After discussing the cultural and the psychological basis of the phenomenon of homophobia, Madureira comes to the conclusion that a dance between the general and the specific is necessary for overcoming homophobia. What is the relation of such a dance and the self-concept? How the self concept may be explicated from a more dynamically constituted perspective is discussed. The relation of homophobia as a boundary phenomenon and Boesch's conception of the familiar and unfamiliar then leads to the conclusion of the person situated in a sphere, as co-inhabitants of other persons as well as the media they employ.
Matusov and Smith (Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science 46: 3, 2012) use a genealogical analysis of the US middle class to show how classic concepts of identity do not only represent historically, politically, and culturally local phenomena, but also contribute to them. Their analysis nicely exemplifies how culture, as semiotic mediation, guides and constrains both societal as well as intra- and inter-personal structures. As not only the traditional notion of identity, but also the mainstream concept of culture, represents a limiting understanding of the person-culture relation, the first part of this article re-evaluates two main understandings of culture within psychology and then argue for a semiotic mediational conception that simultaneously guides and constrain not only intra- and inter-individual mechanisms, but also structures the socio-cultural sphere. What remains to be examined is: how exactly can personal agency and positioning be promoted and strengthened within the tensions of personal cultures and the socio-cultural sphere.
Theory and History in the Human and Social Sciences will fill in the gap in the existing coverage of links between new theoretical advancements in the social and human sciences and their historical roots. Making that linkage is crucial for the interdisciplinary synthesis across the disciplines of psychology, anthropology, sociology, history, semiotics, and the political sciences. In contemporary human sciences of the 21st there exists increasing differentiation between neurosciences and all other sciences that are aimed at making sense of the complex social, psychological, and political processes. Thus new series has the purpose of (1) coordinating such efforts across the borders of existing human and social sciences, (2) providing an arena for possible inter-disciplinary theoretical syntheses, (3) bring into attention of our contemporary scientific community innovative ideas that have been lost in the dustbin of history for no good reasons, and (4) provide an arena for international communication between social and human scientists across the World.
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