'War Is Not a Map': Irish America,Transnationalism, and Joseph O'Connor's Redemption Falls

Abstract

This essay argues for a transnational reading of Irish novelist Joseph O'Connor's Redemption Falls (2007). It contends that O'Connor's revisiting of the period of the American Civil War and its aftermath begs all sorts of questions regarding Ireland and Irish America's historical and contemporary transnational intercessions and responsibilities. As Ireland underwent a period of unparalleled economic prosperity beginning in the mid-1990s, which most commentators attribute to successive Irish governments' commitment to globalization, it began to face new and pressing challenges in relation to its involvement with the rest of the world, particularly with regard to its stance on neutrality and recent immigrants to Ireland. I conclude that Redemption Falls reveals the complexity of Irish and Irish Americans' relationship to notions of whiteness and (racial) innocence and challenges readers to consider how Ireland will conduct its future relations with the global community both within and beyond its borders.     

The Impact of Human Factors on Ab Initio Pilot Training

This article examines critically the power effects of a branch of psychology called Human Factors within the context of commercial aviation. A review of the aviation literature highlights the significance of Human Factors and its relevance to the recruitment and training of ab initio pilots. However, research in the field is criticized for failing to account for existing power relations and the potential effects of a new discursive format. This article uses the concept of discourse associated with Michel Foucault to analyse empirical data from interviews with individuals involved in ab initio pilot training at a European flying college. The analysis illustrates how staff at the training college use the rhetoric of Human Factors to enhance their own contribution and status, without fundamentally changing existing practices. Although this reinforces existing power relations, the Human Factors discourse also potentially empowers a different set of management employees. By illustrating the conflicting values and interests of two sets of managers and trainers at the college, the article is able to demonstrate the negative effects of the new discursive format on male ab initio pilots. It also discusses attitudes to female pilots, contributing to the debate about the ability of management discourses to promote gender equality within commercial organizations.     

Culture and Chinese public relations: A multi-method “inside out” approach

This study adopts an “inside out” approach to examine contemporary Chinese public relations and culture's effect on it, based on an analysis of the top 15 domestic Chinese public relations agencies’ Web sites and 17 in-depth interviews of public relations professionals from multinationals operating in mainland China. Results indicate an emerging trend of Chinese strategic management and a new understanding of guanxi as an ongoing process of one-on-one bonding.     

Repartnering Following Divorce: Implications for Older Fathers' Relations With Their Adult Children

This study examined the implications of postdivorce fathers' new unions and additional (step)children for two aspects of older fathers' relations with adult children born from a prior relationship: frequency of social contact and fathers' financial transfers. Data from multiple waves of the Health and Retirement Study (N = 13,017 observations on 4,997 adult children belonging to 1,917 ever‐divorced fathers) were used to estimate multilevel models. The results indicated that divorced fathers who go on to form a new union have weaker relations with adult children from a prior union than their postdivorce counterparts who remain single. This finding partly reflects the detrimental effects of repartnered older fathers' new biological children and stepchildren. There is no difference between older remarried and cohabiting fathers' intergenerational ties. Moreover, fathers' additional biological children and stepchildren have similarly negative effects on fathers' relations with adult children from a previous union.     

Soccer, civil religion, and public relations: Devotional–promotional communication and Barcelona Football Club

The aim of this article is to provide a public relations perspective on the civil religion phenomenon through a study of Barcelona Football Club (BFC) as an institution and its public relations efforts. We believe that BFC can be seen as a form of civil religion that uses a devotional–promotional communication model which sets forth, upholds and reinforces relations with “faithful supporters”. The paper links to three main contributions: the work of [Salvador, J. (2004). Futbol, metàfora d’una guerra freda: Un estudi antropològic del Barça. Barcelona: Proa.] on anthropological approach to BFC, [Giner, S. (2003). Carisma y razón. Madrid: Alianza] on civil religion and its communicative dimension, and [Tilson, D. J. (2006). Devotional–promotional communicationa and Santiago: A thousand-year public relations campaign for Saint James and Spain. In J. L’Etang & M. Pieczka (Eds.), Public relations: Critical debates and contemporary practice (pp. 167–184). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.] on devotional–promotional communication. Thus, this article advances a public relations approach to civil religion.     

Watching The Daily Show in Kenya

Global distribution of a popular American television programme – Jon Stewart's Daily Show – offers a rare opportunity to examine transnational contingencies of meaning in political satire. Drawing on focus group discussions in Kenya, this analysis shows how some East Africans appropriated and reinterpreted – indeed unexpectedly subverted – The Daily Show's political content, deriving from it insights that Stewart himself might have found surprising. Kenyan viewers perceived in The Daily Show gaps between the rhetoric and reality of empire and pointed to limitations of Stewart's dissident satire as they rejected its depictions of non-wealthy nations and marginalized peoples. They reconfigured Daily Show episodes as commentaries on global power relations; reflected critically on Kenyan politics, media and their own political subjectivities; and revised their own earlier assumptions about the gap between Africa and supposedly ‘mature’ democracies such as the United States. Thus, American political satire such as The Daily Show can activate in foreign audiences new perceptions of differences between the ‘West’ and the rest and new forms of political imagination.     

The Dialogue of Civilizations: How the I Ching Can Help Understand The Relationship Between Globalization and Anti-Globalization

I Ching, or the Book of Changes, is a kind of ancient classical philosophy in China, mainly consisting of Yin-Yang theory, five elements and 64 hexagrams, whose wisdom has influenced eastern Asian civilizations for more than 2000 years. The paper attempts to study the relationships between globalization and anti-globalization via its discourses. The interdisciplinary perspective does not challenge the dominant ideologies in current political study, but only attempts to open up a new avenue in studying international relations and to constitute the following codes for reference in international relations study: (1) as an analytical model to observe diverse global issues via the Chinese philosophy; (2) as a mirror or medium to understand global conflicts and to help to exchange ideas and achieve moral or ethical consensus; and (3) as a new discourse contributive to the global debates on the diversity and complexity of globalizations and anti-globalizations.     

‘Working fathers' in Japan: Leading a change in gender relations?

Does the emergent phenomenon of ‘working fathers' herald a process of change in gender relations in Japan? Against the background of the current discourse in Japan about new modes of fathers' participation in the family, the article focuses on the small group of working fathers — men who explicitly organize their working lives around family responsibilities — to examine the potentiality of change. This supposed change in the roles of men (and women), at home and in the workplace, is considered in terms of latency, as a ‘slow‐dripping' process. The qualitative research focuses on Fathering Japan, Japan's leading fathering movement, its ideology, its members and their families. The article offers a critical perspective, juxtaposing gender ideology with practice. Exploring the real‐life experiences of working fathers caught between family and work, especially against Japan's gendered corporate culture, the article also addresses the persistence of gender inequality in Japan.     

The future of PR education: Some recommendations

This article contends that public relations is a professional occupation that has become more than a subset or specialization of other disciplinary areas. Perspectives of professional and disciplinary areas that have had a strong influence on public relations education must be reevaluated.The integrity of public relations professional education must take precedence over academic unit perspectives and biases; furthermore, public relations as a professional occupation is ideological—with its own set of professional values and beliefs. The new Commission on Public Relations Education must recognize public relations is an occupation that requires its own identity as well as clearly defined professional parameters.     

All glamour, no substance? How public relations majors and potential majors in an exemplar program view the industry and function

Studies in public relations often conclude that the field is misunderstood [Kopenhaver, L. L. (1985). Aligning values of practitioners and journalists. Public Relations Review, 11(1), 34–42; Stacks, D. W., Botan, C., & Turk, J. V. (1999). Perceptions of pubic relations education. Public Relations Review, 25, 9–29] and misrepresented in media [Spicer, C. (2000). Public relations in a democratic society: Value and values. Journal of Public Relations Research, 12(1), 115–130]. Public relations professionals themselves often do not know what is involved in or support public relations education [Wright, D. K., & Turk, J. V. (2007). Public relations knowledge and professionalism: Challenges to educators and practitioners. In E.L. Toth (Ed.), The future of excellence in public relations and communication management: Challenges for the next generation (pp. 571–588). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum]. Both the special issue (Public Relations Review, 1999) on public relations education and a following study published in this journal [Bowen, S. A. (2003). I thought it would be more glamorous: Preconceptions and misconceptions of public relations among students in the principles course. Public Relations Review, 29, 199–214] argued that public relations majors often do not realize what is involved in the academic discipline or the professional field. This research builds on the findings of those studies to ask: are public relations educators doing any better in communicating the core competencies, responsibilities, knowledge requirements, skills, and abilities of the discipline and the public relations major? Through the use of 10 focus groups across majors at a top research university, we can see that little is known about public relations among non-majors, but public relations majors can articulate the requirements and functions of the field. Several primary areas of confusion emerged about public relations related to: marketing or promotion, spinning the truth, image, and public relations as a career choice. These ideas show a critical lack of transparency in public relations. Credibility of the public relations function is hampered by this failure to communicate about the functions and core competencies of the field. Implications for both the public relations practice and for public relations education are discussed.     

Aesthetic Understanding of Work and Organizational Life: Approaches and Research Developments

The aesthetic dimension of work and organizational life attracted the attention of organization scholars during the 1980s and 1990s, and its study burgeoned at the turn of the new millennium. There are today four main approaches to the study of organizational aesthetics: (i) the archaeological approach which privileges the symbolic dimension of aesthetic understanding; (ii) the empathic-logical approach which seeks to grasp the pathos of organizational life; (iii) the aesthetic approach which emphasizes the negotiation of organizational aesthetics; (iv) the artistic approach which examines flow, creativity, and playfulness. They all engage in an intellectual controversy with approaches to the study of organizations which privilege the mental, cognitive, and rational dimension of social action whilst neglecting the material, sensible, and emotional dimension of work relations in organizations. This article will illustrate and discuss these approaches by paying particular attention to the topics of the emancipation of people at work and the style of work and organizational practices.     

Restoring a reputation: The Duke University lacrosse scandal

Duke University was thrust into a crisis situation when three members of its lacrosse team were indicted on charges of first-degree rape and sexual assault. As the story received extensive media coverage and while the prosecution and defense were making their legal arguments, the reputation of Duke University was called into question and it too was in need of appropriate public relations communication strategies. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the actions and public relations communication emanating from Duke in its attempt to frame the story and restore its reputation. Public relations theories that focus on image restoration as articulated by Benoit [Benoit, W. L. (1995). Accounts, excuses, and apologies: A theory of image restoration strategies. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press; Benoit, W. L. (2000). Another visit to the theory of image restoration strategies. Communication Quarterly, 48(1), 40–44] and Coombs [Coombs, W. T. (1995). Choosing the right words: The development of guidelines for the selection of the “appropriate” crisis response strategies. Management Communication Quarterly, 8, 447–476; Coombs, W. T. (2006). Crisis management: A communicative approach. In C. H. Botan & V. Hazleton (Eds.). Public relations theory II (pp. 171–197). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates] as well as the concept of message framing are presented and used to analyze Duke's communication response. Studying the Duke case provides an example of an organization executing theoretical concepts in a practical situation.     

Global development and precarity: a critical political analysis

ABSTRACT

Precarity as a concept has come to be conceived as a distinctive experience of neoliberal development, especially in the European context. The experience of precarity, according to some, has influenced efforts aimed at living otherwise from the precepts of neoliberal development. Yet, for others, precarity is producing a ‘new dangerous class’. However, despite different perspectives of the effects and implications of precarity, the analytical purchase and political utility of the concept has received insufficient attention. In this article, we hope to contribute to critical debates on the limitations of ‘precarity’ as a concept for critical political analysis. We argue that in the dominant use of precarity as an analytic of inequality, particular experiences are rendered as historical universals. Consequently, these (particular) experiences are disconnected from global social and political relations of inequality, while at the same time reinforcing a linear and reductionist conception of development. We demonstrate that the temporal scheme represented by the notion of the ‘age of post-Fordism’, which serves as a crucial marker of the explanatory framework of precarity (in Europe), actually misconstrues the politics of global development through inequalities. Moreover, the tendency to focus on subjectification as conditioning the formation of a ‘new’ dangerous class, entails far-reaching omissions of actual transnational political struggles against domination and inequality. Instead of precarity, a critical engagement with the politics of global development ought to be the subject of analysis for understanding contested relations of affluence, insecurity and inequality.     

The More the Merrier? Multiple Parent‐Adult Child Relations

Although parent‐adult child ties are generally positive, most parents have multiple children whose relations may yield collective ambivalence combining higher and lower quality. Little research has investigated these multiple relations. NSFH respondents aged 50+ with adult children (N = 2,270) are used to assess patterns of quality and contact across multiple children in the same family. This illuminates mixed experiences, especially for lowest quality and contact across children, contributing to collective ambivalence in parent‐adult child relations within families. Having more children increases prevalence of both positive and negative relations. Stepchildren exhibit more negative relations than nonstepchildren, even in the same family. Mothers have more positive but not more negative relations than fathers, but mothers have more negative relations with stepchildren.     

Hydraulic society and a “stupid little fish”: toward a historical ontology of endangerment

Endangered species are objects of intense scientific scrutiny and political conflict. This article focuses on the interplay among human-nonhuman relations, knowledge production, and the politics of endangerment. Advancing a historical ontology of endangerment, it highlights the role of transforming the nonhuman world in the coming to be of new objects of environmental knowledge. Such knowledge can provide the basis for credible claims of endangerment, facilitating mobilizations against the very human-nonhuman relations that produced it. An in-depth case study of the delta smelt, an endangered species of fish caught in the center of California’s “water wars,” shows how changes in the instrumentalization of the nonhuman environment can produce new knowledge of nature that allows actors to make claims and form coalitions that would be otherwise inconceivable. Because its sole habitat is the hub of California’s water delivery system, efforts to save the species from extinction have reduced flows to farms and cities, fomenting conflict between environmentalists and water users. This article demonstrates that the taxonomic classification of the delta smelt as a species and evidence of its decline arose directly from the reengineering of California’s rivers for extractive ends. Ironically, the knowledge on which environmental advocates relied was a product of the instrumental relation to nature that they sought to transform.

     

The Problems of Public Relations: Eisenhower,Latin America and the Potential Lessons for the Bush Administration

Abstract

Accompanied by intense media interest, President George W. Bush visited Latin America in March 2007. The trip, it seemed, was a rather obvious attempt to try and improve inter-American relations by demonstrating that the US did care about is neighbours to the South; to counter the seemingly endless bad press and repair some of the damage done to the American brand by Bush's policies and the influence of Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez. As this article will demonstrate, though, this was reminiscent of another era: that of the 1950s and the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Throughout his eight years in office, Eisenhower would consistently use public relations operations as a way of improving inter-American relations. However, the intense problems that this eventually brought about suggest that the present administration may have been misguided in its attempts to follow a similar path to its Republican predecessor's.     

Straight out the barrio: Ozomatli and the importance of place in the formation of Chicano/a popular culture in Los Angeles

Abstract

Ozomatli's history of formation, the multiplicity of its sounds, the role played by its music in enabling political activism and political coalitions illuminate the relations between identities and politics at the present moment. The group is grounded in Los Angeles contemporary Chicano/a culture and in the new social relations, new knowledges, and new sensibilities of an emerging global city in a transnational era. Speaking from the interstices between commercial culture and the new social movements, Ozomatli's music and political work offers us invaluable bottom‐up perspectives on the terrain of counter‐politics and cultural creation at the beginning of the twenty‐first century.     

Speaking about building Rylands (1960s to 1980s): a Cape Flats history

This article looks at African and black men and masculinities, triangulated desire, race, and subalternity in Charles Mungoshi’s short story collections. It examines the negotiation of desire, and its interface and interplay with power relations and their negotiation in the colonial and postcolonial economies of domination and gender as depicted in the short stories. It uses the Gramscian concept of hegemony, Girard’s mimetic theory of triangular desire, and Sedgwick’s theory of gendered triangular desire, to examine these dynamics. It argues that colonial and postcolonial power and gender relations are negotiated through a complex interplay of desire that cannot all be accounted for by both Girard and Sedgwick’s models, necessitating their modification to deal with the complexity of desire in a colonial and postcolonial context. The short story collections examined span the colonial and postcolonial eras and these are Coming of the Dry Season (1981), Some Kinds of Wounds (1980), and Walking Still (1997).     

'The look of hope or the look of sadness': Robert Frank's dialogical vision

Abstract

This article examines the work of Robert Frank with reference to his seminal photographic work, The Americans, and its relationships to his later post-1970s images. It argues that the 'outside eye' he brought to the US post-war consensus offered him a new comparative critical position and represented a fundamental, counter-cultural shift in the tradition of documentary photography. This vision formed around Frank's multiple 'dialogues', with the US social landscape, with earlier traditions of documentary and 'street' photography in Europe and the USA, and with the Beat generation's radical challenges to dominant post-war values. This 'moment' of overlapping and interconnected relations forms the basis for this discussion of Frank's importance as a 'political' commentator whose work has influenced generations of photographers and shares much with those writers who emerged as the Beats.