The Postemotional Bully

The Postemotional Bully
Author: Stjepan Mestrovic
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 137
Release: 2014-12-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1473910978

The topics of bullying and hazing have sparked interest and discussion in recent years. Hazing is a crime in the United States, and Western nations have made efforts to stamp out bullying in schools, the workplace, and institutions. However, for the most part, bullying and hazing are ill-defined and lack theoretical perspective. Mestrovic brings classical as well as contemporary social theory to bear on this discussion. Thorstein Veblen defined the predatory barbarian as the social type, enshrined by modernity, who prefers to use force over peacable means to achieve ends. On the other extreme, Marcel Mauss wrote about the spirit of the gift and its obligations - to give, to receive, and to reciprocate - as the fundamental basis of social life. Yet, he argued that the spirit of modernity was disappearing with the progress of modernity. Mestrovic traces this fundamental opposition between barbaric force or bullying versus benign obligation that is the spirit of the gift through a host of modernist and postmodernist thinkers and theories. He introduces the concept of the ′postemotional bully′ as an alternative to both of these major bodies of social theory. The postemotional bully, as a social type, is fungible, beset by screen-images on media and social media that are isolating, and is at the mercy of the peer-group. Case studies focus on bullying and hazing, specifically the cases of an American solider who committed suicide in Afghanistan, instances of torture at Abu Ghraib, and the murder of a 23-year-old African-American inmate in a Southern state prison in the US.

The Postemotional Bully

The Postemotional Bully
Author: Stjepan Mestrovic
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2014-12-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1473910986

The topics of bullying and hazing have sparked interest and discussion in recent years. Hazing is a crime in the United States, and Western nations have made efforts to stamp out bullying in schools, the workplace, and institutions. However, for the most part, bullying and hazing are ill-defined and lack theoretical perspective. Mestrovic brings classical as well as contemporary social theory to bear on this discussion. Thorstein Veblen defined the predatory barbarian as the social type, enshrined by modernity, who prefers to use force over peacable means to achieve ends. On the other extreme, Marcel Mauss wrote about the spirit of the gift and its obligations - to give, to receive, and to reciprocate - as the fundamental basis of social life. Yet, he argued that the spirit of modernity was disappearing with the progress of modernity. Mestrovic traces this fundamental opposition between barbaric force or bullying versus benign obligation that is the spirit of the gift through a host of modernist and postmodernist thinkers and theories. He introduces the concept of the ′postemotional bully′ as an alternative to both of these major bodies of social theory. The postemotional bully, as a social type, is fungible, beset by screen-images on media and social media that are isolating, and is at the mercy of the peer-group. Case studies focus on bullying and hazing, specifically the cases of an American solider who committed suicide in Afghanistan, instances of torture at Abu Ghraib, and the murder of a 23-year-old African-American inmate in a Southern state prison in the US.

The Postemotional Bully

The Postemotional Bully
Author: Stjepan Gabriel Meštrović
Publisher:
Total Pages: 124
Release: 2015
Genre: PSYCHOLOGY
ISBN: 9781473910355

Annotation Applying theories of 'post-emotionalism' to the issue of 'the bully' as a social type, Mestrovic argues that while modern society likes to present itself as morally superior, it still contains strong 'barbarian' elements. Case studies focus on bullying and hazing, examined by the case of an American solider who committed suicide in Afghanistan, torture at Abu Ghraib, and the murder of a 23-year-old African-American inmate in a Southern state prison in the US.

David Riesman and Critical Theory

David Riesman and Critical Theory
Author: Amirhosein Khandizaji
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 169
Release: 2021-08-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3030788695

Although David Riesman wrote over half a century ago, his concept of autonomy as presented in The Lonely Crowd (1950) speaks directly to the intellectual and emotional disarrangements of the twenty-first century. The current malaise produced by the excesses of commodity culture, information technology, the hyperreal, and “fake news” militate against our ability to think critically about contemporary society. And while postmodern authors insist that this bewildering situation weakens and assails our critical thinking skills, Riesman’s notion of autonomy refuses to capitulate to such a somber interpretation. Rather, he is convinced that individuals have the intellectual and emotional mettle to think for themselves and not be drawn into the demands of a commercialized culture and a commodity-driven lifestyle. As we pick and choose the terms of our engagement, we can remain aloof from society’s engulfing influence and preserve the oppositional thinking needed for democracy. To illustrate this point most clearly, this book puts Riesman into conversation with the writings of Theodor Adorno, whose evaluation of the critical faculty’s ability to withstand “the culture industry” is famously pessimistic.

Women Activating Agency in Academia

Women Activating Agency in Academia
Author: Alison L. Black
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2018-04-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1351376470

Women Activating Agency in Academia seeks to create and expand safe spaces for scholarly, professional and personal stories and assemblages of agency. It provides readers with the opportunity to connect with the strategies women are using to navigate academe and the core values, linked to trust, relationship, wellbeing and ethics of care, they live by. The collection offers the stories of women academics from around the globe and across disciplines and showcases their efforts to meaningfully listen and converse in order to resist self-audit and diminished identities. Reflections come from a range of responsive, personal and aesthetic techniques, including writing groups, guided autobiography, auto-ethnography, collective activism and slow scholarship. Chapters engage with themes and ideas such as agency, neoliberalism, ontological security, androcentricity, identity and collegial support, which manifest in unique ways for female academics. The focus in this volume is what really matters to women in the academy, as they share their efforts to ‘be’ themselves in their work, to ‘care for themselves and others’ and to ‘count what isn’t counted’. It aims to prove how collaborative storytelling and discussion can empower female academics to preserve and achieve these ambitions.

Passing the Torch

Passing the Torch
Author: Marjorie M. Snipes
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 180
Release: 2016-08-17
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1443898538

Passing the Torch explores the mentor-student relationship and the way in which anthropology has been passed from one generation to the next. There are many ways in which this process has been followed. A number of them are discussed here, including some non-anthropological examples. Some of the contributors to the volume provide very personal stories of mentoring or being mentored, while others provide classical examples, such as Boas’s mentoring of Margaret Mead. This book is useful in teaching about the manner in which anthropology is passed on, and has relevance to the theory of learning.

Postemotional Society

Postemotional Society
Author: Stjepan Mestrovic
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 191
Release: 1996-12-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1446264327

With a foreword by David Riesman, author of The Lonely Crowd. Introducing a new term to the sociological lexicon: ′postemotionalism′, Stjepan Mestrovic argues that the focus of postmodernism has been on knowledge and information, and he demonstrates how the emotions in mass industrial societies have been neglected to devastating effect. Using contempoary examples, the author shows how emotion has become increasingly separated from action; how - in a world of disjointed and synthetic emotions - social solidarity has become more problematic; and how compassion fatigue has increasingly replaced political commitment and responsibility. Mestrovic discusses the relation between knowledge and the emotions in thinkers as diverse as Durkheim, Baudrillard, Ritzer, Riesman, and Orwell. This stimulating and provocative work concludes with a discussion of the postemotional society, where peer groups replace the government as the means of social control.

Emotional Recovery from Workplace Mobbing

Emotional Recovery from Workplace Mobbing
Author: Richard George Schwindt
Publisher: Richard Schwindt
Total Pages: 114
Release: 2018-06-04
Genre:
ISBN: 9780995259195

Workplace mobbing exacts a terrible emotional and physical toll on targets and those who love them. While most books on workplace bullying and mobbing focus on the dynamics of the abuse and advocacy, this book is dedicated to emotional healing. The author has been a working therapist for more than thirty years, experienced the harrowing effects of a workplace mobbing and, most importantly, has reached thousands of people in his articles, videos, website and practice to help them heal. Richard shows how to manage the out of control emotions; the anxiety, loss and trauma of a mobbing experience. He offers advice about on rebuilding relationships with family and loved ones. In addition he examines the pitfalls of seeking help for this misunderstood phenomenon. This is a must read for someone recovering from the nightmare that is workplace mobbing, and for anyone watching their loved one struggle.

Thorstein Veblen on Culture and Society

Thorstein Veblen on Culture and Society
Author: Stjepan Mestrovic
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2003-03-19
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1412932998

Best known as the author of the acclaimed book, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), Thorstein Veblen was much more than a one-book wonder. He is in fact a seminal classical sociologist who made many original contributions to the study of culture and society. This inspired selection conveys the full zest and penetrating insights of Veblen′s writings.The collection comes with a full-length essay which demonstrates the continuing relevance of Veblen′s sociology.

The Barbarian Temperament

The Barbarian Temperament
Author: Stejpan Mestrovic
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2013-07-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1136148124

This scintillating book by one of the most interesting young sociologists currently working in the USA is a provocative and timely contribution to the debate on civilization, modernity and postmodernity. The author argues that modernity never jettisoned barbarism. Instead barbarism was repackaged in modern and postmodern traditions and cultures.