Toward a sociology of global comparative placemaking

I call for a globally informed sociology of comparative placemaking that integrates historical and contemporary processes and includes the ephemeral, institutional, and personal. By placemaking, I am referring to the explicit or tacit cooperation among people to create, maintain, and give meaning to places in space through bodily occupation given differential resources and constraints. I review select place, space, and community-based literature about urban, Black, migrant, LGBTQ, and international populations to think about how we can build upon and integrate multiple theoretical, methodological, and epistemological insights to form an explicit placemaking research agenda. A US focus on neighborhoods contrasts with a comparative examination of global urban networks, social polarization, and transformation of the built environment in the interdisciplinary field of global urban studies (Ren, 2018). I argue for a placemaking research agenda that bridges insight from US Urban Sociology with Global Urban Studies to consider how various structures and actors constrain and facilitate place projects. With a globally reaching and comparatively informed sociology of placemaking, we can illuminate our multi-structured story of place and agency in context. We can answer questions about how and why we co-create and are simultaneously disciplined by the process of creation.     

Contextual identity experiencing facilitates resilience in Native American academics

This article discusses the socio-cultural dynamics that interact with ethno-racial identity experiencing in a previously under-researched group. A qualitative interdisciplinary study with 40 Native American academics from 28 mainstream universities across the U.S. served as a case example with findings that contrasted with historically influential theoretical frameworks postulating identity confusion and conflicts at the intersection of one’s mainstream education and profession versus one’s ethno-racial community grounding. Instead of feeling pressure to identify with only one worldview, the contextual, dynamic identities associated with the inclusive and flexible self-concept of tribal participants allowed them to in turn take advantage of two divergent cultural meaning systems pertaining to their distinct socio-cultural contexts. These shifts were experienced as not endogenous but rather exogenous variables, which did not cause the historically theorized issues. Participants felt their tribal identities instead facilitated meaningful integration of the existing incongruences, which resulted in unexpectedly resilient subjective experiencing.     

Becoming Custodial Dads: Exploring Parenting Among Low‐Income and Working‐Class African American Fathers

The authors use an ecological framework and grounded theoretical analysis to explore the circumstances in which working‐class and low‐income custodial African American fathers gain custody of their children, their transition from part‐time to full‐time parents, and the role of support networks in enhancing or inhibiting these men's parenting. Twenty‐four men from an impoverished Midwestern urban area participated in the study. The findings suggest that these men, and perhaps others sharing their demographic profiles, generally become parents by default and are often reluctant to take on a full‐time, single parenting role. Adaptation to the role seems to be enhanced by these men's use of extended kin support networks and shared living arrangements. However, low wages, a lack of sufficient assistance from public assistance programs, and informal custody arrangements often inhibit their fathering.     

"20世纪文艺复兴"的重要篇章--两次大战期间的美国小说思潮述评

两次世界大战期间的美国小说,成就尤显卓著.它作为综合体现美利坚民族文化意识的最重要文学样式,充分显示了美国文学的现代性、多样性和独创性,并从不同的侧面,反映了发达的资本主义社会背景下的各种冲突和矛盾,刻印着社会心理嬗变的轨迹.     

论五四后梁漱溟在传统思想现代化方面的局限性

五四运动后的 2 0 -3 0年代 ,为使传统思想现代化和西方思想中国化 ,梁漱溟在推崇宋明理学的同时 ,吸收了许多西方近代资产阶级思想来完善自己的理论。但就总体而言 ,梁漱溟所做的理论探索和实践运作 ,有很大的局限性 ,与中国的现代化思想相去甚远 ,倒是更多地表现了保守、落后和空想的成分     

试论美国电影中的英雄情结

“英雄类”影片是好莱坞制造的最具轰动效应的神话之一。本文拟对美国影片中塑造的各类英雄形象加以梳理与阐释 ,并进而对这些英雄片背后的英雄情结进行剖析 ,以期管窥美国影片中一些深层文化心理机制     

一曲美国南方没落贵族的挽歌--评威廉·福克纳的《喧嚣与骚动》

《喧嚣与骚动》是美国现代著名作家威廉·福克纳的惊世之作。在小说中 ,福克纳刻画了一幅美国旧南方贵族没落的图景 ,为没落的旧南方贵族弹奏了一曲凄凉的挽歌 ,深刻地揭示了美国旧南方的衰败。本文从不同的角度来体现小说深刻的思想主题及作品鲜明的艺术特色     

英美法系和大陆法系刑事陪审制度功能之比较

陪审制度的功能是陪审制度得以存在和延续的理由 ,笔者首先剖析了陪审制度的沿革及其发展趋势 ;进而阐述陪审制度在两大法系中共有的功能 ;最后分别阐述英美法系和大陆法系刑事陪审制度功能     

林长民与五四运动--兼论五四运动的起源

五四运动爆发之前 ,在国内各派政治势力围绕着“铁路统一案”与“山东问题”的斗争中 ,林长民起了很大的作用。他先是致力于铁路统一案之提出与实施 ,继而力主把青岛问题与胶济铁路及其延长线济顺、高徐两路联系起来 ,之后又运动拒签和反对与日直接交涉。从整个过程来看 ,林长民与五四运动之发生、发展关系密切。从中也可以看出 ,五四运动虽因外交问题而起 ,但其中杂有许多内政的因素。五四运动既是社会变动和文化变化的结果 ,也是当时各派政治势力分化互动的结果     

论艺术的社会性和审美理想

衡量艺术品质量的重要标准是社会性和审美理想的统一.两者的统一,首先表现为功利性和审美性的统一;其次是"再现"和"表现"的统一,"内容美"和"形式美"的统一;再次是社会性和审美性的统一.