Life here beyond now: Chronotopes of the ideal life among Iranian transnationals

I address how U.S.‐based Iranian transnationals’ migration paths affect their (re)‐construction of chronotopes of the ideal life. Adopting an ethnographically grounded, discourse‐analytic approach, I illustrate how participants with student visas and U.S. Green Cards position themselves differently relative to images of success here [in the U.S.] and lack of success there [in Iran]. I argue that the chronotopes of success here and lack of success there (re)‐constructed by non‐resident Iranian students are prompted by a large‐scale cultural chronotope which pertains to their aspiration to stay in the U.S. This chronotope of ‘life beyond’ is less about a ‘remove from homeland’ and more about an ideal future in the host country. Migrants’ desires and anxieties, I argue, can determine what receives topical prominence in migration chronotopes – as in the case of Iranian educational migrants whose future positionings make temporality topically more prominent than spatiality.

     

Cultural Change and Gender Identity Trends in the 1970s and 1980s

Abstract  As in most capitalist countries, the advent of the "consumer society" has brought about radical cultural change in Japanese society. In this paper I aim to illustrate the undercurrents of this change, focusing on the transformation of social consciousness and gender identity as it is reflected in the popular and youth cultures. In order to show these changes, I have sellected several bestsellers from youth fictions ( sekhun-shousetsu ) as my main object of study and have presented several diagrams to illustrate the apparent relationship between this type of fictions and the so-called "aprgs-guerre" generation, the "gang of sun," the "baby-boomers," the "moratorium generation," the "mutant generation." While analyzing the historical trend of youth fiction for the last 45 years and refering to the other types of popular culture (films, popular songs, comics etc.), I shall attempt to throw light upon the substance of these changes and predict what directions the Japanese culture is likely to take in the future.     

Ways of Forgetting: Israel and the Obliterated Memory of the Palestinian Nakba

This study analyses national ways of forgetting. Following the eminent British Anthropologists Mary Douglas, I relate here to "forgetting" as "selective remembering, misremembering and disremembering" ( Douglas 2007 : 13). The case study offered here is that of the Israeli-Jewish forgetting of the uprooting of the Palestinians in the war of 1948. This paper discusses three facets of the collective forgetting: In the first subchapter I analyze the foundations of the Israeli regime of forgetting and discern three mechanisms of removing from memory of selected events: narrative forgetting: the formation and dissemination of an historical narrative; physical forgetting: the destruction of physical remains; and symbolic forgetting: the creation of a new symbolic geography of new places and street names. In the second subchapter , I look at the tenacious ambiguity that lies in the regime of forgetting, as it does not completely erase all the traces of the past. And finally, in the third subchapter , I discuss the growth of subversive memory and counter-memory that at least indicates the option of a future revision of the Israeli regime of forgetting.     

My Freudian Cocaine Fantasia: Altering Consciousness,Theorizing Desire

This paper speculates that Freud’s use of cocaine during the formative years of his theorizing shaped a particular conception of the nature of desire. One can draw correspondences between the phenomenology of cocaine intoxication and certain aspects of Freud’s ideas about desire: desire as appetitive, solipsistic, focused on discharge, defined by a quality of “drivenness,” subordinating of pleasure. Although relational reconsiderations have expanded our conception of desire, many contemporary people remain stringently Freudian in our experience of desire, as I use some clinical material to substantiate. In this sense we are all heirs to Freud’s cocaine consciousness.

In an imaginative leap, I link the wide cultural currency attained by psychoanalysis to its consilience with the logic of a coincident expanding capitalist economy—a mode of political economy that has now brought us to the brink of environmental destruction. I conclude that the future of civilization will depend on our ability to find other ways to live our desire.     

The Heterogeneous Effect of the Passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act on Stock Returns

I analyze how stock prices reacted to the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) of 1970. Previous studies focus on accounting measures or actual OSHA violations, and my work complements the literature by examining how shareholders expected OSHA to affect firm profitability. Returns fell around the OSH bill’s release to the House floor and its eventual passage, and average market value dropped by $1.5 million over the 3 days surrounding House Rules Committee release. Durable manufacturing and mining industries were hardest hit in OSH passage, losing $2.6 million and $5.7 million in average market value, respectively. I also find that larger firms with poorer working conditions sustained more negative returns, and market power, not union density, explains variation in expected profitability. Furthermore, future penalties appear unrelated to shareholder expectations about compliance costs.

Crisis, Identity, and Social Distinction: Cultural Politics of Food, Taste, and Consumption in Late Colonial Bengal

Abstract  This paper explores the culture of taste in the production of an urban, Hindu, Bengali middle class in late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Bengal/India. It analyzes how the Bengali middle class, the bhadralok , attempted to construct a "doxa" of gastronomy in order to subsume a dominant position for itself and to classify hierarchically other classes and social groups. The aspirations of this class as the future guardians of an incipient nation were in reality a politics of self-identity, which was based on ideas of a cultural exclusivity. This politics of self-identity for the Bengali middle class were inextricably inter-woven with issues of modernity, nationalism, and colonialism. Through my analysis, I stress the importance of the "historical" or the "collective", particularly in the context of formation of the bhadralok , as a dominant class.     

The patient's view

Conclusion It is time to draw the threads together. I have been arguing that we should lower the historical gaze onto the sufferers. Banish money, wrote John Keats, - banish sofas - Banish wine - Banish Music - But right Jack Health- Honest Jack Health, true Jack Health - banish Health and banish all the world. Health is the backbone of social history, and affliction the fons et origo of all history of medicine. For whereas one could plausibly argue, a history of crime should start not with the criminals but with law and police-because these define criminality - the sick cannot possibly be regarded as a class apart, conjured up by the faculty. Moreover, it is especially important to get under the skin of the sufferers, because most maladies have not in fact been treated by the profession but by self- or community help, or in the paramedical marketplace where the sufferers' own initiatives, confidence, and pockets are critical. In addition, lay medical power has also been crucial in a sphere I haven't touched upon here, since I have been concentrating on the sufferer as an individual - in other words, lay-instigated social, civic, and institutional strategies for sickness, above all, in earlier times, for coping with epidemic pestilences such as plague. For what emerges, for example, from recent studies of civic health arrangements in the Italian Renaissance is that physicians regularly had to play second fiddle, in the teeth of various lay interests, to city fathers, philanthropic patrons, and, of course, the Church itself. Medicine has never enjoyed full monopoly or police powers, and most healing, like charity, begins at home. The upshot is that doctors traditionally had to remember that he who paid the piper called the tune. George Bernard Shaw was well aware of this:The doctor learns that if he gets ahead of the superstitions of his patients he is a ruined man; and the result is that he instinctively takes care not to get ahead of them. That is why all the changes come from the laity. I do not intend to conclude by offering a set of theoretical models for understanding sick person-doctor interaction in times past. That would certainly be premature, and probably also counterproductive, by creating the illusion of patterns of typicality and uniformity. But I should like to tabulate certain strategies and broad interpretive guidelines for future investigations.

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The ��Semiotic Self��: From Peirce and Mead to Wiley and Singer

Norbert Wiley (1994) provides a synthesis of Peirce??s and Mead??s views on the self. The Peirce-Mead ideal type model of the self involves the I and the me as well as the I and the you. Hence, at each moment we are a combined ??me-I-you?? in past, present and future. Milton Singer (1989) discovers the semiotic self through his anthropological research, but does not apply the concept as rigorously as one might hope. Peirce??s triadic epistemology and Pragmatism is explored to frame his contribution to the semiotic self. His categories of Firstness, Secondnes and Thirdness are briefly considered. Some anecdotal information about the self in Indic Civilization is discussed. It is argued that the INSOR model can be useful. The key is to move beyond Cartesian notions and to see the semotic self as a ??semiotic object,?? always subject to interpretation by the person engaged in symbolic interaction and exchange.     

EXAMINING FRAME FORMATION IN PEER GROUP CONVERSATIONS

Frame analysis has been used to examine the ways in which movement groups articulate their goals, recruit participants, and respond to the counterframes of their opponents. But, with the notable exception of William Gamson's Talking Politics , theorists have not paid serious attention to the conversations of peer groups. This essay revisits some of Gamson's observations in an attempt to extend the scope of existing theory on frame analysis and peer group conversations. I begin with the premise that collective action frames are not only the product of shared, cultural narratives and personal experiences; they are also shaped by behavioral expectations, that are specific to the group, that regulate how the group "talks politics", and that delimit the boundaries of group-belonging. In exploring these group-specific dynamics, I draw attention to the relationship between "interaction frames", that are used to structure the dialogue of the group and "speaking positions", that are used to align new action-demands and political ideas with the preexisting frames of the group. My intent, in introducing these concepts, is not to provide a finished methodology but to present a beginning framework for future research and discussion. As I suggest here, the most promising answer to the questions posed by this essay lies in expanding the dialogue between the Goffmanian undercurrents of frame analysis and aspects of systems theory.     

I Wish: Multigenerational Regrets and Reflections on Teaching Children About Money

Millennials are struggling to meet current financial challenges. As we strive to improve financial capability in future generations, it is important that we look to the primary source of financial education: parents. This qualitative, multigenerational study explored what Millennials and their parents and grandparents (N?=?153) wish they had been taught about finances by their parents, as well as what parents and grandparents wish they had taught their children. Thematic content coding of the interviews revealed three core “I Wish” themes: “Practical Knowledge,” “Financial Stewardship,” and “Open Communication.” These findings can assist researchers, family life educators, financial educators, parents, and future parents to enhance the financial education provided by parents in the home.     

Envisioning Power in Mexico: Legitimacy, Crisis, and the Practice of Patrimony

Abstract In his early work, Eric R. Wolf made provocative arguments about the genealogy of power in Mexico. Yet once he broadened his interests to peasant studies and the history of capitalism, he never returned to make a sustained examination of power in Mexico. This article extends Wolf's insights into an analysis of the current political and economic situation in Mexico. I focus on the practice of categorizing objects as the inalienable property of a given collective, such as a city, region, institution, or nation. These possessions – often referred to as patrimonio (patrimony) – are understood to have been handed down from prior generations and intended to be handed down in turn to future generations. I look at this mode of characterizing property in the areas of subsoil resources, collectively held land, and "cultural properties."     

The Branded Self:

This investigation makes the argument that to a considerable degree, our sense of our selves is connected to the way advertising helps us shape our identities and focuses our attention on brands as a way of signifying who we are to others. My point of departure is Norbert Wiley’s The Semiotic Self (1995:37). I will use Bakhtin’s concept of dialogism to deal with Wiley’s notion that the self involves an internal conversation in which the present self (the “I”) talks about the past self (the “me”) to the future self (the “you”). The branded self discusses some important concepts in semiotic analysis and relates them to the notion of the “self” and then to other matters, such as branding.     

MYTHIC FACTS AND HERBERT BLUMER'S WORK ON RACE RELATIONS: A Comment on Esposito and Murphy's Article

Luigi Esposito and John Murphy (1999) have argued that research using Blumer's group position theory of race relations using statistical analysis of survey data research actually undermines Blumer's theory of race relations by ignoring its definitional and dynamic emphases, as well as its emphasis on human agency. Furthermore, they argue that surveys and other quantitative data are directly antithetical to Blumer's perspective and symbolic interaction in general, which instead supposedly espouse nongeneralizing, idiographic, interpretive methods, such as "sympathetic introspection.' This commentary focuses on these latter points of their argument. I think Esposito and Murphy present questionable interpretations of Blumer's view of scientific concepts, of his methodological position, and symbolic interactionism. I first discuss Esposito and Murphy's depiction of Blumer's perspective as being "non-generalizing' with a focus on the sensitizing-definitive continuum of concepts. Second, I address the question of whether Blumer, and symbolic interactionism in general, is antiquantitative. I conclude by noting the importance of this debate for understanding race relations as well as the present and future place of symbolic interactionism in sociology.     

Search for Unity: Will the Real Practicing Sociologist Please Stand Up?

In this presidential address given at the Unity 2000 Meeting held in Bethesda, Maryland, I briefly identify and define various types of applied side sociologists. My objective was twofold. First, I wanted to express my appreciation for the necessity of organizational cooperation. Second, I wanted to demonstrate that diversity among practitioners and by association representative organizations is a strength not a weakness. I conclude by identifying six collaborative paths these representative organizations could take to promote unity.     

Working with families of severely disturbed children in a day treatment setting

This article deals with the use and effectiveness of family therapy techniques, particularly structural and systems techniques, in working with the families of severely disturbed children in a day treatment setting. Case examples and a segment of an audiotape of one family demonstrating circular questioning will be included. The paradigm for dealing with these families is based on systems theory rather than a model of individual dynamics. I see the task of the future as solidifying of systems theory and skills and an integration of all that we have learned about individual dynamics and systems into a cohesive model for helping people.Presented to the NASW Symposium in Washington, D.C., November 22, 1983, under the title Family Therapy in a Children's Day Treatment Setting. The author acknowledges appreciation to the staff of the Seattle Children's Home Day Treatment Program, whose case material is presented; Liz Belniw, Phil Bohn, Randy Brandies, and Wanda Welch-Bresnick.     

Why one person one vote?

We provide a simple justification as to why the core principal in liberal democracies the one-person-one-vote is desirable. We compare two possible constitutions. In a fixed democracy, each individual has one vote and the same opportunity to propose public projects. In a flexible democracy, those that set the agenda can additionally propose to limit future participation in voting and agenda-setting. We show that a fixed democracy restricts majorities from taxing minorities to a greater extent than a flexible democracy. A flexible democracy may be more suited to enable a polity to undertake public projects. This possible advantage may be too small to outweigh taxation distortions and citizens unanimously favor the one-person-one-vote rule ex ante.I am grateful to Ami Glazer, Ulrich Erlenmaier, Tobias Kleinschmidt, seminar participants in Heidelberg and Konstanz, and in particular to an anonymous referee for valuable suggestions and comments.     

Rethinking about Civilizations: The Politics of Migration in a New Climate

Abstract

In this paper, I will lay out some useful conceptual/theoretical markets that will help us to understand, and resolve, significant political challenges to ‘action’ on climate change migration. Thus, while this paper is concerned with climate change and migration responses, it is also concerned with understanding how we understand migration in the context of climate change, and how climate change forces a radical shift in such understandings. To do so, I pick up on the work of Robert W. Cox and push it in a different direction. In particular, I am interested in his work on civilizations, and how this civilizational account of world politics opens up space for thinking about climate change broadly, and climate change migration specifically. I argue that Cox’s account of ‘inter-civilizational’ politics helps us to solve a pressing analytical problem: how to rethink the coordinates of contemporary cosmopolitics in the ‘Anthropocene’, and reconsider the frames of analysis that we adopt to understand and respond to climate change migration. I demonstrate this by considering two distinctly different ‘civilizational’ accounts of migration and mobility in the Asia-Pacific/Oceania region (one territorial and the other maritime), and consider how these might reveal an important source of future change. By sketching out this approach, my intention is to mobilize the resources offered by Cox in order to further his project of envisaging alternative world orders, and post-hegemonic political relations therein.     

A Sinner Among the Saints: Confessions of a Sociologist of Culture and Religion

As one who came early and has stayed late at the sociological party, I thought it would be appropriate to provide a brief inventory of my sins over more than 40 years as a sociologist of culture and religion. Where culture is concerned, my own changing perspectives parallel developments in the field itself, though I also confess to a few doubts and suspicions regarding culture's current revival. Turning to religion, I identify myself with both Durkheim and Weber if only as another scholar in the field who is religiously unmusical. I confess to wondering why so many of my colleagues have paid so little attention to religion. And having raised the question, I go on to suggest several answers and rebut all but the last with materials drawn from a recently completed study of world religions and worldly politics in some 14 countries around the globe.