Showing papers in "Society in 2008"
TL;DR: This article examined media reports referring to this chemical imbalance theory and ask reporters for evidence supporting their claims and found that the evidence offered was not compelling and several of the cited sources flatly stated that the proposed theory of serotonin imbalance was known to be incorrect.
Abstract: The cause of mental disorders such as depression remains unknown. However, the idea that neurotransmitter imbalances cause depression is vigorously promoted by pharmaceutical companies and the psychiatric profession at large. We examine media reports referring to this chemical imbalance theory and ask reporters for evidence supporting their claims. We then report and critique the scientific papers and other confirming evidence offered in response to our questions. Responses were received from multiple sources, including practicing psychiatrists, clients, and a major pharmaceutical company. The evidence offered was not compelling, and several of the cited sources flatly stated that the proposed theory of serotonin imbalance was known to be incorrect. The media can play a positive role in mental health reporting by ensuring that the information reported is congruent with the peer-reviewed scientific literature.
70 citations
TL;DR: The authors discusses the changes in the terms of the discourse, contingent upon the growing similarity of the world in the wake of globalization, the emergence of the post-tourist, and the diversification in the composition of tourists, with the growth in the number of travelers from non-western countries.
Abstract: Tourism, a domain of considerable importance in the contemporary world, has long been overlooked by social scientists, but has recently become a field attracting a growing body of research. In sociology, the relation between tourism and modernity at first constituted the issue of principal interest, the discourse focusing on the extent to which modern Western tourists seek authentic experiences on their trip. The article discusses the changes in the terms of the discourse, contingent upon the growing similarity of the world in the wake of globalization, the emergence of the “post-tourist,” and the diversification in the composition of tourists, with the growth in the number of travelers from non-Western countries. The question of the limits of the future expansion of the tourist system is raised in conclusion.
59 citations
TL;DR: This paper pointed out that staged authenticity is not authenticity but its opposite or negation, and illustrated the error of the reading of The Tourist by Ed Bruner in his recent book Culture on Tour.
Abstract: Critics of the concept fail to note that staged authenticity is not authenticity but its opposite or negation. This error is illustrated referencing Ed Bruner’s reading of The Tourist in his recent book Culture on Tour.
56 citations
27 citations
TL;DR: There is evidence of a realignment among voters entering the electorate in recent years, with younger voters deviating from older voters in their ideological and partisan preferences as discussed by the authors, as demonstrated by their views on equality, the role of government, health care, and spending for public schools.
Abstract: There is evidence of a realignment among voters entering the electorate in recent years, with younger voters deviating from older voters in their ideological and partisan preferences. Younger voters today tend to be more liberal and more supportive of Democratic candidates than other age groups. Younger Americans are generally favor a more activist government, as demonstrated by their views on equality, the role of government, health care, and spending for public schools and child care. The leftward movement of younger Americans ideologically is also the result of the increasing political emphasis on cultural issues. Younger Americans as a group are less religious and less conservative on social issues than other age cohorts. They put less emphasis on traditional values and are more tolerant than other age groups on social issues such as gay rights. Older voters, on the other hand, tend to be more conservative on policy issues and less supportive of Democrats than they used to be. At the state level, the partisan polarization in the United States is even greater among younger Americans than it is for the nation as a whole. This suggests that if younger Americans follow other generations in keeping the same partisan voting patterns throughout their life, the blue states will become bluer and the red states redder.
25 citations
TL;DR: The Culture Code as mentioned in this paper is a seminal work in the field of organizational psychology, focusing on the meaning of a culture code, which is defined as "the meaning we apply to any given thing, a type of food, a relationship, even a country" via the culture in which we are raised.
Abstract: There is a question we must ask when we think about Clotaire Rapaille’s latest book, The Culture Code. Is he the best French observer of American culture since De Tocqueville or is he some kind of a super-slick snake-oil salesman who has charmed, and maybe hoodwinked, the heads of some of the biggest corporations in the USA and elsewhere? On the back cover, Warren Bennis has written a blurb describing the book as “astonishing.” He writes that it is “filled with profound insights and ideas that have enormous consequences for today’s organizations. If you want to understand customers, constituencies and crowds, this book is required reading.” That is very high praise from a distinguished scholar. But blurbs are not necessarily the most accurate description of a book’s contents or value. The cover of the paperback is most instructive. There is a photograph of the world, with a large keyhole on it and a key that, we must assume, helps “unlock” secrets of interest to us all. That key is what Rapaille calls a “culture code,” which he defines as “the unconscious meaning we apply to any given thing—a car, a type of food, a relationship, even a country—via the culture in which we are raised” (p. 5). There are, he suggests, three variations on the unconscious: Freud’s individual unconscious, which guides individuals; Jung’s collective unconscious, which guides all human beings; and that one that is of most interest and utility to Rapaille, a cultural unconscious, that is based on cultures, and more distinctly, generally on national cultures. He explains that “there is an American mind, just as there is a Frenchmind, an English mind, a Kurdishmind, and a Latvian mind. Every culture has its own mind-set, and that mind-set teaches us about who we are in profound ways” (p. 27). It is these mind-sets that generate the codes, the action principles based on each distinctive cultural unconscious. Rapaille explains that traditional surveys and other means of gauging public opinion are not helpful. He offers five principles that guide his research. First, “You can’t believe what people say.” This is because, he explains, people often give you answers to questions that they think you want and because “most people don’t know why they do the things they do” (p. 14). He says he adopts the role of “the professional stranger” who needs help from people to find out why they do what they do. His second principle is that “Emotion is the energy required to learn anything” (p. 17). Emotions, he argues, are the keys to learning and to being imprinted. Most of this imprinting is done while we are children, which is when we absorb the important codes in our cultures. His third principle is “the structure, not the content, is the message,” (p. 19) and he mentions the work of Claude Levi-Strauss in this regard. Thus, when Clotaire examines statements written by participants in his discovery sessions, he is looking for structural phenomena, or themes. For example, in doing research for Chrysler, he discovered that common to the statements was the sense that automobiles play a major role in giving Americans their identity. This leads to his fourth principle which is that “There is a window in time for imprinting and the meaning of the imprint varies from one culture to another” (p. 21). For most people, the imprinting of things that are most central to our lives is done by the time they reach the age of seven. For Rapaille, as for Freud, the child is the father of the man. Soc (2008) 45:316–318 DOI 10.1007/s12115-008-9083-7
23 citations
TL;DR: For example, it is estimated that about 550 billion dollars are transferred annually in the United States, amounting to more than 4% of the American gross national product (Havens and Schervish 1999) as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: There are some social issues whose significance for society nobody would seriously question but which nevertheless receive only scarce attention in sociological research. One of these is the bequest of private wealth from one generation to the next. It is currently estimated that about 550 billion dollars are transferred annually in the United States, amounting to more than 4% of the American gross national product (Havens and Schervish 1999). Not only is this a huge amount of wealth that changes ownership, but the bequest of wealth speaks to some of the core questions of sociological scholarship.
20 citations
TL;DR: The moralization of the markets as mentioned in this paper represents a novel stage in the social evolution of markets, and it can be seen as the beginning of a new era in the history of markets.
Abstract: Nothing effects modern society more than the decisions made in the market place, especially (but not only) the judgments of consumers. The designation of market relations in modern societies as the “moralization of the markets” represents a novel stage in the social evolution of markets. Market theories still widely in use today emerged in a society that no longer exists. Today, growing affluence, greater knowledge, and hi-speed communication among consumers builds into the marketplace notions of fairness, solidarity, environment, health, and political considerations imbued with a long-term perspective that can disrupt short-term pursuits of the best buy. Importantly, such social goals, individual apprehensions, and models of consumer conduct become inscribed in products and services offered in the marketplace, as well as in the rules and regulations that govern market relations.
18 citations
TL;DR: The first wave of mass tourists see themselves as innovators, worldly, outward looking, risk takers who are different and somehow better than other members of society as discussed by the authors. Yet, in reality, they are relative latecomers to the world of international tourism, causing members of the receiving community to perceive them as laggards, inward looking individuals who are culturally and socially introverted, unworldly and resistant to change.
Abstract: The unique characteristics of the first generation tourists and the nature of their interactions with the host community leads to the formation of enduring stereotypes. The first wave of mass tourists sees themselves as innovators, worldly, outward looking, risk takers who are different and somehow better than other members of society. Yet, in reality, they are relative latecomers to the world of international tourism, causing members of the receiving community to perceive them as laggards, inward looking individuals who are culturally and socially introverted, unworldly and resistant to change. The situation is exacerbated by package tour participation which is the typical way any new markets begins to travel. Unfortunately, packages produce a highly mediated experience between host and guest that intensify the sense of outsidedness felt by each group, which in turn create stereotypes.
17 citations
TL;DR: The tangled relationship between education research and policy has received little serious scrutiny, even as paeans to "scientifically based research" and evidence-based practice have become a staple of education policymaking in recent years as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The tangled relationship between education research and policy has received little serious scrutiny, even as paeans to “scientifically based research” and “evidence-based practice” have become a staple of education policymaking in recent years. For all the attention devoted to the 5-year-old Institute of Education Sciences, to No Child Left Behind’s call for “scientifically based research,” to professional interest in data-driven decision-making, and to the refinement of sophisticated analytic tools, little effort has gone into understanding how, when, or why research affects education policy. Instead, most discussion has focused on how to identify “best practices” or “scientifically based” methods and how to encourage classroom educators to use research findings. In this article, based on the new volume, When Research Matters: How Scholarship Influences Education Policy, Frederick M. Hess examines these questions.
TL;DR: For nearly a century, black immigrants from the West Indies have enjoyed greater economic success than African Americans as mentioned in this paper, but until now, none of these explanations have been subjected to systematic scrutiny.
Abstract: For nearly a century, black immigrants from the West Indies have enjoyed greater economic success than African Americans. Several explanations have been proposed for this trend, but until now, none of these explanations have been subjected to systematic scrutiny. Recent efforts to adjudicate among them indicate that West Indian success can be attributed entirely to the “selectivity of migration”. This phrase refers to the tendency of people who migrate to be more talented and determined than the compatriots they leave behind. One implication of this discovery is that sympathetic observers should stop exhorting African Americans to behave more like West Indians. Such pleas are inappropriate because West Indian success is a consequence of choosing to move, not a consequence of Caribbean birth. A second implication is that persons of West Indian background remain vulnerable to racism. The new findings provide no evidence that positive selection protects West Indians from the negative stereotypes that Americans associate with black skin.
TL;DR: The meaning and implications of cultural relativism have been debated for decades as mentioned in this paper, and Sandall offers a pointed critique of the anthropological concept of culture and identifies relativism as the internal and corrosive enemy of the open society.
Abstract: The meanings and implications of cultural relativism have been debated for decades. Reprising this debate, Roger Sandall offers a pointed critique of the anthropological concept of culture and identifies relativism as the internal and corrosive enemy of the open society. I challenge his reading of our predicament. Considering the work of Franz Boas and his debts to the philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder, I distance the social science concept of culture from positions—the rejection of standards of truth, beauty, and morality; the belief that cultural value systems and practices are all equally true (or untrue); the valorization of primitivism—that are not intrinsic to it. Next, I consider the use of culture in the “philosophy of primitivism” and its meanings in multiculturalism and identity politics. I argue that many ostensibly relativist claims are used to serve non-relativist agendas, or hide universalistic claims in unstated but essential premises and background assumptions. Rather than a world dominated by relativism, where cultural differences are held to be inviolable and cross-cultural judgments have been rendered impossible, I see something like the reverse. Our problem is not that we overvalue cultural differences but that we underestimate them. Even in our multiculturalism, we imagine a sameness of outlook and aspiration, an unwitting projection of ourselves in the end.
TL;DR: In the 1990s, some residents of Roswell, New Mexico, tried to build tourism using typical southwestern themes, and capitalized on Roswell's unique association with an alleged crash of an extraterrestrial craft as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Tourism has long figured in municipal and state- wide plans for economic development and revitalization. Such plans often articulate themes subsequently used to organize tours, advertising campaigns, and merchandising. In the 1990s, some residents of Roswell, New Mexico, tried to build tourism using typical southwestern themes. Others capitalized on Roswell's unique association with an alleged crash of an extraterrestrial craft. Early support from the New Mexico Tourism Department (NMTD) facilitated the success of Roswell's UFO-based tourism. In 2007, NMTD launched its own alien-based advertising campaign pro- moting New Mexico as a tourist destination.
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TL;DR: A discussion of the scope of tourism as a major force in our contemporary global consumer culture can be found in this paper, where the authors introduce the articles I have solicited from a number of tourism scholars, which reflect various disciplinary approaches to tourism.
Abstract: This essay starts with a discussion of the scope of tourism as a major force in our contemporary global consumer culture. It also contains information on the development of tourism education in universities and problems students studying tourism often face in the workplace. The main function of the essay is to introduce the articles I have solicited from a number of tourism scholars, which reflect various disciplinary approaches to tourism. They deal with the following topics: sociological studies of tourism and modernism, questions about postmodernism and the role of authenticity in tourism, a historical perspective on the growth of the cruise industry, a case study investigating the role of advertising in tourism and an analysis of the functions of stereotypes in tourism. It is hoped that these essays will induce scholars not working in the area to consider investigating tourism in future research.
TL;DR: In this article, the political implications of value pluralism support a commitment to liberal universalism and liberal multiculturalism, which may not be far removed from Sandall's own position.
Abstract: I agree with Roger Sandall’s opposition to the ‘culture cult’ in broad outline, but wish to register three reservations. First, he is too sweeping in apparently attacking the whole of ‘multiculturalism’, and unfair in condemning claims on the basis of the motives allegedly behind them. Second, his relativist interpretation of Berlin and Herder needs qualification, since their work also contains the idea of value pluralism, which should be distinguished from relativism. Third, the political implications of pluralism support a commitment to liberal universalism and liberal multiculturalism, which may not be far removed from Sandall’s own position.
TL;DR: In this article, four competing visions of national service are discussed, and the authors suggest that national service has alternatively been seen as a way to promote an active and engaged citizenship, accelerate the personal growth of the young people in the programs, build social capital in communities, and meet critical social needs through public work.
Abstract: While national service enjoys broad support across the political spectrum, the actual goals of programs such as AmeriCorps remain somewhat amorphous. Based on a set of interviews with both experienced. practitioners and key thought leaders in the field, four competing visions of national service are detailed. The article suggests that national service has alternatively been seen as a way to promote an active and engaged citizenship, accelerate the personal growth of the young people in the programs, build social capital in communities, and meet critical social needs through public work. These four competing visions can and do coexist in practice, which helps to explain the widespread and enduring popularity of the idea of national service in America.
TL;DR: The Law of Half-Intended Effects as discussed by the authors describes what happens to men who act intentionally, and who know more-or-less what they intend, but are shocked when things suddenly get out of control.
Abstract: The Law of Half-Intended Effects deserves to be more widely known. It usefully describes what happens to men who act intentionally, and who know more-or-less what they intend, but are shocked when things suddenly get out of control. If only he had lived long enough Sir Francis Galton’s enthusiastic promotion of eugenics might have been a good example of this—in some ways it began benignly enough. But its author never saw the grim conclusion: the shock of the ‘final solution’ was kept for its victims and for us. Galton was born in 1822 and died in 1911. Between those dates he explored and mapped part of Africa, wrote bestselling books about travel, was a member of the Athenaeum and actively participated in the affairs of England’s Royal Society, Royal Geographical Society, and British Association, invented psychometrics, discovered correlation and regression, and in the words of Nicholas Wright Gillham’s 2001 biography “helped to found and nurture the statistical methods that today have extremely broad applications in many fields including human genetics.” He was largely responsible “for the development of fingerprinting as a forensic method and made important contributions to psychology, especially in the case of mental imagery.” A matter not discussed in two recent biographies, perhaps because Freud has fallen into disrepute, is the remarkable fact that he at least suggested—simultaneously with Freud and perhaps even before Freud—the importance of unconscious processes in our mental life. This list may be incomplete but it must do. Galton had that rarest of all things human, an original mind, and it is quite possible that no scientist before or since has made so many lasting contributions to so many fields. When half way through his life The Origin of Species appeared, in 1859, this became a turning point. There was already a family bond and a background of shared interests—Charles Darwin was a cousin. Coming at a critical stage of both his scientific career and his domestic life, the effect of Darwin’s book was nothing less than momentous, shattering his religious beliefs and turning him away from geographical concerns towards psychological and biological research. In his autobiographical Memories of My Life Galton wrote that: “The publication in 1859 of The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin made a marked epoch in my own mental development, as it did in that of human thought generally. Its effect was to demolish a multitude of dogmatic barriers by a single stroke, and to arouse a spirit of rebellion against all ancient authorities whose positive and unauthenticated statements were contradicted by modern science.” Galton wrote of Darwin’s book that he “devoured its contents and assimilated them as fast as they were devoured, a fact which may be ascribed to an hereditary bent of mind that both its illustrious author and myself have inherited from our common grandfather, Dr. Erasmus Darwin.” The phrase “a hereditary bent of mind” is noteworthy. In his 2001 book Gillham says that right from the start Galton seems “to have been convinced that nature, and not nurture, determined human ability”: in 1859 Darwin provided this conviction with theoretical justification and focus. From that time on he proceeded to investigate, he said later, matters “clustered round the central topics of Heredity and the possible improvement of the Human Race.” The two topics—heredity and racial improvement—are however not inseparable. Why was it that the human race Soc (2008) 45:170–176 DOI 10.1007/s12115-008-9058-8
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that although the ideas and tools of progressive education are relevant to this task, this challenge has been only partially met because its scope and complexity have been seriously underestimated.
Abstract: After solidifying its role as a powerful innovative educational force reinforced by its alignment with mid-century concerns with preventive mental health, the progressive education movement responded to the call to improve the public education of disadvantaged children mandated by civil rights legislation. Although the ideas and tools of progressive education are relevant to this task, this challenge has been only partially met because its scope and complexity have been seriously underestimated. Further complicating the goals and agendas of education today are the massive social and technological changes, thus far insufficiently identified and understood, that affect all children.
TL;DR: The situations of nineteenth century dock workers and today's immigrant day laborers bear striking similarities and challenges, especially for those seeking to organize them into labor unions as discussed by the authors, and the obstacles confronting such organizing efforts also underscore the legitimate concerns many Americans have about the threats to social order posed by immigrants today.
Abstract: The situations of nineteenth century dock workers and today’s immigrant day laborers bear striking similarities and challenges, especially for those seeking to organize them into labor unions. The obstacles confronting such organizing efforts also underscore the legitimate concerns many Americans have about the threats to social order posed by immigrants today.
TL;DR: A recent investigation by Andrew W. Cuomo, New York's attorney general, revealed that many private lenders had offered improper inducements to colleges and their financial aid officers to secure greater loan volumes as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Nearly two-thirds of all college students take out loans to help finance their education. Most assume that the process is above board with schools acting in the student’s best interests to ensure they get the best deal possible. Unfortunately, such might not always be the case. The results of an investigation by Andrew W. Cuomo, New York’s attorney general, revealed that many private lenders had offered improper inducements to colleges and their financial aid officers to secure greater loan volumes. Cuomo’s initiative also sparked the interest of several other state attorney generals who opened their own investigations. Congress has also held hearings regarding the questionable relationships between lenders and colleges, which appear to be fairly widespread in what has become an $85 billion industry. Indeed, a recent Senate report on student loans concluded, “It is clear that the problem is systemic and cannot be isolated to a few problem lenders or schools.” The purpose of this article will be to explore more fully those systemic elements that facilitated the scandal. To do so, some historical background regarding student loans will be provided showing that however well intended, the guaranteed loan program has had a checkered past that spawned controversy and eventually momentum for change. The current scandal will then be described. A scandal that can be traced to increased competition for student loans, which ultimately produced much of the questionable behavior that became the subject of the investigations, and competition the Department of Education (DOE) failed to regulate. Finally, I will discuss the implications of the scandal, and the steps taken to change the environment that nurtured it.
TL;DR: This paper found that women advance more rapidly in the appointive executive and judicial branches than in the elected legislative branch at both national and state levels, and that greater male variability restricts the opportunity for gender equity.
Abstract: Women advance more rapidly in the appointive executive and judicial branches than in the elected legislative branch at both national and state levels. Demand side and supply side factors explain much of this. In particular, greater male variability restricts the opportunity for gender equity.
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TL;DR: The deniers of virtue should heed the evidence and pay mind to the amoralizing consequences of their erroneous theories as discussed by the authors, which are both empirically and normatively flawed, and the theory itself is belied by data about people doing good for moral reasons.
Abstract: When a New York City man risked his own life to save a stranger on the subway tracks, the New York Times interpreted his behavior not in terms of virtue but as a product of certain ‘hard-wiring’ he happened to possess. In denying virtue, the Times followed a school of thought that is pervasive in social science (referred to in this paper as the ‘individualists’) who, for example, explain charitable donations by pointing out tax deductions, explain volunteer work by revealing the opportunities contained therein to meet other singles, and so on. Actually, the assumptions and arguments which ground this widespread ‘denial of virtue’ are both empirically and normatively flawed, and the theory itself is belied by data about people doing good for moral reasons. Evidence drawn from personal introspection, from empirical studies of human behavior, from analysis of voting as a civil act, from interpreting peoples’ reaction to Alzheimer’s disease, from critical inspection of the logic of ‘individualist’ social explanations, and from a normative criticism of the products of the ‘individualist’ approach all support a rejection of the ‘individualist’ approach. The deniers of virtue should heed the evidence and pay mind to the amoralizing consequences of their erroneous theories.
TL;DR: In a recent Public Opinion Quarterly article "Is the Academy a Liberal Hegemony?", John Zipp and Rudy Fenwick pit themselves against "right-wing activists and scholars, citing our scholarship" as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In a recent Public Opinion Quarterly article “Is the Academy a Liberal Hegemony?,” John Zipp and Rudy Fenwick pit themselves against “right-wing activists and scholars,” citing our scholarship (Klein and Stern in Academic Questions 18(1): 40–52, 2005a; Klein and Western in Academic Questions 18(1): 53–65, 2005). Here, we analyze Zipp and Fenwick’s characterization of our research and find it faulty. We, then, turn to their self-identification “liberal vs. conservative” findings and show they concord with our analysis. If one feels that it is a problem that humanities and social science faculty at 4-year colleges and universities are vastly predominantly democratic voters, mostly with views that may called establishment-left, progressive, or status-quo oriented, then such concerns should not be allayed by Zipp and Fenwick’s article. We commence the article with a criticism of the “liberal versus conservative” framework because it is the source of much of the confusion surrounding controversies such as the one over the ideological profile of faculty.
TL;DR: Benedict is more skeptical of interreligious dialog and more confrontational toward Islam than was his predecessor as mentioned in this paper, who was trained by Dominicans, and throughout his papacy, he was a champion of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Abstract: Pope Benedict XVI’s inflammatory speech at Regensburg highlights a subtle difference between Benedict and John Paul II. John Paul called Muslims and Jews “sons of Abraham,” and he organized high-profile interfaith events. Benedict is more skeptical of interreligious dialog and more confrontational toward Islam than was his predecessor. This shift in tone toward Islam stems from changed historical circumstances. Islam has replaced communism as Europe’s biggest ideological challenge. But, there are also subtle theological differences between the two Popes. John Paul was trained by Dominicans, and throughout his papacy, he was a champion of St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Augustine, with his bleaker view of non-Christian cultures, is the dominant influence on Benedict. Benedict believes that theologies of religious pluralism, which lead to metaphysical and religious relativism, have replaced liberation theologies as the most serious threats to Catholic orthodoxy.
TL;DR: It is argued that dual inheritance theorists have surpassed the orthodox neo-Darwinians in their explanations for very important and uniquely human features such as the authors' extensive sociability, complex cumulative culture and morality.
Abstract: This article identifies the shortcomings of “orthodox neo-Darwinians” such as Richard Dawkins, George Williams and Daniel Dennett in their efforts to describe human nature and human pro-social behavior. As an alternative to the views of these thinkers, the efforts of Peter Richerson, Robert Boyd, and other “dual inheritance” theorists to describe the evolution of human nature are also characterized. It is argued that dual inheritance theorists have surpassed the orthodox neo-Darwinians in their explanations for very important and uniquely human features such as our extensive sociability, complex cumulative culture and morality.