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In this article I develop ideas for supporting character education through sociology and virtue ethics philosophy. A combination of Pierre Bourdieu's theory of habitus together with (neo) Aristotelian virtue ethics philosophy is used to promote a critical form of character education—one that accents the individual as well as the social context through human embodiment. In brief, my intention is that this framework may underpin conceptual and practical possibilities for critical (moral) character development for youth. Obviously the two approaches making up the theoretical framework differ by levels of analysis with predictably less concern for individual moral development from Bourdieu whose focus is on social context (e.g., race, class etc.) as it shows up in patterns of individual perceiving, feeling, thinking, and valuing. The proposed critical character education involves incorporating into processes of virtue and character development a reflexive capacity to understand how community practices, habits, and relations may be unjust or unconducive for human flourishing. The aim is to champion and develop shared qualities of being human while also acknowledging and tackling differences and oppressions in ways that are not counter-productive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article stimulates a discourse for theorizing ubuntu as part of a humanistic-existential approach in social work. The article expatiates on the ontologies and axiology of the humanisticexistential approach in light of ubuntu in an effort to theorize the latter through a comparative analysis of the two. Nine features of the humanistic-existential approach are explored: self-awareness, self-determination, human dignity, holism, the pursuit of social justice and human rights, motivation, social cohesion, spirituality, and death. The article calls for theorizing ubuntu philosophy in social work practice and education. It contradicts with other claims that deny ubuntu its place in the humanistic-existential approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are strong indications that sales practices are currently being redefined from the ground up and that many of the inherited conceptual models of selling will not hold into a future that is defined by new selling techniques and technologies. This paper introduces a research perspective that can provide an important source of insight into how sales work and salespeople are currently being reconstituted: the sales-as-practice approach. In common with ‘practice turns’ evident in other business literature, such as the recent marketing-as-practice or the by now well-established strategy-as-practice approach, sales-as-practice requires of researchers to develop a sensitivity towards salespeople's ways of doing and being in social and material contexts. While acknowledging potential limitations, we identify some significant benefits of adopting this approach for our conceptual understanding of the sales domain, particularly in understanding persistence and transformation in sales practices, in paying attention to the role of material objects in configuring these practices and in appreciating the role of such practices in producing salespeople's ways of being. Moreover, we argue that becoming more closely acquainted with sales professionals' lifeworlds can aid in bridging the perceived divide between academic and practitioner knowledge in our domain. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This conceptual paper revisits a set of pivotal learning community notions filtered through sociological and community psychology perspectives to unravel representations of the community construct within learning contexts. A conceptual review of sociological and community psychology perspectives on the community construct is initially presented. These representations act as lens for a further integrative conceptual review of the community construct in pivotal learning community notions. This integrative conceptual review shows that although most learning communities share a basic set of community representations, some foundational differences are also observed. Our contribution aims to enhance readers' understanding of how "community" is represented in learning communities, which in turn can inform any design decisions and facilitation strategies by learning community researchers and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Alongside the growth in visibility of gender identities and presentations such as genderqueer, non-binary and gender neutral, there is ridicule and backlash in wider culture, as well as more subtle invisibility and misgendering. While there exists social psychology research about negative and positive attitudes to trans people, this is restricted to those whose gender identity is at odds with their sex assigned at birth, and who identify with binary gender. Social psychology has extended to the more subtle workings of transphobia, but there is little consideration of the distinctiveness of attitudes and responses to those whose genders cannot be attributed in binary ways, and thus how these may be challenged. Methods: In keeping with the methods of social theory, this article brings together a diverse and complementary range of conceptual fields in new ways to diagnose a novel cause and solution to these negative attitudes. Using queer theory, feminist ethics, and empirical studies in post-tolerance sociology and social psychology, it argues that negative social responses to genderqueerness stem not only from overt prejudice in the form of transphobia but from binary genderism, the conviction that there are only two genders. Results and conclusion: This article proposes fostering greater diversity-literacy and empathy for difference as a more effective approach than minority identity-based 'prejudice reduction' approaches. A norm-critical approach to deconstructing gender norms is proposed, thus fostering positive attitudes to genderqueerness. It is therefore demonstrated how best to foster enabling social contexts for genderqueerness, with positive implications for the physical and social health and wellbeing of gender variant people. This approach can be applied in organizations, institutions, and by service providers who interact with genderqueer individuals, in that it can inform a shift to approaching diversity positively in ways that are not restricted to pre-determined and binary identity categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conflict during the creative development process of community cultural development projects is inevitable (Adam and Goldbard 2001), yet through the productive use of power (Foucault 1977, 1980, 1982) new knowledge can be created for the festival organization, the community, and individual participants. In this article I identify power/knowledge relations within the Queensland Music Festival community cultural development projectBehind the Cane, a three-year project with the South Sea Islander community in Bowen, Queensland, Australia, through a narrative analysis of different stories that my participants told about the project. These stories emphasize strategic and disciplinary power during the creative development process ofBehind the Cane, as well as the power of the story and the performance itself and what it meant to the local community and the festival organization. From these stories I explain how new knowledge was created within the community as well as the festival organization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We examine practice theories concerned with knowledge sharing in complex organizations to distinguish common trends and variations in this complex body of work. We suggest that an analytical framework highlighting the relational thinking in practice theories can serve as a tool to sort through the literature on knowledge sharing. First, we delineate a relational framework consisting of seven attributes associated with a practice theory. Second, we use this framework to analyze a narrow set of practice theories represented by three seminal works on communities of practice. Third, we compare and contrast the relational dynamics found in the three seminal works in regard to how they conceptualize knowledge sharing within and across communal boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current sociological debates on death focus on demonstrating the presence or absence of death and the significance of either in contemporary social practices. In doing so, they frame both death and subjectivity in a particular way. Death's presence is direct. Self and the body are one and the same. This article enters into dialogue over death and self by arguing that in one contemporary Western society, death's presence is constructed as an absence through the discursive production of suicide bodies and subjects. This contributes to current debates over embodiment by demonstrating that links between death, subjects and bodies are fluid and changing. This account is based on an analysis of the regulation of suicide in New Zealand from the 1840s to the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I reflect on learning and community and their joint deployment. 'Community' evokes images and feelings of security and comfort ('us' and 'ours'), while 'learning' evokes a sense of progress and confidence in overcoming obstacles--a lifelong and somewhat breathless journey these days. We learn every day, but what is worthwhile learning? What types of communities are worth learning towards? Such crucial considerations can remain unexamined because these words are so beguiling--every one can agree that learning communities are worthwhile. Together these terms have provided a powerful contemporary discourse for different educational reform agendas. Recent proponents of 'learning communi ties' have drawn upon sociocultural theorising of learning initiated by Vygotsky and others in the early 20th century. I suggest that this recent deployment of sociocultural learning theory is opportunistic and reflects an effort to resolve certain endemic pedagogical dilemmas related to how inclusion/exclusion is negotiated, how diversity/uniformity is reconciled, and how membership of a learning community is managed over time. I suggest that our role as learning and/or community theorists is principally to critically reflect on what types of learning and communities are worth striving towards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]