Suchergebnisse

AbstractSpurred on by increasing participation rates, scholarship on tattoos in Western societies has increased noticeably in recent decades. Often focusing on members of the middle class, scholars have assumed that the increasing number of people with tattoos is evidence of mainstream acceptance. In the following article, I critically evaluate claims of tattoo's new mainstream status. Rather than being embraced by the mainstream and power elite, studies and legal proceedings show that tattoos and piercings are only tolerated to a certain degree. I suggest that applying Erving Goffman's dramaturgical approach to contemporary tattoos provides a more complete understanding of tattoo's cultural location. It also allows the focus of the discussion to move beyond the individual attributes and motivations of tattoo wearers and onto the social interactions surrounding them. Moreover, a dramaturgical analysis of tattoos shows the need to properly differentiate between tattoos that are always visible and those that can be concealed. I end by offering a conceptualization of visible tattoos for future sociological research.

This article contributes to the debate on the relevance of subculture as a theoretical concept for understanding groups in contemporary Western societies. Utilising data from a virtual ethnography of body modifiers, the article challenges the dominance of post-subcultural approaches. The body modification subculture discussed in this article has not only formed along socioeconomic lines, it has developed alternative work opportunities that enable and promote continued involvement in the subculture beyond one's youth. While scenes and (neo-)tribes maintain their relevance for scholars investigating groups with a more temporary nature, the data presented herein show that subcultures did not vanish as society transitioned from post-War to postmodernity.

In this report, the authors summarize for the nonscientific community how current and emerging nucleic acid biosurveillance techniques work, describe their capabilities and limitations, and discuss the promise of emerging technologies.

This study documents the magnitude and variation in NPI effectiveness in reducing COVID-19 transmission (i.e., reduction in effective reproduction rate [R eff] and daily contact rate) in Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom, and China.

Environmental sampling surveillance (ESS) systems can serve as an early warning system and support pandemic response. Using COVID-19 as a case study, the paper quantifies ESS's value for pandemic preparedness and response decisions.