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Sociology/two questions...thanks in advance
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Question
Sociology stresses the relativity of deviance, but most people in society regard deviant behavior as inherently wrong. What do you think and why?
Do you think that our society can ever be free from deviance? Why or Why not?
1) Deviance is commonly any act or conduct of a person or group that violates social and cultural norms of a community and that, consequently, is exposed to some form of “penalties” response on the part of society (community). These standards, however, are not inalienable and indivisible and can change at any time in relation to changes taking place in society. The transitional nature of these rules makes impossible to classify a deviant behavior as something bad (eg: homosexuality was and is in some contexts judged as a deviant behavior, in other contexts is not considered a deviance). I think, that it is not possible to express an universal and absolute opinion on a deviant phenomenon (deviant by whom and from what?). It is impossible to classify a deviant phenomenon in terms of "right" and "wrong". The deviant phenomenon becomes “right” or “wrong” for common people, only when it is dropped in their specific social and cultural context. In some communities, cannibalism is considered a horrible, abominable behavior, in others a fact quite normal and practicable. In general, is defined by people as deviant behavior any behavior deemed by own their environment as bad or incomprehensible (not accepted by the community as a whole).
2) I do not believe that the deviance can be eradicated. Deviance is also synonymous with diversity, dissent, transgression. I can not imagine societies arriving to the point of eliminating any difference. It exists only in those of totalitarian type. The question we must ask is: what a society considers as deviant phenomena? And what kind of measures it takes against them? There are permissive and tolerant societies. There are repressive and punitive societies towards deviant phenomena. It all depends if the deviant phenomenon is reduced to social, cultural phenomenon to be controlled as hazardous or phenomenon to be tolerated (or even appreciated), because - I make here just a little example - it is an avant-garde artistic phenomenon.
Hi, Cristina
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Answers by Expert:
dr. Cristina Carpinelli
Expertise
Cristina Carpinelli is a sociologist/politolog. She deals with research works, from economic and social point of view, concerning Central-Est Europe (Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland), South-Est Europe (Bulgaria, Romania, balkan Countries), Russia and all Former Soviet Union Countries. Recently, She has also become an expert on gender issues in Countries mentioned above. She can't answer the questions relative to other geo-economic and political areas or about other questions outside her competence/knowledge. She lives and works in Milan (Italy).
Experience
Cristina Carpinelli wrote many articles and essays on the Ussr and on the transition of the Fsu from a planned economic system to a free market one. She wrote also some books. Now, She is collaborating with some magazines/reviews (The Calendar of People, Slavia, Cassandra, Marxism today ecc.).
Organizations
She is a Scientific Committee Member of Cespi (International Problems Study Center) of Milan - Italy. (www.cespi-ong.org). She is part of the teaching staff of ISPI school (professional diploma for economic operators in Russia) for the training courses "Objective: Russia" (http://www.ispionline.it/it/school.php?id=76). She is a permanent collaborator of the Italian Magazine "noidonne" (www. noidonne.org) and the Italian Magazine on-line "Cassandra" (www.cassandrarivista.it). She is also an editorial staff member of the Italian Magazine on-line "Antonio Gramsci oggi" (www. gramscioggi.org).
Publications
“Soviet society in the years of the perestrojka”, New Authors, Milan 1991; "Women and family in Soviet Russia", F. Angeli, Milan 1998; "Identities in Transition: Fsu Countries after the Collapse of Real Socialism", Cespi, February 2004; "Women and poverty in Russia under El’cin administration (the era of liberal transition)", F. Angeli, Milan 2004; "The contradictions of real socialism in Soviet Union" in 'Marxism Today' n.2/2007; "The Russia in pieces" (Achab, Verona 2008); "The Enlargement of Europe to the Eastern European Countries"; Cespi, May 2008.
Education/Credentials
Cristina Carpinelli graduated during the academic year 1983/84 with the thesis "The process of demografic ageing of the population in Soviet Union" - State University of Milan - Faculty of Political Sciences (Statistics Department). The thesis of degree was elaborated in the Ussr, at the State University Lomonosov of Moscow.
For a more detailed professional profile of Cristina Carpinelli, you can connected to: http://www.beepworld.it/members/criliberoit/curriculumenglish.htm
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