Rationality in social science: Foundations, norms, and prosociality

The concept of rationality and its significance for theory and empirical research in social science are key topics of scholarly discussion. In the tradition of an analytical as well as empirical approach in social science, this volume assembles novel contributions on methodological foundations and basic assumptions of theories of rational choice. The volume highlights the use of rational choice assumptions for research on fundamental problems in social theory such as the emergence, dynamics, and effects of social norms and the conditions for cooperation and prosociality. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2021.

Social class, COVID-19 and care: Schools on the front line in Ireland during the COVID-19 pandemic

Schools have a duty of care to children that extends beyond educational performance to include wellbeing and welfare. Yet, research has highlighted the tensions that arise when ‘care' and ‘learning' are treated as binaries, especially when schools operate within unequal socio-­economic conditions. Extended COVID-19 school closures brought these issues into sharp relief, highlighting the central role of schools as a front line service in the lives of poorer children. This paper provides qualitative insights into the classed experiences of extended school closure and the role and response of schools through the eyes of parents, teachers and principals in Ireland. We frame these responses in the context of the provision of a careful education, exploring the role of normative and affective relations in teaching and learning. Questions are posed in relation to schools as care regimes and the ‘mission creep' between educational and welfare provision in schools serving poorer children. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

‘Welcome to a Coronavirus production': Beyond Bows and Arrows' Indigenous on-air community-building during lockdown

This article examines intertribal community-building in Indigenous-produced radio show Beyond Bows and Arrows, broadcast since 1983 in Dallas, Texas, and explores ways in which on-air Indigenous articulations function as acts of resurgence in turn reinforcing an Indigenous internationalism. In this critical exploration, I draw on Beyond Bows and Arrows (BBAA) content broadcast between April and June 2020. I analyse components of the radio sound text such as in-studio talk;discussion topics;music selection and verbal segues;and station-produced informational Public Service Announcements (PSAs);and identify recurring preoccupations over three months of weekly programming during the pandemic's first lockdown. In particular, I consider BBAA's foregrounding of pandemic protocols, calls for Census 2020 participation and Black Lives Matter solidarity at the start of the unsettled yet generative 2020 summer and examine how these articulations coalesce into an on-air structure of feeling which in turn embodies the show's ongoing decolonizing project. © The Author(s) 2022.

How Norms Emerge from Conventions (and Change)

Social norms regulate our behavior in a variety of mundane and far-reaching contexts, from tipping at the restaurant to social distancing during a pandemic. However, how social norms emerge, persist, and change is still poorly understood. Here the authors investigate experimentally whether spontaneously emerging behavioral regularities (i.e., conventions) gain normativity over time and, if so, whether their normative underpinning makes them resistant to changes in economic incentives. To track the coevolution of behavior and normativity, the authors use a set of measures to elicit participants' first- and second-order normative beliefs and their (dis)approval of other participants' behaviors. The authors find that even in the limited duration of their lab experiment, conventions gain normativity that makes these conventions resistant to change, especially if they promote egalitarian outcomes and the change in economic incentives is relatively small. These findings advance our understanding of how cognitive, social and economic mechanisms interact in bringing about social change.

‘Welcome to a Coronavirus production’: Beyond Bows and Arrows’ Indigenous on-air community-building during lockdown

This article examines intertribal community-building in Indigenous-produced radio show Beyond Bows and Arrows, broadcast since 1983 in Dallas, Texas, and explores ways in which on-air Indigenous articulations function as acts of resurgence in turn reinforcing an Indigenous internationalism. In this critical exploration, I draw on Beyond Bows and Arrows (BBAA) content broadcast between April and June 2020. I analyse components of the radio sound text such as in-studio talk;discussion topics;music selection and verbal segues;and station-produced informational Public Service Announcements (PSAs);and identify recurring preoccupations over three months of weekly programming during the pandemic's first lockdown. In particular, I consider BBAA's foregrounding of pandemic protocols, calls for Census 2020 participation and Black Lives Matter solidarity at the start of the unsettled yet generative 2020 summer and examine how these articulations coalesce into an on-air structure of feeling which in turn embodies the show's ongoing decolonizing project. © The Author(s) 2022.

Proposing the safe and brave space for organisational environment: including trans* and gender diverse employees in institutional gender diversification

Purpose>The purpose of this paper is to explore an alternative strategy to decrease disadvantaging gender binarism and cis-normativity in an organisational context by including trans* and gender diverse (TGD) employee voices through the development of a safe and brave space (S&BS).Design/methodology/approach>This conceptual paper discusses the potential construction of S&BS and the possible integration as well as requirements of it into an organisational environment. The elaborated theoretical underpinning of a queering approach is used to build the foundation and the design of a potential successful implementation.Findings>Current diversity management strategies are repeatedly reported as inadequate to tackle the issue of gender binarism and cis-normativity or even to reinforce them via various strategies. The integration of S&BS could offer cis as well as TGD people an opportunity to participate in the development of organisational structures and managerial decision-making within a democratic and empowering environment. Managing gender with the support of TGD employees may increase inclusion, equity and diversity of gender in management and organisation.Originality/value>Although much of the management and organisational literature accepts the concept of gender binarism and cis-normativity, the integration of TGD employee voices through the adaptation of S&BS from an educational context into organisational management has not been explored.

Our Common Post-Covid-19 Pandemic Future: A Return to “Normal” or a Creation of the New “Normal”?

The goal of this paper is to reflect on our common post-Covid-19 future. To do so, we first examine our present pandemic situation in terms of the pairs of the correlated concepts: peace and war, and the normal and the abnormal. We then proceed to analyze the dual aspect of the concept of normal: its descriptive as well as its normative side. In doing so, we consider the ethical views of Immanuel Kant, Nicolai Hartmann, Fritz Jahr, and Paul Ricoeur;their views help but do not lead to the solution we find satisfactory. Upon further examination, we come to the realization that our problems with understanding our present and with anticipating our future seem to be ultimately related to our struggle to establish a ground on which both the descriptive and normative aspects of the concept of “normal” can be satisfactorily founded. Our suggestion is that this problem may be solved by understanding what is normal in terms of health, understood as balance and as finding a proper measure in everything we do. Our common post-Covid-19 future should be centered on our renewed commitment to the promotion of physical and mental, as well as individual, social, and environmental health. We thus set a stage for further development of an ethics of health. © Predrag Cicovacki and Natacha Salomé Lima.

Appealing to the senses: Approaching, sensing, and interacting at the market's stall

Sensorial access to products in shop encounters constitutes a crucial aspect of the appeal to customers. This paper examines sensorial engagements with products in a specific ecology (outdoor markets) with a focus on the possible (pre)opening of a shop encounter. When passers-by stroll from one stand to another, open to local findings, unplanned discoveries, and emergent opportunities to buy, they orient to the sensory appeal of the products, becoming possible customers, stopping in front of a counter and engaging in a social interaction with sellers and other customers. The analysis focuses on multisensoriality in action, studying how customers and sellers treat the sensorial qualities of the products, the relevance of the sensory engagement of the customer with their materiality, and their involvement in the social encounter with the seller, including normative expectations related to sensing and buying. It includes a discussion of how under Covid-19 sensorial access to products was restricted and the sensorial, interactional, normative, and economic consequences of these restrictions. Based on video recordings of market encounters, and on an ethnomethodological and conversation analytic approach of multimodality and multisensoriality, the paper reflects on how appealing to the senses of sight, touch, smell, and taste is methodically orchestrated, and its consequences for the interaction with the seller, the sensorial experience, and the economic transaction.

‘Our Hearts Through Our Voices’: Community Building in Hopi Radio During COVID-19

This article considers and seeks to amplify the community-building work of Hopi radio during the pandemic, exploring ways in which tribally-specific production practices at Hopi station KUYI FM exemplify and communicate Hopi values of compassion, empathy and resilience. In this exploration, I draw on radio practitioner perspectives and community-facing content, utilizing Indigenous concepts to analyse how KUYI’s production practices comprise ‘acts of resurgence’ (Corntassel 2012, Betasamosake Simpson 2017) as place-based practices produced within and emerging from a grounded normativity (Coulthard and Betasamosake Simpson 2016). Through this analysis, I examine in turn diverse ways in which KUYI’s COVID-19-specific programming reinforces community trust during the current pandemic and enables opportunities for building Indigenous solidarity © Published with Creative Commons licence: Attribution–Noncommercial–No Derivatives