THE "BANALITY OF EVIL" REFRAMED: The Social Construction of the "Final Solution" to the "Jewish Problem"

Research on the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews has arguably been dominated by historians. Yet many historians remain confounded by the Holocaust's major paradox: the "banality of evil" that occurred during the Nazi regime. In this article I argue that understanding of the "banality of evil" paradox can be advanced by reframing previously unsynthesized research in terms of a constructionist theory of social problems. I view the "Jewish problem" and its "final solution" as having a "natural history" that is characterized by the development and unfolding of claims about problems and the formulation and implementation of solutions to problems. I trace the construction of the "Jew" throughout history and as it was identified, acknowledged, and applied in a particular sociocultural and political context. By providing the first application of constructionism to a genocidal event, I show that the social processes that construct genocide parallel those that construct other social problems, and that it is precisely this correspondence that makes the construction of the "Jewish problem" and its "final solution" banal.     

Interwoven migration narratives: identity and social representations in the Lusophone world

This article provides an exploratory analysis of the life narratives of migrants in the Portuguese-speaking world. By interweaving the life experiences of eight participants in three thematic clusters – ‘shared past’, language and sense of community – we propose a critique of the deep-seated idea of the Lusophone space as a community constructed by the harmonious conviviality of different countries and people. Drawing on contributions from cultural studies, social psychology, anthropology and sociology, we first aim to give voice to the human subjects who embark on migrations and then to understand how the engendered process of identity construction is framed by their social world, simultaneously reframing it. Thus, we aim at shedding light on the ways in which aspects of the political discourses on Lusophony are used (and are instrumental) to the migrants’ identity narrative (re)construction.     

Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Reframing Technique in Psychodynamic Social Work Practice

This multiple case study responds to the need for process and effectiveness studies in mental health social work practice through providing an in-depth analysis of the operationalisation of the reframing technique from a psychodynamic perspective. The practitioner–researcher studies (1) the way reframing (theory) is applied in the work with the parents of six latency aged children suffering from child separation anxiety disorder (practice) and (2) the effects of the technique on the parents and their relationship with the child. Reframing provided relational meaning and accordingly modified the parental ambivalence to bring the child for assessment, the parental inability to set boundaries on child aggressive behaviours, the parental child overprotection behaviours, the separation anxiety symptoms of the child, the parental phobic anxiety, the emotionally painful parental psychosocial histories, and the parental couple relationship problems. The study establishes that the concept of reframing is worth further exploration in mental health social work practice.     

DESPERATELY SEEKING EAST ASIA AMIDST THE POPULARITY OF SOUTH KOREAN POP CULTURE IN ASIA

This study questions the term ‘East Asia’ by investigating its usage in South Korean mass media and academic discourse about the Korean Wave and by reframing the Korean Wave as a source of new definitions of the cultural geography of East Asia and East Asian sensibilities instead of its current designations as either an empty signifier or a profitable market. Reframing the Korean Wave as a set of seminal iterations of East Asian pop culture includes its multiplicity and historicity, which enables the delineation of the cultural geography of East Asia as neither a unilateral nor fixed topography but rather something that is constantly re-imagined via pan-Asian pop cultures, materialized through actual encounters, and re-invented through shared historic pasts and modernizing desires. Examining East Asian pop culture also helps to illuminate current structures of feeling in East Asia (‘East Asian sensibilities’). The study concludes with suggestions for future collaborative works and theoretical endeavors, which are imperative for the establishment of East Asian pop culture as an object of analysis.     

OFFICIAL FRAMES IN SOCIAL MOVEMENT THEORY: The FBI, HUAC, and the Communist Threat in Hollywood

Social movement researchers acknowledge that frames promoted by state managers compete in intense framing contests with collective action frames promoted by social movement entrepeneurs. But they have not analyzed the construction and promotion of these "official frames.'The FBI framing of the communist threat in Hollywood during the 1940s is examined and the limits of the countersubversive anticommunist master frame are explored. State agencies are established as signifying agents, and the construction and promotion of official frames is compared to similar processes for collective action frames.     

Cosmopolitan stance negotiation in multicultural academic settings

Our analysis of an informal event involving Chinese and Spanish students and lecturers displays the cumulative nature of stance negotiation in multicultural settings. It also highlights the role of sociocultural and ideological elements in stancetaking, not only in relation to the positions adopted by the participants, but also in the successive redefinition and reframing of the stance objects. Sociocultural and ideological elements are also crucial for the collective construction of intersubjectivities, particularly among mobile citizens. The way in which our international students managed to overcome misalignments, the values and ideologies evoked within the interaction, reveal nuances of cosmopolitanism that point to a globalization of tastes triggered by multiculturalism and the worldwide expansion of capitalism. Sharing a cosmopolitan orientation, however, did not prevent ideological contradictions among the participants. An analysis of how these were voiced and negotiated allows grasping the remarkably wide spectrum of cosmopolitanism(s) today.     

Fat Studies: Mapping the Field

An extensive body of literature concerning obesity already exists, but this paper seeks to map the field of an emerging body of work that is critical of that dominant discourse. Although it has been most recently mobilised by the rhetoric of an assumed global obesity epidemic, or moral panic around fatness, Fat Studies has an extensive history and interdisciplinary literature which questions and problematises traditional understandings of obesity and draws upon the language, culture and theory of civil rights, social justice and social change. Fat Studies enables the reframing of the problem of obesity, where it is not the fat body that is at issue, but the cultural production of fatphobia. Given the powerful commercial, ideological and institutional interest in maintaining dominant obesity discourse, such reframing is contested. Nevertheless, this paper demonstrates that Fat Studies offers dynamic new possibilities for social scientists interested in using fat as an interrogative lens.     

Public Relations as Negotiation: An Issue Development Perspective

In this essay 1 reconceptualize public relations as negotiation within an issue development perspective, Issue development is a communication approach to negotiation that focuses on the framing and reframing of issues. Theoretical characteristics of communication and negotiation models are utilized to identify shortcomings of the two-way symmetrical model and to advance notions of public relations as negotiation within an issue development framework. Issue development public relations is a management process of negotiating the organization public relationship. Theoretical implications and future research questions are indicated.     

Children of Divorce and Single-Parent Lifestyles:

Both the increased frequency of divorce and the resultant increase in single-parent households have experienced dramatic increases since World War II. In many instances, divorce is a major disruptive experience that imposes primary impact upon all family members. Characteristically, various levels of adjustment are required of family members amid experiences that are novel and for which those involved are possible not well prepared. It may be that our efforts can be besf directed toward providing a reframing approach to parents and children experiencing divorce. For instance, there is evidence that children from single-parent families are good decision makers and that they have strengths and maturities associated with their experiences related to divorce. It seems to our advantage as professionals to be able to facilitate the cognitive reframing of parents and children in such a way that hopefulness and a sense of assurance and control can be implemented and sustained. The purpose of this article is (1) to integrate what is known about divorce-associated responses in children; (2) to promote a reframing approach in focusing on that which may be evaluated as positive and contributing to present well-being and future successes of those children; and (3) to guide practitioners as they work both programmatically and in direct service with children of divorce.     

Reframing Asperger syndrome: lessons from other challenges to the Diagnostic and statistical manual and ICIDH approaches

The medical approach to Asperger syndrome (AS) classifies it as a mental disorder. This paper critically examines the concept of mental illness as specified by the Diagnostic and statistical manual (DSM) in the light of published assessments and accounts of AS provided by a variety of sources. Taken together, these accounts provide further support for reframing AS as a socially constructed human difference rather than a pathology. The demedicalization of homosexuality is offered as one potential model for the nature of the reframing of AS.     

Mediator Listening,Dispute Reframing,and Mediation Outcome: A Pilot Study

This study examined the impact of mediator listening style on reframing, mediation outcome, and parties' perceptions of mediator performance. Trained mediators from the Alternative Dispute Resolution program at James Madison University served as third-party neutrals for thirty-two mediation sessions. Three experimental conditions tested critical listening, discriminative listening, and empathic listening. Significant differences were found among the listening conditions for reframing and mediation outcomes. Results suggest that mediators using empathic listening facilitate more conflict resolution and dispute settlement than mediators not using empathic listening. Analyses were done examining the subsequent effects of mediator listening style and reframing on parties' perceptions of mediator performance. Factor analysis and analysis of variance tests indicate disputants perceive empathic mediators as more fair and more objective than nonempathic mediators.     

STRATEGIC THERAPY WITH DEPRESSED MARRIED PERSONS: INITIAL AGENDA,THEMES AND INTERVENTIONS*

A strategic approach to depression is outlined. Reasons are given for initially working with each spouse separately. For the purpose of discussion, three interrelated aspects of depressive marital situations are distinguished: the unsatisfying marriage, the distress of the depressed person and the spouse's response. Interventions focus on dampening the marital conflict rather than solving the problems that are presented; reframing depression as an active, dignified practice; and blocking the spouse's tendency to become over-involved in well-meant but unhelpful efforts to assist the depressed person. A case example is provided.     

He Said What? Guided Cognitive Reframing About the Co‐Resident Father/Stepfather–Adolescent Relationship

We studied young adolescents' seeking out support to understand conflict with their co‐resident fathers/stepfathers, and the cognitive and affective implications of such support‐seeking, phenomena we call guided cognitive reframing. Our sample included 392 adolescents (M_age = 12.5, 52.3% female) who were either of Mexican or European ancestry and lived with their biological mothers and either a stepfather or a biological father. More frequent reframing was associated with more adaptive cognitive explanations for father/stepfather behavior. Cognitions explained the link between seeking out and feelings about the father/stepfather and self. Feelings about the self were more strongly linked to depressive symptoms than cognitions. We discuss the implications for future research on social support, coping, guided cognitive reframing, and father–child relationships.     

POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION: AN INTERACTIONAL VIEW

This article posits postpartum depression as an evolving interpersonal system and provides treatment recommendations derived from an interactional/problem resolution viewpoint. Postpartum depression is conceptualized as a predictable developmental, family crisis, which occurs when the natural difficulties of childbirth are benignly mishandled. Seven tactics are illustrated for interdicting maladaptive interpersonal spirals: accepting and normalizing conflicting complaints; accessing significant others as customers for change; reframing depression as positive but costly; deriving adaptive behavior from maladaptive premises; regulating involvement of others in childrearing; restraining new mother from overly rapid resumption of roles; and predicting and prescribing relapse.     

Brave new brains: sociology,family and the politics of knowledge

This article critically explores sociological arguments for greater biosocial synthesis, centring contemporary developments in public policy to demonstrate how such a reframing of humanity tends to reinforce existing political orders and socially patterned normativities. The case for further amalgamation of the social and life sciences is examined to suggest that production of somatic markers of truth from relational encounters largely relies upon an anaemic and politically contained version of the social as acquired in early childhood. More specifically, the gendered, classed and culturally specific practice of parenting children has come to occupy a new significance in accounts of social brains and environmentally reactive genomes. This is highlighted through a discussion of ‘early intervention’ as a heavily biologized policy rationale framing opportunities for biosocial collaboration. It is argued that late capitalist objectives of personal investment and optimization are driving this assimilation of the social and life sciences, pursuing an agenda that traces and re‐scores long‐standing social divisions in the name of progress.     

BIOLOGICALLY BASED DEFICIT IN THE IDENTIFIED PATIENT: INDICATIONS FOR PSYCHOEDUCATIONAL STRATEGIES

The phrase "identified patient" has attracted a wide following among family therapists representing a variety of approaches to family therapy. It is based on the assumption that persons referred for psychotherapeutic treatment are often incorrectly labeled "patients" when, in fact, their symptoms are manifestations of family, not individual, dysfunction or pathology. It is the thesis of this article that when biologically based deficits in the identified patient are a salient determinant of interpersonal dysfunction, such reframing is inappropriate. Psycho-educational strategies for treating families of persons with such physically based conditions as learning disability, attention deficit disorder, epilepsy, autism, and various medical illnesses and handicaps, are recommended.     

Sociocultural Researchers Can Shape the Future of Education

It has been argued that self-generated explanation (self-explanation) is an important tool in the acquisition of knowledge. However, the rationalist and the empiricist approaches, with which self-referential activity has usually been discussed, makes the phenomenon of self-explanation problematic. In this article, I examine self-explanation as a private case of the classical learning paradox, which is associated with self-referential activity, and consider an activity oriented solution to this difficulty. From a practical perspective, I suggest a reframing of self-reference in Activity Theory in order to provide researchers with a method for analyzing and supporting bootstrapping phenomena, such as the self-explanation effect, in learning and problem solving.     

"EPISTEMOLOGY" AS A SEMANTIC POLLUTANT

Some family therapists, following Bateson, use "epistemology" in a peculiar, non-traditional way. Nothing is gained, and much appears to be lost, by this practice. Its main effect is to promote the idea that systemic and psychological modes of explanation are incompatible. In fact, a kind of cognitive psychology is implicit in what family therapists say about reframing. By appropriating the territory of psychology and calling it epistemology instead, family therapists merely pollute the semantic environment,¹ muddying the very things that theoretical terms are supposed to clear up.     

Narrative Structures and the Analysis of Incest

Our approach to the past is informed by the central tenets of both the interactionist and narrative perspectives. Narrative structures are the cultural and structural contexts within which pasts are transacted. Accordingly, when narrative structures change, the storied characters of pasts are changed. We analyze incest and child abuse as a substantive site to illlustrate how the criteria of believability and proper tellings vary by context. We note that the bias of civility in the interactionist understanding of the reframing of pasts does not hold in the case of flashbacks.     

Does She Boil Eggs? Towards a Feminist Model of Disability

The Social Model of Disability is increasingly recognised as the theoretical and ideological underpinning for the collectivisation and politicisation of disabled people. This paper examines the Social Model from the perspective of disabled women. It then considers the position of disabled women in relation to both the women's movement and the disability movement. It argues that the former is oriented towards non-disabled women and the latter towards disabled men, with a consequent further marginalisation and disempowering of disabled women. Drawing on the history of black feminism, the author (who is a white non-disabled woman, and who teaches anti-discriminatory social work practice based on an integrated theoretical model) concludes by offering to disabled women a reframing of the analysis in which to explore their simultaneous experiencing of their gender and disability.