The struggle of Belorussian Jews for the restitution of possessions and housing in the first Postwar decade

Illusions About the Soviet Position in the Middle East. Amnon Sella, Soviet Political and Military Conduct in the Middle East. London: The Macmillan Press Ltd., 1981. xiii + 211pp. Maps. Tables. Bibl. Appendices. Name Index. Subject Index. £15.00.

A Valuable Piece of Scholarship. Yaacov Ro'i, Soviet Decision Making in Practice: The USSR and Israel, 1947–1954. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1980. 540pp.

Yugoslav Jewry in World War II. Jasa Romano, Jevreji Jugoslavije 1941–1945. Zrtve genocida ucesnici narodnooslobodilackog rata (Jews of Yugoslavia 1941–1945. Victims of Genocide and Freedom Fighters*). Belgrade: Federation of Jewish Communities in Yugoslavia, 1980. 590 pp. Tables. Bibl. Name Index. English Summary.

Antisemitism of a Great Writer. David I. Goldstein, Dostoyevsky and the Jews. Austin and London: University of Texas Press, 1980. iv + 231pp. Index. (University of Texas Press Series 3). $17.50, £12.20.

A Tortured Perspective: A Russified Liberal and the Jewish Predicament. O. O. Gruzenberg. Yesterday: Memoirs of a Russian‐Jewish Lawyer. (Edited and with an Introduction by Don C. Rawson. (Tr. from the Russian by Don C. Rawson and Tatiana Tipton). Berkeley, Cal.: University of California Press, 1981. xxix‐t‐ 235pp. Map. Chart of Court and Law Enforcement System. Glossary of Names. Bibl. Index. $27.50. £19.25.

On the Eve of Babi Yar. Aleksandr Borshchagovsky, Di Nakht Erev Babi Yar. Drame (The Night Before Babi Yar. A Drama). (Translated from the Russian by Note Lurye). Moscow: Sovetish Heymland, no. 9, pp. 16–56.     

PUBLIC PEDAGOGY AS CULTURAL POLITICS: STUART HALL AND THE CRISIS OF CULTURE

This article argues that Stuart Hall's work provides an important theoretical framework for developing an expanded notion of public pedagogy, for making the pedagogical central to any understanding of political agency, and for addressing the primacy of public pedagogy and cultural politics in any viable theory of social change. Hall's work becomes particularly important not only in making education crucial to the practice of cultural studies, but also in providing a theoretical and political corrective to recent attacks on cultural politics, which cut across ideological lines and include theorists as politically diverse as Harold Bloom, Richard Rorty and Todd Gitlin.     

TEXTURES OF THE MODERN: VIENNESE CONTRIBUTIONS TO CULTURAL HISTORY AND URBAN STUDIES

The following essay recapitulates the findings of a research project on Viennese modernity, which since 1995 has involved a group of historians, political scientists, literary scholars and sociologists examining the different phases in the history of the city in the twentieth century from a transdisciplinary perspective. The point of departure for the project was its participants' dissatisfaction with a myopic image of twentieth-century Vienna increasingly constricted to literary and aesthetic practices, which has focused on the ‘golden age’ of high culture in the Habsburg capital of the fin-de-siècle while omitting crucial periods of the city's history, in particular the political and cultural crisis between 1918 and 1938, and the phase of material and cultural reconstruction after the ‘collapse of civilization’ that was Nazism.     

CULT FICTIONS: CULT MOVIES,SUBCULTURAL CAPITAL AND THE PRODUCTION OF CULTURAL DISTINCTIONS

Using the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Sara Thornton, the paper investigates the problems of ‘writing as a fan’ through an analysis of cult movie fandom. It starts out from a critique of Jeff Sconce's work which claims that he fails to question the subcultural ideology through which fan cultures produce a sense of identity through their supposed difference from the ‘mainstream’. It then moves on to an analysis of fan writing on the ‘cult movie’, which examines not only the complex and contradictory strategies through which these writings produce a sense of subcultural identity, but also the extent to which these writings seek to construct identities through the construction of an inauthentic Other. The next section examines both exhibition practices and intellectual trends to illustrate the ways in which cult movie fandom emerged not as a reaction against the market or the academy,but rather through their historical development. Finally,the paper looks at the role of mass, niche and micro media within the production and maintenance of the scene and at the functions of rarity and exclusivity within it. In the process, the essay explores the contradictory and problematic nature of the concept of ‘mainstream, commercial cinema’, and the ways in which it is produced as the other of supposedly radical and alternative taste cultures, whether subcultural or academic.     

THE FIRST THINGS FIRST MANIFESTO AND THE POLITICS OF CULTURE JAMMING: TOWARDS A CULTURAL ECONOMY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN AND ADVERTISING

Advertising has long been recognized as an important cultural force by media and cultural studies scholars. Graphic design, despite its comparable ubiquity, has rarely been the subject of this kind of critique. Where these activities have been discussed, the emphasis has been overwhelmingly on their textual manifestations (graphics, ads, commercials) and, occasionally, on their reception. In the interest of working towards a fuller account of the overall circulation and reproduction of an increasingly commercial contemporary culture, then, this paper turns to the generative source of these ephemeral artefacts and, in particular, professional graphic design practice. By paying especial attention to the framing of current debates about accountability and social responsibility within this profession, this paper seeks to explore the constraining and enabling effects of commercial practice. Advertising and design are readily distinguishable from other economic institutions because of their declared expertise in creating specifically cultural forms of communication. Further, these practices rely on the skills of cultural intermediaries: individuals whose job it is to develop these forms to mediate between, or more properly, articulate, the realms of production and consumption. Graphic designers, it seems, enjoy much greater latitude for personal expression than ad creatives – or at least enjoy a professional culture, or habitus, that supports debate and dissent through a variety of activities, and recognizes non-commercial design projects as legitimate forms of expression. While the designers interviewed here may claim that advertising is a creative practice entirely subsumed by commercial constraints, they also recognize that their own professional activities involve only a limited degree of subjective control. Personal and non-commercial projects, often indirectly funded by income from business clients, appear to provide a more reliable means to creative fulfillment.     

BEYOND THE BIBLE AND THE CROSS: A SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF CHINESE ELDERS' PARTICIPATION IN CHRISTIAN CONGREGATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES

Mainland Chinese elders constitute a unique group in popular Christian participation and conversion. This work aims to explore the social contexts and cultural facets of Mainland Chinese elders' Christian practice in the United States. Based on face-to-face, in-depth interviews with 20 Mainland Chinese elders as well as participant observation at selected congregational settings, this study suggests that the existing theories on aging and religion as well as religious practice among immigrants are inadequate to explain Chinese elderly immigrants' participation in Christian congregations in the U.S. Instead, social isolation and lack of social support system resulting from immigration and aging process serve as the major drive for the elders to pursue social and cultural recognition from Chinese Christian gatherings. Besides religious services, social service functions of churches and opportunities for fellowship are other factors that explain Chinese elders' church involvement. In conclusion, we argue that social and cultural services are needed to particularly assist Chinese seniors to adjust and adapt to their elderly lives in the host country.     

The Search for Community Leaders: A Re-examination of the Reputational Technique*

A method similar to Bonjean's modification of the traditional reputational approach was applied to a study of two small communities within a Southern state. The relative absence of concealed and symbolic leaders suggests that leader visibility is a variable which varies systematically from community to community. Several community characteristics are posited as explanatory variables determining leader visibility.     

THE STUDY OF IDENTITY AS CULTURAL, INSTITUTIONAL, ORGANIZATIONAL, AND PERSONAL NARRATIVES: Theoretical and Empirical Integrations

I argue that the study of narrative identity would benefit from more sustained and explicit attention to relationships among cultural, institutional, organizational, and personal narratives of identity. I review what is known about these different types of narrative identity and argue that these narratives are created for different purposes, do different types of work, and are evaluated by different criteria. After exploring the inherently reflexive relationships between and among these various narratives of identity, I conclude with demonstrating how examining these relationships would allow a more complete understanding of the mutual relevance of social problem construction and culture, of the work of social service organizations attempting to change clients' personal narratives, and the possibilities of social change. Exploring relationships between and among different types of narrative identity would yield a better understanding of how narratives work and the work narratives do.     

Anarchism,Communism and Hispanidad: Australian Spanish Migrants and the Civil War

Despite thorough analysis of the Spanish Civil War, its impact on Spain's emigrant communities remains largely unstudied. This article focuses on the Australian Spanish community to demonstrate that migrants experienced a twofold response. They were galvanised to oppose Anglo-Australian control of the Solidarity campaign, and attempted to create an alternative public discourse. Secondly, the Civil War prompted the community to reassess their relationship to politics, dividing local Spaniards according to radical ideologies, as they debated how best to achieve socialist goals in both Spain and Australia.     

Intergenerational Relations: The Views of Older Jews and Arabs

The aim of the current qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of older Jews and Arabs on intergenerational family relations. Interviews were conducted with 20 men and women, 10 in each group, ages 65 and older. Five themes emerged from the analysis of the interviews: family is the major component of meaning of life; two dimensions of intergenerational relations: solidarity and ambivalence; intergenerational communication; filial expectations; and home and family as sources of honor and respect. Similarities and differences between the two groups were identified and explained, using modernization theory and cultural context.     

Exodus from the Babylonian Captivity: The Jews of Modern Iraq

The solving of the Eastern Question during the twentieth century ended the existence of the oldest Jewish Diaspora community; modern political, social, and economic phenomenon marginalized a significant ethnic minority that resided in Iraq for over two millennia. Much of this breakdown of relations with the Muslim majority, and the further marginalization of the Iraqi Jewish community can be traced to several events after the turn of the century that occurred during the inter-war period and extending to the creation of Israel in 1948. A rise in Arab nationalism, Germanophilia, British colonialism, and more importantly the answering of the Palestine Question effectively marginalized, and subsequently lead to the expulsion of the Iraqi Jewish community. The Iraqi Jews were marginalized in part by religio-cultural differences in language, which were exacerbated by Jewish economic preeminence in international commerce, which had expanded since the European Capitulations in the 1800s. Furthermore, Jews were denied full cultural inclusion by their exclusion from the military, which served as a cultural and political force in the period of Iraqi state-formation. Coupled with Zionism's rise in Palestine, and Europe, and its regional impact, the Iraqi Jews became viewed as a fifth column and a Trojan horse of European and Zionist imperialism by the Iraqi Muslim majority. Tensions came to a head in the Farhud of June 1941, an anti-Jewish uprising, which followed a pro-Nazi coup lead by Rashid Ali al-Gaylani. The Farhud came to symbolize the breaking point for the Iraqi Jewish community; because of a disproportionately privileged socio-economic status that was based on a different cultural existence, and regional political factors, the Jews of Iraq had been rejected by their host society of two millennia.     

The Leverage of Protest: Market,Media, and Reputational Disruption in Social Movement Success

How do social movements gain concessions from large corporations? The ability of protests to attain leverage by imposing disruption costs on their targets is widely assumed but less often tested. In this article, we assess the ability of protests to attain concessions by disrupting three broad sources of interest to firm officials: maximizing shareholder value, gaining positive media, and fostering a well-reputed image. In contrast to the body of research on the benefits to movements from shaping media discourses and damaging the reputations of their targets, we find that only market disruption provides protests with leverage. We show this through statistical analyses of an original database of protests against large corporations in the United States over five years, 2005–2009. This study advances social movement and organizational research by demonstrating the ways in which the interests of large corporations provide insurgents with means of attaining leverage over their targets. It also speaks to the broad debate over the importance of disrupting the material versus symbolic interests of movement targets. Our results suggest that when it comes to obtaining concessions from large corporations, it is material disruption and not symbolic disruption that provides movements with leverage.     

Industrialization and the Regime of Social Mobility in Postwar Japan

Abstract  This paper examines the hypothesis that the fluidity and openness of social stratification increase with industrialization, by applying a path analysis of status attainment and a log-linear analysis of social mobility to data from National Survey on Social Stratification and Mobility carried out five times at ten-year intervals since 1955 in Japan. The following two points are clarified through this analysis. First, the status attainment regime was constant from 1955 to 1995; when the effects of opportunity expansion due to economic growth are controlled, the data do not provide evidence that the openness of social stratification improved; and the industrialism thesis on openness is actually an illusion caused by the effects of economic growth. Second, the mobility regime was constant from 1955 to 1985, but the data from the 1995 survey do not fit the previous pattern and suggest a transformation may be under way. Based on the above findings, I will note that dissolution of the mobility regime must be considered when discussing the reality of future social stratification.