Generally Intended Meaning, the ‘Average’ Actor, and Max Weber’s Interpretive Sociology

Oyelade

et al. 2020

IJSSP

PurposeThe index case of COVID-19 in Nigeria was reported on 27 February 2020. Subsequently, the exponential increase in cases has brought about the partial and total lockdown of cities, the closure of all schools and the shutdown of government offices in order to curtail the spread of COVID-19. COVID-19 and its subsequent drastic curtailment policies have implications on vulnerable groups, especially, informal workers who constitute about 70% of the active working population in Nigeria. This reflective discourse critically engages the plight of informal workers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria.Design/methodology/approachThe research was guided by the epistemology of pandemic interpretationism. It engages contextual reflections of the plight of economically vulnerable informal workers in Nigeria. Data were collected from secondary sources while rapid case studies were conducted with ten informal workers in Lagos and Ibadan. Afterwards, data were contextually analysed.FindingsEconomically vulnerable informal workers in Nigeria have contextually interpreted COVID-19 as an elite disease, imported into Nigeria by the wealthy. In addition, the mass population views COVID-19 containment measures such as lockdowns, movement restrictions and stay-at-home orders as elitist policies, which are aimed at protecting the wealthy and frustrating the poor and economically vulnerable who live on the fringes of poverty. Many informal workers have slipped below the poverty line while struggling to supply livelihood needs, as they were unable to earn daily income and cannot access palliatives. Consequently, they are of the opinion that “Hunger Virus is deadlier than Corona Virus”.Originality/valueThis paper is a contextual reflection on the plight of economically vulnerable informal workers during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and movement restrictions in Nigeria. It presents pandemic interpretationism as an epistemological guide and reflectively examines the poverty impact of COVID-19 on the Nigerian informal sector via contextual analyses of secondary data and rapid case studies. The paper uncovers various COVID-19 livelihood experiences and the responses of the informal workers; furthermore, it provides policy recommendations.

Section: Pandemic Interpretationism the Vulnerable And Social Policiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contextual reflections on COVID-19 and informal workers in Nigeria

Oyelade

et al. 2020

IJSSP

Philosophy of the Social Sciences

“…The four ideal types of social action—instrumentally or purposively rational action, value-rational action, affectual action, and traditional action—are characteristic ways a given action can be subjectively meaningful, especially when the action is not immediately understood as instrumentally efficacious (Rosenberg 2013, 50-51; Weber [1920b] 2019, 83), or is otherwise aberrant, unexpected, or outré. Such an action might be explanatorily understood (Weber [1920b] 2019, 84) as a value-rational action if we come to discover that the agent, for example, acted “without regard to the foreseeable consequences of action in the service of convictions” (Weber [1920b] 2019, 102).…”

Section: Ideal Types Legal-rational Authority and The Standard Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Max Weber and Social Ontology

Rust

2021

Key elements of John Searle’s articulation of the Standard Model of Social Ontology can be found within Max Weber’s ideal type of legal-rational authority. However, the fact that, for Weber, legal-rational authority is just one of three types of legitimate authority, along with traditional and charismatic authority, suggests limitations to the Standard Model’s scope of applicability. Where Searle takes himself to have provided an account of “the structure of human civilization,” Weber’s taxonomy suggests that Searle has only given us an account of a way of being a civilization. This understanding of traditional authority also reveals why the Standard Model misconstrues the structure of ordinary, informal statuses, such as friendship.

“…Neste contexto, a perspetiva sociológica de Max Weber e o seu instrumento tipo ideal podem ajudar a ultrapassar este problema, facilitando um enquadramento crítico da não utilização e dos seus significados e consequências. Apesar de algo negligenciado na sociologia contemporânea, a ligação que o tipo ideal estabelece entre compreensão subjetiva e estrutura é útil para a análise da realidade social (Hekman, 1983;Rosenberg, 2013).…”

Section: A Perspetiva Weberiana E O Seu Tipo Ideal: Conceptualizando unclassified

“…É nesta recusa da antítese entre compreensão e explicação, dominante na tradição alemã, que Weber desenvolve o tipo ideal como estratégia conceptual e analítica (Eliaeson, 2000;Weber, 1981Weber, [1913Weber, ], 1949Weber, [1904). Apesar do seu valor sociológico, o tipo ideal tem recebido pouca atenção na literatura (Rosenberg, 2013), pelo que urge introduzi-lo aqui com alguma profundidade. Em 1904, no ensaio sobre a objetividade das ciências sociais, 1 Weber desenvolve o tipo ideal, expressão de Georg Jellineck (cf.…”

Section: A Perspetiva Weberiana E O Seu Tipo Ideal: Conceptualizando unclassified

Não-alinhados? Jovens não utilizadores de sites de redes sociais: uma abordagem weberiana

Neves

Rente

2017

SPP

Responding to the dominant body of research on young people and their use of social networking sites, this article analyzes narratives of non-use. Drawing on 30 interviews with young adults, we explored meanings of voluntary exclusion of digital platforms that seem to be progressively embedded in the daily life of this cohort. Findings show that non-use is diverse and transient, being deeply connected to identity(ies) and social actions. As such, we identify four types of non-users: rejecters, resisters, surrogate users, and potential converts. This typology challenges the dichotomies present in the literature around use and non-use, access and non-access, and consumption and non-consumption. We suggest and discuss the sociological perspective and “ideal type” of Max Weber as a valuable analytical approach to deconstruct such dichotomies.