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.     

Moving Up and Down the Ladder: Perceived Social Mobility and Emotional Dispositions Among South Florida's Immigrants

Migrating to a new country is often associated with difficulties such as social isolation, financial strain, language barriers, and cultural differences. Less is known about how social mobility brought about by migration may be related to the emotional dispositions of immigrants (also referred to as subjective well‐being). To examine this relationship, we utilize data from a representative sample of 1,268 first‐generation immigrants from 80 different countries living in South Florida. Changes in perceived social mobility between the homeland and the United States—moving up and down the socioeconomic ladder—are indeed associated with differences in immigrants' negative dispositions. We draw from literature on expectations, social comparisons, and subjective class status to explain these findings. We do not find a statistically significant association between changes in socioeconomic status and positive dispositions, which may suggest that losses outweigh migration‐related gains. Additionally, findings reveal that nondominant groups fare worse than Cubans (the dominant group in the region) with regard to dispositions. Social comparisons to the dominant ethnic group may explain this, as well as perceptions of relative deprivation experienced by groups not favored by immigration policies and underrepresented in social and economic institutions. We conclude by discussing implications on how negative emotional dispositions represent risk factors that could affect immigrants' mental health.     

Before you open the doors: ten lessons from Florida's Faith and Community-Based Delinquency Treatment Initiative

In 2003, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) provided Florida's Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) with a $3.5 million grant to design and implement a faith- and community-based program for incarcerated juveniles. Florida's experience developing a completely new program has provided valuable lessons regarding important issues to consider and address before clients are referred to the program. This article enumerates 10 key lessons from Florida's experience that can provide important guidance to other sites across the country hoping to develop faith-related services for youths in institutions.     

Between Ideology and Pragmatism: The Politics of Dual Nationality in Germany1

This article discusses the policy and politics of dual nationality in Germany. It contrasts the policy reality, in which dual nationality is tolerated in a wide range of cases, with Germany's continued opposition in principle to this phenomenon. It then analyzes political, cultural and electoral factors to explain why this opposition persists despite these widespread exceptions. In conclusion, the article argues that by continuing formally to oppose dual nationalities, Germany in effect discourages naturalizations and thereby continues to operate a broadly exclusive citizenship.     

Contradictions in Agrarian Ideology: Restructuring Gender,Race-Ethnicity,and Class1

Abstract Contradictions in agrarian ideology are revealed through an analysis of social dimensions of economic restructuring in rural Iowa. Data are culled from field observations and in-depth interviews with white European American residents. How rural residents cope with and make sense of the changes within their communities are two interrelated dimensions of social restructuring. The research highlights a perception of sharpening social and economic divisions within two small communities. The social and economic changes challenged residents' self-definitions, perspectives on rural community life, and previously taken-for-granted notions of gender, racial-ethnic, and class relations. Analysis of field data demonstrates contradictory ways that discourses on agrarianism and gemeinschaft serve as resources as well as impediments to social support and community development.     

The Impact of the Hyde Amendment on Congress:

An analysis of the Hyde amendment, focussing on its relationship to a virtual state of paralysis in both houses of the U.S. Congress within the specific time frame of June 1977-June 1978. Documented are the legislature's faulty processes for dealing with the highly salient issue of abortion; where traditional forms of compromise and leadership were suspended in favor of anomie, as well as an almost total abdication to pro-Hyde interest groups. It prophesies the ability of single interest groups to create and capitalize on a leadership vacuum, and shows the dangers inherent in a process which allows these groups-with relative ease-to produce radical policy changes covertly through the manipulation of the budget process.     

Expertization of Everyone and the Revolt of the Client*†

American society is witnessing a dramatic explosion and dissemination of knowledge, accompanied by the increasing refusal of patients, customers, students, and other types of clients to passively receive the services of the expert in any body of knowledge or skill. There has been an expansive growth of occupational experts and a demand on the part of clients for a change in the relation. Knowledge monopolization is decreasingly possible due to the activities of mass communication and of the literate public, and clients are becoming varied in the amount of knowledge with which they turn to the expert. Thus, while the political and economic groups are increasingly depending on the expert elite for plans and programs, the members at all levels of society are demanding rights of decision making.     

(Dis)Arming the madman: sane supremacy and the Second Amendment

Abstract

The protection of American mental health consumers’ Second Amendment rights is the ‘mad’ liberation issue of the twenty-first century. Federal laws currently dispossess the differently minded of their Second Amendment access and rights to bear firearms. In response to a spate of school shootings, ‘Red flag laws’ are used in an effort to circumvent mad citizens’ rights to self-preservation and defence. In this article I am proposing neither a political-left nor right side of the aisle position, but rather a bipartisan, anti-sanist stance, where I call for an end to America’s contemporary era of sane supremacy that strips the mad citizenry of their rights to own firearms.     

Ideology Formation: a Linear Structural Model of the Influences on Feminist Ideology*

Three models of ideology formation are presented as possible explanations for support of feminist attitudes. The simplest is a one-step model positing a direct connection between social structural variables and ideology. The second, using the race relations literature, adds social psychological transformation mechanisms, and the third adds peer support. The models were tested on a sample of women drawn from a small mid-western city. Step-wise regressions were computed with tests for the increment in R². The second model held for married women; the full model only held for single women; but when peers are entered between the social structural and the social psychological groups, the full model holds both for single and married women.     

Endorsement of Agrarian Ideology and Adherence to Agricultural Paradigms1

Abstract Despite the fact that groups of alternative and conventional agriculturalists do not differ in their overall scores on an agrarianism scale, their responses do differ significandy on several of the agrarianism items and on the items related to agrarianism from a scale designed to assess competing agricultural paradigms. This suggests that there are differences in these groups' agrarian ideologies even though their overall scores on the agrarianism scale are nearly identical. Although divergent agricultural groups support agrarian ideals such as family farms and the farm way of life, the way in which these groups conceptualize and would achieve these ideals appear to be different. Consequendy, the relatively generic items typically used to analyze agrarianism fail to capture the differences in the agrarian ideologies of competing agricultural groups. The need to reconceptualize agrarianism so as to make it more meaningful to contemporary agriculture is discussed.