Conspiracy,Paranoia and the problem of knowledge

Using a case study, this paper presents a critique of Lemert's classic paper, “Paranoia and the Dynamics of Exclusion.” Starting from the position that Lemert did not prove his case, that in fact, there are no clear-cut grounds for determining whether an event called a conspiracy really exists, this case study leads to a consideration of the ethnomethodological notion of reflexivity of common sense knowledge. I wish to thank Leroy C. Gould and Andrew L. Walker for helping in the gathering of the data and Howard Schwartz, Horacio Fabrega, Craig Lambert, Loren H. Roth and Eviatar Zerubavel for comments and criticism.     

The Autonomy of the State,Radical Left and Karatani's Capital‐Nation‐State: The Turkish Left of 1960‐1971

The purpose of this paper is to provide an account of how leading radical left movements of Turkey in 1960–71 conceptualized the state. The analytical framework draws on the mode of exchange framework developed by Kojin Karatani. The Turkish Left was unable to theorize the autonomy of the state, the construction of the nation as an imagined community, and the importance of popular resistance against the state's destruction of traditional communities. Right‐wing political parties filled this vacuum with the populist discourse of nation. The Turkish Left conceded its social base to right‐wing parties and hence lost the opportunity of winning political efficacy. Our critical assessment of the Left of Turkey in 1960–71 is pertinent to discussions about present‐day left‐wing strategies that leave the nation and ravaged communities to right parties to exploit or utilise as part of their program.     

The Secular and the Radical in Irish Associational Culture of Mid-Victorian Glasgow

It will be argued in this article that, in engaging with a diasporic network centred on the Dublin-centred National Brotherhood of St Patrick, a more public and confident Irish Catholic leadership emerged in Glasgow during the 1860s. The self-improving reading room culture that the Brotherhood was at pains to provide for also, however, proved attractive to Irish-Scots workers and gave them important formal associational experience. When the local Catholic hierarchy portrayed this as secret society nationalism in disguise, leading Irish Catholic worthies reacted by publicly associating themselves with more militant nationalists in expressions of an Irishness that was both secular and, at times, radical.     

Globalization,the knowledge society,and the Network State: Poulantzas at the millennium

In State, Power, Socialism, Nicos Poulantzas conceptualized a state that materializes and concentrates power and displaces the class struggle from the economic to the political arena. In the past twenty years, much has changed. We argue that economic relations have been transformed by economic globalization, work reorganization, and the compression of space, time, and knowledge transmission through an information and communications revolution. Knowledge is far more central to production, and the locus of the relation between power and knowledge has moved out of the nation state that was so fundamental to Poulantzas’ analysis.     

State Building,State Autonomy and the Identity of Society: The Case of the Israeli State*

Abstract Into the conventional framework of the state civil-society relationship, which usually includes the state's autonomy and the state's strength, this paper adds a dimension - the identity of the collectivity. The collective identity is from one side the common 'symbolic space’ for both the state and the actors of the civil society, and from the other side the ‘battlefield’ between the state, the society and the different components of the civil society. These tensions stem in a great measure from the emphasis of some aspects over others (for example the primordial vs. civic ingredients) of the collective identity. These interpretations have far reaching implications on the rules-of-the-game in the state and on the state-society relationship. Its identity is central to the determination of the various societal boundaries of the collectivity. This approach is exemplified through analysis of the building of the Israeli state and its transformation from a community to a nation-state, and again from a nation-state to a community state, in a perspective of about 75 years. The article fundamentally challenges the conventional presentation and analysis of the social and political history of Israel.     

The Effects of a Computer Network on Pediatric Pain and Anxiety

SUMMARY

The objective of this study was to test the impact of an enhanced version of STARBRIGHT World (SBW2)-a private computer network for hospitalized children. The impact of SBW2 was assessed with a series of 44 replicated single system designs. Utilizing an ecological momentary assessment approach, self-reports were obtained regarding children's perceptions of their pain intensity, pain aversive-ness and anxiety. The results from the single system designs were aggregated using meta-analysis. Children experienced significantly less pain intensity, pain aversiveness, and anxiety in the SBW2 condition. These findings provide evidence regarding the effectiveness of SBW2 and demonstrate the utility of employing meta-analysis with single system designs.     

The Ideal and the Real:

Kelantan Malay society exhibits several properties, such sa a bilateral social structure and unrestricted economic participation for both sexes, which tend to promote equality for women at the village level. At the same time Islam, introduced to the area 500 years ago, actively minimizes the status and rights of women. These contending influences promote the creation of a set of village level strategies for maintaining the letter of Islamic law while preserving the spirit of traditional village social structure and the rough equality of women. Further, these influences can be seen to affect the roles of young unmarried women, wives, divorcees, and even prostitutes.     

Real Gender: Identity,Loss, and the Capacity to Feel Real

This article concerns gender and feeling real. Beginning with Judith Butler’s deconstruction of gender as an ontological category, it argues that the subjective experience of gender as real has been underaccounted for. By reviewing Butler’s work on gender melancholy and then elaborating psychoanalytic theories of identification and reality, this article links feeling real to the dual capacities to both separate from and connect with the object. To illustrate the implications for thinking gender identity and transformation, it concludes with a reading of Miles Walser’s poem about the name discarded in a gender transition.     

Investigating the Relationship Between Real Estate Agents,Segregation, and House Prices: Steering and Upselling in New York State

This article leverages a unique data set, recently developed regression methods, and qualitative interviews to investigate the multiple ways real estate agents produce housing inequality. We find that the clustering of agents in and around certain neighborhoods correlates positively with house prices. Our results also show a significant relationship between agent concentration and racial segregation. Our qualitative data reveal how agents engage in steering and upselling. The findings enhance our understanding of mechanisms in the housing market, and provide more empirical clarity on the role real estate agents play in asset and place inequality.     

Consumer Culture,Taste Preferences,and Social Network Formation

One of the most important and consistent findings in the social networks literature is that individuals are socially connected to people who resemble themselves. This finding extends to preferences for consumer culture. Whereas network theorists previously had presumed that social networks generated this outcome through a process of social influence, this traditional conception of the relationship between culture and social networks has been challenged by new theoretical perspectives and novel methodological techniques that enable researchers to empirically test the causal direction of the relationship. In this article, I first discuss how theorists have adjudicated between competing explanations of the relationship of taste preferences and social network structure. Second, I discuss how sociologists have theorized that tastes contribute to variation in network structure. Third, I examine survey and ethnographic research that discusses interactional mechanisms by which people actively mobilize culture to form social relationships. Fourth and finally, I discuss research that explores how consumer culture constitutes the meaning of social relationships and how relationship category affects theorizing of network formation.     

青年网络亚文化的文化逻辑

互联网的诞生带来了传播范式的革命,网络这个大型广场赋予了参与者狂欢式的审美体验。在青年网络亚文化中,节日庆典与广场狂欢充分体现了网络话语的精神特质,网络民主与在线自由彰显了网络话语的行为机理。网络主体的迷失与渴望自由的想象异邦,显示了在现实社会与虚拟社会的张力之下,多极式交流格局对意义多元化的过度张扬造成了普遍价值规范缺席的文化困境。在网络社会的自由与秩序之间,救赎之道在于建立一种富有弹性的张力,以人文关怀调解网络技术进步与人类生活意义的失衡。本文以网络话语传播为视角进行相应分析。     

获取、整合与疏解：大学生网络媒介需求影响因素及满足形态

对上海9所高校1391名在读大学生网络媒介使用现状调查表明,大学生使用网络媒介的动机主要集中于信息获取、个体整合、情绪疏解三种需求,并凸显四种满足形态。男性以娱乐互动满足网络媒介需求,大学生普遍以物质消费满足网络媒介需求,学校适应效能决定学生使用学习资讯媒介的程度,社会行为趋奇化及社交出行、娱乐互动满足学生变化需求。与此相应,当前高校大学生使用网络媒介需求的培育思路和方法亦有待及时更新。     

Children,Parents and the State: The Children Act, 1908

SUMMARY: This article examines the first major consolidating piece of child welfare legislation in Britain, the 1908 Children Act. The focus is on the relationship established between child, parent, and state. Contemporary reasons for the need for this re-ordered relationship are suggested, but it is also argued that in certain respects parallels can be found between the Edwardian Act and that of 1989. This in turn suggests the persistence of certain issues in child welfare, and especially that of the division of responsibilities for the care of children between parents and State.