The Social Studies Teacher and the Course in Occupations

Introducing students to the segregated history of America's public beaches and pools can provide teachers with a novel approach to the study of racism in U.S. history. While most students are aware of segregation in housing, schools, and theaters, many are surprised to learn about the segregated history of America's public waters. This article provides a brief history of America's segregated public beaches and pools using Florida as a case study, offers pedagogic strategies, and presents resources that are helpful for teaching about this important period in U.S. history.     

Of Riots and Racism: Fifty Years Since the Best Laid Schemes of the Kerner Commission (1968–2018)

“What happened? Why did it happen? What can be done to prevent it from happening again and again?” Voiced less that one week after the July 1967 race riots in Detroit, Michigan, Lyndon B. Johnson spoke these words as he ordered the establishment of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. Seven months later, on March 1, 1968, the Commission's account—known as the Kerner Commission Report—was a scathing appraisal of riots and racism in the United States. While it included bold language about the linkage between rioting and racism, it is rife with paradoxical assumptions and findings. Moreover, the report's failure to define sociological concepts, coupled with a reliance on individualism and cognitive attitudes via psycho‐analytic and pop‐psychological conjecture, together beckon scholars to wrestle with how this state‐issued report reflected and reproduced dominant assumptions about the “race” concept, violence, and human nature. Employing a critical content analysis of the report, I ask: How does the Kerner Commission Report define and use the concept of “riots” and “racism,” and what are the logics employed in the production of that knowledge?     

Hispanic rioting during the civil rights era

The 1960s' U.S. black riots have received detailed systematic study at virtually all levels of analysis (individual, event, temporal, group, neighborhood, city, SMSA, state, and national). Although there are many impressionistic accounts of particular nonblack riots during this era, no systematic study of nonblack violence has heretofore been conducted. This article aims to reduce this gap in our knowledge. It is the first to present comprehensive data on nonblack rioting for the tumultuous 1960s and early 1970s. The analyses of these data focus upon the fruitfulness of applying models developed to explain the black riots, at the city and event levels of analysis, to their nonblack counterparts. The community-level model proves useful. Of particular importance are the effects of family income inequality and of local police force size.     

From advocacy to service provision: state transformation and the disability rights movement in Taiwan

This research uses the development of the disability rights movement in Taiwan as a case study to analyze the impact of state transformation, in particular marketization of social welfare policy, on the disability rights movement. First, the institutionalization of the disability rights movement enabled it to expand its organizational structure and become involved in shaping policy. Secondly, when disability rights organizations started to undertake state-funded projects, their focus shifted from advocacy to service provision. Thirdly, competition for limited state-funding gave the organizations led by urban-middle class advocates a significant advantage over small, community-based NPOs and gathered significantly greater resources. Finally, this paper suggests that, in a context in which the state did not provide basic social services for its citizens with disabilities, the institutionalization of SMOs turned advocacy groups into service providers. Although the number of disability civic organizations increased, the voices of advocacy groups were weakened.     

“I Just Want to Do God's Will:” Teaching Martin Luther King,Jr. as a Religious Leader

Teachers often respond to the perils of teaching about religion by simply avoiding the subject. An investigation of secondary lesson plans on three prominent Martin Luther King, Jr. websites reveals little attention to the ideology of the civil rights movement, especially those touching on religious ideas. Ignoring King's religious views risks fundamentally misrepresenting his identity, his ideology, and his motivation for nonviolence. Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story, King's 1958 account of the Montgomery Bus Boycott articulates three key features of the theological framework that inspired his activism: the spiritual motivation for his leadership, the ethical basis for his strategy of nonviolent direct action, and the theological understanding of human nature that undergirded his leadership and strategy. These points provide a useful model for introducing King's ideas in the classroom. The effort to intentionally and thoughtfully teach religion could contribute one step toward inculcating genuine tolerance among students. Civil discourse is not fostered simply by identifying core principles everyone shares but also through thoughtful, critical engagement with disparate ideas, including what are, for many people, the most heavily freighted ideas.     

Interorganizational influences on the founding of african american organizations, 1955–1985

This paper examines the relationship between traditions of social action and patterns of organizational development, using data on the formation of national African American protest, advocacy, and service organizations between 1955 and 1985. Following research in organizational ecology, Poisson regression is used to examine the association between organizational density and organizational formation across strategic forms. The results provide some support for the idea that interorganizational influences are important in shaping the contours of the African American social movement industry. Outside funding, internal organizational capacities and protest levels also play a significant role.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1992 annual meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society.     

The Legacy of Robin M. Williams Jr. in the Short Twenty-First Century

This essay describes Robin M. Williams Jr.'s maturation from a precocious college student to a fully formed sociological researcher by describing various personal and professional encounters with significant events of the twentieth century. I reflect on the ways the historical cataclysms of depression and war galvanized Williams and his peers to work toward radical change, both in their lives and in the world about them. The result was a remarkable societal transformation that improved the lives of ordinary citizens in many and diverse ways. The essay concludes with the hope that sociologists will once again be in the vanguard of social action, as Robin Williams was during his long career of teaching, research, and public criticism.     

Institutionalizing Counter‐Memories of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement: The National Civil Rights Museum and an Application of the Interest‐Convergence Principle

During the post–Reconstruction era in the United States, white southerners marked the cultural landscape with monuments and memorials honoring the Confederate cause and its heroes. These racialized symbols enjoyed an undisputed claim to public squares and parks throughout the South. It was not until the late twentieth century that commemorations to the black freedom struggle were publicly supported. This analysis examines the institutionalization of counter‐memories of the civil rights movement in Memphis, Tennessee at the Lorraine Motel, the site of the assassination of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The author draws on collective memory, cultural trauma, and social movements research as well as critical race theory to explain the creation of the National Civil Rights Museum. Using primary and secondary data sources the author examines how social memory agents, a changing political culture, and the passage of time mediated the cultural trauma of King's assassination and influenced the institutionalization of oppositional collective memories. Relying on Derrick Bell's interest‐convergence principle, the author concludes that the creation of this major memorial museum was a result of the convergence of white and black interests, specifically the economic and political interests of white elites and the cultural and political interests of black symbolic entrepreneurs.     

The Beginnings of English Imperialism

Abstract This article looks at a critical stage in the forcible anglicisation of Ireland. Scotland and Wales, and argues that the set of cultural images which provided the moral energy for English imperialism first emerged in the twelfth century, i.e. about four centuries earlier than is commonly supposed. By early twelfth century profound economic, social, military and cultural developments had so transformed England as to mean that the English and Celtic worlds were now sufficiently far apart for the differences between them to be visible to contemporaries, notably to William of Malmesbury, the first to articulate this 'significant otherness' in terms of the classical contrast between civilisation and barbarism.     

It Takes a Tragedy to Arouse Them: Collective Memory and Collective Action during the Civil Rights Movement

This paper examines the impact that collective memories of key events related to the civil rights movement had on black political activism during the 1960s. It proposes a theory that examines the effects of collective memory on collective action by considering how events and collective memories are appropriated by political entrepreneurs for collective action. Examining four events through a rare opinion survey of blacks taken in 1966, the analysis specifies a framework that illustrates how events evolve into collective memories and how collective memories are appropriated for collective action as time passes from the original event. Qualitative materials from historical accounts, including autobiographies, biographies, and oral histories, are used to make inferences about the meaning of events to political actors. The analysis shows that one event among the four, the murder of Emmett Till, had a stronger residual effect on black activism than the other events. The findings suggest that scholarship on the movement may have underestimated the impact of Till's murder on the generation of black insurgency in the 1950s.     

Paris in Bogotá: The Aid Effectiveness Agenda and Aid Relations in Colombia

This article uses an aid‐relationships perspective to explore the application of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in Colombia. It argues that aid donors were subjected to an attempt to push them (back) into a technocratic corner, and that social actors' advocacy outcomes were put under threat. Both are worrying developments in a politically complex context marked by internal armed conflict and human‐rights abuses. Analysis of the Colombia case offers some useful insights into applying the Paris Declaration, and other global aid‐policy frameworks, to diverse settings.     

The independent living movement in Asia: solidarity from Japan

Independent living movements of disabled people are emerging in Asian countries, supported by independent living centres (ILCs) in Japan. A study was conducted in Japan to explore the impact of the training program offered by Japanese ILCs to disabled people from other Asian countries. A sample of 35 people was selected by a snowballing method. The sample included former trainees from Asian countries and Japanese personnel from disability organizations involved with the training program. In‐depth interviews and a focus group were conducted to obtain information about the program, the experiences of the trainees and Japanese hosts and the budding independent living movement in Asia.     

Pacification of Rio's Favelas and the “Pacification of the Pacification Police”: The Role of Coordinating Brokerage in Police Reform

Rio de Janeiro's drug dealer–dominated favelas are territories where the state lacks the monopoly of violence. They have historically been sites of sporadic and violent police operations. Rio's favela “pacification” program aimed to consolidate state control via the establishment of a Pacification Police Unit (UPP). This proximity policing program initially experienced mixed results in different “pacified” favelas. I take advantage of this state intervention at the urban margins to ask, what explains the positive reception of this policing initiative in some communities but not others? I concentrate my fieldwork in two communities sharing a UPP that represented extreme cases of success in terms of the program's reception by residents. I find that the coordinating brokerage of respected local organizations helps acculturate police to the community and minimize offensive police behavior, thereby “pacifying the Pacification Police.” Residents are receptive to these resocialized police who comply with local norms of respect. This police‐reforming brokerage is possible due to the high level of closure in the local network and due to a vibrant local community with a strong history of organizing. My findings emphasize the importance of considering the role of local civil society in police reform at the urban margins.     

The Function of History in an Americanism Program

This article discusses how local history can be used by teachers to help develop historical thinking skills such as source analysis, the collection of data, and the creation of historical arguments. Using New York City as a case study, this article argues that urban spaces and local communities provide historical evidence that can be read and analyzed. It uses different streets, buildings, and neighborhoods from New York City to show how historical conclusions can be drawn from those resources. It also discusses instructional ideas that teachers can develop in their classrooms.     

The Evolution of Feminism: Comparison of Adaptation and By-Product Concepts

The aspiration of an ideal social structure includes the ambition of construction of a society that does not discriminate on the basis of gender. The development of feminist thought is an endeavor for evolutionary changes within the prevailing patriarchal society. This article exemplifies the development and changes in the feminist movement due to internal pressures, external politics, and ideological changes, by highlighting the oppression of women and the movement's chief accomplishments, and strives to explain this evolution from the standpoint of two alternative justifications, an adaptationist and by-product influence. It elucidates underlying aspects of the movement and the prerequisites for it to flourish and become a multifaceted, global phenomenon.     

The Infringement of the Right to Establish a Family for Jewish Spouses Who Are Mutually Proscribed from Marrying Each Other

Abstract

The article focuses on one of the most painful experiences in intimate relationships and unveils a hitherto unexplored type of human right infringement, namely the right to establish a family in Israel, purported to be a democratic state. Thousands of couples are proscribed from marrying each other every year in Israel. This paper focuses on Jewish couples consisting of male Cohanim (descendants of Jewish priests) and female divorcées, as one among other types of forbidden marriages. Four themes emerged from data analysis of narratives of 26 interviewees, which converged to a common motif of liminality of Cohen-divorcée couples. Based on empirical data, I describe the predicament attendant to this human rights violation which is transmitted to offspring of these couples. The article argues that this liminality undermines the basic rationale of the prevailing millet (personal law) system and discusses the implications of this liminality for human rights and religion-state relations.     

The right to stay: challenging the policy of detention and deportation

The aim of this article is to shed light on the situation of refugees (formally designated as asylum seekers) and undocumented migrant workers, who are among the most vulnerable inhabitants of Europe. Both groups face the threat of detention and deportation. The normative framework, which consists of legal standards and residential institutions, will be critically examined. Despite international standards for respecting the human rights of refugees and undocumented workers, policies of detention and deportation and the mass rejection of asylum claims leave little hope for the empowerment, autonomy and social inclusion of these persons. Instead of a straight-forward argument for closing down all detention centres and putting an end to forcible deportations, the article investigates small scale structural possibilities for inclusive – non-selective – responses to these non-citizens.     

Issue definition in rights‐based policy focused on the experiences of individuals with disabilities: an examination of Canadian parliamentary discourse

In issue definition in rights‐based policy Canada stereotypically embraces a more positive, human rights‐centered approach as compared with the American stereotype associated with the USA’s more presumptively negative, civil rights‐based tack. Since exclusionary infrastructures violate the core values of democratic governance, a failure to address unnecessarily exclusive infrastructures presents a rights‐based public challenge surrounding disability akin to those experienced by other non‐elite groups. Analysis of disability policy serves to clarify positive versus negative tendencies in rights‐based policy, including whether the expectation of a primarily positive basis in Canada is confirmed. This article examines the definition of public dimensions of the experiences of individuals with autism as a case reflecting the basis of construction of rights in Canada.     

The individual,racism and transformation: a psychoanalytic case

This paper engages transformation processes by focusing on the racism that characterised pre‐1994 South Africa. Through analysis of an individual life‐history, it argues that individuals engage with contexts of racism in ways that are particular to their intrapersonal and intrapsychic processes. Foregrounding these, the paper argues for the legitimacy of the individual as a site of intervention in transformation processes, and posits that transformation processes that do not account for intrapersonal and intrapsychic dynamics are compromised at best and futile at worst.