The canonical limits of Durkheim's first classic

A classic text is not always canonized. Canonical texts are frequently anything but classics. Durkheim's Division of Labor in Societyis an instance of the former; his Rules of Sociological Methodof the latter. Both books are based on errors of fact and method. Division of Laborwas so intentionally the classical theory of modern divided societies that Durkheim, son of generations of rabbis, totally misrepresented the facts of Ancient Israel. In Rules,Durkheim was so intent on writing the canonical text of sociology's methods that he stipulated rules that even he (in Suicide) could not use. Durkheim was thus a giant of the sociological past because,not in spite of, his errors. He erred because he dared to think seriously about the moral issues of his time. Hence, the ironic fate of Durkheim's sociology—it led in two different directions. From Rulesand Suicidecame modern empirical sociology. From Elementary Formscame all the antimodernists—beginning with Levi-Strauss, and from him, Derrida and the others—who became, among other things, the most articulate critics of the sociology Durkheim helped invent. Such is the genius of classic, if not canonical, authors like Durkheim.     

Goffman's legacy to political sociology

Conclusion I don't claim that Goffman addressed the questions that animate political sociologists. He was not interested in analyzing interaction to learn how it contributed to mobilization for collective action aimed at social change. He was not interested in changing political consciousness or in how the mass media and other social institutions make such change so difficult. But for those who are interested in such questions, he is worth heeding. His is an unanticipated bequest — from the cranky uncle who we always thought had no great love or admiration for our line of work.I have tried to show how Goffman's arguments about the nature of the interaction order and frame analysis can be applied to increase our understanding of micromobilization and political consciousness. The help here is concrete and empirical, aiding us in interpreting historical cases and guiding us in systematic research.But perhaps Goffman's most enduring legacy is in the moral stance that pervades his observations about social institutions. It goes beyond ideology, to the spirit of our intellectual pursuits. It is eloquently captured in words written after Goffman's death by the poet, Joseph BrodskyThe surest defense against Evil is extreme individualism, originality of thinking, whimsicality, even — if you will — eccentricity. That is, something that can't be feigned, faked, imitated; something even a seasoned impostor couldn't be happy with .... Evil is a sucker for solidity. It always goes for big numbers, for confident granite, for ideological purity, for drilled armies and balanced sheets. For Goffman, it was a lesson he knew and lived.

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Professor Petcock, or How the Academy Turns on Queer Studies

As an intellectually out lesbian faculty member, the author is keenly aware of her ornamental function vis-a-vis lesbian/gay and straight colleagues alike. Academically cast as a kind of regulating valve, she, through her work in gay and lesbian literature, ostensibly opens up the possibilities for diesel research throughout the university. Yet, her status as Professor Petcock—the dyke with intellectual and other equipment—belies institutional willingness to allow queer research, together with opportunities for political and social change within the university, to evaporate, evanesce.     

The Common Mathematical Structure of Disparate Sociological Questions

The chief attraction of mathematics is its beauty. It is customary, nonetheless, to catalog the usefulness of mathematics. Accordingly, this paper shows how aspects of three quite different sociological problems—assortative mating and the rise of gender inequality, the sense of justice, and economic and political upheavals and societal transformations—have an identical underlying mathematical structure. Thus, progress in understanding the three sets of phenomena is linked; any new result obtained for one problem will shed light on the other two.     

Governmentality of adulthood: a critical discourse analysis of the 2014 Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice

Produced and published by the coalition government, the publication of the 2014 Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0–25 years (2014 SENCoP) sets out to overhaul the management of special educational needs (SEN) provision across England and Wales. This paper employs a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of the 2014 SENCoP to reveal the ideologies and aims that this policy is built upon. Following a Foucauldian framework of governmentality, this article focuses upon the way in which ‘a successful transition to adulthood’ is constructed within the policy, particularly in relation to the wider Conservative narrative of a ‘Big Society.’ Developing this analysis, the article draws upon the current political landscape of a Conservative government and the shift towards the creation of a ‘shared society’ in attempt to locate ‘adulthood’ within its wider political, economic, and cultural context. This analysis reveals the neoliberal values underpinning the 2014 SENCoP, whereby educational support is reduced to the practice of shaping and sculpting the future generation of citizens. By deconstructing notions of employment, independence, participation, and health, this article reveals the 2014 SENCoP as a tool of government, written to the demands of the economy rather than the unique needs, aspirations, and ambitions of children and young people labelled with SEN.     

A theory of prudential values and a rule utilitarian theory of morality

Ethics can be divided into a theory of prudential values and a theory of morality in a narrower sense. My paper proposes a utilitarian — a rule-utilitarian — theory of morality. But it deviates from most of the utilitarian tradition by rejecting the hedonistic and subjectivistic accounts of prudential values favored by many utilitarian writers. While economists tend to define people's utility levels in terms of their actual preferences, ethics must define them in terms of their informed preferences. To prefer A over B does not mean to have a stronger desire for A than for B. Rather, it means to regard one's access to A as being more important than one's access to B. Even though different people often have quite different preferences, their basic desires seem to be much the same. We must choose our moral rules, and our society's moral code as a whole, by their social utility. An important factor in determining their social utility are their expectation effects. Unlike the rule — utilitarian more code, the act — utilitarian moral code would be unable to give proper weight to these expectation effects. It would also unduly restrict our individual freedom. Finally, I shall argue against Kant that morality is primarily a servant of many other human values rather than itself the highest value of human life.     

Does class analysis still have anything to contribute to the study of politics? — comments

Conclusion We can accept Michael Mann's recent claim that in their endless debates about the social and political importance of class, sociologists are sometimes guilty of engaging in what he calls classrurbation. Far from being an intellectually immature activity, classturbation — to apply the former U.S. Surgeon General's remarks to a novel context — is in reality a safe and productive outlet for healthy questions about the linkages between inequalities and political alignments. We recognize, as does every serious contemporary class analyst we have ever read, that a class-analytic framework can shed light on some types of social phenomena, but not others. It certainly is true that class analysis no longer has any claim, if it ever did, to a privileged position in the development of a critical sociology. But we firmly reject PW's claims that for class to matter in understanding political behavior, its effects must necessarily be larger than that of all other salient cleavages for every time and place. Not only have class analyses of political behavior progressed well beyond dated and misleading conceptualizations, they provide no evidence for a universal pattern of class dealignment.

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Mobilizing the Single-Case Study: Doug McAdam's Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930–1970

We apply a set of rules for theorizing developed to expand the rigorous methodology of quantitative research to Doug McAdam's Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930–1970 (1982). We contend that the strength and breadth of McAdam's data and his application of that data to refute extant theories combined with his new flexible—perhaps overly so—concepts allowed political process theory (PPT) to rise to prominence in the field. We find his book to be a good example of how a single-case study, despite its shortcomings, can play a crucial role in the development of theory and the emergence of influential research paradigms.     

Applicability of standards for evaluations of educational programs, projects and materials in an international setting

This paper starts with a short discussion of the book Standards for Evaluations of Educational Programs, Projects and Materials by the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation (McGraw-Hill, 1981). It then goes on to examine the usefulness in countries other than the United States of these standards and argues that evaluation of “programs” is more complicated and more politically biased than evaluation of “projects” and “materials.” In Europe, evaluation of educational programs (school systems) has proved to be highly correlated with the overriding objectives of different political parties, e.g., conservative, liberal, socialist, whereas educational policy in the United States is less bound to political parties, varying rather from case to case. In order to show how generally agreed upon educational goals can be interpreted according to different values, the author has reanalysed some studies of mean achievement in reading comprehension and science for 10- and 14-year-old students in 15 countries (IEA Project, 1973). The rank order of these countries is changed if, instead of national mean achievement, one takes proportion of students under a minimum level or above a prescribed top level as the criterion. Also the national (program) standard is evaluated in terms of between-school variance in results and in proportion of single-school units with exceptionally low or exceptionally high mean results. The conclusion is that the book on standards for evaluations of educational programs provides a good checklist of prerequisites for a reliable and valid evaluation. However, it is also concluded that—due to differences in values of program outcomes—such standards do not guarantee that the result of the evaluation will be indisputable.     

Caught in a Winding,Snarling Vine: The Structural Bias of Political Process Theory

The study of social movements has recently been energized by an explosion of work that emphasizes political opportunities—a concept meant to come to grips with the complex environments that movements face. In the excitement over this new metaphor, there has been a tendency to stretch it to cover a wide variety of empirical phenomena and causal mechanisms. A strong structural bias is also apparent in the way that political opportunities are understood and in the selection of cases for study. Even those factors adduced to correct some of the problems of the political opportunity approach—such as mobilizing structures and cultural framing—are subject to the same structural distortions. We recommend social movement analysis that rejects invariant modeling, is wary of conceptual stretching, and recognizes the diverse ways that culture and agency, including emotions and strategizing, shape collective action.     

“Wish you were here”? Geographies of exclusion: young people,coastal towns and marginality

ABSTRACT

Within youth studies there is a growing body of research that pays attention to the importance of place in shaping young people’s identities, life opportunities and intergenerational relationships [Cuervo, H., and J. Wyn. 2014. “Reflections on the Use of Spatial and Relational Metaphors in Youth Studies.” Journal of Youth Studies 17 (7): 901–915; Farrugia, D. 2014. “Towards a Spatialised Youth Sociology: the Rural and the Urban in Times of Change.” Journal of Youth Studies 17 (3): 293–307; Woodman, D., and J. Wyn. 2015. Youth and Generation: Rethinking Change and Inequality in the Lives of Young People. Sage Publications]. Of critical importance to these discussions is the need to explore notions of ‘belonging’ and social citizenship, interrogating the extent to which differing perceptions and experiences contribute towards variations in the outcomes and life chances of disadvantaged young people. This article draws upon ethnography, participatory arts-based research, and semi-structured interviews (n31) with young people (15–25) who live in a deprived coastal town in the North of England. The research investigated processes of marginalisation and disconnection from the perspectives of young people who were deemed as disengaged, or ‘at risk’ of disengagement, from education, employment or training. The research took place during a time of rapid change and uncertainty as Britain voted to leave the EU. The findings of this study will ‘throw light’ on the how contemporary classed subjectivities are formed, how experiences of inequality and austerity are made sense of, and how, within a turbulent political context, young people negotiate complex transitions to adulthood.     

Reconstructing the Border: Jim Lynch and the Return of the Canada-US Boundary

Abstract

The western portion of the Canada-US border has always been problematic. Since it does not follow any 'natural' divide, such as a river, lake, or mountain range, it tends to be seen as an aberration, a political construct that lacks logic of its own. However, in his 2009 satire Border Songs, the Washington State novelist Jim Lynch reintroduces the Canada-US border as a marker of significant cultural and political difference. Even though he describes the international boundary as a 'nonsensical' line, Lynch suggests that people on the two sides of the border have remarkably different views of the world, notably when it comes to such issues as pot-growing and terrorism.     

Stories in Decisions: How At-Risk Individuals Decide to Request Predictive Testing for Huntington Disease

Huntington Disease (HD) is a hereditary neurological disease that typically occurs in mid-life. There is no prevention or cure, but persons at risk may request predictive genetic testing to learn whether or not they will develop the disease later in life. Many studies describe why such persons request this knowledge. Few consider how people actually make this novel decision. Drawing on in-depth interviews with sixteen test candidates, this article differentiates three types of stories about—as well as embedded in—the experience of deciding. Each type of story sheds a different light on the meaning and experience of making this decision. Stories of having to know reveal that decision-making may be experienced as a self-evident act while stories of evolving toward it feature an incremental process of weighing up the implications. Stories of taking the decision feature a pivotal point which involves the narrator in seeing anew the opportunity to make a choice. Emphasizing previously neglected temporal, biographical and phenomenological dimensions of decision-making, this typology underscores the relevance of narrative in complex processes of decision-making. It also illustrates the inadequacy of understanding decision-making purely through the lens of rational choice.     

Kuznets’s Inverted U-Curve Hypothesis: The Rise,Demise, and Continued Relevance of a Socioeconomic Law

This paper provides a historical analysis of the changing significance of the most influential statement ever made on inequality and development—Simon Kuznets’s “inverted U-curve hypothesis.” The shifting interpretations and appropriations of the hypothesis over time—from its status as a speculative supposition in 1955, to its rise and fall as a reified socioeconomic law, to its contested standing in the social sciences today—demonstrate how Kuznets’s arguments, originally advanced under more limited conditions, became transformed into overarching theoretical, empirical, and political constructions. This history suggests that even empirically grounded and testable social science models are contingent on the broader social and political contexts in which they are produced and negotiated.     

Global Visions: Global Civil Society and the Lessons of European Environmentalism

To illuminate the obstacles to the development of a global civil society, the experience of the most developed transnational social movement—the environmental movement—in the most developed supranational political system—the European Union—is considered. National differences are shown to be persistent and there is little evidence of Europeanization. It is argued that the impediments to the development of a global civil society are yet greater and that, despite the advent of antiglobalization protests, global civil society remains an aspiration rather thanan accomplished fact     

Young people's views on being looked after in out-of-home-care under The Children Act 1989

This paper describes a project to inform and to elicit the views on The Children Act 1989 of forty five young people who were currently being looked after by English local authorities in out-of-home-care. The full findings are reported elsewhere (Buchanan, Wheal, Walder, Macdonald, & Coker, 1993).One of the key principles of The Children Act 1989 was that children and young people should, in the light of their age and understanding, be consulted and participate in decisions affecting their lives, provided that this approach did not jeopardise their welfare. Throughout 1991 the Department of Health in London orchestrated an impressive training initiative to ensure that all those who had a role in implementing the Act were aware of the principles that informed the legislation. Leaflets were also prepared for young people who were being looked after in foster or residential care. During this period I asked a young man in a local authority residential establishment, what he knew about the new law. “No one tells me anything”, he replied. This was worrying because without the necessary information, such young people would poorly equipped if they wished to participate in decisions affecting their lives, and more seriously they would be poorly protected should they have reason to complain about their care. During the late 1980's and early 1990's there had been a number of concerns about the welfare of young people living in residential settings. These had resulted in a spate of enquiries, (Levy & Kahan, 1991), (Williams & Macreadie, 1992), and a number of reports (e.g. Utting, 1991; Warner, 1992).     

Age group differences in political activism in Malaysia

ABSTRACT

There is a dearth of studies on age-related patterns of political activism in Malaysia, specifically on young people’s patterns of political participation relative to their elders, and in relation to the rich literature that has developed in Western democracies. By analysing survey data from Wave 6 (2010–2014) of the World Values Surveys (WVS), this study aims to investigate the differences in political engagement between younger and older people in Malaysia, including new repertoires outside the mainstream politics, by addressing the question of whether young Malaysians are more active in political activities compared to older groups. The findings conform to the expected patterns in the literature that young people are less likely to participate in conventional political activities than their respective elders. However, we find no significant differences for unconventional political participation. The study further shows that demographic indicators such as the levels of education, gender and ethnic group belonging do not appear to be linked to the age gap between youth and their elders in political activism. As such, the study provides evidence that young people in Malaysia are less likely to be politically active than their elders and that this is not clearly attributable to the socio-demographic factors analysed.     

“Brain Says You're a Girl, But I Think You're a Sissy Boy”: Cultural Origins of Transphobia

The author argues that transphobia—fear and hatred of transgender persons—is a variant of homophobia understood as hatred of the queer, where queer means any formation of sexuality and/or gender that deviates from the norm of reproductive heterosexuality. The male-to-female transgender incites transphobia through her implicit challenge to the binary division of gender upon which male cultural and political hegemony depends, and through her capacity to initiate an uncanny rememoration, in the heterosexual or homosexual male, of his own primal (pre- and postnatal) participation in the female. Medical/sexological discourse and films such as To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar have struggled to curtail the freedom of self-actualization, and to discipline the meaning, of the m-t-f transgender, especially through the institution of regimes of binarism (male/female, heterosexual/homosexual, healthy/perverse, appropriate/inappropriate). The film Paris Is Burning documents the subversion of binaries of gender and sexuality by trans persons and other queers.     

The regime’s worst nightmare: the mobilization of citizen democracy. A study of Podemos’ (aesthetic) populism and the production of affect in political discourse

In spite of not even being officially registered three months before the European Parliament Elections of 2014, the Spanish upstart party Podemos captured almost 8 percent of the vote, while barely nine months after its formation, in October 2014, social surveys were citing the party as the leading force in national politics. The overall purpose of this paper is to explore how Podemos’ aesthetic and its discursive strategies are being used to mobilize affect and create collective identities in the battle for political hegemony in Spain. I argue in dialogue with Laclau [2005. On populist reason. London: Verso], Errejón and Mouffe [2016. Podemos: in the name of the people. London: Lawrence & Wishart] that: (a) the articulation of a new political grammar and discursive conflicts in which the popular majority can identify themselves as subjects in opposition to an adversary ‘Other’ plays a central role in constructing ‘the people’ as a new form of political culture, especially in times of crisis whereby; (b) the notion of populism transgresses categories such as ‘oversimplification’ and/or ‘demagogy’ and can also be regarded in terms of exhibiting sensitivity to popular demands and participatory democracy. My findings show that welfare politics are not necessarily best communicated through traditional left-wing symbols, due to the left’s popular link with communism and political defeat; these having been repeatedly recounted by the media/culture industry throughout history. Indeed, many may share the idea of protecting a nation’s common social services without wanting to position themselves within a Marxist (leftist) framework. I point to the representative crisis as an affective crisis where there is a potential affective space to be filled. From here, I stress that resistance movements seem to need to learn the current media logic of conflict and recognition in order to mediate affect and produce identification.     

Species composition and structure of regenerated and remnant forest patches within an urban landscape

Regenerated and remnant forest patches were inventoried in Syracuse, New York, USA to determine differences in structure, species composition, human disturbances, and landscape context. Patches had similar mean stem diameter, total stem density, and total basal areas, but differed with respect to diameter distribution, disturbance regime, landscape context, and occurrence of introduced species. In regenerated patches, 23 introduced species were inventoried and they accounted for 48% of relative density. In remnant patches, only seven introduced species were inventoried and they accounted for 17% of the relative density. Cluster analyses identified two community types for remnant patches—sugar maple and black oak—and three for regenerated patches—sugar maple, Norway maple, and boxelder. For remnant patches, Rhamnus cathartica dominated the small diameter class in the black oak cluster, and Acer saccharum dominated the small diameter class in the sugar maple cluster. For regenerated patches, introduced species—A. platanoides and R. cathartica—dominated the small diameter class in the Norway cluster, and a mixture of native and introduced species—A. negundo, R. cathartica, A. saccharum, and Rhus typhina—dominated the small diameter classes in the sugar maple and boxelder clusters. Functionally, land covers containing remnant and regenerated patches, such as vacant lots and greenspaces, had the highest net rate of carbon sequestration (848.7 mt/ha/yr).