The Lebanese diasporic field: the impact of sending and receiving states

What is a diaspora? Can it be distinguished from a ‘transnational community’? This paper discusses the Lebanese migrants abroad and their relationships with Lebanon by deploying the Bourdieusian concept of ‘field’. It argues that Bourdieu’s concept of field helps to capture the dynamic character of diasporic relations and the power relations that underpin them. It also enables the researcher to better delineate the boundary of a diasporic community and at the same time to treat this boundary as flexible enough to identify the specific terms for entering and exiting the ‘diasporic field’. It also argues that at a time when diasporic relations are cross-national, that specifically revolve around a real or imaginary ‘homeland’, they encompass individual, group and institutional actors that belong with varying degrees to the country of origin and the countries of settlement. Finally, the paper concludes that the ‘diasporic field’ is a useful analytical tool to capture the complexities of increasingly ubiquitous diasporic relations.     

Pen Dudley''s name finally disappears from the public relations marquee

When the public relations firm D-A-Y was dissolved into Ogilvy & Mather Public Relations November 1, 1988, the longest lived public relations agency disappeared into the sands of time that enveloped the first four agencies started in the first decade of the waning century. The D in D-A-Y stood for Pendleton Dudley, a venerable pioneer in this vocation, who had opened his agency in Wall Street in 1909 at the urging of his good friend, Ivy Lee. Dudley, a rugged, independent product of frontier America, headed his firm for fifty-seven years—a longevity record surpassed only by that of Edward L. Bernays, who started his firm in 1919 in the Post World War I public relations boom.Pendleton Dudley—known to his close friends as Pen and to his associates in his firm as PD, was born September 8, 1876, in a small frontier town of Troy, Missouri, when America was an agricultural nation. He came to pioneer as a counselor to the corporate giants, AT&T among them, in a complex, interdependent corporate industrial America. Pen Dudley did much to infuse this field with respectability in a time when it was viewed with suspicion or disdain in its early years. He was a strong advocate of research as the only sound basis for planning and executing programs to influence public behavior. He was also active in the Public Relations Society of America after it was formed in 1948 and was in the forefront of those creating the now extinct Foundation for Public Relations Research and Education. In 1965, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the New York PRSA Chapter. He died at the age of 90 in 1966.The author is Dean Emeritus of Journalism at the University of Georgia, and co-author Effective Public Relations, 6th Ed.     

Critical public relations: Some reflections

This article offers some brief reflections on the emergence and development of critical work in the field of public relations. Thoughts expressed are necessarily subjective and set within the context of teaching and researching in Scotland at the margins of the United Kingdom. The focus is on the relationship between the researcher and the discipline and consideration is given to definitions of critical work in public relations and the challenges that face those working within this paradigm both in research and teaching.     

The definition,dimensions, and domain of public relations

By not developing a widely accepted definition and a central organizing principle or paradigm, the field of public relations has left itself vulnerable (1) to other fields that are making inroads into public relations' traditional domain, and (2) to critics who are filling in their own definitions of public relations. While opportunities abound, public relations is unlikely to fulfill its promise until it is willing and able to identify its fundamental nature and scope. This article proposes a definition (“managing strategic relationships”), along with a three-dimensional framework, with which to compare competing philosophies of public relations and from which to build a paradigm for the field.Dr. James G. Hutton teaches marketing and public relations at Fairleigh Dickinson University in northern New Jersey, just outside New York City.     

Protocol journalism as a framework for understanding public relations–media relationships in Kosovo

There is growing interest about the ways in which the public relations field can contribute to democratization and civil society initiatives. Some scholars see enormous potential for public relations by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to help get important social issues on the public agenda in transitional nations while other scholars have critiqued the practice of public relations in newly formed nations as a form of hegemony that privileges Western ideas, values, and standards of practice. One thing is certain: more scholarly attention is required if the field of public relations is to truly understand its evolving role in civil society. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the public relations–media relationship contributes to civil society development in Kosovo. The researcher interviewed media professionals, public relations/organizational spokespersons, and civil society experts about the opportunities and challenges of the public relations function in building civil society in Kosovo. The findings suggest that “protocol journalism” is the guiding metaphor for explaining and critiquing the public relations–media relationship in Kosovo. The implications of protocol journalism for media development and public relations credibility are discussed.     

Reflections on doing policy-relevant sociology: How to cope with MADD mothers

The author’s experiences in studying the ability of law to deter drunk driving lead him to conclude that research is selectively used by various politically-involved groups. These groups frequently are committed to specific definitions of a policy problem and to specific approaches to its resolution. The researcher finds that his product is not used for the purpose of selecting among alternative policy options, but instead it serves to supply rationalizations for positions to which the involved groups are previously committed. H. Laurence Ross is professor of sociology at the University of New Mexico, and is a Fulbright lecturer to Finland in 1987. He is the author ofDeterring The Drinking Driver: Legal Policy and Social Control, andSettled Out of Court: A Sociological Study of Insurance Claims Adjustment.     

Portrayal and betrayal: Bourdieu, photography and sociological life

Through an examination of Bourdieu's Algerian fieldwork the article raises general questions regarding the place of photography in sociological research. In the midst of a colonial war Bourdieu used photography to make visual fieldnotes and record the mixed realities of Algeria under colonialism. Bourdieu also used photography to communicate to the Algerians an ethical and political commitment to their cause and plight. It is argued that his photographs do not simply portrayal or communicate the realities of Algeria. They are, paradoxically, at the same time full of information and mysterious and depthless. In order to read them it is necessary to ethnographically situate them in their social and historical context. It is suggested that the photographs can also be read as an inventory of Bourdieu's attentiveness as a researcher, his curiosity and ultimately his sociological imagination. They betray his concerns as a researcher but also can be used to raise ethical and political questions beyond Bourdieu's own attempts at reflexive self-analysis. The article concludes with a discussion of how Bourdieu's sociological life might contribute to the craft of sociology today.     

Researching religion: The vocation of the sociologist of religion

This paper reflects on the vocation or 'calling' of the researcher in the sociology of religion in the light of his experiences of researching transformations in English Catholicism in the last quarter of the twentieth century. It takes as its starting point Weber's two essays. A consideration of religious perspectives on the lay vocation leads to an evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of insider research. The paper reflects on research mistakes, threats and attempts to co-opt the researcher, unexpected surprises and serendipity, and the need for the social scientist to retain control of his/her research. It concludes with inspiration from Havel that the calling of the sociological researcher is socially important and urges renewed commitment to seeking with integrity the extension of certified knowledge and the demystification of powerful institutional structures.     

Collaboration and censorship in the oral history interview

The objective of this article is to highlight seldom considered aspects of the relationship between the researcher and the interviewee in feminist oral history research. As part of a study of the work of British women sociologists the researcher is undertaking a series of oral history interviews with retired academics. The attempts to follow social science ethical injections concerning the protection of human subjects and feminist injunctions to maximize subject collaboration and researcher reflexivity have raised several issues prior to, during and after the interviews. Issues of collaboration and censorship impinge on the research process at every stage of the work and, along with the personal and structural power relations of those involved, determine, in unanticipated ways, the final research product.     

Getting close by staying distant: Fieldwork with proselytizing groups

Field research with proselytizing groups presents difficult problems for field researchers. Such groups usually expect commitment from those who are knowledgeable about their point of view. Should the field researcher fail to make this commitment there is the possibility that further access to the group will be ended. Even if access to the group is not denied, continuous proselytizing directed at the researcher can create emotional responses that adversely affect field relationships. In this article, methods for dealing with these problems are discussed in the context of a study of two Jesus People groups. The article concludes that open, honest,disagreement with the groups' beliefs as well as avisible role as a researcher result in increased rapport and acceptance by the groups and reduced psychological stress on the researcher. The processes of role taking and role playing in the relation between the researcher and group members suggest that distancing strategies are useful when proselytizing groups are studied by nonbelievers.This is a revised version of a paper presented at the 1986 Meetings of the American Sociological Association. I wish to thank Shulamit Reinharz and three anonymous reviewers for their excellent and helpful comments on this paper.     

Stress in two-generation farm and ranch families

Family relations and economic issues may predict stress in two-generation farm families. Marital adjustment, length of time married, income satisfaction, and number of household dependents are examined as predictors of stress for each family member (i.e., separately for each member) using multiple regression analyses. The model is significant for fathers with marital adjustment, length of time married, and income satisfaction significantly contributing to fathers' stress. The model is not significant for mothers, sons, or daughters-in-law; but income satisfaction is significantly related to stress for mothers. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.Support for this research was provided by the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station Grant No. MONB00266 and is part of the AES Western Regional Project W-167.Stephan M. Wilson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Studies and is the Director of the Center for Kentucky Children & Families Research, University of Kentucky, 107 Erikson Hall, Lexington, Kentucky 40506-0050. His research interests include family stress, rural families, parent-adolescent relations, and adolescent development. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 1985.Ramona Marotz-Baden is a Professor, Department of Health and Human Development, Montana State University, Herrick Hall, Bozeman, MT 59717. Her research interests include family stress, work and the family, retirement and succession in family-owned business, and dual-earner families. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1970.David Holloway is the Outreach Coordinator for Aspen Crest Hospital, 1970 East 17th Street, Suite 119, Idaho Falls, ID 83404. His interests include marriage and family therapy, parent-child relations, and family development through the lifespan. He received his M.S. in Marriage and Family Therapy from Montana State University in 1987 and M.Ed. in Guidance and Counseling from the University of Idaho in 1985.     

Studying-Up and Studying-Across: At-Home Research of Governmental Violence Organizations

Studying the military and other security organizations is challenging for both methodological and ethical reasons. Studying these domains “at home,” literally in the researcher’s own country, complicates things even further. This article discusses these intricacies by proposing a dynamic conceptualization of the subject-object relationship in the study of the military and security in Israel. This conceptualization illuminates the effects of the dynamic positioning of the researcher in four social fields: the academic, the military-security, gender, and the ethno-national. The actual influence of these fields and their interrelations changes throughout the phases of research. We argue that when researchers and their respondents have similar ethno-national affiliation and military experiences, the dichotomous relations between them break down and give way to a dense web of expectations. This brings the researcher to maneuver between two, ostensibly contradictory, research strategies: studying-up and studying-across. The paper unpacks the complexities encapsulated in these strategies by discussing methodological and ethical dilemmas in two field studies on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict conducted by the authors.     

Interview with Andrew Samuels

Andrew Samuels is Professor of Analytical Psychology at the University of Essex, Visiting Professor of Psychoanalytic Studies at Goldsmith's College, University of London and a Jungian Analyst in London. We were lucky to have Andrew participate very generously in the Brisbane Family Therapy Conference in September, 1998. Andrew has written widely on psychological and psychotherapeutic themes, and has opened up new areas around the relations between therapy and politics. In his book The Political Psyche (1993) he poses the questions: Is there a special psychology of and for politics and culture? If so, what does the clinical practice of analysis and therapy with individuals or small groups contribute to the forming of such a psychology? ... In what way is the personal political—and in what way is the political personal? We interviewed Andrew in Brisbane just one week before the 1998 Federal Election, with talk of Howard, Beazley and Hanson pervading conference conversations. It was a great time to have Andrew around. But first we had to clear up a few matters about Jung.     

The French Tradition of Sociology of International Relations: An Overview

International Relations (IR) is an Anglo-American discipline. It was founded in 1919 at Aberystwyth University. Immediately after the Second World War it found a particularly fertile ground for its development in the United States. Even if the discipline remained marked by its Anglo-American origins, a sociological school of international relations emerged in France in the 1960s, with two main authors Raymond Aron and Marcel Merle. This French sociology of international relations already dated back to the eighteenth century with Montesquieu and Tocqueville. In the context of the First and Second World Wars, Emile Durkheim and Marcel Mauss, produced an embryonic sociology of international relations. After the Second World War, Aron’s sociology of international relations marked a break with the French school. His sociology was influenced by Max Weber and Carl von Clausewitz. He produced a comprehensive and historical tradition of international relations sociology and his analyses had a strong influence in IR specialists during the entire period of the Cold War. Today, his thought continues to exert influence on French and foreign internationalists as an essential reference point of the discipline. Marcel Merle, for his part, influenced by the work of Durkheim and Mauss, created an explanatory, positive school studying transnational relations which exerted influence on French and foreign internationalists as well. This contribution offers an historical overview of the development of this French tradition of sociology of international relations from the eighteenth century to the present time.     

Misperceptions of reproductive ideals among American husbands and wives

In this paper data from the Michigan Time Use Survey are used to document the extent of misperceptions of reproductive ideals among couples. Perceptual errors of spouses are found to be common and also nonrandom. The errors are influenced by a variety of socioeconomic variables. The paper concludes that research on fertility intentions and contraceptive use-effectiveness, which uses wife-only data, may be flawed. The paper also speculates on the extent and quality of marital communication.This research was supported in part by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.Daniel Seiver is a Professor of Economics, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056. He received his Ph.D. from Yale. Dr. Seiver's research interests include financial economics, fertility, and microeconomic theory.Donald Cymrot received his Ph.D. from Brown University. His research interests include labor economics and the economics of pensions. Dr. Cymrot is a researcher for the Center for Naval Analyses, 4401 Ford Avenue, P.O. Box 16268, Alexandria, Virginia 22303-0268.     

Figured Worlds in the Field of Power

This article seeks to deepen our understanding of how structural relations of power should be understood in local accounts of activity and identity. Thus, we critically review the synthesis of Bourdieu and activity theory in Figured Worlds, analyzing two critiques of Bourdieu: his insufficient localism and his overemphasis on embodiment of habitus. We are left with Bourdieu’s overwhelming concern to explain how the field of power is locally refracted and critique its doxa in a field of opinion, while arguably doing so at the expense of imagination, self-authoring, and world making. We conclude with our own suggestions of a synthesis.     

Describing Australian Families to Themselves: An interview with Don Edgar

As family therapists we focus on specific families and their ways of living together, but what of the broader social patterns of family life? Don Edgar has spent the last ten years as Director of The Australian Institute of Family Studies. He left his position as a University lecturer and researcher in Sociology to establish an Institute devoted entirely to research on factors affecting marital and family stability in Australia. Don Edgar's list of publications and conference papers is extensive. His audiences include social scientists, school children, lawyers, judges, social and political policy makers, parents, teachers and anyone who has any access to the media. Under Don Edgar's direction, the Institute of Family Studies has become a hub of family research in Australia.