Showing papers on "Contemporary society published in 2011"

Comments on the Society of the Spectacle

Abstract: First published in 1967, Guy Debord's stinging revolutionary critique of contemporary society, The Society of the Spectacle has since acquired a cult status. Credited by many as being the inspiration for the ideas generated by the events of May 1968 in France, Debord's pitiless attack on commodity fetishism and its incrustation in the practices of everyday life continues to burn brightly in today's age of satellite television and the soundbite. In Comments on the Society of the Spectacle published twenty years later, Debord returned to the themes of his previous analysis and demonstrated how they were all the more relevant in a period when the 'integrated spectacle' was dominant. Resolutely refusing to be reconciled to the system, Debord trenchantly slices through the doxa and mystification offered tip by journalists and pundits to show how aspects of reality as diverse as terrorism and the environment, the Mafia and the media, were caught tip in the logic of the spectacular society. Pointing the finger clearly at those who benefit from the logic of domination, Debord's Comments convey the revolutionary impulse at the heart of situationism.

Regimes of social cohesion

Abstract: This paper explores the different meanings of social cohesion in historical and contemporary societies and identifies some different ‘regimes of social cohesion’, and their characteristics, that can be found in western and east Asian societies. It adopts a mixed-method and interdisciplinary approach, drawing on the literatures in comparative historical sociology and comparative political economy, and using both qualitative, logical comparative methods, and quantitative statistical analysis. In the first section of the paper we analyse the constituents of social cohesion which are specified in different definitions-in-use in policy and contemporary academic writing. This leads to a definition of social cohesion which is non-normative and non-exclusive and which can be used in empirical analysis. The second section seeks to identify the major historical traditions of writings about social cohesion and the social order in western sociology and political philosophy and the logics they imply as to the forces which bind society together. Sections three and four review some historical evidence for social origins of different traditions of social cohesion in the West, and their subsequent patterns of evolution, based on ‘longue duree’ accounts of historical development and on ‘non-absolute’ notions of path dependency. Section five uses the literature on ‘varieties of capitalism’ and ‘welfare state regimes’ to develop some provisional theories about different contemporary forms of social cohesion which may be found in particular regions – or clusters of countries in the West and east Asia. We call these ‘regimes of social cohesion’, in the same way that Esping-Andersen (1990) refers to ‘welfare regimes’ and Michael Walzer (1997) to ‘regimes of toleration’. The last section of the paper uses international data on social attitudes and institutional characteristics to test empirically whether such regimes can be identified in terms of regions or country clusters which display particular sets of institutional characteristics and aggregate social attitudes.

Culture, Race/Ethnicity and Disparities: Fleshing Out the Socio-Cultural Framework for Health Services Disparities

Abstract: There is little question that the issue of “health disparities” has been given a central place across medicine and contemporary society of late (e.g., Institute of Medicine 2002). From research, to policy and even to the popular press, the unmasking of the disparities in health and health care for individuals who belong to certain race and ethnic groups has been a prominent theme (van Ryn and Fu 2003). While the attention to these matters is welcome by sociologists and other social scientists, the existence of inequality in health, illness, and healing is hardly a revelation. From the earliest times in our history, the focus on the differential in infant mortality; the incidence and prevalence of disease; and access to, treatment in, and the outcomes of care for those at the lower ends of the stratification hierarchy in any society have been the mainstay of both the sociological and public health enterprises. From Marx, to Durkheim, to Weber in sociology, and from Virchow to Snow to the Roemers outside of sociology, the understanding that stratification plays itself out, in part, in morbidity and mortality statistics represented a principal theme of theory, empirical investigation and the design of interventions (Pescosolido and Kronenfeld 1995).

Symbolic Capital, Consumption, and Health Inequality

Abstract: Research on economic inequalities in health has been largely polarized between psychosocial and neomaterial approaches. Examination of symbolic capital—the material display of social status and how it is structurally constrained—is an underutilized way of exploring economic disparities in health and may help to resolve the existing theoretical polarization. In contemporary society, what people do with money and how they consume and display symbols of wealth may be as important as income itself. After tracing the historical rise of consumption in capitalist society and its interrelationship with economic inequality, I discuss evidence for the role of symbolic capital in health inequalities and suggest directions for future research.

MORE SOCIOLOGY, MORE CULTURE, MORE POLITICS: Or, a modest proposal for ‘convergence’ studies

Abstract: This article considers Henry Jenkins' Convergence Culture as a sociological argument about the tendencies in contemporary culture and argues that it generalizes from a small pool of evidence, considering arguments that would lead to very different conclusion with other demographics. From there, the author raises broader questions about how the study of convergence phenomena can take account of the multiple forces of stratification in contemporary societies and global flows, and thereby reach a more grounded appreciation of the ‘politics’ of convergence.

Learning/work: Turning work and lifelong learning inside out

Abstract: CONFINTEA VI took place against the background of an uneven and contradictory social and economic impact of globalisation. This impact registered globally and locally, in both the political North and South, drawing new lines of inequality between “core” and “periphery”, between insiders and outsiders of contemporary society. Financial turmoil in the world has exacerbated levels of poverty and insecurity. The question is how work-related education and conceptions of learning might promote greater inclusion and security for those whose livelihoods are most severely affected by globalisation. The Belem Framework for Action implicitly recognises that lifelong learning and work cannot be discussed outside broader socio-economic and political contexts. The authors of this article draw substantially on research from around the world and argue for the re-insertion of “politics and power” into both the theory and practice of “lifelong learning” and “work”.

Public relations and strategic management: Institutionalizing organization–public relationships in contemporary society

Abstract: Public relations is a critical profession in contemporary society, which is characterized by global interaction, relationships, and responsibility. Unfortunately, public relations has been institu- tionalized as a symbolic-interpretive activity that organizations use to exert their power over publics and to disguise the consequences of their behaviors from publics, governments, and the media. Th is article discusses an alternative role for public relations as a strategic management rather than a mes- saging activity. It presents a model of public relations in strategic management and examines research that elaborates segments of the model: environmental scanning, stakeholders and publics, issues and crises, scenario building, cultivating and evaluating relationships, tracing the eff ect of relationships on reputation, planning and evaluating communication programs strategically, and how digital media can be used to further the strategic management process. It concludes that research is needed on how public relations can be empowered and institutionalized as a strategic management activity.

Theorizing religion and media in contemporary societies: An account of religious ‘publicization’:

Abstract: This article argues that a combination of the rapid development and dissemination of media technologies, the liberalization of national media economies and the growth of transnational media spheres is transforming the relationship between religion, popular culture and politics in contemporary societies in ways not adequately accounted for in existing sociological theories of religion (secularization, neo-secularization and rational choice) and still largely neglected in sociological theories of media and culture. In particular, it points to a series of media enabled social processes (de-differentiation, diasporic intensification and re-enchantment) which mirror and counter processes identified with the declining social significance of religion in secularization theory (differentiation, societalization and rationalization), interrupting their secularizing effects and tending to increase the public presence or distribution of religious symbols and discourses, a process described as religious ‘publicization’...

Disability in the Christian Tradition. A Reader

Abstract: This publication aims at showing “a way beyond modern secular disability discourses” (p. 19) by going to the sources to discover what the discourse is all about, and it aims at proposing how to deal with disability in contemporary societies.

The politics of sleep : governing (un)consciousness in the late modern age

Abstract: Why and how has sleep become increasingly politicized in contemporary society? Is a politics of sleep either possible or desirable? What light does sleep shed on the governance of bodies and the management of everyday/night life? These are some of the questions this timely and topical book addresses in a rich and fascinating account of the politics of sleep in the late modern age. Sleep is not simply a political matter, it is also increasingly politicized, from the bedroom to the boardroom, the classroom to the clinic, the laboratory to the law courts, even the military battlefield. In an increasingly time-squeezed era, the future of sleep becomes increasingly contested or uncertain: something to be defended, downsized or even perhaps done away with altogether. The Politics of Sleep is a must read for anyone concerned with that vital third of their life spent asleep and the manner in which this seemingly most personal and private of acts is becoming ever more politicised in contemporary society as a problem for us all.

Bookonomy : The Consumption Practice and Value of Book Reading

Abstract: In contemporary society, book readers are increasingly being valued as consumers Literacy and reading are often subjected to an economic logic and seen as constituting economic operations in thems

Social Diversity, Institutions and Trust: A Cross-National Analysis

Abstract: This cross-national investigation examines hypotheses derived from two major alternative perspectives on the determinants of trust in contemporary societies. Is a society’s level of generalized trust a function of its ethnic composition, or of its type of governance and political system? The argument that social diversity (ethnic, linguistic, and religious) leads to lower levels of trust, at least in the short run, is assessed with cross-national data (N = 98). Two hypotheses derived from this perspective are not confirmed. The alternative rational governance argument, which holds that trust is a function of rational governance, stable democracy, and civil rights is also assessed. Three hypotheses derived from this political perspective reveal mixed results. The findings highlight the complex interplay of multiple factors in shaping a society’s overall level of generalized trust.

Transdisciplinary higher education curriculum: a complicated cultural artifact

Abstract: The author discusses higher education curriculum as a cultural artifact reflecting human knowledge, which is also continuously shaped by the needs and demands of contemporary society. The transdisciplinary approach and the call for a paradigmatic shift to a transdisciplinary curriculum and research engagement are introduced as part of the academy’s social responsibility.

RESTORATIVE PRACTICES: FROM THE EARLY SOCIETIES TO THE 1970s

Abstract: Restorative practices now appeal to the contemporary politician. Policies and practices are being reformed using the paradigm of restorative justice. However, little research has been done on its historical roots. Many have even claimed that restorative practices do not have a history at all. Through a review of historical and contemporary sources, this article challenges this claim. The paper provides a brief historical account of restorative practices stretching from the acephalous societies until the 1970s. Four eras are identified in the fall and rise of restorative justice through time. A historical debate and further academic research on restorative justice is warranted. The implications of a more informed understanding of the history of restorative practices are significant for their implementation in contemporary society.

The Comparative Archaeology of Complex Societies: Challenges for Comparative Study of Early Complex Societies

Abstract: Early complex society studies, like anthropology in general, are strongly rooted in comparative analysis. Cultural evolutionists of the mid-nineteenth century (Tylor 1865; Morgan 1877; Spencer 1880–97) relied entirely on comparative ethnography to create speculative accounts of the antecedents of contemporary societies. A century later, Sahlins (Sahlins and Service 1960), Service (1962), Fried (1967), and other scholars did the same without assuming that “savages” would naturally aspire to better things, and slowly work their way through “barbarism” toward the “civilized” condition of Victorian Britain. Value-neutral vocabulary was sought and forces driving social change were considered, but the entire comparative enterprise still depended on imagining that some contemporary societies were like the unknown ancestors of other more complex contemporary societies. There was virtually no direct information about human societies before those that could be observed in the ethnographic present or through historical sources. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, that situation has changed dramatically. It is no longer necessary to speculate about diachronic processes from synchronic snapshots of societies not historically related to each other, because of a flood of direct archaeological evidence about long-term trajectories of social change. We still do not know as much about the past of any region as we would like to, but we do now know more about many regions than we are fully able to make sense of. Comparative study is important to this task of, quite literally, making sense of abundant detailed information. It was exactly this that the early cultural evolutionists were doing with their comparative ethnography: making sense of a welter of ethnographic detail. Scholars from Morgan to Service and Fried offered understanding by placing ethnographically known contemporary societies in an imaginary developmental sequence. Since the sequence was based on nothing more than ethnographic information about contemporary ⁠unrelated societies, it is remarkable how much the cultural evolutionists got right about the past ten thousand years of human history.

Civic Solidarity: the negotiation of identity in modern societies

Abstract: Contemporary societies are marked by a diversity of opinions that pertain to different cultural groups. Intercultural encounters have the potential for mutual enrichment but may also contain the seeds for conflict. This paper looks at the processes that bind people together in contemporary societies given their diversity. Durkheim’s distinction between mechanical and organic forms of social solidarity is extended to a third variant: civic solidarity, that refers to the bonds that tie people together in shared interests based on group belonging and the negotiation of identity. This paper argues that social identity processes underlie contemporary forms of social solidarity in defining who one is for others, based on the social representations characteristic of different groups. Consequently, social identities come to define what resources are available to whom by way of social capital, and what intercultural relations are prescribed given specific types of group membership.

Bauman's compass: Navigating the current interregnum

Abstract: This article focuses on Bauman’s contribution to political sociology and proposes that, in spite of his apparently pessimistic critique of contemporary society, his work has much to offer the ‘new ...

Scaling Up Connections: Everyday Cosmopolitanism, Complexity Theory & Social Capital

Abstract: One of the key questions of contemporary society is how to foster and develop social interactions which will lead to a strong and inclusive society, one which accounts for the diversity inherent in local communities, whether that diversity be based on differences in interest or diversity in language and culture. The purpose of this paper is to examine three concepts which are used in the exploration of social interactions to suggest ways in which the interplay of these concepts might provide a richer understanding of social interactions. The three concepts are everyday cosmopolitanism, complexity theory and social capital. Each provides a partial approach to explanations of social interactions. Through focussing on social networking as a significant example of social interactions, we will demonstrate how the concepts can be linked and this linking brings potential for a clearer understanding of the processes through which this inclusive society may develop.

Universities, the Second Academic Revolution and Regional Development: A Tale (Solely) Made of “Techvalleys”?

Abstract: Universities are crucial organizations in the knowledge society. As such, a new social contract between academia and society is being developed, inducing significant dynamics of change in academia. Change is configured by the integration of economic development in the mission realm of universities, together with teaching and research, which set off an academic revolution. This revolutionary move within academia is being scholarly analysed mostly from the perspective of technology transfer and spin-off firms' development. Taking into account the nature and challenges of the contemporary society, this paper acknowledges that these dominant approaches to the changing academic mission provide an incomplete picture of the role universities can play in development processes. Accordingly, it uses a broader perspective on the academic revolution in order to detail the developmental role played by higher education and the relevant development resources that universities can provide and left out of the mainstreamed...

Chronic illness as incalculable risk: Scientific uncertainty and social transformations in medicine

Abstract: This article employs Ulrich Beck's (1992, 1999) formulation of incalculable risk to analyze chronic disease in contemporary western society and the resultant social transformations across multiple levels of scale. Specifically, we explore the social structures in which management of contemporary health risks is embedded, as well as how the social psychological implications of risk incalculability affect individuals. These micro-level phenomena in turn feed back into cultural transformations in health knowledge and health-care institutions. We discuss the rising significance of health lifestyles following the epidemiological transition as a starting point from which to analyze the incalculable nature of chronic disease risk, paying special attention to the ways that fracturing medical knowledge underlies the development of a variety of often opposing lifestyle practices. Medicine has responded to these developments by institutionalizing a diversity of alternative health-care models, and we organize these complex processes around macro- and micro-levels of scale using Beck's theory of risk in contemporary society as a starting place.

Lifelong Learning Between "East" and "West": Confucianism and the Reflexive Project of the Self

Abstract: Current theory, policy, and practice of lifelong learning are strongly influenced by ideas about the transformations that are taking place in contemporary societies. One influential set of ideas emphasizes that because of the rapid changes that are taking place in the (late-) modern world and because of the erosion of traditions, there is a constant need for individuals not only to learn new skills and knowledge in order to be able to adjust themselves to the changes, but also to reflexively (re)construct one’s self. Anthony Giddens has referred to this as the “reflexive project of the self.” It thus becomes a lifelong learning task. In this paper we raise some critical questions about Giddens’s views and their implications for lifelong learning. On the one hand we show, using ideas from Charles Taylor, that the construction of the self does not necessarily have to be understood in the reflexive and individualistic terms suggested by Giddens. With Taylor we argue for the importance of the social, moral, and intersubjective dimensions of the construction of the self. Against this background we then discuss ideas from Confucianism that also highlight the social, moral, and intersubjective dimensions of understanding the self. The latter view is not simply a theoretical option but actually continues to influence the ways in which a large part of the world population views their lives and their selves. Both for theoretical and practical reasons we therefore suggest that there is a need to take a broader outlook on what the personal dimensions of lifelong learning in contemporary society might look like.

Conceptualising Discursive Communities: Developing Community in Contemporary Society.

Abstract: What happens when people find themselves left out of communities? Who is missing and why does it matter? What can one do to narrow the gap? What is community? How has community been represented in theory? The quality of life of a population is an important concern in so many areas, and a significant part of our standard of living is measured by many social and economic factors. This paper will conceptualise ideas and theories of association and associated life, social capital, and civic community. The notion of community development and social constructions are most certainly crucial in the representation and debates surrounding this phenomenon. This paper will engage with the notions, discourses and thinking that encapsulate all aspects of community development.

When Sunday meets Monday : American evangelicals, their Gospel, and the workplace

Abstract: The relationship between American evangelicalism and contemporary society is a complex one. By looking at evangelical attitudes toward work, this study aspires to at least begin untangling some of this convoluted relationship. Drawing upon history, theology, and sociology, especially ethnographic methods and interviews, this study argues that when American evangelicals think about engaging their workplaces evangelism takes center stage. While, at a glance, this gospel and the effort to share it may seem at odds with contemporary sensibilities, a closer examination reveals certain concessions to culture among the evangelicals studied. More specifically, evangelical thoughts concerning work reveal that two central features of the gospel being shared, namely, sin and redemption, appear to be morphing in ways more congruent with contemporary culture. The evangelical relationship with their surrounding world reveals a tension between cultural distance and distinction, on the one hand, and cultural nearness or congruence, on the other. This tension does not mean that evangelicalism is necessarily on track to fail, as secularization proponents might argue. On the contrary, American evangelicalism, it will be suggested, actually finds a degree of sustainability in the world thanks to this tension. Moreover, some of this accommodation to culture accentuates important features indigenous to the evangelical tradition. Evangelical attitudes toward work, then, point to a complex and surprising relationship between evangelicalism and contemporary society.

Parenting and childhood in a culture of fear

Abstract: This thesis draws primarily upon the work of Furedi (2001; 2002) and his notion of a culture of fear to explore contemporary parenting and childhood from a social psychological perspective. Furedi argues that contemporary society is dominated by a sense of anxiety which is ubiquitous and free-floating (2007) and it is arguable that this fear is particularly easily attached to issues around childhood as children are considered increasingly vulnerable - giving rise to the phenomenon of paranoid parents (Furedi, 2002). While these and related issues have been explored elsewhere in the social sciences (e.g. Jackson & Scott, 2000; Katz, 2008; Valentine, 1996) there has yet to be a study from a social psychological perspective which would seek to understand how these fears are articulated, constructed and managed in relational interaction. The first stage of analysis is a content analysis of newspaper articles, providing partial information about the socio-cultural backdrop of the study. This is complemented by focus group data from both parents and children (aged 12-13) which is analysed using strategies and tools drawn from discursive psychology (Edwards & Potter, 1992). This approach allows for an examination of how participants construct fears, anxieties and concerns that exist in and around modern parenting and childhood. Themes that emerged from this analysis include a focus on the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, a fear of hypothetical dangers, and a catalogue of potential risks. These concerns are also worked up in the participants talk as related to wider social changes (such as an increase in crime and changes in family structure) and connected with a nostalgia for a past which is constructed as safer, simpler and more liberated; even the children display a fondness for this utopian childhood. Hence the study begins to develop an empirical understanding of how aspects of a culture of fear may be worked up in relation to contemporary parenting and childhood, and so points toward some of its possible psychological implications.

Navigating Past “the White Man’s Agenda” in South Africa: Organizing Men for Gendered Transformation of Society

Abstract: In January 2009 Julius Malema, president of the youth wing of the ruling party in South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC), told a meeting of students that “when a woman didn’t enjoy it, she leaves early in the morning. Those who had a nice time will wait until the sun comes out, request breakfast and ask for taxi money” (Pillay 2009; Smith 2010).

The Council Estate: Representation, space and the potential for performance

Abstract: The image of the archetypal housing estate is often used in popular representation, from documentary and television to music video, to symbolise the urban ‘grit’ of contemporary inner-city life. In the theatre, urban political and ‘working-class’ drama has been set on or around estates in attempts to deconstruct or expose the impact of life on these estates, or to examine what such places denote in contemporary society. The performance analysis provided in this paper has emerged from a period of study of the representation of estates in various performance practices, as a researcher, facilitator, and audience member. This article is part of a larger research project investigating the practices and processes of performances which engage with the space of the council estate. Using one specific performance event, this piece engages with the council estate in performance by drawing on Lefebvre's model of social space. By considering the various ‘fragments’ of spatial experience, and analysing the history of c...

Domestic production and the political economy in prehistory: evidence from the Burren, Co. Clare

Abstract: Three closely related prehistoric landscapes located in the Burren in Co. Clare are investigated with the aim of exploring the relationships between households and the wider societies within which they functioned. Particular emphasis is placed on the spatial expression of residential, economic and ritual activities across the landscapes. The changing relationship between domestic production and the developing political economy is placed in its wider Irish and British context and discussed in terms of gift exchanges and debt relationships. Introduction The core activities of households have been identified in both ethnographic studies of contemporary societies and archaeological studies of ancient societies as production, distribution, reproduction, co-residence and transmission (primarily of wealth and social position). Although there is often a 'pull' towards the pursuit of these activities at the level of the individual household, ethnographic studies have shown that even in fairly simple societies, households are frequently incorporated into larger kin groups, work parties or residential groups to form efficient production units.1 Production concerned primarily with maintaining and perpetuating the family (domestic production) is, therefore, shaped in part by the wider relationships within which households function. The formation and maintenance of supra-household production groups is generally brought about through economic interdependence, ideology and symbolism working together to extend the definition of kinship relationships and thereby extend the labour available for domestic production. Even in fairly simple societies, domestic production is frequently increased and a percentage diverted to fund * Author's e-mail: carleton.jones@nuigalway.ie doi: 10.33 18/PRIAC.2010.1 1 1.33 1 Timothy Earle, 'Property rights and the evolution of chiefdoms', in Timothy Earle (ed.), Chiefdoms: power, economy ; and ideology (Cambridge, 1991), 71-99. Andrew Fleming, 'Land tenure, productivity, and field systems', in G. Barker and C. Gamble (eds), Beyond domestication in prehistoric Europe (London, 1985), 129^46. Augustin Holl, 'Community interaction and settlement patterning in northern Cameroon', in Augustin Holl and Thomas Levy (eds), Spatial boundaries and social dynamics (Ann Arbor, MI, 1993), 39-62. Marshall Sahlins, Stone Age economics (Chicago, 1972). Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy Vol. 1 1 1C, 33-58 © 2010 Royal Irish Academy This content downloaded from 157.55.39.116 on Sat, 11 Jun 2016 06:58:44 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Carleton Jones, Olive Carey and Clare Hennigar community ceremonies and building projects (the political economy).2 Relevant evidence for this type of behaviour in western European prehistory is the construction and use of megalithic tombs in the Neolithic, particularly those that emphasize collective burial practices and those which echo the architecture of ancestral houses.3 In more hierarchical societies, the political economy encompasses not only communal ceremonies and projects but also the financing of elites who are removed, at least partially, from the domestic economy. In prehistoric Europe, the Bronze Age is generally viewed as a time when inequalities were heightened and the political economy expanded to support elites. The use and display of metalwork seems to have been particularly important to these elites as a means whereby they identified themselves and legitimised their superior positions.4 Ethnographic studies have also shown that relationships of production, kinship and domination can all be related to the spatial expression of residential, economic and ritual activities across a landscape.5 The spatial dimension of these activities means that studies of archaeological landscapes, particularly when they are well-preserved landscapes, are a good route of investigation into the social dynamics of past societies, including relationships between households and the wider

Violence and justice in global modernity: Reflections on South Africa with world-sociological intent

Abstract: Fifty years ago, around 1960, the widely accepted sociology of modernization divided the world into ‘modern societies’ and societies that still had to undergo processes of ‘modernization and development’. After fundamental criticism of its evolutionist and functionalist assumptions, the theory was widely discredited two decades later. Its demise, though, has left the comparative sociology of contemporary societies with numerous problems. First, modernization theory has not been replaced by any other approach that aims at providing a sociological analysis of the global social configuration, despite all the talk about ‘globalization’. Second, the critique of functionalist reasoning has deprived sociology of the means of assessing collective problem-solving capacity. As a consequence, neo-liberal economics and comparative political economy have come to dominate this issue. Third, the critique of evolutionism has tended to throw overboard all normative concerns in the sociological analysis of social configura...

Communicating risks : towards the threat society

Abstract: Communicating risks is an increasingly complicated task in contemporary society. Risks travel physically as well as discursively between continents, countries and cultures. Globalization itself has ...

Law and the Political Geography of US Corporate Regulation

Abstract: The recent financial crisis has brought new attention to the politics of economic behaviour in the United States. This article uses a critical legal geographical examination of corporate regulation in the US to guide emerging interest past the narrow focus on the past 10 years to a more substantive engagement with US corporate regulatory history. The argument advanced is that the open, critical and creative public discussion needed to define and enforce the desired role for corporations in contemporary society requires that critical attention be paid to conceptions of the corporation and of corporate rights and the political geography of corporate regulation that have generally gone unexamined.