MULTIDIMENSIONAL PROBLEMS: A CRITIQUE OF JEFFREY ALEXANDER'S THEORETICAL LOGIC IN SOCIOLOGY*

This article examines Jeffrey Alexander's effort to overcome the impasse of sociology's entrenchment into opposing utilitarian and normativistic camps. The utilitarian and normativistic perspectives are described, and some of the requirements for a successful synthesis are stated. It is shown that Alexander does not actually attempt such a synthesis himself, but is content to present Weber's and Parsons's efforts in this direction. It is argued that his major contribution is to be found not in the promotion of a “multidimensional” synthetic approach, but in the formulation of an epistemological/methodological rationale for the alleged superiority of a multidimensional sociology over one-dimensional versions. An account is given of the claims of this “postpositivist” methodology, and its de facto treatment of the relationship between theory and data is criticized. Since issues of empirical adequacy are not sufficiently addressed, it is concluded that Alexander's advocacy of multidimensionality is less than convincing.     

‘Mutts like Me’: Multiracial Students’ Perceptions of Barack Obama

Existent sociological studies of multiracialism in the United States focus on identity construction, the cultural and legislative battle over multiracial categorization, and the implications of demographic shifts towards an increasingly ??mixed race?? population. This article engages literature from each of these areas, and uses data from in-depth interviews with self-identified multiracial students to document their perceptions of President Barack Obama and trace the symbolic boundaries of multiracial identity. Interviews are specifically directed towards the influence of race on Obama??s identity management and political career, the relationship between Obama and respondents?? multiracial identity, and Obama??s impact on America??s racial history. Respondents hold favorable opinions of the President despite his inconsistent affirmation of multiracial identity. They believe that emphasis on Obama??s blackness rather than multiracialism is the unfortunate result of both personal choices and political pressures. In addition, the cohort insists that racism remains is a major factor in Obama??s career and in America at large.     

Creating,Sustaining, or Dispelling Misconceptions: Discourse Analysis of Mainstream Print Media's Coverage of Obama's Religious Identity

This study considered the role the mainstream print media has played in creating, sustaining, or dispelling the confusion among some Americans regarding President Barack Obama's religious identity. Employing a qualitative discourse analysis of coverage of Obama's religious identity, the study noted several distinct themes, including current faith practices, connections to history, blame game, otherness, politicization, and Muslim connections. A number of articles failed to capture the social, political, and historical contexts of the issue. This failure resulted in coverage that implicitly accepted the questions' legitimacy surrounding the President's religion and delegitimized his beliefs. Other coverage legitimated the confusion over his religious identity by focusing on Obama's “nontraditional” path to Christianity. Such coverage accentuated Obama's otherness, and created the potential for distrust and doubt. The study concluded that the coverage Obama received from the mainstream print media played an important but inconsistent role in dispelling the confusion over his religious identity.     

Americans’ Approval of the 2010 Affordable Care Act: Self‐interest and Symbolic Politics*

Public opinion data show substantial variation in attitudes toward the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Utilizing a 2013 Gallup survey of U.S. adults, we examine the effects of self‐interest and symbolic politics measures on several dimensions of ACA approval. Supporting symbolic politics, we find liberal political ideology, democratic party affiliation, and positive evaluations of President Obama are consistently associated with greater approval of the ACA generally, as well as the belief that the ACA will improve the healthcare situation of the United States and one's family specifically. In contrast, self‐interest variables produce less consistent results. Self‐reported familiarity with the law and being uninsured due to one's employer not offering health insurance are associated with greater belief the ACA will improve the healthcare situation of one's family specifically, but not the U.S. healthcare situation generally. Together these findings suggest that political values and symbols—in particular perceptions of President Obama—may be more important in shaping attitudes toward the ACA than self‐interest variables, especially in contexts assessing more generalized support for the legislation.     

Opioid bills stalled after GOP clears them in Senate

Neither S. 2680 nor H.R. 6, the two big opioid bills that are being crafted into one package under the leadership of Sen. Lamar Alexander (R‐Tennessee), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee, have come before the full Senate yet. Despite the fact that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R‐Kentucky) called them a “priority” last month (see ADAW, Aug. 27), and got his party to clear Senator Alexander's package on Aug. 28, he has not yet scheduled a vote.     

President Bush's major post-Katrina speeches: Enhancing image repair discourse theory applied to the public sector

When Hurricane Katrina swept the Gulf Coast, President Bush's newly formed Department of Homeland Security received its first test and failed. In Katrina's aftermath, Bush not only had to manage one of the nation's worst natural disasters, but also had to quell political backlash about the federal government's response to Katrina. This study examines: (a) how Bush presented the federal response to Katrina in his speeches; (b) how Bush responded to the public's criticism in his speeches; and (c) how effective Bush's speeches were in repairing his tarnished image.     

President Barack Obama's image repair on HealthCare.gov

Obama's health care initiative HealthCare.gov went live on October 1, 2013. It was plagued with problems. Furthermore, the President promised that if people liked their current health care plan, they could keep it. People were shocked when they started to receive cancelation notices from their insurance companies. Republicans seized on the opportunity to savage the president, his administration, and his health care program. Obama's approval rating was anemic and on November 7, he was interviewed by Chuck Todd and on November 14, 2013, Obama held a press conference to try to mend his image. His defense relied heavily on mortification, corrective action, and minimization but also contained instances of defeasibility, bolstering, and transcendence. This essay uses Image Repair theory to analyze and evaluate the President's image repair effort.     

Obama,Palin, and Weber: Charisma and Social Change in the 2008 U.S. Election

Barack Obama et Sarah Palin sont tous les deux souvent étiquetés en tant que charismatique par le public. Pour évaluer si oui ou non, Obama et Palin démontrent une forme de charisme tel que définit par Weber, leurs rhétoriques et leurs actions sont examinées dans le contexte d'élections passées et dans celui où règne une stagnation politique mise en scène par la guerre des cultures. Là où la connexion entre Palin et le public émerge de son rôle de défenderesse dans la guerre des cultures, Obama a articulée une vision d'une communauté partagée, et se faisant, a réorganisé l'électorat en incorporant dans sa coalition la jeunesse désenchantée qui n'avait pas voté durant les dix dernières années. Both Barack Obama and Sarah Palin are commonly labeled “charismatic” by the public. To assess whether or not Obama and Palin exhibit charisma in the Weberian sense, their rhetoric and actions are examined in the context of past elections and the political stagnation brought about by the politics of the culture wars. Where Palin's connection with the public flows from her role as a fighter in the culture wars, Obama articulated a vision of shared community and, in doing so, reorganized the electorate by incorporating disenchanted youth who had not voted over the past decade into his coalition. Thus, in Weberian terms, only Obama manifests charisma.     

Table of Contents

Medicaid Cutbacks in Maine Leave Some OTP Patients without Coverage Online Training Helps Providers Learn Billing and Insurance Cough Syrup Abuse: It's the Codeine More on SAMHSA Numbers from 2013 Appropriations Letter to the Editor What President Obama Really Said about Marijuana Briefly Noted In the States Coming up     

Struggle and solidarity: civic republican elements in Pierre Bourdieu’s political sociology

Pierre Bourdieu developed a theory of democratic politics that is at least as indebted to civic republicanism as to Marxism. He was familiar with the civic republican tradition, and it increasingly influenced both his political interventions and sociological work, especially late in his career. Bourdieu drew above all on Niccolò Machiavelli’s version of republicanism, though the French republican tradition also influenced him via Durkheimian social theory. Three elements of Bourdieu’s work in particular—his concept of field autonomy, his view of interests and universalism, and his understanding of how solidarity is generated and sustained—may be understood, at least in part, as sociological reformulations of republican ideas. By drawing attention to these republican influences, the article aims to show that the conceptual resources which some critics, including Jeffrey C. Alexander, consider indispensable to an adequate theory of democracy are not entirely absent in Bourdieu’s work. On the basis of this reassessment, the article concludes that Bourdieu and Alexander are not as opposed in their thinking about democratic politics as it might first appear.     

Joseph Mainzer (1801–1851) and the Popularisation of Choral Singing in Britain

Singing master Joseph Mainzer came to England in 1841 as a political refugee from Germany. Through his music schools, his textbook Singing for the Million, and his journal Mainzer's Musical Times (today The Musical Times) he contributed significantly to the popularisation of choral singing in Britain. This essay takes Mainzer's political background as a starting point to investigate the complex relationship between refuge and artistic production. It is argued that the latter was deeply informed by the former. Mainzer not only transferred choral traditions but also a politicised concept of popular culture which started to take hold in pre-revolutionary Vormärz-Germany. The case study is integrated into the larger framework of Anglo-German cultural relations and political refuge in mid-nineteenth century Britain.     

Social Movement Theory and the “Modern Day Tea Party”

The rise of the Tea Party movement took many political observers by surprise, but social movement theory can help us to understand how the Tea Party began. Frustration with the federal government's plans for economic recovery, combined with opposition to President Obama's election, morphed into nationwide protests and a vocal presence in the 2010 midterm elections. This paper uses the Tea Party as an example to illustrate social movement life cycles, explaining relevant theories, their application to the movement in each phase of its development, and areas in which the Tea Party challenges current literature on social movements. Social movement theory is discussed as a tool that is constantly being honed as new research increases our understanding of how movements develop and function.     

The feeling of the incommensurable: Lawrence Grossberg on affect and incommensurability

This essay analyzes Lawrence Grossberg's work on the concept of commensuration, and especially his suggestion that we face a generalized crisis in our mechanisms for commensurating values. In making explicit the ways in which Grossberg's reflections on commensuration connect with his recent assessment of the contemporary social landscape in the United States – particularly the affective landscape that he describes in his work on the election of Donald Trump – I suggest that Grossberg's approach is, in part, distinguished by its attentiveness to the affective dimensions of commensuration (and of incommensurability). It can thus be contrasted with many previous approaches to commensuration, which view it exclusively as a problem at the level of practical reason, focusing on how we adjudicate between different bearers of value and how we justify, or give reasons for, our choices among them. Although such questions are also present in Grossberg's work, I argue that his writings contain a subtle treatment of the moods, attitudes, and tacit dispositions that characterize what if feels like to live through significant breakdowns in established logics of measure and comparison. Following Grossberg, I claim that having an adequate account of this affective dimension is crucial if we are to construct political alternatives that can address the felt sense of crisis in American political life.     

Becoming Red Thread Women: Alternative Visions of Gendered Politics in Post-independence Guyana

This essay argues that the rise of Guyana's Red Thread Women's Development Organisation in the mid-1980s was precipitated by the establishment of a hegemonic political culture through the regime of President Forbes Burnham. Utilizing both Aldon Morris's (1992, 2001) notion of 'opppositional consciousness' and Raka Ray's (1999) typology of 'political fields' the author finds that the founding members of Red Thread were engaged in a struggle to redefine the political culture in Guyana. Through its mobilization of women across the divides of race/ethnicity, class, religion, and geography, Red Thread was a key site for rethinking the nature of the political structure for women's politics and women's empowerment. The essay places the emergence of Red Thread within a critical review of Guyanese women's mobilization and organization in trade union movements and women's auxiliaries to established political parties through the Colonial and post-Colonial eras.     

NOTES TOWARDS A THEORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC LIMIT

A meaningful discussion about the democratic limit or boundary is only now beginning. Martha Nussbaum's call for a world citizenship in response to the terrorist bombings of 9/11 has animated this conversation in the USA. In South Africa, the political transition from apartheid to democracy keeps running-up against the substance of the ‘people’. In the absence of any ‘traditional’ unifying principles (of language, culture, religion, race and so on), the identity of South Africans is elusive. We might note too that much of the cosmopolitan literature on democracy appeals to a shift in scale, from the territorial state to the world or globe or even planet. One of the key gaps in democratic theory, however, has been its failure to conceptualize such a limit. How can democrats discriminate between citizen and non-citizen without being discriminatory? This is the question that this article seeks to address. It does so by following a major development in the work of Ernesto Laclau – from his collaboration with Chantal Mouffe in their groundbreaking work Hegemony and Socialist Strategy to his most recent book On Populist Reason.     

Continuity and Change in Durkheim's Theory of Social Solidarity*

This paper examines the controversial question of whether the theory of social solidarity contained in The Division of Labor in Society remained crucial to Durkheim's thinking after the book's publication in 1893. It is argued that this theory is rooted in a number of assumptions concerning primitive social life, the boundaries between nature and culture, and human nature. An analysis of material written after 1902 shows that Durkheim revised his approach to these topics to such an extent that he appears to be in the process of constructing a new theoretical framework for the investigation of social solidarity. In both the early and the later theories, however, the models of primitive social behavior, though different, perform similar intellectual functions.     

The peculiar convergence of Jeffrey Alexander and Erik Olin Wright

Jeffrey Alexander and Erik Olin Wright are among the leading sociologists of their generation. Each has published his magnum opus in the past several years: The Civil Sphere (Alexander) and Envisioning Real Utopias (Wright). This paper—a dual review essay—lays out the core arguments of each work; situates each within the personal and intellectual contexts of its production; and critically assesses each in terms of its contributions to sociological theory and research. It also argues that the works converge (unexpectedly, given Alexander’s intellectual origins in neo-functionalism and Wright’s in neo-Marxism) upon a common intellectual position, that of Deweyan pragmatism. It tries to make sense of Alexander’s and Wright’s peculiar dual voyage in a Deweyan direction and offers some reflections as to what that journey might tell us about social theory and political thought today.     

The Demise of White Revolution: What's Next for Billy Roper?

In August 2011, Billy Roper, white nationalist leader and political candidate from Arkansas, dismantled White Revolution, the Internet web site that he founded in 2002. At the time of its closing, the site posted a membership of over 1000. In 2010, Roper ran for governor of Arkansas and began mobilizing a political party called the Nationalist Party of America. He had intentions of running for President as the party's nominee in 2012. Much of the promotion and fund-raising for his campaign was going to be conducted through the White Revolution online site. Roper subsequently dropped out of the race and discontinued organizing the nationalist political party. In an interesting turn, he has aligned with Pastor Thom Robb's Knights Party (a Christian Identity Klan group) located in Zinc, Arkansas, a rural Ozarks community. Roper's decision to renounce his former status as an agnostic neo-Nazi for Knight status in Robb's Klan group is an indication of subtle shifts occurring in the broader American white supremacist movement that include the convergence of ideologies that were once very different but now appear to be morphing into a new hybrid form.     

José Ortega y Gasset (1934), Ibn Khaldūn Reveals the Secret to Us (thoughts on Africa Minor) translated from Spanish by Cynthia Scheopner

José Ortega y Gasset (1883–1955) was puzzled how Melilla remained a Spanish enclave on the North African coast. By 1927, Spain had solidified its hold on Northern Morocco and several books on the history and culture of “Africa minor” had been published; in one Ortega encountered Ibn Khaldūn. Ortega read the Prolegomena to History in the French translation by William MacGuckin de Slane. He found a key to understanding Spain that he explored in this essay, first published in El Espectador journal of Madrid in 1934. It introduced Ibn Khaldun to European audiences as the first philosopher of history three decades before an English translation of his work. Ortega, then, knew of Ibn Khaldun's theory of generations at the time he was developing his own. Ortega noted page numbers in parentheses in the text where he quoted from De Slane. The end notes are from the text as well, documenting Ortega's secondary sources for his impressions of Ibn Khaldūn, Islam, and North African culture.