Showing papers in "American Journal of Cultural Sociology in 2020"
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TL;DR: It is concluded that, while the ongoing covid-19 pandemic has had traumatic consequences in Sweden and Greece, it has not evolved into cultural trauma in either country.
Abstract: This paper has two aims. The first is to introduce the concept of compressed cultural trauma, and the second is to apply the theory of cultural trauma in two case studies of the current covid-19 pandemic, Greece and Sweden. Our central question is whether the pandemic will evolve into a cultural trauma in these two countries. We believe the pandemic presents a challenge to cultural trauma theory, which the idea of compressed trauma is meant to address. We conclude that, while the ongoing covid-19 pandemic has had traumatic consequences in Sweden and Greece, it has not evolved into cultural trauma in either country.
54 citations
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TL;DR: This article conceptualize fact checkers in terms of the “interpretative power” that journalism holds in processes of political performances, and explains how new fact-checking practices have become a reflexive supplement to the news media of the civil sphere that might be able to help theCivil sphere’s communicative institutions to defend truthfulness in a manner that contributes to democracy.
Abstract: Since the World Health Organization (WHO, February 2, 2020) reported that the spread of coronavirus disease has been accompanied by a "massive infodemic," the COVID-19 outbreak has become a national and international battleground of a struggle against misinformation. Fact-checking outlets around the world have been actively counteracting false and misleading information surrounding the pandemic. In this article, we conceptualize fact checkers in terms of the "interpretative power" that journalism holds in processes of political performances (Alexander in Soc Theory 22(4): 527-573, 2004, in: The performance of politics. Obama's victory and the struggle for democratic power. Oxford University Press, Oxford/New York, 2010). Drawing on virus-related fact checks from Poynter's International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) database, we make two arguments. First, we argue that the new phenomenon of specialized "fact checking" might be considered as a further explicitly differentiated element of Alexander's model of cultural performance, which fulfills a double duty: trying to contribute to further "de-fusion" (separating audiences from actors when the latter lack authenticity and credibility) on the one hand, and working to overcome it on the other. Second, we explain how new fact-checking practices have become a reflexive supplement to the news media of the civil sphere that might be able to help the civil sphere's communicative institutions to defend truthfulness in a manner that contributes to democracy.
50 citations
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TL;DR: Evidence is examined of the effects of masking and social distancing on public behavior, family life, remote schooling and remote work, prohibition of large audiences and assemblies, and attempts to substitute non-embodied electronic media.
Abstract: Face-to-face (F2F) embodied interaction is the initial ingredient of interaction ritual (IR), the buildup of shared emotion, mutual focus of attention, and rhythmic entrainment that produces interpersonal solidarity. What happens when a natural experiment (the COVID-19 epidemic) prevents most F2F encounters or limits the modes of micro-interactional communication by masking? The paper examines evidence of the effects of masking and social distancing on public behavior, family life, remote schooling and remote work, prohibition of large audiences and assemblies, and attempts to substitute non-embodied electronic media. Most effects are consistent with IR theory predictions.
50 citations
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TL;DR: Through analysis of the UK government's management of the COVID-19 outbreak, this paper offers an empirical demonstration of the principle of culture’s relative autonomy by showing how the outcome of meaning-making struggles had impacts on political legitimacy, public behaviour, and control over the spread of the virus.
Abstract: Through analysis of the UK government's management of the COVID-19 outbreak, this paper offers an empirical demonstration of the principle of culture's relative autonomy. It does so by showing how the outcome of meaning-making struggles had impacts on political legitimacy, public behaviour, and control over the spread of the virus. Ultimately, these impacts contributed to the avoidable deaths of tens of thousands of UK citizens. Dividing the crisis into phases within a secular ritual passage or 'social drama', it shows how each phase was defined by struggles between the government and other actors to code the unfolding events in an appropriate moral way, to cast actors in their proper roles, and to plot them together in a storied fashion under a suitable narrative genre. Taken together, these processes constituted a conflictual effort to define the meaning of what was occurring. The paper also offers more specific contributions to cultural sociology by showing why social performance theory needs to consider the effects of casting non-human actors in social dramas, how metaphor forms a powerful tool of political action through simplifying and shaping complex realities, and how casting can shift responsibility and redefine the meaning of emotionally charged events such as human death.
36 citations
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TL;DR: Cultural sociology emerges from the paradox that societies today are not nearly as rational as they would like to think they are as mentioned in this paper. But none of this has eliminated the need for meaning, nor the role of those meanings in shaping social outcomes.
Abstract: Cultural sociology emerges from the paradox that societies today are not nearly as rational as they would like to think they are. A century of Marxist and Weberian social theory has been on a fool’s errand: It turns out we are not yet modern. It is precisely because the line between “traditional” and “modern” has turned out to be so problematic that Emile Durkheim’s theorizing about the Aboriginal religion still speaks to the cultural processes of our time. Levi-Strauss also looked deeply into the wisdom of so-called primitive society. He saw inside the structure of myth a binary logic that we also can find in divisive political ideology and universalizing civil discourse alike. The work of Geertz, Turner, and so many other anthropologists provides a mirror with which we can reflect upon the rituals, ceremonies, icons, and theatrical performances that drive our society just as much as rational choices, rules, and infrastructures. Certainly, contemporary societies are immensely different from earlier ones. They are wealthier and more populated, urbanized, filled with fantastic technology, sometimes more democratic. Perhaps they are more cynical too. And they can boast of a differentiated, highly professionalized sphere—science—that is devoted to rationality, measurement, and transparency, and has produced predictive theories of the natural world that allow immense control. But none of this has eliminated the need for meaning, nor the role of those meanings in shaping social outcomes. Nowhere has this been more visible than in the case of COVID-19. For all the real-world tragedy, COVID-19 will long be prized by social scientists as a “natural experiment.” Arriving as an unanticipated exogenous shock, it has offered a unique opportunity to see how components of the social system— public health, politics, and economics most obviously—might best respond. From the perspective of cultural sociology, the pivotal opportunity for investigation is one of meaning. The emerging COVID-19 outbreak presented a novelty that was
30 citations
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TL;DR: It is argued that the coronavirus pandemic in Britain was successfully framed as a crisis, but that the ritualization of solidarity normally generated by this meaning was compromised and contributed to the strong program in cultural sociology by incorporating the crisis approach in disaster studies into the social drama framework.
Abstract: Realism has predominated in discussions about the coronavirus pandemic where politicians, authorities, and commentators debate over the substance and consequence of scientific facts. But while biology played a crucial role in triggering the pandemic, the resulting crisis developed through a social process. In this paper, I argue that the coronavirus pandemic in Britain was successfully framed as a crisis, but that the ritualization of solidarity normally generated by this meaning was compromised. Through an analysis of media coverage and official statements from the government, I trace the discursive construction of the crisis through the deployment of battle metaphors. Building on this discourse analysis, I show how the symbolic alignment of the pandemic and the Second World War revived symbols and tropes that informed the cultural construction of pandemic heroes. To explain why the intensity of the crisis framing was not matched in ritual performance, I consider how the government's ambiguous policies and erratic social performance produced a state of indefinite liminality, subverting solidarity processes in lockdown. The paper offers insight into the experience of anomie during the pandemic and contributes to the strong program in cultural sociology by incorporating the crisis approach in disaster studies into the social drama framework.
30 citations
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TL;DR: It is argued that Taiwan’s efforts at containing COVID-19 resulted from its “societalization” of pandemic unpreparedness, which was triggered by the 2003 SARS outbreak and resumed during the CO VID-19 pandemic.
Abstract: Adopting a Civil Sphere Theory framework, we argue that Taiwan's efforts at containing COVID-19 resulted from its "societalization" of pandemic unpreparedness, which was triggered by the 2003 SARS outbreak and resumed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Societalization refers to the process through which institutional failures are transformed into societal crises, with the civil sphere mobilized to discuss institutional dysfunctions, push for reforms, and attempt to democratize or otherwise transform institutional cultures. The societalization of pandemic unpreparedness in Taiwan led to reforms of the public health administration and the medical profession, thereby establishing state mechanisms for encouraging early responses and coordinating centralized command during outbreaks, and healthcare infrastructures for coordinating patient transfer and ensuring supplies of personal protective equipment. Reflections upon past uncivil acts among citizens motivated the civil sphere to foster a discourse of interdependence, redefining the boundaries between individual choices and civic virtues. Meanwhile, unaddressed challenges remained, including threats related to Taiwan's political polarization. Our paper challenges the thesis of "authoritarian advantage," highlighting how democratic societies can foster social preparedness to respond to crises. By illustrating how societalization can reach temporary closures but become reactivated subsequently, our study extends the theory of societalization by explicating its historical dimension.
28 citations
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TL;DR: In this article, an ethnographic discourse analysis of the 2016 Conquest of Constantinople Rally, organized by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), is presented, showing how nostalgia helps boost the authenticity claim that social performances seek to achieve.
Abstract: In contemporary Turkey, populism goes hand in hand with neo-Ottoman nostalgia. They make a stigmatized duo, as nostalgia is interpreted as lingering in the past and populism is deemed as the opium of the uninformed, emotional masses. In this paper, I complicate this vision through an ethnographic discourse analysis of the 2016 Conquest of Constantinople Rally, organized by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). I show how nostalgia helps boost the authenticity claim that social performances seek to achieve. In a ritualistic setting, the rally portrays a Manichean worldview predating to Ottoman times, underlines the power of the “people” against nefarious others, and is organized around a leader who is posited as a savior. By relying on forty-five in-depth interviews in five cities, I investigate the extent to which this social performance convinces the audience. Three interpretative perspectives emerged from participants’ responses: Spectacle Seekers see the rallies as a necessity and as providing emotional uplift as the state’s duty; Appraising Skeptics approve the commemoration, yet are skeptical of the authenticity of the effort; and History Guardians deem the Ottoman past as sacred and regard the AKP’s use of it as emotional manipulation.
26 citations
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TL;DR: The authors argue that cognitive neuroscience can contribute to cultural sociology, but to profit from such contributions requires developing coherent positions at the level of ontology and coherent epistemological views concerning interfield relations in science.
Abstract: Can cognitive neuroscience contribute to cultural sociology? We argue that it can, but to profit from such contributions requires developing coherent positions at the level of ontology and coherent epistemological views concerning interfield relations in science. In this paper, we carve out a coherent position that makes sense for cultural sociology based on Sperber’s “infra-individualist” and Clark’s “extended cognition” arguments. More substantively, we take on three canonical topics in cultural sociology: language, intersubjectivity, and associational links between elements, showing that the cognitive neurosciences can make conceptual and empirical contributions to the thinking of cultural sociologists in these areas. We conclude by outlining the opportunities for further development of work at the intersection of cultural sociology and the cognitive neurosciences.
20 citations
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TL;DR: It is argued that the press conferences of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine are mediatized sanctuaries—solidaristic respites from the chaos of pandemic and partisan politics.
Abstract: This paper studies the ritual and aesthetic performances of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine's Coronavirus press conferences. It argues that the press conferences are mediatized sanctuaries-solidaristic respites from the chaos of pandemic and partisan politics. They achieve this via performing a regular ritual of affliction where basic cultural commitments are affirmed, institutional action is validated, and the where the trouble of Coronavirus can healed as a result.
17 citations
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TL;DR: This article analyzes three prevalent visual genres in connection with the ongoing pandemic: abstract representations of the virus and public responses to it, images of heroes and sinners, and photographs of the “stage”: the iconic spaces including empty public buildings and busy domestic spaces.
Abstract: The 2020 coronavirus pandemic is puzzling from a visual point of view. There are millions of photographs published about the crisis every day, yet we can see the key actor, the virus, only in artistic representations. Most of us also have very restricted access to central sites of the crisis, as intensive care units, nursing homes, meat packing plants and prisons are often not available for photographic representation. At the same time, we are oversupplied by other images that try to capture the "essence" of the moment. This article analyzes three prevalent visual genres in connection with the ongoing pandemic: abstract representations of the virus and public responses to it, images of heroes and sinners, and photographs of the "stage": the iconic spaces including empty public buildings and busy domestic spaces. All these iconic representations try to grasp the "deep meaning" of the crisis through a particular scene or moment. Their expressive surfaces have become our key sources to imagine the coronavirus crisis, and to socially connect in a time of painful and prolonged physical distance.
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors delineate the cultural structure underlying much of what goes by "spirituality" in the popular discourse of twenty-first century liberal democracies, which they call the religion of the heart.
Abstract: In this article I delineate the cultural structure underlying much (if not most) of what goes by “spirituality” in the popular discourse of twenty-first century liberal democracies—which I call the religion of the heart. I begin by reviewing the disparate academic literatures relating to the shift from “religion” to “spirituality,” explicating why the study of spirituality remains both marginalized within the sociology of religion and deeply fragmented. I then lay out the theoretical foundations of a cultural sociological approach to the study of religion, which I use to synthesize the existing sociological and historical literature on “spirituality.” I supplement this synthesis with data from my own empirical research in order to offer a systematic representation of the religion of the heart’s ten core tenets and how they relate to one another. I then conclude with a reflection on the implications my analysis holds for the sociology of contemporary religion.
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TL;DR: It is argued that the decline of face-to-face interaction, previously essential to art market transactions, has placed strain on each corner of the community, and participants struggle to evaluate and appreciate artworks, make new social ties, develop trust, and experience a shared sense of pleasure and collective effervescence.
Abstract: We examine how the contemporary art market has changed as a result of the disruptions caused by the novel coronavirus. Based on interviews with artists, collectors, a dealer, and an auction house executive, we argue that the decline of face-to-face interaction, previously essential to art market transactions, has placed strain on each corner of the community. In the absence of physical co-presence with the artworks and art world actors, participants struggle to evaluate and appreciate artworks, make new social ties, develop trust, and experience a shared sense of pleasure and collective effervescence. These challenges especially impact the primary gallery market, where participants emphasize a communal commitment to art above instrumental speculation, which is more accepted in the secondary auction market. We find a transition to distant online communication, but the likelihood of this continuing after the lockdowns end and the virus dissipates varies according to the subcultures of these market segments.
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TL;DR: The distributed cognition approach as mentioned in this paper is a theoretical framework that integrates many of the individual/neurological insights of cognitive cultural sociology with the more macro perspectives adopted by most cultural sociologists.
Abstract: Cognitive cultural sociology has exhibited a preference for the neuro-scientific wing of cognitive science that generally sees cognition as a process occurring in individual minds. This preference has contributed to the individualistic cast of cognitive cultural sociology. Other theoretical frameworks can help cognitive cultural sociology out of this pickle. The paper identifies the distributed cognition approach as a valuable theoretical framework capable of integrating many of the individual/neurological insights of cognitive cultural sociology with the more macro perspectives adopted by most cultural sociologists. The article describes the distributed cognition approach, emphasizing its affinity for some of the theoretical and analytical models already in use by a wide range of cultural sociologists. Features that it offers include a de-emphasis on the inside/outside boundary of the individual person as marking the limit of cognition, attention to heterogeneous networks of information and meaning propagation, and a strong role for culture not just in providing content for cognition but in actually shaping the distributed cognition process. The concept of distributed cognition has the potential to enhance, but not replace, the concept of culture by suggesting fruitful new avenues for exploring the pathways of information and meaning propagation that constitute cognition in its distributed form.
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors used evidence from three studies of German and Israeli science to show that the contexts of scientific discovery in those countries are highly distinct, and that deep cultural codes determine the organization of labs; they set the ground rules for the relations between senior and junior scientists; they determine concrete research practices; and they even constitute intellectual styles.
Abstract: Is science culturally determined? If so, in what aspects and how? Using evidence from three studies of German and Israeli science, this paper shows that the contexts of scientific discovery in those countries are highly distinct. Respondents from each study embraced a universalist position by holding the belief that ‘science is science,’ suggesting that they share similar understandings about the context of scientific justification. However, respondents also agreed that the deep cultural codes of hierarchy (in Germany) and symmetry (in Israel) constitute the actual contexts of scientific discovery on utterly different trajectories. Specifically, they claimed that deep cultural codes determine the organization of labs; that they set the ground rules for the relations between senior and junior scientists; that they determine concrete research practices; and that they even constitute intellectual styles. By adding ‘national culture’ as an important factor in science studies, this paper suggests that it is the task of science and technology studies to employ broader approaches of cultural analysis. Such approaches would bring to light national particularities in socialization towards the universal Temple of Science; they also would facilitate greater appreciation for the multiple cultural ways of doing science.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine representationalism in two research programs that have shaped cultural sociology from the cultural turn to the present: Jeffrey Alexander's "strong program" and Ann Swidler's "tool kit" theory.
Abstract: This article examines the influx of neurocognitive concepts in cultural sociology and this development’s consequences for representationalism. In the first part, I examine representationalism in two research programs that have shaped cultural sociology from the cultural turn to the present: Jeffrey Alexander’s “strong program” and Ann Swidler’s “tool kit” theory. I also briefly discuss the mixed and contradictory findings presented in one of sociology’s most-cited cognitive works, Paul DiMaggio’s (Annu Rev Sociol 23:263–87, 1997) programmatic statement on cognitive psychology’s potential contributions to sociology, which catalyzed the discipline’s cognitive turn. In part two, I demonstrate how in working with and against these three pillars in cultural sociology, figures such as Omar Lizardo, Steven Vaisey, and John Levi Martin have drawn on the cognitive neurosciences to re-conceptualize culture in ways that may have profound consequences for representationalism as it is practiced in the field. I conclude by arguing that representationalism is present but suppressed in cognitive cultural theory and its empirical investigations; that representationalism finds support in the neurocognitive sources that cognitive culturalists cite; and by asserting that future general theories of action will be predicated on a more interactive relationship between automatic and deliberative cognitive domains than the cognitive culturalists currently allow.
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TL;DR: The informational theory of communication as discussed by the authors is an ideal-typical model, which reduces culture to information, and it can be seen as a cultural logic underlying a substantial part of their arguments.
Abstract: Cultural sociology must catch up in taking seriously recent initiatives in the sociology of culture and cognition, represented by the works of Omar Lizardo, John Levi Martin, Stephen Vaisey, and others. However, aiming at progress in cultural analysis, these theories are partly driven by an epistemic logic alien to cultural theorizing, making the very concept of culture redundant. To identify this anti-cultural strain within the ongoing cognitive turn in sociology, I propose an ideal-typical model—‘the informational theory of communication,’ which reduces culture to information. Although many cognitive scientists and sociologists of culture and cognition are aware of the limitations and counter-productivity of this model, and it might not exist in a pure form, I argue that, first, it is still clearly traceable in many of their arguments, and, second, that it can be seen as a cultural logic underlying a substantial part of their arguments. I posit that replacing this logic of explanation with the Durkheimian model of sui generis synthesis, the concept of emergence, and the idea of ‘boundary conditions’ not only allows us to integrate the insights of cognitive science into sociology, but also opens a way for sociology to contribute to the cognitive sciences.
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TL;DR: In this paper, a comparative study of two museum expansion projects is conducted to understand how the production process influences the content and intensity of the meanings attributed to the buildings and demonstrate that IADs constitute a social performance where the actions taken by developers to design, construct, and promote their buildings are interpreted by the outside public and inform the meanings assigned to the final buildings.
Abstract: Cities around the world have increasingly turned to iconic architectural development (IAD) to compete for tourists, investment and skilled migrants. However, IADs represent more than just an economic development tool, they are explicit attempts to create iconic representations of place. As such IADs provide an important opportunity to better understand how objects gain “iconic power”—defined as the fusion of powerful social meanings with the aesthetic surface of physical objects. Through a comparative study of two museum expansion projects, this article investigates how the production process influences the content and intensity of the meanings attributed to the buildings. Adopting a cultural pragmatics approach, I demonstrate that IADs constitute a social performance where the actions taken by developers to design, construct, and promote their buildings are interpreted by the outside public and inform the meanings attributed to the final buildings. In identifying the relationship between production and performance, this article extends our understanding of iconic power while also demonstrating how theories from the “Strong Program” in cultural sociology can be exported to advance the study of cities and urban development.
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TL;DR: For instance, the authors discusses Jeffrey Alexander's work on social performances and how performances affect us and how societies are fused, and how cognitive neuroscience can help us understand how performance affects us.
Abstract: This article discusses Jeffrey Alexander’s work on social performances. All societies, says Alexander, need a measure of integration—they need to be “fused”—for a common, properly social, life to be possible. In simple societies, this is achieved by means of rituals; in complex societies, it is achieved by means of the theater. In both cases, performances are understood in analogy with “texts” which are “read.” Although explicit interpretations indeed are crucial for our understanding of a performance, audience members make sense of what they see in more direct, more embodied, ways as well. Cognitive neuroscience can help us understand how performances affect us and thereby how societies are fused.
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TL;DR: This paper argued that populism is best seen as effecting a reversal of the ancient binary between the politically fit and unfit, and argued that the need to cross over between political, social, and cultural theory in order to better understand populism and democracy and their contentious interrelationship.
Abstract: This article revisits the vexed relationship between populism and democracy. The article identifies and analyzes a persistent split in the discourse of democracy between the politically fit and unfit, and argues that populism is best seen as effecting a reversal of this ancient binary. Using analytical tools from the strong program in cultural sociology, this binary is theorized as a symbolic code organizing our sense of and sensibilities for the sacred and the profane in democracy, a symbolic code that political science research on populism tends to reproduce rather than explicate. Pursuing this, the article outlines a cultural explanation of populism as well as of shortcomings and blind spots in the latest wave of research on the subject. It argues by example the need to cross over between political, social, and cultural theory in order to better understand populism and democracy and their contentious interrelationship.
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TL;DR: This article examined what arrested individuals expect from the police, and the moral grammars they rely on to evaluate police behavior, and found that respondents care about two different moral dimensions in policing.
Abstract: This paper examines what arrested individuals expect from the police, and the moral grammars they rely on to evaluate police behavior. Drawing on interviews with recently arrested suspects in the Cleveland city jail, we analyze the moral grammars, or common worlds, that residents invoke to reflect on interactions with law enforcement. We find that respondents care about two different moral dimensions in policing. At one level, they want police to treat them with civility and politeness, and to respect their rights—thereby treating them equally with other residents in the city. Yet at a second level, they want police to show care and empathy for their local situation, and to recognize that policing the neighborhoods in which they live is different than policing other parts of the city. As a result, we find that residents who are arrested by the police deploy two orders of worth: a civic order, grounded in fairness, legal rules, equality, and civic belonging in the polity; and a domestic order, based on a politics of community and difference, emphasizing empathy, local knowledge, and personal experience. We demonstrate how individuals assess and test the moral promise of institutions to offer moral recognition, redress, and repair.
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TL;DR: This article explored how the National Rifle Association co-opted narratives of soldiers' sacrifice for the nation to promote a New War cultural message and found that magazine contributors retooled the traditional narrative to feature non-military protagonists, to differentiate the nation from the government, and to spotlight freedom as a sacrificial cause.
Abstract: This paper presents a case study of how a fringe idea moves into the cultural mainstream. In its cultural and political project to defend the Second Amendment, the National Rifle Association (NRA) embraced New War culture, a counter-cultural response to the trauma of the war in Vietnam, which extended warrior honor to armed men defending their families from an increasingly hostile world and a suspect government that might try to disarm them. Using textual analysis of the American Rifleman, we explore how the NRA co-opted narratives of soldiers' sacrifice for the nation to promote a New War cultural message. We find that magazine contributors retooled the traditional narrative to feature non-military protagonists, to differentiate the nation from the government, and to spotlight freedom as a sacrificial cause. With their strong civil religious overtones, the NRA's sacrifice narratives served as value-laden signposts that elevated the Second Amendment to a sacred God-given freedom, extended the consecration from sacrifice to encompass their mainstream audience of gun owners, and identified political and cultural enemies. These classic American narratives of soldiers’ sacrifice for the nation were thus co-opted to deliver a simultaneously patriotic and anti-government counter-cultural message that would resonate with mainstream American culture.
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TL;DR: In the post-communist public discourse, the queue became a powerful, polluted symbol used both to endorse and to criticise free market capitalism as discussed by the authors, and its prevalence is a cultural driving force behind postcommunist privatism.
Abstract: Long queues for basic goods, including food, had to be endured routinely on the streets of Czech cities from the 1950s until the late 1980s as a result of the constant shortages of consumer goods in the centrally planned economy. After the fall of the communist regime, queues disappeared from the street, but they started a new, second, life in the public discourse. Today, more than 25 years after the fall of the regime, the images of the “communist queue” are still vivid and reproduced in jokes, metaphors, and media images. The paper shows how the queue, disembodied from the everyday interaction, became a morally and emotionally charged signifier. Remembered as unjust, humiliating, and absurd, the “communist queue” stands in opposition to theoretical models of queues and serves as a synecdoche for the memory of the communist past as a whole. In the post-communist public discourse, the queue became a powerful, polluted symbol used both to endorse and to criticise free market capitalism. This paper suggests that its prevalence is a cultural driving force behind post-communist privatism.
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the meaning of higher education in contemporary culture, drawing principally on institutional theory and argue that higher education is a quasi-religious as well as an economic institution.
Abstract: Prevailing perspectives attribute higher education’s immense and increasing importance in modern societies nearly exclusively to the economic value of a college degree and role of higher education in the legitimation of stratification. This forecloses consideration of the possibility that higher education’s power and influence may derive, in part, from its own considerable moral or symbolic significance in modern culture. Through analysis of in-depth interviews with adult undergraduates in the United States I explore the meaning of higher education in contemporary culture, drawing principally on institutional theory. The bachelor’s degree emerges as the central and default indicator of not only intelligence but valued moral traits: responsibility, tenacity, and ambition. College completion confirms/constitutes graduates as agentic selves to both others and themselves, and indicates assimilation of scientific and cosmopolitan universalism. I suggest that these findings can be explained through three interrelated, institutionalized interpretation rules: education is a strong moral good, education changes the self, and education accesses the universal. And I argue that we must take seriously the insight—often made but little-explored—that higher education is a quasi-religious as well as an economic institution.
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine Swedish "diversity discourses" in the periods of 1968-1975 and 1991-1995 in an effort to tease out the pragmatic, moral and ethical aspects of these discourses.
Abstract: This article seeks to understand how values enter into political discourse via justification and how those values are negotiated over time. The article maps out the terrain of diversity discourses, both as a specific type of discourse and as an example of ethical, moral and pragmatic modes of argumentation. The author examines Swedish “diversity discourses” in the periods of 1968–1975 and 1991–1995 in an effort to tease out the pragmatic, moral and ethical aspects of these discourses. Diversity discourses are defined as discourses regarding how much and what kind of diversity is acceptable or desirable in a society, as well as how such diversity should be handled. I find that values, both contextually-dependent ethical values and universal moral values, rather than being “prior” to politics, arise out of the intersection of pragmatic, ethical and moral discourses. What is moral and ethical, then is colored by the particular nexus of moral, ethical and pragmatic concerns such that what is acceptable at one particular time and location, may be unacceptable in another, even coming from the same actors with the same ideological commitments. Shifts in the ethical/moral modes of justification, then, lead to shifts in who is included in a democratic community.
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TL;DR: The case of the Nazi Regime and the Holocaust is explored in this paper, where children and grandchildren of the perpetrator generation address these challenges in multiple, more or less fictionalized, biographies and family histories.
Abstract: Cultural trauma after mass violence poses challenges in micro-social settings. Children and grandchildren of the perpetrator generation address these challenges in multiple, more or less fictionalized, biographies and family histories, explored here for the case of the Nazi Regime and the Holocaust. Their books serve, at one level, as quarries for harvesting depictions of interactive situations in which intra- and intergenerational sets of actors manage stigma through practices of silencing, denying and acknowledging in the context of family and friendship circles. At another level, biographies themselves constitute efforts at managing the authors’ spoiled identities through their conversation with an imagined audience. In retelling family history and reporting interactive situations, authors are torn between the desire to engage with—and cleanse themselves from—a polluting past and to maintain family loyalties and affective bonds.