status group

Introduced by German sociologist Max Weber as Stand.

Coordinate term: social class

Mainstream society functions as a macro status group, with the core status beliefs centered on the varieties of capital outlined in the previous section. Alternative status groups believe in criteria outside of traditional capital.

2022, W. David Marx, chapter 1, in Status and Culture, Viking, →ISBN:

(social sciences) A group of people within a society who can be differentiated by non-economic qualities such as honor, prestige, ethnicity, race, and religion.


power projection

en-noun

power projection (countable and uncountable, plural power projections)

international relations
international relations

(political science, geopolitics) In international relations, the capacity of a state to deploy and sustain forces outside its territory.


unilineal evolution

unilineal evolution (usually uncountable, plural unilineal evolutions)

Of course, when we speak in broadly evolutionary terms, to do so need not imply the simplistic notion of unilineal evolution, with the suggestion that human developments always follow the same sequential pattern.

2008, Colin Renfrew, Prehistory: The Making of the Human Mind, Modern Library, →ISBN, page 89:

(social sciences, anthropology) The theory, now considered obsolete, that societies evolve in a single direction toward complexity, progress, and civilization.


nation-builder

Coordinate term: nation wrecker

(political science, geopolitics) A person who takes part in nation-building; a member of a state who takes the initiative in developing the national community through government programs.


bounded rationality

Coined by American political scientist Herbert A. Simon.

coinage

(social sciences) A model of human behaviour which states that individuals often make decisions that are merely adequate rather than optimal.


parapolitics

(political science) Political practices and arrangements that are unacknowledged and that intend to misinform or obfuscate a hidden agenda.


cistemic

en-adj

cistemic (comparative more cistemic, superlative most cistemic)

more cistemic (comparative)
most cistemic (superlative)

In the context of this thesis, I have framed this section around cistemic violence and vulnerability to consider the persistent reduction of gender diversity to genitalia within the Trans Debate and other anti-trans discourses.

2021, Lo Cathryn Lanfear, "Navigating gender diverse worlds assembled upon binary expectations: Investigating the experiences of trans people living in Britain", thesis submitted to University College London, page 122

This study points to the necessity of “coordinated steps to create gender-inclusive classrooms and schools [that] are taken proactively” (Luecke, 2018, p. 281) to ensure that white cistemic barriers are proactively acknowledged and confronted.

2022, Kenan Omercajic, “'Basement Boys' in the All-Gender Bathroom: Investigating Student-Inspired Trans-Activism and White Cisgenderist Barriers to Supporting Trans Students in School”, in Teacher College Record, volume 124, number 8, page 239:

Last but not least, this thesis/project is ultimately dedicated to the incredible countless Queer and Trans students, staff, and faculty of color, (for those who have fought and those who continue) fighting on university campuses today for equitable administrative practices and lasting cistemic change.

2022, Wesley R. Paláu, "The Csu-Know/Cis-Dsu: Systematic Debilitation and Cis-Fragility in Higher Education", thesis submitted to San Diego University, page v

(LGBTQ, social sciences, neologism) Of or relating to systems that privilege cisgender people and marginalize transgender people.


biocolonialism

In my opinion, many of the problems with the safety of our food supplies are directly related to biocolonialism. Food produced by anonymous sources in other countries under less than acceptable conditions is no way to ensure our good health.

2000, Ann Cooper, Lisa M. Holmes, Bitter Harvest, page 121:

Its major sponsors consist of some of the largest and most environmentally destructive companies in the world – including Citigroup, Exxon Mobil Foundation, and McDonalds^([sic]) – and it has been accused of being a corporate front designed to greenwash its sponsors' images and act as ‘the friendly face of biocolonialism.’

2007, Gavin Fridell, Fair Trade Coffee: The Prospects and Pitfalls of Market-Drive Social Justice, pages 257–258:

The HGDP [Human Genome Diversity Project] met an ignominious and unexpected end when tribal leaders accused the scientists of biocolonialism, for exploiting native genetic information in the same way that European colonizers had exploited their ancestors’ natural resources.

2011, Dorothy E. Roberts, Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-Create Race in the Twenty-First Century, page 65:

(social sciences) Exploitation or misappropriation of the biological resources (particularly plants and fungi) of indigenous peoples.


biocolonialist

biocolonialist (comparative more biocolonialist, superlative most biocolonialist)

more biocolonialist (comparative)
most biocolonialist (superlative)

Hence, Indigenism is concerned both with challenging this biocolonialist agenda that has dire portents for a ‘new age eugenics’, and also with ecological alternatives that seek to live in reciprocity with the land.

2000, M. A. Jaimes Guerrero, “Native Womanism: Exemplars of indigenism in sacred traditions of kinship”, in Graham Harvey, editor, Indigenous Religion: A Companion, page 50:

But perhaps the most noteworthy distinction is not between population genomics projects, but between recent projects that emphasize finding specific-population genomes and the earlier “biocolonialist” projects such as the HGDP.

2005, Eugene Thacker, The Global Genome: Biotechnology, Politics, and Culture, page 139:

Although the term ‘biocolonialism’ has only recently been broadly adopted, biocolonialist practices have had a long history.

2013, Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, Helen Tiffin, Postcolonial Studies: The Key Concepts, page 28:

(social sciences) Engaging in, characteristic of, or related to biocolonialism.


metacrap

From meta- + crap. The "metadata" sense was coined by Canadian-British-American blogger, journalist, and science fiction author Cory Doctorow in 2001.

coin

In art, as in language, “cutting out the metacrap” means to get at the “core” meaning beneath the “superficial form” of a work; what it seems to be is different from what it means.

1998, John Haiman, Talk Is Cheap: Sarcasm, Alienation, and the Evolution of Language, page 118:

Clearly the layers of pretense and self-awareness and metacrap are thick.

2011, Joyce Cho and Višnja Rogošic, "Burning the Rules, PAJ: Journal of Performance and Art, Volume 33, Number 2, May 2011

In this vein, amusing to hear (the first time) was Lieberman’s recounting how, at an international conference on language, Jacques Lacan, the French psychoanalyst and philosopher, gave a presentation on “the linguistic nature of psychological symptomatology” (“the kind of highfalutin metacrap you like, Kunzman,” Lieberman later commented).

2013, Larry Lefkowitz, The Critic, The Assistant Critic, and Victoria, page 157:

(social sciences, derogatory) Metatheory, metanalysis, and other meta disciplines.


downward drift

(psychology, social sciences) The phenomenon of people with mental illness moving ever downward along the social and economic scale after they reach adulthood and live independently.


unstylized fact

en-noun

unstylized fact (plural unstylized facts)

The unstylized facts will hardly justify anything more than an agnostic conclusion.

1970, Robert M. Solow, Growth Theory: An Exposition, Oxford University Press, page 6:

(social sciences, especially economics) An fact that is empirically observed rather than a stylized fact.


autarchism

(political science) A political philosophy that promotes the principles of individualism and the moral ideology of individual liberty and self-reliance.


videomalaise

(political science, dated) A correlation purported to exist between decreasing public trust in political institutions and societal exposure to political incivility (such as behavior by politicians which violates social norms), theorized to be exacerbated by the popularity of televised news.


sultanism

From sultan + -ism. Introduced by Max Weber.

(political science) An extreme form of authoritarian government characterized by the personal presence of the ruler in all elements of governance.


Russophrenia

This is classic Russophrenia, believing that Russia is about to threaten the world while on fiscal life-support.

2015 June 30, Bryan MacDonald, “Russophrenia - an illness in need of a cure”, in RT:

In one astute observation, Western media exhibit a “Russophrenia” – “a condition where the sufferer believes Russia is both about to collapse, and take over the world.”

2018 July 18, Mikhail Molchanov, quoting Bryan MacDonald, “The Trump-Putin summit: Russophrenia explained”, in Asia Times:

In some psychiatric sense it is very close to the more specific Russophrenia phenomenon, where Russia is simultaneously about to collapse and about to overtake the US, and the combined West.

2019 April 9, Bill Totten, “Has the US Lost Its Military Supremacy Over Russia?”, in BillTottenWeblog (Google Groups):

The Russian FIMI ecosystem produced and distributed satirical videos attacking Western values and exposing the purported reasons why Russia is superior to Western democracies. The European External Action Service (EEAS) Data team detected this new trend, including a video highlighting the Western “Russophrenia” and supposed attempts to cancel Russian culture, an advertisement inviting EU citizens to move to Russia, and commercial videos mocking EU citizens on the energy crisis.

2022, Global Affairs Canada, G7 Rapid Response Mechanism Annual Report 2022, page 10:

(neologism, political science, geopolitics, derogatory) The belief or idea that Russia is simultaneously about to collapse, and also take over the world.


bespredel

Borrowed from Russian беспреде́л (bespredél, “lawlessness; arbitrary rule”), from бес- (bes-, “without”) + преде́л (predél, “limit”).

af

In the Russian Far East, for example, vory took it on themselves to punish not only criminals unaffiliated with their organizations but also those members of their own society who committed acts of bespredel, extreme violence that was forbidden under the code—for example, brutally attacking or killing a woman or a child. […] Crime committed by outsiders is seen as bespredel because the territory “belongs” to the gang. As always with the gang, moral reasoning goes hand in hand with pragmatic considerations. The members admitted that the gang fights bespredel largely because it does not want additional police attention in its territory.

2015, Svetlana Stephenson, “6. THE GANG IN THE COMMUNITY”, in Gangs of Russia. From the Streets to the Corridors of Power, Cornell University Press, →DOI, pages 152–153, 154–155:

When asked of his understanding of bespredel at the bazaar, or mafia-related lawlessness, Adyl, a similarly aged trader originally from Osh confirmed what most other traders stated: there is not that kind of bespredel at the bazaar.

2017, Regine A. Spector, “6. Becoming Trading Elders and Local Authorities”, in Order at the Bazaar. Power and Trade in Central Asia, Cornell University Press, →DOI, page 150:

(political science) A fundamental breakdown in the established norms of a society, due to its citizens no longer having a collective understanding of the customs, values or institutions of that society; particularly in a Russian or post-Soviet context.


deimperialize

en-verb

deimperialize (third-person singular simple present deimperializes, present participle deimperializing, simple past and past participle deimperialized)

deimperializes (present singular third-person)
deimperializing (participle present)
deimperialized (participle past)
deimperialized (past)

(political science, transitive) To dismantle or formally end an empire.


cohort effect

(statistics, social sciences) The phenomenon in which research outcomes may depend on the characteristics and experiences shared within each particular cohort.


strategy of tension

en-noun

strategy of tension (plural strategies of tension)

(political science) A political policy wherein violent struggle is encouraged rather than suppressed.


dependency theory

dependency theory (countable and uncountable, plural dependency theories)

Dependency theory is a body of ideas about the role of developing countries within the global economic system, about the nature of development, and about patterns of unequal power. It dominated much Latin American social science (including the analysis of the region's international role) in the 1960s and 1970s.

2010, Mark Bevir, editor, Encyclopedia of Political Theory, A–E, SAGE, →ISBN, page 370:

(economics, political science) A set of ideas to explain the inequalities between developed countries and developing countries, originally conceived in the context of Latin America in the 1960s and 1970s, stressing the interdependence of those countries in a capitalist global economy.


etics

(social sciences, anthropology) The use of an etic approach.


emics

(social sciences, anthropology) The use of an emic approach.


superpresidential

en-adj

superpresidential (comparative more superpresidential, superlative most superpresidential)

more superpresidential (comparative)
most superpresidential (superlative)

… after President Boris Yeltsin dissolved parliament in September 1993 and won a referencum on a new constitution that eliminated the previous sustem of checks and balances in favor of a new superpresidential order.

1996 October 17, Larry Diamond, Marc F. Plattner, editors, Civil-Military Relations and Democracy, Johns Hopkins University Press, page 111:

The superpresidential regime is therefore not stable; it can drift in any direction—changing its rhetoric, its goals, its balance of forces, and its major ideas.

2002 January 24, M. Crawford Young, Mark Beissinger, editors, Beyond State Crisis? Post-Colonial Africa and Post-Soviet Eurasia in Comparative Perspective, Woodrow Wilson Center Press, page 232:

The 1993 Russian Constitution is frequently described as “superpresidential” because of the considerable powers it gave to the head of state.

2018 June 6, Brian D. Taylor, The Code of Putinism, Oxford University Press, page 4:

(political science) Of or relating to a form of republican government in which the president holds unusually extensive powers over the executive and legislature, surpassing those in standard presidential or semi‑presidential systems.