Main Street U.S.A.: A Comparison/Contrast of Streetscapes in Disneyland and Walt Disney World

All visitors to Disneyland and Walt Disney World must enter the “magic kingdoms” by way of Main Street, U.S.A.—the Disney version of a small town landscape of around the turn of the century, the “classical period” in American streetscape evolution. Extending far beyond its park setting, Disney's idealized Main Street (along with the overall design of which it is a part) is “one of the most successfully designed streetscapes in human history,” and has exerted enormous impact. Its design and images have influenced city and new town planning and the restoration of real Main Streets across the country, inspiring architectural restoration philosophy and practice; in short, writing an important chapter in the history of America's fondest image of itself. It was in fact from the ranks of planners and designers, not academic intellectuals or even social commentators (who scorned and reviled Disney's creations), that the initial awareness and appreciation of theme parks as structures and images came, as a leading edge in the breakthrough in perception of popular environments which has occurred only within the past decade. Richard Francaviglia is concerned with the architecture and design of Main Street U.S.A. as it preserves, controls, modifies and perpetuates a central collective image. But he goes further, comparing the original articulation in California with the Florida version a design generation later. What is ultimately revealing is the contrast of both of these related but distinct ideals within the parks to Main Street as it actually existed.     

Disney World as Structure and Symbol: Re-Creation of the American Experience

It has been said that the Disney theme parks are the cities America wishes it had; immune to death and taxes, clean, orderly, crime-free family style environments of optimism and nostalgia, politically independent, with the advantages but few of the vices of real cities. Treatments of the amusement park in political terms, such as Michael Harrington's Atlantic article, “To the disney Station,” while invariably critical, indicate the important position these places have attained as complex institutions in themselves—living commentaries on society at Large, as well as important standard-setters for new social, political and economic philosophy for planning and control in all sectors of national life. In this way, Disney's worlds—and parks built under their influence—have come to be viewed as societies in miniature, reliable images of work, leisure, human relations and politics in the larger world outside. Here anthropologist David Johnson uses morphology as the key to discerning the meanings of these prototype parks for basic cultural values in many aspects, including work, class, economic order, technology, individualism, history, and cross-cultural adventure. In fact, these Disney versions have now themselves become a special mode of first-hand experience in the repertoire of the great national shared experience.     

Disobedience and support for democracy: Evidences from the World Values Survey

For some time, social movement research and political science have studied protests and activists. However, little empirical research attempts to relate movements to the type of social change they endeavour to achieve. In this paper, we suggest that different psychosocial processes may distinguish between different types of movement and protest. In particular, we cross lines between classical social psychology studies on the individual–authority relationship and studies on protest and social movements. We focus attention on the psychological processes triggered in obedience/disobedience. Our results show that when disobedience is associated with attitudes of inclusiveness, it is also positively linked to prodemocratic individual attitudes and to the enhancement of democracy at institutional levels.     

Motivation and mission in the public sector: evidence from the World Values Survey

It is well-recognised that workers may have intrinsic—as well as extrinsic—motivations. Previous studies have identified that public sector workers typically have a higher level of intrinsic motivation, compared to workers in the private sector. This paper compares (measures of) intrinsic motivation among 30,000+ workers in the two sectors across 51 countries using data from the World Values Survey. We find that public sector workers exhibit higher intrinsic motivation in many countries, but that this is not a universal relationship. One possibility is that public sector mission may influence whether or not motivated workers choose to work in the sector. In support of this, we show that the level of (public) corruption—which plausibly affects mission—can explain some of the variation across countries in the proportion of motivated workers in the sector.     

中国传统文化中的和谐思想及其现代价值

“和”与“中”是中国传统文化的基本价值观,它表现在中国古人处理人与自然、人与社会、民族与民族关系中,体现于传统文化的方面面面。深入发掘中国传统文化的和谐思想资源对我们今天构建社会主义和谐社会具有重要的现实价值。     

儒学回归中国走向世界的理论价值与实践意义

当人类进入经济全球化,思想多元化的新时期,作为中华民族的主流传统文化的儒家学说,在经历了外部的冲击和内部的反思后,以其日久弥新的魅力,为重塑中国人的信仰和道德提供精神支撑,为可持续地发展经济提供健康的思维模式,为世界和平提供积极的思想资源,积极而不断地展示出其丰富而深邃的普世价值。     

传统伦理文化需要融入当代意识——兼论孝文化与家庭和谐

中国优秀传统文化博大精深源远流长有深厚底蕴,从近代文化发展,体现了只有在不同历史时期融入当代意识,才能得到创新和发展,才有生命力。当前我国提出构建和谐社会,孝文化是家庭的稳定、巩固与和谐的基础。     

论传统公私观在近代的变革

中国传统的公私观在近代遭到几代新学家的质疑、批判。他们公开肯定私的正当、合理,但是,他们在倡私的过程中并未提倡人们置公利于不顾,而是试图正确地处理好公私、群己、人我关系,实现彼此调和。这同他们在这一时期所提倡的“合理利己”主义是一致的。