Talk of Pedophilia: The Reflexive Management of Desire

Williams, Lawrence H.

doi:10.1080/01639625.2016.1257880

Cited by 9 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Such insights have been implicitly used in much sociological work ranging from Durkheim's (Durkheim, 1895) classic insights on the process of refraction (Williams, 2016b) to Vaughan's (Vaughan, 1986) work on the process of uncoupling or leaving relationships. In all of these lines of research, action is seen as carrying a sense of spontaneity that is not reducible to either patterned, schematically determined action on the one hand or to intense deliberation or reflexive assessment on the other (Williams, 2016b). Instead, this research foregrounds the simultaneously active and passive dimensions of action by grounding action in the contexts in which it occurs.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, in light of criticisms such as those made by Leschziner and Green (2013) and Williams (2016b) regarding the difficulty of categorizing individuals' experiences as either unconscious or conscious, Lizardo et al (2016), p. 298, assert that the very utility of this model lies in its capacity to correctly frame thought and action as being either unconscious or conscious. As such, rather than critique, the dual-process model as a whole, Lizardo et al (2016), p. 298, suggest that this model be seen as broad, umbrella framework that can be applied to myriad empirical problems.…”

Section: Vaisey and The Dual-process View Of Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

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From Conscious Values to Tacit Beliefs: Assessing Parsons’ Influence on Contemporary Sociology

Williams

2017

Front. Sociol.

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Much sociological research is now focused on demonstrating how culture both motivates individuals to act and provides them with justifications for their actions (Vaisey, 2009). However, I argue that this sociological work relies on a model of action that sees culture itself as driving action beyond individuals' reflexive use of culture. I argue that it does so by conceptualizing the internalization of culture as pre-subjective and impersonal, essentially committing what is often deemed the Parsonian problem of diminishing the contingent nature of social action through the use of abstractions. Just as Parsons was charged with placing undue emphasis on various social systems rather than on persons, dominant strands of sociological inquiry overemphasize the salience of shared norms and schemas at the cost of individual perception. The major difference, however, is that while Parsons justified his focus on the system level by framing individuals as highly conscious and deliberate in their actions, contemporary sociologists tend to frame individuals' actions as largely unconscious and reliant on situational logics. In doing so, the consciously and normatively overdetermined actor in Parsonian sociology is now unconsciously and situationally overdetermined in contemporary sociology, a perspective ironically anticipated and deliberately positioned against by Parsons himself. Thus, I assert that efforts to de-Parsonize the discipline have given rise to theoretical problems that need resolution. I demonstrate how utilizing some of Parsons' key insights on the importance of simultaneously considering multiple levels of analysis when studying action could be a fruitful way to proceed.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Vaisey and The Dual-process View Of Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

From Conscious Values to Tacit Beliefs: Assessing Parsons’ Influence on Contemporary Sociology

Williams

2017

Front. Sociol.

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“…Moreover, it helps clarify the role that habit and routine play in shaping the use of collective representations by shifting the conversation-literally-to the individual-level where habits are formed and away from more relatively autonomous group settings. For example, individuals with stigmatized identities may come to cycle through schematic understandings of their identities even outside of the confines of conversations or other group situations (Williams, 2017). Williams (2017) found that individuals who self-identified as pedophiles would shift between widely shared understandings of pedophilia-ranging from a sexual orientation to a choiceboth while in conversations with others and more autonomously provoked cries for help posted on Web Forums.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Active Intuition: The Patterned Spontaneity of Decision-Making

Williams

2018

Front. Sociol.

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Sociologists have been split between explaining individual thought and action in terms of factors internal and external to any given individual. In this paper, I argue that while these two explanations may often be complementary, they do not amount to a complete account of how people actually think or act. Using secondary interviews conducted with individuals tasked to think about death and dying, I demonstrate how individuals actively intuit their surroundings using complex mixtures of both the environment that they have internalized as well as the environment (s) that they are currently in. Using the terms cognitive field and active intuition to describe this process of meaning-making, I assert that existing sociological explanations could benefit from taking into consideration both the emergent nature of individuals' perception of the worlds they live in as well as the iterative nature of the interview process.

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“…Respondents' attention to the confluence of expertise and interests, coupled with their focus on how lived experience shapes what one knows about oneself, however, tempered this belief and worked to produce ambivalence towards medical expertise and doctors. Doctors are thus somewhat distrusted by these respondents due to these respondents' lack of certainty about both doctors' knowledge and intentions (see Williams, 2016aWilliams, , 2016b, despite their acceptance of their roles as health care providers. Both skepticism and mystique are maintained by these respondents' pragmatically intersectional analyses of the doctors who care for both them and their loved ones.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Doctor Distrust: Pragmatism, Intersectionality, and the Confluence of Expertise and Interests

Williams¹

2017

IJSSS

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The idea that only experts can be privy to knowledge about the world has been strongly contested throughout recent history. Using interviews with 39 British seniors tasked to discuss the role of doctors in matters of life and death, I argue that distrust for expert knowledge stems largely from the belief that knowledge is deeply shaped by personal experience. However, such distrust is not absolute as respondents still hold some faith in medical expertise due to their own perceived lack of medical knowledge and experiences with the medical field. As such, I assert that respondents demonstrate ambivalence towards medical expertise due to the confluence of expertise and interests that they find in the role that doctors play in assisting individuals with their health. I connect my findings to the theoretical traditions of American pragmatism and intersectionality to demonstrate how the ambivalence demonstrated by respondents signals their tacit use of a combination of these theories or what I term pragmatic intersectionality.

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Talk of Pedophilia: The Reflexive Management of Desire

Cited by 9 publications

References 24 publications

From Conscious Values to Tacit Beliefs: Assessing Parsons’ Influence on Contemporary Sociology

From Conscious Values to Tacit Beliefs: Assessing Parsons’ Influence on Contemporary Sociology

Active Intuition: The Patterned Spontaneity of Decision-Making

Doctor Distrust: Pragmatism, Intersectionality, and the Confluence of Expertise and Interests

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