Ideological Primary Groups in Contemporary Cultural Movements

Abstract

This paper argues that “post-modern” societies generate movements for cultural change in models “of” and “for” identity and consciousness, rather than traditional kinds of social movements aiming at structural changes in institutional arrangements. The distinctive and crucial unit in comtemporary cultural movements is what we have termed the “ideological group.” These groups are similar to the “ideological informal groups” which recruited members of traditional social movements on the basis of personal contacts and confidence, and which rested on shared “inner convictions.” Like other, earlier, ideological groups, they focus on the construction and legitimation of a shared symbolic interpretation, and ideology of a dissatisfying reality as well as their own personal and collective identity in relation to it. However, contemporary movement groups have been influenced considerably by the sensitivity training-encounter-group dynamics techniques associated with the intensive group movement. The result is a new interest in artificial primary relations among sociologically homogeneous peers for joining socio-cultural analyses with psychological interpretations of common personal experiences. The processes generated in these ideological primary groups lead to the collective construction of new or modified ideological interpretations of reality which contain different, more satisfying, models “of” and “for” personal and group identity, and “consciousness.”     

Managing electronic documents and work flows: Enterprise content management at work in nonprofit organizations

Web management and knowledge management systems have made significant technological advances, culminating in large information management systems such as enterprise content management (ECM). ECM is a Web‐based publishing system that manages large numbers of electronic documents and other Web assets intended for publication to Web portals and other complex Web sites. Work in nonprofit organizations can benefit from adopting new communication technologies that promote collaboration and enterprisewide knowledge management. The unique characteristics of ECM are enumerated and analyzed from a knowledge management perspective. We identify three stages of document life cycles in ECM implementations—content, reification, and commodification/process—as the content management model. We present the model as a mechanism for decision makers and scholars to use in evaluating the organizational impacts of systems such as ECM. We also argue that decision makers in nonprofit organizations should take care to avoid overly commodifying business processes in the final stage, where participation may be more beneficial than efficiency.     

Tourism—Key issues for the 1980s

This article discusses six issues which may affect the development of tourism and its management in the 1980s. Tourism is defined and the general nature of tourism is examined. The six issues selected for discussion concern the impact of rising fuel prices, airline deregulation, changes in the retailing of tourism, accommodation for tourism, the country-side and tourist attractions, and finally the role of national tourist boards.     

Sektion Familiensoziologie Bericht über die Arbeit der Sektion in 2003 und 2004

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

On Jürgen Habermas and public relations

Habermas focuses on the human communication process with understanding in mind. Here it is argued that this perspective is also worth to be considered for the field of public relations research. The article points out how to apply Habermas’ concept of understanding for the purposes of evaluation as well as for the purposes of planning public relations communication.