Page 492 - The ISA Handbook in Contemporary Sociology

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CONFLICT, COMPETITION AND COOPERATION 463

Viewing the direction of influence as being policies for furthering development in
that from the domain of sport to universal Singapore (Pereira), municipal democracy in
social phenomena, Ohl expresses a fear that different countries in Eastern and Northern
the escalating obsession with competitive Europe (Teune), as well as in analyzing the
sport throughout the world may be leading to discourse of social justice in Latin America
a general societal perception of competition (Armony), and negotiations about the use of
as ‘the sole legitimate ideology by which forms of interpersonal discourse in Portuguese
human behaviour may be understood’. A sur- (de Oliveira). The final substantive case study
prising contribution is the finding high- presents the work of a group of Canadian
lighted in the chapter on the sociology of researchers (Couton, Denis, Laczko, Pietran-
health (Riska, Annandale and Dingwall), tonio and Thériault) who use the angles of
namely that the concepts with their classical vision of the key concepts to analyze ethno-
theoretical import are less and less important linguistic diversity in Canada/Québec. They
in the field. Here, the privatization of health examine the complex ways in which the
care and the widespread practical concern of interplay of conflict, competition and cooper-
researchers with intervention are detailed as ation emerge from an examination of govern-
factors undermining what we may call the ment policies, migratory flows, gender and
‘pure’ disciplinary approach to the domain. language communities. The researchers also
A major part of sociological research is show how the processes affect research agendas.
dedicated to applying sociological tools to
describe and analyze social problems that
arise. From this vantage point, the variety of
topics dealt with in Part 3 is a measure of how EMERGING THEMES
widely applicable conceptualizations of con-
flict, competition and cooperation are. The While interpretation of the processes may
broad range of problems to which they can be vary from subfield to subfield, basically the
applied include the ambiguities of conflict classical investigations of conflict, competi-
and cooperation in peacekeeping operations tion and cooperation have turned out to be
(Segal, Dandeker and Whitestone), the per- adaptable to the examination of events and
sistence of inequalities in determining demo- issues in both the twentieth and the twenty-
graphic trends (Ram and Ram), the influence first centuries. Each chapter deals with how
of capital accumulation on competition and a particular research focus frames an episte-
conflict in the governance of health care mology, a vision of what it means to think in
(Browne), the dilemmas confronting labour terms of relationships that lead to conflict,
unions in neo-liberal societies (Webster and competition and/or cooperation. Several
Lambert), the diverse political meanings of chapters deal with the processes from the
consumerism (Silvestro), the precariousness point of view of a sociological analysis of the
of digital futures (Schulz), and the persist- organization of the discipline or of a particu-
ence of rural crime (Donnermeyer, Jobes and lar subfield in sociology (see, for example,
Barclay). chapters by Banakar, Schuerkens, and Evetts,
Finally, from Part 4 it is clear that the Gadea, S´anchez and S´aez). Interestingly
implementation of instruments derived from enough, from these analyses there is convinc-
the conceptualization of conflict, competi- ing evidence that conflict, competition and
tion and cooperation is useful for uncovering cooperation are not necessarily discrete
the workings of specific cases. Among them processes in unfolding social events. Conflict
are the cases of the globalized food system and competition may give rise to cooperation
(Koc), social movements in Brazil (Gohn), (arts); conflict may lead to competition and
industrial relations in South Africa (Sitas), even cooperation (alienation); or efforts to