Showing papers on "Contemporary society published in 1999"

Leisure in contemporary society

Abstract: * Leisure: Past and Present * The Growth of Leisure * Work and Leisure * Gender * The Life Course * Lifestyles and Identities * Consumption and Consumerism * The Transformation of Leisure?

Recovering landscape : essays in contemporary landscape architecture

Abstract: This work collects a number of essays that discuss why landscape is gaining increased attention in contemporary society, and what new possibilities might emerge from this situation. Themes such as urbanism, reclamation, infrastructure, geometry, and representation are explored in discussions ddrawn from developments not only in the United States but also in the Netherlands, France, India and Southeast Asia. The contributors to this book include Alan Balfour, Denis Cosgrove, Georges Descombes, Marc Treib, Alex Wall, and Sebastien Marot.

The Bridge over the Racial Divide: Rising Inequality and Coalition Politics

Abstract: In a work that will significantly influence the political discussion with respect to race and class politics, one of the country's most influential sociologists focuses on the rising inequality in American society and the need for a progressive, multiracial political coalition to combat it. The culmination of decades of distinguished scholarship, "The Bridge over the Racial Divide" brilliantly demonstrates how political power is disproportionately concentrated among the most advantaged segments of society and how the monetary, trade, and tax policies of recent years have deepened this power imbalance. Developing his earlier views on race in contemporary society, William Julius Wilson gives a simple, straightforward, and crucially important diagnosis of the problem of rising social inequality in the United States and details a set of recommendations for dealing with it. Wilson argues that as long as middle- and working-class groups are fragmented along racial lines, they will fail to see how their combined efforts could change the political imbalance and thus promote policies that reflect their interests. He shows how a vision of American society that highlights racial differences rather than commonalities makes it difficult for Americans to see the need and appreciate the potential for mutual political support across racial lines. Multiracial political cooperation could be enhanced if we can persuade groups to focus more on the interests they hold in common, including overcoming stagnating and declining real incomes that relate to changes in the global economy, Wilson argues. He advocates a cross-race, class-based alliance of working-and middle-class Americans to pursue policies that will deal with the eroding strength of the nation's equalizing institutions, including public education, unions, and political structures that promote the interests of ordinary families. He also advocates a reconstructed 'affirmative opportunity' program that benefits African Americans without antagonizing whites. Using theoretical arguments and case studies, Wilson examines how a broad-based political constituency can be created, sustained, and energized. Bold, provocative, and thoughtful, "The Bridge over the Racial Divide" is an essential resource in considering some of the most pressing issues facing the American public today. This book is a copublication with the Russell Sage Foundation.

Agency, Modernity and Social Policy

Abstract: The focus of this article is upon the recent revival of interest in human agency within both sociological and social policy debates. There is a striking resonance between the increasing attention paid to individual behaviour within normative debates about welfare and the concern of some sociologists with the moral and ethical dilemmas that confront the individual in contemporary society. These two sets of arguments are not compatible. Indeed the analyses they present are contradictory. Moralists such as Etzioni, Field and Mead share a belief in the need to restructure welfare in ways that encourage and reward responsible behaviour. In contrast, sociologists such as Bauman, Beck and Giddens suggest that such endeavours could prove to be both futile and dangerous.Attempts to address issues of agency face formidable obstacles and arouse genuine fears that they will serve to endorse a punitive and atavistic individualism. It is these fears, however, which have constrained and confined the debate about welfare in the post-war years. The revival of agency creates opportunities for a social science which is more sensitive to the activities of poor people whilst reflecting more fully the difference and diversity which characterises contemporary British society.

Transnational civil society

Abstract: In this chapter, I argue that the concept of transnational civil society is less a descriptive or analytical term and more a political project. Indeed, I go further and suggest that, in the post-Cold War period, the fundamental political cleavage, which could define the way in which we view contemporary society and the way in which we address a whole range of problems, is likely to be less the traditional left/right divide but rather the division between those who stand for internationalist, Europeanist, democratic values, including human rights, and those who remain wedded to national or exclusivist thinking. The terms ‘civil society’ or ‘civic values’ have become forms of political shorthand that characterise the first group. It is generally assumed that the term ‘civil society’ has been reclaimed from an earlier period, that its meaning is drawn from debates about the origins of liberal democracy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In fact, the historically specific circumstances in which the term re-emerged in the 1980s and 1990s changed the way it is used and vested the concept with new content. In particular, the early modern conception of civil society was socially and territorially bounded. What is new about the contemporary use of civil society is both its transnational character and its emphasis on participation. In effect, it represents a demand for a radical extension of democracy across national and social boundaries. In developing this argument, I will schematically trace the evolution of the concept of civil society in Europe, especially during the 1980s and 1990s, and finally try to relate the concept to the growing debate about globalisation.

“Risk Society”: The Cult of Theory and the Millennium?

Abstract: The relation between theory and empirical data in sociology and social policy is explored through a critique of Ulrich Beck's influential book, Risk Society. Consideration is given to the extent to which a book that purports to describe contemporary societies in general is actually rooted in the unique circumstances of postwar Germany. The various arguments of Risk Society are reviewed and tested against relevant empirical reports from England. Many of the historical and contemporary generalizations made by Beck are shown to be questionable. The conclusion reflects on the popularity of the genre in which Beck is working and questions the consistent glumness of its attitude to contemporary societies—whether those of the 1890s or the 1990s. The new millennium might be a time for a new spirit and the rejection of the nostalgia and conservatism of humanities-oriented scholarship.

New religions and the internet: Recruiting in a new public space

Abstract: The mass suicide of 39 members of Heaven's Gate in March of 1997 led to public fears about the presence of ‘spiritual predators’ on the world wide web. This paper describes and examines the nature of these fears, as reported in the media. It then sets these fears against what we know about the use of the Internet by new religions, about who joins new religious movements and why, and the social profile of Internet users. It is argued that the emergence of the Internet has yet to significantly change the nature of religious recruitment in contemporary society. The Internet as a medium of communication, however, may be having other largely unanticipated effects on the form and functioning of religion, both old and new, in the future. Some of the potential perils of the Internet are discussed with reference to the impact of this new medium on questions of religious freedom, community, social pluralism, and social control.

The Challenge of Responsibility for Sociology

Abstract: Although leading thinkers of the late 20th century, stimulated by new social movements and public debate, have given currency in the 1970s and 1980s to a new version of the normative category of responsibility, sociology has been rather slow in appreciating the significance of this development. It is only in the wake of the Chernobyl accident, particularly in the 1990s, that the new concept has begun to attract the attention of sociologists, yet even today it is still not well understood. As a study in the sociology of morality that pursues a strand stretching from Durkheim to Habermas and beyond, this article seeks to contribute to the sociological appropriation of the concept of responsibility and to making it useful for the purposes of analysing contemporary society. On the one hand, it presents a theoretically suggestive typology of traditional individual, post-traditional individual and co-responsibility, while on the other, drawing on data generated by various research projects, it outlines a sociol...

Later life, inequality and sociological theory

Abstract: A central concern of many theorists of later life has been to elucidate the processes which shape the marginalisation and relative disadvantage of older people in contemporary society. This concern parallels a current argument within sociological theorising: that life course stage and generational location constitute increasingly important dimensions of social difference and inequality. It is an argument of the paper that many current approaches operate with metaphors of society which ultimately locate those in later life at the margins by virtue of the theoretical terms being used. Too much has been claimed for life course-based divisions and too little has been claimed in respect of life course-related processes. The paper develops an alternative, moral economy, perspective with the aim of furthering analysis of the social organisation of life course-related rights, claims and obligations and their relationship to lifetime inequalities across the population. Such an approach offers a resourceful framework both for interrogating the diverse circumstances and experiences of those in later life, and for conceptualising social inequality and its reproduction.

Women in Contemporary Britain: An Introduction

Abstract: In this introductory text for A level students and undergraduates, Jane Pilcher covers the main issues debated about women in Britain today. Subjects covered include: * women and gender: sociological perspectives* education and training* women and paid work* household work and caring* love and sexuality* crime and punishment* politics and participation. Providing a clear sociological analysis of central debates and an introduction to the main theoretical arguments as well as including discussions of further areas of interest, such as women and the media, and the body, this text will provide an invaluable resource for all students in sociology and womens studies and will be of interest to all those wishing to know more about contemporary society in Britain.

Insecure times: living with insecurity in contemporary society

Abstract: At a time when families break up and employment is often short-term, society is increasingly forced to operate against a background of insecurity Insecure Times looks at how this sense of risk and instability has affected the major institutions of social life With examples and research taken from a range of European and North American societies today, this innovative text on contemporary society discusses such major issues as: * the causes of social and economic insecurity * insecurity and modern capitalism * the role of the state * insecurity and housing * contemporary family life

The Es and the Anti Es: New Questions for Feminism and Cultural Studies

Abstract: This major text offers a critical reappraisal of the contemporary practice of cultural studies. It focuses in particular on the contribution of cultural studies to the understanding of media, communications and popular cultures in contemporary societies. The contributors, an outstanding group of internationally acclaimed scholars, examine topics such as: the different strands of cultural studies and how they are developed; whether cultural studies is a coherent discipline; tensions and debates within cultural studies; alternative or related approaches to contemporary media and society; and the movement by cultural studies revisionists towards more empirical and sociological modes of analysis.

Prometheus Bedeviled: Science and the Contradictions of Contemporary Culture

Abstract: In this lucid critique, Norman Levitt examines the strained relations between science and contemporary society. For the most part, Levitt states, we idolize musicians and cheer on athletes, yet we view scientists with a mixture of awe and unease. Significantly, too, we are unsure how scientific discovery actually fits into the broader schemes of politics, and policy. Even beyond pragmatic questions, we remain anxious about the implications of science for our basic understanding of human values and purpose. One result of this uncertainty about scientific work is an ill-informed crusade to i?1/2democratizei?1/2 science. It has become fashionable lately, Levitt states, for non-scientists to attempt to intervene in science policy, which often results in methodologically unsound decisions. The embrace of ""alternative medicine"" is a particularly ominous example. Levitt suggests that science, by virtue of its accuracy and reliability, deserves to be at the top of the hierarchy of knowledge, and that our social institutions ought to take this fact strongly into account. Levitt hopes that Americans will become aware of the limitations of unchecked populism and will be willing to yield a bit of i?1/2democratici?1/2 control over certain questions in order to minimize the danger that sound science will be ignored or overridden. However, this trust in scientific methodology must be part of a broader understanding. Science must not only act responsibly toward our democratic institutions; it must also concede that our society has the right to decide what kinds of research are most consistent with larger goals and therefore deserve the most support.

Whose Property?: The Deepening Conflict between Private Property and Democracy in Canada

Abstract: According to Roy Vogt, issues of property rights are at the heart of some of the most contentious debates in Canadian society. In this book, Vogt shows that many diverse subjects- capitalism, the state, aboriginal struggles, threats to the environment, family relations, and the distribution of power in the workplace- turn on the question of how property rights should be defined and distributed: capitalism, the state, aboriginal struggles, threats to the environment, family relations, and the distribution of power in the workplace. Vogt contends that conventional definitions of property, which have long played an important role in preserving societal power structures, are unhelpful and even detrimental in the context of the profound social changes that are currently under way, not only in Canada, but in much of the world. He argues that contemporary situations would be better served by a broader understanding of property, one flexible enough to accommodate the demands of an increasingly complex democratic society. This broad-ranging study introduces a new way of thinking about some of the most challenging issues in contemporary society. Anyone concerned with the current and future state of Canada will want to read this book.

A cinematograph of moral principles: critical values for contemporary business and society

Abstract: This paper presents snapshots of moral principles which can inform current thinking on values that will positively affect business in contemporary society. It is aimed primarily at the management practitioner who may not have the time, or the interest, to pursue this area in the current literature. Values (moral, ethical and social) are mentioned, but the main focus of the paper is on values which drive the Western World; e.g. the free enterprise system with its ideas of fairness, competition, honesty, trust, integrity and justice. Instances of unfair, unethical, unscrupulous and presumably illegal behaviour are regularly reported in the press, and the current scandals regarding members of the Olympic Games Federation are examples. This paper is a synopsis of some current thinking about key values in contemporary business and society; values which seem to have been conveniently forgotten, at best, or deliberately flouted, at worst.

Thinking through the environment : a reader

Abstract: Brings together material from ecological thought, environmental policy, environmental philosophy, social and political thought, historical sociology and cultural studies. The extracts tell the story of the way the natural environment has been understood in the modern world and how this has recently been questioned as contemporary societies are seen as characterised by uncertainty and complexity. The literature guides the reader through the conventiaonal grounds for thinking about rights and obligations in relation to future generations, non-human animals and the biotic commununities, bringing each into question. This then leads into a critical examination of social and political theories and their capacity for drawing on ecological thought. Each of the seven sections of readings is introduced by the editor who locates the set of readings within the specific themes and issues at the heart of each section. This broad-reaching and thought-provoking set of readings stresses the diversity of response to environmental problems both within and between anthropocentric and ecocentric approaches and will encourage the reader to examine how they are manifested in the areas of environmental ethics, policy analysis and social and political theory.

Industrializing America: Understanding Contemporary Society through Classical Sociological Analysis

Abstract: Preface Introduction Sociocultural Materialism Sociocultural Evolution Structures of Authority Economic Rationalization The Decline of Commitment Factual Regularities The Widening Gyre The New Ideology Possibilities References Index

The "I" of Enthrallment

Abstract: The culture of the contemporary United States is powerfully shaped by the discourses of advertising and enter- tainment; cultural anthropologists must develop ways to ana- lyze and understand these discourses. Here I suggest that the subject's engagement with advertising and entertainment may take theform of enthrallment, a mental state characterized by si- multaneous engrossment and disbelief. In this article, I describe one sort of entertainment activity, science-fiction-based, role- playing games. I argue that enthrallment manifests itself here in aform of thefirst-person pronoun that occurs in the speech of the players. iM j uch of the early concern with what came to be called post- modernism was based in the observation that, due to the ubiquity of advertising and entertainment, the charac- teristic form of experience in contemporary society may en- tail a seamless blend of fantasy and reality (Baudrillard 1983; Eco 1986; Featherstone 1991; Fjellman 1992; Jameson 1984; Luke 1989). Increasingly, in a society like that of the United States, it seems that people value commercially generated fantasies over realities; indeed some have ar- gued that in many cases, people cannot tell the difference between the two. Commentators have adopted a variety of perspectives on this situation. Many have seen dangers in the devaluation of reality, while others have cele- brated the fluidity and lack of boundaries that may be associated with the immersion in collective fantasies. Here, my goal is not so much to evaluate

Global Environmental Change and Contemporary Society Classical Sociological Analysis Revisited

Abstract: Aiming at a progressive accumulation of knowledge complementary to recent and important works by environmental sociologists (Dunlap and Michelson, 1997; Redclift and Benton, 1994) and public agencies (CEQ, 1980; Olson, 1996), the general objective of this article is to pursue a renewed sociological understanding of contemporary society confronted by a particular process called global environmental change (GEC). Conceived within a specific integrated theoretical, empirical and applied approach, there is no place here for `inventories' (Sunderlin, 1995), nor `assessment analysis' (Buttle and Taylor, 1994) of current literature. In line with the author's own expertise (Prades, 1969, 1987, 1992, 1994), the specific objective of this article is to examine how a heuristic reading (Prades, 1990) of Weber and Durkheim provides basic theoretical insights for the study of GEC as a crucial contemporary societal-environmental problem. According to its own limits, the present text may only suggest avenues for further ...

Inclusive, just, plural, dynamic: building a 'civil' society in the Third World

Abstract: The author offers a comprehensive definition of what a civil society should be, drawing on the vast outpouring of democratic activities within the Third World, as well as of those forces that inhibit or thwart the full realisation of civil society. The author argues that the diversity of such activities are indicative not just of the potential of civil society but also, and more importantly, of the lessons that they teach us on the limits of representative democracy, on the adverse implications of the current patterns of development, and on the responsibility of citizens in contemporary society - lessons that are fundamental to the building of a democratic and just polity and a humane society.

Conflict of Interest and Commercialization of Biomedical Research

Abstract: Biomedical research results from the efforts of individuals as well as groups working in private laboratories, health care institutions, universities and research centres. In contemporary society, such research has become a more social or public enterprise, of interest not only to those who participate directly as researchers or research subjects, but to governments, commercial entities and the public at large. As with all human conduct, the process of developing hypotheses, designing research protocols and gathering, interpreting and reporting results has many moral aspects or “forks in the road” where the choices to be made may have implications for how one should, or should not act.

Christian Ethics: An Essential Guide

Abstract: In this excellent outline of Christian ethics, Robin W. Lovin achieves a balance between the questions and issues which form the core of the study of ethics and the life situations from which those questions arise. Eschewing a sectarian approach which dismisses other understandings of the moral life, Lovin nonetheless lays claim to a specifically Christian understanding of ethics. He begins with basic Christian convictions about the reality of God and human redemption and weaves these convictions into the fabric of moral concerns that are widely shared in contemporary society. He takes note of the problems that arise when Christians try to act on or enforce their convictions in a pluralistic society and recognizes the variety of theological and moral beliefs that are held within the Christian community, as well as in the wider society.

Exploring the Labyrinth: Making Sense of the New Spirituality

Abstract: Many people are intrigued by the diverse spiritual undercurrents in contemporary society while not fully appreciating their significance. An increasing number of people are now pursuing Eastern spiritual paths; others have turned to classical mythology and ancient native traditions for their spiritual perspectives. Amidst all this diversity there is a seemingly endless profusion of workshops on creativity, motivation, spiritual awareness and transcendence. So how did it all begin and where is it heading? This book explores the origins and directions of the personal growth movement, with a special focus on its holistic and spiritual undercurrents. Written accessibly, while drawing on extensive research, 'Exploring the Labyrinth' explains why this contemporary movement may herald a new approach to spirituality altogether - one which is universal and experiential, rather than constrained by formal religious belief, and one which respects the ancient wisdom traditions wherever they are found.

Staging Cultural Violence: Griselda Gambaro and Argentina's "Dirty War."

Abstract: Concern with connections between art and politics has been most productive in analyses that center on the issue of how a society's violence is represented in its cultural forms. While some theorists focus on the danger of perpetuating social violence by simulating it on stage or in film, others insist that attention should be given to the gendered position the viewer is made to occupy in such simulations of violence. Still others interrogate, not the representation itself, but the operations of power that underlie it - i.e., not only the representation of violence, but the violence of representation. For example, critics like Nancy Armstrong and Leonard Tennenhouse contend that operations of power are constitutive of all representation; critics of film and gender such as Teresa de Lauretis, Stephen Heath, Laura Mulvey, Mary Ann Doane, Kaja Silverman, Louise Kaplan, and E.A. Kaplan argue that violence is endemic to a pattern of dominance and role assignations naturalized in westernized industrial societies; cultural critics such as Roger Chartier and Stuart Hall focus less on authorial representation than on the unconscious determinations in the text itself and therefore on the trajectory between its production and its reception. Examination of the link between politics and art also led the late anthropologist Victor Turner to his conviction that theater is the site where the relationship becomes especially relevant. As he saw it, a playwright's conscious art exposes both the overt mechanisms at work in a society and the unconscious and culturally-produced ideologies at work in its psyche. For Turner, group activities functioned as "social dramas" that embodied a community's tensions, and "cultural drama" or theater served as the means of directing those tensions. Unconscious "social dramas," once translated into "cultural dramas," he argued, became conscious, providing a liminal space in which unforeseen things might happen. According to Richard Schechner, with whom Turner worked in the Environmental Theatre, Turner conceived of experimental theater as existing "in the creases of contemporary society... between areas of instability, disturbances, and potentially radical changes in the social topography" (164). Or in Turner's own words, theater provided a liminal moment "in which meaning emerges through 'reliving' the original experience" (Ritual 18). My purpose in this essay is to show how a particular play produced in Argentina in the 1970s succeeds in addressing precisely such issues. The play is the profoundly disturbing Information for Foreigners by Griselda Gambaro which foregrounds both the culturally-produced ideologies in a particular authoritarian society's psyche (Argentina) and the effectiveness of that society's discursive representations in inhibiting citizen action. Born in Argentina in 1928, and largely self-educated, Gambaro wrote this strangely prophetic play about her country in the early 1970s although, fearing reprisals against family members, she refused to allow its production until after she had fled Argentina and sought exile in Europe (Feitlowitz 5-6). As a framework for the discussion of the play, I will first briefly outline Turner's theory of how a society's conflicts become translated into its cultural artifacts and sketch the political climate of Argentina in the 1970s. Subsequently, I will analyze in detail Gambaro's Information for Foreigners in order to show how she addresses the xenophobic and misogynistic discourses in Argentina's cultural imaginary displayed, but not produced, by the Dirty War (1976-83), and how she foregrounds the effectiveness of these discourses in serving the repression. In From Ritual to Theatre, Turner described conflict in social drama as being played out in four stages or "processual forms." The first stage, that of breach, is one in which one or more social norms which have been taken for granted in a community, and which have sustained key relationships between persons, are suddenly broken or disregarded. …

Third way transitions : Building benevolent capitalism for the information society

Abstract: Sociologist Anthony Giddens (1998a; 1998b) points to a recent policy move in the UK away from market fundamentalism towards a mixed economy, where the aim is to strike a better balance between economic and non-economic areas of social life. A more participatory and compassionate democracy is favored to implement the third way, a modernizing philosophy which bids everyone in the UK to rise to the civic and economic challenges of contemporary society, perceived as increasingly information based. At the same time, cooperative informatic strategies are developing practical associations between community-based ICTs, community networks and community-building activities, to improve existing structures and find better solutions to social and economic problems in distinct neighborhoods. This article explores the principles and incentives central to the third way, and reflects on how more benevolent capitalism is to support philosophical, structural and cultural change and new interactive communities in tune with the Information Society.

Revealing parenthoods: Some observations on theoretical, lay and professional experiences of parenting in contemporary society

Abstract: This paper explores literature on parenting and parenthood to reveal emerging patterns of parenthoods that contest the notion of a single, universal, unchanging archetype. An extensive literature review confirms that in contemporary society diverse understandings, meanings and experiences of parenthood abound, dependent on perspective, be it professional, theoretical, cultural or personal. Academic, theoretical and professional understandings of parenthood are shown to be challenged by personal, community and cultural meanings which are being given voice because of the recognition of different knowledges and knowledge production in a postmodern society. On the other hand, it is also argued that although certain faces of parenthood are presented in public to comply with social scripts, these can mask authentic meanings and experiences which remain overshadowed or rendered invisible or silent by the persistence of structural expectations of parenting and parenthood. The paper identifies that parent...

Communication and community empowerment

Abstract: Scholars of contemporary society say that communities empower themselves when people share common goals and act together for social change. These communities often share a vision of “civil society,” where people of all classes and races are committed to the common good. A local empowerment effort of this type began recently in a coastal community in the mid‐Atlantic United States. I joined the effort as a participant observer to study its practices of community building. I was interested in how people communicate when they want to build community and act together to create social change. This essay reports on and analyzes that project and draws some conclusions about the role of communication practices in empowerment and social change.