this approach can be argued that, from the perspective of serious sociological analysis is sufficient. Completely contrary, it is just another scratch
on the surface and no serious theoretical ambition.
13
Srđan Vrcan, Football - Policy - Violence, Zagreb: Naklada Jesenski i Turk, Croatian Sociological Association. 2003.
14
It is sufficient to recall the football match between Široki Brijeg and Sarajevo in October 2009
and the fans’ hooliganism that ended with a loss of a young human life.
12
26
Slavo Kukić
Methodological issues in contemporary
sociology of Bosnia and Herzegovina
deal with the problems of urban devastation, environmental pollution, the phenomenon of destruction of Bosnian villages and rural life forms and so on. If we
make, however, a more detailed insight into the sociological research conducted,
and these issues were treated only superficially. And not only that. Even those
who were to rural sociology and city devoted, as a rule, remained at the level of
theoretical achievements, without questioning the BH empiricism.15
Sociologists in the past fifteen years, have not paid enough attention and to
the phenomenon of depopulation as a social problem. On the phenomenon of
depopulation has, after all, warned the latest census.16 Even the glimpse, in fact,
warned that the issue of depopulation is dealt mostly by others - especially demographers. Their dealing with depopulation, is not questionable. But there is
no doubt that this phenomenon can not and must not be reduced only to its demographic dimension. Quite the opposite. The phenomenon of depopulation
is a broad field of research of social psychologists, and sociologists. Only in this
case, if we access it multi-disciplinary, it is possible to provide a more complete
and better scientific insight into the depopulation as a growing social problem.
In the situation, however, when it is not dealt by those who should - scientists
of different scientific disciplines, including sociology - the phenomenon of depopulation is left to the superficial analysis of others - journalists, politicians,
self-appointed analysts, mostly to people without the necessary skills.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the end, is traditional and underdeveloped, and
society in transition. All those factors as a result have a range of other social
problems characteristic for this type of society. How, however, are they comparable to the other transitional societies - those in the area of Europe, primarily and to what extent is possible a comparative analysis in relation to the developed
societies of the modern world? All of these, and many other issues, are possible
sources of serious sociological analysis - and they at this moment, are simply
lacking.
3.2. The causes of underdevelopment of sociological research
Tagged problems with which BiH’s sociology in the field of empirical research is insufficiently engaged, and with them the list of these problems is not
15
In Bosnian sociology, for example, can still not be found the studies like the Ognjen Čaldarović’s
book, Urban Society in the early 21st Century: A basic sociological processes and dilemmas, which was
published by Naklada Jesenski i Turk in 2011.
16
There are still, however, not available and arranged statistical data structures and trends in the
Bosnian population. The data, however, which are knowledgeable, alert - population is, namely,
at the level of approx. 3.8 million. If, however, on the basis of these figures is evaluated, it should
not surprise even if depopulation is identified as one of the most serious trends in the last twenty
years.
27
Sociological discourse, year 4, number 7 / April 2014
21 – 38
concluded, begs the question “why”? Where, in other words, are the causes of
these sociological “white spots” of Bosnian sociology as a science? Overly ambitious would, of course, be the intention to draw them all. However, some of
them can be identified.
The causes are, for example, possible to find in the fact that BH sociology,
thanks to the combination of various circumstances that marked the twentieth
century, had a different development path than the one that characterizes the
sociology of the Western societies, especially the U.S. - the orientation on the
empirical research of social problems.
The causes, then, can be sought in the lack of financial support and other
requirements necessary to conduct the serious research. Because the sociology
was expected to be in the service of regime - that it alone gives its contribution
to maintaining - and not the “devourer” of social wealth.
Relatively significant part of the causes is in the absence of a generally accepted approach to the notion of social problems in BiH. The social issues,
for example, are not seen as “disintegrative phenomena that occur in people’s
behavior, which in (the most) part of the public cause concern and can be prevented or mitigated by the organized social action.”17. On the contrary, the war
and destruction processes to which BiH is exposed after it, have caused the effects in setting priorities in the field of sociological science. That, unfortunately,
are not social problems faced by modern societies, especially in transition. In
the foreground here, instead, emerge questions of so called vital interest - issues
of ethnicity, religions, languages, nation-states, and the like. This, of course,
are not the issues that should be ignored. The problem, however is, that they
have such intensity that all other more or less pronounced, are relegated to the
background.
A significant part of the causes is, however, in the area of the so called methodological problems of Bosnian sociology. Sociological science, in fact, to this
day, for reasons that are directly related to its recent past, did not make a more
complete inventory of phenomena of relevant social problems plaguing Bosnia
and Herzegovina as a society. If the records can be spoken of, they are, at the
best, a product of public opinion surveys on perceptions of frequency, or the
prevalence of certain social problems, and not a database using a serious qualitative and quantitative techniques of sociological research. Continuation of this
analysis has, accordingly, somewhat more detailed paid attention to a group of
methodological problems of BH sociology.
17
Dražen Lalić and Marko Mustapić, Research of social problems: White spots on the sociological map of Croatia, Vol XXXVIII. 2007. No 3–4, p. 137.
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Methodological issues in contemporary
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4. Some methodological issues in contemporary sociology of BiH
4.1. Problems in the area of quantitative sociological research
The conversation about the problems in the area of quantitative research
in sociology can be taken at several levels - depending, for example, on the
desired or agreed level of complexity, socio-professional milieu, carriers of the
condition and the profession, and the like. It is possible, among other things, to
ask whether the sociology in BiH has reached the level of development that is
characteristic for the level of the profession? And to answer that question, it is
necessary, first of all, to have the parameters by which the profession can vary in
relation to the profession or possibly a semi-profession. According to one of the
theoretical approaches, for example, such a distinction can be carried out on the
basis of the five key determinants:
– based primarily on the degree of development of the basic theories and
techniques that make up a whole and which are the basis for professional
action,
– based on the degree of monopoly on the expertise,
– based on the degree of recognition of the profession by the public,
– based on the degree of organization of the profession and, ultimately,
– based on the level of development of occupationally Ethics.18
Why are the emphasized determinants important? Simply due to the fact
that the methodological postulates in sociology, under the law of connected
vessels, share the fate of the profession and suffer from the same ills as the profession itself. If we follow, however, that regularity, the logical conclusion is
that sociology as a science in BiH does not meet in a respectable measure the
emphasized markers that would have to be raised in order to reach the level of
the profession - that is, more specifically, all those determinants put it on the
level of a semi-profession.
If, however, is so - and at the same time the methodology in the sociology
is sharing the fate of the profession and suffers from the same ills as her - it indeed seems serious question whether the methodology of sociological research
is on the level of semi-profession and even methodological amateurism. If so,
it means that methodology in sociological research - specifically quantitative
research - is separated from the sociological profession. And, also, that it was
developed outside the sociological profession.
18
See: Benjamin Čulig, On some development sideways of quantitative methodologies in Croatia,
presentation at the National Sociological Congress of Croatia, Split, 2007., www.hsd.hr/docs/
split2007/culig-uvodno.ppt
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Unencumbered access of thinking leads only to one way of conclusion - that
such a claim has the foundation. After all, the methodology in sociological research is treated as a kind of a “necessary evil” - that to the chosen topic, which
is a serious, topical and socially relevant, we access with data and statistical
indicators that were obtained “by the way” and from the inappropriate context.
And all this, in other words, is testified in favor of the thesis that with each new
development “step forward”, the methodology in sociological research, in fact,
is recognizably moving away from the profession. And that, again, instead of accelerating the development of sociology as a profession, instead of the sociology
rising to the level of the profession, the methodology in the sociological research
is becoming a purpose in itself.
In addition, after all, speak and certain methodological experiences in the
sociological research. The methodological manuals, are namely, operated with
a few basic techniques in quantitative data collection for scientific inference in
the sociological research - quantitative techniques of examination, experiment,
and, finally, the classification and measurement.19
How, though, are they actually scientifically developed in the sociological
research? Although BiH does not have a database that allows secure execution
of research vessels, on the level of scientific assessment, the Court is extremely
pessimistic. More specifically, in the sociological research is operated only with
one of a group of these techniques - quantitative techniques of examination.20.
This, however, is not the only problem. Indeed, any serious analysis of quantitative instruments of interrogation techniques - ie questionnaires, tests and
scales that are in the implementation of these techniques applied - refers to
the methodological problems associated with the way they were created. The
reasons are manifold - the fundamental principles of logical or psychological
strategies in the design of instruments are not respected, the problems associated
with the verbal wording of the question are not taken into the account, and the
difficulties that may arise in connection with understanding the true meaning
of questions in the instrument, etc. . The reasons for this, of course, can be different - from the lack of methodological knowledge in the creation of an instrument of examination, to on the other hand, the practice of “copy-paste” technology, that is the literal translation and / or the use of “foreign” instruments.
In doing so, and for a questionnaire to be designed in accordance with the
requirements of the methodological field, pre-testing is almost no applied. Amateur is then often approached to the structuring of the sample on which the
19
See: Slavo Kukić and Branko Markić, Methodology of Social Sciences, Mostar: University of
Mostar, Faculty of Economics 2006.
20
Under quantitative techniques of testing, in contrast, involves collecting data using questionnaires (surveys and structured interviews), testing and scaling.
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Methodological issues in contemporary
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survey will be carried out - with the ultimate consequence of the fact that it is
not even realized on the representative sample. Finally, methodological requirements are not compatible nor with the process of the implementation of the
research that uses some of the techniques of testing - testing implementers,
namely, are not organizing the prior preparation with field workers that would
exclude or, at a minimum reduce errors and biases that in them may occur.
The methodological approach of the statistical analysis of the empirical material obtained by applying quantitative methodologies in empirical sociological research is also problematic. Inappropriate is, above all, the use of the “entrenched”
statistical routines. It remains, in fact, at the level of the simplest descriptive
statistics. Beyond that, we mostly do not even go. The more complex forms of
statistical processing - that are completely forgotten - would, without any doubt,
allow answers that from a simple statistical analysis can not be discern.
With regard to the statistical processing is, however, indicative and another
methodological problem - that the resulting statistics fail to find the “hidden”
information, what hides beneath percentages, numbers, the results of crossing.
Often, in other words, there is a lack of intellectual creation, the ability to connect various empirical data and the possibility of drawing conclusions that are
directly still invisible. Indeed. In the interpretation of the empirical is practiced
the logic of the statistical and methodological methods.
4.2. Problems in the area of the qualitative sociological research
Unlike the quantitative methodology, which is based on a positivist scientific
paradigm, a qualitative approach to research means the concentration on the
“narrative description of social phenomena and the explanation of the meaning and significance of certain events, processes, artifacts for social actors that
constitute them or participate in their creation”21. If we realize the qualitative
research in this manner, it is likely that their implementation entails the adherence to certain principles - both in planning the project or research design and
in data collection and field work and data analysis.
Some of these principles, of course, deserve to be addressed in the context of
this type of analysis. Qualitative, first of all, are considered the approaches that
for the case studies take parts of reality, or phenomena that are not accessible to
quantitative research. Such, for example, are the occurrence of which are quite
complex in their properties. Such, then, are also the phenomena that are difficult to sort out as cause-and-effect relationship, in order to then keep one of
them under control while others are questioned. These are, after all, phenomena
21
Srbobran Branković, Introduction to the methodology, qualitative research methods of social phenomena, Megatrend, University of Applied Sciences, Belgrade, 2007.
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which are difficult to measure the intensity or generalize certain findings - such
as, among others, love, faith and the notion of the transcendental way, hate,
good and evil, courage, conscience, morality and so on.
One of the characteristics of the qualitative research is, then, in relation to
the goals they set for themselves. This is not an explanation of the cause-andeffect relationships as in quantitative research but rather a detailed description
and typology, but also an understanding of the motives and the meaning of the
individual parts and events of the researched phenomena, or phenomena as a
whole. Or more specifically, if the objective of quantitative research is finding it
in that which is different, in qualitative research it is just the opposite - seeking
different in what is the same.
What does this mean, and how does the qualitative research differ from the
quantitative is possible to clarify using different examples. Take, for example,
the relationship between members of a community towards traditional values. A
quantitative approach to this research is based on the classification of the studied population into separate groups of people in which they can find some elements of the sameness in all members of the group. Accordingly, the researched
population can be divided into several groups - for example, the orthodox traditionalists who show no interest in newspapers, people to whom the tradition
is important, but are showing some interest in different views and values, and,
finally, those to whom tradition is irrelevant and are prone to constant research
of new styles, new value systems, new forms of life. The qualitative approach
to research is, however, aimed to search for differences within what is approximately the same. In other words, qualitative approach would concentrate on,
for example, exploring the differences within the group of orthodox traditionalists - searching for elements by which they can distinguish them even though
it comes down to a common denominator of values. Or, more specifically, the
qualitative approach concentrates on those aspects of the research that are completely inaccessible to quantitative methodology. It is impossible, for example,
with the positivist approach to explore phenomena such as fear, love, hate, good
and evil, guilt or responsibility, morality, religion and God, transcendent phenomena in the broadest sense, and the like. Because, to explore this kind of
social phenomena is not sufficient the objective description and the explanation
of them. On the contrary, to investigate them a prerequisite necessity is the understanding of their meaning and significance given to them by people in their
daily lives and their relations.
And these characteristics of the qualitative methodology affect and a different approach to other aspects of the research - a different approach, for example, to the standardization of its research project, they are characterized by data
obtained during the investigation, and which are substantially different from
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Methodological issues in contemporary
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those which you can get from the quantitative research, the fact that they are rather than the imperative of verifiability, which is characteristic of quantitative
research - essentially defined by a completely different imperative of the persuasiveness of the description of the studied subjects, etc.
Understood in this way, it is logical that in the function of the operational
qualitative sociological methodology are also the appropriate techniques to collect empirical data - including, above all, content analysis (although it may be
a quantitative technique of the methodological paradigms), case studies, focus
groups, depth interview and, finally, watching. How much, however, are these
techniques used as a tool in domestic sociological research? The simplest - they
could rather be treated as excesses than as regularities of the sociological research. And therefore, every praise would be deserved for the effort towards the
organized effort of the sociological profession - no matter how here was questionable - to pay collective attention to sociological castes.
4.3. Other methodological issues and problems
of the BH contemporary sociology
While with this, the list of methodological issues in contemporary sociological science of Bosnia and Herzegovina does not exhaust, in the context of this
analysis, attention is drawn to two more. One of those groups that deserve the
theoretical attention is, without doubt, the question of ethics in sociological
research - as, indeed, and research in the field of social sciences in general. In doing so, however, must be mentioned how this would be quite wrong, therefore,
for a question of ethics, to be reduced to a single dimension. On the contrary,
it includes the need to question the commitment of researchers to society, questions of their professional integrity, preferences to the scientific deceits, the issue
of resistance to various pressures and external influences, the question of the
protection of human research and identity, the security of empirical data and
information, and the like. In the group of noteworthy methodological issues
could then be found a place and for the issue of a single BH database in the
field of sociology, as well as research in the field of social sciences in general.
Because without that and such databases sociology almost does not even have
the theoretical chances to rise to the plane of the profession. The continuation
of this analysis is, in other words, thinking about the addressed methodological
problems.
4.3.1. Ethics as a precondition of sociological research
There are many reasons why it is important to comply with the ethical standards in scientific research, including research in the field of science sociology.
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Some of them, of course, applies in particular to note. One of such reasons is,
with no doubt, in relation to the need to promote specific research goals such
as, for example, the promotion of knowledge, truth, and avoiding the mistakes.
And these goals, for example, is impossible to promote on the inaccurate empirical data or, possibly, the data that were falsified and are not the result of the
empirical research.
The adherence to the ethical standards in scientific research is, then, important due to the fact that research often involves collaboration and coordination of a large number of individuals from different disciplines and institutions.
Ethical norms and standards, in other words, promote values important for
teamwork - values such as trust, responsibility, mutual respect, honesty, and the
like. Many of the ethical norms are - as, for example, the standards relating to
the protection of copyright - designed in a way to protect the intellectual property of the author, but at the same time to encourage the collaboration.
The meaning of the ethical standards is, of course, to help through them the
construction of a sense of a responsibility of scientists to the public. In this position, among other things, are all determinants that contribute to the protection
of the identity and integrity of the persons involved in the research.
Ethical standards can also be in the function of building public support for
scientific research. It is a lot, for example, likely the existence of readiness for
funding scientific research in case that it is developed the sense of confidence
in the quality and the integrity of the research, but in the case that all of this is
missing.
Finally, with many of the ethical standards in relation to scientific research
are promoted other important moral and social values - social responsibility, human rights, research work that is consistent with the law, health and safety, etc.
Ethical gaps in the research, more specifically, can significantly harm the people
and the public in general.
Ethical dilemmas, whether it is a sociological research, can occur at all stages
of the research process. They may, for example, occur at the very beginning,
at the stage of collecting and using sources of literature. In order, however, to
avoid them, the prerogative is ethical behavior towards other people’s intellectual property and copyright law. And that behavior, in turn, implies an obligation
for downloading each others’ theoretical knowledge and empirical results to be
accompanied by a reference to the source. The obligation of such behavior, after
all, derives from the laws governing intellectual property and copyright. If such
behavior is not followed by, the statutory rules, the most common consequence
is the plagiarism - whether it is the plagiarism of other people’s or our own tests.
And this, in other words, means that the obligation to state sources, exists and
in the case of the acquisition of parts of our own texts, where it is important that
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Methodological issues in contemporary
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ethical behavior excludes the possibility of taking their own texts as a whole, but
it can go only to the extent specified by the rules of the code of ethics.
Ethical problems or doubts, then, can occur in the preliminary design phase
of research. Researcher, however, is not prohibited from undertaking the research project of other researchers. If you decide for that, however, the rules of
the ethical conduct require to be fully quoted the source of the taken project in
order to meet the attitude of respect towards other people’s intellectual property.
Ethical dilemmas also arise in addressing the respondents, therefore, people
involved in the process of research and who serve as evidence to test the hypotheses. How to avoid this type of ethical problems or, however, reduce it to a
minimum? Among other things, it is possible if we respect the right of potential
examinees to be fully informed about the research that we want to realize, if
then, from them on the basis of full information we obtain the consent to participate in research, if it is fully ensured the anonymity of respondents, but also
their consent in connection with the presentation of the data obtained in this
investigation, and the like.
Ethical problems can occur and during the gathering of the empirical data
for scientific reasoning. And they can be avoided only if the researcher while
collecting the data all the time preserves the objectivity of the research, if he captures the accurate and complete data and avoids selective approach in the decision which of them to take and to not lie to the respondents - in order to finally
get them to participate in the research -either in conjunction with procedures
or in connection with the duration of the research process and the like. Finally,
in case you are in the collection of empirical data using a research agency, their
involvement should be stopped solely on jobs of data collection, without being
drawn into other activities that are reserved for the researcher’s creative contribution - in which all the others have nothing to do.
Discussing the six domains of the research ethics, Kenneth Pimple believes
that the ethical concerns of each research focuses around three categories of
care - around the question, first of all, is it true, then, is that fair and, finally,
in connection with the question whether it is wisely.22 First, the question “is it
true” implies that the empirical data must correspond to reality. Otherwise, if
they are fictional or possibly forged, is not secured the criterion of truthfulness and then, justifiably the question arises whether such a science is a good science?
On the other hand, the question “is it fair” involves a number of sub-questions - the relationship between researchers, that the question of authorship and
copyright on the one hand and plagiarism, confidentiality and sincerity of the
other hand, then the question of the relationship between researchers and the
22
Kenneth D. Pimple, Six Domains of Research Ethics: A Heuristic Framework for the Responsible Conduct of Research, Science and Engineering Ethics, 2002. No. 8, pp.191-205
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research subjects (how complied are the rules of the so-called. informed consent, confidentiality and anonymity, deception, the research risks and benefits,
and the like), the issue of institutional integrity, then the relationship between
researchers on the one side and their sponsoring institutions, funding agencies
and the government on the other.
In the end, the question is whether all this is wise, what is, in other words,
the relationship between research and the public good - whether it will more
specifically, all lead to a better world in the future.
5. Unique database as a prerequisite for the uplift of sociological
science to the plane of the profession
Unique database is, in terms of modern science, one of the necessary preconditions of opportunities to uplift the science to the plane of the profession.
This assumption, however, whether it is about the sociology as a science, is not
assured. More specifically, at the level of Bosnia and Herzegovina - and even its
immediate administrative units - there is no possibility of insight into individual
achievement, but also the scope of the sociology of a science as a whole. All this,
again, does not enable the creation of any reliable picture of scientific achievements or individuals, or sociological community of BiH.
What to do to overcome this state of affairs? One of the lines of action is,
without doubt, the establishment of a single vase of data that provides insight
into the individual and sociological achievements of the scientific community.
How, however, to come to that? Modern information technologies, of course,
this option significantly simplify. But in order for their services to be counted
on, previously is required a consensus of the scientific community in the field
of sociology of science - and then, if there is one, and the specific actions that
would be operationally feasible.
It would, for example, have to exist the unique Center for database - at
ANUBiH, the Society of sociologists of BiH, which is yet to be established, at
a third location. It could, of course, with the same aim be taken in advantage
the existing entity associations, but in this case for the same job had to be established the jointly Center for database. All of this, it is true, searches and material
resources, but it would also be the beginning of a new and serious approach to
business that is both strategic and very serious.
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Methodological issues in contemporary
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5. Instead of a conclusion
All pronounced orientation towards the empirical research is, with no doubt,
the feature of the contemporary sociology of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Such an
orientation has to thank the support that empirical studies are provided by the
various international associations, institutions and foundations, as well as the
efforts of local institutions dealing with research and theoretical work - universities and institutes of social sciences and humanities, and individuals in their
compositions.
Despite this, however, are still present many unexplored issues in the field of
empirical sociological research - the question, for example, of the social stratification of the Bosnian society, the phenomenon of unemployment, poverty
and social resistance, the public role of religion, the question of problems of the
old and retired population, the problem of changes in social system, and the
system of values in general, the question of the consequences of the last war on
the social, especially on the inter-ethnic relations, the phenomenon of violence,
alcoholism and drug addiction, sociology of the town and village, the phenomenon of depopulation as a social problem of modern societies in general, issues
that are related to BiH as a transitional society, etc.
There are various causes of this state of affairs - from different developmental
trajectories, which BH sociology had in relation to the sociology of Western
societies, through the lack of financial support for the more serious sociological
research to the methodological problems that the sociological science in this
area encountered.
If it is talked, however, about the methodological problems of Bosnian sociology, they are evident in many aspects of its manifestations - both in the area
of quantitative and qualitative field research. And both of them are directly
related to the fact that sociology is still not able to separate from the level of a
semi-profession, as well as methodological amateurism, that the methodology
in sociological research is treated as a “necessary evil”, and thus moves away
from the profession and, in a way, becomes a purpose in itself.
With this indeed a question of methodological problems of Bosnian sociology are not exhausted. Worth to note in particular are those relating to compliance with ethical standards in scientific research - because of the ethical questions that lurk in all phases of the research process - from collecting literature
and project development research to realization of the empirical research. Because, throughout the whole process, the sociologist researcher himself, in connection with the subject of research, of course, is forced to ask the same ethical
questions - is it true, is it fair and, ultimately, is this a good idea, or whether will
all this lead to the better world in the future.
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On the other hand, part of the problem of Bosnian sociology is in fact related to the lack of a unified database that could serve as one of the prerequisites
of achieving the serious insight into individual achievement, but also the scope
of sociology as a science in general - and thus the assumptions of the possibilities
to uplift the Social Sciences to the plane of the profession.
Literature
Benjamin Čulig. On some development sideways of quantitative methodologies in Croatia. Split: presentation at the National Sociological Congress
of Croatia, 2007. www.hsd.hr/docs/split2007/culig-uvodno.ppt,
Branković, Srbobran Introduction to the methodology, qualitative research
methods of social phenomena, Belgrade: Megatrend University of Applied Sciences, http://www.scribd.com/doc/23863224/Metodologijanaucnog-istrazivanja.2007.
David B. Resniku, What is Ethics in Research & Why is it Important? http://
www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/whatis/,
http://www.poslovni.hr/svijet-i-regija/bih-skupo-placa-nezaposlenost-mladih-253207
http://www.poslovni.hr/svijet-i-regija/u-bih-bez-posla-553-tisuce-osoba-253091
Kukić, Slavo and Markić, Branko. Methodology of Social Sciences, Mostar:
University of Mostar, Faculty of Economics.2006.
Kukić, Slavo and Markić, Branko. (the manuscript for printing), “The methodology and technology of scientific research”. 2014.
Lalić, Dražen and Mustapić, Marko. Research of social problems: White
spots on the sociological map of Croatia. Vol XXXVIII. 2007. No 3–4:
133–149.
Pimple, Kenneth. Six Domains of Research Ethics: A Heuristic Framework
for the Responsible Conduct of Research, Science and Engineering Ethics (2002), 8, 191-205
Tkalac Verčič, Ana, Sinčić Ćorić Dubravka and Pološki Vokić Nina, (2010.),
Handbook of research methodology. Zagreb: M.E.P. d.o.o. 2010.
Vrcan, Srđan. Football - Policy - Violence, Zagreb: Naklada Jesenski i Turk,
Croatian Sociological Association. 2003.
Županov, Josip. Preface to the book, The Young shortly before the third
millennium, in: Vlasta Ilišin and Furio Radin, The Young shortly before
the third millennium, Zagreb: Institute for Social Research in Zagreb,
National Institute for the Protection of Family, Motherhood and Youth.
2002.
38
Srdjan Vukadinović1
The Centre for Social Research
Tuzla
[email protected]
Original research paper
UDC 316.1:930
DOI: 10.7251/SOCEN1407039V
Accepted 20. 2. 2014.
Methodological complementarity of sociology and
history in the study of demographic processes
Abstract
Properly and accurately interpreted historical data over time are the recognition of a serious scientific research seeking their sociological explanation and
interpretation. The necessity of complementarity of sociology and history in
scientific thought is recognized in different time periods based on the scientific
trends and tendencies in these two disciplines. The subjects of the sociology and
history are mostly identical, but the roads that they use to come to findings
are different. Their connection is evident in the unity of different cognitive
goals. Historical studies are based on specific and individual and sociological
on the identification of the general patterns in historical events. One of the
scientific phenomena that can be studied with a considerable degree of disciplinary consent of sociology and history is the problem of demographic shifts,
or processes. Consideration of demographic trends of one or a different social
period falls within the historical sociology, which is a scientific discipline
constituted during the last decades of the twentieth century. The demographic
data presented in statistical or empirical materials are historical records, and
their explanation is the subject of sociological theory. Demographic phenomena and demographic trends have their historical duration and historical
foundation. The sociological studies of demographic trends, and through the
history, and in modern time contribute to defining and determining the demographic structure as a substructure of society. For this reason, within the
study of demographic trends is necessary the methodological complementarity
of the sociology and history as well as to mutually complement each other.
Keywords: Methodological complementarity - Sociology - History - Demographic processes census.
1
Sociologist, university professor and researcher, e-mail: [email protected]
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Introduction
The study and examination of demographic processes and characteristics are
a necessity for all plans and development strategies. A special place in the interpretations, comments and explanations have the censuses. Through the statistical processing is not determined only the quantity of biological substances
in a society, but also its quality. Various census results are the basis for deeper
and more strategic thinking on the development of society and the directions
that should be promoted for their (lack of ) overcoming. In heterogeneous environments, burdened by a conflict between diversity, population censuses are
often politically motivated, since the beginning of the process to the analysis
of the results. The consequence of all this is the subsequent manipulation of
the census results, including the eventual demographic trends that have almost
nothing in common with the political games. There are areas in the South Slavic
ambiance that were exposed to handling events for a time, during and after the
completion of field statistics of the census process. But the present situation is
that, despite the efforts, it is hard enough in most cases to achieve the manipulating counsel through the demographic indicators. And when something like
that does not function, the consequences are the new statistical counting and
the new costs for citizens, the state and society. For the census or other demographic trends over time to be truly and accurately transfered and interpreted
it is required the methodological complementarity of sociology and history, as
well as two disciplines that basically very much use the demographic indicators.
1. Towards the historical sociology
The consideration of demographic trends is one of those phenomena that
can be studied interdisciplinary, with all the difficulties that arise among scientific disciplines in determining and defining the unique theoretical - conceptual
apparatus and the choice of methodological procedures. There is a large degree
and the agreement among different disciplines, and especially between sociology
and history in the analysis and considerations of demographic shifts and processes. This is an issue of sociological, and historical, and economic, and legal
and ethnological, and other disciplines. The analysis of demographic trends of
society, especially social mobility and demographic facts as an element of quality
of life is a sociological topic. However, if the demographic analysis is performed
for a specific period, of a given society, whether it is a traditional or modern,
then it falls into the domain of historical sociology as a discipline whose name
40
Srdjan Vukadinović
Methodological complementarity of sociology
and history in the study of demographic processes
is constructed over the last two decades of the twentieth century. Demographic
studies are one of those segments of sociological science that shows why sociologists are dealing with history and which allows the completion of the methodological and epistemological dilemmas that arise and which exist in the use
of historical material by sociologists. Although a time frame for stronger rooted
historical sociology of scientific developments is taken the period of the 70s of
the twentieth century, some historians (Radovan Samardžić) point out that the
disciplinary determination of historical sociology began between the two wars
and that “Dušan J. Popović introduced lectures from historical sociology.” 2 Historical sociology determines the legality of a society at a given historical period.
In this sense, is achieved a significant link between sociology and history, which
is reflected in an interdisciplinary approach to the study of certain problems.
The interdisciplinarity of the subject of the research of many social sciences is
contemporary, modern tendencies of the development of these disciplines and
the entire science. Many things are connecting sociology and history as the two
complementary disciplines. Sociology in the study of specific topics is using
the historical approach, and history in the explanation of certain phenomena is
applying the sociological approach.
Common to history and sociology is that their case study is human society.
And both sciences are studying the social totality, and all sides of social life. The
methods with which they achieve that and research tasks in this goal are different, but they can be complementary as well. Sociology as its own research method in the study of historical events applies the comparative historical method
through which it considers the concept and type of historical sources, critical
analysis of these sources, interpreting the meaning of sources, internal and external criticism of sources and based on all that it runs the historical synthesis as
the final step of the historical study of some social phenomenon. On the other
hand, history is used in its research through sociological methods and techniques, and in particular through the sociological results. The study of the historical past and historical events is a prerequisite for the study of development.
Sociology is increasingly relying on historical sources and historical results in
the construction of its theoretical and empirical attitudes, while history uses
concepts, terms and results of the sociological science. Such common topics of
study include demographic changes and changes caused by them. In the sphere
of historical sociology enters the study of demographic factors, natural growth,
social mobility, as well as other demographic indicators.
When it comes to certain demographics in the historical period should be
borne in mind that it is socially and historically very difficult to perform and
2
Radovan Samardžić, “The Science in Belgrade“ (1918-1941)“, in: The History of Belgrade,
Belgrade: Prosveta,1974. 320 –366.
41
Sociological discourse, year 4, number 6 / April 2014
39 – 48
identify them. This especially applies to the period of acculturation or so called compensation period after some tumultuous historical events, such as, for
example, wars and social deconstruction. So, if you are considering a process of
demographic developments and movement in the South Slavic society, in the
second half of the twentieth century can be seen that it is on the historical side
quite hard to do. It is, in particular difficult to achieve it with mobility. Inability
of reliable inference about trends and directions of mobility stems from the
unclear differentiation of social groups that occur due to:
a) cultural, economic and historical differences between some of the south
Slavic environments;
b) the interrupted continuity of the social structure of the first Yugoslavia,
caused by the war from the year 1941 to 1945;
c) concept of control - the control system which favored some industries at
the expense of others, where the social sectors in favored industries had
greater material supplies and met the quality of life at a higher level from
social groups in disadvantaged sectors;
d) non-existence and non-functioning of the markets 3
By revealing historical legality of demographic changes in certain historical
periods, historical sociology aims to “provide an explanation of events in the
past and predicting the future events by detecting social or historical laws”4
2. Complementarity of history and sociology
History is much older scientific discipline than sociology. In order for sociology to appear it was necessary to exist the given historical milieu of social affairs
institutions and relationships. Thus, it can be said that history is, in a sense, a
scientific assumption of the emergence of sociology as a separate science. Sociology was able to constitute its object of study only after the systematization
of historical experience and knowledge of various historically known forms of
society. In order to constitute a theoretical and empirical apparatus for studying
of the state as the organization of power of society, sociology had to record scientific and empirical basis of existence of Sparta and Athens, and Rome, and
Egypt, and other ancient countries, that have long been missing from the social
and historical stage.
3
Slobodan Vuković, Mobility and Social structures, Belgrade: Institute for Criminological and
Sociological Research, 1994. pp 32.
4
Karl Popper, “Poverty of Historicism,” in Critique of collectivism, Editor Vlado Gligorov, Belgrade: Filip Višnjić, 1988. 168.
42
Srdjan Vukadinović
Methodological complementarity of sociology
and history in the study of demographic processes
Complementarity of history and sociology was present in the initial period
of the constitution of sociology as a separate scientific discipline. The founders
of sociology advocated for complementation of knowledge of society through
historical facts. In theoretical thought of Auguste Comte and Karl Marx was
emphasized the necessity of a single disciplinary approach for the study of society, so Comte points out that “the sociological method is essentially determined
by the historical approach to social phenomena”5.
A similar view of the complementarity of social and historical knowledge can
be seen with Emil Durkheim. He even used the term “scientific history or sociology.” Durkheim commitment to the uniqueness of historical and sociological
approach to the study of society can be seen from his appearances in the French
philosophical society in 1908, where he reacted to the exposure of a member of
the Company regarding the relationship of sociology and history in scientific
research shelf. In the context of that dialogue Durkheim pointed out that “Mr.
Senjobe confronts the history and sociology as these are the two disciplines that
use different methods.”6 In his writings, Durkheim states that there is nothing
in his sociological knowledge “that is worthy of that name which would have no
historic character ... There are no two methods or two ideas that are contradictory. What is true for the history, it will also be for the sociology.”7
On the complementarity of social and historical knowledge insisted and
Max Weber, Karl Mannheim and C. Wright Mills. From the 20s to the 60s of
the twentieth century, much less in sociology is insisted on historical knowledge
to complement sociological interpretation of society. Thus, between the 1925
and the 1960 the word history does not appear even once in the relevant register
of “The American Sociological Review”, a well-known journal of the American
Sociological Association. That was caused by the trends in sociological science
by which sociology has to deal with the present and history with the past. Cases
of these two sciences are almost identical, but the roads that lead to findings are
different. In the unity of the different cognitive goals reflects and their mutual
connection. History studies what is specific and individual, and sociology seeks
in historical events to discover what is universal, what is an expression of the
general principles.
In the study of social regularities the sociology needs the help of history,
just as history has to rely on sociology. Many authors believe that these two
sciences should develop a unique approach to society with which they would
complement each other. Thus Edward Carr believes that it is possible to “build
5
Auguste Comte, The Course of the Positive Philosophy, Nikšić:Univerzitetska riječ, 1980. p.30.
Robert N. Bellah, “Durkheim and History”, The American sociological Review VI, No. 4. 1959.
p. 21.
7
Ibid, p. 24.
6
43
Sociological discourse, year 4, number 6 / April 2014
39 – 48
a synthetic character of approach to society through a kind of union of the two
sciences,” where, as further is stated, “If sociology becomes more history, and
the history more sociology, it is all better for the both.”8 The idea of the synthetic unity of the sociology and history is also seen with Lucien Goldmanm who
speaks about the foundation of a new scientific discipline that would be called
historical sociology or sociological history.9
Sociological texts which for the course of study have the historical themes
from the 70s and 80s of the XX century are published in journals and other
professional publications in large numbers. At the beginning of the 90s there is
a strong rise of historical sociology. Those years were printed out the first guides
for modern historical sociology10, and according to the division of sociological discipline exercised in the prestigious journal “Contemporary Sociology,”
published by the American Sociological Association, the historical sociology is
classified as a large group (Macrosociology, Social Change, Social Movements,
World System, Comparative and Historical Sociology)11.
It is possible to make the typology of the studies that fall within the domain
of the historical sociology:12
1. the examination of sociological theories in the light of historical facts,
2. the examination of historical phenomena in the light of sociological theory,
3. the examination of some sociological phenomenon by the research of its
history,
4. the comparative-historical research of a sociological phenomenon,
5. the studies of global social structures in the time dimension.
The study of demographic trends in different social periods falls within the
field of historical sociology, as demographic indicators are historical records, and
their explanation is in the framework of sociological theory.
3. The study of demographic trends
Historical phenomena need to be studied, in order on the basis of them
to analyze the development. Demographic factors which are manifested in the
growth of a population, of a society are very important factor of its historical
development, its progress or deterioration. According to the former president of
8
Edward Hallet Karr, What is History?, London: Macmillan and Co, 1961. p.60.
Lucien Goldmann, Humanities and Philosophy, Belgrade:Kultura, 1981. p.7.
10
Denis Smith, The Rise of Historical Sociology, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991.
11
Slobodan Antonić, The Challenges of Historical Sociology, Belgrade: Institute for Political Studies, 1995. p. 47-48.
12
Ibid, p. 49-52.
9
44
Srdjan Vukadinović
Methodological complementarity of sociology
and history in the study of demographic processes
the Sociological Society in Paris, population growth and its density are the main
factors in the development of society and social phenomena. He points out that
“the rise of members of a society is the primary cause of all evolution. The rise
of a unified population leads to an increase of social differentiation, division of
labor and social abilities, facilitating the transport of various sectors of society
and providing a better and stronger coordination of individual actions, and
more precisely and accurately expressing of the unity of the laws of nature.”13
The development of the study of demographic trends was conducted by the
individual demographic factors evolved in the lap of another sciences, not just
demographics. Therefore, in the interpretation of certain demographic moments we need to rely on the explanations of other scientific disciplines, in this
case, sociology and history. Demographic trends of population, as well as some
demographic factors, have their historical development. The interest of the sociology for the development of the population and demographic factors through
the history, and even today is very important, since such studies contribute to
determining the demographics as a very important sub-structures of society.
That is why the study of demographic trends requires the complementarity or
mutually complementing / intersection of the sociology and history.
4. The encounter of the sociology and history
in the study of demographic trends
In the last years of the twentieth century, along with the constitution of historical sociology, there was a growing interest in the demographic movements
of the majority of scientific disciplines, and thus the sociology and history. There are two main reasons for the increased interest of the sociology and history
for the study of demographic trends. The first is that at the end of the twentieth
century in many developed countries, and in some areas of the former Yugoslav
society, there was a decrease in birth rates and population growth rates due to
which with the comparative historical study were studied the values of these
parameters in earlier historical periods. Another reason is that factors of demographic trends are affecting the quality of life, and in the stated period occurs
and the increased interest in the sociological study of this dimension of social
stratify, in contrast to the earlier period when the quality of meeting the basic
needs was primarily considered from an economic point of view.
Areas where the sociology and history meet in the study of demographic
trends are different.
13
Cited by: Pitrim Sorokin, Sociology, contemporary trends and theory, Volume 1, Belgrade: Publishing house Gece Kona, 1932. p. 566.
45
Sociological discourse, year 4, number 6 / April 2014
39 – 48
The first area concerns the data source for demographic trends. The sources of information on the movement of population are censuses. Censuses in
Bosnia and Herzegovina during the administration of Austro - Hungarian monarchy were conducted in: 1879, 1885, 1895 and 1910. Censuses in Yugoslavia
(first and second) were conducted in: 1921, 1931, 1948, 1953, 1961, 1971,
1981, and in 1991 year. The first census after deconstructive events in Bosnia
and Herzegovina was conducted from the 1st to 15th October in 2013. All these censuses are the historical sources for the study of demographic trends. Based
on actual historical indicators sociology will determine the overall regularity of
movement of population development and explain the sociological dimensions
of demographic factors in the structure of society.
The second area was represented by an important and specific historical
events that have influenced the demographic changes. When it comes to Bosnian society we can distinguish five major historical periods that have influenced
the demographic trends: the first from the 1878 to the 1921, the second from
the 1922 to the 1948, the third from the1949 to the 1991, the fourth from the
1992 to the 1995 and the fifth from the 1996 to the 2013. The events that have
met the specified periods determined the fate of the Bosnian society, and they
therefore had to reflect on the demographic changes. Periods have their own
characteristics. Each of them comprises of the three elements of the same type:
4.1. A time of peace in which at any time have not been established the
social balance to match the ruling powers, but in that period were tumultuous socio-political and economic events
4.2. During the war, the devastation of war and the destruction of war.
4.3. An equal number of post-war years.
The most important historical events that have influenced the demographic
changes in Bosnian society over the last 126 years are:
a1) The First Period, 1878-1921
– By the decision of the Berlin Congress, Bosnia and Herzegovina is
given to the Austro-Hungarian monarchy “in order to arrange the
unsettled state in it”
– Balkan Wars
– World War I
– The creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes as the first
country of the South Slavs
b1) The Second Period, 1922-1948.
– Political and social events in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and then in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
– The economic growth to the year 1929
– The economic crisis from the year 1929
46
Srdjan Vukadinović
Methodological complementarity of sociology
and history in the study of demographic processes
– Division, the dissolution of the Bosnian society between four banovinas (Drina, Vrbas, Zeta and Coastal)
– World War II and the establishment of the Federal People's, and then
the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
c1) The Third Period, 1949-1991
– Political and social changes in socialist Yugoslavia
– Intensification of the economic and technological modernization of
the country
– Accelerating the demographic transition when it comes to the prominent declining of the fertility
D1) The Fourth Period, 1992-1995.
– The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina with devastating consequences
for the population.
– The Dayton Accords and the establishment of the new system of BiH
E 1) The Fifth Period, 1996 – 2013.
– Functioning of the state through the two entities and the district.
– The first census in the new BiH.
Complementarity of sociology and history in the study of demographic
changes is imposed as a necessity, because the explanation of the demographic
transition as a consequence of the (non) transformation of Bosnian society can
not be complete if there are not analyzed the demographic trends from the
earlier historical period. Specifics of the historical events through five periods
affected the expression and constitution of the demographic structure as the
substructure of the social structure in the recent period.
Conclusion
Sociology can explain certain demographic phenomena only if analyzes and
interprets certain historical events and movements. Knowledge of a variety of
different situations “that only history can offer” is not only a requirement of the
explanations of demographic trends, “but the requirement to adequately clarify
it sociologically”14. Current status of the demographic shift is the result of certain past events and historical changes, so it can be accepted the Mill’s conclusion
at which any sociology that is worthy of its name is the historical sociology.15
Sociology examines and explains the contemporary demographic trends, referring to the events of the distant and recent historical past using the comparative historical methods. However, the history is increasingly using the sociological
14
15
Marija Bogdanović, Methodological Studies, Belgrade: Institute for Political Studies, 1993. 9.
Wright Mills, The Sociological Imagination, Belgrade: Modern School, 1964. p. 164.
47
Sociological discourse, year 4, number 6 / April 2014
39 – 48
methods to determine demographic changes, and especially for the examination
of social mobility as one of the segments that indicates the openness or closure
of the company. The historical studies of demographic shifts are not based on
the accumulation of the empirical and statistical parameters on the movement
of the population, but on the generalizing the views on certain demographic
phenomenon. Data on demographics, which were obtained by the sociological
methods help historians and history in explaining the historical events.
Complementarity of sociology and history in the study of demographic changes and the processes is necessary, and because these changes are the result of the
processes that are long-term. If demographic trends are the result of the short-term
processes, then they are a result of the devastating historical events. Socio-historical complementarity in demographical sense is desirable and important because
it can make comparisons between old and new society, old and new changes with
which are ascertained and recorded the changes in the social structure.
Literature
Antonić, Slobodan. The Challenges of Historical Sociology. Belgrade: Institute
for Political Studies, 1995
Bellah, Robert,N. “Durkheim and History”. The American Sociological Review. VI, No 4. 1959. 21.
Bogdanović, Marija. Methodological Studies. Belgrade: Institute for Political
Studies. 1993.
Comte, Auguste. The Course of the Positive Philosophy. Nikšić: Univerzitetska
riječ. 1989.
Goldmann, Lucien. Humanities and Philosophy. Belgrade: Kultura. 1981.
Karr, Edward Hallett. What is History?. London: Macmillan and Co. 1961.
Wright Mills, The Sociological Imagination, Belgrade: Modern School, 1964.
Popper, Karl. “Poverty of Historicism,” in Critique of collectivism. Editor Vlado Gligorov, Belgrade: Filip Višnjić. 1988.
Samardžić, Radovan. “The Science in Belgrade“ (1918-1941)“, in: The History of Belgrade. Belgrade: Prosveta.1974.
Sorokin, Pitrim. Sociology, contemporary trends and theory. Volume 1, Belgrade: Publishing house Gece Kona. 1932.
Wallerstein, Immanuel and others. How to open the social sciences. Podgorica:CID.1997.
Vukadinović, Srdjan. Social grouping and mobility. Podgorica:CDI. 2000.
Vuković, Slobodan. Mobility and Social structures. Belgrade: Institute for Criminological and Sociological Research. 1994.
48
Samir Forić1
Faculty of PoliƟcal Sciences
Sarajevo
[email protected]
Review
UDC 316.334.4
DOI: 10.7251/SOCEN1407049F
Accepted 20. 2. 2014.
Sociology of law and the problem
of normative closing the discourse
Abstract
Sociology of law, as well as other special sociological disciplines dealing with
social institutions, is burdened by the epistemological - methodological difficulties in their studies (sociological studies of law). The difficulties are caused
by the differentiation of the institutions in the terms of building self- identity
and autonomy and they appear in the form of institutional resistance and
discursive exclusion. All the problems can be identified as the effect of the operational closure of the institutions and production of the self-description. In
the case of law we discuss the normative closure of the discourse as an expression of the institutional resistance and discursive expropriation. The focus of
the work are the epistemological and methodological difficulties as a problem
for the Sociology of Law, and the problem of the normative closing of the
legal discourse as the cause. The manifestation of the epistemological - methodological difficulties can be seen in several instances : a) the institutional
reactivity of rights as a “social problem” , b) the construction of the identity
rights through the establishment of differences, c) determining the sociology
of law as an external perspective on law and d) the normative closing of the
legal discourse through the effects of conceptual and discursive expropriation.
When asked how the sociology of law can deal with these difficulties in principle corresponds in the end of this work.
Keywords: sociology of law, normative closing, self-description, legal discourse, epistemological and methodological difficulties, identity rights.
1
Senior Assistant, PhD student on the studying of contemporary sociology at the Faculty of
Political Sciences in Sarajevo, e-mail: [email protected]
49
Sociological discourse, year 4, number 6 / April 2014
49 – 65
Introduction
Cross-section of contemporary sociology, as the crown of the Social Sciences, reveals the structure of this scientific discipline consisting of a general
sociology with the methodology and specific sociological disciplines or subdisciplines 2. Contemporary Sociology is characterized by openness, interdisciplinary
and multidisciplinary, reflexivity inherent logic and scientific orientation. These
features make the Sociology the open discourse formation3. However, regardless
the openness, sociology is sometimes faced with the obstacles of the epistemological and methodological nature, especially if its case extends to other field of
science or its focus is on phenomena that express distinct institutional resistance
to any external access, including the sociological. Such experiences have some
special sociological disciplines. One of them is the sociology of law. In the following, we will try to point out the causes and forms of the epistemological
and methodological problems that arise in sociological studies of law. Given
that such research is necessary located in the area of socio-legal studies - which
belongs and in which constitutes the sociology of law as a distinct sociological
discipline, we will primarily talk about these difficulties from the perspective
of the sociology of law4. In fact, mostly we will rely on the observations of the
2
In that way the sociological theory ranks among the special sociological disciplines, eg. in Mouzelis.
Nicos Mouzelis, Sociological theory: What went wrong? (Diagnosis and assistance) Zagreb: Naklada
Jesenski i Turk. 2000. 31.
3
The “new” or modern sociology breaks up with its “naive-positivist” tradition and turns towards
the reflexivity and self-reflectivity. The characteristics of modern sociology are still a tendency to
deconstruct rather than universality and objectivity, the shift towards the humanities, taking a
position of the “interpreters” instead of “legislators” and understanding the social reality as something that is in constant motion, as uncertain, diverse and contingent. Ivana Spasić, The sociology
of everyday life, Belgrade: Institute for textbooks and teaching aids, 2004. pp. 17-20.
Sociology today according to Zygmunt Bauman, is constructed as an open discursive formations,
as a dialogic rather than the monologue sociology (In: Ivana Spasić, The sociology of everyday life,
Belgrade: Institute for textbooks and teaching aids 2004. pp.20).
4
My point of view is that sociological research, understood as a sociological discourse (which
is always relied on specific theoretical or paradigmatic views or takes a special form of sociology,
but in this case, not the sociology of law) can not practice law without the mediation of the
sociology of law. The first reason is the fact that sociology and law are two different communications, two different discourses, although they share the same interests and similar conceptual
apparatus (more in the text). Sociology of law between these communications emerges as a mediating communication (discourse) that allows their understanding. Another reason is that every
sociological discourse without any reference to the sociology of law misses its object in a way that
it describes it as one-dimensional, ie. it describes only its external characteristics and external
appearance - reducing the right to the general normative phenomenon that by its nature is not
different from other rules (moral, customary, conventional, religious, etc... ). Sociology of law is
not only interested in external, but also in internal features of law, it does not have a relationship
50
Samir Forić
Sociology of law and the problem
of normative closing the discourse
Iranian-British legal sociologists Reza Banakar on the methodological difficulties of the sociological studies of law, but also on the reference point of view of
Niklas Luhmann and Pierre Bourdieu.
Law as a “social problem”
If we accept the attitude of Jeffrey Alexander that as basic questions of the
“sociological sense” are the two questions / problems: “order” and “action,” and
if, at least in the context of the debate about the epistemological and methodological problems of special sociology, we designate the “order” as a “social
problem” and “acting” as a “social issue”, it will be clearer to us the Banakar’s
division of focus of sociological research. Banakar shares this focus on two types:
the first is a focus on “social institutions” and another on “social issues”. The
division was established on the basis of the reactivity of the cases, what it is in
the focus of sociological research. Banakar consideres that reactivity is demonstrated only by those phenomena that have institutional properties. Therefore,
as “social problems” are occurring the social institutions and as social issues are
the phenomena that are free to “flow” in the society, which are not condensed
in an institutional way. While social issues include those phenomena (eg youth,
gender, ethnicity, crime ...) that are not characterized by the institutional quality, and which do not produce the epistemological and methodological obstacles
in the study, with social issues is just the opposite. Specifically, in the middle
of the term “the social problem” is an institutional construct, the occurrence
in which is contained the institutional quality - social institutions - characterized by a certain stability of social relationships and the ability to directly or
indirectly regulate the behavior of stakeholders involved in these relationships.
In other words, the social problems are characterized by the institutional quality, which is basically the epistemological and methodological obstacle to the
outside, and to the approaches of the sociological research.5 Some of the social
issues are religion, education, medicine, politics and law, so pursuant to the fact
that the specific sociological disciplines are formed just around the “issues” and
“problems” it could be said that some suffer more from the significant epistemological and methodological difficulties than others and that are for example
sociology of religion, sociology of education, sociology of medicine, political
sociology and sociology of law.
only with its sociological base (relying on sociological theories and views of other special sociology
as well as the use of the methodology of sociological research), but it is connected with the theory
of law. It is not only special sociology but also the science of law (more in the text).
5
Reza Banakar, “Reflections on the Methodological Issues of the Sociology of Law”, Journal of
Law and Society, Vol. 27(2000): 278-279.
51
Sociological discourse, year 4, number 6 / April 2014
49 – 65
The law as the “establishment of a difference”
Thus, the sociology of law is facing difficulties and at the level of the epistemological and methodological divisions of sociological research. Of course, its
difficulties do not arise from such a simple logical operations but from its focus from the law as a social institution. These difficulties are an expression of a kind
of a “resistance” of the law to social research (external approach or perspective
directed towards the law), response to external stimuli. According to Banakar,
the intensity of the resistance depends on the degree of the “institutional power”
of social institutions and it manifests itself both in the institutional and discursive level. If it is about the law, such a closure is called “the normative closing of
the legal discourse.”6 The question is why the law is “normatively closed” to the
socio-legal research if the sociology of law, in addition to the special sociology, is
also the study of the law? The answer to this question is very simple and it is the
answer to the question of how to act this “closure”: through the self-description
of the law as a specific (professional) discourse whose purpose is to establish the
self-identity and the identification of everything else that does not fit into this
identity, through the distinction, the establishment of differences, classification,
division, or coding. All of the noted expressions have the same meaning - the
distinction between the law and lawlessness, legal and non-legal. Identity can
not be established without establishing the differences. In the very word “law”
is contained the principle of distinction7. Identity is inextricably linked to the
autonomy of law as a social institution and autonomy is associated with social
power. At the same time it is the identity of the lawyers. It is the basis of the
separation of insiders and outsiders in the law as an institution, system, or field:
Insiders are the lawyers (practitioners, law professors), while the outsiders are all
of the non-legalists (laypersons, clients, sociologists ...).8
The identity of law
What is the identity of the law? Specifically, what are the facilities of the
self-description of the law as the auto-reference of the legal discourse through
6
Reza Banakar, “Reflections on the Methodological Issues of the Sociology of Law”, Journal of
Law and Society, Vol. 27(2000):283.
7
“Law” in the semantic sense indicates the correctness of the thought (to be right, as opposed
to being wrong) or treatment (to move in the right direction, to go right against the move in the
wrong direction, to go back). At this level, the right shares, distributes, categorizes - what is and
what is not. The Ancient Greek term “nomos” is rooted from the “Nemo” - to split, to distribute.
Pierre Bourdieu, “The Force of Law: Towards a Sociology of the Juridical Field“, Hastings Law
Journal, Vol. 38 (1987): 837.
8
The Same, 828.
52
Samir Forić
Sociology of law and the problem
of normative closing the discourse
which the identity is represented? This is a representation of law as a positive
law which is created and penalized by the state, as the formal law (“black-letter
law”), the dogmatic law, the “substantive law” as it is called by Banakar or the
“legal world”9 as it is called. The identity of the law as we know it today (usually
in our area is called “dogmatic” or “positive” law) is established by “cleaning”
the law of its non-normative content (relationships and values), leaving only the
normative (legal norms), the procedure which in the middle of the last century
came from legal science, from the normative or “pure theory of law” by Hans
Kelsen10. This, undoubtedly the most important authority of contemporary legal thought, revitalized the classical dogmatic understanding of the law - as “the
authority of the experience systematized into the positive law”11, which dominated the legal identity before the emergence of sociology as a separate scientific
discipline. Significant is that the revitalization effort is happening right at the
time of the significant social changes that have affected the greater differentiation of law as a social institution and a greater differentiation of sociology itself.
It is that time that is conventionally taken for the end of the “golden” or classical
era of sociology that ends with Talcott Parsons.12
9
An example of the self-description of the law as “legal world” in a very picturesque way is demonstrating how the identity of the law is constructed through a subtle establishing of a difference between the social world (sociology), the legal world (law , jurisprudence) and the meta-legal
world (theory and philosophy of law). In this sense, is revealed the “realistic concept of the law” of
which the authors talk.Dragan Mitrović and Marko Trajković, “The Realistic Concept of Law“,
Synesthesis Philosophica, Vol. 55 (2012): 166, 169- 178.
10
About “Pure theory of law” and its criticism more in Berislav Perić, “The Structure of Law”,
Zagreb: Informator.1994. 231-249. Also, about the logical-legal and philosophical-legal point of
view on the process of “cleaning” the law, more in Ivo M. Tomić, Legal logical and ethical studies,
Sarajevo: Faculty of Law, University of Sarajevo, 2009. 23-43.
11
Niklas Luhmann, The legitimacy through the procedure, Zagreb: Naprijed, 1992. 11.
12
The classic era of sociology at the same time was a time of a more open understanding of
legal identity. Among the sociologists at that age can be included known legal names such as
Leon Duguit, Maurice Hauriou, Eugen Ehrlich, Herman Kantorowitz and others. Among the
most important members of Durkheim successors or “sociological school” were educated lawyers
(Maurice Halbwachs, Paul Faucon, Emanuel Levy). We should not forget Max Weber who was
educated lawyer and who devoted the attention to the sociology of law in the second volume
of the Economy and Society. In the former Yugoslavia, sociology developed thanks to the theneminent lawyers such as Toma Živanović, Đorđe Tasić, Svetozar M. Marković and Radomir D.
Lukić. Then, in the newer history there are Oleg Mandić and Eugen Pusić. In Croatia sociology as
an academic discipline, was first studied at the University of Zagreb. All of these examples point
to a disciplinary and discursive openness between law and sociology, lawyers and sociologists. In
such an environment of the random communication between law and sociology - the sociology
of law was created (in 1983., through the act “About the Social Division of Labor” by Emile Durkheim) and was founded as a separate discipline (in 1913., Through the act of the “Fundamentals
of Sociology of law by Eugene Ehrlich). Nicos Mouzelis, Sociological theory: What Went Wrong?
(Diagnosis and assistance), Zagreb: Naklada Jesenski i Turk, 2000. 25-29.
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After the (re) construction of the legal identity on the normative basis, lawyers are no longer interested in those aspects of the phenomena that are not
normative, and are begining to perceive in a strictly professional sense as the
possessors of esoteric knowledge and skills13. As Eugen Pusić would say, they
lose interest in each “target functional speculation about right.”14 And legal
practice and jurisprudence are narrowing their horizons to the legal norm as the
dominant element of the phenomenon of law. The combination of this epistemological turn in the law, along with the smaller interest in the law after the
functionalism ceases to be a dominant point of view in sociology - is increasing
the gap between sociology and law, by separating their communications in the
opposite directions.15
Of course, this situation has a negative impact on the sociology of law in
several ways: the risk that, if it is critical towards this identity, it will be denied
the access to the empirical data (institutional resistance), the risk that its insights
will in advance be dismissed based on the lack of the understanding of the epistemological (discursive exclusion) or the inability of sociology of law in general
to release itself of self-description of law, remaining epistemologically “trapped”
in the governing legal paradigms. The latter difficulty for the Sociology of Law,
is most likely already present in the national scientific space16. But if we follow
13
In terms of normative (re) construction of identity of law is Significant the Luhmann’s remark
about the “legal-immanent” dogmatic law: “So far efforts to develop a general theory of procedures under the influence of Kelsen consciously separated themselves from the sociology of law
and considered themselves very legal and immanent. In a strictly methodological sense they could
not at all be addressed as a procedure, but only the procedural law.” Niklas Luhman, The legitimacy through the procedure Zagreb: Naprijed, 1992. 32.
14
Niklas Luhmann, The legitimacy through the procedure, Zagreb: Naprijed, 1992. 11.
15
It was different in the former Yugoslavia, where the academic legal area was dominated by the
integralist views on the law and where the status of jurisprudence (the theory, philosophy and
sociology of law) was affirmed. After the dissolution of Yugoslavia and especially after the war,
particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the identity of the law followed normative form of the
(re) construction, which is accompanied by the loss of the status of the science of law in the domestic academic area. One of the last integral works was the doctoral thesis of Vjekoslav Miličić,
defended in 1990 just before the unfortunate events.Vjekoslav Miličić, Special methods in the
methodology of law and creation of rights (doctoral dissertation), Sarajevo: Faculty of Law, University
of Sarajevo, 1990.
Currently, in BiH we can not talk about the existence of scientific communication between law
and sociology as integration is no longer current and is not the part of the identity of law nor the
sociology of law as mediating communication between them is developed enough to take over
this function. Therefore, there is no, as is evident, the communication between sociologists and
lawyers on important socio-legal questions in a specific socio-legal context.
16
It seems to me that the last socio-legal studies in BiH, as any other sociological practicing of our
constitutional and legal issues (referring to the constitutional status of “constituent people” and
“Others”) are related to the epistemological ruling legal paradigm of the dogmatic law not only in
the sense of referring to the law as a starting point, but referring to the law as a progenitor point
54
Samir Forić
Sociology of law and the problem
of normative closing the discourse
the Banakar’s view, it is not so problematic because it allows the multidimensionality of socio-legal opinion. In other words, if the sociology of law would
break ties with the self-description of the law, if it would develop alternative descriptions at the level of identity rights (alternative paradigmatic points of view),
it would be reduced to a one-dimensional perspective which would include only
the outer dimension of the law as a social institution.17
With this in mind, let us return to the question above: why is the law “normatively closed” to the socio-legal research if the sociology of law, in addition
to being the special sociology, is also the science of law. If it is also in addition
to external interested and in internal dimension of the law. A more detailed
answer lies in the construction of the legal identity as a “dogmatic law” through
the establishment of differences in research approaches, and the division of labor in the law to legal science (internal perspective) and jurisprudence (external perspective), where, according to a legal identity, legal sciences acquire and
privileged and exclusive position of finding “the truth about the law”18 through
coding based on internal / external. First, I would like to introduce this division
as well as the perception of the sociology of law from the law (the theory of law).
After that, I will present the perception of the sociology of law from the sociology of law. In both cases, I will extract the aspect of the access / perspective.
- that it is just a law trained to produce a true solution to a social problem, through its own operations. On the other hand, the above studies attempted to make a small step forward in terms of
the alternative point of reference, but only at the level of the concluding paragraph. Admira Sitnić
and Amila Ždralović, Citizens in collectivist ideology: socio-legal analysis of the position of “Others” in
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo Center for Political Studies,2013.65.
17
Reza Banakar, “Reflections on the Methodological Issues of the Sociology of Law”, Journal of
Law and Society, Vol. 27(2000):288-292. In the same vein Duško Vrban argues that understanding and recognition of the prevailing paradigm in law (which he calls a Western legal paradigm)
is a necessary criterion for the Sociology of Law. Duško Vrban, Sociology of Law: An Introduction
and Historical foundations, Zagreb: Golden marketing-Tehnička knjiga, 2006. 27.
Also, Niklas Luhmann believes that the sociology of law can not be complete without the imputation of the self-description of law: “All the efforts to make the knowledge of law are done in
society. (...) External, scientific description of the legal system takes into account its subject only if
it describes the system as a system that describes itself and constructs a theory about itself “. Niklas
Luhmann, Law as a Social System, New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.423.
18
Therefore, the theory of law, as a third major jurisprudence, is reconfigured into a kind of legal
epistemology in order to maintain its position in the system of law which can only be if it is useful
for the science of law. It also deals with the problem of the structure of legal norms, the hierarchy
of legal norms, validity and interpretation and if it deals with “meta-functional speculation” - with
which, according to Pusić deal sociology and philosophy of law - the result fits more into philosophy (axiology and ethics) than into law. Niklas Luhmann, The legitimacy through the procedure,
Zagreb: Naprijed, 1992. p.11.
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Sociology of law and the dilemma of external
and / or internal perspective of the law
As the sociology of law is perceived in law, how is determined its status?
Considering the fact that was partially created and developed in the framework
of the legal theory ( eg, it is the case of Eugene Ehrlich), it is expected that in
the complete system of legal science (the science and the science of law) has its
own status. Various legal scholars have determined its equal place in this system
together with the legal dogma and philosophy of law - which is the basis for the
division of labor between them when it comes to the totality of the legal phenomenon built of the elements: relationships, values and legal norms. Otherwise, this typology that goes back to Max Weber (sharing knowledge about law
considering the perspectives: external, value and internal), was the most elaborated by the advocates of the integrated theory of law. According to this view, for
example by Anthony Kronman, there are three approaches or perspectives to the
legal phenomenon: internal (legal dogmatics, jurisprudence), securities (philosophy of law) and external (Sociology of Law)19. With Manfred Rehbinder,
what he calls the three-dimensional theory of law, three approaches constitute
different sciences in law: the science of standards (dogmatic law), the science of
values (philosophy of law) and the science of reality (Sociology of Law).20
The local theory of rights allocated the integralist view of Nikola Visković
separating the three approaches in jurisprudence according to the content of the
legal experience: a formal theory of law (jurisprudence, dogmatic law) which is
interested in legal norms, or logical-linguistic composition and technique of the
application of legal norms - formal validity; philosophy of law (or philosophical theory of law) which is interested in the duration value; the sociology of
law (or sociological theory of law) which is interested in relationships - positivity or efficiency of legal norms.21 By integralist understanding, the content
of legal experience includes relationships and values and norms. Those are the
essentials of legal experience that set uniform requirements for all researchers of
legal experience, whether it is about a dogmatist, philosophers or sociologists.22
Jurisprudence, philosophy of law and sociology of law can not be one without
the other because they share their object, and are based on the same basis - a
19
See in: Deflem, Mathieu. Sociology of Law: Visions of a Scholary Tradition. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2008. p. 4.
20
Jean Carbonia, Legal Sociology, Sremski Karlovci/Novi Sad: Izdavačka knjižica Zorana
Stojanovića, 1992. p.9.
21
Nikola Visković, The concept of law Split: Faculty of Law, University of Split, 1976.p.42.
22
The Same.
56
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Sociology of law and the problem
of normative closing the discourse
“specific legal experience that only allows the abstraction of legal reality.”23 The
inseparable linkage between science and the sociology of law at the scenic way in
1907 expressed the famous Herman Kantorowitz “Dogmatism without sociology is empty, sociology without dogma is blind”24
What is on the other hand, the auto-perspective of the sociology of law considering the aspect of the approach? The sociology of law can be seen as an external approach or perspective (sociological perspective on the law), in contrast
to the jurisprudence that grows the inside / internal approach or perspective, as
pointed out by the authors that we mention here (Ervasti25, Deflem, Mitrović
and Bovan26,Villegas and Banakar). Based on this definition, there are critics
of the sociology of law (whether they are expressed as a critical self-reflection
from the sociology of law or criticism that comes from legal science) for which
23
The Same.
Hermann Kantorowicz The Fight for the Legal Science, Belgrade: Dosije, 2006.109.
Integralists believe that research of the all elements of the legal phenomenon is a scientific, epistemological and methodological requirement. On the other hand, the modern legal identity, the
self-description of the law as a dogmatic law is a privilege of the element of legal norms. Ergo,
privileged is the legal dogmatics in the general system of jurisprudence. But as dogma is only interested in the legal norm, does not that make the legal doctrine seem unscientific? It is claimed by
Saša Bovan defining dogma as the intellectual skill rather than the scientific activity. He considers,
as I fully agree, that “the fallacy on legal dogmatics is most spread by the specialists for each branch
of the law on Faculty of Law,” adding that “scientific analysis always involves the non-dogmatic
approach to law, which is for them, especially for dogmatists, a kind of heresy.” Milovan Mitrović
and Saša Bovan, Fundamentals of sociology and sociology of law, Belgrade: Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade, 2009.269.
25
Kaijus Ervasti points out the Dalberg-Larsen division into four perceptions of sociology of
law, which differ with respect to the scope, functions and objectives. In one of these perceptions,
according to which the sociology of law is the most perceived, the task of the sociology of law is
to explain legal phenomena using the sociological methods and sociological theories, namely that
the law researches and explains from the sociological perspective. Other perceptions on the sociology of law are reductionist or directed to the law in the context (socio-legal research tradition in
the United States or sociological jurisprudence) (Ervasti, Kaijus. “Sociology of Law as Multidisciplinary Field of Research“. Teoksessa Scandinavian Studies in Law, Vol. 53(2008), p. 140).
As the sociology of law can not be determined beyond its sociological bases, including reliance on
sociological theories and methods, only this perception of the sociology of law could be accepted
in the discipline itself. This would mean to accept an aspect of the perspective (“Sociological Perspectives on Law”) as one of the fundamental postulates of the sociology of law, whose elements
would then be: a) the reliance on sociological methods and b) the reliance on sociological theory.
26
The part where he deals with the determination of the nature of the sociology of law Saša Bovan
one of the definitions of discipline - as a special sociology - indicates precisely with the aspect of
perspectives, ie. he considers that it starts from the sociological perspective on the law. Milovan
Mitrović and Saša Bovan, Fundamentals of sociology and sociology of law, Belgrade: Faculty of Law,
University of Belgrade. 2009.p.247.
24
57
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the sociology of law is incomplete because of its lack of an internal perspective,
because it lacks the “last step”.27
This phrase, by which is expressed not only doubts in the achievements of
sociology of law, but also in the way that have often unfolded the attempts of
the institutional / disciplinary undermining by lawyers, can be understood in
several ways: as inability of sociology of law to acquire knowledge or to contribute to the “substantive law”, to penetrate into the real nature of the law28, to
make a decision about the law (what is law and what it should be)29, to take for
its subject the self-descriptions of the law as a functioning social subsystem 30
and the like. From the inability to take the “final step” is still noted the critique
of its usefulness and its functions (especially social) for law and legal doctrine.
Although it is recognized that socio-legal investigation can give a contribution
to the knowledge of the law in a social context and legal practice (eg, legislative
or judicial proceedings) it is still not enough to get an external recognition of its
independence, individuality and status. Rather, recognition is only partial and
it applies only to the determination of the discipline as a paralegal discipline31
(especially if it is institutionally linked exclusively to legal studies)32. Somewhat
softer approach have those lawyers who are interested in the “jurisprudential
sociology of law”, and who recognize that the sociology of law can be useful
to law through the performance of statistical surveys or through answering to
certain questions of fact.33
Unlike the lawyers (with the exception of those representing the integralist
view) that usually stop with these criticisms, the legal sociologists seek to overcome the problem by defining the role of the sociology of law to take an internal
perspective, either through the exploration of legal practice (internal operations
27
Reza Banakar, “Reflections on the Methodological Issues of the Sociology of Law”, Journal
of Law and Society, Vol. 27(2000):273; Herman Kantorovič, Fight for Legal Sciences, Belgrade:
Dosije, 2006.106; Luhmann, Niklas. Law as a Social System. New York: Oxford University Press.
2004. 458-459; David Nelken,“Blinding Insights? The Limits of a Reflexive Sociology of Law”,
Journal of Law and Society, Vol. 25, No. 3(1998):411.
28
Reza Banakar, “Reflections on the Methodological Issues of the Sociology of Law”, Journal of
Law and Society, Vol. 27(2000):273.
29
Hermann Kantorowicz, Fight for Legal Sciences, Belgrade: Dosije, 2006.106.
30
Luhmann, Niklas. Law as a Social System. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.p.460.
31
Thus, for example, Hermann Kantorowicz claims that it is addicted to legal dogma and from it
it can not be emancipated. For this reason, it can not be dealt by the social scientists but it remains “the task of lawyers by profession”. Herman Kantorovič, The Fight for Legal Science, Belgrade:
Dosije, 2006. However, at the end of his work Kantorowicz argues that the sociology of law has
value in itself, regardless of legal dogmatics.
32
Mathieu Deflem, Sociology of Law: Visions of a Scholary Tradition, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. p.272.
33
Kaijus Ervasti, “Sociology of Law as Multidisciplinary Field of Research“, Teoksessa Scandinavian Studies in Law, Vol. 53(2008), p.139-140.
58
Samir Forić
Sociology of law and the problem
of normative closing the discourse
and practical experience of lawyers)34, through the use of internal methods of
knowledge of law 35 through taking for the subject of the self-description of
the system, including the self-reflection of the law practice 36, and through the
contextual describing and explaining the relationship between law and other
dimensions of social life: economy, politics, globalization, social integration and
the like.37 To the same purpose serve and the efforts for sociology of law to open
to the critical self-reflection 38 or to be reconfigured as a multidisciplinary field
of research in which it would meet and sociologists and lawyers.39
So, in the law is sociology of law defined as an external access to the law,
as an external perspective which has its own clearly defined tasks and clearly
defined object of study (relationships as part of legal experience). Also, it is a
“bridge” (mediating communication) between legal and non-legal science and
is in general inseparable from the legal dogma, as it is dogma from it. It is
an aspect of an outside approach that makes it undoubtedly useful and even
necessary for a full understanding of the phenomenon of law. Therein lies its
potential. In the sociology of law the aspect of approach wants to expand from
the outside to the inside. While in the perception of theory of law the external
perspective is power, in the perception of sociology of law it is a weakness. If it
used to be a “blessing”, it is now “the curse”. Does it not refer to the conclusion
that the perception of legal science - which is basically the identity of modern
law - is negative towards the sociology of law? That the law is closing towards
the sociology in general and for the Sociology of Law? Expanding the access (in
the sociology of law) is nothing more than a response to the closure of law as a
result of normative construction of legal identity. From its own perception the
sociology of law is defined and redefined in a way that, epistemologically and
methodologically allows it to take the position under the theory of law - to be
necessary for legal science and to provide the greatest possible benefit to legal
practice. It is willing not only to accept the criticism to her by the legal doctrine
but also to “dissolve” from the position of disciplinary constitution to the posi34
Reza Banakar, “Reflections on the Methodological Issues of the Sociology of Law”, Journal of
Law and Society, Vol. 27(2000):283; Milovan Mitrović and Saša Bovan, Fundamentals of sociology
and sociology of law, Belgrade: Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade, 2009.p.243.
35
Milovan Mitrović and Saša Bovan, Fundamentals of sociology and sociology of law, Belgrade:
Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade, 2009. str.237-239.
36
Niklas Luhmann, Law as a Social System, New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.p.459.
37
Mathieu Deflem. Sociology of Law: Visions of a Scholary Tradition, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. p. 277.
38
David Nelken, “Blinding Insights? The Limits of a Reflexive Sociology of Law”, Journal of Law
and Society, Vol. 25, No. 3(1998): pp.414-421.
39
Roger Cotterrell, “Subverting Orthodoxy, Making Law Central: A View of Sociolegal Studies”,
Journal of Law and Society, Vol. 29, No. 4(2002); Kaijus Ervasti, “Sociology of Law as Multidisciplinary Field of Research“, Teoksessa Scandinavian Studies in Law, Vol. 53(2008).
59
Sociological discourse, year 4, number 6 / April 2014
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tion of the disciplinary interface. Figuratively speaking, the sociology of law
acts as “an exemplary child” who has the irrepressible need to satisfy the “always
disgruntled parents” who often treat it “harsh”.
Source of the problem lies in the fact that the legal doctrine accepted the
communication of the theory of law on the definition of sociology of law according to the criterion of the access in the process of “normative closure”, as
well as not being ready to open towards the sociology of law and determine it
in accordance with its self-perception. In other words, the cause of the epistemological and methodological problems of the sociology of law is in its definition of law as external perspective. In the final section I would like to describe
how the epistemological and methodological problems of the sociology of law
are manifested in the discursive level, but I will not limit it only to the sociolegal discourse, but I will take into account the exclusionary effect of the legal
discourse at the moments, when being in the general discourse it comes into
contact with other discourses. In this sense “normative closure of the legal discourse” as the source of the epistemological and methodological difficulties is
the most prominent.
Problem of the normative closing of legal discourse
In paragraph which stated that the legal discourse is normatively closed are
implicated at least two things: a) that in general there is a tendency that the law
in the discursive sense 40 – complex of the attitudes of opinions and beliefs about
the law from the law- closes into its borders; b ) that they are within the boundaries of discourse the only ones who can legitimately participate in it. In other
words, about the law can only speak lawyers, the existence of any legal discourse
outside the law is undesirable and unacceptable. In the context of sociological
research the phenomenon of closing the discourse is characteristic for the social problems and leads to the division of participants to insiders (participants)
and outsiders (non-participants). This division applies not only to researchers
but also to a wider range of entities that operate within a social institution or
come with it in direct or indirect contact. Thus, in the case of law, insiders are
40
In fact, it would be more correct to use the Luhmann’s concept of the operational closure. It is
the characteristic of differentiated functional social subsystems. In the system the law acquires the
form of normative closure. In Luhmann’s the institutional and discursive level are inextricably
linked (such as the structure and operations in the system), as are the operational closing and selfdescription. The normative closure is reflected in both levels (through the operation of law as legal
communications). Normative closure might be best expressed through the view that: “Only the
law can say what is law”. Niklas Luhmann, Law as a Social System, New York: Oxford University
Press, 2004.p.85.
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Samir Forić
Sociology of law and the problem
of normative closing the discourse
lawyers - in terms of the membership of the legal profession (including law
professors, legal theorists and practitioners working in different areas of legal
practice), while the outsiders are non-legalists- lay people from a wider range
of general, unskilled public and other researchers who access the law from the
outside (including social scientists).
The division can be understood as a distinction - what separates the members of different groups on habitual basis and between them makes it difficult
to communicate 41. In the terms of the sociology of law, and any other special
sociology which operates with insiders and outsiders - there are methodological
difficulties caused by the lack of scientific communication, which is caused by
a variety of motives, habitus and practices with each other, no matter they are
legal sociologists (as outsiders) interested in just the internal aspects of the law42.
As the scientific communication is the prerequisite for interdisciplinarity its deficiency can seriously endanger the status of each specific sociology that relies on
the interdisciplinarity 43.
Lack of the communication or rather disabling the scientific communication is the term of the “normative closure.” What exactly does that mean? This
means that the insiders (participants) of the certain social institutions are those
who know the meaning of the technical language or glosses which operate in
the institution as a special form of communication but also, that determine
the meaning of other terms and phrases that occur in the general discourse44.
Also, it means that insiders are the ones who set the limits and modalities of
41
More on the meaning of “distinction” and “habitus” and their application in sociological theory
of Pierre Bourdieu in: Ivana Spasić, Sociology of everyday life, Belgrade: Institute for textbooks and
teaching aids, 2008. p. 292-295 and 297-303.
42
„Sociologist who practice law at the level of practice lawyers estimate as assistants that throw the
welcome light on the actual functioning of legal institutions, the role of lawyers as a profession,
the opinion of people about a particular piece of legislation. But they do not see them as partners
in a conversation about the law, legal norms and legal system” (Pusić in: Niklas Luhman, The
legitimacy through the procedure, Zagreb: Naprijed,1992. p.11. )
43
Such is the case with the sociology of law. In the note 7 are mentioned some examples of scientific communications of the lawyers and sociologists. Status problems that the sociology of law is
facing today, especially in Bosnia where it is relatively recent and still unestablished discipline, are
mainly caused by a lack of scientific communication.
44
This is a particular cause of epistemological and methodological problems of which I can not
elaborate because of the limitations of text. Reza Banakar calls it “sociolinguistic sphere of power
of law.” It is about sociology and law sharing a similar conceptual apparatus (which, paradoxically,
is the cause and not the solution of difficulty for the Sociology of Law), and that the similarity
is what gives the law its particular symbolic power - creating the law as an institution of social
control on one hand and “trapping” sociological discourse in the paradigmatic framework of law
on the other.Reza Banakar, “Reflections on the Methodological Issues of the Sociology of Law”,
Journal of Law and Society, Vol. 27, 2000, pp.286. This phenomenon we mention below, calling
it a “conceptual expropriation”.
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Sociological discourse, year 4, number 6 / April 2014
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participation in the discourse to those who are not their direct participants.
Discourse itself is always facing the achievement of the “truth” of social institution, it includes both technical and general language (ties general for technical),
and develops around the corpus of esoteric knowledge and skills. This can be
further explained by an example. In law, lawyers (insiders) are those people who
know the meaning of legal terms (extradition, expropriation, material truth, res
nulius, dies ...) and which decide on the meaning of the terms that occur in the
general discourse (justice, good customs, damage , responsibility, supervision
...).45 Meanings define the boundaries from institutions and separate the professionals from the laity. Within the limits, conceptual and linguistic constructs
can have “true” meaning, while outside of them these same constructs can be
vulgarized. In other words, the truth is in the institutions and it belongs to its
participants, it refers to esoteric body of knowledge and skills and the participants are supplied with specific competencies that are always accompanied with
a certain degree of social power.46
While lawyers can challenge and problematize the sociological findings and
perspective as both sociology and law operate with similar conceptual apparatus
(social control, order, regulation, rule ...) sociologists can not challenge and
problematize the law because they can not get into the legal discourse.47 The nature of the legal discourse always includes some terms and expressions of general
discourse that are simultaneously interested in the sociological discourse, but
these same words and phrases bound to the structure of legal discourse - linguistic and logical structure of meaning - with which these concepts gain a legal, and
not a sociological reference in the general discourse. In the Bosnian context that
is the case with the concept of the “constituent peoples”. This is actually a sociological concept, but in the general discourse it always refers primarily to the law
by invoking the legal discourse, with what were then binded the legal concepts
of the principles of “constituency” and “constitutive equality.”48
45
It is similar with the social institution of religion. In religion, religious leaders and theologians
(insiders) are the ones who know the meaning of religious concepts and terms (sacrament, jihad,
catholicity, ahimsa, conversion ...) and that decide on the meaning of the same occurring in the
general discourse (solidarity, spirituality, mission, good and evil ...).
46
Pierre Bourdieu, “The Force of Law: Towards a Sociology of the Juridical Field“, Hastings Law
Journal, Vol. 38 1987. Pp.828.
47
Reza Banakar, “Reflections on the Methodological Issues of the Sociology of Law”, Journal of
Law and Society, Vol. 27(2000):273.
48
Furthermore, since the “constituent peoples” are refered to as a collective legal entities that have
exclusive group rights to the political representation in the legislative and executive branches of
government at the state level, and that the issue of the constituent peoples is mostly treated just in
the law, and through the law, while the sociological dimensions are neglected. This neglect is present not only in the general discourse but also in the research, where are far more present political
and legal than scientific sociological research of “constitutionality”. Tying the term “constituent
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Sociology of law and the problem
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This discursive effect we will call a kind of a conceptual expropriation. It
works so that in the common concepts it writes its own more or less differentiated meanings simultaneously extending the self-description of the law on a
common conceptual area (shares it with the sociology; the entry in the general
discourse). When the self-description of the law through the expropriated concepts (and terms), expends to the whole discourse, as in the above example, we
can talk about a kind of discursive expropriation. This effect is not accidental
nor harmless. It has the stakeholder background of strengthening the symbolic
power of law by discursive monopoly (the effect of expropriation) and strengthening the institutional power of law through the monopoly of legal capital49
(strengthening the professional monopoly). Pierre Bourdieu, for that matter,
is completely right when he says that the law is the form of “active” discourse
capable to produce with its own operations its own effects.”50 Indeed, when the
self-description of law, expropriates the discourse outside the institutions of law,
it can create reality through the appointment of reality, “as it creates objects.”51
Returning to the example of the “constituent peoples”, a legal discourse going
into the general discourse and expropriating the sociological, making the selfdescription of the law the background of discursive activity, first converts the
sociological construct into the legal, and then, through its performative power,
creates it as a really existing social category52.
Conclusion
Sociology of law is capable of, so to say, reversing the process. Its greatest
strength is in its critical reflexivity towards the law, reflexivity that understands
the discursive logic of the self-description of the law. Of course, in order to
succeed it must overcome the difficulties stemming from the normative closure
peoples” with legal discourse is not done only through legal terminology but also through, in a
sense, legal symbolism. Thus, for example, seems like the decision of the Constitutional Court
U-5/98 ( “The Constituent Peoples Decision” ) is all about the issue of constituent peoples, from
which it follows that the problem is always approached from a legal point of view (which indubitably privileges just lawyers ) or that the general discourse has a tendency to be formed as a legal
discourse.
49
About the power of law in the symbolic and institutional sense look in Bourdieu’s work on
the law as a social field. Pierre Bourdieu, “The Force of Law: Towards a Sociology of the Juridical
Field“, Hastings Law Journal, Vol. 38, 1987. Pp.828-851.
50
The Same, 839.
51
The Same, 838.
52
About the power of appointment as the power of creation and about the naturalization process
inherent to the peculiarities of legal discourse look at Bourdieu in the same place, p.838-844 i
845-849.
63
Sociological discourse, year 4, number 6 / April 2014
49 – 65
of the legal discourse and it can do if it builts itself into the institutional and
discursive terms, or in terms of the scientific field of “social and legal struggle”.53
For that it is again necessary the institutional autonomy and disciplinary maturity. We should not forget that the normative closure of the discourse as a source
of the epistemological and methodological difficulties is the expression not only
of the institutional force of law, but also the institutional weaknesses of sociology of law.54 Will and when will this situation change remains an open question,
depending on the social conditions of scientific activity. If we talk about the
sociology of law in BiH, its institutional development and strengthening is a
particular challenge, given the BiH specific socio-political context.
Literature
Banakar, Reza. “Reflections on the Methodological Issues of the Sociology of
Law”. Journal of Law and Society, Vol. 27(2000): 273-295.
Bourdieu, Pierre. “The Force of Law: Towards a Sociology of the Juridical
Field“. Hastings Law Journal, Vol. 38 (1987): 814-855.
Cotterrell, Roger. “Subverting Orthodoxy, Making Law Central: A View of
Sociolegal Studies”. Journal of Law and Society, Vol. 29, No. 4(2002):
632-644.
Deflem, Mathieu. Sociology of Law: Visions of a Scholary Tradition. New York:
Cambridge University Press. 2008.
Ervasti, Kaijus. “Sociology of Law as Multidisciplinary Field of Research“.
Teoksessa Scandinavian Studies in Law, Vol. 53(2008):137-150.
Kantorowicz, Hermann. The Fight for Legal Science. Belgrade: Dosije. 2006.
Carbonia, Jean. Legal sociology. Sremski Karlovci/Novi Sad: Izdavačka
knjižica Zorana Stojanovića.1992.
Luhmann, Niklas. The legitimacy through the procedure. Zagreb: Naprijed.1992.
Luhmann, Niklas. Law as a Social System. New York: Oxford University
Press. 2004.
Miličić, Vjekoslav. Special methods in the methodology of law and creation of
law (doctoral dissertation). Sarajevo: Faculty of Law, University of Sarajevo. 1990.
Mitrović, Dragan and Marko Trajković. “The Realistic Concept of Law“.
Synesthesis Philosophica, Vol. 55 (2012): 159-180.
53
Reza Banakar, “Reflections on the Methodological Issues of the Sociology of Law”, Journal of
Law and Society, Vol. 27, 2000. Pp.294.
54
The Same, p.295.
64
Samir Forić
Sociology of law and the problem
of normative closing the discourse
Mouzelis, Nicos. Sociological theory: What Went Wrong? (Diagnosis and help).
Zagreb: Naklada Jesenski i Turk. 2000.
Mitrović, Milovan and Saša Bovan. Fundamentals of sociology and sociology of
law. Belgrade: Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade. 2009.
Nelken, David. “Blinding Insights? The Limits of a Reflexive Sociology of
Law”. Journal of Law and Society, Vol. 25, No. 3(1998): 407-426.
Perić, Berislav. The Structure of Law, Zagreb: Informator.1994.
Sitnić, Admira and Amila Ždralović. Citizens in the collectivist ideology: sociolegal analysis of the position of “others” in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Sarajevo:
Center for Political Studies. 2013.
Spasić, Ivana. Sociology of everyday life. Belgrade: Institute for textbooks and
teaching aids. 2004.
Tomić, Ivo M. Legal-logical and ethical studies. Sarajevo: Faculty of Law, University of Sarajevo.2009.
Villegas, Mauricio Garcia. “On Pierre Bourdieu’s Legal Thought“. Droit et
Société, Vol. 56-57(2004): 57-71.
Visković, Nikola. The concept of law. Split: Faculty of Law, University of
Split. 1976.
Vrban, Duško. Sociology of Law: An Introduction and Historical Foundations.
Zagreb: Golden marketing-Tehnička knjiga. 2006.
65
Dželal Ibraković1
Faculty of PoliƟcal Science
Sarajevo
[email protected]
Preliminary Report
UDC 316.48
DOI: 10.7251/SOCEN1407067I
Accepted 3. 3. 2014.
Profession in front of the mirror
Abstract
Declaring the crisis of sociology in the expressed global crisis and in BiH society, points that the sociologists turned away from the primary task of “their”
science: that in the crisis of the society they have the most work. Because the sociology from the establishment constituted as a scientific discipline that deals
with crises and social changes, trying to give answers to the open, plain and
epochal issues of society. In the fragmentation of the science, from the sociology
have developed a number of scientific (sub) disciplines which became independent, so from them we can hear voices that sociology should - be abolished.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina under the name of “de-ideologisation” in many
secondary schools were canceled the classes in sociology. This annoyed very few
people, and it have not even bothered the sociologists.
Keywords: crisis, sociology, society, changes.
The crisis in which are both the BiH and global society must be a challenge
for sociology, and not the production of a crisis of sociology, as infrequently
is reversed as thesis. As said by Petre Georgievski sociology exactly occurs in a
time of a great political changes and at the time of three revolutions: the political, economic and intellectual (the French revolution, industrial and victory of
rationalism and positivism in science).2 It is officially the start of the Western
establishment of sociology as a science that emerged as a result of modernity, or
as an effort that through it and through the results of its research to influence
the changes in society. Interestingly, the first beginnings of the establishing a
science of society, expressed through the work of Ibn Khaldun (1382 - 1406),
also begin at the time of general crisis, in which at that time fell Arab (Muslim)
1
Professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Sarajevo, e-mail: [email protected]
Petre Georgievski, Sociology as a critique of social change, Yearbook of Sociology, year IV, no.
4.2008.p. 141-160.
2
67
Sociological discourse, year 4, number 7 / April 2014
67 – 71
world. Crisis and social changes are a basic foundation of social science, and a
strong need to investigate the foundations of the crisis and to draw attention
to the underlying causes of the crisis and predicting the future course of its development. That is how the science of society of Ibn Khaldun, “has become an
instrument of socio-historical self-knowledge.”3
This reference to the historical founders of sociology is essential bearing in
mind that in the so-called crisis of the post-modern societies are often emphasized the reverse thesis, which is that the social (Humanities) science is in crisis,
and in the reform of education, including the latest Bologna, before reformers
is another a little incidental task, and that is that in the name of the profitability
and efficiency it should be abolished or minimized the importance of the social
sciences including the only basis of those sciences-sociology. Many “derivatives”
from sociology today have an independent path of development taking not seldom an important scope of the research topic, but also the methods from sociology creating with that the illusion that the sociology is “losing” its research field.
At the very beginning of the reform of education in the developed western
world social sciences are recognized as a “collateral” damage of efficient studies,
the establishment of the knowledge of society, project and managerial ETC
cleanly and only the educational process. Analysis of the crisis of modern society and potential responses for the first time in human history have a global
character and can not be burdened with any partial or national ideology, and so
there must be incentives to seek development of scientific approach in which the
irreplaceable role has the sociology.
This new and reaffirming role should be in accordance with the new requirements of the times in which are surpassed some established and strict divisions
of disciplines. Thus, in modern times, and sociology in developed countries is
increasingly determined as well as the humanities and social sciences. According
to the French sociologist Jean-Francois Dortier in the French universities the sociology, along with the psychology, is at the heart of what is called “humanistic
science.” It is there sometimes added the linguistics and history. In the precise
terminology the social sciences are related to economics, political science, geography and again sociology. As a solution to this apparent confusion (it only
talks about a wide range of understanding of sociology) has been chosen the
title the “science of a man and society.” American sociologist Smelser believes
that sociology by its nature is three-dimensional in its orientation: scientific,
humanistic and artistic. Manifestation of the crisis of social sciences stems from
the collapse of the great ideologies as many theories (social critique) were often
directed towards that “other” thus becoming a tool of political ideology (to3
Haldun Ibn, Muqaddima, Sarajevo: El- kalem, 2007.
68
Dželal Ibraković
Profession in front of the mirror
wards the “opponent”). As pointed out by Vrcan4 analyzing Bauman, Beck and
Gellner (undoubtedly extremely important thinkers of the middle of the second
half of the twentieth century), Bauman stands for sociology to be the first, to
abandon the idea of a “privileged” knowledge, and (self-proclaimed) “the only
true interpretation” that “has right” to declare all competing alternatives wrong;
secondly, that will by the end accept pluralism with all its consequences, including the consistent adoption and pluralism of interpretation or “coexistence” of
the rival knowledge, as a characteristic of being as such, and third who will
refuse to judge on matters of lay knowledge. Bauman expresses fears in the
postmodern of the emergence of the new Holocaust or the Gulag, and Beck of
the emergence of new Chernobyl of various kinds - from climatic, ecological, to
the economic and political. Beck points out the problem of “nationalization of
sociology” (“methodological nationalism”, “container of theory of society”). He
goes further, arguing that sociological categories and concepts should be redefined or it should be created completely new according to researching the reality
and social change. The potential of revolutionary charge since 1989 (question is
whether this was a “revolutionary” charge in terms of understanding the revolution as a radical alteration towards the positive direction) did not carry with
itself, as thought by Dahrendorf the innovative ideas turned towards the future.
With the total collapse of the socialist societies, especially in the former Yugoslavia, there was a strange transitional situation which was imposed more as
an external necessity, rather than a process that could be controlled. Answers of
the Sociology to one obvious crisis situation of societes are more fragmented
and they do not detect the root causes of the crisis with which it has lost its
attractiveness. Many theorists believe that the prevailing paradigms on which
were based the social sciences are surpassed, because it is outdated and obsolete
the idea of society in the name of the idea of subjectivity and social movements.5
It even exists the idea that the society in the form in which was imagined earlier
as a construct of the system, politics, the economy, the state, the nation is no
longer present with the process of globalization. Elias believes that conventional
sociology has the inadequate conceptual apparatus that separated the “society”
from the individual.6 He advocates for a single image of many people, interdependent and sent to each other. It is reaffirmed and modified the idea of a
“network society” (Castells) that with the new special communications and information technology gets the literal meaning. Many authors (such as Cifrić and
Touraine) argue that the ecological paradigm is not only a picture of the crisis of
4
Srđan Vrcan, “Current controversy about sociology: Urlich Beck, Zigmunt Bauman and Ernest
Gellner”, Journal of Sociology, no. 3-4, 2005.p. 164.
5
Alain Touraine, Critique of modernity, Zagreb: Political culture, 2007.
6
Elias Norbert, What is the sociology, Zagreb: Antibarbarus, 2007.p. 10-17.
69
Sociological discourse, year 4, number 7 / April 2014
67 – 71
the concept of modernity of globalizing type, but it is because of the fundamentality of persuasive goals better to treat this movement as a cultural movement.
This new discovery of the “entity” that was once embodied in social class implies
a connection between the “subject - the subject of freedom and community.”
On the other hand, some authors (Zaga Golubović) argue that there is the lack
of research of “Zeitgeist” or mental condition, and mindset that would mark
the position of systems analysis and requires the application of interdisciplinary
sociological and anthropological approach.
Sociology and other social sciences and humanities have not found their
place in the crisis of society, which offered a lot of problems for the comprehensive analysis and it often opened the possibility that some of yesterday only
theoretical topics can be analyzed in true historical flux of epochal proportions (
the disappearance of a state, the disappearance of a society, the formation of new
states , terror and violence, a new state of family ties, forced diaspora, mindset
of the most destructive forms of violence, the new social movements, sects,
religious renewal, orphans, victims of war, the fate of warriors, etc.). About
that states the fact of the lack of the interdisciplinary research, large project
assignments at the state level that would withdraw more studies and give the
opportunity for youth to develop adequately. It is transmitted to the randomness in publishing, the lack of association of sociologists, the lack of magazines
at the state level of BiH, and certainly as a positive example one can take the
issue of “Sociological Discourse” in Banja Luka by the Sociological Association
of the Republic of Srpska and the start of serious discussions through the Board
of Sociological Sciences at the Academy of Sciences of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
However, in principle we can talk about the great delay in the development
of sociology and the loss of the base of human resources and the kind of selfinfatuation in the observation of mirror by existing sociological avant-garde. Sociology does not have the required critical analytics, and when are published the
works in the field of sociology those are more descriptions, rather than analysis,
where there is a chronic lack of the research of BiH society. It is such a random
approach that has contributed that many high schools cancel the Sociology,
and for now is held in four-year schools, mostly high schools. This elimination
of subjects in secondary schools is largely the reason of the reduced employment opportunities for students who have completed the study of sociology.
It happens at other schools where sociology is also canceled, and increasingly
other subjects from the social sciences and humanities. During that time has
significantly increased the number of faculties in BiH who educate Sociology
(first, second, or even the third cycle of education ). This elimination of teaching in secondary schools has elapsed without any response of the profession.
And existing staff of sociologists at secondary schools, and other workplaces,
70
Dželal Ibraković
Profession in front of the mirror
for many years has no connection with their respective faculties, but it is also
devastating from the standpoint of the modern demands of lifelong learning
and training for the new social challenges. It is certain that in the Sociology
and other dynamic scientific disciplines has to exist the steadily improvement
(it is not likely that today exists the scientific discipline that does not have such
need). While through the planned training and seminars in other disciplines
and by pedagogical institutes and through the ministries of education gather
teachers from all professions, it is not registered the case that sociologists gather,
not to mention that there is some kind of a tradition of gathering. Justifying
with the lack of resources, their counter argument is in the fact that other scientific disciplines are not in any better position, so they organize regularly and
have the annual exchange of the new knowledge or at the Congress or the other
often and international conferences. While watching the magic mirror and with
self manner we myst really expect that the mirror is really magical and that it
will solve the accumulated problems and the lack of action appropriate to time.
Both backwardness and lethargy stemmed from the self-pity and the “neglect of
the state” to which in the past we mainly relied, are, in principle, - the departure
of the sociologist from the sociology. That is why we have, with all due respect
to the crisis situation of the total BiH society, at the scene the Bauhman’s proclamation of the “others” - wrong.
Literature
Cifrić, Ivan. “Sociology in a New Social Context.” Social Research, year IV, no.
2-3 (1995): 241- 264.
Norbert, Elias. What is the Sociology. Zagreb: Antibarbarus. 2007.
Filipović, Mileva. “Sociology and the post-positivist paradigm: some cognitive
difficulties of modern sociology”. Sociology, vol. L, no. 3 (2008):251-267.
Georgievski, Petre. “Sociology as a Critique of Social Change”. Yearbook of
Sociology, year IV, no. 4, 2008: 141-160.
Golubović, Zagorka. “Social sciences and our time.” Sociological Review, vol
XXXII, no. 3-4 1998: 265-274
Ibn, Haldun. Muqaddima. Sarajevo: El- kalem. 2007.
Touraine, Alain. Critique of Modernity. Zagreb: Political Culture. 2007.
Vrcan, Srđan. “Current Controversy About Sociology: Urlich Beck, Zigmunt
Bauman and Ernest Gellner”. Journal of Sociology no. 3-4: 157- 169.
71
Vanja Nišić1
Divna Plavšić2
Faculty of PoliƟcal Science
Banja Luka
[email protected]
[email protected]
Review
UDC 316.774:32.019.5
DOI: 10.7251/SOCEN1407073N
Accepted, 15. 3. 2014.
The role of media in the construction of social reality
Abstract
This paper analyzes the concept of media construction of reality and its impact on society. Recognizing the growing influence and importance of the
media in a man’s daily life, it can be said that the media and media culture
itself are an important factor in modern society. The media have the ability
to place information and to provide to the citizens-consumers to accept them
without critical and conscious interpretation and real understanding. An important factor in the development of the media is and technological advances
that contributed to the rapid spread of the media and gave more power to the
presentation of reality and the state of society as it corresponds to the creators
and the “constructors” of that reality. By understanding Baudrillard and his
understanding of the simulation, we will present the impact and role of the
media in constructing the social reality (simulation of reality).
Keywords: media, media culture, the simulation, the media construction of social reality
Introduction
The media are the part of our everyday life and have become the part of
everyday life by constantly placing the updated information, or they constantly
repeat other information so that they make them inevitable, creating an illusion in modern man that he is a member of the “global society” and that he
tends to perceive it , but he has a feeling that his knowledge has been elusive.
The highlight of this illusion is the created “image of reality” in which the life
of the modern man is unthinkable without the mass media. The impact of the
1
Master student in the study group of sociology at the FPS in Banja Luka,
e-mail: [email protected]
2
Master student in the study group of sociology at the FPS in Banja Luka,
e- mail: [email protected]
73
Sociological discourse, year 4, number 7 / April 2014
73 – 81
media on human’s life is much higher in the past few decades than in the previous two centuries. However, the media does not only affect the individual,
but also the entire society as a collective, as a space in which man - meets his
individual needs, achieves interests and realizes (or loses) his potential, talents
and ideas. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the relationship between media
and society? How the society responds to the media activities? Can the company
control the activities and operations of the media? Are the media an instrument
of control of the individual, groups and society? When does it come to coordination, disagreement and conflict in the relationship the media-society? One
of the functions of the media must be to inform about the events, phenomena,
processes and developments in society, and to warn of the impending danger.
Media should mediate between people, groups, communities, institutions and
other social actors, to be the means of the mass communication in society. However, the media, through the explanation and interpretation of the information
“construct” the social reality, in a way that they add to the information some
elements that the original information did not have, that they form information
according to the requirements or the expectations of the centers of power, or
some other interest groups.
Mass media are not only news and information, they are not mere entertainment, and they are not powerful educational tool, they are all that together,
and more than that, they are the instrument of social control by special interest
groups, individuals, institutions and countries. The entire set of social entities
affects the creating of the illusion of the existence of a specific, autonomous,
necessary and “desirable” culture - media culture. The key term for understanding the post-modern media culture is a simulation. As Baudrillard says: “... imagine something beautiful that has absorbed all the energy of the ugliness: there
you have fashion ... imagine the truth which has absorbed all the energy of the
falsehood: there you have a simulation.”3 The question is how does the media
through simulation construct the reality? It all has double vision. The crucial
that happened, is that it was erased the border between the false and true as
well as between the real and the imaginary. Because of the identification of the
process of creating the news, and the process of creating the social reality, the
media can not be considered as a neutral intermediary between the event and
the observer, between the creators and consumers. They actively contribute to
the construction of reality, even when the dominant social institutions through
them structure social and political processes. The media have the manifest role,
to present a reality that is accompanied by hidden agendas and interests. The
media through the manifest intention of informing society (providing not only
3
Jean Baudrillard, Simulation and Reality, Zagreb: Naklada Jesenski i Turk- Croatian Sociological Association, 2001. p. 131.
74
Vanja Nišić et al.
The role of media in the construction of social reality
information, but also some forms of entertainment), actually latently construct
the reality according to their intentions, or intentions of some, visible or hidden, social entities, through manipulating human needs (safety, security, livelihood, promotion, development, competition) and through them they control
the individuals and groups.
In the continuation of this paper we want to show how the media culture
is formed, and how it becomes the basis, the matrix or the episteme (Foucault)
from which are played the instruments and techniques with which is constructed the “media reality” as a social reality, the necessity and the path with no
alternative. Media instead of helping the emancipation of the contemporary
man, significantly affects the “colonization” of his “world of life” (Habermas).
The underlying theme in this brief analysis will be the views of Baudrillard,
Chomsky and Kellner.
The impact of technology on media culture
Communication technologies have performed a silent revolution in which
information, entertainment and culture reached a high degree of usability in
everyday human life. Increasingly present digitization begins a new era of global
communication. Progress and development of technology has influenced how
the society as a whole, as well as the development and impact of the media in
society. The development of media, from the first newspapers, through radio,
television, to the Internet has contributed to the growing influence of media
on human life, especially through the merger of words, symbols, images and
sounds into a single unit, a message or a new media product. Audio and visual
illustrations contributed to the greater influence of the media and more efficient
implementation of their goals. The development of technology has allowed faster flow of the information simply because the information flow does not know
boundaries. The rapid flow of information from one end of the globe to another
is facilitated by the development of technology because of the fact that for the
transfer of certain information now takes much less time than before. The camera allows us to discover in real time what is happening on the other side of the
world at the same time. Information has become a commodity like any other,
but the question is how from the large amount of information which are present on a daily basis to choose, the right information? Respecting their motto:
“faster, cheaper and more flexible”4, media carry out their goals by manipulating
individuals and social groups. The media in each of us encourage the obsession
4
Francis Ball, The power of the media, Belgrade: Clio, 1997. p. 45.
75
Sociological discourse, year 4, number 7 / April 2014
73 – 81
for technology that we increasingly adopt as necessary. Almost all sources of
information are united and guided by the same goal and that is to seduce the
consumer, mislead the reader, entice the advertisers.5 The impact of the message
sent by the media, its power to attract an audience (ie the whole society) and
to keep it together as long as possible, is the ultimate goal of the media. Media
follow us always and everywhere. All modern technical means, through their
“applications” are used to keep us in touch with the media (android phones,
tablet computers, lap tops, MP3/4/5 players; soon and wrist watches, sunglasses
and bracelets). Wherever we are and whatever we do, we can keep track of media
products: news, series, political shows, talk shows and reality shows programs.
Techniques and technology have helped the media to “occupy” our life. Modern
man has become a media person, or a man of the media application.
Media culture
After the advent of media culture, images, sounds and performances are beginning to participate in creating the content of everyday life, they begin to
dominate our leisure time, to shape the political views and social behavior, and
to provide material upon which people shape their own identity. Products such
as radio, television, film and other products of industrial culture provide the
forms on the basis of which we determine what it means to be male or female,
successful or unsuccessful, powerful or weak. As said by Kellner, media culture
participates in the formation of dominant understandings of the world and the
highest values, it defines what is considered good or bad, positive or negative,
moral or evil.6 Media culture is a form of commercial activities (culture) which
should attract the private profit created in a huge corporations whose goal is
even greater accumulation of capital. Media culture is also a culture of high
technology, which applies the latest technological advances.7 It is an important
area of the economy, one of its most profitable segments, and one that is gaining the global importance. Media culture is a form of techno-culture, which
combines culture and technology into new forms and configurations, creating
the new types of societes in which media and technology are becoming its main
organizing principles. We are witnessing that in the last 20 years has more and
more developed technology in order to save us as much time, and yet we have
less time than ever before. It seems that we are becoming slaves to the technol5
6
7
The Same, p.46.
Douglas Kellner, Media Culture, Belgrade: Clio, 2004. p. 5.
Douglas Kellner, Media Culture, Belgrade: Clio, 2004. p.6.
76
Vanja Nišić et al.
The role of media in the construction of social reality
ogy that was supposed to liberate us and make our lives more meaningful, creative and enjoyable.
After the “end of history” that was, a few years ago, prematurely announced
by Francis Fukuyama, what is now “realistically” showed is the appeal of “the
end of the space,” a small planet floating in the electronic ether of our modern
means of communication (telecommunications).8 At the beginning of the 19th
century, many scholars such as Edgar Poe, predicted that technology will occupy
more and more space in the life of an individual, and that it will be transformed
from a mediator and an instrument in human communication with society
and nature, to the factor of dominance over him, his freedom and autonomy.
“While man was strutting and playing the role of God, the infantile stupidity
hit him, technology has reached its ‘highest level’ and threw off from its perch
the chains which took the minds of those who created it.”9 Media culture is a
technical and commercialized culture. In other words, media culture is a technical simulation, illusion, deception, delusion and surrogate of the true human
culture, the culture that raises its spiritual level and which is the basis of human
communication and interaction in society and nature.
The media construction of reality
In developed democracies, says Chomsky, people can most effectively be
controlled by controlling the mind. Thoughts can easily be realized into the
works and it is therefore necessary the more control. Chomsky believes that the
media play a crucial role in the system of indoctrination, together with educational institutions. How is this system of indoctrination the one that teaches
us how to behave and what to think, such things can be seen if we follow the
media and try to understand their structure. The structure of the media is very
similar to other structures, aimed at producing intellectual and business elites
that will support the interests of powerful groups and individuals.10 Thus, the
production of “responsible” (“appropriate”) people who need to take in their
own hands, mechanisms and instruments of control of the whole society. The
question is who are those responsible people? They have a certain power, actively participate in political life, they negotiate candidates for the elections, and
deeply indoctrinated, control, or at least try to control the “bewildered herd
of passive observers,” in the words of Walter Lippmann. Those people become
8
Paul Virilio, Information bomb, Novi Sad: Svetovi, 2000. p.12.
Cited by: Paul Virilio, Information bomb (La Bombe Informatiqe), Novi Sad: Svetovi, 2000. p. 99.
10
Noam Chomsky, Media, Propaganda and the System, Zagreb: The Society for the Promotion of
literature on the new media, 2003. p. 9.
9
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Sociological discourse, year 4, number 7 / April 2014
73 – 81
(both individually and as members of various groups) “constructors” of social
reality, and the everyday reality. They introduce and implement the “dictatorship of Reality” (Baudrillard).
Picture of reality that is displayed (designed, produced) by the media is
fragmented, one-sided, with no alternative, often in contradiction with the
real problems and difficulties that people have in modern society. Problems of
“small” people media regularly omit, but if they choose to mention them, those
are usually meaningless things related to the attitudes and behavior of their governments and “masters.” What appears as a problem is that an individual can
hardly discover and find out the truth, because there is no access to the alternative sources of information which belong to the field of the rule of powerful
corporations in which chains are generally the largest and the most influential
media. Alternative sources are necessary if we want to know the true essence of
the problem, ie, the latent dimension of a phenomenon, process or relationship.
The media, are mostly in the service of large corporations with which they
form the top of the power structure and the dominance of the private economy
(as opposed to public), which in turn, together, represents a great tyrannical
structure of the global pyramid of power, which creates Reality and imposes it.
For example, a newspaper owned by one of the global potentates performes the
selection and processing of certain information and takes care that only certain
things come into the public. Socializing role of elite education system teaches
that there are certain things that are not desirable to talk about and certain
thoughts that are not acceptable, and if you do not adapt to that, you will find
yourself outside the system that protects and guides. For example, The New
York Times is one corporation that cares about how to better sell their products.11 This product is represented by the privileged people who need to be sold
to the market, and the market are the market advertisers, ie. other corporations.
Whether on TV, in newspapers or any other media, they sell audiences to other
corporations. A state that can not control people by force (because it simulates
democracy), is controlling their thoughts. The way to control the thoughts,
ideas and attitudes of people is to create the illusion of a running discussion
(dialogue), but what needs to be ensured is that the discussion stays within certain (given and constructed) limits. Therefore, it must be ensured that both sides
in the debate adopt certain assumptions that are essentially a specific advertising
system. The question is who are the leaders of this propaganda? It is a privileged
educated elite (journalists, political, military and economic analysts, academics,
leaders of the Institute, experts in public relations), which has the task of creat11
Noam Chomsky, Media, Propaganda and the System, Zagreb: The Society for the Promotion of
literature on the new media, 2003. 17.
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Vanja Nišić et al.
The role of media in the construction of social reality
ing a certificate that ensures effective management by the consent of the public,
the masses, the citizens and all other consumers of the media products.
A particular problem is that there are only few of those who criticize this
view and this state in media culture. The media tend to be closer to the state
institutions and ruling elites, because they want the access to the classified information, and a way to achieve this is to play a game that involves covering up
the truth and serving the country in a way that suits it. In this way, we have an
impression that the real function of the media is covering up what is really happening in the State, society or the world? The problem is much more complex.
State, politics and government are becoming another important lever (including
the corporations) of the media constructions of reality and the imposition of
the existing reality. The media today through a variety of entertainment programs, reality shows and spectacles are distancing citizens from the possibility of
understanding the real problems in the world (poverty, risks, financial slavery,
“colonization” of the human body). One of the main goals of the ideological
system is diverting attention from the true intentions of government and focusing on marginal issues. “The way the government is defending is that any
critical analysis the institution calls the conspiracy theory.”12 However, the question is in what extent is accurate to call that the “conspiracy theory”? In order
for something to be termed the theory, or in this case the conspiracy theory is
necessary to pass a complex scientific process that involves the discovery, understanding, explanation, prediction and knowledge, and all of this through a
variety of discourses and theoretical disputes. If we call a conspiracy the theory,
it would bring into question the meaning of the theory because the theory can
not be accessed by anyone who is not scientifically trained for its presentation.
“Conspiracy theory” is an instrument used by the media for their manipulation
and handling of the citizens in the form of spreading fear of someone or something. Conspiracy is the practice of power and force of specific actors in society.
Thus, the “conspiracy theory” becomes an instrument of the media construction
of reality, very suitable for use by the government and various political entities.
Baudrillard suggests that the media are the monopoly of elites currently in
power that turn them in its own favor. It just justifies the assumption that the
freedom of the media is increasingly under threat. Mass media are inherent to
produce the non-communication (if we determine the communication as the
exchange, reciprocal space of speech and answers, some kind of the responsibility, but not psychological, moral responsibility, but a personal relationship to
12
Noam Chomsky, Media, Propaganda and the System, Zagreb: The Society for the Promotion of
literature on the new media, 2003. 78.
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Sociological discourse, year 4, number 7 / April 2014
73 – 81
each other in the exchange).13 Overall creativity of the media is based on the fact
that they are the ones who always prohibit the answers, prevent the exchange
process, except in the form of simulation of the responses, which are themselves
involved in the process of sending, which further enhances the one-sided communication. That is their true abstraction and on that abstractionit is based a
system of social control and power. The power is in the hands of the one who
can give and to whom can be returned.14 To give and act in a way that to you
can not be returned means to interrupt sharing in your own favor, and to establish a monopoly: the social process is thus unbalanced. Equally, is in the field of
media: they speak and act in a way that they can never be answered. They bring
‘revolution’ in the lives of people regardless of their content, ie. its very own
technological structure. Media is controlled by the government and therefore
the government through the media constitutes and controls the everyday phenomena that are represented to the population. In its current form means such
as television or film can not serve the communication, they are an obstacle. They
do not leave room for any interaction between the sender and the receiver of the
message. Perfect shape of simulations for the media is that the answer is contained in the issue, it is pre-determined. Baudrillard says that the simulacrum is
not that which conceals the truth, but what conceals the absence of the truth.15
The media in a latent way conceal the truth by not allowing the two-way communication between them and the audience, and social actors.
Conclusion
Often the question is what is the real function of the media? The manner
in which power is defended is calling any critical analysis a “conspiracy theory.”
Calling it a conspiracy theory is simply part of the efforts to prevent seeing the
world as it is. Through a variety of entertainment programs media are trying to
cover up the real problems in society. It is much easier to place the audience an
entertaining show than to deal with the serious issues of everyday life. To conceal and cast aside the problem is much easier than a serious approach to solve it.
What is also a problem of a modern man (instead of the former problem of lack
of the information), is dealing with a variety of information due to the excessive
number of received information, and of course the reliability and veracity of
13
Jean Baudrillard, Simulation and Reality, Zagreb: Naklada Jesenski i Turk- Croatian Sociological Association, 2001. 32
14
Jean Baudrillard, Simulation and Reality, Zagreb: Naklada Jesenski i Turk- Croatian Sociological Association, 2001. 32.
15
Jean Baudrillard, The Pact of Lucidity or The Intelligence of the Evil, Belgrade: Aripelag, 2009. 19.
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The role of media in the construction of social reality
the information. The man is “overwhelmed” with the information and fails to
select, understand and use them. Also, one of the problems that arises is what
happens to those who choose to work independently and in good faith? Anyone
who decides on that move is suggested that he “turned from the right path,” the
path that was imposed by the high social subjects who decide what and how
much will be sent to the public. The message is simple: either you play by our
rules or you are out of the game! All those who play by the rules are privileged,
and any opposition narrows the future possibilities for the actors. As long as
you are obedient, humble and disciplined, you can get far on the social and
ideological rankings. We believe that in such a system, an individual can hardly
come to the fore as a subject, but only as a pawn of the ruling elite, or in other
words, a simulation by the system. As soon as freedom is restrained, hampered is
creativity, independent decision, and therefore the truth, which again gives the
advantage to the simulation. If we live in the world of simulation, as Baudrillard
says, do we need to think in that direction? Does our society in general has more
room for the true or the energy of the false is prevalent?
Literature
Baudrillard, Jean, Simulation and Reality. Zagreb: Naklada Jesenski i TurkCroatian Sociological Association, 2001.
Baudrillard, Jean. The Pact of Lucidity or The Intelligence of the Evil. Belgrade:
Aripelag, 2009.
Chomsky, Noam. Media, Propaganda and the System. Zagreb: The Society
for the Promotion of literature on the new media, 2003.
Eriksen, T. Hilan. The Tyranny of the Moment-Fast and Slow Time in the Information Society. Belgrade: Ljubiša Rajić. 2003.
Kellner, Douglas. Media Culture. Belgrade: Clio. 2004.
Virilio, Paul. Information bomb. Novi Sad: Svetovi. 2000.
Ball, Francis. The power of the media. Belgrade: Clio. 1997.
Marinković, Dušan. The Construction of Social Reality in Sociology. Novi Sad:
Prometej. 2006.
81
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Instructions for authors
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INSTRUCTION FOR THE CATEGORIZATION
OF SCIENTIFIC WORK
The works, by nature, must be scientific. Categorization of research papers is
determined by the following categories:
a) Original scientific paper is one in which the work was first published article on the results of the research generated by applying scientific methods. The text should allow recovery of research and that the facts can be
verified. Working as a rule should be organized according to the scheme
IMRAD (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion).
b) Review article makes a synthesis of views arising from recent works
about a particular subject area, developed as compression, analysis, synthesis and evaluation in order to show the regularity, regulation, trend, or
the causal relationship in connection with the phenomena studied - work
that has genuine detailed and critical review of the research problem or
area in which the author made a contribution.
c) Short or preliminary announcement is an original scientific paper but a
full format of the preliminary small-scale or character in which some ele-
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ments IMRAD and can be omitted - it is a concise presentation of results
of completed original research work or work which is still in progress.
d) Scientific criticism / debate / review is a discussion on a particular scientific topic based solely on scientific arguments, in which the author
proves the validity of certain criteria / opinion, that confirms or refutes
the findings of other authors.
86