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Does sociology have anything to gain by returning to the concept of social role? Has this concept been irretrievably damaged by its significance in functionalist theory? This article aims to recover the role concept through a consideration of alternative perspectives on normativity, illustrated through research on motherhood. A pragmatist re-conception of role is defended as a way of focusing on those aspects of social structures which exert normative authority over agents, while remaining open to some degree of interpretation. This perspective treats roles not as fixed mechanisms of functional coordination or social reproduction, but instead as variable sites of mutual accountability. The article argues that a pragmatist version of the role concept supports explanation of non-determined agency and complex, uncertain and conflictual forms of normative authority. Treated in these terms, the role concept offers a valuable route to understanding the creative quality of agency and normativity.

Research in management needs to contribute to practical relevance and applicability of research results. An approach that acknowledges the needs that emerge from practice and still offers guidance for proper research, is action research. The purpose of this paper is to expand the action research methodology, focusing the researcher’s role. Two consecutive action research projects were reviewed and reflected upon from a literature-based model. The projects were analysed iteratively by two participating researchers with different experiences and backgrounds. The main finding is the outline of the mixed role in action research projects, which allows for performing high quality research in parallel with interventions in the study object organisations. Development of the mixed role concept allows practically oriented research and interventions in research projects to be developed alongside traditional research, which at large can encourage researchers to take part in practical managerial development. The action research methods were successful in the projects, as they provided a fast-track to deep insights in the companies and the ability to act and evaluate results. With the mixed role approach, we could quickly come down to details, expose assumptions, discuss new solutions and come up with more profound research questions. The mixed consultant/researcher role has been a means to keep the research schedule within acceptable limits. Hence, a consciously managed project with in-depth considerations of the mixed role of the researcher can in itself remove one of the main obstacles of action research. The mixed role is a novel concept, pragmatic but still well aligned with prior research. The establishment of the concept can inspire more researchers performing action research.

This contribution explores the Visegrad Four’s (V4) foreign policy initiatives in the Western Balkans by considering each state’s interests and policies and the evolution of joint V4 objectives. My underlying hypothesis is that the foreign policy‑related behaviour of individual states is shaped by certain roles that they assume and by their national interests. This work uses role theory to explain the V4 states’ foreign policies both generally and in the specific case of the Western Balkans. The V4 have prioritised cooperation with this region, and I analyse the programmes of the last four V4 presidencies (Slovakia 2014-2015, the Czech Republic 2015-2016, Poland 2016-2017 and Hungary 2017-2018) to reveal key foreign policy objectives and explore why they were selected. At the same time, I examine the interests of each V4 country and the reasons for their joint attention to the Western Balkan region. My analysis shows that the V4 perceive themselves as supportive and constructive EU and NATO members and see their policies as reflective of European values. Moreover, they believe they should contribute to EU enlargement by sharing experiences of economic and political transformation with the Western Balkan states and serving as role models.

This study examined how trait and state aspects of the gender role self-concept (GSC), beyond biological sex assigned at birth, are associated with psychobiological stress in daily life. We hypothesized that higher agency (self-assertive traits, historically associated with male gender stereotypes) would relate to lower subjective stress and stressor exposure, whereas higher communion (interpersonally oriented traits, historically associated with female gender stereotypes) would show the opposite pattern. Associations with salivary cortisol (sCort) were also investigated. Eighty-two healthy adults (20–65 years; M  = 40.0, SD  = 12.6; 47.6% female) completed ecological momentary assessments over five consecutive workdays, with seven daily prompts. GSC was measured using the Bem Sex Role Inventory, with trait GSC assessed at baseline and state GSC four times per day. Psychobiological stress was captured via self-reports and sCort. Multilevel models tested associations of trait and state GSC with stress-related outcomes. State agency was negatively associated with subjective stress and stressor exposure, while state communion showed inverse associations with these parameters. Higher trait communion predicted higher sCort. Findings highlight the importance of distinguishing trait and state GSC. Beyond biological sex, GSC explained within- and between-person variation in psychobiological stress, underscoring its relevance for stress research in everyday life.

Constructivist scholars have largely limited their view of how state action is socially constructed to the concepts of norms and identity . As for individuals, however, role -playing is also a core aspect of state activity. I demonstrate the potential of this concept for constructivists on the basis of a reconsideration of the roles states play in international politics — drawing on symbolic interactionism and in particular the thought of G.H. Mead. From a Meadian perspective, roles are sets of appropriate behaviours, not bundles of fixed duties; they emerge in interaction and give the actor a sense of its structure and the scope of possible action. Roles are thus the necessary social vehicle for action in its meaning-creating, identity-affirming sense. Using the illustration of the Suez Crisis of 1956, I develop a ‘Meadian interactionist’ conceptual approach that builds on previous attempts to harness the potential of the role concept in International Relations (IR) and sharpens constructivist understandings of the links between role, identity, norms, and action in IR.

Many students and lecturers desire tangible and conceivable teaching content. In the information systems (IS) domain, access to real-life information technology (IT) is required. Nevertheless, it often needs more than access, such as contract processing, suitable curricula, or lecturer training. In many cases, these activities are managed bilaterally between an educational institution and a company. The resulting partnerships, however, bear the risk of dispersing as soon as strategic, technological, or staffing conditions change. To address this issue, we examine the ecosystemic approach toward academic-industry partnerships. The ecosystemic approach applies the concept of competence centers as independent intermediary hubs. Using the SAP University Alliances (SAP UA) program as an example of the ecosystemic approach, we iteratively develop an e3 value model of the ecosystem by interviewing its stakeholders and validating the resulting model at a conference with the SAP UA community. Further, we develop six role concepts and respective requirement dimensions that facilitate effective knowledge exchange in IT companies’ academic ecosystems. Our contributions provide insights into how such an ecosystem can be structured and critically assess application fields by considering the continuous changes affecting the IS education community. Implications for practitioners and researchers in the field of academic-industry collaboration are discussed.

The current connection between the European Union (EU) and the Visegrad group (V4) seems to resemble a parent-child relation: the perception of a dictating European Commission, on the one hand, and a rather stubborn driven behaviour on part of the Visegrad players, on the other hand, is undeniable. Certainly, the migration crisis was a crucial issue for both sides and it definitely destabilised the harmony balance between the EU and the Central Eastern European (CEE) states. Hence, the question raised is whether there are more fundamental reasons behind the phenomena of a highly tensed environment. This paper strives for an explanation on the self-perceived role of the Visegrad format and the perception of the \"other\" within the European Union.

Journalists' professional roles entail an important research area, which enhances knowledge on journalism's attempted impact on political and democratic life. Journalism scholars, however, tend not to study journalistic professional roles from its impact on news content but focus on journalists' conception of their role concluding that the way journalists conceive of their role will eventually shape the stories they produce. Hence, the link between role conception and role performance (i.e., its impact on news) has caught more attention as a justification of research interest than as loci of empirical examination. This conceptual paper revisits this assumption, arguing for an in-depth discussion of what the concept of professional role entails to understand its manifestation in news. As journalistic performance must be considered a collective outcome, this article addresses the concept of professional role from its relationship to structural characteristics of media work. Our approach suggests a media sociology conceptualization of professional roles that takes into consideration the gatekeeping context, and most importantly the organizational and societal levels, when analyzing professional roles of journalists.

Starting from the recurrent criticism that role theory is conceptually rich but methodologically poor, this article assesses the potential of interpretive narrative analysis for the methodological development of role theory within foreign policy analysis. It focuses on the methodological side of narratives from an interpretive perspective, so as to detect role conceptions and role change. The symbolic-interactionist role theory framework is already set up to incorporate the elements of doing interpretive narrative analysis from this perspective, because, as Mead (The philosophy of the present, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1932) argued, agents constantly reinterpret their past as they face an emergent present. This is akin to Bevir and Rhodes’ (Interpreting British Governance, Routledge, Abingdon, 2003) interpretive notions of ‘traditions’ and ‘dilemmas’. The potential of narratives is demonstrated by focusing specifically on ruling narrations as advanced by the then President Hugo Chávez in Venezuela (1999–2013), to conceive and cement a new role as a revolutionary state.

Purpose To examine men and women’s perceptions of inter-role balance/imbalance in work, arthritis, and personal roles and its association with demographic, health and employment factors, including job stress, career satisfaction, job disruptions, absenteeism and perceived productivity losses. Methods Participants were employed, aged ≥40 years and diagnosed with osteoarthritis or inflammatory arthritis. They were recruited through community advertising and rheumatology clinics in two Canadian provinces. Respondents completed a 35–45 min telephone interview and a 20-min self-administered questionnaire assessing role perceptions [(arthritis negatively impacts work (A → W); work/personal life negatively impact arthritis (W/P → A); work as a positive role (W +))], demographic, health and work context information. Analyses included exploratory factor analysis and multivariate regressions. Results Findings revealed similarities between men ( n  = 104) and women ( n  = 248) in health, work and role perceptions, although women reported more benefits of working with arthritis (W+) than men. Some gender differences were found in factors associated with inter-role perceptions highlighting the importance of children, fatigue, unpredictable work hours, job control, and workplace activity limitations. Role perceptions were associated with work outcomes but only one perception, W/P → A, interacted with gender. Among men, greater perceptions that work and personal demands interfered with managing arthritis were associated with more job disruptions. Conclusions This study revealed negative and positive inter-role perceptions related to working with a chronic illness and associations with work outcomes. It highlights potentially modifiable factors that could assess risk and inform interventions to improve role balance and working experiences.