One dimensional man
About: This article is published in Philosophical Books.The article was published on 1965-05-01. It has received 2842 citations till now.
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TL;DR: The demarcation of science from other intellectual activities is an analytic problem for philosophers and sociologists and is examined as a practical problem for scientists in this article, where a set of characteristics available for ideological attribution to science reflect ambivalences or strains within the institution: science can be made to look empirical or theoretical, pure or applied.
Abstract: The demarcation of science from other intellectual activities-long an analytic problem for philosophers and sociologists-is here examined as a practical problem for scientists. Construction of a boundary between science and varieties of non-science is useful for scientists' pursuit of professional goals: acquisition of intellectual authority and career opportunities; denial of these resources to "pseudoscientists"; and protection of the autonomy of scientific research from political interference. "Boundary-work" describes an ideological style found in scientists' attempts to create a public image for science by contrasting it favorably to non-scientific intellectual or technical activities. Alternative sets of characteristics available for ideological attribution to science reflect ambivalences or strains within the institution: science can be made to look empirical or theoretical, pure or applied. However, selection of one or another description depends on which characteristics best achieve the demarcation in a way that justifies scientists' claims to authority or resources. Thus, "science" is no single thing: its boundaries are drawn and redrawn inflexible, historically changing and sometimes ambiguous ways.
3,402 citations
Cites background from "One dimensional man"
...Still others define science as an ideology itself (Marcuse, 1964); for Habermas (1970:115) the form of scientific knowledge embodies its own values of prediction and control, and thus may substitute for "the demolished bourgeois ideology" in legitimating structures of domination and repression....
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TL;DR: In this paper, a review of the corporate social reporting literature, its major theoretical preoccupations and empirical conclusions, attempts to re-examine the theoretical tensions that exist between “classical” political economy interpretations of social disclosure and those from more “bourgeois” perspectives.
Abstract: Takes as its departure point the criticism of Guthrie and Parker by Arnold and the Tinker et al. critique of Gray et al. Following an extensive review of the corporate social reporting literature, its major theoretical preoccupations and empirical conclusions, attempts to re‐examine the theoretical tensions that exist between “classical” political economy interpretations of social disclosure and those from more “bourgeois” perspectives. Argues that political economy, legitimacy theory and stakeholder theory need not be competitor theories but may, if analysed appropriately, be seen as alternative and mutually enriching theories from alternative levels of resolution. Offers evidence from 13 years of social disclosure by UK companies and attempts to interpret this from different levels of resolution. There is little doubt that social disclosure practice has changed dramatically in the period. The theoretical perspectives prove to offer different, but mutually enhancing, interpretations of these phenomena.
2,923 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined accounts of travelers in terms of Erving Goffman's front versus back distinction and found that tourists try to enter back regions of the places they visit because these regions are associated with intimacy of relations and authenticity of experiences.
Abstract: The problem of false consciousness and its relationship to the social structure of tourist establishments is analyzed. Accounts of travelers are examined in terms of Erving Goffman's front versus back distinction. It is found that tourists try to enter back regions of the places they visit because these regions are associated with intimacy of relations and authenticity of experiences. It is also found that tourist settings are arrenged to produce the impression that a back region has been entered even when this is not the case. In tourist settings, between the front and the back there is a series of special spaces designed to accommodate tourists and to support their beliefs in the authenticity of their experiences. Goffman's front-back dichotomy is shown to be ideal poles of a continuum, or a variable.
2,627 citations
Cites background from "One dimensional man"
...David Riesman's "other directed" (1950) and Herbert Marcuse's "one-dimensional" men (1964) are products of a traditional intellectual concern for the superficiality of knowledge in mass industrial society, but the tourist setting per se is just beginning to prompt intellectual commentary....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors trace the rise of the modern cultural engineering paradigm of branding, premised upon a consumer culture that granted marketers cultural authority, and describe the current post-postmodern consumer culture, which is premised on the pursuit of personal sovereignty through brands.
Abstract: Brands are today under attack by an emerging countercultural movement. This study builds a dialectical theory of consumer culture and branding that explains the rise of this movement and its potential effects. Results of an interpretive study challenge existing theories of consumer resistance. To develop an alternative model, I first trace the rise of the modern cultural engineering paradigm of branding, premised upon a consumer culture that granted marketers cultural authority. Intrinsic contradictions erased its efficacy. Next I describe the current postmodern consumer culture, which is premised upon the pursuit of personal sovereignty through brands. I detail five postmodern branding techniques that are premised upon the principle that brands are authentic cultural resources. Postmodern branding is now giving rise to new contradictions that have inflamed the antibranding sentiment sweeping Western countries. I detail these contradictions and project that they will give rise to a new post-postmodern branding paradigm premised upon brands as citizen-artists.
1,797 citations
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29 Jul 1983TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a list of states that are essentially by-products of rationality, bias, and ideology, including sour grapes, as well as byproducts of belief, bias and ideology.
Abstract: Preface and acknowledgements 1. Rationality 2. States that are essentially by-products 3. Sour grapes 4. Belief, bias and ideology References Index.
1,221 citations
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TL;DR: This paper examined the American Dream through categories of mobility, marginalization, and hope, and examined the ability to reframe the American dream through select speeches at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
Abstract: The American Dream functions as a myth within our political discourse by providing hope to citizens and reinforcing beliefs in the protestant work ethic and meritocracy. This article examines the myth through categories of mobility, marginalization, and hope. Elite theory and institutional isomorphism are used to explore business privilege within Public Administration. The ability to reframe the American Dream is considered through an examination of select speeches at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Despite evidence of declining mobility and structural inequality, citizens cling to the myth. One explanation is that marginalization perpetuates the American Dream by crowding out issues of social class through various methods of institutional isomorphism. Another explanation is that the dream endures because it can be re-conceptualized.
21 citations
01 Jan 2009
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss why philosophers and engineers are now meeting together at international workshops and answer from an engineering perspective using an analogy to Kuhn, suggesting that engineers are seeking conceptual clarification using philosophy in the technological crisis of a creative era.
Abstract: This chapter asks why philosophers and engineers are now meeting together at international workshops and answers from an engineering perspective using an analogy to Kuhn. Specifically, the chapter suggests that engineers are now seeking conceptual clarification using philosophy in the technological crisis of a creative era in the same way that scientists sought conceptual clarification using philosophy in the scientific crisis that came in the wake of the discovery of relativity and quantum mechanics. The chapter starts by enumerating a number of ways in which philosophers and engineers are strange bedfellows. It continues with a cursory sociotechnical review of recent times. It carries on by making the connection to Kuhn, and it concludes with three specific ways in which philosophy can help engineers achieve greater methodological, pedagogical, and epistemological clarity. Although the chapter wonders whether newly philosophical engineers will persist in their reflections, it suggests that, regardless, the encounter should be productive for engineering and philosophy, both.
21 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: A case study of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) can be found in this paper where the authors explore the sorely overlooked role of science within the civil society.
Abstract: This article explores the sorely overlooked role of science within the civil
society scheme, subscribing a scientific sphere of influence according to the
minimalist civil society model It first introduces the relevance of this sphere to the
civil society project as a whole, and then provides a case study of one organization of
scientists, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI), situated
on the border of the science and civil spheres The study reviews SPSSI’s successes
in advancing values today associated with civil society, and then examines more
closely the challenges that have been posed to such activities by the state, market,
science, and civil realms alike These challenges, it is argued, are a threat to all
organizations seeking to advance the values of civil society, and such organizations
would do well to prepare for the probable interference by each of these spheres as
SPSSI did not In addition, those aspects of SPSSI’s history unique to social scientific
endeavors can illuminate challenges which civil society researchers share as social
scientists with a particular social vision SPSSI’s perpetual negotiation of two sets of
tensions – that between elitism and democratic values; and that between scientific
neutralist and social engagement – reveal the paradoxes inherent in any social
scientific movement Finally, it is concluded that studies of “borderland” organizations
like SPSSI may provide a fruitful point of departure for further studies of science and
civil society
Der Beitrag untersucht die stark vernachlassigte Rolle der
Wissenschaften im ‚Projekt Zivilgesellschaft’ und skizziert die wissenschaftliche
Einflusssphare vor dem Hintergrund eines minimalistischen Zivilgesellschaftsmodells
Die Bedeutung dieser Sphare fur das ‚Projekt Zivilgesellschaft’ insgesamt wird
zunachst umrissen und sodann beispielhaft anhand einer Fallstudie uber die „Society
for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI)“, einer wissenschaftlichen
Organisation an der Grenze zwischen Wissenschaft und der Sphare
burgerschaftlichen Engagements, vertieft Die Studie gibt einen Uberblick uber die
Erfolge, die SPSSI bei der Verbreitung von Werten hatte, die heute mit
‚Zivilgesellschaft’ verbunden werden, und untersucht dann naher die
Herausforderungen, denen diese Aktivitaten von seiten des Staates, des Marktes,
der Wissenschaft und der Bereiche zivilgesellschaftlichen Engagements
gleichermasen ausgesetzt waren Diese Herausforderungen, so wird argumentiert,
stellen eine Bedrohung fur alle Organisationen dar, die versuchen,
zivilgesellschaftliche Werte voranzubringen, so dass diese, anders als SPSSI, gut
daran taten, sich auf mogliche Storungen aus jeder dieser Spharen vorzubereiten
Diese Aspekte der fur sozialwissenschaftliche Bestrebungen einzigartigen
Geschichte von SPSSI konnen daruber hinaus die Herausforderungen erhellen,
denen sich Forscher der Zivilgesellschaft als Sozialwissenschaftler mit einer
besonderen sozialen Vision gegenuber sehen Der standige Balanceakt von SPSSI
zwischen zwei Spannungsverhaltnissen – zum einen zwischen Elitismus und
demokratischen Werten, zum anderen zwischen wissenschaftlichem Neutralismus
und sozialem Engagement – enthullt die Widerspruche, die jeder
sozialwissenschaftlichen Bewegung innewohnen Daher konnen Studien uber
Organisationen „im Grenzgebiet“ wie SPSSI, so die Schlussfolgerung, einen
fruchtbaren Ausgangspunkt fur weitere Forschungen uber das Verhaltnis von
Wissenschaft und Zivilgesellschaft bieten
21 citations
TL;DR: French Marxist sociologist, Henri Lefebvre, was one of the foremost social theorists of the twentieth century, celebrated for his critiques of everyday life, urban revolution, and the production of...
Abstract: French Marxist sociologist, Henri Lefebvre, was one of the foremost social theorists of the twentieth century, celebrated for his critiques of everyday life, urban revolution, and the production of...
21 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, an internal criticism of Winch's seminal "Understanding a Primitive Society" is presented, which distinguishes between two contrasting approaches to critical social understanding: (1) the metaphysical approach, central to the whole tradition of critical philosophy and critical social theory from Kant, through Marx to the Frankfurt School and contemporary theorists such as Habermas and Searle; (2) the descriptive approach, advocated by Winch, and which derives from Wittgenstein's critique of philosophical theory.
Abstract: This paper presents an 'internal' criticism of Winch's seminal 'Understanding a Primitive Society'. It distinguishes between two contrasting approaches to critical social understanding: (1) the metaphysicalapproach, central to the whole tradition of critical philosophy and critical social theory from Kant, through Marx to the Frankfurt School and contemporary theorists such as Habermas and Searle; (2) the descriptiveapproach, advocated by Winch, and which derives from Wittgenstein's critique of philosophical theory. It is argued, against a long tradition of 'critical theory' depicting Wittgenstein's philosophy as irredeemably 'conservative', that the descriptive approach is perfectly apt for generating a critical understanding of central Western institutions. Rather than seeking to provide an explanatory theory through which to discern what allegedly is imperceptible to theoretically unaided perception (i.e. the metaphysical approach), the descriptive approach aims for a 'perspicuous presentation' of our ...
20 citations