Types of Knowledge as Predictors of Company Support: The Role of Information in Risk Communication

Knowledge of chemicals and chemical processes is assumed by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) policy and by scholars and practitioners of public relations to underpin how people understand and evaluate the risks they en- counter. What has been elusive, however, is the connection between knowledge of this kind, awareness of risks (such as those related to chemical plants), and support or opposition. Previous research has found nonsignificant relations between knowledge of technical data and support or opposition for ostensible sources of risk. To further examine this problem, a study was conducted in communities with high concentrations of chemical plants. Results indicate that the communities differ in the extent to which knowledge of chemicals and processes, economic benefits, violations of EPA and state regulations, and outreach efforts correlates with support for the facilities. Results suggest that support or opposition may be a function of levels of knowledge in ways that are idiosyncratic to communities, based on their communication infrastructures and cultures     

DEMOCRATIC POLITICS AND THE LONG MARCH ON GLOBAL WARMING: Comments on McCright and Dunlap

The political impasse over global warming legislation stems from obstacles in the mass media arena, public awareness, electoral politics as well as governmental policy. Advocates of global warming policy have to be simultaneously successful in all four major public arenas to prevail. This article provides an overview of the obstacles in each public arena in the United States highlighting the broader context in which McCright and Dunlap's analysis of polarized public opinion operates. Global warming advocates have had their greatest success in the media arena but are checked by the rise of a conservative counter‐campaign as well as media reporting norms, which have contributed to polarized public opinion and limited salience of the issue. Global warming never ranks in the top issue list to which electoral candidates attend, giving it little priority in national electoral contests. Although the House of Representatives passed the Waxman‐Markey Bill in 2009, the bill died in the Senate and will not resurface until the Democratic margin is again large enough to overcome opposition vetoes. At the same time, major legislation has often incubated on the margins of these public arenas for significant time until a political crisis removes the normal obstacles to such major “watershed” legislation. For global warming, the long march through American public arenas appears to have begun.     

Gender and development from a Christian perspective: experience from World Vision

This article reports the effectiveness of incorporating religious faith in World Vision?s development work and organizational practice for gender issues related problems. World Vision, founded by Bob Pierce in 1950, is a Christian organization whose work includes transformational development, emergency relief, and promotion of justice, public awareness, and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. As part of their mission, varied programs were developed in response to women's needs and issues. By 1989, the gender issues became the priority for World Vision's Council and International Board. This led to the organization of staff to manage programs to promote gender issues. The gender policy adheres to the norms of World Vision?s core values and mission statements, which uses biblical evidences to promote gender equality. The implementation process of the gender policy took a slow pace, which involves awareness building, attitudinal change, and resource allocation, to ensure that the barriers and prejudices that prevent women from full participation are dismantled. Being able to use Jesus' teachings and examples has given the management and the staff of World Vision the ability to promote gender issues with credibility and strength. World Vision will continue to implement good development practices and gender-sensitive programs.     

Should We Have Faith in Faith‐Based Social Services? Rhetoric Versus Realistic Expectations

Early in his administration, President George W. Bush set forth his Faith‐Based Initiative, which would authorize and encourage religious groups to compete for and provide publicly funded social services. This article analyzes the arguments made by supporters of faith‐based social services in regard to their underlying values and premises. This analysis forms the basis for examining the managerial track record of faith‐based organizations in the delivery of social services. To identify issues and trends within this category of service providers, the authors analyzed press reports of instances of wrong doing in faith‐based groups from 1995 to 2001. Findings reveal that faith‐based groups appear to be as susceptible to managerial and accountability inadequacies, if not outright wrongdoing, as are nonsectarian service providers. The authors identify implications regarding the credibility of faith‐based groups and public trust as they pertain to an enhanced role in the less regulated service system that the president envisions.     

SOCIAL CLASS AND TACTICS:

This analysis of community opposition to group homes for the mentally handicapped uses data from a survey of New Jersey group home providers. It indicates that deteriorating neighborhoods are most likely to organize in opposition, but that upper-middle class neighborhoods are most likely to enjoy private access to local officials and can, therefore, lobby effectively in opposition to group homes in their neighborhoods. Generally, lower and lower-middle class neighborhoods do not have lobbying privileges and must rely on mass-mobilization, petition campaigns, and other public political tactics that are less effective in influencing local officials. If, however, they gain access to local officials and secure lobbying privileges, they are no less successful than their upper-middle class counterparts in influencing them.     

Attitudes toward Asylum Seekers in Small Local Communities

The admission and geographic distribution of asylum seekers has a central place in public discourse in Western countries, amid mounting asylum applications and dire humanitarian crises. Receiving countries usually distribute the newly arriving asylum seekers across the entire country, in particular for small remote communities. Incidental opposition actions by local residents against the siting of Asylum Seeker Centres (ASC) has created the perception of strong and widespread resistance in the public sphere. This article aims to assess this alleged backlash by examining attitudes toward asylum seekers in small local communities. Using data from three representative surveys conducted among residents in the vicinity of four ASCs in the Netherlands, the regression analysis shows a strikingly high willingness to host an ASC, in opposition to popularly assumed public opinion.     

论中东形势对俄罗斯的影响

俄罗斯对中东事态的基本态度是:同情阿拉伯国家反对派、支持国际制裁、反对西方军事干涉、主张政治解决。俄罗斯领导人在决策和表态时,注意维持同世界主要大国,首先是同西方大国和"金砖国家"的平衡,维持同阿拉伯国家和非洲国家的平衡,维持当事国当权派和在野派的平衡。在阿拉伯世界维持适度乱局,既有利于推高油气价格和刺激军火出口,改善俄罗斯国际收支状况;也有利于提升俄罗斯在西方心目中的地位,改善同西方关系。俄罗斯不存在强大的反对派,民众赞同现行发展方针,重稳定甚于重改革,主体民意反西方,不容易受"阿拉伯之春"的影响。     

Frankenfish or Fish to Feed the World? Scientism and Biotechnology Regulatory Policy

Scientism is an attempt to apply the methods and approach of the natural sciences to matters of human social and political concern. Scientism‐based discourse has been used to reframe the public debate about controversial science and technology into a risk assessment carried out by experts. The biotechnology industry has used a scientism‐based discourse to avoid regulation and labeling, claiming that the scientific makeup of their products is all that matters for governing regulatory policy, not their social, economic, or environmental impact. In this case study I examine the discourse used in support of and opposition to AquaAdvantage salmon, the first genetically engineered animal approved for human consumption. This case inspired an opposition coalition of consumer and environmental groups that led the FDA to organize a public meeting about its review of the fish. The analysis finds support for previous studies showing that regulatory debates over biotechnology in the United States are dominated by scientism, and that scientism generates public skepticism rather than confidence. In previous cases citizen groups were unable to challenge the authority of scientism‐based regulatory policy, but in this case the agency's decision not to require labeling was overruled by a congressional labeling mandate driven by citizen mobilization.     

The Participation of Civil Society Organizations in Public Policies in Latin America

Throughout Latin America, the relationship between government and civil society organizations (CSOs) has been characterized by opposition, substitution, and submission; and, the incipient path to cooperation is barely noticeable. For their part, participatory public policies make sense within a theory of democratic governance. Democratic governance seeks two propositions: (a) participation from other social actors will give rise to more efficient government action; and (b) citizen support will emerge from the said government action. This paper criticizes the current relationships between the governments and CSOs in this region. In addition, it explores the potential strategies that could be adopted were there a cooperation between these two entities. The paper is supported by theoretical literature as well as by a revision of some cases of participatory public policies that are currently active in the region. The paper proposes that the strategies of opposition to government and government substitution have to be abandoned in this region. The paper focuses on civil organizations (CSOs). It is true that they do not constitute the entirety of civil society; however, they are frequently the most organized compared with other civic actors, such as social movements, families, and individual initiatives. CSOs form only a part of the diversity known as civil society; however, they significantly contribute to the discussion about the public good, and very often they participate in providing such goods. The future of participatory democracy in Latin America is related to our ability to achieve a more complete participation of CSOs in the entire process of participatory public policies—from the formation of public agendas to their design, implementation, and evaluation.     

Brewing Coffee Party Activism in Tea Party Territory: Faith and Politics in Rural America

Abstract

How do people remain politically active in hostile or seemingly hopeless contexts? We apply Jack Barbalet’s theory of “confidence” as a necessary precursor to “action” to understand how members of a liberal, local “Coffee Party” movement confront powerful political and religious opposition in a conservative, rural, midwestern city. Barbalet’s grounding of “confidence” in “acceptance and recognition” in social relationships improves upon the popular “political efficacy” concept because it is not contingent on successful outcomes. We find that as members of the Coffee Party develop confidence to speak up and “go their own way,” their faith and political participation become more meaningful, which helps to explain how people remain in congregations despite disagreements with co-congregants, seek new congregations late in life when their activism results in expulsion, and remain politically active despite powerful opposition. Our findings contribute significantly to recent research on the interaction between politics and religion.     

Catholic Civics Education in the Early Cold War: Zeal for Democracy,Zeal for Christ

In the late 1940s and 1950s American Catholic educators faced the dilemma of how to transmit Catholic faith and culture to the next generation while also reassuring their non-Catholic neighbors that they were fully American in lifestyle and loyalties. This article examines one response to that dilemma: the convergence of public and Catholic school civics curricula through the widespread use of experiential pedagogy in Catholic civics education. Using a content analysis of civics textbooks and teacher's guides from both school systems, this article demonstrates how both kinds of schools converged on an experiential style of civics education, despite vocal opposition to “progressive” pedagogy at elite levels of Catholic educational discourse. The article then presents a partial explanation for this dissonance, demonstrating the moral certainty exhibited in the same Catholic-school textbooks, and suggesting that Catholic educationists understood American Catholics to be morally privileged in a way that gave them special insight into American democracy and protected them from the negative influences of secular educational philosophy. This case study speaks to larger questions of how organizations manage conflicts between abstract principles and practical action, and suggests the value of including religious schools in the sociological study of “loose coupling” in educational organizations.     

Turkish Capitalist Modernity and the Gezi Revolt

In this paper an attempt is made to reassess how and why the laic/Islamic dual opposition has come to be a decisive factor in the politics of Turkish capitalist modernity. The question as to whether this opposition may survive into the twenty‐first century is briefly discussed. It is noted that in the aftermath of the prolonged confrontation between the emergent imagined community of the Gezi Revolt and the Islamist AKP government, a religiously neutral political identity came into sight in public life, which can be considered as the harbinger of a new kind of social individuality, one which is incommensurate with the laic/Islamic dual opposition.     

The Polls-Trends: Arab and Muslim Americans and Islam in the aftermath of 9/11

The terrorist attacks against the United States on September11, 2001, fueled widespread concern and speculation about mountingIslamophobic sentiment among Americans in response to the events.To monitor developments in opinions about Muslims and Arabs(both living in the United States and abroad) and attitudestoward the Islamic faith, survey organizations began to assessmore regularly Americans’ attitudes on these topics. Ianalyze developments in public sentiment about Arab and MuslimAmericans and Islam in the age of the war on terror using availablepublic opinion data. The data analyses in this study suggestthat Americans possess lingering resentment and reservationsabout Arab and Muslim Americans. The evidence also reveals lowlevels of awareness about basic elements of Islam but growinganxiety about Islam’s (especially Islamic fundamentalism’s)compatibility with Western values of tolerance, acceptance,and civility. Some of the sharpest movement in opinion dynamicswe observe is in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks,but opinion levels stabilize shortly thereafter. Monitoringthese developments as the war on terror continues is crucial.     

The Politics of School Busing

Although rejecting school busing has the objective consequenceof perpetuating racial segregation and educational inequality,data from a large national sample indicate that the subjectivemotivations involved are not merely racism. In contrast to theposition among the mass public, opposition is closely linkedto racial prejudice among college graduates.     

THE GROWTH OF THE FEDERAL DEFICIT AND THE ROLE OF PUBLIC ATTITUDES

How can the recent explosion in the fiscal deficit of the UnitedStates be reconciled with the well-known support of the Americanpublic for fiscal conservatism? It is first shown that the reputationfor fiscal conservatism is fully supported by public opinionpolls dating back over a period of four decades. Solid majoritieshave consistently opposed tax reductions that might producean unbalanced budget. Recently, however, the public has alsoshown strong opposition to increases in taxes to close the fiscalgap, which might appear to imply a new acquiescence to the deficit.But this opposition, too, is shown to have persisted for a longtime and to be not logically inconsistent with rejecting taxcuts resulting in deficit. Another fashionable explanation forthe deficit holds that the budget process in a democratic societyis biased toward deficit because the cost of higher taxes isimmediate while the cost of deficit is delayed. But it is inconsistentwith the fiscal history of the United States over the last 100years, which reveals no systematic bias toward deficits, atleast until recent years. The major explanation that emergesis that the administration succeeded in misleading the public(and perhaps even itself) into believing that the tax cut wouldnot result in deficit thanks to "supply" and "Laffer curve"effects.     

New Public Management et professions dans l’État : au-delà des oppositions, quelles recompositions ?

More and more reforms in public administrations are being conducted that are based on the principles and instruments of “new public management”. They have set off protest and collective actions by several professional groups in various sectors (health, education, justice, social work, research…), whence questions about the future of professional groups in public services, in particular about their autonomy, which these reforms threaten. The opposition between this new public management and certain professional groups, is not the final explanation to draw from an analysis of this situation. Should these changes be seen as the decline of professional groups and of their autonomy, as a mutation of professional models, an overhaul of professionalism, etc.? These questions, which current events in France and Europe have raised, are a matter for ongoing sociological thought. They are approached empirically, from the field, using varied scales of analysis and research. Forms of tension between this new public management and professional groups are explored.     

Opportunity/Threat Responses to Nuclear Waste Disposal Facilities1

One of the most difficult environmental policy challenges facing the United States and other societies is that of finding ways to safely dispose of hazardous and toxic substances, including nuclear waste materials. Efforts to site such facilities have been uniformly unsuccessful, due largely to strong public opposition. Although supporters of such facilities often emphasize the potential for local economic development and other opportunities, opponents focus on a variety of threats involving potential risks associated with waste disposal. Survey data collected in rural areas of Nevada and Nebraska where nuclear waste disposal facilities have been proposed reveal that respondents' positions on issues of perceived health and safety risks, trust in responsible agencies, anticipated local economic effects, and concerns about environmental contamination are key variables predicting local response. Even in areas where there may be substantial local support for economic opportunities associated with the facilities, broad-based fears about nuclear materials and a legacy of distrust in the agencies responsible for managing nuclear wastes suggest that proposals for such facilities will almost inevitably continue to generate strong public opposition.     

Memory, community, and opposition to mosques: the case of Badalona

A number of recent studies have examined the sources of conflict surrounding the presence of Muslim minorities in Western contexts. This article builds upon, and challenges, some of the principal findings of this literature through analyzing popular opposition to mosques in Badalona, a historically industrial city in Catalonia where several of the most vigorous anti-mosque campaigns in Spain have occurred. Drawing upon 46 semi-structured interviews and ethnographic observation conducted over a two-year period, I argue that opposition to mosques in Badalona is not reducible to anti-Muslim prejudice or fears of Islamic extremism. Rather, it is rooted in powerful associations drawn between Islam, immigration, and a series of social problems affecting the character of communal life and the quality of cherished public spaces in the city. These associations are expressed through local narratives that emphasize a sharp rupture between a glorified ethnically homogeneous past of community and solidarity, and a troublesome multicultural present fraught with social insecurity and disintegration. I show how the construction of these ??rupture narratives?? has entailed active memory work that minimizes the significance of prior social cleavages and conflicts, and selectively focuses on disjuncture over continuity with the past. I also highlight how these narratives have been reinforced by strong socio-spatial divisions, which have intensified contestations over public space and led to the integration of mosque disputes into broader struggles over social justice and public recognition.     

The Origins of Popular Opposition to Palestinian Resettlement in Lebanon

Using original public opinion data, this study addresses the reasons behind the growing popular opposition to Palestinian resettlement in Lebanon. It argues that the origins of this opposition are correlated to the religious composition of the population and to the degree of social distance displayed by the Lebanese towards the Palestinians as members of a distinct community. The results revealed that Lebanese respondents are much less likely to support Palestinian resettlement in Lebanon if they display prejudice and hostility toward Palestinians. In addition, sectarian affiliation is a major predictor of attitude toward resettlement. Specifically, Christian and Shii respondents expressed unfavorable views toward resettlement, in contrast to Sunni and Druze respondents who manifested positive support for resettlement. Hence, for most Lebanese the question of Palestinian resettlement extends to their own political survival. If the existing attitudes hold, resettlement threatens to undermine Lebanon's pluralist character and consensus political arrangement, with implications for the entire region.     

Defensiveness and social structure: the ideology of Catholic school trustees*

La structure sociale, dans le sens officiel et juridique du terme, est concue comme un facteur de valeur explicative independante dans l'etude des groupes humains. Il est affirme que: 1/ moins un groupe est reconnu ou appuye par la loi, plus il sera defensif; et 2/ les membres du groupe auront tendance a acquiescer a la structure de controle decretee par la loi, meme si cette structure s'oppose a celle des traditions propres au groupe. Ces propositions ont ete evaluees d'apres un sondage preleve parmi un echantillon d'administrateurs d'ecoles catholiques au Canada. Une analyse multi-classificative revele que plus le degre de securite des ecoles catholiques dans la juridiction provinciale est eleve, moins les idees et attitudes des administrateurs sont defensives, en mesurant les secteurs suivants: l'accent sur la discipline, l'opposition a la mobilisation des enseignants, et l'opposition a l'engagement de l'Eglise sur des questions qui touchent le public. L'analyse demontre egalement que plus la loi sape le controle du clerge dans les ecoles catholiques, moins l'attitude des administrateurs aura des tendances clericalistes. Des implications sont suggerees tant pour la sociologie du catholicisme que pour la sociologie en general. Social structure in a formal, legal sense is conceptualized as a factor of independent explanatory value in the study of human groups. First, it is argued that the less recognition and support a group enjoys by law, the more defensive it will be, second, that group members will tend to acquiesce to the control structure decreed by law, even when it contradicts that implied by the group's own traditions. These propositions are evaluated in light of survey data on a random sample of Canadian Catholic school trustees. Multiple classification analysis reveals that the greater the security of Catholic schools in provincial law, the less defensive the trustees' ideas and attitudes, as measured by emphasis on discipline, opposition to teacher mobilization, and opposition to church involvement in public issues. Analysis also shows that the more the law undermines clerical control of Catholic schools, the less clericalist are the trustees' attitudes. Implications are suggested for both the sociology of Catholicism and sociology in general.