9-11 and Its Anxious Phantoms

Abstract

“Metaphysical mutations – that is to say, global transformation in the values to which the majority subscribe – are rare in the history of humanity. The rise of Christianity might be cited as an example.

Once a metaphysical mutation has arisen, it tends to move inexorably toward its logical conclusion. Heedlessly, it sweeps away economic and political systems, aesthetic judgments and social hierarchies. No human agency can halt its progress – nothing except another metaphysical mutation.”     

Sociological Perspectives in Bernstein's Sociolinguistics*

An interpretation of selected portions of Bernstein's sociolinguistics is presented. The interpretation suggests that linguistic performance intervenes between social structure and self-concept. The theory is specified through a research application. The specification holds that two views of social structure are implicit within the theory: one micro-cosmic and the other macrocosmic. For Bernstein these views are linked to Mead and Durkheim, respectively. However, the present analysis attempts to show that both are properly understood as Meadian. Linguistic performance is related to self-derogation within a strict Meadian interpretation. The contribution of the theory seems to lie in a specification of a Meadian view of self relative to selected aspects of language.     

From Contract to Status: Perspectives on Employment Seniority*

Length of service as a criterion governing personnel decisions is a widely applied normative principle. Contractual agreements that provide that employees' status with respect to promotion and layoff be based on seniority serve to limit discrimination and favoritism, remove an element of competition among workers, and provide a form of social insurance against the contingencies of aging. This status variable is sometimes erroneously perceived as “job ownership.” Decline of labor turnover, the aging of the labor force, and growth of pension programs reinforce concern about seniority. Expectations based on seniority have been challenged under the Civil Rights Act by former discriminatees who question the fairness of the rank ordering. In times of declining opportunity seniority as an allocative device assumes greater importance, while in a utopia, where all jobs are equally satisfying and there is full employment, seniority would be irrelevant.     

Criminology 9/11

ABSTRACT

9/11 is a historically significant event that was hastily designated by authorities as an act of both terrorism and war. It led to a call for forensics investigations and commissions of inquiry, notably the 9/11 Commission, which reported famously on alleged lapses in intelligence, preparedness and bureaucratic imagination. Some high profile crime events may be understood as ‘apex crimes’, conceptualized here as a subtype of political crime in which the ideological order, official narrative, contested and problematic forensics and third party review are each constitutive features. In support of a sociology of 9/11 as a criminal event and apex crime, the paper considers how 9/11 has ‘played out’ or been understood in criminology. The implication of the analysis is that the absence of serious academic engagement with 9/11 as a crime event is indicative of a lack of critical scrutiny of high-level political crimes in scholarly discourse (in criminology and other disciplines) and that this gives a pass to one of the most significant crime events in the past 50 years.     

Critical Perspectives in Antiracism: An Introduction*

Ce numéro spécial de la RCSA est consacré aux nouvelles façons d'aborder la lutte antiraciste dans des contextes multiraciaux. Les auteurs examinent les pratiques antiracistes selon des points de vue différents qui parfois se chevauchent, et tracent les grandes lignes de la pratique antiraciste, tout particullièrement en ce qui concerne la pédagogie et les ateliers antiracistes. Ils apportent leur contribution à létude de l'antiracisme critique et à son application dans le discours pédagogique. Il est question également dévolution sociale et pédagogique, et ils montrent comment le discours et la pratique anti-racistes peuvent l'accélérer. Même si les fondements théoriques et méthodologiques de l'antiracisme ne sont pas entièrement définis, les auteurs s'efforcent de reformuler l'antiracisme à partir de ses origines propres. Le présent article amorce la discussion en fixant les limites du discours et en précisant l'impact de l'antiracisme sur lévolution pédagogique et sociale. Il examine comment une culture antiraciste peut sépanouir, surtout dans un contexte eurocanadien et euroaméricain. Les répercussions de la mondialisation sur léducation et lévolution sociale sont examinées, tout comme le sont les motifs de ceux qui préconisent une mise en pratique de la pensée antiraciste. This special issue of the CRSA aims to explore new ways of thinking about antiracism praxis in multiracial contexts. The papers in this issue examine antiracism praxis from varying and intersecting backgrounds and positions. They present a broad view of antiracism extending from teacher education to antiracism workshop training. They build on existing scholarship in critical antiracism as a pedagogical discourse and a communicative and political practice. A key question is: How we can ensure that antiracism discourse and practice connect to achieve educational and transformative social change? While the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of antiracism are still in the formative stage, the essays will add to ongoing attempts to (re)conceptualize antiracism from its original formulations. This article begins the dialogue by specifying an antiracism discursive framework and the implications of anti-racism's basic tenets for transformative learning and social change. It explores some of the ways that antiracism knowledge can be constructed, produced and disseminated, particularly (but not exclusively) in Euro-Canadian/American contexts, and highlights some of the challenges that current globalization processes provide for education and social change, and the rationale for engaging in antiracism praxis.     

The Walking Wounded: Employees’Perspectives on Mergers and Acquisitions*

Several popular and academic works have reiterated Marx's concern over the issue of social class polarization in capitalist societies. Marx characterized this polarization as the increasing concentration of wealth and poverty in the upper and lower classes, respectively, coupled with a disappearing middle class. Building on these ideas, other work suggests a process of fragmented polarization with an increasing economic, political, social, and psychological diversity within each social class. This paper illustrates this process of class fragmentation, and shows that even though the upper class is gaining overall, there are segments which are beginning to feel the effects of economic restructuring. We address corporate restructuring in the form of mergers and acquisitions and how upper- and-middle managers perceive these processes and outcomes. We conducted 33 interviews with individuals from different organizational levels, involved in four different mergers or acquisitions. We focus on the meaning these individuals attribute to these processes and changes. Although most respondents remained with the new company, all were faced with major changes in their work environment. Respondents often experienced a breach of social contract, a dramatically altered perception of managerial control and decision making, a shift from corporate loyalty to self-interest, and new forms of power and resistance. We conclude by discussing the implications of such class fragmentation, and suggest directions for future research and policy.     

Masculinity and Fahrenheit 9/11

This paper aims to uncover Turkish Cypriot women's war experiences and integrate that knowledge into the public discourse. We argue that the omission of women's war experiences thus far has served to sustain the mutually reinforcing alliance between patriarchy and nationalism, which we call patriarchal nationalism. Building on feminist standpoint theory, deconstruction of the official and hegemonic ‘his'tory of war poses challenges to the stronghold of patriarchy and ethnic nationalism in society by engaging women in the re-construction of history. Narratives of twenty women from different regions and backgrounds revealed common experiences that have been systematically silenced, memories that have been socially forgotten but could not be erased despite the dominant discourse that has denied their existence for decades. These experiences defy images of the ethno-national Glorious Self, protected by heroic and righteous men, and the Villainous Other. They also identify types of insecurity and victimization that have been excluded from traditional, gendered definitions of security. As these narratives contest fundamental tenets of patriarchy and nationalism, their contributions to the reconstruction of ‘reality’ and history carry prospects for the transformation of both gender and ethnic relations.     

Exploring Perspectives in Narrative Research: An Indonesian Case Study*

Cet article veut examiner le processus par lequel deux chercheures, situées à des endroits très différents, analysent les données d'une étude qu'elles ont menée ensemble. À partir d'un projet de recherche narrative dans un groupe de collaboration, soutenus par un groupe central du programme d'études supérieures en études de la condition féminine à L'Université d'Indonésie (programme Kajian Wanita), les rôles de la chercheure canadienne et de la chercheure indonésienne étaient d'une importance cruciale à la fois dans la conceptualisation et dans L'analyse des données. Les auteures explorent ici quelques‐unes des façons par lesquelles leur position différente influe à la fois sur leur relation en tant que chercheures et sur leur analyse des données. This paper is an attempt to examine the process whereby two researchers, situated very differently, analysed the data arising from a jointly conducted study. The roles of the Canadian and the Indonesian researcher were crucially important in both framing and analysing the data arising from a collaborative group narrative research project, carried out with a core group in the graduate program in Women's Studies at the University of Indonesia (Program Studi Kajian Wanita). In this paper we explore some of the ways in which our different positioning affected both our relationship as researchers and our analyses of the data.     

Immigration Policy Changes After 9/11

Abstract

Immigrants to the United States face new and significant challenges since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Within a dramatically short time national immigration policy has become oriented more to protecting Americans than welcoming people from other nations. Creation of the Department of Homeland Security, dismantling the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and tightening the rules and enforcement provisions for immigrants were changes designed, not to facilitate the immigration process, but to counter the threat of terrorism and preventing potential terrorists from entering the country. This article discusses the recent policy changes that have affected the immigrant community and reviews how professionals working with immigrants might address these changes to better help their clients.     

Mentors and Protégés: Power-Dependent Dyads*

Largely as a consequence of the recent interest in the educational and occupational experiences of women, a well-known but long overlooked form of social interaction–the mentor-protégé relationship–is now receiving some attention. This concern usually views the relationship as a highly beneficial one. However, virtually no sociological analysis has been made of this phenomenon. This article provides a sociological conceptualization of the mentor-protégé relationship as a power-dependent, dyadic role set with a strong potential for role strain. Additional consideration is given to gender problems in mentor-protégé relationships.     

Mobilization and Meaning: Toward an Integration of Social Psychological and Resource Perspectives on Social Movements*

This paper presents a model of the mobilization of people into movements that is compatible with a resource mobilization perspective on social movement organizations as the unit of analysis, but substitutes a cognitive social psychology based on attribution theory and the sociology of knowledge for the incentive model typically used in this perspective. We focus on the problem, neglected by resource mobilization theorists, of explaining the translation of objective social relationships into subjectively experienced, collectively defined grievances. On a macro level, our model gives independent causal weight to ideology without discounting the role that resources also play in defining group goals. On a social psychological level, we identify three distinct organizational strategies–conversion, coalition, and direct action–for mobilizing persons as participants and examine some cognitive and organizational consequences of each strategy. We conclude that incorporation of a more adequate social psychology of individual participation is not only compatible with the organizational focus and emphasis on rationality of the resource mobilization perspective, but can provide important insights into problems both social movement theorists and social movement organizers see as significant.