Michael Banton

Bio: Michael Banton is an academic researcher from University of Bristol. The author has contributed to research in topics: Ethnic group & Racism. The author has an hindex of 37, co-authored 166 publications receiving 8409 citations. Previous affiliations of Michael Banton include Social Science Research Council.

An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy

Abstract: In the fall of 1938, the economist and former member of the Swedish parliament Gunnar Myrdal traveled from Stockholm to New York City with his wife and research collaborator, Alva Reimer Myrdal, their three children, and two nannies.1 He was in the United States to begin work on the Carnegie Corporation of New York’s comprehensive study of black Americans.2 Far from being Myrdal’s own idea, the study was commissioned by the elite philanthropic organization, which had spent months searching for an appropriate director to head it. Interestingly, the foundation had never considered an American. This is because Carnegie Corporation president Frederick P. Keppel had deemed Americans too emotionally involved in American race relations to offer any objective analyses of black life in the country. That said, he thought that a white European man could be objective (or rather, trustworthy) in his approach, and even more, that such a person could survey white-black relations in the United States “with an entirely fresh mind.”3 Keppel’s advisers had cautioned that scholars from Nazi and colonial European countries likely would provide prejudicial, rather than objective, examinations of white-black relations by equating this social dynamic with majority-minority relations back home. So he zeroed in on the Scandinavian countries, whose populations he presumed to be homogeneous. He gave consideration to Myrdal after a former colleague in philanthropy mentioned him. By then, Myrdal was a celebrated economist on either side of the Atlantic, an experienced policymaker in Sweden, and an adviser to the Rockefeller organizations on the developing social sciences throughout Europe.4 This capable scholar and politician likely seemed ideal to the Carnegie Corporations’s president for several reasons. Keppel not only hoped that the European director would be reliable and offer a fresh take on American race relations but he had made clear to his advisers that he also expected the individual to translate a comprehensive analysis of American race relations into holistic policy prescriptions.5 A respected European social scientist such as Myrdal with experience as a policy expert in a national legislature surely fit this image. As head of the American project between 1938 and 1942, Gunnar Myrdal staffed a team of over 150 social scientists and research assistants across the country (ix–xx).6

Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion

Abstract: Chapters in this book include: * Religion as a Cultural System (Clifford Geertz) * Colour Classification in Ndembu Religion (Victor W. Turner) * Religion: Problems of Definition and Explanation (Melford E. Spiro) * Fathers, Elders and Ghosts in Edo Religion (R.E. Bradbury) * Territorial Groupings and Relgion among the Iraqw (Edward H. Winter).

Social categorization and intergroup behaviour

Abstract: The aim of the studies was to assess the effefcs of social categorization on intergroup behaviour when, in the intergroup situation, neither calculations of individual interest nor previously existing attitudes of hostility could have been said to have determined discriminative behaviour against an outgroup. These conditions were satisfied in the experimental design. In the first series of experiments, it was found that the subjects favoured their own group in the distribution of real rewards and penalities in a situation in which nothing but the variable of fairly irrelevant classification distinguished between the ingroup and the outgroup. In the second series of experiments it was found that: 1) maximum joint profit independent of group membership did not affect significantly the manner in which the subjects divided real pecuniary rewards; 2) maximum profit for own group did affect the distribution of rewards; 3) the clearest effect on the distribution of rewards was due to the subjects' attempt to achieve a maximum difference between the ingroup and the outgroup even at the price of sacrificing other ‘objective’ advantages. The design and the results of the study are theoretically discussed within the framework of social norms and expectations and particularly in relation to a ‘generic’ norm of outgroup behaviour prevalent in some societies.

The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory

Abstract: Сборник ведущих социологов и социальных теоретиков из США и Западной Европы, представляющих новую практическую парадигму, своего рода коллективный манифест прагматического поворота. Авторы позиционируют практическую парадигму относительно структурализма, герменевтики, семиотики. В книге обсуждается природа практического и неявного знания, навыков и практик, которые составляют фон социального порядка и поддерживают общую для любого коллектива систему смыслов.

Ethnicity without Groups

Abstract: Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Ethnicity without Groups 2. Beyond "Identity" 3. Ethnicity as Cognition 4. Ethnic and Nationalist Violence 5. The Return of Assimilation? 6. "Civic" and "Ethnic" Nationalism 7. Ethnicity, Migration, and Statehood in Post-Cold War Europe 8. 1848 in 1998: The Politics of Commemoration in Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia Notes References Index

The g Factor: The Science of Mental Ability

Abstract: A pesar de la relativamente corta historia de la Psicologia como ciencia, existen pocos constructos psicologicos que perduren 90 anos despues de su formulacion y que, aun mas, continuen plenamente vigentes en la actualidad. El factor «g» es sin duda alguna uno de esos escasos ejemplos y para contrastar su vigencia actual tan solo hace falta comprobar su lugar de preeminencia en los modelos factoriales de la inteligencia mas aceptados en la actualidad, bien como un factor de tercer orden en los modelos jerarquicos o bien identificado con un factor de segundo orden en el modelo del recientemente desaparecido R.B.Cattell.

The McDonaldization of Society

Abstract: Chapter 1: An Introduction to McDonaldization McDonald's as an American and a Global Icon The Long Arm of McDonaldization The Dimensions of McDonaldization Critique of McDonaldization: The Irrationality of Rationality Illustrating the Dimensions of McDonaldization: The Case of Ikea The Advantages of McDonaldization What Isn't McDonaldized? A Look Ahead Chapter 2: The Past, Present, and Future of McDonaldization: From the Iron Cage to the Fast-Food Factory and Beyond Bureaucratization: Making Life More Rational The Holocaust: Mass-Produced Death Scientific Management: Finding the One Best Way The Assembly Line: Turning Workers Into Robots Levittown: Putting Up Houses? Boom, Boom, Boom? Shopping Centers: Malling America McDonald's: Creating the "Fast-Food Factory" McDonaldization and Contemporary Social Changes Chapter 3: Efficiency and Calculability Drive-Throughs and Finger Foods Streamlining the Process Simplifying the Product Putting Customers to Work Calculability: Big Macs and Little Chips Emphasizing Quantity Rather Than Quality of Products Reducing Production and Service to Numbers Chapter 4: Predictability and Control Predictability: It Never Rains on Those Little Houses on the Hillside Creating Predictable Settings Scripting Interaction With Customers Making Employee Behavior Predictable Creating Predictable Products and Processes Minimizing Danger and Unpleasantness Control: Human and Nonhuman Robots Controlling Employees Controlling Customers Controlling the Process and the Product The Ultimate Examples of Control: Birth and Death? Chapter 5: The Irrationality of Rationality: Traffic Jams on Those "Happy Trails" Inefficiency: Long Lines at the Checkout High Cost: Better Off at Home False Friendliness: "Hi, George" Disenchantment: Where's the Magic? Health and Environmental Hazards: A Day's Calories in One Fast Food Meal Homogenization: It's No Different in Paris Dehumanization: Getting Hosed at "Trough and Brew" Chapter 6: Dealing with McDonaldization: A Practical Guide Creating "Reasonable" Alternatives: Sometimes You Really Do Have to Break the Rules Fighting Back Collectively: Saving Hearts, Minds, Taste Buds, and the Piazza Di Spagna Coping Individually: "Skunk Works," Blindfolded Children, and Fantasy Worlds Some Concluding Thoughts Chapter 7: Globalization and the Possibility of the DeMcDonaldization of Society? Globalization and McDonaldization The DeMcDonaldization of Society The Internet and DeMcDonaldization Bibliography Notes Index