Language Choice,Residential Stability,and Voting Among Latino Americans*

Objective. Students of political behavior have often found that the primary use of languages other than English impedes many forms of political participation in the United States. We develop expectations about how language choice operates with social context to influence an individual's decision to vote. Although choosing to speak a language other than English—in this case, Spanish—may affect the amount of political information individuals have at their disposal, this choice also represents their access to social and community resources that enable, rather than impede, political participation. Methods. We examine the voting behavior of Latinos, almost entirely Mexican Americans, living in south Texas counties on the U.S. border and reconsider the consequences of language choice for political behavior. Results. Controlling for past residential tenure, we find that Spanish‐speaking Latinos will be more likely to vote than English‐speaking Latinos. Conclusions. The establishment of ties to an ethnic group in a majority‐minority context over time mitigates the negative relationship between the use of Spanish as a primary language and voting.     

Disneyland and Walt Disney World: Traditional Values in Futuristic Form

The Disney parks—Disneyland in California and Walt Disney World in Florida—presented a radical refinement and departure from the traditions of the amusement park: the theme park. Designed for the values of long distance travel, suburban lifestyle, family life, the major vacation excursion, and the new visual culture of telecommunications, these places have grown to attain the status of national popular culture capitals. Because of their importance to American life, these institutions have suffered more than their share of attacks as key symbols ofpopular culture. Like all such targets of elitist ire (led by such accusations as “plastic” and “mindless”), the Disney parks must be experienced carefully and studied closely to see beyond these simplistic slings and arrows. Emerging from this study was a contention directly opposed to the common wisdom of the theme parks' futuristic and artificial nature: they may in fact serve as cultural preserves for the most nostalgic images and dreams of a nation. They are a very special kind of museum, of course—of past and future not as they were or will be but as popular taste has shaped and nurtured them in the collective imagination. The Disney “archive” of Americana is thus highly valuable as a display of popular thought on every featured theme.     

音乐架构与框架观

音乐语言的架构与框架是从其组织、结构、格式以及传统意义上的规范和作法来反映音乐本身。因此,从音乐的框架或架构去认识音乐,应当说是一个好的着眼点。从符号美学的角度看,音乐语言表现其内容和意义的方法与普通语言基本相同,即用音乐音调为声音符号(能指)通过音乐逻辑的规范实现音乐形象(所指)来表现音乐的内容和意义。     

The social bases of language acquisition

A language is composed of conventional symbols shaped by their social-communicative functions. Children acquire these symbols, both lexical and syntactic, in the context of culturally constituted event structures that make salient these functions. In the acquisition process children rely on cultural learning skills (i.e., imitative learning). These skills emanate from their ability to participate intersubjectively with adults in cultural activities (i.e., joint attention), which underlies their ability to understand the ways adults are using particular pieces of language. The development of communicative competence as a whole, including not only lexical and syntactic skills but also various pragmatic skills, depends largely on feedback about communicative efficacy that children receive from different interactants. This feedback is used by children to make further inferences about the conventional functional significance of particular linguistic expressions. This social-pragmatic view of language acquisition obviates the need for a priori, specifically linguistic, format constraints on the language acquisition process.     

The influence of ‘topic and resource’ on some aspects of social theorising

Developments in sociological theory since the 1960s have been responses to disciplinary problems rather than changes in fashion. The problem of topic and resource—where sociology has to use everyday understandings and practices as study resources even though they are legitimate topics of enquiry—has been an important and sometimes neglected spur to many of these developments. The turn to discourse, conversation analysis and the rise of Bourdieu's reflexivity are all attempts to address the problem, but each is shown to be unsatisfactory in different ways. In summary, they seek to address the issue as requiring either a principled methodological or a principled theoretical solution, and neither approach is capable of comprehensively addressing the matter. It is argued that these ‘solutions’ depend, in turn, on one of two particular construals of what the ‘problem’ consists in, neither of which is necessary or coherent. Each, it is argued, depends on a philosophical trick: making language out to need formal improvement (the Bertrand Russell trick) or introducing inappropriate scepticism to everyday life (the René Descartes trick). It is suggested that treating topic and resource not as a problem but as something which opens up new areas of investigation successfully deflates the issue and avoids unnecessary theoretical and methodological contortions.     

The "Brain Drain" and the Organization of Science: A Roundtable Discussion

One of the most dangerously explosive republics in the North Caucasus without a doubt has to be the former Checheno-Ingushetia—the second most populous (1.27 million) republic in the region. Today, it has become a terribly entangled knot of ethnic and political conflicts, one of whicli—the Ossetian-Ingush issue—evolved into armed conflict in late October 1992. I will attempt here to analyze the historical, political, sociodemographic, and sociopsychological aspects of the development of interethnic conflict situations both around the former Checheno-Ingushetia and within it, working from the position of research on interethnic relations.     

Language Provisions Under the Voting Rights Act: How Effective Are They?*

Objectives. As the Voting Rights Act (VRA) comes up for renewal in 2007, its effects on the political incorporation of groups other than African Americans will be of key importance in any debate. Among the questions in any such discussion will be whether the language provisions of the VRA have helped enfranchise “linguistic minorities” in the United States, or whether their effect has been largely symbolic. Second, if the Voting Rights Act has had a positive impact on the participation rates of Asian Americans and Latinos, have these effects been tilted toward first‐generation immigrants—who were not the intended beneficiaries of the Act—rather than native‐born minorities? Methods. This article looks at registration and voting data from the November 1996 and 2000 Census Current Population Supplemental Voting Surveys to explore the differential impact of the Act among immigrants and the native born, and among Latinos and Asian Americans. Results. The analysis finds evidence that the language provisions of the Voting Rights Act have significant and positive effects on the voting rates of covered linguistic minorities. Conclusions. Because the voting rates of Asian and Hispanic Americans in the United States still lag behind those of the population as a whole, the effects of the VRA with respect to these groups are important considerations as Congress weighs the Act's renewal.     

Four Problems of the SCO in Connection with Its Enlargement

One of the main issues facing the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is its enlargement. Traditionally, this issue has been viewed in terms of practical policy. The longer this dispute over enlargement drags on, however, the greater the depth it acquires. The enlargement debate reflects the unique political culture of the SCO. Another issue well-known from other organizations also arises—“different levels” in the admission of new participants. But the question of the organization’s future is emerging in discussions of enlargement as the main matter in dispute: is it to be a global future (as Russia is more inclined to see it) or a regional future (as China is more inclined to see it)? Thus, the SCO faces one of the most important conflicts of today’s world—that between globalization and regionalization. While debates about these trends and the relationship between them continue in the political, economic, and social sciences, the SCO has to make a practical choice in favor of one of the trends or find a way to combine them in determining its work priorities. The authors reformulate the issue of enlargement as a problem of finding a balance between globalizing and regionalizing trends in the SCO strategy. At the practical level this will make it possible to reconcile the basic interests of Russia and China in Eurasia.     

Ethnic Minorities and Social Justice in Australian Society

This paper will endeavour to comment briefly on the way in which the issue of social justice has been handled by Australian social policies relating to non-indigenous ethnic minorities in recent times, all of which have developed within a framework of multiculturalism. Hence, what are being considered are multicultural social policies — their goals and objectives as they have evolved over the past two decades. Part of this examination will also involve an exposition of the concept of social justice itself in relation to policy.     

从社会运行的角度看《论法的精神》中的社会

至今,学界对孟德斯鸠《论法的精神》的阐释颇多。处于现代新时期的时间点上,解析著作中所隐含的社会概念,然后从社会运行的核心要素、社会运行的机制和社会运行的逻辑及推演原则四方面揭示著作中隐含的社会逻辑,从而条理化地透射出著作所隐含的社会的真正内涵,将著作的阐释开阔到一个全新的视角。     

The Hip System

The first Soviet hippies appeared in Moscow and in Leningrad in the late 1960s. They called themselves the System, thus emphasizing the importance of personal contacts and ties in the movement, the presence of "their own circle." The System began to form its own "language" (henceforth we will call it "System slang"), which took a great deal from the already-existing vocabulary of the vulgar, debased colloquial style; absorbed individual words and expressions from jargons that preceded it (for example, criminal jargon, the jargon of the stiliagi ["fashion plates"—Tr. Ed.], and so on); and created many new words, making use of old methods of word formation (shortening words, transferring words from one stylistic category to another, and developing figurative and emotional-intensive meanings of certain classes of words) and its own special method of word formation, which we characterize as redundant borrowing [izbytochnoe zaimstvovanie]. A considerable percentage of System slang consists of anglicisms—which, however, differ from traditional borrowings in many ways. The fact is that, as a rule, the borrowings do not have an unambiguous verbal analogue in Russian and frequently come into the language along with the concepts and phenomena that they connote. We have called these anglicisms "redundant" because they represent precise doubles of words already existing in the language, in all respects except one—they are classified as slang.     

English proficiency in Australia, 1981 to 2016

Using Australian census data, the paper examines the incidence of poor English competency in Australia from 1981 onwards. The paper examines English competency in relation to various characteristics such as sex, age, language spoken, visa type, citizenship, duration of residence and location. It finds that there was a sharp rise in the numbers of people not speaking English well between the 2011 and 2016 Censuses and special attention is given to this rise in the paper. Recently, the Australian Government unsuccessfully legislated for the introduction of a requirement of English competency at the level of IELTS 6 (the commonly used university entrance level) as a condition for the award of Australian citizenship. The paper argues that this test would have led to a very large number of disenfranchised Australian permanent residents and this would be a highly undesirable result. Nevertheless, employment and social participation are strongly influenced by English competency and residents with poor English are disadvantaged. The policy suggestion is made that participation in a course of English language training for those without functional English skills could be made a precondition of the award of permanent residence—without the application of a passing grade.     

Nations,National Cultures,and Natural Languages: A Contribution to the Sociology of Nations

This paper seeks to contribute to the sociology of nations, a literature that is only starting to carve out its place in the social sciences. The paper offers a reconceptualization of “nations” as “national cultures”, employing an evolutionary perspective and a systemic framework in which “nations” are understood as cultural systems of a special kind. National cultures are intimately tied to natural languages, and the acquisition of a national culture occurs as part and parcel of the acquisition of a natural language. Acquiring a natural language is a prerequisite for learning other cultural systems (artefactual languages as well as other natural languages). National cultures function as metacultures. They are also the reference cultures for modern states and their citizens, a political dimension of nations that is of paramount importance, though it will only be touched on in this paper. National cultures should be considered as the most fundamental type of cultural system today.     

A Learning-Efficiency Explanation of Structure in Language

This paper proposes a learning-efficiency explanation of modular structure in language. An optimal grammar arises as the solution to the problem of learning a language from a minimal number of observations of instances of the use of the language. Agents face symmetry constraints that limit their ability to make a priori distinctions among symbols used in the language and among objects (interpreted as facts, events, speakers intentions) that are to be represented by messages in the language. It is shown that if it is commonly known that the object space is modular and messages are strings, then modularity of the language is sufficient and (essentially) necessary for learning efficiency. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Number: C72.I am grateful to Hsueh-Ling Huynh, Bart Lipman, Ariel Rubinstein and Birger Wernerfelt for stimulating discussions and comments. Many thanks are due to the anonymous referee for suggestions that have helped to improve the focus and presentation of the paper. I have benefitted from comments by seminar participants at Arizona State University, Boston University, the University of California-San Diego, the University of Pittsburgh, the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB), the Midwest Mathematical Economics Meetings, and the Summer in Tel Aviv (SITA). This research was supported by a Grant from the National Science Foundation.     

Testing a Political Economic Theory of the Media: How Were Steel Tariffs Covered?*

Objective. The objective of this article is to test Strömberg's (2001) prediction that newspapers will devote more space to costs of tariffs than to their benefits, using the recent steel tariff issue as a test case. Method. A content analysis was performed on a sample of 123 New York Times (NYT) and 177 Wall Street Journal (WSJ) articles published between January 1 and September 10, 2002. The articles were coded sentence by sentence for pro‐, anti‐, and neutral‐tariff content. Comments or information deemed supportive of the tariffs, that is, touting their benefits, were coded +1, while those emphasizing the costs of tariffs were coded –1. A statement that was neutral with regard to the tariff issue was coded 0. The proportion of sentences coded –1 was then compared with the proportion coded +1. Results. The coders found 395 sentences devoted to the negative impacts of steel tariffs versus 124 sentences devoted to their benefits out of a combined total of 3,207 sentences. The results also reveal a mild “slant” toward free trade in the WSJ relative to the NYT. In the WSJ, the proportion of lines criticizing tariffs (0.11) exceeds the proportion supporting tariffs (0.02) by a wider margin than in the NYT (0.13 vs. 0.06). Conclusions. This article provides empirical support for Strömberg's (2001) political economy model of the media. The model implies that mass media will weaken the power of special‐interest lobbies relative to unorganized interests. Specifically, the data support Strömberg's prediction that more newspaper space would be devoted to the costs of steel tariffs—which are widely dispersed—than to their benefits—which are narrowly targeted.     

法律意义标志的诠释学审查

法律是人类通过规则所构筑的意义体系。然而 ,当人们对法律意义进行诠释时 ,所得出的法律意义每每大相径庭。这反映了在法律意义的理解上 ,“只要有理解 ,理解便会不同”的道理。那么 ,如何寻求法律的意义 :有人主张通过追问法律的合法性寻求其意义 ;有人主张通过品读立法者意志寻求其意义 ;有人主张法律的意义就在于法律的文本 ;还有人主张法律的意义在于人们通过对法律的对话而形成关于法律共识。文章站在诠释学的立场上 ,对如上法律的意义标志作了学理解说 ,以证成法律意义标志多元的诠释学理由     

Legal Mechanisms for the Joint Governance of Public and Private Rights

Traditional jurisprudence has produced few studies at the level of institutional operation, resulting in a lack of knowledge about the structure, actors and symbols involved in the modernization of social governance. This is so much so that modernization of social governance is in practice misunderstood as the rule of law, informatization and adoption of technology. The core issue of social governance is the division of oversight and penalty costs between the state and individuals, but we need to call upon a statutory platform to facilitate cooperation between public and private rights. The modernization of social governance involves the use of legislation to provide techniques and statutory platforms for cooperation in an open society, ensuring the reasonable division of social governance information and penalty costs when public and private rights overlap. The social governance techniques that enable public and private rights to work together involve taking a group of observable symbols or organizations on which consensus has been reached as a statutory platform, with all sides bringing greater accountability to bear on this platform in order to maximize their interests and minimize their transaction costs, with no need to inquire further into its particular constitution.     

Radical Interactionism: Going Beyond Mead*

George Herbert Mead argues that human society is comprised of six basic institutions—language, family, economics, religion, polity, and science. I do not believe that he can be criticized for making institutions the cornerstones of a society, but he can definitely be criticized for his explanation of how our basic institutions originate, how these institutions operate in society after their inception, and how they later change, modifying society in the process. The problem with Mead's explanation of these three critical matters is that he based them on his principle of “sociality” rather than on the principle of “domination.” If Mead's principle of sociality is replaced by the principle of domination and his notion of the “generalized other” is replaced by the notion of the “phantom community,” then most of these problems can be largely solved. Thus, in this paper, I will not only point out the key problems in Mead's theory of society, but I will also offer solutions to them based on the notions of domination and the “phantom community.” The end product is a “radical interactionism” that surpasses Mead's original interactionism in identifying the part that both domination and the composite “other” play in every known human society—big and small, and past and present.     

‘Youth are not something to check off your to do list’: Poetic inquiry into the symbols youth,parents and professionals use to reimagine supports for youth in foster care

The child welfare system is characterized by fixed power structures, coercion and hierarchies that privilege the perspectives of a select few. These oppressive aspects of the system quelch youth voice and others' voices, especially those with lived experience, frequently omitting them from case- and system-level decisions. Acknowledging the empowering potential of creative and arts-based research, this study used poetic inquiry with youth in or formerly in foster care, parent partners and professionals working in child welfare, inviting them to reimagine how the system could support youth in foster care towards thriving. Through seven poetry focus groups, 41 participants wrote individual and relational poems. Analyses focused on how symbols were used and their suggestions for revisioning child welfare. Seven themes identified the types of symbols used in poems: 1) Nature/Natural Phenomena, 2) Human Body/Senses, 3) Actions, 4) Physical Objects, 5) Paperwork, Cases, Bureaucracy, 6) Connectedness/Family and 7) Strong Emotions. Beyond demonstrating a novel arts-based method, findings offer a new, creative space for understanding the foster care system. Symbols were powerful and cut across life experiences and identities. A key implication pointed to using symbolic language to aid the work of revisioning child welfare towards humanistic and embodied approaches, social justice and well-being.