Sociology

Summary

Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. In simple words sociology is the scientific study of society. It uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about social order and social change. While some sociologists conduct research that may be applied directly to social policy and welfare, others focus primarily on refining the theoretical understanding of social processes and phenomenological method. Subject matter can range from micro-level analyses of society (i.e. of individual interaction and agency) to macro-level analyses (i.e. of social systems and social structure). Traditional focuses of sociology include social stratification, social class, social mobility, religion, secularization, law, sexuality, gender, and deviance. As all spheres

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociology

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EFFECT OF WATER CONTACTS SEASONALITY ON SCHISTOSOMIASIS TRANSMISSION IN RURAL SAHELIAN AREA IN BURKINA FASO

Anna Faes

patterns due to economic and sociologic activities in African rural area are an important factor in the comprehension of the transmission of this disease. Through interviews and a participatory workshop, activities related to water-contact were identified, quantified and located for the study site of Tougou, situated in the north of Burkina Faso. Tougou, a field site for the 2iE Institute of Ouagadougou since 2004, has a sahelian climate; with a dry season of eight months and all precipitations occurring during the four other months of the year; and is affected by urinary schistosomiasis. The water-contact rates for the identified activities and the attractiveness of the different water points at the site, point out a seasonal variation in water-contact patterns. Using modelling to explore the effect of the seasonality of water-contacts in schistosomiasis transmission cycle, two different issues are observed depending on the considered system. In a local system, including one point of contact with water and one village, the seasonal variation of water-contacts leads to a decrease in the number of parasites per person. In opposite way, in a connected system of several villages having several water points where contacts occur, the seasonal variation of water-contacts lead to an increase in the number of parasites per person, due to the gathering of most water contacts at fewer number of water points during the dry period of the year. Table of content

2015

Whilst urbanisation reached an unprecedented dimension, in a not so distant future half of the urban population will live in

informal¿ settlements. Often subsumed under the pejorative term slum, these habitats account for the majority of the future urban growth. Incremental urban development was once accepted as a viable means of addressing housing needs for large parts of the urban population. However, these approaches were largely abandoned in the 1990s in favour of mass housing provided through public private partnerships. While these largely failed in providing the required quantities and produced poor urban spaces, the scale of the phenomenon is such that incremental urban development needs reconsidering. However, in contrast to the well-documented experiences of the 1970s and 1980s, there is a lack of knowledge about the actual functioning of incremental development in contemporary regimes of urbanisation. Adopting an approach informed by French pragmatist sociology (Boltanski and Thévenot 2006), particularly the sociology of convention (Thévenot 1984), this research inquires into the production of slums at two levels: the intricate reality of housing production in Mumbai¿s slums and the contemporary controversies revolving around urban development. Building on fieldwork in a

self-built¿ resettlement colony in Mumbai forty years after it was established, this research examines how incrementally developing settlements are made, maintained, and transformed through everyday practices of local actors. Standing at the crossroads of the market, the political, and the social the so-called contractors are key figures engaged in the processes of construction and house making. As mediators in and of incremental urbanism they produce not only built-up space but also social space. Focusing on contractors as hitherto under-examined figures reveals that self-help housing in Mumbai, in contrast to conventional believes about housing practices of the urban poor, is by and large a professionalised mode of urban production. This research offers a refined account of the intricate reality of housing production and the ambiguous nature of incremental urbanism. Regarding urban planning, this research analyses the on-going revision of the Mumbai Development Plan 2014-2034 and the controversies accompanying it, which brings to the forefront the interplay of powers and arguments that otherwise are disguised in the dispersed and detached everyday making of the city. To better understand the discourse on current planning practices and struggles over conflicting approaches towards slums, this research examines the arguments and legitimization principles that underpin four major positions advocated in the controversies as the `good¿ way to urbanisation. Considering them as equally valid positions allows drawing comparisons between the different conceptualisations of urban planning and development, and the role and legitimacy they confer to modes of incremental urbanism. Reading the two moments in the production of Mumbai¿s slums together sheds light on the challenges to incorporate incremental urbanism into planning processes. It is argued that these challenges lie not solely with the conflicting rationalities ¿ or cosmos ¿ of how to create a just city, which clash in the controversies, but also with the ambiguity of incremental urbanism itself. Both of which contribute to complex processes of invisibilisation, or subalternisation, of incremental urbanism.

EPFL2018

Architecture without Content 6: Without Venturi

Kersten Geers

Robert Venturi is probably architecture's best-known hero for the wrong reason. Extremely successful at a young age as the iconoclast of North America's late modernism, he soon came to represent (through his collaboration with Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izneour) a specific kind of sociology turned into one-dimensional architecture, forever incarnated in Learning from Las Vegas. The gargantuan success of his second publication somehow dwarfed the monumental achievements of his first (and far more funny) book: Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. Ever devoured by generations as obligatory literature in their education, the reading of this treatise has always been somehow biased by what came afterwards. In many ways the facts of history are always more nuanced and complicated then simple slogans can assess. Still we feel it is important to reactivate again the grammar, vocabulary, methods and insights that are so beautifully presented to us in his seminal work. Taking Venturi's work as a method however, would account for a gigantic mistake, as it would not be truthful to the very core of his practice: to suggest without claiming, and to claim without consequence (something he sadly forgot in later times). For that reason this Venturi studio in Tokyo is (and was) 'Without Venturi'. In an attempt to take his work afresh, we should not theorise it too much, we should appropriate it with a certain naiveté. The workshop we organised did exactly that: take a Venturi project, appropriate it, transform it, replace it. This simple method of dumb transformation allowed us to think about language and principles, without the bias of interpretation. The interpretation came later. 'Without Venturi' came about because Yoshi Tsukamoto invited us to do a workshop at Tokyo Tech, an invitation we took with much pleasure and engagement. From the very beginning, it was clear to us that the Tokyo of Bow Wow, Sakamoto and Shinohara was the perfect spot to investigate the rather naive hunch on Venturi we caress for some time now. Perhaps the work of these three architects is the best example of the possible success of false interpretation, appropriation and indirect inspiration. In a conversation we had the luck to have with Sakamoto-sensei, he confessed of being at a certain point, very inspired by the 'images' and the 'image sequence' of the Complexity book. Untranslated and to a certain extent, obscure, the visual poetry and probably the visual argument found its way into the very idiosyncratic and beautiful work of the Japanese master. Without Venturi is for that reason very much tribute to this work, to architects that took formal risks more or less inspired by it, or more often just out of the blue. We feel this is the fundamental lesson of Venturi's legacy, as it brings us back to a radical method of formal accumulation that does not fall short because of its ideological bandwidth, but is able to embrace the complexity of the world without sacrificing its own inner consistency

2014

Whilst urbanisation reached an unprecedented dimension, in a not so distant future half of the urban population will live in

informal¿ settlements. Often subsumed under the pejorative term slum, these habitats account for the majority of the future urban growth. Incremental urban development was once accepted as a viable means of addressing housing needs for large parts of the urban population. However, these approaches were largely abandoned in the 1990s in favour of mass housing provided through public private partnerships. While these largely failed in providing the required quantities and produced poor urban spaces, the scale of the phenomenon is such that incremental urban development needs reconsidering. However, in contrast to the well-documented experiences of the 1970s and 1980s, there is a lack of knowledge about the actual functioning of incremental development in contemporary regimes of urbanisation. Adopting an approach informed by French pragmatist sociology (Boltanski and Thévenot 2006), particularly the sociology of convention (Thévenot 1984), this research inquires into the production of slums at two levels: the intricate reality of housing production in Mumbai¿s slums and the contemporary controversies revolving around urban development. Building on fieldwork in a

EPFL2018

Architecture without Content 6: Without Venturi

Kersten Geers

2014