Guanxi, roughly translated as “social connection,” is a term commonly used in the Chinese language. In this study, we employed a linguistic approach to explore popular discourses on guanxi. Although sharing the same Confucian roots, Chinese communities inside and outside Mainland China have undergone different historical trajectories. Hence, we took a comparative approach to examine guanxi in M...

This paper questions the concept of possible heterotopia cinema by making a creative reading corpus contemporary experimental science-fiction films. We think in direct relation to utopia. If utopia can be linked form thought, then would realised or achievable Heterotopian action allow us experiment subversive, if not new social configurations, where utopian thought allows dream better (or at le...

The 'behavioural immune system' is composed of mechanisms that evolved as a means of facilitating behaviours that minimized infection risk and enhanced fitness. Recent empirical research on human populations suggests that these mechanisms have unique consequences for many aspects of human sociality--including sexual attitudes, gregariousness, xenophobia, conformity to majority opinion and conse...

This article analyzes the major characteristics of modernity, of modern civilization; the major analytical approaches related to the major social structures and the contemporary state. The core of this analysis is the notion of multiple modernities. This idea assumes that the best way to understand the contemporary world is for modernity to be seen as a story of continual formation, constitutio...

Skillmark, M., Denvall, V. (2016) When research moves in: the diffusion of evidence-based practice in Swedish social work. In: Francisco Branco, Inês Amaro, Cristina Albuquerque, Maria Isabel Santos, Ana Oliveira, Inês Guerra (ed.), 6th European Conference for Social Work Research: Reflective social work practices in contemporary societies : dialogues and new pathways between praxis and researc...

The turmoil experienced in European societies during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries fostered a widespread fear of the immediacy of the Devil, and contributed to the increasing number of demonic possession cases. This paper examines the demography of demoniacs, contemporary explanations, and the socio-cultural and religious functions possession played in the early modern period.