Showing papers on "Ideology published in 1998"

Ideology: A Multidisciplinary Approach

Abstract: Introduction PART ONE: COGNITION Ideas and Beliefs Social Beliefs Structures and Strategies Structures of Ideologies Values Mental Models Consistency Consciousness Common Sense Knowledge and Truth Identity Social Cognition PART TWO: SOCIETY Ideology and Society Groups Group Relations Elites Dominant Ideologies? Institutions PART THREE: DISCOURSE The Relevance of Discourse Discourse Structures Context Reproduction From Cognition to Discourse Persuasion Legitimation Ideological Discourse Structures The Ideology and Discourse of Modern Racism Conclusions

Measuring Citizen and Government Ideology in the American States, 1960-93

Abstract: We construct dynamic measures of the ideology of a state's citizens and political leaders, using the roll call voting scores of state congressional delegations, the outcomes of congressional elections, the partisan division of state legislatures, the party of the governor, and various assumptions regarding voters and state political elites. We establish the utility of our indicators for 1960-93 by (i) examining and, whenever possible, testing the assumptions on which they are based, (ii) assessing their reliability, (iii) assessing their convergent validity by correlating them with other ideology indicators, and (iv) appraising their construct validity by analyzing their predictive power within multivariate models from some of the best recent research in the state politics field. Strongly supportive results from each battery of tests indicate the validity of our annual, state-level measures of citizen and government ideology. Substantively, our measures reveal more temporal variation in state citizen ideology than is generally recognized.

Seeing Like a State

Abstract: It does not require a very thorough examination of the history of the long twentieth century for one to conclude that political extremism, in both leftist and rightist varieties, has been a major, if not the main, cause of the unprecedented levels of human suffering unleashed in the twelve or thirteen decades since European imperialist domination encompassed the entire globe. Focussing mainly on case examples that explore massive projects in social engineering di? rected by those who have claimed to be inspired by leftist political philosophies, James Scott argues that these exercises in bureaucratic hubris share a common commitment to tenets of what he terms "high modernist" ideology. He argues that the ideas and urges, organizational strategies, and technologies of coercion that informed Soviet schemes for collectivization, "villagization" in Tanzania, and agricultural modernization in accordance with Western precedents in the colonial and post-colonial eras were all constructed to advance high modernist ends. Detailed analyses of these grand schemes for political and socioeconomic transformation, which form the core case studies for Seeing Like a State, reveal that they originated in a constellation of seemingly disparate processes. Some of these can be traced back to early modern times, particularly to the Enlighten? ment; others are products of twentieth-century sensibilities and technological breakthroughs. In the early chapters of Seeing Like a State, Scott explores a wide range of more limited, earlier high modernist projects, from German forest conservationism and urban planning to cadastral surveys and language standardization. All of these he argues persuasively shared a common goal of enhancing what he terms the legibility of urban and rural landscapes and human populations. Legibility, as Scott employs the term in demonstrating the commonalities among these processes, includes standardization, simplification, codification, abstraction, and the valorization of procedures deemed to be scientific (that is objective, precise, and universally valid) at the expense of local knowledge. He links high modernist projects generally with the imperatives of state bureaucracies that initiate and doggedly implement them, often in the face of considerable resistance and clear evidence that their actual effects are rather different from those the officials in charge intend. Beginning with the Russian revolution and the draconian Soviet campaigns under Stalin to collectivize (hence modernize) agriculture and capture the peas? antry that had made its own revolution in 1917 and the years of the civil war,

Big Policies/Small World: An introduction to international perspectives in education policy

Abstract: In this paper the primary emphasis is upon the general and common elements in contemporary, international education policy, but nonetheless the discussion also considers the processes of translation and recontextualisation involved in the realisation or enactment of policy in specific national and local settings. A set of generic 'problems' which constitute the contemporary social, political and economic conditions for education and social policy making are adumbrated. The emergence of ideological and 'magical' solutions to these problems is identified and the means of the dissemination of these solutions are discussed. A relationship between the global market and the marketisation of education is suggested and explored.

Masculinity and nationalism: gender and sexuality in the making of nations

Abstract: This article explores the intimate historical and modern connection between manhood and nationhood: through the construction of patriotic manhood and exalted motherhood as icons of nationalist ideology; through the designation of gendered 'places' for men and women in national politics; through the domination of masculine interests and ideology in nationalist movements; through the interplay between masculine microcultures and nationalist ideology; through sexualized militarism including the construction of simultaneously over-sexed and under-sexed 'enemy' men (rapists and wimps) and promiscuous 'enemy' women (sluts and whores). Three 'puzzles' are partially solved by exposing the connection between masculinity and nationalism: why are many men so desperate to defend masculine, monoracial, and heterosexual institutional preserves, such as military organizations and academies; why do men go to war; and the 'gender gap', that is, why do men and women appear to have very different goals and agendas for the '...

Gender differences in risk perception : theoretical and methodological perspectives

Abstract: A substantial body of risk research indicates that women and men differ in their perceptions of risk. This paper discusses how they differ and why. A review of a number of existing empirical studies of risk perception points at several problems, regarding what gender differences are found in such studies, and how these differences are accounted for. Firstly, quantitative approaches, which have so far dominated risk research, and qualitative approaches give different, sometimes even contradictory images of women's and men's perceptions of risk. Secondly, the gender differences that appear are often left unexplained, and even when explanations are suggested, these are seldom related to gender research and gender theory in any systematic way. This paper argues that a coherent, theoretically informed gender perspective on risk is needed to improve the understanding of women's and men's risk perceptions. An analysis of social theories of gender points out some relations and distinctions which should be considered in such a perspective. It is argued that gender structures, reflected in gendered ideology and gendered practice, give rise to systematic gender differences in the perception of risk. These gender differences may be of different kinds, and their investigation requires the use of qualitative as well as quantitative methods. In conclusion, the arguments about gender and risk perception are brought together in a theoretical model which might serve as a starting point for further research.

Clarifying the foreign aid puzzle: a comparison of American, Japanese, French, and Swedish aid flows

Abstract: This study explores the donor side of debates revolving around the proper role of foreign assistance as a foreign policy tool, by empirically testing for the aid determinants of four industrial democracies: France, Japan, Sweden, and the United States. A pooled cross-sectional time-series design is employed to assess the impacts of six sets of variables on aid flows to thirty-six African states during the 1980s. Three sets of these variables--humanitarian need, strategic importance, and economic potential--are constructed using data traditionally employed in empirical foreign aid studies. Three additional sets of variables--cultural similarity, ideological stance, and region--are constructed from data that regional specialists consider to be important in the foreign aid equation. Although no two cases are alike, one can nevertheless draw some tentative conclusions about the nature of the foreign aid regime of the final cold war decade of the 1980s on the basis of several cross-national patterns. In short, the results (1) contradict rhetorical statements of northern policymakers who claim that foreign aid serves as an altruistic foreign policy tool designed to relieve humanitarian suffering; (2) confirm the expected importance of strategic and ideological factors in a foreign aid regime heavily influenced by the cold war; and (3) underscore the importance of economic, particularly trade, interests in northern aid calculations.

CYBERPOLITICS: Citizen Activism in the Age of the Internet

Abstract: From the Publisher: Is the Internet poised to replace television as the central means of political communication? Will the advent of computer communication create a new era of citizen activism? Will the Internet ultimately lend itself more to political accountability and access or to exclusion and extremism? Is cyberspace truly the domain of the ideological right? In answering these questions, "Cyberpolitics" goes beyond the hype to analyze the content of political discussion on the Internet and to see how the Internet is being used politically. Empirical research translated into dozens of graphically compelling figures and tables illuminates for the first time Internet characteristics heretofore only speculated about: Who are the "cybercitizens" using the Internet, how do they participate in the political process, and who uses the Internet most effectively to accomplish political ends? The bottom line the authors reach should be reassuring to Internet utopians and dystopians alike: As the Internet grows, it will change the nature of political action, discourse, and effect less than it will itself be changed by politics. Along the way, we learn a lot about politics on the Internet and off-in the U.S. and around the world; left, right, and center. Author Biography: Kevin A. Hill is assistant professor of political science at Florida International University. John E. Hughes is assistant professor of political science at Monmouth University.

Re-visioning family therapy : race, culture, and gender in clinical practice

Abstract: Part I: Re-Visioning Family Therapy. McGoldrick, Introduction. Laird, Theorizing Culture. Falicov, The Cultural Meaning of Family Triangles. Kliman, Social Class as a Relationship. Walsh, Beliefs, Spirituality, and Transcendance. Hines, Climbing Up the Rough Side of the Mountain. Part II: Challenging Racism in Ideology and Training. Green, Race and the Field of Family Therapy. Green, Training Programs. Hardy, Laszloffy, The Dynamics of a Pro-Racist Ideology. Akamatsu, The Talking Oppression Blues. Part III: What It Means to Be White. McIntosh, White Privilege. Miner, Body Ritual among the Nacirema. Dolan-Del Vecchio, Dismantling White Male Privilege within Family Therapy. Part IV: Cultural Legacies. Pinderhughes, Black Genealogy Revisited. Colon, The Discovery of My Multicultural Identity. McGoldrick, Belonging and Liberation. Mahboubi, Searcy, Racial Unity from the Perspective of Personal Family History. Folwarski, No Longer an Orphan in History. Part V: Therapy with Different Populations. Mahmoud, The Double Binds of Racism. Boyd-Franklin, Franklin, African American Couples in Therapy. Watson, African American Sibling Relationships. Crohn, Intercultural Couples. Kim, Marriages of Asian Women and American Military Men. Johnson, Keren, The Families of Lesbian Women and Gay Men. Garcia-Preto, Latinas in the United States. Part VI: Migration. Mock, Clinical Reflections on Refugee Families. Sluzki, Migration and the Disruption of the Social Network. Mirkin, The Impact of Multiple Contexts on Recent Immigrant Families. Part VII: New Approaches to Therapy Practice. Byrne, McCarthy, A Fifth Province Approach to Intracultural Issues in an Irish Context. Waldegrave, The Challenges of Culture to Psychology and Postmodern Thinking. Almeida, Woods, Messineo, Font, The Cultural Context Model.

Administrative Leadership, Neo-Managerialism, and the Public Management Movement

Abstract: Scholars in the public policy community have used a collection of different approaches to advance the understanding of public management research and practice.(1) These approaches may be broadly classified as quantitative/analytic management, political management, liberation management, and market-driven management. In recent years, liberation and market-driven management have emerged as the dominant approaches in the field. Consistent with arguments advanced by Kettl (1997) and others (Boston, Martin, Pallot, and Walsh, 1996), I assert that the "managerialist ideology" or "managerialism" (Enteman, 1993; Pollitt, 1990) as it is often called, underpins the various public management approaches. I also argue that a more sophisticated form of managerialism, described as "neo-managerialism," is more prominent in both liberation and market-driven management. This neo-managerialism consists of an updated version of an older tradition embodied in the work of Frederick Winslow Taylor (Pollitt, 1990), as well as a complex mixture of public choice theory, agency theory, and transaction-cost economics (Boston, Martin, Pallott, and Walsh, 1996). I argue that neo-managerialism has a guiding influence on how public management scholars, especially proponents of liberation and market-driven management, perceive and conceptualize administrative leadership in the U.S. constitutional democracy. The peculiar type of administrative leadership cultivated and fostered by neo-managerialism is troublesome, especially when it is examined within the context of democratic governance.(2) This discussion begins with a brief review of different public management approaches advocated by scholars within the public policy community. Special attention is devoted to liberation and market-driven management because of their prominence in global governmental reform efforts. I argue that neo-managerialism is the guiding force behind both liberation and market-driven management. Next, I present an argument that neo-managerialism fosters and perpetuates a certain view of administrative leadership. This view is discussed and critiqued from the perspective of democratic accountability and its dominant behavioral assumptions. The article closes with a few brief comments on the implications of neo-managerialism for the study and practice of public administration. Approaches to Public Management The public management approaches mentioned above--quantitative/analytic management, political management, liberation management, and market-driven management--are now discussed in more detail. Although somewhat crude, this broad classification scheme does allow us to make progress. Quantitative/analytic management has its intellectual roots in policy analysis and the discipline of economics. This approach, aggressively marketed by founding faculties of public policy programs (see Lynn, 1996), places a heavy emphasis on the strategic use of sophisticated analytic techniques such as forecasting and cost-benefit analysis, among others (see Elmore, 1986; Quigley and Scotchmer, 1989). Proponents of quantitative/analytic management assert that systematic analysis reduces uncertainty in the decision-making process, thereby enhancing the effectiveness and quality of executive decision-making in the realm of "high policy" (Lynn, 1996, 56). Such decision-making is said to make a difference in the success of public policy and public agencies. The next approach, political management, focuses on the politics of public management. This approach rejects outright the politics/administration dichotomy. It assumes that public managers have a legitimate right to exercise political power in the policy making process. During the early 1980s, political management emerged as the public management approach of choice for faculty at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. According to Alasdair Roberts (1995), Kennedy School faculty members forcefully argued that a "political and activist orientation" distinguished public management from traditional public administration (293). …

Societal beliefs in times of intractable conflict: The Israeli case.

Abstract: Intractable conflicts are characterized as protracted, irreconcilable, violent, of zero‐sum nature, total, and central. They are demanding, stressful, exhausting, and costly both in human and material terms. Societies involved in this type of conflict develop appropriate psychological conditions which enable them to cope successfully with the conflictual situation. The present paper proposes the following societal beliefs which are conducive to the development of these psychological conditions: beliefs about the justness of one's own goals, beliefs about security, beliefs of delegitimizing the opponent, beliefs of positive self‐image, beliefs about patriotism, beliefs about unity and beliefs about peace. These beliefs constitute a kind of ideology which supports the continuation of the conflict. The paper analyzes as an example one such intractable conflict, namely the one between Israel and Arabs, concentrating on the Israeli society. Specifically, it demonstrates the reflection of the discussed societal beliefs in the Israeli school textbooks. Finally, implications of the presented framework for peaceful conflict resolution are discussed.

A cultural field in the making : Gastronomy in 19th-century France

Abstract: The gastronomic field in 19th‐century France is taken as a model for the analysis of cultural fields as characteristically modern phenomena. The antecedents of the field are located in a new economic, institutional, and ideological context. But its foundations are laid by a spectrum of gastronomic writings (journalism, cookbooks, proto‐sociological essays, political philosophy, and literary works) that proposed an expansive, nationalizing culinary discourse. It is this discourse that secured the autonomy of the field, determined its operative features, and was largely responsible for the distinctive position of this cultural field.

Is Nationalism a Distinct Ideology

Abstract: Whether or not nationalism is an ideology is a question that can be illuminated by a study of its conceptual structure. Core and adjacent concepts of nationalism are examined within the context of liberal, conservative and fascist ideologies, contexts that respectively encourage particular ideational paths within nationalist argument, while discouraging others. Employing a morphological analysis of ideological configurations, it is argued that various nationalisms may appear as distinct thin-centred ideologies, but are more readily understood as embellishments of, and sustainers of, the features of their host ideologies.

Making the invisible visible : a multicultural planning history

Abstract: The history of planning is much more, according to these authors, than the recorded progress of planning as a discipline and a profession. These essays counter the mainstream narrative of rational, scientific development with alternative histories that reveal hitherto invisible planning practices and agendas. While the official story of planning celebrates the state and its traditions of city building and regional development, these stories focus on previously unacknowledged actors and the noir side of planning. Through a variety of critical lenses - feminist, postmodern, and postcolonial-the essays examine a broad range of histories relevant to the preservation and planning professions. Some contributors uncover indigenous planning traditions that have been erased from the record: African American and Native American traditions, for example. Other contributors explore new themes: themes of gendered spaces and racist practices, of planning as an ordering tool, a kind of spatial police, of 'bodies, cities, and social order' (influenced by Foucault, Lefebvre, and others), and of resistance. This scrutiny of the class, race, gender, ethnic, or ideological biases of ideas and practices inherent in the notion of planning as a modernist social technology clearly points to the inadequacy of modernist planning histories. "Making the Invisible Visible" redefines planning as the regulation of the physicality, sociality, and spatiality of the city. Its histories provide the foundation of a new, alternative planning paradigm for the multicultural cities of the future.

Universities and Globalization: Critical Perspectives.

Abstract: As we near the end of the century, there can be no doubt that the increasingly global political economy has affected the ways in which universities are governed; the daily lives of academics have been altered as well. In this new volume, editors Jan Currie and Janice Newson consider globalization as combining a market ideology with a corresponding material set of practices drawn from the world of business. Issues of managerialism, privatization, and accountability all central values in business have become primary for universities and their administrators as well. The selections in this book help illustrate the editors contentions that globalization presents clear disadvantages as well as benefits to all citizens. Globalizations effects on higher education are not likely to be uniform nor are the outcomes an inevitable process. The future of the university as a place where society can examine itself critically is at stake and this volume will be a strong contributor to the debate. Universities and Globalization will be of great interest to those interested in higher education, the role of the university, and global institutions and practices.

From the World of Science to the World of Research

Abstract: In the last century and a half, scientific development has been breathtaking, but the understanding of this progress has dramatically changed It is characterized by the transition from the culture of "science" to the culture of "research" Science is certainty; research is uncertainty Science is supposed to be cold, straight, and detached; research is warm, involving, and risky Science puts an end to the vagaries of human disputes; research creates controversies Science produces objectivity by escaping as much as possible from the shackles of ideology, passions, and emotions; research feeds on all of those to render objects of inquiry familiar

SOCIAL LINGUISTICS AND LITERACIES: IDEOLOGY IN DISCOURSES (2nd ed.). James Paul Gee. Bristol, PA: Taylor & Francis, 1996. Pp. xi + 218. $75.00 cloth, $25.95 paper.

Abstract: Social linguistics is now in its second edition and has been integrated into a series of publications edited by Allan Luke entitled Critical perspectives on literacy and education. Thoroughly revising his first edition, Gee offers researchers, teachers, and students a challenging compendium of theory and analysis of language use in society. He integrates social and political relations of power and dominance into his discussion of literacies, highlighting the potential ideological conflicts between non-mainstream communities and schools, conflicts rooted in divergent uses, and evaluations of language.

Adorno: A Critical Introduction

Abstract: Abbreviations and a Note on Translations. Introduction. 1. The Dialectic of Enlightenment. 2. A Critical Theory of Society. 3. The Culture Industry. 4. Art, Truth and Ideology. 5. Truth--Content in Music and Literature. 6. Negative Dialectic as Metacritique. 7. Constellations: Thinking the Non--identical. 8. Materialism and Metaphysics. Conclusion. Notes. Bibliography. Index.

The German ideology : including Theses on Feuerbach and introduction to The critique of political economy

Abstract: Nearly two years before his powerful Communist Manifesto, Marx (1818-1883) co-wrote "The German Ideology" in 1845 with friend and collaborator Friedrich Engels expounding a new political worldview, including positions on materialism, labour, production, alienation, the expansion of capitalism, class conflict, revolution, and eventually communism. They chart the course of 'true' socialism based on Hegel's dialectic, while criticising the ideas of Bruno Bauer, Max Stirner and Ludwig Feuerbach. Marx expanded his criticism of the latter in his now famous Theses on Feuerbach, found after Marx's death and published by Engels in 1888. "Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy", also found among the posthumous papers of Marx, is a fragment of an introduction to his main works. Combining these three works, this volume is essential for an understanding of Marxism.

Ideology of the Hindi Film: A Historical Construction

Abstract: The author treats the Hindi film as a social institution which is a reflection of the current social and political formations and analyzes the role, function and ideology of Indian cinema.

Constructions and Creations: idealism, materialism and disability theory

Abstract: This paper suggests that a proper understanding of disability theory requires more than a distinction between individual and social model approaches. It is also helpful to distinguish between materialist and idealist explanations. These two dimensions are used to generate a four-fold typology which highlights important differences between the main approaches. Social models are distinguished as those premised upon commonality. However, it is argued that recent discourses of 'difference' do not detract from social model theory. Social model approaches are examined in more detail and the paper concludes that although social constructionist accounts have been useful they do not provide a sufficient level of explanation. Disabling social values reflect material relations of power and may be better explained as 'ideology'.

"Race" and the Construction of Human Identity

Abstract: Race as a mechanism of social stratification and as a form of human identity is a recent concept in human history. Historical records show that neither the idea nor ideologies associated with race existed before the seventeenth century. In the United States, race became the main form of human identity, and it has had a tragic effect on low-status "racial" minorities and on those people who perceive themselves as of "mixed race." We need to research and understand the consequences of race as the premier source of human identity. This paper briefly explores how race became a part of our culture and consciousness and argues that we must disconnect cultural features of identity from biological traits and study how "race" eroded and superseded older forms of human identity. It suggests that "race" ideology is already beginning to disintegrate as a result of twentieth-century changes.

Crowd action as intergroup process: introducing the police perspective

Abstract: Traditional crowd theory decontextualizes crowd incidents and explains behaviour entirely in terms of processes internal to the crowd itself. This ignores the fact that such incidents are characteristically intergroup encounters and draws attention away from the role of groups such as the police in the development of events. This paper begins to rectify this omission through an analysis of interviews with 26 Public Order trained police concerning crowds in general and the Poll Tax ‘riot’ of 31 March 1990 in particular. The analysis shows that, despite a perception of crowd composition as heterogeneous, officers perceive crowd dynamics as involving an anti-social minority seeking to exploit the mindlessness of ordinary people in the mass. Consequently, all crowds are seen as potentially dangerous and, in situations of actual conflict, all crowd members are seen as equally dangerous. In addition, police tactics for dealing with disorder make it very difficult to distinguish between individuals or subgroups in the crowd. This convergence of ideological and practical factors leads to the police treating crowds in disorder as an homogeneous whole. It is argued that such action can often play an important role in escalating (if not initiating) collective conflict and is also a key component of social change in crowd contexts. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The role of ideology in terrorists’ target selection

Abstract: Ideology plays a crucial role in terrorist's target selection; it supplies terrorists with an initial motive for action and provides a prism through which they view events and the actions of other people. Those people and institutions whom they deem guilty of having transgressed the tenets of the terrorists’ ideologically‐based moral framework are considered to be legitimate targets which the terrorists feel justified in attacking. As an extension of this, ideology also allows terrorists to justify their violence by displacing the responsibility onto either their victims or other actors, whom in ideological terms they hold responsible for the state of affairs which the terrorists claim led them to adopt violence. While it is not the only factor which determines whether a potential target is attacked, ideology provides an initial range of legitimate targets and a means by which terrorists seek to justify attacks, both to the outside world and to themselves.

Indigenism: Ethnic Politics In Brazil

Abstract: Indigenous people comprise only 0.2% of Brazil's population, yet occupy a prominent role in the nation's consciousness. In her important and passionate new book, anthropologist Alcida Ramos explains this irony, exploring Indian and non-Indian attitudes about interethnic relations. Ramos contends that imagery about indigenous people reflects an ambivalence Brazil has about itself as a nation, for Indians reveal Brazilians contradiction between their pride in ethnic pluralism and desire for national homogeneity. Based on her more than thirty years of fieldwork and activism on behalf of the Yanomami Indians, Ramos explains the complex ideology called indigenism. She evaluates its meaning through the relations of Brazilian Indians with religious and lay institutions, non-governmental organizations, official agencies such as the National Indian Foundation as well as the very discipline of anthropology. Ramos not only examines the imagery created by Brazilians of European descent members of the Catholic church, government officials, the army and the state agency for Indian affairs she also scrutinizes Indians' own self portrayals used in defending their ethnic rights against the Brazilian state. Ramos thoughtful and complete analysis of the relation between indigenous people of Brazil and the state will be of great interest to lawmakers and political theorists, environmental and civil rights activists, developmental specialists and policymakers, and those concerned with human rights in Latin America."

Voter ideology in Western Democracies, 1946– 1989

Abstract: We propose a measure of voter ideology which combines party manifesto data compiled by Budge, Robertson, Heari, Klingemann, and Volkens (1992) and updated by Volkens (1995), with election return data. Assuming the comparability and relevance of left- right ideology, we estimate the median voter position in 15 Western democracies throughout most of the postwar period. The plausibility of our assumptions, and therefore the validity of our measure, is supported by the results of several validity tests. With this new measure we are able to make cross-national comparisons of voter ideology among these countries as well as cross- time comparisons within individual countries. We discuss the potential application of our measure to various debates in political science.

Party Ideologies in America, 1828–1996

Abstract: Part I. Introduction: 1. Argument 2. Rethinking the ideology debate Part II. The Whig-Republican Party: 3. The national epoch (1828-1924) 4. The neoliberal epoch (1928-92) Part III. The Democratic Party: 5. The Jeffersonian epoch (1828-92) 6. The populist epoch (1896-1948) 7. The universalist epoch (1952-92) Part IV. Conclusion: 8. What drives ideology change? 9. Does ideology matter? Epilogue.

Whose dying? A sociological critique of the 'good death'

Abstract: This paper aims to describe and analyse the ideology of the 'good death'; an ideology central to the modern hospice movement and underpinning many of the challenges to the medical management of dying and death. The development of the concept of the 'good death' will be traced from the work of the French historian, Aries, through the influential writings of Kubler-Ross, to the contemporary contributions within the sociology of dying and death. The good death concept now holds a diversity of definitions and meanings that unify around the ideal of dying with dignity, peacefulness, preparedness, awareness, adjustment and acceptance. The paper has as a central concern the dominance of the 'good death' ideology, leading to the labelling of 'good' and 'bad' patients, and consequent attempts by caregivers to shape the lives of dying people. This paper suggests that the ideology of the good death legitimates a new form of social control within which socially approved dying and death are characterized by proscribed...

Disowning Slavery: Gradual Emancipation and "Race" in New England, 1780-1860

Abstract: Disowning Slavery: Gradual Emancipation and "Race" in New England, 1780-1860. By Joanne Pope Melish. (Ithaca, N.Y., and London: Cornell University Press, c. 1998. Pp. xx, 296. $35.00, ISBN 0-8014-3413-0.) In this ambitious and often compelling study, Joanne Pope Melish seeks to explore in detail, and then to reconfigure, our sense of the meaning of "gradual" emancipation in New England between 1780 and the Civil War. Working with a wide field of sources--from the mundane private transactions recorded in court records to the splashy come-ons of theatrical broadsides--she portrays the consequences of the end of slavery there as far more pernicious than we have been satisfied to think. Melish aims to show that the New England emancipation of African Americans was not so much the end of slavery as the creation of a deep racialist vision and, concurrently, an elaborate fiction about "free" New England that would fuel sectional debate to 1860. Melish argues in particular that the meaning of gradual emancipation is best seen in terms of two interrelated narratives, one that came to dominate accounts of slavery's end in the North, and another notable for its near total absence. The latter missing story is the story of how deeply embedded African American slavery was in the society and economy of early New England. As legal slavery faded from the social scene in New England in the mid-1820s, southern slavery emerged into a critical glare as never before. This coincidence drove the history of New England slavery out of the national debate, thus also effacing much of the history of New England African Americans, to the point where they themselves did not grasp the importance of their past. The other story, the one told instead, was of a perennially free New England, cradle of American liberty, and fortress against the increasingly evil South. Some of the ground Melish covers is familiar, such as the racial discrimination in political and economic life that constricted African Americans' citizenship. But most of her concerns in this broadly conceived book--the biological construction of African American bodies by white physicians, for example, and the striking images of racial role-reversal in drama, art, and literature--are freshly seen and compellingly interpreted in ways that broaden our understanding of how deep and yet problematic was the bond between racialist ideology and the twin images of free New England and slave South. …

The New Political Culture

Abstract: The New Political Culture: An Analytical Framework To Interpret What Has Changed, Where, And Why Overview of the Book (Terry Nichols Clark) The New Political Culture: Changing Dynamics of Support for the Welfare State and Other Policies in Postindustrial Societies (T. N. Clark and Ronald Inglehart. ) Where Has The New Political Culture Emerged And Why? Is There Really a New Political Culture: Evidence from Major Historical Developments of Recent Decades. (T. N. Clark. ) Assessing the New Political Culture by Comparing Cities Around the World ( T. N. Clark, with Jerzy Bartkowski, Zhiyue Bo, Lincoln Quillian, Doug Huffer, Ziad Munson, Eric Fong, Yun-Ji-Qian, Mark Gromala, Michael Rempel, and Dennis Merritt ) How Hierarchies And Parties Specifically Redirect Politics And Policy Priorities Urban Political Parties: Role and Transformation (Vincent Hoffmann-Martinot. ) Transformations in Policy Preferences of Local Officials (Oscar Gabriel, Katja Ahlstich, Frank Brettschneider, and Volker Kunz. ) Toward a One-Dimensional Ideological Culture? Evidence from Swiss Local Parties (Hans Geser.) Citizen Preferences for Local Growth Controls: Trends in U.S. Suburban Support for a New Political Culture Movement (Mark Baldassare. )