CONTEXTUALIZING DEVIANCE WITHIN SOCIAL CHANGE AND STABILITY,MORALITY, AND POWER

The paper analyses the professional and political challenges facing the sociological study of deviance. Drawing on the sociological formulations of Emile Durkheim, and using a number of empirical demonstrations, the paper suggests that the study and interpretation of non-conformist and deviant behavior be repackaged and reframed within social processes of change and stability. To do that, it is recommended to use the constructivist approach, emphasizing the concepts of symbolic-moral universes and power.     

THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF AMERICAN INDIAN DRINKING: Perceptions of American Indian and White Officials

Research has shown that alcohol abuse is a significant problem among American Indians. It has been suggested, however, that American Indians and whites interpret the behavioral pattern differently, which may reflect the distinct symbolic-moral universes of the two groups. Whites are said to stereotypically blame Indians for the alcohol problem, and they favor assimilation to ameliorate it. American Indians purportedly blame the historical incursions of whites for the problem and advocate cultural revitalization to solve it. However, systematic empirical documentation of the competing viewpoints is lacking. Here we compare the perceptions of twelve American Indian and twelve white officials responsible for controlling alcohol abuse and related problems on the Wind River Indian Reservation, Wyoming. Data were collected using in-depth, semistructured interviews. The findings show that the two groups tend to converge in their assessments of the extent of the alcohol abuse problem but clearly diverge in their attributions concerning both its causes and appropriate approaches to controlling it. The discourse of whites and American Indians thus reflects the existence of separate symbolic-moral universes. This investigation redirects attention from the traditional focus on the incidence and etiology of alcohol abuse among American Indians to the politics surrounding the definition and interpretation of the deviant behavior. It also highlights the significance of cultural competition to race relations theories grounded in political economy, which are commonly used to analyze Indian-white contact.     

Culture and community: drink and soft drugs in Hebridean youth culture

This paper discusses the way in which ideas about deviance and thus moral judgements are ultimately grounded within native culture. Through focusing on underage drinking and soft drug use in the Western Isles of Scotland an analysis is presented which seeks to unfold the relationship between tradition, morality and belonging.     

Language ideologies and the consequences of standardization

This paper explores the effects of the standard language ideology on attitudes to language of nonlinguists and of language specialists, and considers how far linguists themselves have been affected by – and have contributed to – this ideology. The primary definition of standardization is taken to be the imposition of uniformity upon a class of objects . Attitudes to language within standard language cultures are then reviewed and contrasted with unstandardized situations, in which the boundaries of languages are indeterminate. It is therefore suggested that determinate languages, such as English, may be defined more by ideologies than by their internal structures. Some effects of standardization on the work of linguists are then reviewed. This is followed by a discussion of the importance of the process of legitimization in contributing to the standard language culture, and of the contribution of language specialists themselves to this process. Finally, certain matters arising are reviewed.     

Class,Conflict, and Criminalization

Abstract

Considerable attention has been given by social scientists to the relationship between social inequality and criminality. However, the dominant paradigms over the past several decades have each focussed attention upon one basic aspect of the relationship to the neglect of the other. Anomie theory emphasizes the connection between structural inequalities and deviant behavior, but neglects the definitional processes by which deviance is made a social reality. Labeling theory emphasizes definitional processes, but neglects their structural and behavioral bases and, surprisingly, consequences. Most recently, various “new criminologists” have been attempting to develop a theory that explaines how structured inequalities generate both the behavioral and the definitional realities of deviance. Two major variants are emerging: the Marxian and the Weberian. Points of agreement and disagreement are indicated, and a prognosis regarding the future development of theory is offered. Despite their basic agreement on the paramount explanatory significance of social conflict and power, Marxian and Weberian criminologists disagree on (a) the nature of scientific inquiry, and (b) the nature of social organization, and diverge on the meanings of class, conflict, and criminality. Neither theory as such is likely to become the approved paradigm for conventional research and officially sponsored studies or action programs, although Weberian theory is more likely to be tolerated, because it is more amenable to selective interpretation and modification.     

Bidirectional Relationships Between Parenting Processes and Deviance in a Sample of Inner‐City African American Youth

This study assessed bidirectional relationships among supportive parenting (knowledge), negative parenting (permissiveness), and deviance in a sample (N = 5,325) of poor, inner‐city African American youth from the Mobile Youth Survey over 4 years. Cross‐lagged path analysis provided evidence of significant bidirectional paths among parenting processes (knowledge and permissiveness) and deviance over time. Follow‐up multigroup tests provided only modest evidence of dissimilar relationships by sex and by developmental periods. The findings improve our understanding of developmental changes between parenting behaviors and deviance during adolescence and extend current research of the bidirectionality of parent and child relationships among inner‐city African American youth.     

Exposing Humanism: Prudence,Ingenium, and the Politics of the Posthuman

This article examines posthumanism and its relationship to humanism. First, it is argued that the term “posthumanism” relies upon an incomplete conception of humanism, and in a way that forecloses the possibility of looking to the humanist tradition for support. Addressing Foucault's often quoted comments about the recent invention and imminent demise of man, it is argued that Foucault is not anti‐humanist, but is rather critical of the use of humanism as an axis of reflection. Second, the posthumanist perspective is summarized as attending to a set of interrelated ethical and epistemological concerns. Calling into question the boundary between human and nonhuman animals, posthumanism also challenges the primacy of empirico‐deductive reasoning and advocates a re‐legitimization of rhetoric as a mode of thought. Lastly, using Ernesto Grassi's interpretation of the early Italian humanists, this article demonstrates not only the compatibility of Renaissance humanism with posthumanist concerns, but also the fruitfulness of this tradition as a conceptual resource. Although the Renaissance notion of ingenium, the ability to adapt and make concrete situations meaningful without also affirming strong ontological commitments, is absent from posthumanist discourse, it is a concept that has the power to enrich the posthumanist project. Consequently, posthumanism is not actually at odds with the humanist tradition in general, but rather only with a very limited and relatively recent conception.     

Ethnic Community and Ethnic Boundaries in a “Sauce‐Scented Neighborhood”1

This article investigates the problem of ethnic boundary making in a changing context. Our case is Boston’s North End, a historically Italian neighborhood undergoing changes to its social and physical environment, making the ethnic definition of neighborhood identity and belonging more difficult though not less salient. Consequently, participants in the workings of the neighborhood—residents, business owners, politicians—face challenges of both boundary placement (who is Italian and who is not?), as well as cultural content (what does it mean to be “Italian”?). Rather than viewing Italian ethnicity as simply weakening over time, we argue that the North End shows ethnicity is in a stage of category divergence, where the still‐dominant ethnic identity is juxtaposed not against another ethnic out‐group, but at various times against boundaries of class and race, commercial and community values, even city political boundaries. Drawing on ethnographic research and in‐depth interviews, we describe three group identity frames that illustrate these processes and reveal how Italian ethnicity continues to animate discourse and action in the neighborhood.     

Unemployed by choice: young creative people and the balancing of responsibilities through strategic self-management

The Danish welfare system inadvertently provides a good opportunity for young creative people to pursue their dreams in creative fields such as art, acting, music while being on unemployment benefits. As Michael, one of the participants, puts it: ‘I consider unemployment benefit entrepreneurial support’. The subversive practice is illegal. This qualitative study investigates how young unemployed people who choose to be unemployed in order to engage in innovative projects in creative fields understand and justify their practice. Analysis of in-depth interviews with six young unemployed persons shows how the understanding and management of responsibility is pivotal in the self-understanding and legitimization of receiving unemployment benefits by choice, not out of need. This creative group reflects the contours of a new type of unemployed that has received very little attention in the research literature. The group challenges the traditional representation of the unemployed and portrays themselves as innovative, competent and able to cope with financial insecurity even though it is psychologically distressing and a risky path to go down. We characterize them as strategic self-managing as they use educational systems and unemployment benefit systems for something entirely different from what they are intended – they use it to create their own artistic life courses. This study tentatively points to a categorization distinguishing between personal, social and societal responsibility by which we can improve our understanding of responsibility in neoliberal contexts.     

State-Level HIV Criminalization Laws: Social Construction of Target Populations?

Applying Schneider and Ingram’s social constructionist framework that places people living with HIV (PLWH) in the intersection of both minimal power and negative social construction, this study investigates whether HIV criminalization laws are more likely to be present in states that have a relatively larger percentage of socially marginalized populations. A database was assembled of state-level variables related to HIV criminalization laws and indicators of social marginalization. Analyses show that states with HIV criminalization laws have relatively larger African American populations. Future research is needed to further clarify the racial component of HIV criminalization.     

The Criminalization of Muslims in the United States, 2016

The criminalization of Muslims—framing an Islamic religious identity as a problem to be solved using state crime control logic—is undeniably in process in the United States. Local, state, and federal statutes target Muslims for surveillance and exclusion, and media sources depict Muslims as synonymous with terrorism, as others have shown. This paper analyzes the public’s role in the criminalization of Islam, which I call “cr-Islamization.” Drawing on in-depth, qualitative interviews in a major Southwest city during the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, I detail how the majority of 144 politically, racially, and economically diverse interviewees talk about Muslims as a potential “racial threat,” using “fear of crime” language indicative of the mass incarceration era. This suggests that criminalization theory should be central to sociological studies of Muslims in the contemporary United States, and that criminalization rhetoric remains powerful, despite mainstream enthusiasm for criminal justice reform. I argue that criminalization’s power might reside in its ability to mutate in the “post-racial” era. The mechanisms supporting crimmigration, the criminalization of black Americans, and cr-Islamization are related but not identical. Muslims are religiously and racially subjugated, but more economically secure compared to other criminalized groups. This paper’s findings should prompt scholars to re-examine the relationships between racialization, criminalization, religious subjugation, and economic exploitation in the twenty-first century United States.

     

POWER AND SOLIDARITY IN “INTERRUPTION”: A CRITIQUE OF THE SANTA BARBARA SCHOOL CONCEPTION AND ITS APPLICATION BY ORCUTT AND HARVEY (1985)

The simplistic conception of interruption employed in conversation analysis and survey research reports of male monopoly must be elaborated to include other social meanings in addition to violation of a speaker's rights if it is to account for conversational order or deviance. With no reason to suppose that the narrow, technical sense of interruption and the implacably negative evaluation conversation analysts make about interruption are generally shared throughout the rest of American culture, answers to questions in surveys about interruption cannot be assumed to refer to the category termed interruption in conversation analysis. Dissensus about coding instances of the category are reported and other situated meanings of interruption suggested.     

Colombian Criminals,Moral Whites: Reproducing and Resonating Hierarchy in U.S. Film

In this project, we analyze the representations of Colombian and white characters in U.S. feature films. As a pervasive form of storytelling, films serve an elemental source of analysis for their role in reproducing social realities and resonating with public consciousness. Here, the specific focus upon the representation of race, racial hierarchy, gender, and nationalism produced nuanced observations that expand on sociological understandings of racism in film. Past research on representations of race in media has shown the use of binary oppositions in making difference. We find the use of binary opposition via persistent themes of criminalization of Colombia and Colombian characters alongside the prevalence of white male heroes and white morality. The importance of these cultural representations is placed within the social and political contexts of U.S.–Colombia relations and racial transitions within the United States.     

Longitudinal links of parental solicitation,knowledge, and peer approval with deviance during early adolescence

The current study examined growth-to-growth associations of parental solicitation, knowledge, and peer approval with deviance during early adolescence, using a 4-wave, 18-month self-reported longitudinal data set from 570 Czech early adolescents (58.4% female; M_age = 12.43 years, SD = 0.66 at baseline). Unconditional growth model tests provided evidence of significant changes in the three parenting behaviors and in deviance over time. Multivariate growth model tests showed that declines in maternal knowledge were associated with increases in deviance, while greater increases in parental peer approval were associated with slower increases in deviance. Findings provide evidence of dynamic changes in parental solicitation, knowledge, and peer approval over time, as well as in deviance; additionally, they importantly show how parental knowledge and peer approval covary developmentally with deviance.     

Exotic Enterprise No More? Adolescent Reports of Family and Parenting Processes From Youth in Four Countries

The current investigation cross‐nationally examined the relationship between adolescent reports of family or parenting processes and a series of developmental outcomes in a sample of adolescents (N=8,417) from Hungary, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States. Based on confirmatory factor analyses and tests of scalar equivalence, results suggest that the Adolescent Family Process Measure (AFP), which assesses maternal and paternal closeness, support, monitoring, communication, conflict, and peer approval, was valid and reliable for males, females, middle adolescents, and late adolescents in all four national contexts. In addition, based on model‐free LISREL analyses, findings suggested that the relationships between these family processes and measures of adolescent externalizing (alcohol use, drug use, school misconduct, and total deviance) and internalizing (anxiety, depression, low self‐esteem, and low well‐being) behaviors were similar cross‐nationally. Findings are discussed in terms of their importance for the conceptualization and measurement of family and parenting processes.     

Micro and Macro Level Implications for a Sociology of Virtue: the Case of Draft Protesters to the Vietnam War*

On the basis of data from draft protesters to the Vietnam War it is suggested that an actively pursued and morally enhancing identity is the “pay off” of some deviant acts. These qualities of such deviance, called virtuous deviance, play havoc with labelling theory's passivity and character-degrading assumptions. The study of such acts may be called a sociology of virtue. A distinction between two kinds of protesters (refusers and resisters), which reflects different commitments to risk, suggests guiding hypotheses for that study: From the point of view of the actor, virtue may be self-constructed and autonomously implemented. Yet, escalations of commitment to virtue may require interpersonal corroboration and support. From the point of view of the normative order, such acts firm up moral boundaries, defining what it means to be moral.     

Nouvelles guerres justes et nouvelles guerres saintes: la rhétorique du bellicisme

From Cicero to St. Thomas, from Erasmus of Rotterdam to Grotius and Pufendorf, the concept of ‘just war’ is used to state the conditions under which the rhetoric of belligerence can meet the standards of both rationality and morality to justify going to war. The classical humanism and the philosophy of law will try in the Renaissance, especially with the beginning of a retreat of the divine in public affairs, to formalize and even humanize the war. Not only does the ideal of justice require honorable motives (jus ad bellum) for the use of weapons to be acceptable, but also how to behave in hostilities should also observe a certain restraint inspired by morality (jus in bello). Even Erasmus, the pacifist par excellence, admits that one must defend oneself against the Turks. On the other hand, the concept of ‘holy war’, used in the three major monotheistic religions, offers a different sound when going to war. Then the reference becomes abstract and absolute, so no argument can occur, no debate can be tolerated, because we face the divine plan. People of Yahweh, the disciples of Allah or the Children of the victorious Jesus Christ, all are refusing the opportunity to discuss the foundations of the war, hence an intangible reality which is conducive to a total violence. However, these two types of war are not reducible to one another, because one is based on a reasonable discussion, the other on the basis of Revelation on which nothing can be said. However, the boundaries between them become blurred when the stronger pretends to be the defender of a just cause and wants to impose its law over all opposing voices. In this case, the discourses of legitimacy become unbearable and confusing.