safe space

Lesbians at this conference often referred to the search for the sacred "safe space" where we are all the same. This is an avoidance of confrontation in our communities, in society. Separation is a retreat which only a privileged few can enjoy. Real safety will come by uniting with all our allies to defeat the right wing, capitalism and the patriarchy.

1983 December 24, Nancy Reiko, Midge Ward, Nellie Wong, Merle Woo, Emily Woo Yamasaki, “Lesbians Of Color”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 23, page 4:

This confirms the claim that the internet is not an entirely safe space, and while blogs offer LGBTQs the opportunity to express their views freely and anonymously, they grant this possibility to haters and homophobes, too […]

2016, Alexander Dhoest, Lukasz Szulc, Bart Eeckhout, LGBTQs, Media and Culture in Europe, page 166:

Ideally, these safe spaces would also be environments in which students would find support, develop coping skills, and hone effective techniques for communicating with one another in a way that honors tolerance, avoids stereotypes, and cuts down on hate on campuses.

2017, John Palfrey, Safe Spaces, Brave Spaces: Diversity and Free Expression in Education, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 21:

Even Fox News, once Trump’s safe space, the TV network where he would often just call in for a chat, seems to have officially moved on.

2022 November 10, Adam Gabbatt, “Has ‘Trumpty Dumpty’ taken a great fall from Rupert Murdoch’s grace?”, in The Guardian:

The plot picks up where the last film left off. The High Table, the organisation that controls crime around the world, has a multi-million-dollar contract out on Wick, who killed a High Table member. In more familiar Mafia terms, it's as if he murdered a made man. And he violated another rule by doing it on the grounds of a Continental hotel, the supposed safe spaces for assassins around the world.

2023 March 14, Caryn James, “John Wick: Chapter 4: 'Soars above most action films'”, in BBC:

(sociology) A place or domain serving as a tolerant environment for people (especially a marginalized group) where they do not face harassment, criticism, scrutiny, etc.; especially one in which participants are understood to share a given political or social viewpoint.


araciality

Such symbols were of no minor importance for a show such as Cosby, roundly and repeatedly criticized for its "araciality."

1994, Kristal Brent Zook, "How I Became Prince of a Town Called Bel Air: Nationalist Desire in Black Television", dissertation submitted to the University of California, Santa Cruz, page 72

I think we don’t pay enough attention to the fact that Michael Jackson, for much of his career, was asexual. And it’s almost as if he was trying to get to some sort of araciality in terms of his presentation, when you think about, you know, someone wearing a mask, someone trying to morph — I mean, Madonna has done it very well without necessarily having to have cosmetic surgery, but this kind of figure that morphs into something else as time goes on.

2009 June 30, “Michael Jackson 1958-2009: The Life and Legacy of the King of Pop”, in Democracy Now:

Though Maouyo and Spencer’s lives have parallels, Maouyo’s journey to araciality was not so much a tireless social justice mission than a process of finding an identity that felt like a good fit.

2011 October 13, Zoe A. Y. Weinberg, “Raceless Like Me”, in The Harvard Crimson:

(sociology, philosophy) The state of being aracial.


racelessness

She says she can finally breathe now. She feels freed by the privilege of relative racelessness.

2022, Jonathan Escoffery, If I Survive You, 4th Estate (2023), page 137:

(sociology, philosophy) The condition of having no perceived race.


anti-racialize

en-verb

anti-racialize (third-person singular simple present anti-racalizes, present participle anti-racializing, simple past and past participle anti-racialized)

anti-racalizes (present singular third-person)
anti-racializing (participle present)
anti-racialized (participle past)
anti-racialized (past)
antiracialize (alternative)

Interpellating the crystal in the midst of an anti-racializing dialog, Sun Ra intimates emphasizes his power to move race from its historical determinants to rest in mystic powers.

2007, Sue-Ellen Case, Performing Science and the Virtual, Routledge, →ISBN, page 192:

The racializing epistemology that these plays help to codify serves to empower the white/right gaze, which implicitly normalizes and, as I will argue, anti-racializes the English gaze.

2008, Ayanna Thompson, Performing Race and Torture on the Early Modern Stage, Routledge, →ISBN, page 20:

At the same time, the prompt increase in resources and tools made available to Arab and Muslim American organizations, the intensification of anti-racializing work within civil society organizations, and the American public's increased interest in learning more about Arabs and Muslims provided a majority of the Arab Muslims interviewed in this study with a degree of optimism for the future, even though many remained concerned because of the connection they saw between social constructions of Arabs/Muslims and American foreign policy.

2009, Louise A. Cainkar, Homeland Insecurity: The Arab American and Muslim American Experience After 9/11: The Arab American and Muslim American Experience After 9/11, Russell Sage Foundation, →ISBN, page 72:

(sociology, philosophy) To act against racial identity or racism.


VAW

(sociology) Initialism of violence against women.


cultural appropriation

en-noun

cultural appropriation (countable and uncountable, plural cultural appropriations)

/ˈkʌlt͡ʃ(ə)ɹəl əˌpɹoʊpɹiˈeɪʃən/

White Americans engaged in cultural appropriation when they performed dances involving blackface and mock Native American regalia.

What are the implications for our understanding of the ethics of cultural appropriation when the sound of a Pacific island women's choir becomes the hook of a club hit in Europe, without reward, recompense, or credit for that choir?

2000, David Hesmondhalgh, in Born/Hesmondhalgh, Western Music and Its Others, p. 280

Are yoga classes just bad cultural appropriation?

2015, The Guardian, headline, 23 November:

Where, then, is the line that divides the simple pleasure of cultural fusion from cultural appropriation? One answer is that it becomes appropriation when one group's sense of "normal" inexplicably and unfairly dominates over another.

2015 April 2, Navneet Alang, “Must We Forfeit Our Ghee?”, in Hazlitt, retrieved 2023-05-14:

The party guests were subsequently investigated by the college for ‘ethnic stereotyping’ and placed on ‘social probation’, while the students' general assembly denounced the event as an act of ‘cultural appropriation’.

2016 November, Frances Wilson, “Whose Life Is It Anyway?”, in Literary Review:

(sociology) The (often financially) exploitative, oppressive and/or inaccurate cooption of elements of one culture by members of a different culture.


social constructionism

(sociology) A theory of knowledge according to which human beings rationalize their experience by creating a model of the social world and how it functions, and language is the most essential system through which humans construct reality.


stereotype tax

stereotype tax (plural stereotype taxes)

Such taxes may result from stereotyping, conditioning, or imposed social roles. Merchants' discrimination on the basis of skin colour is a stereotype tax on Black Nova Scotians.

2002, Elena Hannah, Swani Vethamany-Globus, Linda Paul, Women in the Canadian Academic Tundra: Challenging the Chill:

(sociology) A disadvantage that affects a person due to a stereotype about them held and acted upon by others.


street gang

(law, criminology, sociology) An organized group of lower-class criminals; an urban gang.


saviorism

I show how white men attempted to save brown women from brown men in colonial India. […] Spivak notes the efforts to build discourses of saviorism in thinking about Muslim women and Muslim men.

2016, Heather Ashley Hayes, Violent Subjects and Rhetorical Cartography in the Age of the Terror Wars:

(sociology) A worldview according to which some people are saviors and others need to be saved by them.


superdiversity

superdiversity (usually uncountable, plural superdiversities)

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(sociology) A high level of diversity within and between the ethnic groups in a population.


ultrapoor

en-adj

ultrapoor (comparative more ultrapoor, superlative most ultrapoor)

more ultrapoor (comparative)
most ultrapoor (superlative)

The authors' research -- which included data analysis and interviews with ultrapoor families in four regions -- found that many families weren't even aware of TANF.

2015 January 9, Aimee Picchi, “The surging ranks of America's ultrapoor”, in CBS News:

(sociology) Exceptionally poor; in a state of dire poverty.


precarization

en-noun

precarization (usually uncountable, plural precarizations)

(sociology) The process by which the number of people who live in precarity increases.


omniracial

(sociology, philosophy) Concerning or including every race.


antipluralism

(sociology) Opposition to sociological pluralism.


heterosex

en-verb

heterosex (third-person singular simple present heterosexes, present participle heterosexing, simple past and past participle heterosexed)

heterosexes (present singular third-person)
heterosexing (participle present)
heterosexed (participle past)
heterosexed (past)

From hetero- + sex. Attested since the 20th century.

For example, the heterosexing of public space means that while heterosexual couples can hold hands or kiss goodbye in the street, the same behaviour from same-sex couples is likely to attract attention and sometimes verbal or physical sanctions against them.

2013, Paul Cloke, Philip Crang, Mark Goodwin, Introducing Human Geographies, page 651:

Although each society defines its own norms, most of them assign a higher status to men over women, to heterosexual persons over non-heterosexual ones, and to heterosexed bodies over non-heterosexed ones.

2014, MariaCaterina La Barbera, Identity and Migration in Europe: Multidisciplinary Perspectives:

(sociology, transitive) To make heterosexual.


reverse sexism

Coordinate term: reverse racism

Others look to dismiss the female cast as some sort of reverse-sexism, a “marketing gimmick” that diminishes the stars by turning them into tokens.

2016 May 18, David Sims, “The Outcry Against the All-Female ‘Ghostbusters’ Remake Gets Louder”, in The Atlantic:

(sociology) Sexism against the dominant sex.


patriology

From Ancient Greek πατέρας (patéras, “father”) + -logy.

uder

(sociology) A complex of male-dominated or male-centered aspects of cultural and social life; patriarchy.


abstand

(linguistics, sociolinguistics) Of a language or dialect (a lect), being different from another lect in its intrinsic linguistic features (as opposed to extrinsic features such as social, political or legal status)


covert prestige

(sociolinguistics) Prestige acquired in a community by using a non-standard language variety, such as a working-class dialect.


cooperative principle

(sociolinguistics) The idea that listeners and speakers need to cooperate in order to communicate effectively.


cultural appropriator

en-noun

cultural appropriator (plural cultural appropriators)

Though Ms. Mnouchkine is more of a blithe cultural appropriator than a purveyor of stereotypes, the sex-crazed sheikhs seem to go too far. “A Room in India” also tries, with mixed success, to see if terrorists can be made funny, in the manner of the Keystone Kops. And yet, for all of the company’s catholic tastes, there are lines of relativism it will not cross.

2017 December 6, Jesse Green, “Review: ‘A Room in India’ Overflows With Astonishing Visions”, in The New York Times:

cultural appropriation
cultural appropriation

(sociology) One who engages in cultural appropriation.

kulttuurinen omija

one who engages in cultural appropriation


culturally appropriative

en-adj

culturally appropriative (comparative more culturally appropriative, superlative most culturally appropriative)

more culturally appropriative (comparative)
most culturally appropriative (superlative)

(sociology) Characteristic of cultural appropriation.


culturally appropriate

en-verb

culturally appropriate (third-person singular simple present culturally appropriates, present participle culturally appropriating, simple past and past participle culturally appropriated)

culturally appropriates (present singular third-person)
culturally appropriating (participle present)
culturally appropriated (participle past)
culturally appropriated (past)

(sociology, transitive) To engage in cultural appropriation.


ausbau

Thus the Hindi/Urdu situation was created by an ausbau process, not unlike the process which created Norwegian as distinct from Danish, and Afrikaans as distinct from Dutch.

1988, “Religion and language varieties: the case of Hindi-Urdu”, in Mohammad Ali Jazayery, Werner Winter, editors, Languages and Cultures, Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 745:

(linguistics, sociolinguistics, of a language or dialect) Constituting a standard; being deliberately shaped and standardized; having the social, political, or legal status of a standard language.


isograph

From iso- (“same, self”) + -graph (“writing”).

confix

(sociolinguistics) A line indicating the geographical boundaries within which a particular feature of a written script is used.


mimeticism

en-noun

mimeticism (usually uncountable, plural mimeticisms)

(sociology) The adoption of the habits or attitudes of a colonizing group by the colonized people.


women are wonderful effect

the women are wonderful effect (canonical)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-women are wonderful effect.wav

(psychology, sociology) The phenomenon in psychological and sociological research that people seem to associate more positive attributes with women in general than with men in general, reflecting an emotional bias.


negative eugenics

(biology, sociology) A social philosophy which advocates for human enhancement by discouraging those with inferior genetics from reproducing.


precarized

en-adj

precarized (comparative more precarized, superlative most precarized)

more precarized (comparative)
most precarized (superlative)

(sociology) Placed in a position of precarity.


cultural identity

en-noun

cultural identity (plural cultural identities)

(sociology) An identity or feeling of belonging to a group.


superexploit

en-verb

superexploit (third-person singular simple present superexploits, present participle superexploiting, simple past and past participle superexploited)

superexploits (present singular third-person)
superexploiting (participle present)
superexploited (participle past)
superexploited (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-superexploit.wav

The difference between a superexploited black man in the US, or a superexploited Spaniard in Switzerland and a superexploited colonial worker in pre-independence Nigeria is instructive.

1991, Hillel Ticktin, The Politics of Race: Discrimination in South Africa, page 76:

(transitive, sociology) To exploit (a worker) to a particularly severe degree.


hyperghetto

en-noun

hyperghetto (plural hyperghettos or hyperghettoes)

hyperghettos (plural)
hyperghettoes (plural)

Coined by Loïc Wacquant. From hyper- + ghetto.

(sociology) a severely impoverished and anomic ghetto whose inhabitants are mostly working-class people of a specific ethnic minority, without any significant presence of wealthier strata


translocal

In the following account of ethnographic research carried out in the context of a textual community, I demonstrate how 'translocal phenomena,' which I understand to include diasporic communities and communities that emerge in relation to the mass media and electronic communications, do not entirely evade classical methods of participant observation as some ethnographers have assumed.

2001, “Sites Unseen: Ethnographic Research in a Textual Community”, in Qualitative Studies in Education, 14.4, p. 568:

First, I attempt to conceptualize the ethnic restaurant as a translocal space that is characterized by intercultural transfers of foods, technologies, and information, and that functions as a nodal point in transnational networks.

2007, German Historical Institute, Bulletin, numbers 40-43, page 80:

(sociology) Involving a sense of identity split between or blended from multiple locations, especially in multiple ethnic regions.


social policy

(politics, sociology) The sociopolitical guidelines that deal with communal issues.


information society

information society (plural information societies)

(sociology) A society where the creation, distribution, use, integration and manipulation of information is a significant economic, political, and cultural activity.

информацио́нно общество́

society where information is a significant activity


superexploitation

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-superexploitation.wav

(sociology) Particularly extreme and dehumanizing exploitation of workers.


intersectionalist

en-adj

intersectionalist (comparative more intersectionalist, superlative most intersectionalist)

more intersectionalist (comparative)
most intersectionalist (superlative)

Aside from these general challenges, I address issues of self-hate, shame, anger, and frustration by bringing in the intersectionalist perspective of domination.

2008, Lisa Guerrero, Teaching Race in the 21st Century, page 79:

(sociology, social sciences) Based on or informed by theories of intersectionality.


intersectionalist

What feminists, especially intersectionalists, have been imagining as identities needs to be exchanged for descriptions of social circumstances.

2005, Naomi Zack, Inclusive Feminism: A Third Wave Theory of Women's Commonality, page 75:

(sociology, social sciences) A proponent of intersectionality.


class warrior

(sociology) A participant in class warfare.


white fragility

Coined by Robin DiAngelo, lecturer at the University of Washington.

Coordinate term: black fragility

(sociology) A range of defensive behaviors supposedly exhibited by white people in response to challenges to the unstable racial situation that gives them social privileges.


metagender

en-noun

metagender (countable and uncountable, plural metagenders)

metagenders (plural)
meta-gender (alternative)

The realities of "being or doing" the "differences of being either female, feminine, woman or male, masculine, man" (Coates 1998, 295-296), the socially assigned sequestered private spaces and public roles we encounter in our daily lives, are not to be confounded with metagender. There should, therefore, be concurrent dialogues, one on gender and the other on metagender, particularly in view of the “after gender” issue.

2007, Catherine M. Cole, Takyiwaa Manuh, Stephan Miescher, Africa After Gender?, →ISBN, page 292:

When I write of someone being a Woman or a Man, I mean to indicate the metagender assumption that they have, so to speak, all their gender building blocks incontestably in one metagender box, i.e. if you are l-, f-, p-, and j-female, then (and only then) are you a Woman. Deviation from the standards set for any of the four genders will cause your metagender to be questioned. Patriarchal metagender does not allow for any ambiguity -- Woman and Man are the only available divisions.

2009, Clare Beckett, Owen Heathcote, Marie Macey, Negotiating Boundaries? Identities, Sexualities, Diversities, →ISBN, page 48:

Gender mainstreaming is a metagender equality strategy (Krook and True forthcoming; True 2009b).

2010, Brooke Ackerly, Jacqui True, Doing Feminist Research in Political and Social Science, →ISBN, page 11:

A number of critics see Shakespeare endorsing cross-gendering. Shakespeare is, what might be called, a skillful exponent of metagender beliefs.

2017, Philip C Kolin, Routledge Revivals: Shakespeare and Feminist Criticism (1991), →ISBN:

(sociology) The use of categories to conceive of gender; the possible ways in which gender can manifest itself.


medium of instruction

medium of instruction (plural mediums of instruction)

English and Cantonese are the mediums of instruction in most Hong Kong schools at the primary and secondary level.

(education, sociolinguistics) A language used in teaching.


reverse integration

(sociology) A form of social integration where the dominant group integrates with the minority or marginalized, rather than the other way round, e.g. where able-bodied people take part in parasports.


go viral

en-verb

go viral (third-person singular simple present goes viral, present participle going viral, simple past went viral, past participle gone viral)

goes viral (present singular third-person)
going viral (participle present)
went viral (past)
gone viral (participle past)

→ Dutch: viral gaan (calque)

→ German: viral gehen (calque)

The sociologic phenomenon was named thus because it is analogous to the way in which viruses propagate, with exponential potential. This phrasal verb developed in the late 20th or early 21st century as a name for a phenomenon that has existed since humans became capable of exposing one another to ideas in highly contagious ways; thus, gossip and rumor in close-quartered populations, print circulation, and broadcasting were all enough to produce it, but the advent of the internet, and more specifically the web era and smartphone era, provided many new instances and the occasion to bestow a name on the theme. See also meme, a word coined in 1976 for a phenomenon as old as human interaction.

Hundreds of long-forgotten texts that went viral in the 19th century are being discovered by a new collaboration of humanities scholars and computer scientists.

2013 November 4, Greg Miller, “Here's How Memes Went Viral — In the 1800s ”, in Wired, retrieved 2022-02-16:

After watching hours of these videos, I realized there’s no use trying to make sense of any one of them, but taken as a body of work, they tell a story: the struggles of a person trying to go viral again.

2020 January 29, Dan Brooks, “Comedy Written for the Machines”, in New York Times Magazine:

Li Lina, a resident in the Hanyang district, beat a gong and shrieked from her high-rise balcony this weekend to beg for help for herself and her stricken mother holed up at home. A neighbor filmed her cries and uploaded it to the Internet, where it went viral.

2020 February 9, Gerry Shih, “Coronavirus deaths climb as China corrals sick in quarantine facilities in outbreak epicenter”, in The Washington Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-02-09, Asia & Pacific:

A group of girls from Norway asked me why their videos weren’t going viral like the ones from their American peers.

2020 May 8, Louise Matsakis, “The Year the Internet Thought I Was MacKenzie Bezos”, in Wired:

“Once you know how to make a video go viral, it’s just about how to get as many out as possible,” he told Bloomberg in December. “You can practically make unlimited money.”

2021 May 4, Taylor Lorenz, quoting Mr. Beast, “Mr. Beast, YouTube Star, Wants to Take Over the Business World”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(sociology) To be rapidly and frequently shared, especially through social media, but (with retroactive application to pre-internet occurrences) also via gossip or as a collective response to broadcasting or widespread print circulation.


whitewishing

(sociology) The regarding of white people's norms as neutral and objective.


communicative competence

en-noun

communicative competence (countable and uncountable, plural communicative competences)

(sociolinguistics) A language user's grammatical knowledge of syntax, morphology, phonology and the like, as well as social knowledge about how and when to use utterances appropriately.


ideal-typical

Here also the specifically logical function of ideal-typical concepts is apparent.

2004, Max Weber, Sam Whimster, The Essential Weber: A Reader:

(sociology) Of or relating to an ideal type.


playlore

A particular challenge in twentieth-century Australia concerns the need to protect children's traditional playlore, to defend its value, and the time and space children need to practice their own culture.

2015, Jaipaul L. Roopnarine, Michael M. Patte, James E. Johnson, David Kuschner, International Perspectives on Children's Play, page 169:

(sociology) The lore associated with games played by children.


storylore

[…] these include a host of dirty stories, and the tall tales and traveling jokes which form so much American floating storylore.

2008, Richard Mercer Dorson, James P. Leary, Bloodstoppers & Bearwalkers: Folk Traditions of Michigan's Upper Peninsula:

(sociology) The lore associated with stories told within a culture.


Townsend deprivation index

First described by sociologist Peter Townsend in 1988.

(sociology) A measure of material deprivation within a population, based on four variables: unemployment, non-car ownership, non-home ownership, and household overcrowding.


social standing

(sociology) Synonym of social status: one's position within a social hierarchy, one's value relative to society.


side bet

It is assumed in these studies, for instance , that : (1) age "is" a side bet because the longer an employee is in an organization the more benefits he has "built up" and that (2) the nature or the correlation between age and desire to stay in the organization is used as confirming or disconfirming evidence of the side bet stature of the age variable.

1987, International Review for the Sociology of Sport - Volume 22, page 256:

Side bets aren't always explicit, nor do they necessarily involve money. A side bet occurs anytime you do something that increases the consequences, or losses, of not staying with it.

There is little, if any, literature on the concept of a side-bet reemergence on the occasion of an employee relinking with a previous supervisor.

2016, Deborah Blackman, Michael O’Donnell, Stephen Teo, Human Capital Management Research:

Any decision about the new job involves a financial side bet the pension fund has placed for him by its rules.

2017, Fanny Ginor, Sociological Work: Method and Substance:

(sociology) An investment of time, money, or resources that reinforces one's commitment to a course of action.


stochastic terrorism

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-stochastic terrorism.wav

Coined by Gordon Woo. stochastic + terrorism

All of this fits with what the anonymous blogger G2G had to say in his expanded definition of stochastic terrorism: “you heat up the waters and stir the pot, knowing full well that sooner or later a lone wolf will pop up and do the deed. The fact that it will happen is as predictable as the fact that a heated pot of water will eventually boil. But the exact time and place of each incident will remain as random as the appearance of the first bubbles in the boiling pot."

2017, Clayton Delery, Out for Queer Blood:

How does stochastic terrorism unfold in the course of real-world events? We propose a practical description of stochastic terrorism as an interactive process between the originator of a message, its amplifiers, and one of more ultimate receivers.

2021 October, Molly Amman, J. Reid Meloy, “Stochastic Terrorism: A Linguistic and Psychological Analysis”, in Perspectives on Terrorism, →ISSN, page 3:

Trump is playing a dangerous game, and there is a name for it: Stochastic terrorism. The cries for vengeance and violent retribution from the leader of the MAGA movement aren’t a message to anyone in specific but rather a bat signal to everyone who can hear his voice, whether it’s armed and troubled young men like Martinez or the Jacksonville gunman, or the angry mob that responded on Jan. 6, 2021, after Trump tweeted, “Will be wild!”

2023, Will Bunch, “A MAGA gunman in New Mexico and ‘the end of politics’ in America”, in The Philadelphia Inquirer:

(neologism, sociology, social media) The use of mass public communication, usually against a particular individual or group, which

Incites or inspires acts of terrorism which are statistically probable but happen seemingly at random,

The joining of the two words, stochastic and terrorism, is originally attributable to machematician and catastrophist Gordon Woo, who used the term to suggest a quantifiable relationship between seemingly random acts of terrorism and the goal of perpetuating fear through mass media's coverage of the violence.

Perpetuates fear through coverage of seemingly random acts of terrorism.


power distance

(sociology, politics) A measure of the willingness of individuals to accept the unequal distribution of power within a society or organization.


boundary term

'Sustainability' is a boundary term, signifying complex interactions between science, politics, policy making and development (Scoones, 2010: 153-4).

2013, Frances Fahy, Henrike Rau, Methods of Sustainability Research in the Social Sciences, →ISBN, page 91:

'Poor white trash' is likely the most enduring and degrading in a long line of 'stigmatypes'– 'stigmatizing boundary terms that simultaneously denote and enact cultural and cognitive divides between ingroups and outgroups' –such as 'redneck,' 'cracker,' and 'hillbilly.'

2014, Michael Raiber, David Teachout, The Journey from Music Student to Teacher: A Professional Approach, →ISBN:

A term which could be seen as a high boundary term ('the enemy' as opposed to 'the friend') is used, but Paul tells them, as it were, to dismantle such a boundary from the inside, by undertaking acts of love and compassion.

2017, Paul Raymond Trebilco, Outsider Designations and Boundary Construction in the New Testament, →ISBN, page 227:

(sociology) A word or phrase that is used for othering; a term that serves to identify someone or something as other than the speaker.


window of discourse

window of discourse (plural windows of discourse)


income group

(economics, sociology) A group in a given population having an income within a specified range.


parentify

en-verb

parentify (third-person singular simple present parentifies, present participle parentifying, simple past and past participle parentified)

parentifies (present singular third-person)
parentifying (participle present)
parentified (participle past)
parentified (past)

(intransitive, sociology, psychology) To cause (a child) to act as a parent to its own parent or sibling.


horizontal hostility

(sociology) disrespectful or bullying behaviour among peers working on the same level in an organization


ethnostatistics

(sociology) The study of the social forces that influence the production of statistics.


reworld

reworld (third-person singular simple present reworlds, present participle reworlding, simple past and past participle reworlded)

reworlds (present singular third-person)
reworlding (participle present)
reworlded (participle past)
reworlded (past)

(sociology) To reconstruct the world, or attempt to view it differently.


racemaking

(sociology) The formation of sociocultural ideas about races of people.


sociation

en-noun

sociation (countable and uncountable, plural sociations)

Risk cultures lie in non-institutional and anti-institutional sociations.

2000, Barbara Adam, Ulrich Beck, Joost Van Loon, The Risk Society and Beyond: Critical Issues for Social Theory, →ISBN, page 47:

Sociation is neither the cause nor the consequence of society; it is society.

2010, Alex Law -, Key Concepts in Classical Social Theory, →ISBN:

Basically, this entailed the formal study of human interaction, including the ways in which this interaction generates institutions, hierarchies, and structures of subjectivity, in a word, various forms of sociation.

2013, Stefan Jonsson, Crowds and Democracy, →ISBN:

However, all of them – from the simplest to the most meticulously regulated forms of social interaction – can be assessed as modalities of sociation.

2018, Gregor Fitzi, The Challenge of Modernity: Simmel’s Sociological Theory, →ISBN:

(sociology) Interactions and relationships among people.


cognitariat

cognitariat (countable and uncountable, plural cognitariats)

(sociology) A social group formed by people with high academic training, who receive a low salary not in accordance with their educational level.


periphractic

From Ancient Greek περιφρακτικός (periphraktikós), from φράσσω (phrássō).

der

περιφρακτικός

periphractic space

(sociology) Marginalizing; making a group peripheral and thereby denying them access to something.


fat acceptance

(sociology) The body positivity attitude that accepts and appreciates fatness or obesity in humans.


schoolscape

Studies have narrowed the territorial focus to signage used in specific cities, townships, suburbs, precincts, etc., in the grounds of schools, called ‘schoolscapes’, in shopping centres, and other localised areas.

2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, →DOI, page 2:

(linguistics, sociology) The linguistic setting of a school or education institution, especially the visual language in terms of signage.


standard dialect

en-noun

standard dialect (plural standard dialects)

standard language
standard language#English

(sociolinguistics) Synonym of standard language

standaarddialek

a variety of language regarded as most "correct", widely accepted, or neutral — see also standard language


standard variety

standard variety (plural standard varieties)

Finally, many children speak a nonstandard variety of their native language even though they understand the standard variety, which is the language of wider communication.

1975, United States Commission on Civil Rights, A Better Chance to Learn - Bilingual Bicultural Education, Volume 51, page 112:

standaardvariëteit

variety of language regarded as most "correct", widely accepted, or neutral — see also standard language


historical sociology

(sociology) A branch of sociology that focuses on how societies develop through history.


risk society

(sociology) A modern human society focused on possible future outcomes and what could go wrong.


interwhite

(sociology) Between (groups of) white people.


interblack

(sociology) Between (groups of) black people.


socioevaluative

(sociology) Relating to the evaluation of a person's place in, and worth to, society


ghawa syndrome

Named after the resyllabification of dialectal Arabic قَهْوَة (gahwa, “coffee”) as قْهَوَة (ghawa), which is the prototypical example of the phenomenon.

(sociolinguistics) Imitation of such resyllabification due to perceived prestige or correctness.


sociotropy

(sociology) A personality trait characterized by excessive investment in interpersonal relationships.


cispatriarchy

(sociology) The assumed dominance of cisgender men.


infrahumanisation

(sociology) The belief that one's ingroup is inherently more human than other groups


sociofamilial

(sociology) Relating to society and the family


technesis

Coined by Mark B. N. Hansen in 1998, from techno- + -esis, based on Alice Jardin's gynesis and ultimately Edmund Husserl's noesis.

quote-journal

1997, Mark Hansen, “"Not Thus, after All, Would Life Be Given": "Technesis", Technology and the Parody of Romantic Poetics in "Frankenstein"”, in Studies in Romanticism, volume 36, number 4, page 7:

(sociology) The putting of technology into discourse.


postconsumerism

(sociology) A value system that follows, and rejects or moves beyond, consumerism.


MTM

(sociolinguistics, language planning) Acronym of mother tongue medium, a medium in which the native language of the population is used, such as in education or in writing.


social contagion

en-noun

social contagion (countable and uncountable, plural social contagions)

A Peter leads a John, a John goes after a Peter, both of them unconscious of any influence exercised or received. And thus our life and conduct are ever propagating themselves, by a law of social contagion, throughout the circles […]

1852, Horace Bushnell, Unconscious Influence: A Sermon, page 4:

(pathology, sociology, psychology) The spontaneous spread of behaviour when it is unconsciously copied from one individual by another; a behavior that spreads in this manner.


behavioral contagion

social contagion
social contagion#English

(pathology, psychology, sociology) Synonym of social contagion.


negatively privileged

en-adj

negatively privileged (comparative more negatively privileged, superlative most negatively privileged)

more negatively privileged (comparative)
most negatively privileged (superlative)

Second, one might misunderstand Weber, as well as what follows, as an attempt at a complete explanation of the failures of negatively privileged groups to act politically in their own interests.

2016, Jason Stanley, How Propaganda Works, page 233:

When a negatively privileged challenger faces a positively privileged target, exchange and persuasion are not likely, because the challenger has no positive inducements for the target. The initiative therefore rests with the challenger.

1993, Anthony Oberschall, Social Movements: Ideologies, Interests, and Identities, page 98:

(sociology) Lacking benefits or advantages in society.


reverse bigotry

While the majority should not impose its religious views on the minority, the minority should respect the views of the majority. Reverse bigotry by the minority is just as reprehensible as bigotry by the majority.

1990, Richard Nixon, “Religion”, in In the Arena: A Memoir of Victory, Defeat, and Renewal, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 91:

I think the worst thing they did was to instill a form of reverse bigotry in them. They now think their black side is the best part of them and have made remarks against whites.

2001, Marie Davis, Pearls of Wisdom: Surviving Against All Odds (book 2, page 327)

Of late, reverse bigotry has been making front page news. The pernicious 'special needs' doctrine of the 1976 Race Relations Act has turned the minds of many Asian Indian parents.

2005, Terry Tan, Culture Shock! Britain, page 135:

(sociology) Bigotry toward a dominant or privileged group of people by a group that has historically been the target of discrimination.


social distance

en-noun

social distance (plural social distances)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-social distance.wav

(sociology) The distance between different social groups, e.g. in terms of class, ethnicity, gender-identity, sexual-identity, etc.


social construct

social construct (plural social constructs)

(sociology) A social convention or perception, such as class or gender, used by a particular society to describe human behavior.


Bourdieusian

(sociology) Of or pertaining to Pierre Bourdieu.


sociogenomic

(sociology, genetics) Relating to sociogenomics


HQC

HQC (countable and uncountable, plural HQCs)

high quality connection
high quality connection#English

(sociology) Abbreviation of high quality connection.


microdiscourse

microdiscourse (countable and uncountable, plural microdiscourses)

Coordinate term: macrodiscourse

(sociology) small-scale discourse, for example between individuals


macrodiscourse

macrodiscourse (countable and uncountable, plural macrodiscourses)

Coordinate term: microdiscourse


positive action

(sociology) A form of affirmative action that attempts to assist members of an underrepresented group without prejudicing the criteria of selection by merit.


overt prestige

(sociolinguistics) Prestige acquired in a community by using a standard or formal language variety associated with power and status.


diversity fatigue

We're now told that much of the media industry has come down with "diversity fatigue." Before this malady, the story goes, the American Society of Newspaper Editors was committed to racial diversity.

1998, Z Magazine, volume 11, numbers 1–6, page 8:

Many companies have also developed "diversity fatigue," says Watson. "Some one at the senior executive level thinks diversity is a great idea. There's this push — events, posters — that lasts for a year or two and then it goes by the wayside.

2006, Black Enterprise, volume 36, numbers 6–12, page 98:

Finally someone said, “Our organization is facing diversity fatigue.”

2013, Trevor Wilson, The Human Equity Advantage:

(sociology) The situation where a person or organization loses interest in diversity initiatives through repeated exposure or a lack of results.


cultural capital

Calque of French capital culturel, coined by French sociologists Pierre Bourdieu and Jean-Claude Passeron (1970).

If you like: if economic capital is what you have, cultural capital is what you know, social capital is whom you know. […] Unless educational resources make some attempt to reverse the flow of cultural capital transmitted in the home then the end result will be enhanced forms of cultural inequality.

2007, Tim Edwards, Cultural Theory, SAGE, →ISBN, page 265:

[…]I had an excess of cultural capital and a lack of actual capital; […]

2020, Emily Segal, Mercury Retrograde, New York: Deluge Books, →ISBN:

(sociology) The social assets of a person, such as education, intellect, style of speech or dress, etc. that promote social mobility.


elective affinity

elective affinity (plural elective affinities)

2000, Milton Fisk, Toward a Healthy Society: The Morality and Politics of American Health Care Reform, Lawrence, KA: University Press of Kansas, Chapter 8, pp. 196-197,
Weber spoke of an elective affinity between a form of religious belief (Protestantism) and a practical ethics (the work ethic of capitalism). His idea can be extended to explain how different groups come to have a basis for entering a single party.

(sociology) A process by which two cultural forms (e.g. religious, intellectual, political or economic) having certain similarities or kinships enter into a relationship of reciprocal attraction and influence, and mutual reinforcement.


snowball sampling

(sociology, statistics) A nonprobability sampling technique where existing study subjects recruit future subjects from among their acquaintances.


heteroglossic

(sociology, linguistics) Of, relating to, or characterized by heteroglossia.


ethnolysis

Taking as a model the theory of “genetic centers” of N. I. Vavilov as adapted by Blanc (as a theory of “cosmolysis” or “ethnolysis”), Laplace constructed a theory of basal polymorphism, according to which Upper Palaeolithic industry was initially unspecialized (a “synthetotype,” innate in the designation borrowed from the paleontologists) and afterwards divided up into specialized complexes.

1977 March, Leo S. Klejn, “A Panorama of Theoretical Archaeology”, in Current Anthropology, volume 18, number 1, →DOI, page 6:

As regards the tourism function rate, experts generally adopt the principle that if the rate exceeds 100, visitors are dominant and impose their habits and culture on their hosts. In this case we observe the phenomenon of ethnolysis, which is well-known to sociologists.

1996, Louis Dupont, “Planning in Practice in the French West Indies”, in Development Planning: The Test of Facts, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, →ISBN, page 179:

(sociology, anthropology) The dissolution or loss of certain characteristics of an ethnic group.


neoevolutionism

The so-called neoevolutionism or cultural materialism of Childe, however, had been preserved (in the works of R. McC. Adams, Braidwood, and others), as had the environmental school of Crawford, Fox, and Clark. […] Influences from cultural anthropology—neoevolutionism and functionalism—were pulling in the same direction.

1977 March, Leo S. Klejn, “A Panorama of Theoretical Archaeology”, in Current Anthropology, volume 18, number 1, →DOI, page 4:

(sociology, anthropology) A school of anthropology, developed in the mid-20th century, concerned with long-term, evolutionary social change and with the regular patterns of development that may be seen in unrelated, widely separated cultures.


neoevolutionist

The neoevolutionists were related to the evolutionists of the past century by their search for laws, their interest in general and universal models, their confidence in progress, and their optimistic attitude toward historical reconstruction.

(sociology, anthropology) A proponent of neoevolutionism.


societalization

(sociology) The theory attributed to sociologist Q112383134 (Q112383134) that modernisation makes social life increasingly fragmented with a loss of close-knit communities, which process is seen to undermine religion.

yhteiskunnallistuminen

fragmentation of society due to modernisation


hyperlogic

hyperlogic (countable and uncountable, plural hyperlogics)

(sociology) According to Jean Baudrillard, the excessive and formalized practice of an established system, used as a liberating strategy to disrupt the system.


upward mobility

“The whole notion of the American dream,” said Frank Levy, an M.I.T. economist, “described a mass upward mobility that is just a lot harder to achieve right now.”

2012 October 24, David Leonhardt, quoting Frank Levy, “Standard of Living Is in the Shadows as Election Issue”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(sociology) Ability to advance to better-paid or better-regarded social strata.


metasociology

(sociology) The study of sociology itself


factish

Blend of fact + fetish, coined by Bruno Latour.

Factishes fit well the emergent and networked vision of the world, because they stress the historical quality with which every acting entity is endowed with.

2005, Monika A. Szumilak, Reconfiguring Spanish Subjects, page 93:

If what we have are not fetishes to be critiqued, but factishes that are hybrids that have complex effects, then we must exercise caution and care both in relation to critiquing and creating factishes.

2012, Mike Michael, Reconnecting Culture, Technology and Nature, page 35:

The factish obliterates the binary between fact and fetish and, more importantly, between Africa and Europe.

2013, Lucia Thesen, Linda Cooper, Risk in Academic Writing, page 249:

(sociology) A scientific "fact" whose power is believed in, but which is ultimately a construction, just as fetishes are constructions believed to hold spiritual powers.


assemblage theory

(sociology) An ontological framework developed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari for the analysis of social complexity by emphasizing fluidity, exchangeability, and multiple functionalities.


pattern variable

pattern variable (plural pattern variables)

Coined by Talcott Parsons (1902–1979), American sociologist.

(sociology) Any of a set of contrasting pairs of characteristics said to be associated with various kinds of social interaction: affectivity – affective neutrality; self-orientation – collectivity-orientation; universalism – particularism; ascription – achievement; and specificity – diffusity.


sociobiodiversity

sociobiodiversity (countable and uncountable, plural sociobiodiversities)

(sociology, biology) sociobiological diversity


third place

Coined by American urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg in 1989.

coin

The “third place” is a public, social place where you spend time that is neither home nor work. Whether it is publicly run, like a library, or a commercial venture, it is, above all, shared – a site of community-building and interaction with others.

2018 September 4, Elle Hunt, “Tell us about your 'third place' – where you connect with your community”, in The Guardian:

The rise of mobile and drive-through along with lives lived online raises questions about the role of coffee houses as a “third place” where people find community.

2025 June 14, Gregory Meyer, “Starbucks hopes to achieve much needed caffeine boost by hiring more baristas”, in FT Weekend, Companies & Markets, page 11:

(urban studies, sociology) A social space separate from the two usual social environments of home (“first place”) and the workplace (“second place”), such as a bar or public library.


virtual class

The virtual class has driven to global power along the digital superhighway. Representing perfectly the expansionary interests of the recombinant commodity-form, the virtual class has seized the imagination of contemporary culture by conceiving a techno-utopian high-speed cybernetic grid for travelling across the electronic frontier.

1994, Arthur Kroker, Michael A. Weinstein, Data Trash, St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, pages 6–7:

Lacking the free time of the hippies, work itself has become the main route to self-fulfilment for much of the ‘virtual class’.

1995 September, Richard Barbrook, Andy Cameron, “The Californian Ideology”, in Mute, volume 1, number 3, →ISSN:

But I also notice that many members of the virtual class have deep feelings of anxiety and ambivalence about projects they're involved in. Unlike Marx's bourgeoisie, the virtual class experiences huge contradictions. Just between the coders and the businessmen, there are conflicts.

1996 February, Jean-Hugues Roy, quoting Arthur Kroker, “Way New Leftists”, in Wired, →ISSN:

(sociology, uncommon) A hypothesized new social and economic class exploiting and advocating digital technology; a digital elite.


youthitude

Coordinate term: feminitude

(sociology) A fetishized, objectified cultural ideal of youth.


feminitude

Coordinate term: youthitude

(sociology) A fetishized, objectified cultural ideal of femininity.


Facebook generation

en-noun

Facebook generation (plural Facebook generations)

Facebook generations (plural)
Generation Facebook (alternative)

(sociology) A demographic group that has matured using social media as their primary networking tool.


mutual aid

From mutual + aid. Popularised by the anarcho-communist philosopher, Peter Kropotkin.

[I]n all these scenes of animal life which passed before my eyes, I saw mutual aid and mutual support carried on to an extent which made me suspect in it a feature of the greatest importance for the maintenance of life, the preservation of each species, and its further evolution.

1902, Peter Kropotkin, “Introduction”, in Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution:

(biology, sociology) The state of cooperation, as opposed to competition, as a factor in evolution and social development.

interhelpo

evolutionary or socioeconomic cooperation


socioindexical

(sociology) Relating to, or described by a sociological index


lying flat

from Chinese, 躺平, tǎng píng ("to lie flat")

(sociology) A lifestyle choice and social protest movement in China by some young people who reject societal pressures.


celibacy syndrome

From Japanese, セックスしない症候群, sekkusu shinai shōkōgun (literally "no-sex syndrome").

(sociology) A media hypothesis proposing that a growing number of Japanese adults have lost interest in intimate activity and as a result have lost interest in romantic love, dating and marriage.


Mexican divorce

Mexican divorce (plural Mexican divorces)

(law, historical, sociology) An easier, quicker, and less expensive form of divorce than a divorce in most US states, sought by some Americans.


contrabureaucratic

Coined by Joyce Rothschild-Whitt in 1979, from contra- + bureaucratic.

coin

The emergence of these contrabureaucratic organizations calls for a new model of organization that can encompass their alternative practices and aspirations.

1979, Joyce Rothschild-Whitt, “The Collectivist Organization: An Alternative to Rational-Bureaucratic Models”, in American Sociological Review, volume 44, number 4, page 509:

First are contrabureaucratic structures that resist organization that promotes 'the employer viewpoint,' such as universalism.

2006, Patricia S. Parker, “Toward an Inclusive Framework for Envisioning Race, Gender, and Leadership”, in Margaret Foegen Karsten, editor, Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in the Workplace: Issues and Challenges for Today's Organizations, Volume 1: Management, Gender, and Ethnicity in the United States, Praeger, page 42:

While not using the term prefiguration, Rothschild-Whitt’s study of collectivist organisations was one of the first to theorise the organisational dynamics and structural commonalities of what she called ‘contrabureaucratic’ organisations, highlighting their ‘alternative practices and aspirations’...

2019, Armine Ishkanian, Anita Peña Saavedra, “The politics and practices of intersectional prefiguration in social movements: The case of Sisters Uncut”, in The Sociological Review, volume 67, number 5, pages 987–8:

(sociology, organisational theory) Self-consciously rejecting bureaucracy and pursuing alternative modes of organisation.


Seattle Freeze

(US, sociology) The supposed difficulty of forming new friendships in the city of Seattle.


glass cliff

Proposed in 2005, extending the glass ceiling metaphor.

Since her appointment, she [Linda Yaccarino] has been linked with the “glass cliff” theory, put forward in 2005 by researchers at the University of Exeter. The theory posits that women are more likely to be promoted or brought into top jobs at times of a crisis and thus set up for failure.

2023 September 30, Hannah Murphy, “The wildest job in Silicon Valley”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 18:

(sociology) A phenomenon where women in leadership roles are likelier than men to achieve such roles during periods of crisis or downturn, when the risk of failure is highest.


social station

en-noun

social station (countable and uncountable, plural social stations)

(sociology) Synonym of social status: one's position with a social hierarchy, one's value relative to society.


humanitarian crisis

humanitarian crisis (plural humanitarian crises)

(sociology) A singular event or a series of events that are threatening in terms of health, safety or well-being of a community or large group of people.


metastereotype

Beyond stereotypes, research is beginning to add another layer by examining metastereotypes, which are what one person believes other groups think about their group (Vorauer et al., 1998).

2020, Joel T. Nadler, Elora C. Voyles, Stereotypes: The Incidence and Impacts of Bias, page 306:

(sociology) A person's stereotypical impression of how others (outgroup members) regard the person's own group.


Oprahization

(neologism, sociology) Synonym of Oprahfication.


female gaze

(sociology) A term representing the gaze of the female spectator, character or director of an artistic work; an issue of representing women as subjects having agency.


homonormalization

One of the most compelling examples of the author's depoliticizing project of homonormalization in the series can be found where Quant explains the role that his friend and mentor, Anthony Gatt, and Anthony's partner, Jared, play in the dominant culture of Saskatoon: […]

2014, Jeannette Sloniowski, Marilyn Rose, Detecting Canada, page 188:

But in more recent queer theory, the positivist projects committed to restoring the gay subject to history and redeeming the gay self from its pathologization have been recognized as part of a process of homonormalization.

2014, Mikko Tuhkanen, Leo Bersani: Queer Theory and Beyond, page 70:

The inclusion of transgender voices further disrupts the homonormalization of sex and identity evident in popular LGBTQ cinema.

2016, Sonia Tascon, Tyson Wils, Activist Film Festivals: Towards a Political Subject:

(sociology) The normalization of homosexuality by absorbing it into the heteronormative culture.


super-token

super-tokens (plural)
supertoken (alternative)
super token (alternative)

Another useful technique is to incorporate ‘super-tokens’ directly into the top of the token file so that they are readily found when needed; for example, writing an abstract or reporting preliminary results.

2006, Sali A. Tagliamonte, Analysing Sociolinguistic Variation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 168:

In this corpus, the best example of a super token can be seen in the following excerpt (1), where an educated female speaker in her mid-twenties, who is recounting a recent trip to Sweden, switches between a palatal lateral and a palatal fricative in the middle of a noun phrase

2010, Panayiotis A. Pappas, “A new sociolinguistic variable in Cypriot Greek”, in Angela Ralli, Brian D. Joseph, Mark Janse, Athanasios Karasimos, editors, Research on Greek Dialects: Institutions and Projects, →ISSN:

The following super token was extracted from one of the informants who participated in the sociolinguistic interview for this research.

2017, Luis Alberto Mendez, “The variant [ʃ] in the Spanish of Ciudad Juárez”, in Borealis: An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics, volume 6, number 1, →DOI, page 244:

Example (48) presents a supertoken where a Solonese signer uses SUDAH:4 and SUDAH:1 in consecutive clauses; these clauses have the same meaning, and hence are semantically equivalent (there are other examples where a variant form occurs in both pre-predicate and post-predicate slots without apparent difference in meaning, although more research is needed on this).

2019, Nick Palfreyman, Variation in Indonesian Sign Language: A Typological and Sociolinguistic Analysis, Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, →ISBN, page 143:

sociolinguistic variable
sociolinguistic variable

(sociolinguistics) An instance of the same speaker/signer using two or more variants of a sociolinguistic variable in the same section of discourse.


sociolinguistic variable

sociolinguistic variable (plural sociolinguistic variables)

(sociolinguistics) A feature, either lexical or phonetical, that is correlated with extralingual factors such as the setting, speaker, addressee etc.


social cue

(sociology, anthropology) A verbal or non-verbal signal expressed through the face, body, voice, motion, and used to guide conversations as well as other social interactions by influencing impressions of and responses to others.


power dynamics

(sociology, politics) Methods used by different groups of people to influence or control each other.


power gap

(sociology, business) The difference between two people that causes one person to treat the other person badly, because the other person is seen as lower than the first.


mesoanalysis

mesoanalysis (countable and uncountable, plural mesoanalyses)

(sociology) the analysis of institutions, organisations, and governmental social activity e.g. NGOs.


abstracted empiricism

(sociology) a term created by C. Wright Mills to describe sociological work that has a high focus on empirical methodology, particularly work that fixated with survey methods and their quantifiability.


social action

(sociology) Is an act which takes into account the actions and reactions of individuals or "agents". Associated with Max Weber.


actionalism

(sociology) Describes the theory of sociologist Alain Touraine that aims to replace sociology's focus from society to actors. Here, they emphasise the importance of individuals as agents of social systems, rather than passive observers.


action theory

rational choice theory
rational choice theory

(political science, sociology) Any theory that centres its gaze, analysis, and interpretation around human action. E.g. rational choice theory, phenomenology, etc.


rational choice theory

(social sciences, economics, political science, sociology) A theory that argues individual decisions are based on that individual's understanding of the costs and benefits of a given action, shaped throughout the assumptions of self-interest and rational actors.


hearably

en-adv

hearably (comparative more hearably, superlative most hearably)

more hearably (comparative)
most hearably (superlative)

On high sat the President imploring order, with his long hands put together as in prayer, and his lips visibly but not hearably speaking. At intervals he grasped his bell and swung it up and down with vigor, adding its keen clamor to the storm weltering there below.

1898 March 2, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “Stirring Times in Austria”, in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, volume XCVI, number DLXXIV, New York: Harper and Brothers, page 534:

By contrast, in (50), a hearably complete answer to a question that could have been referring to a similar information gap is continuation-receipted.

1984, John Heritage, “A change-of-state token and aspects of its sequential placement”, in J. Maxwell Atkinson, John Heritage, editors, Structures of Social Action, New York: Cambridge University Press:

Case studies of three problematic NNS/NS calls from a collection of emergency service calls were conducted using a conversation analytic approach. These calls were selected from publicly available recordings which were made by callers who were hearably NNS of English.

2022 April 18, Angela Cora Garcia, “Interactional challenges for non-native speakers of English in emergency telephone calls”, in Journal of Pragmatics, volume 193, Elsevier, →DOI, pages 222–234:

(formal, especially sociology or sociolinguistics) Audibly, auditorily; discernable through hearing.


homoglossia

On the one hand, the literary use of Spanish is a mark of resistance to the American notion of a literary homoglossia (to use Bakhtin's term), in particular to the Anglocentrism of the East Coast literary establishment.

1999, Paul Beekman Taylor, “Bronzing the Face of American English: The Double Tongue of Chicano Literature”, in Ton Hoenselaars, Marius Buning, editors, English Literature and the Other Languages, BRILL, page 256:

Discussion of the intertextual relationship in terms of homoglossia emphasizes the lack of stratification and the resultant amplifying effect without obfuscating differences between the content of the texts.

2013, Anna Kathryn Grau, “Hearing Voices: Heteroglossia, Homoglossia, and the Old French Monet”, in Musica Disciplina, volume 58, →JSTOR, page 81:

This is, undoubtedly, the hierarchically superior discourse—the critics soon detected it—in the dense interdiscourse of a kind of images whose apparent realistic homoglossia transmits a rich and varied critical heterology.

2021, Manuel González de Ávila, “On Narrative Hypersign and Feminine Imaginary: Audrey Flack's Photorealism”, in Popular Inquiry, volume 1, page 136:

(sociology, linguistics) The presence of a single linguistic variety, style of discourse, or point of view, as in a literary work.


social power

(sociology) The ability of an actor to change the incentive structures of other actors in order to bring about an outcome.


sexual capital

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-sexual capital.wav

Popularized by sociologist Catherine Hakim.

In fact, in the era when Christianity was dominant, women were by default defined by a sort of sexual capital, namely by chastity.

2022, Dana Kaplan, Eva Illouz, What is Sexual Capital?, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN:

(sociology) The social power an individual or group accrues as a result of their sexual attractiveness and social charm.


erotic capital

Carla Bruni and David Beckham have it. Jordan has even made a career out of it. So great is the advantage “erotic capital” can bring to the labour market—especially in sport, the arts, media and advertising—that it often outweighs educational qualifications.

2010 April, Prospect: Politics, Essay, Review, →ISSN, page 23:


digital immigrant

en-noun

digital immigrant (plural digital immigrants)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-digital immigrant.wav

(technology, sociology) A person who was born or raised before the widespread use of digital technology.


praxiography

praxiography (countable and uncountable, plural praxiographies)

(sociology) The study of social practices.


prosumption

The chapter covers the review of approaches that have been developed by prosumption specialists to improve the integration between the production for use and production for sale.

2013, Małgorzata Pańkowska, Frameworks of IT Prosumption for Business Development, page XX:

In fact they suggest that the rise of prosumption signals a new stage of capitalism in which it no longer makes sense to speak of workers as exploited.

2017, Debra Benita Shaw, Posthuman Urbanism: Mapping Bodies in Contemporary City Space:

Although they did not have the concept until recently, sociologists, social theorists, and other students of society and the media have always focused, albeit unknowingly, on prosumption.

2019, Frederick F. Wherry, Ian Woodward, The Oxford Handbook of Consumption, page 77:

(sociology) The contribution to product development by end users.


equity language

equity language (plural equity languages)

(linguistics, sociology) A language style that proscribes the use of all kinds of possibly offensive terms.


occupationalist

(sociology) One of four categories of sociologist propounded by Horowitz: a sociologist who is primarily committed to some sociological questions or issues.


gender cleavage

(psychology, sociology) Social assortment by gender, in particular during middle childhood, when children are most likely to prefer playmates of their own gender.


middle childhood

middle childhood (usually uncountable, plural middle childhoods)

(chiefly uncountable, psychiatry, sociology) The life stage between early childhood and adolescence, often defined by sociologists as roughly encompassing the years from age 6 to 12.


Neo-Europe

From neo- + Europe. Coined by Alfred W. Crosby.

(sociology) A place colonized and conquered by Europeans.


agelicism

(sociology) The belief, associated with Émile Durkheim, that the behavior and traits of an individual are determined by his or her social group.


dysconsciousness

From dys- + consciousness or dysconscious + -ness. Coined by academic Joyce Elaine King in 1991 (see quotation).

coinage

Dysconsciousness is an uncritical habit of mind (including perceptions, attitudes, assumptions, and beliefs) that justifies inequity and exploitation by accepting the existing order of things as given. If, as Heaney (1984) suggests, critical consciousness "involves an ethical judgement [sic]" about the social order, dysconsciousness accepts it uncritically.

1991 Spring, Joyce E[laine] King, “Dysconscious Racism: Ideology, Identity, and the Miseducation of Teachers”, in Journal of Negro Education, volume 60, number 2, Washington, D.C.: Howard University, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 135:

Subscribing to lifelong learning policies does not mean that we also have to subscribe to the language of racism that flows beneath its surface. If there are possibilities for rupturing the fault lines of "dysconsciousness," there are also possibilities for reinscribing racialized discourses and practices.

2005, Michael W. Apple, Jane Kenway, Michael Singh, editors, Globalizing Education: Policies, Pedagogies, & Politics, New York, N.Y.: Peter Lang, →ISBN, page 75:

I have shared liberatory practices that have helped to move students preparing for leadership positions in education towards disrupting their own dysconsciousness about issues of race.

2021, Shannon R. Waite, “Disrupting Dysconsciousness: Confronting Anti-Blackness in Educational Leadership Preparation Programs”, in Journal of School Leadership, volume 31, numbers 1–2, Thousands Oaks, C.A. […]: SAGE Publishing, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 78–79:

(chiefly sociology) A state of impaired or distorted consciousness or awareness, especially in regards to social issues.


dysconscious

en-adj

dysconscious (comparative more dysconscious, superlative most dysconscious)

more dysconscious (comparative)
most dysconscious (superlative)

From dys- + conscious. Coined by academic Joyce Elaine King in 1991 (see quotation).

The findings presented herein will show what these beliefs and responses have to do with what I call "dysconscious racism" to denote the limited and distorted understandings my students have about inequity and cultural diversity—understandings that make it difficult for them them to act in favor of truly equitable edutcation. This article presents a qualitative analysis of dysconscious racism as reflected in the responses of my teacher education students to an open-ended question I posed at the beginning of one of my classes during the fall 1986 academic quarter to assess student knowledge and understanding of social inequity.

1991 Spring, Joyce E[laine] King, “Dysconscious Racism: Ideology, Identity, and the Miseducation of Teachers”, in Journal of Negro Education, volume 60, number 2, Washington, D.C.: Howard University, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 133–134:

Directly impacting Deaf consciousness, dysconscious audism is a form of audism by means of an implicit acceptance of the dominant hearing norms and privileges. Dysconscious audism hampers to varying degrees the Deaf individual's consciousness of Deaf identity. The effect of dysconscious audism on Deaf identity is the weakening, if not complete lack, of a Deaf consciousness.

2003, Eugenie Nicole Gertz, Dysconscious audism and critical deaf studies: Deaf Crit's analysis of unconscious internalization of hegemony within the deaf community (thesis), Los Angeles, C.A.: University of California, Los Angeles:

Once the seizure activity spreads to involve areas of the brain that alter consciousness, the patient becomes unaware of their behaviors and does not encode the activity they are involved in. They are thus amnestic for this period, unable to recall what happened to them. This alteration of consciousness, usually termed loss of awareness or a dysconscious state, is different from unconsciousness.

2011, Ivan Osorio, Hitten P. Zaveri, Mark G. Frei, Susan Arthurs, editors, Epilepsy: The Intersection of Neurosciences, Biology, Mathematics, Engineering and Physics, Boca Raton, F.L., London, New York, N.Y.: CRC Press, →ISBN, page 16:

(chiefly sociology) Relating to or involving dysconsciousness ("a state of impaired or distorted consciousness or awareness, especially in regards to social issues").


unperform

en-verb

unperform (third-person singular simple present unperforms, present participle unperforming, simple past and past participle unperformed)

unperforms (present singular third-person)
unperforming (participle present)
unperformed (participle past)
unperformed (past)

Set against the ongoing legacy of minstrelsy, Banks argues against race as a meaningful category and brings to our attention strategies to unperform and dismantle it.

2006, Jan Cohen-Cruz, Mady Schutzman, A Boal Companion: Dialogues on Theatre and Cultural Politics (page 7)

(sociology, transitive) To cease to perform; to undo or dismantle (a social or cultural practice) by refusing to take part.


placial

The Philosophy and Geography Conferences have been designed to promote interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary conversations on the basis of the spatial/placial component that pervades all landscapes.

2003, Gary Backhaus, John Murungi, Tensional Landscapes: The Dynamics of Boundaries and Placements, page IX:

In other words, there is a potential for places and placial beings to express the limitless space.

2021, Timothy Tambassi, Marcello Tanca, The Philosophy of Geography, page 111:

(sociology, geography) Relating to places, or to conceptions of place.


paidia

Borrowed from Ancient Greek παιδιά (paidiá, “childish play, amusement”), from παῖς (paîs, “child”).

bor

(sociology) Free play, such as make-believe, that lacks the structured rules of formal games.


paideic

en-adj

paideic (comparative more paideic, superlative most paideic)

more paideic (comparative)
most paideic (superlative)

(sociology) Lacking the structured rules of formal games.


enregisterment

en-noun

enregisterment (countable and uncountable, plural enregisterments)

The enregisterment of culture among Latino, Black, and Asian students resembles that of multicultural programs insofar as the noun culture denotes a valuable possession of the racially marked and a contribution to the larger community.

2009 June, Bonnie Urciuoli, “Talking/Not Talking about Race: The Enregisterments of Culture in Higher Education Discourses”, in Linguistic Anthropology, volume 19, number 1, Wiley, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 29:

(linguistics, sociology) The process of enregistering or becoming a register ("a style of a language used in a particular context").


somatophobia

From somato- + -phobia. Coined by feminist philosopher Elizabeth Spelman.

The nature/culture binary that informs Western culture’s deeply embedded erotophobia and somatophobia

2022, Marisol Cortez, “Ambivalent Anality: Revisiting the Queer Ecology of "the Jackass Moment"”, in Media+Environment:

(sociology) Fear of the body, as opposed to mind or spirit.


statusful

en-adj

statusful (comparative more statusful, superlative most statusful)

more statusful (comparative)
most statusful (superlative)

In these stories, being a parent conferred a higher or more "in-group" status than being married; thus the marital status of parents was not particularly relevant. However, being partnered was more statusful than being single.

2007, Gabriella Gahlia Modan, Turf Wars: Discourse, Diversity, and the Politics of Place, Malden, M.A. […]: Blackwell Publishing, →ISBN, page 214:

(chiefly sociology, linguistics) Carrying a high or privileged status.


schizoglossia

From schizo- + -glossia. Coined by U.S. linguistics professor Einar Haugen in 1962.

coinage

(sociolinguistics) Insecurity about the applicability of a language variety.


schizoglossic

en-adj

schizoglossic (comparative more schizoglossic, superlative most schizoglossic)

more schizoglossic (comparative)
most schizoglossic (superlative)


empty signifier

en-noun

empty signifier (plural empty signifiers)

First attested in the 1970s, apparently originally a calque of French signifiant vide as used by Jacques Derrida among others (though not by Lacan as sometimes supposed; compare the Lacanian term master signifier). Subsequently popularised in the work of Ernesto Laclau in the 1990s.

In many ways, the goal of “Clear” seems to have functioned as a kind of empty signifier, an amorphous but supremely attractive goal that could represent almost anything to anyone: higher IQ for some, better personal relationships for others, career success for some, domestic bliss for others.

2011, Hugh B. Urban, The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion, →ISBN, page 48:

(sociology, philosophy) A signifier—that is, a linguistic sign, a label or slogan—with no fixed and delimited meaning, which can therefore be interpreted in many ways and represent a range of different beliefs and aspirations.

Ernesto Laclau
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Lacan


master signifier

master signifier (plural master signifiers)

master signifiers (plural)
Master-Signifier (alternative)
master-signifier (alternative)

Calque of French signifiant-maître as used by French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan.

The same reversal that gives rise to a new Master-Signifier is at work in ideology: in anti-Semitism, all fears (of economic crisis, of moral degradation …) are exchanged for fear of the Jew […] And is not the same logic also discernible in a horror film like Spielberg’s Jaws? I fear the shark, my friend, and have no other fears. …

2006, Slavoj Žižek, The Parallax View, →ISBN, page 37:

It is the broader umbrella concept of cultural re-birth that acts as a master signifier suturing the vast spectrum of Islamism, from its peaceful articulations to its more violent manifestations.

2021, Tahir Abbas, Countering Violent Extremism: The International Deradicalization Agenda, →ISBN:

(sociology, philosophy) A signifier, i.e. a linguistic sign, with no determinate content beyond itself, serving as a nodal point dominating and grounding the content of a chain of other signifiers.


floating signifier

floating signifier (plural floating signifiers)

Calque of French signifiant flottant as used by French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss.

However, the elite as a target for populist resentments remains quite fuzzy and rather serves as a floating signifier oscillating between the ‘political establishment’, the ‘economic elite’, the ‘cultural elite’ and the ‘media elite’: in short, one homogenous corrupt group that works against the ‘general will’.

2020, Ina Kudde, Miranda Loli, “Corruption and populism: the linkage”, in Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, Paul M. Heywood, editors, A Research Agenda for Studies of Corruption, →ISBN, page 122:

(sociology, philosophy) A signifier—that is, a linguistic sign, a label or slogan—with a vague and variable meaning.


racization

(sociology) The way in which race becomes defined.


antimemetic

en-adj

antimemetic (comparative more antimemetic, superlative most antimemetic)

more antimemetic (comparative)
most antimemetic (superlative)

From antimeme + -etic or anti- + memetic.

(neurology, sociology, chiefly science fiction) Of, being, containing, or pertaining to antimemes.


we-group

(sociology) An ingroup, from the perspective of its members.


context collapse

(sociology) The flattening of multiple audiences into a single context, so that information intended for one audience finds its way to another, as with television and the Internet.


speechway

Coordinate term: foodway

the speechways of New York's East Side

(sociology) The speech customs and dialects of a group of people.


structural-functional

structural functionalism
structural functionalism

(sociology) Of or relating to structural functionalism.


nonrunaway

(sociology) A person who has not run away from home.


conversation analysis

(sociology, linguistics) An approach to the study of social interaction and language.


manufacture of consent

Coined by American journalist and political commentator Walter Lippmann in 1922.

coin

(politics, sociology) The process of managing public opinion, especially via mass media in a democratic society.


time famine

(psychology, sociology) The sensation of having an excess amount of tasks or demands, and not having enough time to handle or tackle them.


time bind

(sociology) A concept relevant to family and labor, focusing on the blurring continuum between work and home.


triple oppression

(sociology) The intersectional combination of classism, racism, and sexism.


Apparatgeist

Pseudo-Germanism, derived from Apparat (“apparatus, device, machine”) + Geist (“spirit”). Perhaps influenced by zeitgeist. Coined by American communications academic James E Katz.

coinage

A few years ago such questions provoked academic controversy. Not everybody agrees with Ms Ito's argument that technology is always socially constructed. James Katz, a professor of communication at Rutgers University in New Jersey, argues that there is an Apparatgeist (German for "spirit of the machine"). For personal communication technologies, he argues, people react in pretty much the same way, a few national variations notwithstanding. "Regardless of culture," he suggests, "when people interact with personal communication technologies, they tend to standardise infrastructure and gravitate towards consistent tastes and universal features."

2009 December 30, James E. Katz, quotee, “The Apparatgeist calls”, in The Economist, London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-03-26:

In constructing such a multiscalar approach, I want to draw upon the same insight that informed the theory of Apparatgeist, which James E. Katz and Mark Aakhus proposed to define as referring to 'the common set of strategies or principles of reasoning about technology evident in the identifiable, consistent, and generalized patterns of technological advancement throughout history' (Katz & Aakhus 2002: 307).

2012, Imar O. de Vries, Tantalisingly Close: An Archaeology of Communication Desires in Discourses of Mobile Wireless Media, Amsterdam University Press, →ISBN, page 95:

(technology, sociology) The inherent properties of a device which affect the way it is used by individuals across cultures.


time discipline

(anthropology, sociology) A concept applied to social and economic rules, conventions, customs, and expectations governing the measurement of time, the social currency and awareness of time measurements, and people's expectations concerning the observance of these customs by others.


middle child syndrome

en-noun

middle child syndrome (usually uncountable, plural middle child syndromes)

middle child syndromes (plural)
middle-child syndrome (alternative)

(psychology, sociology) The belief or idea that the middle child of a family, who is born in between siblings, is treated or seen differently by their parents from the rest of their siblings.


Judeopessimism

From Judeo- + pessimism, by analogy with Afro-pessimism.

This brief analysis of Berlin’s The Remnant of Israel, confronting the new term “antisemitism” and its meaning, points to some examples of what I am calling Judeopessimism, which makes claims about antisemitism that are akin to the political ontology of anti-Blackness that we find in some Afropessimists.

2024 May 15, Shaul Magid, “Judeopessimism: Antisemitism, History, and Critical Race Theory*”, in Harvard Theological Review, volume 117, number 2, Cambridge University Press, →DOI, page 387:

(neologism, sociology) The tendency to view antisemitism as constitutive of human civilization; summarizing Jews as eternally doomed to live in substandard conditions, such as always being surrounded by a hostile population.


unlaughter

(sociology) the act of not laughing when laughter is expected, for instance after the telling of a joke, leading to social uncomfortability.


hegemonic masculinity

(sociology) The practice that legitimizes men's dominant position of men in society and justifies the subordination of the common male population and women, and other marginalized ways of being a man.


emerging adult

Near-synonym: young adult

(psychology, sociology, medicine, often attributive) In some conceptions of human life phases, a member of the subset of adults who, although postadolescent (having passed the age of majority), retain some aspects of mental or emotional immaturity.


human behavior

human behavior (usually uncountable, plural human behaviors)

(sociology) The potential and expressed capacity of human individuals or groups to respond to internal and external stimuli throughout their life.


conscientious objection

conscientious objection (countable and uncountable, plural conscientious objections)

(military, sociology) An objection for reasons of conscience in performing military service because of religious or moral principles.


New Russian

(sociology) A Russian person of a newly rich business class who acquired their wealth in the 1990s in post-Soviet Russia.


sex trafficking

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-sex trafficking.wav

(law, crime, sociology) Human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation.


political capital

(sociology) The ability of a person to influence political decisions.


subcultural capital

(sociology) The cultural knowledge and commodities acquired by members of a subculture, raising their status and helping to differentiate themselves from members of other groups.


care-experienced

en-adj

care-experienced (comparative more care-experienced, superlative most care-experienced)

more care-experienced (comparative)
most care-experienced (superlative)

(sociology, education) Having been in care. (taken away from natural parents and looked after by the state, etc.)


identicide

(anthropology, sociology) The deliberate, systematic and targeted demoralization and destruction of the cultural elements representing the identity of a people, with the intent to erase the cultural narrative and memory of that people.


conflict resolution

en-noun

conflict resolution (countable and uncountable, plural conflict resolutions)

(psychology, sociology) The method and process involved in facilitating the peaceful ending of conflict and retribution.


Chicago school

(sociology, criminology) A school of thought originating at the University of Chicago whose work was influential in the early 20th century.


gender-binary

(biology, sociology) Synonym of binary (“having or pertaining to a gender identity represented by the gender binary; either male or female”).


self-defeating prophecy

self-defeating prophecy (plural self-defeating prophecies)

Coordinate term: self-fulfilling prophecy

(philosophy, sociology) A situation in which the occurrence of a predicted event becomes less likely by predicting the event.


ladder of opportunity

(Australia, sociology) The process of social advancement or the elevation to a higher social class of a citizen.


indicator card

(sociology) A card listing the indicators of human trafficking.


Spock generation

the Spock generation (canonical)
Spock Generation (alternative)

(anthropology, sociology) The generation of people who were influenced by the ideas of Dr. Benjamin Spock.


necroresistance

(sociology) Suicide as an act of political resistance.


biosovereignty

(sociology) Sovereignty over a person's body.


deother

en-verb

deother (third-person singular simple present deothers, present participle deothering, simple past and past participle deothered)

deothers (present singular third-person)
deothering (participle present)
deothered (participle past)
deothered (past)

(transitive, sociology, rare) To make no longer "other"; to reintegrate into the acceptable mainstream.


exterminism

(sociology) The tendency toward the extermination of society, as by war, environmental damage, etc.


snowball sample

en-noun

snowball sample (plural snowball samples)

(sociology, statistics) A sample obtained through the existing social networks of its participants.


nonstandard dialect

nonstandard dialect (plural nonstandard dialects)

(sociolinguistics) Any spoken variety of a language that deviates from the socially dominant or prestigious dialect.


nonstandard variety

nonstandard variety (plural nonstandard varieties)

Finally, many children speak a nonstandard variety of their native language even though they understand the standard variety, which is the language of wider communication.

1975, United States Commission on Civil Rights, A Better Chance to Learn - Bilingual Bicultural Education, Volume 51, page 112:

Even if there is not a variety of English spoken exclusively by Negroes, the fact is the great majority of culturally disadvantaged Negro pupils speak a nonstandard variety of English.

1977, Glendon F. Drake, The Role of Prescriptivism in American Linguistics 1820–1970, page 80:

That we refer to a certain type of language as “nonstandard” presupposes that there is a standard language against which this nonstandard variety can be judged.

1999, Gunnel Melchers, Irma Taavitsainen, Päivi Pahta, Writing in Nonstandard English, page 123:

Geneva Tisdale speaks a nonstandard variety of English that is spoken by many black people in the South and throughout the United States.

2001, Maurice Cogan Hauck, Kenneth MacDougall, David Isay, Twelve American Voices, An Authentic Listening and Integrated-Skills Textbook, page 106:

It is important to remember that the so-called English speakers came predominantly from areas where nonstandard varieties of English were spoken, either in the British Isles, the Caribbean, or North America.

2015, Daniel Schreier, Edgar W. Schneider, Jeffrey P. Williams, Peter Trudgill (editors), Further Studies in the Lesser-Known Varieties of English, page 201:

(sociolinguistics) Any form or dialect of a language that deviates from the established standard.


vernacular dialect

vernacular dialect (plural vernacular dialects)

nonstandard dialect
nonstandard dialect#English

(sociolinguistics) Synonym of nonstandard dialect.


aquaphilia

From aqua- + -philia, from Latin aqua (“water”) + Ancient Greek φιλία (philía, “love, affection”).
Literally: “love of water”.

der

Yet while the western world has thus unlearnt the innate aquaphilia of its ancestors, there are other cultures said to maintain this unity. Observing the natural affinity for water of the Polynesians, Herman Melville wrote: "No wonder that the South Sea Islanders are an amphibious race when they are thus launched into water as soon as they see the light. I am convinced that it is as natural for a human being to swim as it is for a duck, and yet in civilized communities how many able bodied individuals die like so many drowning kittens from the occurrence of the most trivial accidents."

2009, Rupert D. V. Glasgow, The Concept of Water, R. Glasgow Books, →ISBN, page 42:

I performed content analyses, regression analyses, path analyses, and mediation analyses to study the relationships of 1) pictorial aquaphilia (intrinsic attachment to safe and clean water scenes) and waterscape imageability, 2) waterscape imageability and the coherence of city image, 3) egocentric aquaphilia (attachment to water-based spatial anchors) and allocentric aquaphilia (attachment to water centric cities), and 4) the coherence of city image, allocentric aquaphilia, and openness towards water-coherent urbanism.

2015, Hope Hui Rising, “Water urbanism: Building more coherent cities”, in University of Oregon ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, University of Oregon:

In order to explore the improvement strategies of flood control landscape integrating water ecology, water safety, water culture and water landscape, the Luozhou Ancient Town by the Wulong River in Fuzhou City was taken as an example, and the concept of pluralistic symbiosis from the perspective of aquaphilia and livability was proposed through field investigation, data monitoring, site analysis and planning, that is, while retaining the positive attributes of "boundary", its negative limitation of "pluralistic" space is broken, so as to establish a pluralistic and symbiotic environment with aquaphilia and livability.

2022, Huangjie Ding, Chen Yan, Cheng Fang, Shijie Zhang, Yuanhao Lv, “Improvement Strategies of Flood Control Landscape in Suburban Villages and Towns from the Perspective of Aquaphilia and Livability.”, in Journal of Landscape Research, volume 14, number 6, →DOI, page 40:

(biology, sociology) The biological and societal attraction to water.


cleft habitus

Calque of French habitus clivé, coined by French sociologist, anthropologist, and philosopher Pierre Bourdieu.

coin

Bourdieu's idea of “cleft habitus”—a split between the world you come from and the one you enter—helps explain the resentment we see in Vance, who has written about feeling anxious over not knowing which fork to use at Yale […], and about being silently judged by people who seem to belong in a world he only pretends to understand.

2025 May 24, Nancy Kolff-Rodriguez, “The irony is it takes two Frenchmen to explain Maga”, in FT Weekend, Letters, page 8:

(sociology) A sense of dislocation experienced when one's life conditions change drastically, for example through social mobility.


color barrier

(sociology) An unspoken social code of racial segregation or discrimination, particularly in sports, education, and public service.