From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Dec 1 07:06:01 1995 Date: Fri, 1 Dec 1995 09:02:21 -0600 (CST) From: Tricia Robinson Subject: Thanks for all the help To: Sociology Graduate Students Thanks for all the great help in finding the ASA!! I have more contact points than I know what to do with! My friend (who I was obtaining the information for informs me that the cost of the Guide to Graduate Programs is $50!! The ASA gets you coming and going. They charge the programs to be listed, and they charge the students to get a copy. $$$ SKEE From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Dec 1 09:58:30 1995 Date: Fri, 1 Dec 1995 12:58:51 -0500 (EST) From: Murray Pomerance To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Subject: call for papers ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ PICTURES OF A GENERATION ON HOLD: Youth in Film and Television in the 1990s A Conference sponsored by Department of Sociology Ryerson Polytechnic University May 18-19, 1996 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The Department of Sociology at Ryerson Polytechnic University, Toronto, invites participation in a two-day conference on the representation of youth in film and television in the 1990s. The conference will be in Toronto, Saturday and Sunday May 18-19, 1996. Proposals for papers or preconstituted panels may be submitted on any theme involving filmic or television imagery and its relation to contemporary youth. The conference is divided into 3 thematic areas: A. THEY BECAME WHAT THEY BEHELD: RACE, GENDER, SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND FAMILY VALUES This area will include presentations devoted to themes such as (but not limited by): depiction of race or sexual identity in film or television; gender-bending and the new gender politics; depiction and role of family; the work of filmmakers such as Tarantino, Lee, Besson, MacDonald, Hartley and others; sexual relations and gender identity in sitcom tv. B. REBELS WITHOUT APPLAUSE: YOUNG OUTLAWS AND THE SOCIAL ORDER This area will include presentations devoted to themes such as (but not limited by): crime, rebellion, and the law; extremities of violence or degradation in media representation, and associated effects; youthful police; traditionalism and the re-birth of the 1950s; social control in film and television; voyeurism in media production. C. FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCES: MEDIA AND THE INTERNATIONAL YOUTH CULTURE This area will include presentations devoted to themes such as (but not limited by): national or regional identities and global imagery; imagery from the developing world; Canadian film and television in the shadow of Hollywood. ***** Within each of these 3 areas we will accept proposals for (a) individual papers, and (b) pre-constituted panels involving a moderator and up to 4 papers. All submissions should include the following for each individual involved: (1) a 50-word abstract; (2) a statement of intent, not to exceed 300 words; (3) a brief biographical statement; and (4) a precisely worded title of the paper to be presented. Queries of any kind, and submissions of paper and panel proposals, may be made either by REGULAR MAIL to: Murray Pomerance OR John Sakeris, Department of Sociology, Ryerson Polytechnic University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto Ontario M5B 2K3; or alternatly by EMAIL to either: mpomeran@hermes.acs.ryerson.ca jsakeris@hermes.acs.ryerson.ca DEADLINE FOR RECEPTION OF ALL PROPOSALS: December 15, 1995. *************************************************************************** From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Dec 1 11:33:13 1995 Fri, 1 Dec 1995 11:11:24 -0800 for Date: Fri, 1 Dec 1995 13:27:52 -0500 (EST) From: Jim Cassell To: Tricia Robinson Subject: Re: Thanks for all the help On Fri, 1 Dec 1995, Tricia Robinson wrote: > My friend (who I was obtaining the information for informs me that the > cost of the Guide to Graduate Programs is $50!! The ASA gets you coming > and going. They charge the programs to be listed, and they charge the > students to get a copy. $$$ > > > SKEE > I thought this was a mistake, so I called the ASA Publications Center (800/877-2693) to check. Cost for ASA members is $30.00--I didn't ask about nonmembers, the $50 fee probably applies to them. The 1993 guide cost $6.00 for members. Since people at ASA monitor this list, perhaps one of them could explain this very large price increase. Best, Jim ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Cassell jwcassell@UNC.EDU Institute for Research in Social Science Phone: 919-962-0782 University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Fax: 919-962-4777 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3355 USA From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Dec 1 12:11:26 1995 Date: Fri, 1 Dec 1995 15:08:14 -0500 (EST) From: Dale Albers To: Jean Czerlinski Subject: Re: the role of sociology (...Vaughn et al.) Enjoyed your post and have a couple of questions and maybe a thought or two. On Mon, 27 Nov 1995, Jean Czerlinski wrote: > > Let me try again, being as clear as possible. > > A. First I'll review my critique of the argument about the > cause of sociology's marginalization. > B. Then I'll explain how the instrumental vs. value question > applies to the role of sociology. > C. Finally I'll sketch a bit what I think should be valued in > sociology (new stuff). > > I hate to have such hyper-logical, stale organization. > But I think it makes a long message more readable > (people can skip to the part that interests them) > and (hopefully) more clear (considering the > misunderstandings of my earlier message). > > > --- A. My critique of the cause of marginalization > > Here is the argument I am critiquing: > > "Sociology has become marginalized because of > its excessive use of natural-science-inspired methods." > > I don't know if this argument was in the book, and > perhaps it was not in the review, but I think it > is a view held by at least some people. At any > rate, I think it's useful to critique. > > 1. I believe most people making this argument are > really critiquing the quantitative methods > taught in the typical "Statistics for Sociologists" > class, e.g. correlations, hypothesis- > testing, significance assessment. However, > most natural scientists do not use these > methods much, even when they do > quantitative work (and much work is also > qualitative). Could you expand a bit more on what natural sciences do use if not the foregoing? What are examples of the qualitative work they do? How would I know? Well, first of all I > did an undergraduate degre in physics. > Second, I've read a (very) little bit about the > history of methodology: see, for example, > Gerd Gigerenzer's "The Superego, the Ego, > and the Id in Statistical Reasoning" in > *A Handbook for Data Analysis in the > Behavioral Sciences: Methodological > Issues*. (Gigerenzer talks mostly about > psychology, but much of it applies to > sociology.) I'll check this out sounds like a good read. > > 2. As I stated before, sociology has > used the above-mentioned methods > (the Fisherian & Neyman-Pearson mish- > mash) considerably less than other > fields such as economics and (areas of) > psychology. > > 3. Not only that, but those fields that > embraced those methods have been > considerably more successful (i.e. gained > more prestige and academic legitimacy) > than sociology and other less "hard" > fields. > > Thus, if anything, we might want to > argue the inverse (of the reformulation): > > "Sociology has become marginalized because > of its failure to sufficiently use the natural- > science-inspired methods" such as a Fisher- > Neyman-Pearson inspired mish-mash (as in > psychology) or optimization through differential > equations (as in micro-economics). > > > ---- B. So what is the question? > Value-rationality vs. Instrumental Rationality > > I'm not sure if the above claim is correct. If it is > correct, I still wouldn't care to see sociology > using those nat-sci-inspired methods. > > The correctness of the claim is a "technical" > question that could be assessed with, for > example, the nat-sci-inspired methods > themselves (hypothesis testing!). Making > sociology more nat-sci-inspired, like > psych and econ, is also a "technical" > question. We have a set goal and need > to determine which way the goal can > be most fully and most efficiently > reached; we could perhaps determine > this with some of the tools of > micro-economics. > > Whether we WANT to reach that goal-- > or what other goals we want to reach > instead-- is a VALUE question. > There is no hypothesis to test and > no efficiency to measure. > Remember that, similarly, the "preferences" > used by economists in their > optimizations are exogenous. Economists > don't explain where the preferences > come from; they just show how to most > efficiently satisfy them, given what > they are. > > This distinction between value questions > and instrumental questions is not mine; > it comes from Weber. See his methodology > text or the article "Science as a Vocation." > It is implicit in almost all his work that > science (including sociology) can only > address the instrumental questions; > humans must address value questions > (and scientists should not pretend to > have some special insight into values, > insight that the rest of us don't have). > > > --- C. So what should sociology value? > > Here you get my totally biased opinion, since, > after all, that's what opinions are. > > If I had wanted to do more natural science > methods, I would have stayed in physics. If > I had wanted to apply psuedo-nat-sci methods > to social life, I could have done economics, > or maybe social psychology. I think we are > lucky to have another field, sociology, which > offers something else, and I agree with the > suggestions in the book / review that sociology > should focus on these "other" metho ds. (BUT > I would also include some of the neglected > natural sciences methods.) > > But, unlike the book / review, I do not > advocate them as a magic pill to boost > sociology's success (which it might or might > not do). I advocate them > 1) so that we can have a variety of methodologies > available (don't put all your eggs in one basket) > and > 2) so that we have some hope > of finally understanding social life and > improving it (which I think should be done). > > As (2) implies, I do not think the pseudo-nat-sci > methods currently in use have done much in the > way of understanding social life or solving > social problems. Unemployment and inflation > still happen as they will (witness Europe's > current unemployment problems) and people > still get unhappy and depressed. [Oops, wait, > I forgot about Prozac... ;-) .] > > In fact, it's amazing that econ & psych have > been as prestigious and legitimated as they > have been DESPITE their failures. The > stagflation of the 70's completely destroyed > the venerated Phillips Curve of (macro) economics. > And the succession of popular psych fads > have each "disproved" all the previous ones. > "It's bad to discipline your kids... No, now it's > good to discipline them... No, now it's bad....." > (I do not mean that popular psych and > academic psych are the same-- I confess to > stretching the point a bit.) > > The success of econ & psych despite their > failure to really solve anything suggests that > >> solving things has little to do with prestige > and legitimacy <<. Instead I would think that > cozying up with the Establishment is the > Yellow Brick Road to success. Provide > research "They" want to hear and you'll > get your grants and status. > > At times the book / review seem to agree > with this assessment; at other times they > seem to say sociology has failed because > it was too much of a bedfellow with the > establishment. My guess (and this is an > instrumental question that should yield to > empirical research) is that sociology was > not enough of a bedfellow to garner > worldly success. > > Not too surprisingly, I think that sociology > should be as independent of the establishment > as possible... without, of course, entirely > alienating it, because it needs the establishment's > support. There is a delicate balance > between being coopted on the one hand and > alienating your support on the other. Perhaps > it is an impossible balance, and no such thing > as a critical "discipline" can exist. Similar > problems are faced by social movements, of > course. > > Finally, I agree with the book / review that > a) indeed there ARE people who are oppressed > (this is only implicit in the book / review) and > b) sociology should focus on research that > could be used to end such oppression. > However, the research should be open-minded: > if the data suggests that the current system > is the least oppressive one feasible, then > that must be admitted (which Weber also said). > > (Once I wrote a more explicit short essay > that sociology should be concerned with > _human_ _social_ _welfare_, with each > of these terms analyzed, but I don't care > to repeat it all here, so let me leave it at > that.) > I may be wrong here in my reading of your post (and I did not read the earlier work you mentioned at the top of your post,but let me go out on a limb and ask a crass question. Are you suggesting or saying that the thrust of your analysis is that a big problem in sociology is that we haven't got our methods straight or that we have been using the wrong ones. Does this then lead to the conclusion that this is why (or partly so) to the marginalization of sociology. Let me follow on the latter for a second as ask if there was ever a time when sociology was not a marginalized discipline in the academy? I am only now beginning to think about this. Surely, there must have been a time when it occupid a more honored place and I wonder why this might be the case. My last question is a bit more complicated and I'll try to lay it out as best I can. Is it possible (perhaps more possible then the methods issue) that sociology is marginalized because it has not done much in the way of developing new and interesting theories about the human condition? I am wondering if we just sorta stopped dong this work in the 60's for whatever reason(s)? I would also whether its marginalization is also in part due to the lack of any real interesting studies in the last twenty years.I think one could make the case that there have been interesting and important studies on important issues in the past, but have we just given up on these? Thanks for your time and my meanderings. Cheers. Dale Albers > Best wishes, > > Jean Czerlinski > > > From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Dec 1 12:58:30 1995 Date: Fri, 1 Dec 1995 14:52:44 -0600 (CST) From: Tricia Robinson Subject: ASA Guide To: Sociology Graduate Students Well, I received quite a few messages telling me I was incorrect about the price of the ASA guide. Let me clarify where I got my information. A friend asked me to track down the ASA's contact information. I received MANY of these from members of socgrad (thanks again). I passed this information along to the friend. The friend wrote back and told me that they had ordered the book, and WOW wasn't it expensive? So, I posted back to SOCGRAD just in case people were interested. The friend is a non-member, non-student, regular kind of person who is thinking about graduate school sometime in the next 12-18 months. I imagine this is were the problem in price comparison lies. Hope this helps anyone is might have been confused by all this talk of friends, and different prices. SKEE From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Dec 1 14:58:33 1995 Date: Fri, 1 Dec 1995 14:33:12 -0800 To: socgrad@ucdavis.edu, flatta@ceb.ucop.edu, brookj@ceb.ucop.edu, asm4@lehigh.edu, trill@leland.stanford.edu, franklin@biology.utah.edu, arapport@bbs.ggu.edu, elligur@aol.com, madeleine@clarke.com, mjkinnuc@umich.edu, browning@sfsu.edu, sbrook@brook.com, ebrook@state.ma.us, brookgrp@pipeline.com, shawn@wavefun.com, kufta@aol.com, socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: CyberBrook Subject: 40 years and counting >Human Rights and Social Justice, 1 December 1955 > >The Interstate Commerce Commission acts November 25 to ban racial segregation on interstate buses and trains and in terminal waiting rooms. Montgomery, Ala., seamstress Rosa Parks, 42, refuses to give up her seat on a downtown bus to a white man December 1. CyberBrook@thecity.sfsu.edu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "I think I believe everything I'm saying" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From wkosinsk@ultrix.ramapo.edu Fri Dec 1 20:30:06 1995 Date: Fri, 1 Dec 1995 13:34:44 -0500 (EST) From: Wanda Kosinski To: Tricia Robinson Subject: Re: Thanks for all the help Wow, talk about inflation ... when I purchased my Guide to Graduate Programs from ASA back in 1989 I think I paid $5 or $10 at the most for it! Best of luck through the process. Wanda ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ BAH! HUMBUG! ~ ~ -Scrooge ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ Wanda Kosinski ~ ~ DBS / SSHS ~ ~ Ramapo College of New Jersey ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sat Dec 2 03:07:59 1995 Date: Sat, 02 Dec 1995 03:03:34 -0800 To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: Joe Surfer Subject: Ralph Nader running for Pres in 96 Just in case anybody was interested in third-party politics (or, at least a second party if you prefer) - I found a post on misc.activism.progressive that may be interresting: > This is just a quick message. It will be publicly confirmed today (11/27) > that Ralph Nader will be running for president under the Green > Party banner. The form this takes is that his name will be > officially placed on the California Green Party primary ballot. > California now has an early primary. Gosh, think he has *any* chance? Are Americans ready for real change? From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sat Dec 2 19:29:08 1995 Date: Sat, 2 Dec 1995 19:28:02 -0800 To: socgrad@ucdavis.edu, mjkinnuc@umich.edu, socgrad@UCSD.EDU, shawn@wavefun.com, sbrook@brook.com, ebrook@state.ma.us From: CyberBrook Subject: TV Nation -- Still No Word >Approved-By: TVNatFans@AOL.COM >Date: Fri, 1 Dec 1995 21:57:02 -0500 >Reply-To: "Fans of Fox' TV NATION Television Series" > >Sender: "Fans of Fox' TV NATION Television Series" > >From: Veronica Moore >Subject: TV Nation -- Still No Word > > >Dear friends, > >I've just been told that FOX has postponed their decision for at least >another week on whether or not to renew "TV Nation." One thing is certain -- >they have received a *ton* of e-mail and snail mail. I know they have been >impressed by this response -- but will it push us over the top? > >If you are inclined to keep writing, their e-mail address is: >Foxnet@delphi.com. Please remember to drop them a copy via snail mail. > >NOTE: Here's the *new* address: > >John Matoian, President >Fox Entertainment >P.O. Box 900 >Beverly Hills, CA 90213 > >Nothing good or worthwhile is easy, is it? > >By the way, 40 years ago today Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a >segregated Montgomery bus and was arrested. From her singular action came a >revolution (still unfinished). One person can make a huge difference and I >hope that teachers across America reminded our kids of that on this historic >day. > >Well, that's about it for now. I just got back from taping Conan O'Brien. >It'll be on later tonight. > >Take care and thanks again for your incredibly kind and supportive letters! > >Sincerely, > >Michael Moore > >P.S. You know, if Bob Dole is right about how dangerous movies can be -- he >believes they can encourage people to commit copycat crimes -- then I >implore Hollywood Pictures not to release Oliver Stone's "Nixon" anywhere in >the Washington, D.C. area and to instruct all ticket sellers elsewhere not to >admit Bob Dole -- you never know what ideas he might pick up! > > CyberBrook@thecity.sfsu.edu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "I think I believe everything I'm saying" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sun Dec 3 17:33:07 1995 From: JGGSO@jazz.ucc.uno.edu Date: 03 Dec 1995 19:31:06 -0600 (CST) Subject: Please help To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Hi anyone out there know of major articles about community initiatives? I would really like to know about any research or evaluations that have been done in this area, specifically violence prevention or crime stopping. I have focused on the action of the neighborhoods themselves as opposed to any federal or state organization. Thanks jggso@uno.edu From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sun Dec 3 21:00:50 1995 Date: Sun, 03 Dec 1995 23:03:42 -0600 From: David Purcell To: psn-cafe@csf.Colorado.EDU, ahs-talk@ncsu.edu, socgrad@UCSD.EDU, ahs-talk@wpo.it.luc.edu, psn-cafe@wpo.it.luc.edu, socgrad@wpo.it.luc.edu Subject: help with television network news Hello all, I'm looking for resources dealing with network television news in general, news magazines (60 Minutes, Dateline, 20/20, etc.) in particular. I'm interested in the critical focus of network news magazines -- how investigative reports and critical analysis focus on members of the working & middle classes, while ignoring the realities of corporate crime, government corruption, etc. For example, 20/20 (or one of them...they're all alike) recently did a story on corrupt automobile garages. Nevermind the fact that what they're doing is 1million times less damaging than the boys at General Electric. Steering the focus away from real problems, of course, supports helps maintain the ruling class hegemony. At any rate, just about anything will help at this point -- impact of television news, viewers' confidence in the news, historical accounts, etc. I have a handful of books & articles, but nothing that helps me fit all the pieces together. Is Jim Julian still out here? Seems like this would be right up his alley... Thanks in advance. Peace, Dave ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dave Purcell -- graduate student Loyola University Sociology Department email: dpurcel@luc.edu current faves: anything by X "Desperate Times" - Ed Pettersen "Wrecking Ball" - Emmylou Harris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Dec 4 07:26:56 1995 Date: Mon, 4 Dec 1995 10:21:21 -0500 (EST) From: Carla M Eastis To: JGGSO@jazz.ucc.uno.edu Subject: Re: Please help > Hi anyone out there know of major articles about community initiatives? I > would really like to know about any research or evaluations that have been > done in this area, specifically violence prevention or crime stopping. I > have focused on the action of the neighborhoods themselves as opposed to > any federal or state organization. Thanks jggso@uno.edu Anyone interested in community initiatives should check out the Civic Practices Network website. The URL is . It's got a lot of info about the "new citizenship" and as well as case studies of successful community programs all over the country in areas like crime prevention, education, health, etc. Some of them will have been academically researched or evaluated, I'm sure, and those that haven't are papers waiting to happen :) Carla +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Communicate with me! e-mail: eastis@minerva.cis.yale.edu on the Web: http://www.cis.yale.edu/~eastis/carla.html +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Dec 4 07:42:29 1995 From: "AMY MICHELE GLEASON" To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Date: Mon, 4 Dec 1995 10:40:22 EST5EDT Subject: technology X-pmrqc: 1 Hello folks, I have a colleague who is writing a paper on the ways in which computer usage and technology in general will impact education, work, and social strata through the year 2025. Does anyone know of any research in this area, or even have any speculations? Please reply directly to Mari Reddit mreddit@american.edu From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Dec 4 07:54:49 1995 Date: Mon, 04 Dec 95 10:46:31 EST From: Alan Davidson Subject: query To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Anything recent by Stanley Aronowitz (Science and Power, the Jobless Future) should help in terms of looking at the implications of technology, and how they cut across social class/strata. From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Dec 4 08:15:30 1995 by BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU (PMDF V4.3-10 #10451) id <01HYEOHQYCDSHSTRK5@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU>; Mon, 04 Dec 1995 11:13:33 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 04 Dec 1995 11:13:33 -0500 (EST) Date-warning: Date header was inserted by BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU From: "Scott S. Blake" Subject: Re: technology To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU I recommend _Out of Control_ by Kevin Kelly and _In the Age of the Smart Machine_ by S. Zuboff for interesting appraisals and some speculation. -scott At 10:40 AM 12/4/95 EST5EDT, AMY MICHELE GLEASON wrote: >Hello folks, > I have a colleague who is writing a paper on the ways in which >computer usage and technology in general will impact education, work, >and social strata through the year 2025. Does anyone know of any >research in this area, or even have any speculations? Please reply >directly to Mari Reddit mreddit@american.edu > Scott S. Blake Graduate Student (Sociology), Graduate Assistant (Hiatt Career Center), President (Graduate Student Association), Network Administrator (HomePort Collective), Senior Consultant (HomePort Consulting Services/Computing Solutions for Academics). blake@brandeis.edu|blake@homeport.org | http://www.homeport.org/~blake/ Finger blake@binah.cc.brandeis.edu for PGP Public Key From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Dec 4 10:58:24 1995 Date: Mon, 4 Dec 1995 13:52:23 -0500 To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: dread@acs.bu.edu ('Killer' Miller) Subject: Re: technology At 10:40 AM 12/4/95, AMY MICHELE GLEASON wrote: >Hello folks, > I have a colleague who is writing a paper on the ways in which >computer usage and technology in general will impact education, work, >and social strata through the year 2025. Does anyone know of any >research in this area, or even have any speculations? Please reply >directly to Mari Reddit mreddit@american.edu You might try Lewis Perlman's "School's Out." I personally found most of his predictions to be based on bankrupt premises, but he seems to be one of the more widely-known spokespersons for the technology crowd. For a far more reasonable (IMHO) perspective, look at "Technopoly" by Neil Postman, and his followup (which criticises those "technology-as-panacea" education reformers), The End of Education. Later, -Andrew ================================================== == dread@acs.bu.edu == Andrew P. Miller == ================================================== == Boston University == Department of Sociology == ================================================== == "Wake up and live !" - Robert Nesta Marley == ================================================== From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Dec 4 12:41:21 1995 Date: 04 Dec 95 15:36:02 EST From: "Laurie A. Duchowny" <102432.2772@compuserve.com> To: list recipients Subject: technology For a look at technology and the workplace, check out Beverly Burris's 'Technocracy at Work' published in 1993 by State University of New York Press. Good Luck! Laurie From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Dec 4 12:43:03 1995 From: SarahT@aol.com Date: Mon, 4 Dec 1995 15:42:21 -0500 To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Subject: Re: technology Also: Dunlop & Kling (1991). _Computerization and Controversy_. Rheingold (1993). _Virtual Communities_. (A journalist, but has some interesting things to say about two possible futures). Bowers, C. A. (1988). The cultural dimensions of educational computing: Understanding the non-neutrality of technology. Olson et al. (1993). "Computer-supported cooperative work: Research Issues for the 90s." Behaviour & Information Technology, 12(2): 115-129. Curtis, Pavel and David Nichols. 1993. "MUDs grow up: social virtual reality in the real world. FTP: parcftp.xerox.com and get /pub/MOO/papers/MUDsGrowUp.txt There is also a very large collection of bibliographic information on the World Wide Web for computer-mediated communication studies, which probably includes many more articles and books that would be helpful. I can't find the address right now, but would be happy to look it up if it's needed. Sarah Cornell (sat1@cornell.edu or saraht@aol.com) From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Dec 4 13:27:16 1995 Date: Mon, 4 Dec 1995 15:10:11 -0600 (CST) From: Tricia Robinson Subject: White collar crime and the news To: Sociology Graduate Students I realize that the person who posted was looking for resources, but I thought a comment or two might help to start a discussion about the sobject here... If I was a member of the production team, trying to decide which stories to finanace, and which ones to cut, I would think a major consideration would have to be viewer interest. I do not mean this in terms of "looking out for the viewer's best interests", but instead in terms of what the view will be interested in watching. As a big muckie muck in the TV business, I would probably feel like a story about crocked car repairs would be more relevant and attention grabbing than a story about how Kris, the vice president of a bank had been redlining a neighborhood in south Chicago. If I remember correctly, the story about auto repairs appeared on DateLine NBC, which has a history of such stories. They did a similar story on camera shops in NYC. They found that tourists were being WAY over charged, and basically being taken advantage of by crocked salespeople and store owners. The production team most likely felt this had more viewer appeal than a story about how american companies are paying slave wages overseas to build the products they sell in this country. To a certain extent, I think the argument could be made that viewers "buy" shows, and televisions shows "sell" themselves. The industry has found (and I am guessing here) that more people buy shows that are not critical of the social structure in this country. If a news program were to be produced about white collar crimes, and "the terrible things" that companies do to make a buck, how do you (socgrad people) think this show would do during ratings sweeps? Look at the shows that are out there now which are doing well. Talk shows abound. Rush is king. Sitcoms rake the viewers in. The news programs which we are so quick to accuse of pandering to the classist structure of our society do not fair that well. How would a show which debunks capitalism do? Anyway, jsut a few cents from my side of the world. SKEE From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Dec 4 16:41:19 1995 Date: Mon, 4 Dec 1995 16:38:32 -0800 To: socgrad@ucdavis.edu, arapport@bbs.ggu.edu, brookj@ceb.ucop.edu, socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: CyberBrook Subject: negation of a negation in practice Enjoy this new employment strategy (no doubt many of us will need it)---Dan > >Herbert A. Millington >Chair - Search Committee >412A Clarkson Hall >Whitson University >College Hill, MA 34109 > >Dear Professor Millington, > >Thank you for your letter of March 16. After careful >consideration, I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept >your refusal to offer me an assistant professor position in your >department. > >This year I have been particularly fortunate in receiving an >unusually large number of rejection letters. With such a varied >and promising field of candidates it is impossible for me to accept >all refusals. > >Despite Whitson's outstanding qualifications and previous >experience in rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does >not meet my needs at this time. Therefore, I will assume the >position of assistant professor in your department this August. >I look forward to seeing you then. > >Best of luck in rejecting future applicants. > > Sincerely, > > Chris L. Jensen > > > > > > > > CyberBrook@thecity.sfsu.edu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "I think I believe everything I'm saying" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Tue Dec 5 04:24:21 1995 Date: Tue, 5 Dec 1995 07:17:55 -0500 (EST) From: Jim Cassell To: Sociology Graduate Student Discussion Subject: Job at Temple University (fwd) FYI - Jim ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Cassell jwcassell@UNC.EDU Institute for Research in Social Science Phone: 919-962-0782 University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Fax: 919-962-4777 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3355 USA ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 04 Dec 95 13:57:12 EST From: ANNE@VM.TEMPLE.EDU To: C&U Section Members Subject: Job at Temple University Hi fellow C&U members. This is my first list serve experience. I hope I don't blow it. I am chairing a search. Here is the ad. It will be coming out in print soon. Please forward this to whomever you would like. Thanks. Temple University: Department of Geography and Urban Studies vacancy for tenure track Assistant Professor beginning September, 1996. Qualified applicants to teach core courses in urban studies, including race and U.S. cities. The department is an applied and multi-disciplinary program with a strong focus on community development and housing and economic development issues. Applicants need completed Ph.D. by fall, 1996. Send letter, vita, three letters of recommendation and sample writings to Dr. Anne Shlay, Department of Geography and Urban Studies, Gladfelter Hall, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122. Deadline: March 1, 1996. Temple Unveristy is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Tue Dec 5 07:51:38 1995 From: "Kimberly Clarke Simmons" To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Subject: Suggested Reading List for 101 Date: Tue, 5 Dec 95 09:48:49 -0600 Many thanks to all who responded to my request for favorite easy soc. books. Beware -- the list got quite long! If you have any comments (hated or loved some of these books or new ideas) please respond privately (simmo003@maroon.tc.umn.edu) before 1-5-96 (when the list goes to print :-). Kim. _______________________________________________________________________________ A hunger so wide and so deep : American women speak out on eating problems by Becky W. Thompson. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, c1994 And the band played on : politics, people, and the AIDS epidemic by Randy Shilts. New York : St. Martin's Press, 1987 Ain't no makin' it : leveled aspirations in a low-income neighborhood by Jay MacLeod. Boulder, Colo. : Westview Press, 1987. American medicine, the quest for competence by Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good. Berkeley : University of California Press, c1995. Asylums : essays on the social situation of mental patients and other inmates. by Erving Goffman. Garden City, N.Y. : Anchor Books, 1961. Backdoor to eugenics by Troy Duster. New York : Routledge, 1990 Battling bias : the struggle for identity and community on college campuses by Ruth Sidel. New York : Viking, 1994 Black, white, or mixed race? : race and racism in the lives of young people of mixed parentage by Barbara Tizard and Ann Phoenix. New York : Routledge, 1993 Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community by Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Madeline D. Davis. New York:Routledge, c1993. Brave new families : stories of domestic upheaval in late twentieth century America by Judith Stacey. United States : Basic Books, c1990. Coming of age : the story of our century by those who've lived it by Studs Terkel. New York : New Press : Distributed by Norton, c1995 Confronting rape : the feminist anti-rape movement and the state by Nancy A. Matthews. New York : Routledge, 1994 Crafting selves : power, gender, and discourses of identity in a Japanese workplace by Dorinne K. Kondo. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1990. Erotic wars : what happened to the sexual revolution? by Lillian B. Rubin. New York : Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1990. Ethnic Options: Choosing Identities in America by Mary C. Waters. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1990. Ethnography unbound : power and resistance in the modern metropolis by Michael Burawoy ... Berkeley : University of California Press, c1991 Families on the fault line : America's working class speaks about the family, the economy, race, and ethnicity by Lillian B. Rubin. New York : HarperCollins, c1994. Fast food, fast talk : service work and the routinization of everyday life by Robin Leidner. Berkeley : University of California Press, c1993. Fathers & divorce by Terry Arendell. Thousand Oaks : Sage Publications, c1995 Fear of falling : the inner life of the middle class by Barbara Ehrenreich. New York : Pantheon Books, c1989. Feeding the family : the social organization of caring as gendered work by Marjorie L. DeVault. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1991 Fighting for jobs : case studies of labor-community coalitions confronting plant closings by Bruce Nissen. Albany : State University of New York Press, c1995 For her own good : 150 years of the experts' advice to women by Barbara Ehrenreich, Deirdre English. New York : Anchor Books, 1989 Forgotten Americans : Thirty Million Working Poor in the Land of Opportunity by John E. Schwarz and Thomas J. Volgy. New York : W.W. Norton, c1992. Gender play : girls and boys in school by Barrie Thorne. New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, c1993. Growing Up Poor by Terry Williams and William Kornblum. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, c1985. Habits of the heart : individualism and commitment in American life by Robert N. Bellah ... . Berkeley : University of California Press, c1985 Hard times : an oral history of the great depression by Studs Terkel. New York : Pantheon Books, c1986. Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman ; with an introd. by Ann J. Lane. New York : Pantheon Books, c1979 Holding the line : women in the great Arizona mine strike of 1983 by Barbara Kingsolver. Ithaca, NY : ILR Press, c1989 Intergroup conflict and cooperation : the robbers cave experiment by Muzafer Sherif ... ; Middletown, CT : Wesleyan University Press ; Scranton, Pa. : Distributed by Harper & Row, 1987. Intimate strangers : men and women together by Lillian B. Rubin. New York : Harper & Row, c1983. Living With Racism: The Black Middle Class Experience by Joe Feagin and M.P. Sikes. Boston: Beacon Press, c1994. Maid in the U.S.A. by Mary Romero. New York : Routledge, c1993. Mothers and their children : a feminist sociology of childrearing by Jane Ribbens. London : Sage, 1994 Names we call home : autobiography on racial identity. edited by Becky Thompson and Sangeeta Tyagi. New York : Routledge, 1995 Normal accidents : living with high-risk technologies by Charles Perrow. New York : Basic Books, c1984 Number of Our Days by Barbara Myerhoff. New York, N.Y. : Simon and Schuster, 1980, c1978. Over the ivy walls : the educational mobility of low-income Chicanos by Patricia Gandara. Albany : State University of New York Press, c1995 Paradoxes of Gender by Judith Lorber. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, c1994. People and Folks: Gangs, Crime and the Underclass in a Rustbelt City by John M. Hagedorn with Perry Macon. Chicago : Lake View Press, c1988. Poor people's movements : why they succeed, how they fail by Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward. New York : Pantheon Books, c1977 Rachel and her children : homeless families in America by Jonathan Kozol. New York : Crown Publishers, 1988. Race Matters. by Cornel West. Boston : Beacon Press, c1992. Race, ethnicity, and entrepreneurship in urban America by Ivan Light and Carolyn Rosenstein. Hawthorne, N.Y. : Aldine de Gruyter, c1995. Restructuring schools : promising practices and policies edited by Maureen T. Hallinan. New York : Plenum Press, c1995 Savage inequalities : children in America's schools by Jonathan Kozol. New York : Crown Pub., 1991. SlimÕs Table: race, respectability, and masculinity by Mitchell Duneier. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1992. Tally's corner : a study of Negro streetcorner men by Elliot Liebow ; Boston : Little, Brown, c1967. Teenage Wasteland : SuburbiaÕs Dead End Kids by Donna Gaines. New York : Pantheon Books, 1991 Tell Them Who I Am: The Lives of Homeless Women by Elliot Liebow. New York: The Free Press, 1993. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women by Naomi Wolf. New York: William Morrow, 1990. The Bohemian Grove and other retreats; a study in ruling-class cohesiveness, by G. William Domhoff. New York, Harper & Row <1974> The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs. New York: Vintage Books, 1961. The disappearance of childhood by Neil Postman. New York : Vintage Books, 1994 The hearts of men : American dreams and the flight from commitment by Barbara Ehrenreich. Garden City, N.Y. : Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1983. The managed heart : commercialization of human feeling by Arlie Russell Hochschild. Berkeley : University of California Press, c1983. The McDonaldization of society : an investigation into the changing character of contemporary social life by George Ritzer. Newbury Park, Calif. : Pine Forge Press, c1993. The origins of the civil rights movement : Black communities organizing for change by Aldon D. Morris. New York : Free Press c1984 The power elite and the state : how policy is made in America by G. William Domhoff. New York : A. de Gruyter, c1990 The mirror dance : identity in a women's community by Susan Kriege. Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 1983 The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, by Erving Goffman. Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, <1959> The second shift : working parents and the revolution at home by Arlie Hochschild with Anne Machung. New York, N.Y. : Viking, 1989. The Sociological Imagination by C. Wright Mills. New York, Oxford University Press, 1959 The undeserving poor : from the war on poverty to the war on welfare by Michael B. Katz. New York : Pantheon Books, c1989 Wayward Puritans; a study in the sociology of deviance by Kai T. Erikson. New York, Wiley, c1966. Weapons of the weak : everyday forms of peasant resistance by James C. Scott. New Haven : Yale University Press, c1985. White racism : the basics by Joe R. Feagin and Hernan Vera. New York : Routledge, 1995 White Women, Race Matters : the social construction of whiteness by Ruth Frankenberg. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, c1993 Who's running America? : the Clinton years by Thomas R. Dye. Edition: 6th ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Prentice Hall, 1995. {See also, Bush Years, Reagan Years} Why Americans don't vote by Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward. New York : Pantheon Books, c1988 Women and children last : the plight of poor women in affluent America by Ruth Sidel. New York : Viking, 1986 Women and Men at Work by Barbar Reskin and Irene Padavic. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 1994. Women of the Klan : racism and gender in the 1920s by Kathleen M. Blee. Berkeley : University of California Press, c1991. Young, White and Miserable : Growing Up Female in the Fifties. by Wini Breines. Boston: Beacon Press, c. 1992. Kimberly Clarke Simmons U of MN Sociology simmo003@maroon.tc.umn.edu From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Tue Dec 5 20:27:54 1995 From: JWL3697@UTARLG.UTA.EDU id <01HYGP31YLKG9ZVDV3@UTARLG.UTA.EDU>; Tue, 05 Dec 1995 22:27:07 -0500 (CDT) Date: Tue, 05 Dec 1995 22:25:52 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Re:thank you for advise To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU --Boundary (ID 0hzGQ8FSLLYP66FejLxcrg) [**** Insert text here ****] _________________________________________________ Arlington, TX 76019 --Boundary (ID 0hzGQ8FSLLYP66FejLxcrg) Return-path: id <01HYGP31YLKG9ZVDV3@UTARLG.UTA.EDU>; Tue, 05 Dec 1995 22:22:25 -0500 (CDT) Date: Tue, 05 Dec 1995 22:14:56 -0500 (CDT) From: JWL3697@UTARLG.UTA.EDU Subject: Thank you for your reference To: socgrad@uscd.edu Hello, everybody: I posted a request for recommendations for a DEVIANCE course few days back, and would like to thank those who have replied. After much thought, here are my choices: 1. Stigma by Goffman 2. The reader by Pontell 3 Sociology of Deviance Behavior by Clinard & Meier I noticed that most deviance texts emphasize on criminal behavior; but I like to incorporate physical deviance and elite deviance. this is the primary reason why I chose these books. Once again, thank for all your help and input. ...Julia :) _________________________________________________________________ Julia Lam Graduate School TEL: 817-273-3750 Department of Sociology FAX: 817-273-3759 University of Texas at Arlington E-MAIL: JWL3697@UTARLG.UTA.EDU P.O. Box 19599 Arlington, TX 76019 --Boundary (ID 0hzGQ8FSLLYP66FejLxcrg)-- From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Wed Dec 6 04:24:16 1995 Date: Wed, 6 Dec 1995 07:18:08 -0500 (EST) From: Jim Cassell To: Sociology Graduate Student Discussion Subject: CONFERENCE> Qualitative Research in Education (fwd) FYI; note the Dec 15 deadline. -- Jim ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Cassell jwcassell@UNC.EDU Institute for Research in Social Science Phone: 919-962-0782 University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Fax: 919-962-4777 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3355 USA ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 5 DEC 1995 09:35:43 MST From: Gene Glass Newgroups: bit.listserv.aera Subject: CONFERENCE> Qualitative Research in Education For those of you who are attending the 1996 Conference on Qualitative Research in Education, in Athens, Georgia, USA, I am posting the following notice due to an unexpectedly short submission time frame. Michael Moore, Kerry Bostwick, and I will facilitate the session. If you have questions, please feel free to contact me. Sorry for any cross-listings you may receive. Marie Nelson National-Louis University --------------------------------------------------------------------------- DEADLINE EXTENDED SEMINAR ON RESEARCH IN PROGRESS--New Deadline: December 15, 1995 SESSION SCHEDULE: Thursday, January 4, 1996, 1:00-5:00 pm PARTICIPANTS: Currently registered participants include experienced and beginning researchers, including teacher-researchers. SESSION DESCRIPTION: Modeled on the L. Ramon Veal Seminar on Research in Language, which has met for twenty years at NCTE's Spring Conferences, this session is a professional support group for improving research in progress. HOW TO PARTICIPATE: If you would like constructive feedback at any phase of the process, from focusing a topic to shaping an emergent design to finding appropriate modes of representation to publication, please submit a brief piece (two pages, single-spaced max) summarizing your work and posing the questions you'd like participants to discuss. We will distribute copies of all submissions during the week following December 15 so you can read them before the session begins. Observers may order papers and attend as well. WHERE TO SUBMIT: Please mail your two-page submission with a check for $10.00 (payable to Kerry Bostwick for Research-in-progress) to Kerry Bostwick 543 Peninsular Dr. Lakeland, FL 33813 by December 15, 1995. If you would like to receive copies but are not submitting yourself, you may send a check for $10.00. [%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%] Posted by Gene V Glass, Editor of AERA LISTSERV. gene@asu.edu To post messages, mail them to AERA@asu.edu . This LIST is for announcements to the educational research community (jobs, conferences, publications, relocation of AERA members, etc.). For open discussion of education research, email to LISTSERV@asu.edu and include the message SUB ERL-L . Specialized discussions take place on the AERA Divisional Lists; e.g., to join AERA-A, mail the message SUB AERA-A to LISTSERV@asu.edu. [%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%] From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Wed Dec 6 07:10:39 1995 From: MERIN@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU (PMDF V4.3-10 #10451) id <01HYHEJG4SKYHST4L1@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU>; Wed, 06 Dec 1995 10:09:09 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 06 Dec 1995 10:09:09 -0500 (EST) Subject: reply to Skee on TV To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU I want to respectfully disagree with SKEE's point that television can only show what "sells." If this were the case, nothing could ever change and yet occassionally good programs do make it, if only temporarily (ie: TV Nation and SHE TV). Change happens slowly and you have to be devious about it. Of course a show called "White Collar Crime" might not sell, but what I have learned in my documentary making class is that there is not topic that is intrinsically uninteresting. You can make any topic compelling- images are incredibly powerful. I would urge any activist-minded sociologists to check out your local Cable Access Station. Sure no one watches much public access yet, but that can change and meanwhile, you can learn to put your ideas into powerful images. Here in Somerville, Cable access has won many awards, largely thanks to a great guy who teaches local high school students to make their own videos. Also, you may be interested to know that you don't have to make a video to start impacting your local station; you can sponsor someone else's video and have it shown. Good luck with your work everyone, sarah (Merin@cc.binah.brandeis.edu) From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Wed Dec 6 07:40:04 1995 From: MERIN@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU (PMDF V4.3-10 #10451) id <01HYHFI6RHIOHST4L1@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU>; Wed, 06 Dec 1995 10:38:33 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 06 Dec 1995 10:38:33 -0500 (EST) Subject: Women in Sociology To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Forgive me, I'm still catching up with my email, but i have to respond to the request for sources on Women in Soc. The best course I've had so far in grad school (well,one of them) was Shulamit Reinharz's Women and Intellectual Work. I think I'll just say, email her at Reinharz@cc.binah.brandeis.edu and I'm sure she'd be happy to help. Or call our WOmen's studies dept and ask Lisa Gay (coordinator and scholar) to send you the syllabus. Basically, we studied the first generation of women to go to grad school in the social sciences in the US as well as women who did sociology, but were outside the main stream: Florence Nightingale (she did one of the first quantitative studies of hygeine while on the front lines in the Crimean War), Sophie Germaine, Harriet Martineau (was in the US at the same time as De Tocqueville, but spent two years here and actually interviewed women instead of just guessing what they might be thinking, a facinating woman), Ida B. Wells (journaist and historical sociologist) and so many more. Our major texts were: Untold Lives by Furamoto and Beyond Separate Spheres by Rosalind Rosenberg. The latter is an incredibly rewarding read. Also, Shula has put together a very useful timeline which has grown out of the course: "A Contextualized Chronology of WOmen's Sociological Work" It's $5 and you can order it from the women's studies dept. (617)736-3042 or email Gay@cc.binah.brandeis.edu. Good luck, sarah merin (merin@cc.binah.brandeis.edu) From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Wed Dec 6 07:44:13 1995 From: MERIN@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU (PMDF V4.3-10 #10451) id <01HYHFWECU7QHST4L1@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU>; Wed, 06 Dec 1995 10:43:25 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 06 Dec 1995 10:43:25 -0500 (EST) Subject: PS for Women in Soc To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU PS: Someone mentioned Mary Jo Deegan's work and I want to recommend her as well- she's really at the center of this historical endeavour. She's also a fabulous speaker. Oh, and you can also get a catalog of videos of speakers and documentaries on Women in Soc from th eWomens' studies dept. (there's a good one of Mary Jo giving a presentation) cheers, sarah From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Wed Dec 6 08:47:17 1995 Date: Wed, 6 Dec 1995 08:44:36 -0800 To: socgrad@ucdavis.edu, socgrad@UCSD.EDU, franklin@biology.utah.edu, brookj@ceb.ucop.edu, flatta@ceb.ucop.edu, arapport@bbs.ggu.edu, shawn@wavefun.com, sfexaminer@aol.com, atc@npr.com, elligur@aol.com, asm4@lehigh.edu, mjkinnuc@umich.edu, browning@sfsu.edu, sbrook@brook.com, ebrook@state.ma.us From: CyberBrook Subject: 20 yrs & counting... >Genocide, 1975 > >Indonesian troops invade East Timor December 6 with the tacit approval of President Ford. A short-wave radio reports that troops are gunning down women and children in the streets. Exiles escaping from the mountainous island 400 miles off the Australian coast will appeal to the United Nations, but the Indonesians will prevent UN observers from visiting guerrillas who continue resistance in the jungles. Half the country's 600,000 people will have been killed or starved to death by 1980. >Thousands more have been wounded and killed since, mostly with U.S. armaments. Indonesian censorship and represssion are heavy handed. >The People's Chronology. CyberBrook@thecity.sfsu.edu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "I think I believe everything I'm saying" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Wed Dec 6 12:45:58 1995 Date: Wed, 6 Dec 1995 12:43:44 -0800 To: dread@acs.bu.edu ('Killer' Miller) From: CyberBrook Subject: Re: 20 yrs & counting... didn't realize it was such a BIG deal---but perhaps there's a miscommunication. seriously, what do you mean by "that junk"? Your earlier response to me seemed to indicate that my message was only composed of all that path info---if that's the case, there's a problem. But if you mean the content of the messages themselves, it is a different problem and, yes, I would like you to send me stuff like that. The bigger problem even still might be your habit of weighing your SPAM instead of just dumping it into the trash. I would, however, like wider input on this. At 03:19 PM 12/6/95 -0500, 'Killer' Miller wrote: >I have a Neiman-Marcus chocolate-chip cookie recipe, a Good Times virus, a >GET-RICH-QUICK scheme, a very cheap magazine subscription message... and >about ten pounds of SPAM! Would you like me to send YOU that junk? I >appreciate your activism, although it seems inappropriate to send it to the >socgrad list. I'm sorry that you don't seem to see that. > >Best, >-Andrew > > > > CyberBrook@thecity.sfsu.edu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "I think I believe everything I'm saying" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Wed Dec 6 13:48:59 1995 From: rthompso@aol.com Date: Wed, 6 Dec 1995 13:49:44 -0800 To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Subject: Re: 20 yrs & counting... Sorry Cyberbrook, I agree with "Killer Miller", while I'm sure we all ALL appreciate your activism - it is not entirely relevant to the list. Besides, they are a little on the "preachy" side for my tastes, at least, but that's what filters are for.... ;-) At 12:43 PM 12/6/95, CyberBrook wrote: >didn't realize it was such a BIG deal---but perhaps there's a >miscommunication. seriously, what do you mean by "that junk"? Your earlier >response to me seemed to indicate that my message was only composed of all >that path info---if that's the case, there's a problem. But if you mean the >content of the messages themselves, it is a different problem and, yes, I >would like you to send me stuff like that. The bigger problem even still >might be your habit of weighing your SPAM instead of just dumping it into >the trash. I would, however, like wider input on this. > >At 03:19 PM 12/6/95 -0500, 'Killer' Miller wrote: >>I have a Neiman-Marcus chocolate-chip cookie recipe, a Good Times virus, a >>GET-RICH-QUICK scheme, a very cheap magazine subscription message... and >>about ten pounds of SPAM! Would you like me to send YOU that junk? I >>appreciate your activism, although it seems inappropriate to send it to the >>socgrad list. I'm sorry that you don't seem to see that. >> >>Best, >>-Andrew >> >> >> >> > > >CyberBrook@thecity.sfsu.edu >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > "I think I believe everything I'm saying" >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Wed Dec 6 17:54:20 1995 by BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU (PMDF V4.3-10 #10451) id <01HYHVESSQOGHSWVAJ@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU>; Wed, 06 Dec 1995 18:04:18 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 06 Dec 1995 18:04:18 -0500 (EST) Date-warning: Date header was inserted by BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU From: "Scott S. Blake" Subject: Re: 20 yrs & counting... To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU I feel strongly that on an unmoderated list it is incumbent upon the subscribers to delete anything and everything they do not wish to read. Unless you are being charged to read your mail (which very few, if any, of us are), I think it is necessary to allow subscribers to post whatever they want, lest someone censor themselves from posting something that we really do want to read. It really isn't that hard to delete useless messages and Brook is hardly filling our mailboxes. Even a couple messages a week is no big deal. Use that 'd' key. It is your friend. For the truly annoyed, I highly recommend procmail. It's a nifty little program (Unix only, I'm afraid) that will _automatically_ delete mail from anyone you want -- before you even see it. It's a great solution. Ask your SysAdmin. -s Scott S. Blake Graduate Student (Sociology), Graduate Assistant (Hiatt Career Center), President (Graduate Student Association), Network Administrator (HomePort Collective), Senior Consultant (HomePort Consulting Services/Computing Solutions for Academics). blake@brandeis.edu|blake@homeport.org | http://www.homeport.org/~blake/ Finger blake@binah.cc.brandeis.edu for PGP Public Key From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Wed Dec 6 18:58:10 1995 Date: Wed, 6 Dec 1995 16:51:27 -0800 (PST) From: LINDA WOODHOUSE To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Subject: Re: 20 yrs & counting... cyberbrook is one of the more interesting contributers I've read on this list. Good contextual info. On Wed, 6 Dec 1995 rthompso@aol.com wrote: > Sorry Cyberbrook, I agree with "Killer Miller", while I'm sure we all ALL > appreciate your activism - it is not entirely relevant to the list. > Besides, they are a little on the "preachy" side for my tastes, at least, > but that's what filters are for.... ;-) > > > At 12:43 PM 12/6/95, CyberBrook wrote: > >didn't realize it was such a BIG deal---but perhaps there's a > >miscommunication. seriously, what do you mean by "that junk"? Your earlier > >response to me seemed to indicate that my message was only composed of all > >that path info---if that's the case, there's a problem. But if you mean the > >content of the messages themselves, it is a different problem and, yes, I > >would like you to send me stuff like that. The bigger problem even still > >might be your habit of weighing your SPAM instead of just dumping it into > >the trash. I would, however, like wider input on this. > > > >At 03:19 PM 12/6/95 -0500, 'Killer' Miller wrote: > >>I have a Neiman-Marcus chocolate-chip cookie recipe, a Good Times virus, a > >>GET-RICH-QUICK scheme, a very cheap magazine subscription message... and > >>about ten pounds of SPAM! Would you like me to send YOU that junk? I > >>appreciate your activism, although it seems inappropriate to send it to the > >>socgrad list. I'm sorry that you don't seem to see that. > >> > >>Best, > >>-Andrew > >> > >> > >> > >> > > > > > >CyberBrook@thecity.sfsu.edu > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > "I think I believe everything I'm saying" > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > > From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Wed Dec 6 19:23:36 1995 Date: Wed, 06 Dec 1995 21:25:37 -0600 From: David Purcell To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Subject: Re: 20 yrs & counting... -Reply rthompson wrote: <> someone else wrote: <> Unless I've been missing something, I haven't seen all that many posts from Cyberbrook. And the ones I have seen, I've enjoyed, not only personally, but as a progressive, radical sociologist. Besides, it really distresses me to see young sociologists saying that leftist issues are not relevant to a graduate sociologist list. Always grumbly during the end of the semester, Dave ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dave Purcell -- graduate student Loyola University Sociology Department email: dpurcel@luc.edu current faves: anything by X "Kerosene Man" - Steve Wynn "Don't Try This at Home" - Billy Bragg ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Thu Dec 7 08:13:21 1995 Date: Thu, 07 Dec 95 11:06:13 EST From: Maria Wallis Subject: 20 years.... To: Socgrad@UCSD.EDU Ditto re: Dave Purcell's note. Progressive sociology ought to "belong" here. This type of posting is not a "waste of my time". In fact it makes sociology relevant for me. Maria. York University Toronto, Canada. From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Thu Dec 7 08:44:17 1995 Date: Thu, 7 Dec 1995 08:42:07 -0800 From: Adam Flint To: MAWALLIS@vm1.yorku.ca, Socgrad@UCSD.EDU Subject: Re: 20 years.... I couldn't agree more with Maria wallis. In fact, I think news of progressive sociological practice, activist or otherwise,should be more, not less evident on the socgrad list. Adam Flint Binghamton University Department of Sociology From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Thu Dec 7 09:56:38 1995 Date: Thu, 7 Dec 1995 11:31:41 -0600 (CST) From: Tricia Robinson Subject: CAT revisied plus more. To: Sociology Graduate Students I have two response to the current debate over appropriate topics: 1. Censorship is bad. 2. Being a sociologist does not require one to be an activist. 1. For those who might remember, we went through an entire discussion about a "committee to approve topics" or some other such title. Some of us were talking about college football scores, and others became unhappy about this non-sociological topic appearing in their e-mail. We (I believe collectively) reached the understanding that this IS an unmoderated list, and that there can be a great deal of noise before you hear any signal. 2. On the other hand, I think that one of the reasons this is such a hot issue is that there is a great deal of disagreement in the field. Some feel that sociologists need to use their special insights and talents to effect change in the world around them. Others seem to feel that in order to follow the guidelines of the scientific method REQUIRES a scientist to be unbiased. So, when someone discusses activists is brings up this argument. Should we (sociologists) have a stake in what we study? Is it our job/place to effect a change in the society we of which we are a member? These questions are not easy to address, and have no simple answers. I will however try to articulate my position, for what it is worth. I feel that there is a great danger in sociologists taking the leap from studying society to impacting society. We are a relatively new science when compared to some. Look at the field of engineering. That has been around for 30 times as long as sociology. How long did it take them to figure out the principles of flying? Or how to build a machine run on steam? My point is that sociology is still formative in nature. There is not even agreement on the major theoretical prespective (SF, C, SI). So, with only the limited knowledge that we have gained in last 100-150 years, should we be trying to construct societies yet? The other fear (to me) is that if being a activist IS part of the sociologist's role, then what happens when we might disagree about which side of an issue to be on. Should sociologists use their research is advocate social darwinism? If a prof is a social darwinist (not only in theory, but is actively campaigning for it to be used to create social policy) will this color their attitudes towards students who might believe (and advocate) equality for all? I am not saying that this does not already happen. What I am saying is that if "activist" is a required part of the "sociologist" role, it will add tension which might otherwise be averted. Finally, since so many sociologists are activists as well as scientists, it can lead to people invalidateing sociological studies as leftist, liberal propoganda. People see the scientist supporting a policy through their activist role, and they discount the science that went into the work. So, if it is unclear, let me put it another way. I feel that scientists should be scientists, and activists should use the products that scientists create to either support their position, or refute the other side's arguement. Demanding that sociologists be activists leads to comments like the following: Student : Yes, mom, everything is going well at school. Mom : So what did you take this term? Student : Intro to sociology. Dad : Their nothing but a bunch of socialists. I actually witnessed this conversation!!! My two cents, and a few more! SKEE From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Thu Dec 7 13:04:56 1995 From: michael carley Subject: 20 years.... To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Date: Thu, 7 Dec 1995 13:02:49 -0800 (PST) Being a sociologist may not require one to be an activist, but being a human being does! We are all activists in everything we do and say; in the products we buy, in the research we do, and in the opinions we voice. In addition, one does not make a leap from studying society to impacting society. We must recognize that studying society DOES impact society. If studying society in an as objective a manner as is humanly possible leads to leftist policy recommendations, then so be it. Who better to speak to the direction of government etc. but those who devote their life's work to the study of social relations? In other words, we cannot, as Tricia recommends, divorce science from policy or from activism. Those people who label us 'socialists' and refuse to listen to our ideas do not do so because of our activism, but because of theirs. We must continue to place our ideas out in the marketplace and let the public choose the direction. As far as this list goes, it is unmoderated, and I have little trouble deleting items I don't like or don't want to read. **************************************************************************** * Michael Carley | I am not a visionary, I claim to be a * * Department of Sociology | practical idealist--Mohandes K. Gandhi * * Stanford University | * * Stanford CA 94305-2047 | How far can you open your mind before * * (415) 497-7526 | your brains fall out? * * mcarley@leland.stanford.edu | * * * **************************************************************************** Tricia Robinson wrote: 1. Censorship is bad. 2. Being a sociologist does not require one to be an activist. 1. For those who might remember, we went through an entire discussion about a "committee to approve topics" or some other such title. Some of us were talking about college football scores, and others became unhappy about this non-sociological topic appearing in their e-mail. We (I believe collectively) reached the understanding that this IS an unmoderated list, and that there can be a great deal of noise before you hear any signal. 2. On the other hand, I think that one of the reasons this is such a hot issue is that there is a great deal of disagreement in the field. Some feel that sociologists need to use their special insights and talents to effect change in the world around them. Others seem to feel that in order to follow the guidelines of the scientific method REQUIRES a scientist to be unbiased. So, when someone discusses activists is brings up this argument. Should we (sociologists) have a stake in what we study? Is it our job/place to effect a change in the society we of which we are a member? These questions are not easy to address, and have no simple answers. I will however try to articulate my position, for what it is worth. I feel that there is a great danger in sociologists taking the leap from studying society to impacting society. We are a relatively new science when compared to some. Look at the field of engineering. That has been around for 30 times as long as sociology. How long did it take them to figure out the principles of flying? Or how to build a machine run on steam? My point is that sociology is still formative in nature. There is not even agreement on the major theoretical prespective (SF, C, SI). So, with only the limited knowledge that we have gained in last 100-150 years, should we be trying to construct societies yet? The other fear (to me) is that if being a activist IS part of the sociologist's role, then what happens when we might disagree about which side of an issue to be on. Should sociologists use their research is advocate social darwinism? If a prof is a social darwinist (not only in theory, but is actively campaigning for it to be used to create social policy) will this color their attitudes towards students who might believe (and advocate) equality for all? I am not saying that this does not already happen. What I am saying is that if "activist" is a required part of the "sociologist" role, it will add tension which might otherwise be averted. Finally, since so many sociologists are activists as well as scientists, it can lead to people invalidateing sociological studies as leftist, liberal propoganda. People see the scientist supporting a policy through their activist role, and they discount the science that went into the work. So, if it is unclear, let me put it another way. I feel that scientists should be scientists, and activists should use the products that scientists create to either support their position, or refute the other side's arguement. Demanding that sociologists be activists leads to comments like the following: Student : Yes, mom, everything is going well at school. Mom : So what did you take this term? Student : Intro to sociology. Dad : Their nothing but a bunch of socialists. I actually witnessed this conversation!!! My two cents, and a few more! SKEE From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Thu Dec 7 13:28:09 1995 Date: Thu, 7 Dec 1995 15:22:48 -0600 (CST) From: Tricia Robinson Subject: Re: 20 years.... To: michael carley I think a distinction needs to be made between sociologists and social researchers. Social researchers can be sociologists but they tend to have a different slant than "academic" sociologists. Academic sociologists are often too busy writing in journals that never reach the general public. I think there is a big difference between sociologists who want to examine social relations and shed light on those relations and sociologists who want to change the world. Those who want to change the world often are too aught up in their emotions to be able to critically think about issues and articulate their views in such a way so as to convince others. From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Thu Dec 7 14:02:13 1995 Date: Thu, 7 Dec 1995 16:01:19 -0600 (CST) From: "Troy A. McGinnis" To: michael carley Subject: Re: 20 years.... On Thu, 7 Dec 1995, michael carley wrote: > > > Being a sociologist may not require one to be an activist, but > being a human being does! We are all activists in everything we do and > say; in the products we buy, in the research we do, and in the opinions we > voice. In addition, one does not make a leap from studying society to > impacting society. We must recognize that studying society DOES impact > society. If studying society in an as objective a manner as is humanly > possible leads to leftist policy recommendations, then so be it. Who > better to speak to the direction of government etc. but those who devote > their life's work to the study of social relations? Whoa. This is the kind of vanity that pollutes so much of what we do, and is indicative of the intellectual double-speak that we so-called sociologists so often engage. Who better to communicate the meaning of word of God than those of us who pore over the Bible everyday? Who better to speak to the socialization of children than those who devote their lives to studying how parents do it? Who better to advocate revolution than those who simply analyze it? Oh, yes, lead on. >In other words, we > cannot, as Tricia recommends, divorce science from policy or from > activism. Those people who label us 'socialists' and refuse to listen to > our ideas do not do so because of our activism, but because of theirs. We > must continue to place our ideas out in the marketplace and let the public > choose the direction. As far as this list goes, it is unmoderated, and I > have little trouble deleting items I don't like or don't want to read. > "Not my fault!" How lame. I tend to think that if sociology is defensible as a science, it can stand up to attacks with a little more fire (like evidence, perhaps) than this. What is more, this whole idea is ludicrous. We can and most probably should divorce our science from our activism, because if you look around, it should not be too difficult to see the the unfortunate consequence of the harmonious blending of ideology and evidence in our research has resulted in a sad state of affairs. Specifically, for some reason, activism leads our science, but our science could hardly be said to actually "lead" anything, least of all activism. Jeez, I say this because I am as guilty of being led around by the nose by my own activism as anyone I might criticize for it. Overall, the activism thread doesn't bother me, either. It would be far worse, I think, to stifle conversation on this topic. What is more, such an action would only be more idea-stifling *activism* that inhibits real exploration of issues. I think we have enough of that in sociology, so I'd rather we all just use the damned delete key. By the way, I agree with SKEE. Troy McGinnis The University of Texas at Austin From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Thu Dec 7 14:30:44 1995 Date: Thu, 7 Dec 1995 14:29:46 -0800 (PST) From: Laura Miller To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Subject: sociology & activism Why is it that medical researchers, biologists, chemists, and the like are allowed to say they hope their research results in some breakthrough to benefit humankind, but sociologists aren't? Believing that sociological insight should be used for social change is not equivalent to claiming that laypeople have no right to scrutinize and criticize sociological findings. Sociology does have a long history of attracting people with leftist or reformist sympathies for the sensible reason that understanding society is one of the best tools for changing it. Those on the right could (and have) used social research for the same thing -- witness what's going on now around debates over welfare. Is it really preferable to hope that no one (including ourselves) will see any practical applications/implications from our work? Laura Miller lmiller@ucsd.edu P.S. As the "manager" of Socgrad, I certainly do not want to see any topics declared off-limits. But then I don't think anyone is really advocating this. Common courtesy and a liberal use of the delete key should be enough to take care of message-overload problems. From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Thu Dec 7 14:34:37 1995 Date: Thu, 7 Dec 1995 16:23:19 -0600 To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: cbrown@siu.edu (Charles M. Brown) Subject: technology For some interesting reading on technology and computers, I would recommend David Lyon's work. Lyon is a sociologist at Queens University, Canada. He has a few books on computers and also does work on surveillance stuff. His books include: The information society, The silicon society (based off of lectures he gave on the subject of computers and society), and The Electronic Eye. Qapla' Chuck- ????????????????????????????????????????? ?? Charles M. Brown ?? "In this last of meeting places ?? Department of Sociology ?? We grope together ?? Southern Illinois University ?? And avoid speech ?? Carbondale, IL 62901 ?? Gathered on this beach ?? (618) 453-2494 ?? of the tumid river" ?? e-mail (cbrown@siu.edu) ?? T.S. Eliot/The Hollow Men ????????????????????????????????????????? From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Thu Dec 7 17:41:09 1995 From: michael carley Subject: Re: 20 years.... To: mcginnis@jeeves.la.utexas.edu (Troy A. McGinnis) Date: Thu, 7 Dec 1995 17:39:13 -0800 (PST) Let me be clear, I am not advocating the idea that in our research and teaching we should lead with our hearts rather than our minds. Nor would I even imply that the average citizen should not scrutinize our work, or that we have all of the answers. BUT, to say that social scientists have nothing special to contribute to public policy undermines the value and validity of our work. None of us would contend that we are as informed about the human body as our doctors or that we are as informed about automobiles as our mechanics. While we may know our own bodies and cars better than the professionals, we tend not to have the generalized knowledge that the professionals do; after all they studied for it. In other words, while we certainly do not and should not have the last word on public policy matters, I think that our years of study in our chosen discipline gives us an insight the average citizen may not have. We should use this insight. Concerning the distinction between science and activism, I would not imply that we allow our ideologies to dictate our conclusions. (although unfortunately some in our field do just that) What I am saying is that in the social sciences we should not go too far in pretending that we are completely objective. I know some believe that in doing this, we are somehow more legitimate as a science. In fact, we as human beings are social creatures and to attempt to deny that in order to give our conclusions greater legitimacy in a rational world is dangerous. We should simply be as honest as possible about our own biases and let others both within and outside the field judge our work. Mike **************************************************************************** * Michael Carley | I am not a visionary, I claim to be a * * Department of Sociology | practical idealist--Mohandes K. Gandhi * * Stanford University | * * Stanford CA 94305-2047 | How far can you open your mind before * * (415) 497-7526 | your brains fall out? * * mcarley@leland.stanford.edu | * * * **************************************************************************** From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Thu Dec 7 19:31:20 1995 From: MERIN@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU (PMDF V4.3-10 #10451) id <01HYJIPUYPSGHSWCQJ@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU>; Thu, 07 Dec 1995 22:30:29 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 07 Dec 1995 22:30:29 -0500 (EST) Subject: too emotional?? To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU "too caught up in their emotions to be able to critically think about "issues and articulate their views in such a way so as to convince others" ?? I'm hoping you don't mean what I can't help taking from this comment. Are emotions a barrier to critical thinking? I have a entire library of feminist theory for you. . . How exactly do you achieve what must be that wonderful state of emotionlessness? And is the point of social activism to convince other people. I thought it was about connecting with people and understanding their point of view. See Gramsci. I'm all for rigorous synthetic sociology- but there are no hard and fast rules that are going to suddenly explain society to us for all time and place. And can someone explain what exactly we were receiving from cyberwhomever? I'm all for activism, but could do without a flood of urban myths. I get plenty through other sources. sarah (merin@cc.binah.brandeis.edu) From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Thu Dec 7 20:27:52 1995 Date: Thu, 7 Dec 1995 22:21:27 -0600 (CST) From: Tricia Robinson Subject: Re: too emotional? To: MERIN@binah.cc.brandeis.edu Sarah, Why you would bring feminist theory into the discussion I do not know. I was not making a comment about women being too emotional. Especially since I am one and have read a great deal of feminist theory. I was not suggestion that we can totally keep out bias. I am merely suggesting that many times people react with their emotions rather than thinking critically about the issue. Let me be clear, I am thinking in particular about people who do not listen to others point of view and think critically about whether or not they have a point just because they have a mindset idealogically about the issue. Men as well as women have this problem and too often it results in censorship because the views are not popular. God help you if you attempt to have a intellectual debate with someone who believes that if you have a point of view you are anti-female, anti-male, anti-liberal, whatever....No, you can never be sure that you are not being subjective but you should at least listen and think about how it fits in to what you believe. You might actually change your mind about an issue that you thought strongly about. A prof of mine once said, "if you think an issue is concrete and common sense, than you probably don't understand the issue. trish On Thu, 7 Dec 1995 MERIN@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU wrote: > "too caught up in their emotions to be able to critically think about > "issues and articulate their views in such a way so as to convince others" > ?? > I'm hoping you don't mean what I can't help taking from this comment. Are > emotions a barrier to critical thinking? I have a entire library of > feminist theory for you. . . How exactly do you achieve what must be that > wonderful state of emotionlessness? And is the point of social activism to > convince other people. I thought it was about connecting with people and > understanding their point of view. See Gramsci. I'm all for rigorous > synthetic sociology- but there are no hard and fast rules that are going to > suddenly explain society to us for all time and place. > And can someone explain what exactly we were receiving from cyberwhomever? > I'm all for activism, but could do without a flood of urban myths. I get > plenty through other sources. sarah (merin@cc.binah.brandeis.edu) From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Dec 8 02:58:21 1995 From: MERIN@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU (PMDF V4.3-10 #10451) id <01HYJY3YIAS8HSXGZO@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU>; Fri, 08 Dec 1995 05:57:24 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 08 Dec 1995 05:57:24 -0500 (EST) Subject: reply to Trish To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Trish- Thanks for clarifying. I take your point. I wasn't talking about women though, but rather some, as yet undertheorized concept of the feminine. Why is feminist theory always supposed to be irrelevant to these discussions. There's plenty of medicre feminist theory, but there's some really good stuff too which has everything to do with listening to others' points of view and developing rigorous models of social theory. And I don't mean to imply that feminist theory is the only way to proceed. See Ruth Frankenberg on the social construction of whiteness. Yes, polemics, ideology are to be avoided, but there are also a lot of marginaized knowledges out there that don't get heard and have a lot to offer. Actually now that I think of it, some of the best places to look are outside this discipline (don't you love that word?). way down here in the subculture. sarah From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Dec 8 06:07:33 1995 by BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU (PMDF V4.3-10 #10451) id <01HYK51IS0HSHSX5VM@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU>; Fri, 08 Dec 1995 09:01:32 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 08 Dec 1995 09:01:32 -0500 (EST) Date-warning: Date header was inserted by BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU From: "Scott S. Blake" Subject: Activism To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Aren't there any other sociologists of knowledge out there? We seem to have an interesting split on the list of people taking a fairly Mannheimian view and those whose opinions are informed (consciously or no) by feminist epistemological sensibilities. On the M. side, are those of us who say that there are social biases in sociology, but we must try our best to minimize them while simulateously recognizing them so future critics can be aware of them. One the other side (pun intended), are those of us who feel that social bias is unavoidably inherent in any endevor of knowledge seeking and that the bias should be embraced and taken advantage of. Furthermore, those of us on the 'other' side probably feel that the reason to seek knowledge is to improve the lives of all peoples, starting with those who have been subjugated. This point of view further (usually) finds special value in the knowledges gained from 'oppressed consciousnesses' since they have hitherto not been available. I refer folks particularly to Karl Mannheim's _Ideology and Utopia_ and Sandra Harding's _The Science Question in Feminism_. Karl takes a very Kantian/Enlightenment view of social bias, whereas Sandra argues that bias is at its worst when hidden behind a rhetoric of scientific detachment and minimization, for then it is most insidious -- not into the science itself, but rather into the society at large. Among her many points is the argument that even the metaphor used in theorizing has political implications. Metaphors are not merely cognitive tools to clarify thinking because they, of necessity, make reference to broadly understood social meanings. Meanings that are malleable under the influence of the authority science bring to bear on its communications (cf, Habermas). She uses the powerful example of Newton's metaphor of nature as machine -- a usage that not only led to a view of nature as mechanical, but of machines as more natural. I admit to being swayed by Harding's argument far more than Mannheim's. It seems to me that knowledge seeking IS activism whether we want it to be or not and it is better to assume responsibility for the knowledge we produce than to pretend our work is for some higher purpose and that we cannot dirty our minds with political concerns concerning our work. Some musings, scott Scott S. Blake Graduate Student (Sociology), Graduate Assistant (Hiatt Career Center), President (Graduate Student Association), Network Administrator (HomePort Collective), Senior Consultant (HomePort Consulting Services) blake@brandeis.edu|blake@homeport.org | http://www.homeport.org/~blake/ Finger blake@binah.cc.brandeis.edu for PGP Public Key From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Dec 8 07:16:04 1995 Date: 08 Dec 95 10:13:17 EST From: "Laurie A. Duchowny" <102432.2772@compuserve.com> To: list recipients Subject: a brief survey The administration of the sociology dept. of which I am a part is attempting to solve part of their current budget crisis by cross-listing graduate and undergraduate classes. What this means is that required courses for grad students, such as theory, as well as other courses and seminars would be taken at a "beefed up" undergraduate level. There would only be one "theory course" or "Middle East course" for both undergrads and grads, and this course would be a 300 or 400 level course. Needless to say, most of us (grad students), having already had our undergraduate education, are against this idea. So I am gathering information to present to members of the administration and faculty regarding other programs. Would any of you be willing to provide a little info regarding your program? If so, send the answers to the following questions to me at 102432.2772@compuserve.com. If you can answer all the questions, great, if you can only answer one or two, that's great too. Any information is HIGHLY appreciated. Thanks. Laurie Duchowny SUNY Stony Brook 1. How many grad students are in your program? 2. How many faculty members (excluding emeritus faculty)? 3. How many grad course are offered in your sociology dept. each semester? 4. Are you given course credit, or credit towards your degree, for independent study or for work on theses or dissertations? 5. How many sociology majors are there in your institution? 6. How many undergrad courses are offered each semester? 7. Are undergraduate classes crosslisted with graduate classes in your dept. in the manner described above? From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Dec 8 09:17:05 1995 Date: Fri, 8 Dec 1995 11:08:08 -0600 (CST) From: Tricia Robinson Subject: Crosslisted courses To: Sociology Graduate Students I thought I would reply to the IDEA of crosslisted courses on the list. How could this possibly work? From the instructor's point of view, how would you handle having student's from BOTH levels listening to the same lectures, or participate in the same discussion? Would you lecture to the graduate students and hope the undergraduates catch up? Would you teach the undergraduates and use the graduate students as unpaid teaching assistants (I could see this happening). One way or the other, there would be someone not getting what they paid for in the courses. SKEE (different from Trish) From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Dec 8 09:33:48 1995 Date: Fri, 8 Dec 1995 11:15:27 -0600 (CST) From: Tricia Robinson Subject: ACTIVISM To: Sociology Graduate Students SKEE here. I would never try to say that scientists are unbiased in the research that they do. Of course I am biased. When I publish in a journal that is written in the english language, I am advocating the use of english, right? When I use big words in my writtings, I am advocating a wide range of vocabulary from my audience, right? Researchers should not try to claim that they are objective. They should STRIVE for the goal however. If I wanted to start a reserach project on race and educational levels, I should not start out with prejudice attitudes which would "color" my decision of what factors to investigate. If I did, people would look at my research and hopefully invalidate it, right? If I was a person who advocated the exclusion of women from powerful positions in society, couldn't I do research that would find that women have historically been excluded from such roles, and as such they should not be included since they do not have the experience? There were social researchers in the 1920's and 30's who had research that supported social darwinism. Genicide was advocated, and supported by research, right? I am not simply trying to pull people's strings by bringing up these issues. What I am saying is that when these arguments were made, the research was seen as cutting edge, right? So, what makes people think today that we are so enlightened that our research should be used to model society? Sociology is YOUNG, which I believe was my orginial point. SKEE (different from Trish) From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Dec 8 09:58:14 1995 From: michael carley Subject: Re: ACTIVISM To: robinsot@cwis.unomaha.edu (Tricia Robinson) Date: Fri, 8 Dec 1995 09:57:20 -0800 (PST) SKEE's point is well taken and I do not totally disagree with it. My only point is that in our search for objectivity, we should acknowledge that at some level we will fail in our goal. The lack of this acknowledgement makes our errors much more insidious because they come from a rational scientific framework, one that most of us are loathe to criticize. Mike > > SKEE here. > > I would never try to say that scientists are unbiased in the research that > they do. Of course I am biased. When I publish in a journal that is > written in the english language, I am advocating the use of english, > right? When I use big words in my writtings, I am advocating a wide range > of vocabulary from my audience, right? Researchers should not try to claim > that they are objective. They should STRIVE for the goal however. If I > wanted to start a reserach project on race and educational levels, I > should not start out with prejudice attitudes which would "color" my > decision of what factors to investigate. If I did, people would look at > my research and hopefully invalidate it, right? If I was a person who > advocated the exclusion of women from powerful positions in society, > couldn't I do research that would find that women have historically been > excluded from such roles, and as such they should not be included since > they do not have the experience? > > There were social researchers in the 1920's and 30's who had research that > supported social darwinism. Genicide was advocated, and supported by > research, right? > > I am not simply trying to pull people's strings by bringing up these > issues. What I am saying is that when these arguments were made, the > research was seen as cutting edge, right? So, what makes people think > today that we are so enlightened that our research should be used to model > society? Sociology is YOUNG, which I believe was my orginial point. > > SKEE (different from Trish) > > > > From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Dec 8 10:02:20 1995 From: michael carley Subject: Re: Crosslisted courses To: robinsot@cwis.unomaha.edu (Tricia Robinson) Date: Fri, 8 Dec 1995 10:01:49 -0800 (PST) On crosslisted courses, Here at Stanford, we have some courses which are crosslisted while most are segregated. The goal is to allow some *advanced* undergraduates to take couses unavailable in their program. I agree with SKEE though, I think crosslisting a lot of courses dilutes both programs. Mike **************************************************************************** * Michael Carley | I am not a visionary, I claim to be a * * Department of Sociology | practical idealist--Mohandes K. Gandhi * * Stanford University | * * Stanford CA 94305-2047 | How far can you open your mind before * * (415) 497-7526 | your brains fall out? * * mcarley@leland.stanford.edu | * * * **************************************************************************** From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Dec 8 10:11:32 1995 Date: Fri, 8 Dec 1995 12:04:34 -0600 (CST) From: Tricia Robinson Subject: Re: ACTIVISM To: michael carley Mike, I do feel that written works should be put into perspective. It is wrong to CLAIM that a person can be TOTALLY objective. Does this mean that a section of an article should include the author's background related to the issue? How does an author go about addressing their own personal biases toward the subject matter they are writting on? Glad for the intellectual stimulation and EXCHANGE, SKEE On Fri, 8 Dec 1995, michael carley wrote: > > > SKEE's point is well taken and I do not totally disagree with it. > My only point is that in our search for objectivity, we should acknowledge > that at some level we will fail in our goal. The lack of this > acknowledgement makes our errors much more insidious because they come > from a rational scientific framework, one that most of us are loathe to > criticize. > Mike > > > > > > > > > > SKEE here. > > > > I would never try to say that scientists are unbiased in the research that > > they do. Of course I am biased. When I publish in a journal that is > > written in the english language, I am advocating the use of english, > > right? When I use big words in my writtings, I am advocating a wide range > > of vocabulary from my audience, right? Researchers should not try to claim > > that they are objective. They should STRIVE for the goal however. If I > > wanted to start a reserach project on race and educational levels, I > > should not start out with prejudice attitudes which would "color" my > > decision of what factors to investigate. If I did, people would look at > > my research and hopefully invalidate it, right? If I was a person who > > advocated the exclusion of women from powerful positions in society, > > couldn't I do research that would find that women have historically been > > excluded from such roles, and as such they should not be included since > > they do not have the experience? > > > > There were social researchers in the 1920's and 30's who had research that > > supported social darwinism. Genicide was advocated, and supported by > > research, right? > > > > I am not simply trying to pull people's strings by bringing up these > > issues. What I am saying is that when these arguments were made, the > > research was seen as cutting edge, right? So, what makes people think > > today that we are so enlightened that our research should be used to model > > society? Sociology is YOUNG, which I believe was my orginial point. > > > > SKEE (different from Trish) > > > > > > > > > From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Dec 8 11:02:33 1995 From: g_childers@VENUS.TWU.EDU Date: Fri, 08 Dec 1995 12:57:56 CST To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Subject: activism i don't know that i'm a "sociologist of knowledge" as scott blake called it, but i agree that seeking knowledge is a form of activism. every researcher seeks issues or topics that are important or interesting to them, and that in itself is being an activist. i believe the crucial thing here is how we conduct the research and what we do with it. reading all the comments that have come through on this topic makes me think of Weber's essay "science as a vocation". isn't that what we are talking about here? or have i totally missed the point? we can choose the issues we think are important or that need changing, but when we actually collect the data and interpret the findings, we need to do that without imposing our own perceptions and values. in other words, let the data do the speaking. and why can't sociologist's research be used for social change? we as americans have a very individualistic view of most everything. i think sociology has an obligation to move people's thinking from that to a higher level (i know, i'm a macro thinker). wouldn't it help our beleagured congress to know that most of what they think about people on welfare are only myths? back to the point--i think we can be biased in our selection of topics for study, but i don't think we can be biased in our collection or interpretation of the data (and i'm not just talking about quantitative methods either). if we conduct our research in such a manner, then we as sociologists or others can take those findings and use them for social change. i think sociology as a discipline is in a perfect place to do that. what's the old saying -- before you can change it, you have to understand it --? cheryl childers texas woman's university g_childers@venus.twu.edu From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Dec 8 11:43:13 1995 Date: Fri, 8 Dec 1995 14:41:53 -0500 (EST) From: Carla M Eastis To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Subject: 12 Politically Correct Days of ... (fwd) Maybe a giggle..... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 7 Dec 95 14:09:53 CST From: guthery@austin.sar.slb.com To: civic-values@civic.net Subject: 12 Politically Correct Days of ... On the 12th day of the Eurocentrically imposed midwinter festival, my potential-acquaintance-rape-survivor gave to me, TWELVE males reclaiming their inner warrior through ritual drumming. ELEVEN pipers piping (plus the 18-member pit orchestra made up of members in good standing of the Musicians Equity Union as called for in their union contract even though they will not be asked to play a note...) TEN melanin-deprived testosterone-poisoned scions of the patriarchal ruling class system leaping, NINE persons engaged in rhythmic self-expression, EIGHT economically disadvantaged female persons stealing milk-products from enslaved Bovine-Americans, SEVEN endangered swans swimming on federally protected wetlands, SIX enslaved fowl-Americans producing stolen nonhuman animal products, FIVE golden symbols of culturally sanctioned enforced domestic incarceration, (NOTE: after a member of the Animal Liberation Front threatened to throw red paint at my computer, the calling birds, French hens and partridge have been reintroduced to their native habitat. To avoid further animal-American enslavement, the remaining gift package has been revised.) FOUR hours of recorded whale songs, THREE deconstructionist poets, TWO Sierra Club calendars printed on recycled processed tree carcasses and a Spotted Owl activist chained to an old-growth pear tree. Happy Holidays to all from the Resident Grinch. From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Dec 8 12:02:55 1995 Date: Fri, 8 Dec 1995 13:54:08 -0600 (CST) From: Tricia Robinson Subject: activism To: Sociology Graduate Students Social research SHOULD be used to help form policy. I think the process of using research to form policy is the only way to go. The point I was trying to make was that the producers of research should not have a vested interest in the topic under consideration. "Research" conducted by a organization such as NOW (and this is a theoretical example, I do not have specific beefs with NOW) require a close evaluation, as compared to research done by a group such as Gallup (once again, i have not knowledge that Gallup does great work, it is just an abstract example). NOW has an agenda behind the research, where Gallup is only interested in the topic due to $$ someone is willing to fork out. Which brings me to another point Cheryl brought up. Though it is true that picking topics for research projects is a form of activism, isn't it true that the decision is influence by the source of money? I could not tomorrow set out to research the impact of fire ants on gang behavior and have it funded. So, even the choice of topics is not PURE. Hoping to clarify some of what I have said in the past, SKEE (different from Trish). From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Dec 8 12:59:47 1995 Date: Fri, 08 Dec 95 14:22:33 CST From: "Michael O. Maume" Subject: Re: Crosslisted courses To: Tricia Robinson I have taken 5 of these cross-listed courses since beginning my MA degree (now working on PhD), and thought I might tackle at least some of SKEE's questions... >I thought I would reply to the IDEA of crosslisted courses on the list. >How could this possibly work? From the instructor's point of view, how >would you handle having student's from BOTH levels listening to the same >lectures, or participate in the same discussion? Would you lecture to the >graduate students and hope the undergraduates catch up? Would you teach >the undergraduates and use the graduate students as unpaid teaching >assistants (I could see this happening). Some of the professors I had in these courses DID NOT know how to handle having grads and undergrads in their courses. Some were at first open to engagement in discussion by grad students, but you could see they were at times uncomfortable with the more frequent challenges made by grad students. In one of these courses, the prof explicitly told the grad students not to speak up unless it was clear the undergrads weren't going to. As far as teaching to both levels, by far in these classes profs have taught to the undergrads. Much of the work expected from grad students in these classes consists of doubling or tripling the written assignments given to undergrads, or in many cases requiring a thesis/dissertation proposal as a final project. In one class, grad students were even expected to take the multiple choice tests!! As for T/A work, I have never experienced this as a requirement -- usually if there is a T/A they do not get credit for the class. Overall, I think that in handling grad students in these classes, profs are influenced by 1) how much experience they have had teaching grad students, and 2) the number of grad students in the class. I know that I much preferred taking a cross-listed class where there were few or no other grad students in the class because the course then tended to take on the qualities of an independent study course. >One way or the other, there would be someone not getting what they paid >for in the courses. > >SKEE (different from Trish) > I can't speak for the undergrads, but I enjoyed the opportunity in some of these classes to observe the teaching-and-learning process. I have not had a chance as yet to teach a course, or get much in the way of teacher training. I think that grad students tend to become disconnected from the (arguably) primary activity of the university, and so I have at times enjoyed the opportunity to participate in these courses. On the other hand, all of these courses were "topic" seminars, and not required courses for grad students (like theory or methods). I would only take these courses with undergrads if it were a small-group seminar-type class with the focus on _graduate_ learning. My $.02, as they say. Mike ********************************************* * Michael O. Maume * * Department of Sociology * * Louisiana State University * * Baton Rouge, LA 70803 * * (504) 388-1645 * ********************************************* From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Dec 8 13:57:20 1995 Date: Fri, 8 Dec 1995 15:48:59 -0600 (CST) From: Brent Myer To: Tricia Robinson Subject: Re: Crosslisted courses I am at a universtiy that has crosslisted classes, and came from one that did the same. As an undergraduate, i tool classes with grad students and it worked out fine. They were required to do an extra paper, or project, and were expected to write more in each paper they produced. This is not a problem, or was not in my experience. I took classes that were not in my major, took them with grad-students and there was not a problem. I think one of the reasons is that there is not a big difference between a grad students and and under-grads. The difference could be a little as a summer! I am in a class now that has as many grad students as undergrads. The work load is the same for all the students and the grading is competitive (dread). The professor claims that in his experience, there is no reason to treat the students differently and that many times the under grads do better than the grad-students! I would imagine that he is correct. I'm not saying that this is the best way to go, i don't really think it is perfectly correct, i mean some grad students may have a better background in an area.. but it is not as terrible as it may sound. brent From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Dec 8 15:06:44 1995 Date: 08 Dec 95 18:03:51 EST From: "Laurie A. Duchowny" <102432.2772@compuserve.com> To: list recipients Subject: re: crosslisting Just to clarify things: crosslisting in our dept. has not been proposed in order to grant access to undergrads into grad courses, but to grant access to grads in undergrad courses. The courses would remain pitched at the undergrad level, but the grads would just have to do extra work. This idea has arisen in order to solve the problem of too few courses at the grad level, instead of simply adding more courses at the grad level. Laurie From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Dec 8 15:59:29 1995 Date: Fri, 8 Dec 1995 17:54:35 -0600 (CST) From: Tricia Robinson Subject: Crosslisting To: Sociology Graduate Students What I meant by a graduate student being placed in a TA role for a course they would be enrolled in was this: It rises the possibility of the graduate student being asked to preform duties outside of those related to the graduate student's role as student, and more in line with their role as "junior Colleauge (sp)." For example, when a friend of mine was enrolled in such a course the prof asked them to explain things to other students outside of class so that they (the undergraduates) would not waste class time. The friend was also asked to run computerized test forms back and forth to the computer facility on campus. I think this had to do with the fact that they were the only graduate student in the course, and the friend was also "friends" with the faculty member. But, the situation could exist. That is what I was trying to get at relative to TA issues in crosslisted courses.... SKEE From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Dec 8 17:18:33 1995 From: michael carley Subject: Crosslisted courses To: c646827@showme.missouri.edu (Brent Myer) Date: Fri, 8 Dec 1995 17:16:51 -0800 (PST) I have to disagree with Brent in saying that in sociology at least, there is a big difference between undergrads and graduate students. Graduate students for the most part have made the decision to devote their careers to the field of sociology. Undergraduates have a wide variety of career goals. This has a significant impact on the way in which we view the courses we take.---Of course my experience is influenced by the fact that I come from a low status undergraduate university (Cal-State Fresno) that had no graduate program, to a prestige graduate school (Stanford). Perhaps for others the difference is not so great. Mike > > > I am at a universtiy that has crosslisted classes, and came from one that > did the same. As an undergraduate, i tool classes with grad students and > it worked out fine. They were required to do an extra paper, or project, > and were expected to write more in each paper they produced. This is not > a problem, or was not in my experience. I took classes that were not in > my major, took them with grad-students and there was not a problem. I > think one of the reasons is that there is not a big difference between a > grad students and and under-grads. The difference could be a little as a > summer! I am in a class now that has as many grad students as undergrads. > The work load is the same for all the students and the grading is > competitive (dread). The professor claims that in his experience, there > is no reason to treat the students differently and that many times the > under grads do better than the grad-students! I would imagine that he is > correct. I'm not saying that this is the best way to go, i don't really > think it is perfectly correct, i mean some grad students may have a > better background in an area.. but it is not as terrible as it may sound. > > brent > From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Dec 8 20:11:31 1995 id <01HYKYPCSTVK91X18I@jhmail.hcf.jhu.edu>; Fri, 08 Dec 1995 23:10:40 -0400 (EDT) id <01HYKYPBMZLS91X1L0@jhmail.hcf.jhu.edu>; Fri, 08 Dec 1995 23:10:39 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 08 Dec 1995 23:10:34 -0500 From: Thomas F Brown Subject: the file-drawer effect To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU What is meant by the "file-drawer effect"? thanks... From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Dec 8 20:23:08 1995 Date: Fri, 8 Dec 1995 23:16:07 -0500 (EST) From: "Bonnie Gugler (SOC)" To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Subject: Crosslisted courses I think that I have to side with the view that combining both grad and undergrad students dilutes the class. I have experienced both sides of the dilemma, and neither proved satisfactory for me. As an undergrad, having graduates students in the class usually led to unequal discussions. Most of the time, the graduates were the ones who spoke up, while the undergrads did not. I think most students (myself included) did not feel encouraged to participate because they either felt intimidated by the grad students (since they seemingly possessed more knowledge), or they did not enjoy being compared to the grad students by the professor. The professors, however, would remark that they felt the undergraduates would "benefit" from the "presence" of the graduate students. As a graduate student, I feel that in these mixed classes, a lot is sacrificed in the interest of economics. In one class, the prof had the undergrads and the grads doing separate assigments, which often meant that we would go to separate rooms to do our "projects." It did not seem as though we were striving for the same goal--a better understanding of the topic at hand. I felt segregated from the undergraduate students, in essence. In yet another one, the prof gave the same assignments to everyone. Yet, the grad students were "held to a higher standard," whatever that subjective statement means...Somehow it seemed unfair--for both sides--a competition in a sense. I mean, how many times did we, as undergraduates, hear how wonderful graduates students were? These classes, for me, only increased my awareness of just that fact. I'd rather take graduate classes in different departments than participate in mixed classes again. Fortunately, my department has a good relationship with the Communication and Anthropology departments...Sure, it is not a substitute for Sociology entirely, but it did offer me an opportunity to avoid some of those "piggyback" classes that were devoid of that flavor unique to graduate classes. Bonnie From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sat Dec 9 06:23:36 1995 Newsgroups: alt.sci.sociology Date: Sat, 9 Dec 1995 09:15:50 -0500 (EST) From: Jim Cassell To: Sociology Graduate Student Discussion Subject: job opening (fwd) FYI ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Cassell jwcassell@UNC.EDU Institute for Research in Social Science Phone: 919-962-0782 University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Fax: 919-962-4777 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3355 USA ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 8 Dec 1995 19:10:00 -0500 From: Barry Wellman Subject: job opening The following ad. has been officially approved: "The Department of Sociology, Univ of Toronto, invites applications for a tenure-stream position in theory at the rank of Assistant Prof. to begin July 1, 1996. A Ph.D. in sociology is required. Clear and substantial evidence of excellence in research and teaching are required. Duties will include teaching courses in classical and contemporary sociological theory, research, and publication. Those with a demonstrated interest in the application of sociological theory to the analysis of problems in one of the following areas are especially encouraged to apply: environmental sociology, the sociology of information societies, political sociology. Salary commensurate with qualifications. Applications including a complete curriculum vitae, writing sample, and the names and addresses of at least 3 referees should be sent to Prof. John Simpson, Chair, Dept of Sociology, Univ of Toronto, 203 College St, 5th floor, Toronto, Ont. Canada M5T 1P9. Closing date for applications is March 1, 1996. In accordance with Canadian immigration requirements this advertisement is directed to Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada. In accordance with its Employment Equity Policy, the Univ of Toronto encourages applications from qualified women or men, members of visible minorities, aboriginal peoples, and persons with disabilities. This position is subject to budgetary approval." If you -- or anyone you know -- applies whom I would be interested in, please inform me. Cheers, --------------------------------------------------------------- Barry Wellman wellman@epas.utoronto.ca 8-) Professor of Sociology Centre for Urban and Community Studies Univ. of Toronto 455 Spadina Ave. Toronto, Canada M5S 2G8 tel: +1-416-978-3930 fax: +1-416-978-7162 --------------------------------------------------------------- From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sun Dec 10 07:01:20 1995 Date: Sun, 10 Dec 95 07:03:32 EST From: "T R. Young" <34LPF6T@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU> Organization: Central Michigan University Subject: The A, B, C's of Crime: Chaos and Complexity in Society To: GRADUATE STUDENTS IN SOCIOLOGY What follows is the last mini-lecture in the Series on Crime and Social Justice. It will present three basic concepts in the new sciences of Chaos and Complexity. I will explicate and apply these concepts to several forms of crime in passing. All this is part of a larger case I make that, if we want a low-crime society, we must attend to the structural features which call forth, in non-linear fashion, the kinds of behavior which erode the social process and transfer the costs of life and living from one group to another. A Word of Caution: The sciences of Chaos and Complexity are very new. They have exploded on the scene in the past 30 years. In chemistry, physics, physiology, biology and many branches of biology, applications are rich, deep and well grounded in the new mathematics [called rubber math]. Good and exciting work is being done in psychology; one could join a network called chaopsych for some of that. In economics, still a most dismal science, Brian Berry at UTexas, Dallas has a most inter- esting book out on nonlinear economic cycles. But in sociology, almost nothing is done. Three are to my know- ledge, only three people in the USA working on Chaos and nonlinear soc ial dynamics in Criminology; Dragon Milovanovic in Chicago; Bruce Arrigo in Pittsburgh and myself here in the frozen center of Michigan. Several people in Australia are working on Chaos and Law; I am in touch with a grad student at Sidney, Anthony Deal, whose work is most inter- esting. Rob Schehr at U/Illinois, Springfield is doing work on non- linear theories of social movements...a most interesting application. Yet none of this work is empirical. The research processes and tech- niques for nonlinear behavior have still to be developed. There is a most interesting project at Texas Woman's University lead by Patti Hamilton which promises to give us the basic format for non- linear research in social dynamics. Her team, using new techniques have identified two strange attractors in a large data set on teenage birthing patterns...she will report this work at ISA/Methodology in Essex, England in July. I think her research is foundational for all grad students in nonlinear social dynamics...I will go to England to hear her...and report back to you all. Now for the mini-lecture. THE A, B, C's of CRIME: Attractors, Bifurcations and Chaotic Dynamics. 1. CHAOS THEORY: It would be nice if I could start with A for Attrac- tors, but 'tis best to give an overview first. Chaos theory is the study of non-linear dynamics. As we shall see, there is a mix of order and dis-order in the behavior of complex systems. But this changing mix takes a very interesting pattern such that some ability to predict and to control remains. [one can always predict and control the behavior of simple dynamic systems but causality fades and fails in the more chaotic regimes which I will discuss below]. The word, Chaos comes from the Greek, Chaos, meaning abyss. Our word, chasm comes from the same root. Then too, for those of you in classical lit, Chaos was the original state of the universe out of which came, in Greek Mythology, both day and night. When you hear the word, Chaos, there are three different usages you must listen for, given the context in which it appears. 1. Everyday usage which means that things fall apart, there is no rhyme or reason; uncertainty is so great that each of us must do what comes to hand to survive. There is more than poetry to this usage: I've been telling my students that it is likely that street crime, domestic violence and racial/ethnic hate crime increases, nonlinearly, when ordinary people face three or more uncertainties in key domains of life: economics, family, and for you lot, grad school. Most of us can handle one or two key uncertainties but few can juggle three; a french mathematician, Poincare, tried to solve what is called the 'three body problem' in 1890 and proved that it could not be done. [The French Gov't had offered a prize]. 2. Deterministic Chaos. This is where most of the good work has been done: the names in this area are the stuff of which history is made: Ed Lorenz, Benoit Mandelbrot, Mitchell Feigenbaum, Ilya Prig- ogine and others you've read about in that fine social history by James Gleick. Another very accessible treatment of deterministic Chaos, a must for those such as me who are not mathematicians, is a book called the Turbulent Mirror by Briggs and Peat...simple, fun and very readable. It's in your library. 3. Nonlinear Social Dynamics: social dynamics are not determin- istic in the way physical or chemical systems are. Yet, I do suspect there is an order behind the 'noise' that we social sci- entists discard as 'observer error,' 'faulty measurement,' 'bias,' 'weak correlations,' or just plain chance. Patti Hamilton's team found that order in a data set which, using traditional analytic tools now taught assiduously to grad students, showed only random distributions. Your generation will have to learn/ develop a whole new research protocol; scary but exciting and enlivening at the same time...before you panic, do read Chapter 0, of Briggs and Peat...it discusses rubber math and makes it sound like fun. I have done 3 articles which you may want to read; one on Chaos and Change, in Social Science Journal, 1991. Chaos Theory and Symbolic Interaction in the Journal of Symbolic Interaction, and Chaos and Human Agency in Humanity and Society, 1992. What you see here is a revised article which appeared as The A,B,C's of Crime in the Critical Criminologist in 1991...I try to keep it simple and non-technical. Again, most is speculation. In brief, Chaos in the study of the changing mix of order and dis- order. It does not privilege order as does modern, newtonian science. It does not honor rationality as the object of the knowledge process. It does not anchor deviancy theory as does modern science nor does it enjoin a quest for tight control of crime or any other social behavior...far from it, Chaos theory teaches us that there are many benefits which come with dis-order, uncertainty, variation, difference, surprize and delight. In fact, in both language and love, sameness and repitition are deadly to the human enterprize....as you well know. [Now you have a theory to validate your originality and creativity...don't depend on it too much with the current crop of sociology faculty. B. Bifurcations. Central to a grasp of Chaos theory is what is called a bifurcation map. You can draw one right now. On a sheet of paper, about half way down, draw a short straight line, about two inches from the start, make that line bifurcate [fork, branch]. Draw each branch an inch and a half and make it bifurcate again. Now you have four lines. Now things begin to get interesting and normal, modern science reaches its limits...about an inch and a quarter down each of the four lines, bifurcate them again. You have not only eight lines but you are now in the middle of an entirely new and unpredictable regime...if you had the imagination [or some good graphics in front of you], you could 'see' that by connecting the eight lines in a cyclical way, you would have the first of a very strange pattern [called an attractor; more later]. By now you realize that the bifurcations come ever faster. And, when you read Briggs and Peat, you will find that those bifurca- tions come at very precise points called Feigenbaum points after the guy who first picked up on them. Now be careful. I tend to think that the feigenbaum points will be very valuable for expli- cating some kinds of crime, suicide, bankruptcy, embezzlement, domestic violence and racial hatred but not for individual; only for large sets of persons...indeed, Chaos theory is sometimes called theories of the whole...one cannot predict the behavior of any given person entering and leaving criminal behavior but one can see the patterns emerging, changing, turning, twisting, and reversing given the right analytic tools...one can see larger patterns but when one focuses on individual molecules, drops of water, death of humming birds, or incidents of shop-lifting by nice middle class kids, patterns are hard to see. Dynamical regimes. In my own work, I have identified five regimes on a bifurcation map...one could identify more since one can see a great deal of structure on even the most chaotic bifurcation map of real complex systems in real time-space or in cyber-space. Get a good bifurcation map of the behavior of a real system and look at it closely...I think you will agree with me that, for purposes of social science, five regions in a bifurcation map are most inter- esting: a. the first line you drew and the second set of two comprize one region: it is the region of certainty, prediction, and control. The second region is that of an attractor called a . More just below. The third region is the most interesting since it includes those eight lines...if we connect the lines with cycling dots, we will have the first of what is called a very strange attractor...aka, the Butterfly Attractor. The fourth region can be seen/understood/visualized as connected Butterfly Attractors. When all the dust is settled, I think we will find that it is in this region that most all ordinary social life is found since it represents a mix of order and disorder which, at once and the same time, combines dependability with creativity, reliability with flexibility, opportunity with a good chance of success. One might want to create teaching syllabi which permits such combinations. I and five grad students at Virginia Tech did just that four years ago with a syllabus called the Great Flying Chaos Learning Circus. We had 560 students in an Intro Soc Class...I didn't want to teach 560 students in the first place nor did I want to force them through the same small path to social knowledge in the second. So I created a class with five attractors to match the five I'm telling you about now... The fifth dynamical regime comes after the fourth bifurcation. As you now know, the bifurcations produce ever more complex patterns and come ever faster. After the fourth bifurcation they come so fast that there is great about when any given crime, suicide, teen-age pregnancy, bankruptcy, or rape will occur. This is the region of what I call, Deep Chaos. Yet even in this region there is a great deal of order and some of it most inter- esting. I think that, when we get enough research behind us, we will find that it is in the region of deep chaos that new religions emerge, new political forms are adopted, new patterns of gender relations and gendering develop...yup, I've laid all this out in some article or another cited above...do take a lot if you've stuck it out this far. Still only my imagination at work so be careful. C. ATTRACTORS. As you might expect, an Attractor is not really an attractors...the word is used poetically. It is a region in an outcome field to which systems are likely to be found. I will walk you through the attractors mentioned in the literature and give you examples of both deterministic and non-deterministic attractors. The Attractor is what you will look for using the new research techniques not even invented yet. Patti Hamilton is using three such techniques but, a hundred years from now, you lot will have created dozens more...talk about your new frontiers! 1. POINT ATTACTORS. The pendulum is the exemplar in this dynam- ical regime. It can be found precisely at the same point at the same time. Stars in their orbit and electrons in theirs exhibit behavior so precise that, in his most interesting book entitled, The Emperor's New Mind, Roger Penrose calls theories which predict behavior with this degree of certainty, SUPERB theory...[his caps not mine. I would not call this grand...I would use Max Weber's phrase, the Iron Cage, to refer to any social form which tried to generate this kind of behavior]. There is no human behavior comparable to that of the pendulum. No crook nor criminal ever behaved so predictably that we could wait at a particular place at a particular time to catch him...social life is far too complex, far too uncertain for this regime to be of much interest. 2. The LIMIT ATTRACTOR. The point attractor depicts one and only one dynamical state in a field of outcomes. The limit attractor permits/describes two outcomes. The governor on your cruise control or the thermostat in your home embodies the limit attractor There is a speed above which the car may not go with cruise control and there is a speed below which the car may not travel. [I keep my cruise control set at nine miles above the legal speed limit knowing that highway police can measure it very precisely...too precisely for argument]. Again, there is little use we can make of the limit attractor in postmodern criminology [that's where we are now. At the edge of pomo crim]. No criminal sets the upper and lower limits on what, when and how much s/he will steal. If the limit attractor is to be found at all in criminology, it will be found in corporate crime...only corporations set upper and lower limits on the price they will conspire to fix the price of gas or the price of turbines for electric generators. 3. The Torus. The torus is a doughnut shaped attractor. It is interesting for several reasons. First it is the first regime in which we find uncertainty. We know that crimes, suicides, rapes and other forms of hurtful behavior will fall somewhere on the surface of the doughnut but not exactly where. [That is, if crime does in fact display the dynamics of torus. The word, in- cidently, means circular...our word, tornado is derivative. The Torus defines a regime with first order change...small, unpredict able but not amenable to the logics of modern science. Think of marriages in a patriarchal society...gender violence will take the shape of a torus...the dominant male will beat wives and kids up to a point but seldom beyond...one cannot predict that he will beat a kid for any given 'delict' [on the part of the kid]. but one can predict that beatings will be confined to a fairly narrow range which will vary over the seasons. Think of the use of a word/phrase/curse. Patterns of word use are pretty predict- able...if we charted their usage on a phase-space map [called a cartesian map after Rene Descartes who invented analytic geometry], we would find great stability/predictability/regularity. Enough to satisfy even the most anal retentive modern scienties. But, alas, social behavior is more complex. Let's to the... 3. Butterfly Attractor. The butterfly attractors has two wings. It compares to the limit attractor above but with one very impor- tant difference; there is uncertainty both between and within the wings of this attractor. It is marks the onset of second order change...the behavior of ordinary people can display dramatic change as they move from pro-social behavior in one wing of the butterfly attractor to harmful behavior in another wing. It is here that small differences produce large, nonlinear, non- rational, non-predictable differences. You have heard above the flapping of a butterfly's wing in the Amazon which produces a hurricane in Alabama...forget it...that is not the interesting thing about nonlinear social dynamics even though it is possible. What is more interesting is that complex systems usually absorb even great changes in the environment without changing much the way they behave...indeed, social life would be impossible without that capacity to absorb variety...more about this when we talk about the three kinds of feedback which maintains/explodes dynamical regimes...some surprizes there! The interesting thing we learn in Chaos theory is that the time- space at which small differences produce large effects is very precise and very limited. Draw two sets of connected loops. It is at the point where one loop switches direction and goes to the other wing that such dramatic, second order change can occur. You can read about it in Briggs and Peat. For our purposes, think of a doctor whose income permits him/her to handle great flucua- tions in both income and expenditure...then comes a small increase in expenses or small decreases in income...at critical moments. Then that doctor may begin to prescribe unnecessary operations [usually for women since they are less likely to challenge him]. This behavior may be quite irregular at first but, at some point, say when the physician turns 45, s/he begins to realize that if he/she wants to maintain a very nice life style, then s/he had better build up an investment portfolio pretty soon. What was once occasional switches from the very pro-social and very healing practice the doctor embodies becomes quite regular. The doctor begins to prescribe more and more unnecessary tonsilectomies, hysterectomies and enters into extortionate agreements with other doctors, labs, pharmacies and clinics. S/he begins to cycle ever more patients through the routines of the day; prescribe more and more drugs [takes only 3-5 minutes to 'see' a patient and write a prescription]...one can 'see' and bill 50, 100, 150 patients a day and build up quite a nice portfolio with this kind of practice. One could make the same analysis for embezzlers at banks or other places where large amounts of money pass through the hands of one or two persons in positions of trust. A small slight in a long history of offending behaviors by 'senior' officials might trigger an onset of criminal conversion or embezzlement. A small increase in tuition of one's child at college or a sudden onset of illness in the family...or a divorce which drastically lowers income might trigger a series of embezzlements/conversions. There are attractors with 4, 8, and 16 or more wings...I don't have time here to explicate/apply these but the general case is made. Somewhere I have talked about the emergence of new forms of gender relations/gendering in postmodern society...the short version is that the binary socialization into two genders with very infrequent crossing over can occur in stable and patriarchal societies...in modern/postmodern societies, life is so complex that the usual gendering processes do not answer to the demands made on biological men and women...both have to adopt very different forms of 'Being' in these days...think about it. Deep Chaos. There are so many attractors and so much switching from dynamical state to dynamical state that most certainty, predictability, regularity, stability is lost. This dynamical regime is far too unstable for trade, commerce, industry, court- ship and marriage [there is a theory of unwed mothers buried here, I think Hamilton will help us find it], education, or even religion although religion is most helpful here. It is in deep Chaos that we find what is called miracles and magic. Stephen Jay Gould has written about nonlinear changes and unpred- dictable futures in his book, Wonderful Life. One doesn't need to explain the nonlinear transformations in genetics and species formation with divine intervention or special creation given the nonlinear dynamics made visible by this new science. Finally, I want to close by mentioning three forms of feedback. They are very important to a postmodern criminology. 1. Positive feedback. In criminology, positive feedback encourages crime but doesn't control it. In the first instance, if a crook or a corporation succeeds regularly at criminal activity, these rewards will encourage still more efforts to steal, fix prices, pollute or whatever the behavior is...up to a point. The long term effect of positive feedback is to explode stable attractors...think of the positive feedback between a speaker and a microphone...the sound soon transforms into a screech...the same is true in any deterministic chaotic regime. In real life, the capacity of a population to support ever-increasing forms of crime is limited. Corporations can extract only so much from employees or from customers or from the environ- ment before the system collapses...The book by Brian Berry talks of such ups and downs in 'free market' economies. 2. Negative feedback. We think that if we increase the pain and penalities for crime, we will end it. That is the nature of negative systems of feedback; make the rewards smaller by increasing the costs. Again, it has limited utility. Punishing people or corporations may deter/prevent/incapacitate them but only opens up opportunity for others to take their place. Far better than a mean and brutal criminal justice is a well tempered social justice which uses a third kind of feedback.... 3. Nonlinear Feedback. One of the more interesting sections in the Briggs and Peat book is the one about . I don't have time/ space now but the short and most interesting thing to note is that nonlinear redistributions of wealth...based not on merit, productivity nor marked by positive feedback loops...but based upon need, compassion mercy, empathy and many of the virtues called for in the more affirmative forms of religion and social philosophy found 'round the world. With non-linear forms of justice, mercy, love and affirmation, I leave you. Think about it. Social Justice is far better than Criminal Justice...of that I am sure. TR Young T.R.YOUNG@CMICH.EDU From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sun Dec 10 09:02:57 1995 Date: Sun, 10 Dec 1995 10:56:54 -0600 (CST) From: Michael Gibbons Subject: Re: Crosslisted courses To: "Bonnie Gugler (SOC)" One issue that hasn't been brought up is that the original poster said cross-listed courses were to be offered to fulfill theory requirements. While I have had a number of cross-listed courses and found them satisfactory, because the professors handled them very well, I have also had theory courses where the difference between grad students coming from different backgrounds seemed like a gulf too wide to cross. In the specific instance to which I am referring, I could still ask the students on different sides of that gulf and the division between liking and hating that class persists. When grad students have trouble bringing perspectives, training, and abilities together for a theory course, I fear having cross-listed theory courses. I suspect the grad students would be somewhat cheated in an effort to not lose the undergrads. michael From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sun Dec 10 09:41:10 1995 Date: Sun, 10 Dec 1995 12:39:01 -0500 (EST) From: "Thomas J. Oko" To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Subject: Request to add to mail group Please add me to the socgrad mail group. **************************************************************************** Tom Oko University of Michigan toko@umich.edu Department of Sociology **************************************************************************** From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sun Dec 10 11:06:10 1995 Date: Sun, 10 Dec 1995 20:04:20 +0100 To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: Czerlinski@mpipf-muenchen.mpg.de (Jean Czerlinski) Subject: crosslisting, activism, role of sociology Here are some comments on some of the recent threads on socgrad. Re: crosslisted courses; I will suggest a Perry-Mason style approach of finding other, less detrimental cost-cutting methods. Re: activism; I will argue that conservatives don't think society is sick and thus doesn't need the sociological "medical doctor". -------------------- CROSSLISTED COURSES The original posting described a department that was short on funds and thus considering having grad students learn some of their sociology by taking undergrad classes (perhaps with more challenging assignments, though). Thus the issue is NOT merely whether crosslisted courses are awful or useful. The issue is how awful / useful they are RELATIVE TO OTHER COST-CUTTING MEASURES!! Thus I would like people on this list to suggest other possible measures. (A small one, for example, would be getting rid of free coffee in the dept, if there currently is free coffee. Another is to increase income by agreeing to accept more unfunded students, which is however also distasteful.) The goal would be to find alternatives that the affected grad students can present to their department as an argument against cross-listing (if they decide to argue against it). Why? Reason number 1: as Perry Mason discovered, the best way to get your own client off the hook is to prove someone else is guilty. Likewise, finding a better cost-cutting measure that is also more appealing to grad students will surely make everyone forget about cross-listing. Reason number 2: By proposing an alternative-- even if not ultimately viable-- the grad students will make it clear that they UNDERSTAND the basic need to reduce the budget. The administrators will then know that the students have LISTENED to them. And most people are far more willing to listen to others (even grad students!) when they feel that they also are being listened to. Just proposing an alternative (even if ultimately not viable) opens the door for discussion and some sort of compromise settlement. Reason number 3: As I see it, one should never say "no" without also saying "yes"-- never cut down someone's freedom without re-opening it in another direction. So if the grad students want to say "no" to cross-listing, they should say find some alternative cost-cutter to say "yes" to. If one only says "no" all the time, the other person(s) can feel boxed in, without freedom, and like caged animals many people strike out and become vicious in these circumstances. - - - End note: By the way, the idea here is vaguely similar to the method one should use when theorizing (cf. Stinchcombe's *Constructing Social Theories*). One should not just look at the evidence for or against a particular social theory but the evidence for/against theory x RELATIVE TO the evidence for/against theory y. For example, imagine you have cases a,b,c,d,e,f. You want to test your theory x. It turns out that a,b,c,d,e support theory x and f leans against it. Thus it seems most of the data support theory x, and probably it's true, right? But what if you have a completely different theory, theory y, and it also turns out that a,b,c,d,e have elements that support theory y while f is against it. Then y is just as likely to be true! You need to find some cases that distinguish between x and y...... ---------- ACTIVISM One of the issues in relation to whether sociologists are or should be activists is whether they are the "doctors" of society-- the experts about how it works-- and thus the best ones to guide policy. The alternative was that EVERYONE should participate in policy decisions. I think I can clarify the issues a bit. The big difference between medicine and sociology is that in medicine everyone basically agrees on what the "healthy" state is. That is, everyone agrees on the GOALS and VALUES. Everyone also basically agrees that the state of health is ATTAINABLE-- since, after all, there are lots of examples of health walking about. Now consider society. Some people think health would best be attained by an all-out survival-of-the-fittest without government interference. Some people think heath is best attained by some competition but also a government to regulate the rules of the game. In general both sorts think that some people will be at the bottom and deserve to be so. That is the "normal", "healthy" state. If these people study society at all, they might study economics and spend lots of time trying to prove to everyone else that everyone would indeed really run better if the government just got out of everyone's hair. Some people think the health of society should be attained by competition but with a safety net for "losers" provided by the government (either because no human deserves very bad conditions and / or some people lose by bad luck rather than "deserving" it). Some people think health would mean a happy, semi-communist cooperation of everyone, which would happen if you just set up the right conditions. These people generally consider seeing poor, miserable people as evidence that society is currently "unhealthy". Then they might study sociology to understand how society works so that they can then "fix" it. I confess this characterization is very crass. For example, there are many other ways of considering society's health and many other reasons for studying it. But I think I've hit the core of the difference between the conservatives, who study economics, and the liberals, who study sociology. Sure, some conservatives study sociology and some liberals economics (and, as the cliche goes, some of them are even my friends-- really!). But in general there's far less reason to study sociology at all-- NO MATTER HOW "OBJECTIVE" YOU ARE-- if you think society is currently basically healthy (minus gov't interference). If nobody's sick, no one needs doctors. And dentists are having exactly this problem, that after flouridation and toothbrushing much fewer of them are needed. Thus, if the country is in a conservative mood-- as it was in the 80's and perhaps still is-- then it is considered to be healthy and there is no need for sociologists, only economists. I think this is a BIG reason why sociology's prestige has fallen, not so much all that stuff in the Vaughn et al. book review. However, with the current growing worries over crime and other social ills, I would bet that sociology is in for a comeback! In short, though, my point is that no one studies medicine unless there are sick people. If sociologists are considered the "doctors" of society, then conservatives generally don't study it because they think society is basically healthy. And back to the original question: everyone has to participate in policy because everyone has a right to make VALUE decisions about what is the goal of (social) health and what is not. Scientists and social scientists can only then try to find the instrumentally best way(s) of achieving those goals. (At least this is the traditional Weberian view of the role of science.) ------------------ ROLE OF SOCIOLOGY I'd posted something with that subject header when we were discussing the Vaughn et al. book review. Someone asked me a question about my post, but my mail server crashed a few days later and I lost the question. That's why I haven't replied. If the person still cares to post the question, I'm still willing to answer (but now the discussion is sort of over.....). Cheers, Jean From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sun Dec 10 18:38:24 1995 Date: Sun, 10 Dec 1995 21:36:20 -0500 To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: dread@acs.bu.edu ('Killer' Miller) Subject: website announcement Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I have put up a website. Amongst the mind candy and general nonsense, there is a sociology server page that has links to a number of resources. Some of them have appeared on this list, some appear on almost every soc. dept's site. BUT... check out the Sociology for Short Attention spans. And, if you like, check out the rest of the site. I hope you like it... http://www.webcom.com/dread/socio.html Thanks, -Andrew ================================================== == dread@acs.bu.edu == Andrew P. Miller == ================================================== == Boston University == Department of Sociology == ================================================== == "Wake up and live !" - Robert Nesta Marley == ================================================== From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sun Dec 10 19:05:38 1995 Date: Sun, 10 Dec 95 21:59:17 EST From: Alan Davidson Subject: Crosslisting, and what it conceals To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU One thing that is missing yet inherent in proposals for crosslisting courses is the assumption that grad. students, like undergrad. students are commodities which fill classrooms, versus very much like junior faculty members who you only bring into a department in the first place if there is a match to be made between faculty interests and student interests. A lot of these resource dilemmas could be solved (we just won our fight with respect to the solution for more courses to be grad. students not taking 6 credits until ABD, we still have some financial aid time limit renegotiation to go). If there is a limit to how many advanced seminars can be offered in the first place (interest-wise), it frees up instructors to teach more intro.-level grad. courses. From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Dec 11 01:26:32 1995 Date: Mon, 11 Dec 1995 10:04:45 +0100 To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: denis@cnam.fr (francois denis) Subject: Activism and censorship First pardon my english expression ; get sure I could be more precise and expressive with my first language. Nevertheless if you can understand me it is the most important. About censorship ; censorship is a social matter , as it the sociologist have to study it but cannot give advice about censorship ; only a conclusion and a study to help people understand censorship . Even when it took this "neutral" posture it acts in the social sphere and his advice (if it is a structured and comprehensive speech) is a social act. Second about the link beetween the sociology and the social action and activism I suggest you the reading of the 80's books of Alain Touraine (in french books and article linked to the "action sociale" )who built a system of understanding about the place of the sociolog in the social system which is one of the best reference on the subject. Francois DENIS mail: denis@cnam.fr Francois RABELAIS: "fay ce que vouldras." ++++ From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Dec 11 11:24:23 1995 (umhogev0@toliman.cc.umanitoba.ca [130.179.20.14]) by for ; Mon, 11 Dec 1995 13:19:30 -0600 (CST) Date: Mon, 11 Dec 1995 13:19:27 -0600 (CST) From: Bryan Hogeveen To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Subject: subscribe To whom it may concern, My name is Bryan Hogeveen. I am a grad student at the University of Manitoba, up here in the cold North country. I am specializing in Criminology. I am just wondering if I would be able to subscribe to your group? Bryan From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Dec 11 21:32:15 1995 Mon, 11 Dec 1995 21:31:08 -0800 for Date: Mon, 11 Dec 1995 23:31:03 -0600 (CST) From: Roger Frederick Ohr To: socgrad@mail.ucsd.edu Subject: Stats question Does anyone know what "Epsilon" means in stats. I have a cohort member using it in a paper. She makes it sound like another form of the coefficient of determination in a regression equation. I have always been under the impression that one should use R squared. I would appreciate some help. thanks, Roger Ohr From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Tue Dec 12 09:33:54 1995 Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 12:27:22 -0500 (EST) From: Jim Cassell To: Sociology Graduate Student Discussion Subject: Re: Harry Edwards Impersonator (fwd) Please pass this along to others in your department. After posting this note, Conklin spoke with Edwards and confirmed the gist of what's printed below. This con artist is apparently quite slick. Jim ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Cassell jwcassell@UNC.EDU Institute for Research in Social Science Phone: 919-962-0782 University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Fax: 919-962-4777 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3355 USA ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 07:03:10 -0500 (EST) From: george conklin To: sssann@unc.edu Subject: Re: Harry Edwards Impersonator From george Mon Dec 11 12:17:02 1995 To: sssann@unc.edu Subject: Harry Edwards Impersonator Cc: george@nccu.edu FLIM FLAM WARNING A sociologist posing as the sports sociologist Harry Edwards is is working over sociology departments and obtaining money from professors. He hit Durham, NC and our department Friday night and Saturday morning (December 9, 1995). He obtained money through fraud from at least 1 person and attempted to do so from at least 3 others. Here is the story. The imposter, who is obviously a sociologist, calls with the story that he is Harry Edwards. He gives the departmental phone at Berkeley (which is 510-642-4773). He claims that his brother (or cousin) C. K. Edwards is stranded since his luggage went to Denver along with all of Harry's credit cards, which had to be canceled. C.K., who is an African American weighing about 385 pounds, needs a suit for an interview in Charlotte, and Harry himself will be arriving in Durham for work with the Carolina Pathers at the 49ers game in Charlotte Sunday. Harry will bring cash to your door. He wanted $400 to get his brother a suit. I called Berkeley this AM and got a man who said his name was "Israel." (Did not write down last names). The scam has been pulled all over the country. The imposter knows sociological theory well, is well-educated and very intelligent. He has received 'big bucks' from departments. The real Harry Edwards wants to shut down the scam, according to Israel. The imposter told me he would be so grateful to me for helping out he would make a $1,000 donation to the department...money was not the issue, it was one of getting his new credit cards and the cash to his brother. He offered to have C.K. sign a note promising to pay the money back. Apparently an article about the scam has appeared already in a Chicago newspaper, according to Israel. It would be nice if we could post that article here. It shows how we sociologists are not as smart as we think we are...... !!! -:) So, please put a copy of this note in everyone's box. We need to shut this scam down. So far a man may be making his living off sociology professors who are too ashamed to write such a note as this one. George H. Conklin, Chair Department of Sociology North Carolina Central University 919 560-6222 george@nccu.edu From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Wed Dec 13 04:12:04 1995 Date: Wed, 13 Dec 1995 07:01:38 -0500 (EST) From: Jim Cassell To: Sociology Graduate Student Discussion Subject: Job Posting (fwd) FYI - Jim ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Cassell jwcassell@UNC.EDU Institute for Research in Social Science Phone: 919-962-0782 University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Fax: 919-962-4777 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3355 USA ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 23:40:39 -0500 From: Linda A. Verrill Subject: Job Posting I would like to submit the following job posting: RESEARCH ASSISTANT PROFESSOR Georgia State University The Gerontology Center at Georgia State University has a possible opening for a non-tenure track Research Assistant Professor, beginning February 1, 1996. The person in this position would engage in independent and collaborative research on long-term care and aging, health behavior of older persons, health and aging policy, or some other health-related issue. Duties include proposal writing, data collection and analysis, and preparation of papers for publication. This position requires a Ph.D. in sociology, psychology, anthropology, nursing, or a related field and a strong specialization in gerontology. It is a 12-month, renewable, appointment with a salary ranging from $40-45,000, depending on experience and qualifications. Deadline for applications is January 3, 1996. Interested persons should send a curriculum vitae and the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of three references to: Frank Whittington, Ph.D. Acting Director Gerontology Center Georgia State University Atlanta, GA 30303 Georgia State University, a unit of the University System of Georgia, is an equal opportunity employer. The University is located in the center of downtown Atlanta, near the State Capitol and many state and federal offices, and it has an enrollment of over 24,000 students. The Gerontology Center at GSU, established in 1978, is committed to gerontological research and education of the highest quality. From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Wed Dec 13 06:58:18 1995 Date: Wed, 13 Dec 1995 08:42:08 -0600 (CST) From: VALERIE VINSON Subject: info about PhD program To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU This message is for anyone who is attending ASU or University of North Texas. I am currently looking at submitting an application of admission to the perspective Universities. I would like to hear from students who are familiar with the universities and their sociology program. My area of concentration is in medical sociology and gerontology/aging. I am most interested in finding out about the faculty, the number of grad students, what type of financial assistant is available especially for a minority female, and what is the atmosphere of the town ie how frequent are cultural events, is there a lot to do and what is the cost of housing? You can personally e-mail your responses to vvinson@cwis.unomaha.edu Thank you for your time and effort and have a great holiday. Valerie From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Wed Dec 13 07:33:33 1995 Date: Wed, 13 Dec 1995 09:32:38 -0600 (CST) From: Roger Frederick Ohr To: socgrad Subject: Info on PhD programs I am interested in applying to two schools to work on a PhD and would like some feedback on them. I would like to hear from fellow graduate students attending(or recent graduates of)SUNY-Buffalo or Loyola of Chicago. I would be interested in your feelings about the faculty, the school, the graduate cohort, types of financial aid available, and the living expenses(particularly for the Buffalo area). My interests are in Race, Stratification, Mobility applaied to Asian Americans, with a specific interest in Korean Americans. If you want to contact me personally my address is: rogero@csd.uwm.edu Thanks for your help, Roger Ohr Univ. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Wed Dec 13 12:21:09 1995 Date: Wed, 13 Dec 1995 15:18:28 -0500 (EST) From: "G.P.Birchby" To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Subject: American University Hello!! I am considering applying to the Ph.D. sociology program at the American University. Does anyone on the list have any info on this program? Thank you!!! George -------------------------------------------------------------- George Preston Birchby e-mail: gbirchby@gsu.edu Department of Sociology (404) 651-4970 Georgia State University University Plaza Atlanta, Georgia 30303 -------------------------------------------------------------- From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Wed Dec 13 15:23:25 1995 Date: Wed, 13 Dec 1995 15:22:17 -0800 (PST) From: Laura Miller To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Subject: Yale T.A. strike Is Dan or anyone from Yale out there? The New York Times today had a piece on Yale T.A.s who are about to launch a grade strike. It all sounds like serious stuff, with the administration threatening to expel any TAs who participate, and (according to the article) little support for the strike among faculty. Does anyone have information on this? Laura Miller lmiller@ucsd.edu From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Wed Dec 13 16:38:17 1995 Date: Wed, 13 Dec 95 19:33:46 EST From: Alan Davidson Subject: Yale strike To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU There was an e-mail on the Progressive Sociologists net forwarded from a labor news net which dealt with not only threatened expellation, but faculty advisors who threatened not to write letters for TA's who participate as well. I can forward it if there is sufficient interest. From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Wed Dec 13 16:51:12 1995 Date: Wed, 13 Dec 95 19:47:33 EST From: Alan Subject: FW: Yale University firing those who join Union (fwd) (fwd) To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Date: 13 Dec 1995 09:22:42 -0500 From: "Jipson Art" To: PSN-CAFE Subject: FW: Yale University firing those who join Union (fwd) "NCSABB" , "P.S.N." , "Popular Culture & American Culture Associations/H-Net Discussion list" , "Teamsters Research Project at Miami University (Ohio USA)" We have to spread the information on this as widely as possible. -Art Art Jipson Department of Sociology, Gerontology, and Anthropology Upham Hall Miami University Oxford, Ohio 45056 513-529-2637 (o) 513-529-2628 (d) 513-529-8525 (f) jipson_art@msmail.muohio.edu or JIPSONAJ@MUOHIO.EDU http://www.lib.muohio.edu/~skimmel/jipson/jipsonpage.html _______________________________________________________________________________ From: LABNEWS - News of Labor Unions & Workplace Organizing on Wed, Dec 13, 1995 8:58 AM Subject: Yale University firing those who join Union (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 23:46:57 -0600 From:STabacheck@aol.com Subject: Yale University firing those who join Union I thought everyone could have the right to have a union, that is what I read somewhere. It seems that the highest learning organizations around don't have to allow freedom.' STabacheck@aol.com Please read: Members of the list: We are facing an emergency situation in the midst of a union drive at Yale University. As many of you know, teaching assistants at private universities are not covered by the NLRA, and so we have been organizing for recognition on the basis of our collective strength. In the past week, extreme threats have been made by the administration and faculty. They are threatening to fire, expel, or otherwise destroy the careers of union activists. We are asking for your help. Last spring, teaching assistants voted by a 78% margin to form a union, known as GESO, to bargain collectively with the administration. The administration refused to recognize the results of that election, and has continued to refuse to negotiate in any way with the elected representatives of the TAs. After many attempts (petitions, letters, demonstrations, marches, rallies, etc.) the TAs voted last week to withhold grades for this semester until the administration agrees to sit down and talk with us. We are not holding up the grades about any single issue of wages, health care, grievance procedure, or class size -- although all of these are important to us -- but only to try and begin negotiating. After the TAs voted to call a grade strike, GESO once again asked the administration to negotiate with us and they have refused. The administration has made veiled threats about "appropriate action" being taken against graduate students who participate in this strike. Several administrators and senior faculty members have been much more explicit in their threats. Here are some examples: -- Two professors in political science told their teaching assistants -- who do all the discussion sections and grading for the courses -- that the faculty would support the TAs being expelled for participating. -- Graduate students in several departments were told by their advisors that they would not get letters of recommendation if they participated in the GESO activity, and that their academic careers would therefore be ended. -- Acting instructors in language departments were told that they would lose their jobs for next semester if they participated. Our jobs and careers are being threatened on the basis of union activity. Teaching assistants at Yale are being forced to fear for their careers as they stand up for their rights. Our only recourse against such naked coercion and blacklisting is solidarity, and we are asking our brothers and sisters everywhere to help us make it clear that this type of threat is unacceptable. There are two types of help we need. First, IF YOU ARE IN THE NORTHEAST, come to Yale University on Thursday. We know this is short notice, but we want to get thousands of people here to protest and prevent the firings. If you are in New York, there are trains from Grand Central every hour for $9. We neeed you! Please spread the word to other locals and activists. Our protest will begin at 10:30 AM on Thursday, and we will have national media as well as faculty from all over. Please invite your friends. For people who cannot participate in this action (as well as for you who will) we ask that you send a fax to the administration condemning the use of blacklisting and threats and reprisals for union activity. The fax number at President Richard Levin's office is (203) 432-7105. Thank you so much for your support. It means a great deal. If you need more information or can join us on Thursday, please call us at (203) 624-5161 or (203) 776-2466 or e-mail eve.weinbaum@yale.edu Sincerely, Eve Weinbaum (and the rest of GESO) ************************************************************ DRIVING DIRECTIONS: Take I-95 North to New Haven. Just past the downtown New Haven exit, get onto I-91 North (toward Hartford). After less than a mile, exit at Trumbull Street (Exit 3 off of I-91). At the end of the ramp, continue straight on Trumbull Street, through 2 traffic lights. At Prospect Street (one block after Hillhouse), turn left. Go two blocks and look for parking on the street. Prospect Street turns into College Street right there, and the union office is at the corner of College and Elm, at 425 College Street. It is easy to find, but if you have any trouble just give us a call at (203) 624-5161. From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Wed Dec 13 17:03:53 1995 Date: Wed, 13 Dec 1995 20:08:10 -0500 To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: danryan@minerva.cis.yale.edu (Dan Ryan) Subject: Re: Yale strike This has the potential to be a real interesting experiment in the creation of "knowledge" -- Various players here in New Haven report things to different kinds of "passers on of news" (i.e., media) and then it lands in front of a person who takes it as a report of what's going on rather than a "report" of what's going on. Stay tuned, but don't jump to conclusions! From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Wed Dec 13 18:20:29 1995 From: michael carley Subject: Yale strike To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Date: Wed, 13 Dec 1995 18:19:48 -0800 (PST) I have to admit to being fairly ignorant of union laws. Perhaps someone with better knowledge can inform us. Do workers in the U.S. have the legal right to collective bargaining? Is there any statute to prevent the Yale faculty and administration from breaking the union? How much federal protection do unions have and how much is left to the states? Mike **************************************************************************** * Michael Carley | I am not a visionary, I claim to be a * * Department of Sociology | practical idealist--Mohandes K. Gandhi * * Stanford University | * * Stanford CA 94305-2047 | How far can you open your mind before * * (415) 497-7526 | your brains fall out? * * mcarley@leland.stanford.edu | * * * **************************************************************************** From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Wed Dec 13 18:45:05 1995 From: BREKHUS@zodiac.rutgers.edu Date: Wed, 13 Dec 1995 21:42:47 -0500 (EST) Subject: need help with a citation To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Does anybody out there in socgrad land happen to have the citation for Michael Kimmel's latest 1995 book? I need to cite it in a proposal I'm finishing, and can't find the full citation anywhere. If anyone happens to know it, please e-mail me privately. Wayne Brekhus brekhus@zodiac.rutgers.edu From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Wed Dec 13 19:04:15 1995 Date: Wed, 13 Dec 1995 19:03:35 -0800 (PST) From: Laura Miller To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Subject: Yale strike I'm not positive about this, but I believe the situation at Yale is similar to that with grad students at the University of California. Yale grads don't have legal protection for their union, because they have yet to be allowed to form a union. The issue hinges on whether TAs & RAs are actually employees, or whether they're students getting professional training that just happens to come with a stipend. In California, the question has come before the Public Employees Relation Board (a state agency) since UC is a public university. So far, they've ruled against the right of grad students to form a union, but various appeals continue. I know U Michigan grads have been able to form a union, but I don't know about other places. I imagine it's even more difficult at a private university like Yale. Laura Miller lmiller@ucsd.edu From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Thu Dec 14 08:07:39 1995 Date: Thu, 14 Dec 1995 11:05:04 -0500 (EST) From: "Thomas J. Oko" To: Laura Miller Subject: Re: Yale strike Here's a bit of information regarding the history, etc. of TA unionization. I was active with the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) at Michigan until I left to do dissertation research early this year. At this point there are a number of TA unions across the country. The first TA union was formed at Wisconsin-Madison in the early 1970s. Michigan's union was established in 1974 after a month-long strike in February of that year by the TAs. However, the university did not actually recognize GEO until the Michigan Employment Relations Commission and several appeals finally established GEO as the bargaining unit for TAs at Michigan. As is the case with the California system, unions in Michigan have to be recognized by the state as the sole bargaining units for employees. That gets into issues of what it means to be an employee and whether the union has support of the majority of the bargaining unit. It also means that any TA union has to go through a long and expensive legal process before it is recognized. That process obviously favors employers, especially in a situation with high turnover of a large part of the bargaining unit, as with TA unions. TAs at several campuses or university systems have successfully organized since the 1970s. Unionized schools include Wisconsin-Madison, Michigan, Oregon, the SUNY system, and U-Mass. I think that TAs are unionized at either Florida or FSU as well. As you can tell, TAs have been more successful in organizing at public universities. But as the strike at Yale indicates, grads are also organizing aroung TA grievances at private schools as well. At the moment, GEO at Michigan is in the middle of negotiating a new contract with the administration. the current contract expires on 1 February. So far, the administration has stonewalled and made little movement. The union presented over twenty issues at the table and the administration has only tentatively signed off on two (both bringing the contract into compliance with federal law). TAs at Michigan are also involved in a grade action in which grade sheets are being turned in to the union headquarters to be stamped "Graded by Union Labor" before they are turned over to the administration. The action has already received a response from one of the deans who strongly suggested against any TA involvement in the action. **************************************************************************** Tom Oko University of Michigan toko@umich.edu Department of Sociology **************************************************************************** From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Thu Dec 14 09:26:01 1995 by KUHUB.CC.UKANS.EDU (PMDF V5.0-5 #13311) id <01HYSNQXTR9C8X9EWX@KUHUB.CC.UKANS.EDU> for socgrad@UCSD.EDU; Thu, 14 Dec 1995 11:23:44 -0600 (CST) Date: Thu, 14 Dec 1995 11:23:44 -0600 (CST) Date-warning: Date header was inserted by KUHUB.CC.UKANS.EDU From: 1k1mgm@KUHUB.CC.UKANS.EDU (Christopher Gunn) Subject: Re: Yale strike To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU "Thomas J. Oko" wrote: >TAs at several campuses or university systems have successfully organized >since the 1970s. Unionized schools include Wisconsin-Madison, Michigan, >Oregon, the SUNY system, and U-Mass. I think that TAs are unionized at >either Florida or FSU as well. University of Kansas, just this last year. Negotiations and lawsuits continue, but there's official recognition. Christopher Gunn Molecular Graphics and Modeling Laboratory 1k1mgm@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu University of Kansas Phone: 913-864-4428 or -4495 Malott Hall Lawrence, KS 66045 From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Thu Dec 14 11:11:38 1995 Date: Thu, 14 Dec 1995 14:09:48 -0500 (EST) From: "G.P.Birchby" To: "Michael I. Lichter" Subject: Re: American University On Wed, 13 Dec 1995, Michael I. Lichter wrote: > American University where? A former colleague is now at the American > University in Cairo, which he likes but doesn't take entirely seriously. > > Michael > > -- > Michael Lichter > UCLA Department of Sociology > > > Michael, Thank you for you response. I am speaking of the American University in Washington DC. Thanks again, George -------------------------------------------------------------- George Preston Birchby e-mail: gbirchby@gsu.edu Department of Sociology (404) 651-4970 Georgia State University University Plaza Atlanta, Georgia 30303 -------------------------------------------------------------- From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Dec 15 07:01:37 1995 Date: Fri, 15 Dec 1995 09:55:31 -0500 (EST) From: Jim Cassell To: Sociology Graduate Student Discussion Subject: (fwd) FYI ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Cassell jwcassell@UNC.EDU Institute for Research in Social Science Phone: 919-962-0782 University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Fax: 919-962-4777 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3355 USA ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 15 Dec 95 09:23:08 EST From: ANNE@VM.TEMPLE.EDU To: C&U Section Members Subject: (fwd) Hi C&U Friends. Here is another ad. Happy Holidays. Anne Shlay ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- To: Anne@Vm.Temple.edu From: Jerry Stahler Subject: Ann, Here's the advertisement for the Urban Education faculty position. Thanks for your help! Temple University College of Education Faculty Position in Urban Education The Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Temple University seeks to fill a tenure-track position at the assistant professor level in the area of urban education. The Interdisciplinary Urban Education Program incorporates faculty and courses from African-American Studies, anthropology, business, economics, geography and urban studies, sociology, and education. Candidates may come from any of these disciplines, or from any related field, as long as the major focus of interest is the urban environment and its impact on urban schools. A strong commitment to field-based research in urban schools is highly desirable. Applicants interested in the above position should send a letter of application including a current vita containing the nazmes, addresses and phone numbers of at least three references who have been asked to forward letters of recommendation. Materials should be sent to: Search Committee, c/o Dean, College of Education, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122 Applications will be reviewed beginning January 22, 1996 and ocntinue until the position is filled. Temple University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. Women and ethnic minorities are especially encouraged to apply. From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Dec 15 09:00:15 1995 From: christine torgerson Subject: Returned mail: User unknown (fwd) To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU (soc) Date: Fri, 15 Dec 1995 11:58:24 -0500 (EST) > > Here is yet another ad for y'all! > > Christine > Forwarded message: > > > > University of Notre Dame. The Department of Sociology invites applications > > for one or more tenure-track assistant professor positions beginning August > > 1996. New PhDs as well as persons with some years experience are encouraged > > to apply. We seek individuals with strong research and teaching commitments. > > Areas of specialization are open, but we are especially interested in > > candidates with expertise in one or more of the following areas: family, > > family demography, sociology of education, and stratification and > > inequality. Review of applications will begin January 30, 1996, and continue > > until the position is filled. Send a letter of application, curriculum > > vitae and three letters of reference to: Chair, Search Committee, > > Department of Sociology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556. > > Notre Dame is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer > > and strongly encourages applications from women and minorities. > > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Richard Williams, Associate Professor Office: (219)631-6668 > > BITNET: F67TEL@IRISHMVS Messages: (219)631-6463 > > INTERNET 1: RICHARD.A.WILLIAMS.5@ND.EDU FAX: (219)631-4268 > > INTERNET 2: F67TEL@IRISHMVS.CC.ND.EDU Home: (219)289-5227 > > > > From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sat Dec 16 09:49:38 1995 Date: Sat, 16 Dec 95 12:47 EST To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: "David L. Brunsma 219-631-3912" Subject: Sociology of Culture Hello All. I am currently putting together my reading list for my area exam in Sociology of Culture jere at Notre Dame. I am looking for any crucial/interesting cites people might send my way on the following subareas: 1. Classic Statements (about culture/soc of culture that is) 2. Interactionist Stance (i.e., theories/studies of how culture is created/produced by cultural actors... NOT Frankfurtian or Media Studies type production of culture) 3. Culture and Social Action (culture as guiding actions) 4. Boundary Formation and Maintanence. ----------- Any help would be of great appreciative significance to me. Dave Brunsma UNiversity of Notre Dame PS - by the way, those of you wwho helped me get a soc of education reading list together will be glad to know - I passed with flying colors. Thanks in advance. From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sat Dec 16 14:29:13 1995 From: BREKHUS@zodiac.rutgers.edu Date: Sat, 16 Dec 1995 17:27:53 -0500 (EST) Subject: thanks for cite info To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Thanks to all who provided me the needed information on the Kimmel cite. The new book is called Manhood in America: A Cultural History and is published by The Free Press, for anyone who is interested. Thanks again. --Wayne Brekhus, Rutgers From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sat Dec 16 14:45:04 1995 Date: Sat, 16 Dec 1995 17:44:01 -0500 (EST) From: Jennifer R Popovic Subject: Kingsley Davis and prostitution To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Anyone have a citation for Davis' article on prostitution and it's functions for society? It may well be called "Prostitution", but I haven't had much luck. If anyone can help me out, it'd be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance! Jen Popovic George Washington University denali@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sat Dec 16 15:31:51 1995 Date: Sat, 16 Dec 1995 15:27:55 -0800 To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: Joe Surfer Subject: Re: 12 Politically Correct Days of ... (fwd) At 02:41 PM 12/8/95 -0500, wrote: >Maybe a giggle..... Ok, that was decent. If you like this brand of humor (anti-PC), then I can recommend a couple books for ten bucks, less if you shoplift around the holidays (just kidding!!!!) - The Officially Politically Correct Dictionary and Handbook and The Officially Sexually Correct Dictionary and Dating Guide both by Henry Beard and Christopher Cerf. ****************************** Why not reply and make this person happy? From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sat Dec 16 18:49:30 1995 Date: Sat, 16 Dec 1995 20:42:12 CST From: GREEN WITCH To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU unsub Heidi Henrickson From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sat Dec 16 18:55:49 1995 Date: Sat, 16 Dec 1995 18:51:23 -0800 (PST) From: Laura Miller To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Subject: how to unsubscribe Too much email in your life? If you want to unsubscribe from Socgrad, send a message to: listserv@ucsd.edu and in the body of your message, type: unsub socgrad Remember to send the message to listserv, NOT to Socgrad itself. Any problems or questions can be directed to lmiller@ucsd.edu From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sun Dec 17 00:11:13 1995 Date: Sun, 17 Dec 1995 00:07:20 -0800 To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: Jerry Blaz Subject: Re: Sociology of Culture T: David Brunsma Re: Your sociology of culture exam: What I have discovered about these exams is that it is important to read the material valued by the members of the department who made up the test. For instance, if they are neo-functionalists, read Jeffrey Alexander. If they are symbolic interactionists, read from Mead through Matza. If the are interested in culture creation, then read the social constructionists, such as Schutz, Peter Berger, etc., and if they believe that what Harold Garfinkel in his ethnomethodological studies was studying is culture creation, then by all means bone up on his work. One of the important things to remember is that each faculty member is, in a way, the people who taught him or her. Jerry Blaz/The BOOKie Joint 7246 Reseda Blvd. Reseda, CA 91335 (818)345-2983/(818)343-1055 ffdog@earthlink.net Outside of a dog, a man's best friend is a good book. Inside of a dog, it is too dark to read. G. Marx From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sun Dec 17 04:41:07 1995 Date: Sun, 17 Dec 95 07:38 EST From: "Jetaway Dave" Subject: Re: Kingsley Davis and prostitution To: denali@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu -- Sat, 16 Dec 1995 17:44:01 -0500 (EST) >Anyone have a citation for Davis' article on prostitution and it's >functions for society? It may well be called "Prostitution", but I >haven't had much luck. If anyone can help me out, it'd be greatly >appreciated. Thanks in advance! I've read this. Can't locate it at the moment. It might not have been an article, but rather a book chapter, though could well be both (academic double-dipping). Publication date is around 1960, give or take a couple of years. Jetaway Dave From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sun Dec 17 05:47:16 1995 From: "Vincent J. Roscigno" To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Date: Sun, 17 Dec 1995 08:45:50 EST Subject: Organizations, Occupations, and Work ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- From: "Vincent J. Roscigno" To: vincent Date sent: Sun, 17 Dec 1995 08:45:02 EST Subject: Organizations, Occupations, and Work Our purpose in writing this letter is to encourage you to join the ASA's Section on Organizations, Occupations and Work -- formerly the Section on Organizations and Occupations. We are sending you this letter because you may have interest in organizations, work, occupations, labor markets, or economic sociology. You may benefit from the section and its activities. In a minute, we'll tell you how the section is changing, what it is doing, and why it needs your participation. For now, please note that you can join in either of two ways: *** by checking off organizations, occupations and work as a section selection on the ASA renewal form you received a couple of weeks ago; *** OR -- if you were an early bird ASA-renewer -- by filling out the enclosed membership form and enclosing a check for $10 (but you must be an ASA member to join). Here's what the Section is doing and what you get (or get to participate in) for joining. (To learn more VISIT OUR NEW HOMEPAGE at http://www.princeton.edu/~orgoccwk/) **** An expanding focus: The membership voted to give the section a new name last spring. The new name -- "Organizations, Occupations, and WORK" -- reflects con-tinued commitment to the members' traditional inter-ests, as well as a recognition that the section has in-creasingly become attractive to students of labor markets and the labor process. We also want to make the section a home for the majority of ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGISTS who study organizations and institutions. This commitment will be reflected in the 1996 (New York) ASA Section program both in the form of a major session on "The Organized Economy" (research on financial institutions and networks) and in a special roundtable preview presentation on the 1996 General Social Survey special topical module on economic sociology. All students of organizations and occupations will also find much of interest in the 1996 program -- a special featured symposium on "Firms and Other Organizations in the 21st Century"; a session on "Organizations, Occupations, and Work in the Digital Age"; and a session (co-sponsored with the ASA Gender Section), "Are Organizations and Occupations Gendered?" -- in addition to an author- meets-critic section for the winner of the 1996 Max Weber ("best- book") Award and a set of intimate and exciting roundtable sessions. **** A renewed emphasis on communication and member service: About a week ago, our section became the second ASA section (to our knowledge) to create its own home page. Visit it for a list of officers and committees, how to nominate a book or graduate-student paper for one of the section's two awards, table of contents and glimpses into the new section newsletter, and a set of hyperlinks of interest to sociologists concerned with organizations, occupations, work, labor markets, and organizational sociology. The newsletter, which is being mailed from ASA as we speak, has a new look -- more feature articles, more information, and a special book section, featuring brief descriptions of new works of interest to section members. Our publications committee is also busy developing plans for using the internet to best advantage in bringing together section members with special interests and special needs. Join and be part of these new developments. **** Special programs for graduate students -- the James Thompson prize for the best paper written by a graduate student each year; graduate-student membership on the Section Council; and several new projects under investigation and/or construction, including an internet job-search board for graduate-student members. If you have not already joined the Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work, please do so today. And if you have already joined, please consider a $5 membership for a colleague or graduate student -- just the reward for such milestones as comprehensives, prospectus completion, or completion of degree requirements! JOIN US TODAY! Rikki Abzug Paul DiMaggio Membership Chair Section Chair Mark Chaves Vicki Smith Vincent Roscigno ********************************************************************** Vincent J. Roscigno Box 8107, Department of Sociology North Carolina State University Raleigh, North Carolina 27695-8107 Vincent_Roscigno@ncsu.edu Office: (919) 515-3143 ext. 65 Fax: (919) 515-2610 ********************************************************************** From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sun Dec 17 07:08:56 1995 Date: Sun, 17 Dec 95 10:06:30 EST From: Alan Davidson Subject: Kingsley Davis and Prostitution To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU The original article appeared in either ASR or AJS circa 1937. The book chapter is in Merton and Nisbet's Social Problems text (yes, such a creature does exist). From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sun Dec 17 10:54:07 1995 Date: Sun, 17 Dec 1995 13:59:13 -0500 To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: danryan@minerva.cis.yale.edu (Dan Ryan) Subject: Re: Kingsley Davis and prostitution My D&SC bib says: >Davis, Kingsley. 1937. "The Sociology of Prostitution," ASR 2:746-755. From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sun Dec 17 08:49:26 1995 Date: Sun, 17 Dec 1995 11:41:46 -0500 (EST) From: Jim Cassell To: Sociology Graduate Student Discussion Subject: doc-talk ANNOUNCE>Grad Education Search Software (fwd) Folks looking for grad school info might want to check this out. Best, Jim ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Cassell jwcassell@UNC.EDU Institute for Research in Social Science Phone: 919-962-0782 University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Fax: 919-962-4777 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3355 USA ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 16 Dec 1995 09:40:25 -0800 (PST) From: owner-doc-talk@quake.net To: doc-talk@asgs.org Subject: doc-talk ANNOUNCE>Grad Education Search Software =============================================================================== DEAR DOC-TALK =============================================================================== Peterson's Education Center on the World Wide Web, located at , is now offering a new search capability for anyone looking for graduate-education information. ================================================================= Exerpted from: nagps@netcom.com Anyone seeking graduate education information can now conduct searches for targeted research areas, specialized disciplines, or graduate faculty educators or researchers using Topic Internet Server, in the Graduate information Sector of Peterson's Education Center on the WWW (http://www.petersons.com), a source of organized education data. Graduate candidates can conduct keyword queries scanning thousands of individual university sites in the Center with nearly 3,000 graduate program narrative descriptions. These are individual statements submitted by deans, chairs, and other administrators. This information also contains approximately 200,000 faculty names. For example, a graduate candidate conducting an Education Center keyword search on "recombinant DNA" is presented with a list of nearly 200 hypertext links to program descriptions from Peterson's massive graduate information database. With a click of the mouse on an entry in the list, the candidate brings up full information on that program, with the keywords (in this example "recombinant DNA") in boldface. A user could narrow this search by also adding additional keywords such as a state, institution, or researcher's name. Other Education Center features expected to go live this year include video and sound capabilities in school and college On-Line Viewbooks and Brochures, consortium links, and new information Sectors on Studying Abroad (for U.S. students interested in studying at accredited universities in other countries as well as international students interested in attending college in the U.S.) and Language Study. Also scheduled for activation before the year is out are Resources, a directory of professional associations, accrediting agencies, financial aid sources, and career offices, and Contest, an interactive feature that will award prizes to winners. Sectors on K-12 Public Schools, Executive Education, Distance Learning, Continuing Education, Learning Holidays, Testing and Assessment, Vocational and Technical Education, and Metro Guides are slated to be activated in 1996. =============================================================================== "The Best of Doc-Talk"--discussions archived from Doc-Talk are now reproduced on ASGS's home page on the Word Wide Web! URL = http://www.asgs.org =============================================================================== From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Dec 18 13:44:25 1995 Date: Mon, 18 Dec 1995 15:40:54 -0600 (CST) From: Roger Frederick Ohr To: socgrad Subject: Re:SUNY-Buffalo This is for the President of the Grad Student org at SUNY-Buffalo, could you please send me your email address. I inadvertently deleted your last message. Thanks, aRoger Ohr From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Tue Dec 19 05:21:18 1995 Date: Tue, 19 Dec 95 06:45:11 EST From: "T R. Young" <34LPF6T@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU> Organization: Central Michigan University Subject: The Drama of the Holy at Christmas Time and Easter To: GRADUATE STUDENTS IN SOCIOLOGY An affirmative postmodern approach to the sociology of religion at once respects the sensibility and solidarity embodied in the various dramas of the holy and, at the same time, locates these most enlivening dramas within the social and political context in which y appear. In this mini-lecture, I would like to contrast the typifications of Christ at Christmas and Easter in order to make visible the ideological fields which are, in part, constructed and reproduced. First, let me say a bit about a postmodern and affirmative view of religion. A. Dramas of the Holy. In my recent work, I have lain out four levels in which the drama of the Holy emerges or fails to emerge: 1. Situated dramas of the Holy: at Christmas time, the most sit- uated dramas of the Holy take place in the various mid-night masses of the Catholic Church, the Choral presentations of the Mormon Church, the Mid-day celebrations of the various Protestant Denomin- ations well as the various services in other religious traditions which take time near the winter solstice to sing and call back the sun to warm the fields. 2. Communal dramas of the Holy are more common at this time of year. Universities present medieval Choral groups; cities sponsor winter carnival in Vienna, Saginaw and San Diego; streets and stores are decorated in Denton, Texas and Tokyo, Japan. Churchs and Women's groups, veterans and police associations collect and redistribute food, clothing, toys and monies. In most offices, hospitals, factories, and shops, business is, for a brief moment, set aside in favor of sociality. Kindness and good spirits arise easily between unknown others. In most homes, special foods and special drinks are prepared to call forth love and repair the frayed bonds of kinship. Gifts are made to children to help them understand that they are precious to the human project; to surround them so with love and security that there is little room in the heart for anger, hate, hurt or envy. 3. National/Ethnic and religious solidarities emerge and are rati- fied by more distant dramas of the holy [lower case]. Some religions forbid occupations which are harmful to the larger society. Some societies provide health care, housing, education and safety from personal assault and, in the doing, sanctify each person to the larger solidarity. It is in the larger, more lasting practices and policies of a society where the more difficult work of Christmas begins after the songs cease to sing and the stars cease to lead. Ancient and emergent structures of domination, exploitation and oppression push aside the spirit of love and fellowship so artfully created and fully known at Christmas. D. Dramas of Universal Being. There is very little sanctification found at the more global level of human congress. Again ancient emnities profane and erode these Dramas of the Holy. Some religions try to extend the reach of the human heart to encompass every living creature; some political agencies try to transcend national, ethnic and racial boundaries. Some religious organizations attempt to make connections between Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism while respecting the unique features of each. Yet there is much to be done in the 21st Century to forge a post- modern religious sensibility which permits of difference and of variety in both situated and communal dramas of the Holy. There are theologians and philosophers and prophets at work at this moment who help build the bridges and interpret the bibles in such a way as to sanctify those who are different. B. Postmodern Methodology. Part of the methodology emerging in a distinctly postmodern sociology of knowledge re-unites qualitative and quantitative pathways to human understanding. The one I use here relies on the work of Machery [A Theory of Literary Production London: Routledge-Paul, 1978]. Machery says that whenever we read, sing, act or speak, we are inserted into the text of the song, story, drama, or other text. We become the acting, thinking, feeling subject and see 'facts' through the eyes of the central Character. At Christmas time, we are inserted into the dual subject of the mother-and-child. We become especially sensitive and accepting of the social position and problematics of first child and then to lesser extent, mother. Even fathers do mothering at Christmas time...the role of disciplinarian is set aside in favor of un- conditional acceptance of the child. Child get gifts whether they have been naughty or have been nice. However Machery warns us that the text of, in this case, Christmas songs, plays, and stories of Christmas transform the incredibily complex social life into the simple, solvable symbol. The Christ child is used as this symbol to resolve/reduce all conflicts of racism, sexism and class oppression in the person of this small infant. The adult Jesus at Easter time however, embodiesome of these conflicts... C. The Crucifixion of Christ at Easter. A very different ideological field emerges in many Christian communities at Easter-time. At once the symbol of re-birth and rewal in both pagan and Christian theology, Easter time combines both the tragedies of death and the hope for re-birth in these Dramas of the Holy. The suffering Christ of Christendom carries a far too heavy burden of oppression, guilt, injustice and personal sin to resolve the contradictions of race, class and gender conflict. When we are inserted as subject in this text, we do not, can not resolve the complexities of life by the giving of gifts, the sharing of food or the singing of song. In contrast to the loving and blessed motherhood depicted at Christmas time, the pieta of Michelangelo conveys the great des- pair of the Mother Mary at the needless death of her child. In such scenes, the father, Joseph is missing...indeed it is the adult males of the secular world who engineer the death of hope, of community, of transcending joy. I might add that Liberation Theology shifts the guilt from both the Christ figure and from the Judas figure to the structures of domination. In this ana- lysis, it is the sins of past generations crystalized into social Institutions which create this drama of the Holy. But the Christ figure does signify redemption and forgiveness. That is a message not lightly to be set aside. The linear and rational system of justice and punishment used at work, school, home and jail only adds to the totality of pain and suffering which the Christ figure is meant to reject. Inserted into this drama of the Holy, we too, are meant to reject pain, cruelty, suffering and unnecessary death. Again, this drama of the Holy is far too dangerous to existing practices to serve the ideological needs of corporations, govern- ments and ruling elites. If Easter is to be done at all, it has to be confined to the smallest, least political sphere of social life. In the USA, the Easter drama is reduced to stylistic parades, eggs rolls on the White House lawn, and televised programs which locate the passion play in remote time and place...safely away present cruelties and injustices. D. There is a lot more analysis in the original article. It was first given in 1981 at the Humanist Meetings in Cinnicinati. It appeared in the New England Sociologist and can be found in The Drama of Social Life, published by Transaction in 1990. The book should be in your library. I will close this mini-lecture with a Table which sets forth some of the major differences in the ideological fields at Christmas and Easter. Please note that the point is not to de-sanctify these dramas of the Holy but to help renew and refresh the reli- gious enterprize embodied in these dramas...they are too precious to the human project to be reduced to tinsel, trees, crosses, slogans and bumper-stickers. Typifications of Christ vary over time, place and circumstance. The analysis below is appropriate for and only for a limited time and in a limited social life world...that of the USA in the late 20th century...at another time, in other places, quite different analyses are appropriate. ======================================================================= IDEOLOGICAL FIELDS at CHRISMAS AND EASTER ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Typifications/ Significations Christmas Easter ----------------- ----------------------- ---------------------- Anthropomorphic Subject The Christ Child The Adult Jesus Subjective Ontology joy, peace, comfort Sin, suffering, death Redemptive Action buying gifts, giving Revolution/redemption Social unit the church as the in focus the family entire community Location of sin the individual the social order Social action peace, goodwill, sacrifice/struggle required mercy Medium in which Mass media: radio, Social media: congreg- typifications occur television, cinema ation, family, commun- ity. Media controlled Corporations, state father, family, church by: community Political Message enjoy the present change that which has been; build the future Acting agents Parents Community, State, Tran national bodies Consumption Economics Redistribution sharing, rebuilding ======================================================================= This is my Christmas gift to all graduate students in sociology. Take in and use it to expand your religious sensibility and to embody the drama of the holy in every class you teach, every paper your write, every student you counsel and support, every colleague with whom you work and share. I give you joy in this work. TR Young Christmas, 1995 T.R.YOUNG@CMICH.EDU From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Thu Dec 21 08:33:17 1995 Date: Thu, 21 Dec 1995 10:03:55 -0600 From: David Purcell To: mikjackson@aol.com, psn-cafe@csf.Colorado.EDU, m.beuerlein@genie.com, cramsdell@kdc.com, HeatherCS@msn.com, socgrad@UCSD.EDU, beuerlein@wpo.it.luc.edu, cramsdell@wpo.it.luc.edu, HeatherCS@wpo.it.luc.edu, mikjackson@wpo.it.luc.edu, psn-cafe@wpo.it.luc.edu, socgrad@wpo.it.luc.edu Subject: PBS/NEA -Forwarded Date: 12/21/1995 10:02 am (Thursday) From: David Purcell To: internet:wein2688@blue.univnorthco.edu CC: internet:kubi7975@blue.univnorthco.edu Subject: PBS/NEA PBS, NPR (National Public Radio), and the arts are facing major cutbacks in funding. In spite of the efforts of each station to reduce spending>costs and streamline their services, the government officials believe that the funding currently going to these programs is too large a portion of funding for something which is seen as "unworthwhile". Currently, taxes from the general public for PBS equal $1.12 per person per year, and the National Endowment for the Arts equals $.64 a year in total. A January 1995 CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll indicated that 76% of Americans wish to keep funding for PBS, third only to national defense and law enforcement as the most valuable programs for federal funding. Each year, the Senate and House Appropriations commitees each have 13 subcommitees with jurisdiction over many programs and agencies. Each subcommitee passes its own appropriation bill. The goal each year is to have each bill signed by the beginning of the fiscal year, which is October 1. In the instance of the Corporation of Public Broadcasting, the bill determines the funding for the next three years. When this issue comes up in 1996, the funding will be determined for fiscal years 1996-1998. The only way that our representatives can be aware of the base of support for PBS and funding for these types of programs is by making our voices heard. Please add your name to this list if you believe in what we stand for. This list will be forwarded to the President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, and Representative Newt Gingrich, who is the instigator of the action to cut funding to these worthwhile programs. If you happen to be the 50th, 100th, 150th, etc. signer of this petition, please forward a copy to wein2688@blue.univnorthco.edu. If that address is inoperative, please send it to kubi7975@blue.univnorthco.edu. This way we can keep track of the lists and organize them. Forward this to everyone you know, and help us to keep these programs alive. Thank you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Elizabeth Weinert, student, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, Colorado. 2. Nikki Marchman, student, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, Colorado. 3. Laura King, Salt Lake City, Utah 4. Mary Lambert, San Francisco, CA 5. Sam Tucker, Seattle, WA 6. Steve Mack, Seattle, WA 7. Stacy Shelley, Sub Pop Records, Seattle, WA. 8. Mark Waters, Goldenrod Records, San Diego, CA 9. Kerri Harrop, Sub Pop Records, Seattle, WA 10. Christopher Langkamp, Crustacean Records, Milwaukee, WI 11. R.Dunnica, Thee Instagon Foundation, HuntingtonBch, CA 12. Sally Engelfried, BAM Magazine, Pleasant Hill, CA 13. Wendy Weisberg, Relativity Recordings, Santa Monica, CA 14. Randy Silver, The Source Magazine/freelance, Albany, NY 15. Randy Fox, Randy's Records, musician-writer, Butler, PA 16. Melissa Nelson, Minneapolis, MN 17. Amy Haugesag, Minneapolis, MN 18. David Purcell, Loyola University-Chicago Sociology Department, Chicago, IL From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Dec 22 12:16:44 1995 Date: Fri, 22 Dec 95 15:11:13 EST From: "T R. Young" <34LPF6T@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU> Organization: Central Michigan University Subject: Winter Solstice (fwd) To: GRADUATE STUDENTS IN SOCIOLOGY Christmas/Holiday/Season Greetings. T.R.YOUNG@CMICH.EDU ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Date: Fri, 22 Dec 95 14:58:17 EST From: "T R. Young" <34LPF6T@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU> Organization: Central Michigan University Subject: Winter Solstice To: For all of us who are pagans or worse, here is a poem to mark the end of the year and to help call back the summer sun: CENTURIES OF DANCE So the shortest day came and the Year died and everywhere, down the long white Centuries of snow came people dancing, singing to drive the dark away. They lighted candles in the Winter trees. They hung their homes with evergreens. They burned beseeching fires all night long to keep the Year alive And, when the new day Sun blazed awake, They shouted, revelling. Though all across the ages you can hear them. Listen, echoing behind them, all the long echoes sing the same delight this winter night as Promise awakens in the sleeping land. They carol peace, give thanks and dearly love their friend and pray for peace. and so do we, now, here this Year and every year. Sung by the Revellers out of Boston. Season's Greetings, TR T.R.YOUNG@CMICH.EDU From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sun Dec 24 07:53:22 1995 Date: Sun, 24 Dec 1995 11:49:11 +0500 To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: jjanosko@vt.edu (Jeff Janosko) Subject: Holy Dramas >To: t.r.young@cmich.edu >From: jjanosko@vt.edu (Jeff Janosko) >Subject: Holy Dramas >Cc: >Bcc: >X-Attachments: > >>To: tryoung@cmich.edu >>From: jjanosko@vt.edu (Jeff Janosko) >>Subject: Holy Dramas >>Cc: >>Bcc: >>X-Attachments: >> >>Hi TR, >> >> I took your advice and subscribed to the socgrad at UCSD; have enjoyed your last two postings. Your discussion concerning the drama of the holy is quite interesting...unless I'm mistaken, I think it is appropriate to assess your observations in terms of discursive fields. I think of a discursive field as a "virtual structure"; a phenomenological experience involving values and customs, mediated by particular social institutions. I think a discourse analysis of holy dramas can illuminate the relationship of Christianity to global economic developments. >> For example: what is the nature of the discourse linking Christianity and the institution of religion in the US? In your analysis, the Christ of Christmas is a signifier of benevolence; as such, Christ evokes the class-based affluence taken for granted in the US. It is likely that the semiotic function of Christ will change as the shift to a service economy accelerates; Christmas can continue to be an orgy of materialism/celebration of benevolence only so long as the middle class can afford to sustain its demands. How will the New World Order influence Christian dramas of the holy? Will "benevolence" be redefined, or will Christ (and Christmas) assume new meanings, new semiotic functions? >> One possibility: the divergence between the dual images of Christ (Easter/Christmas) may vanish as economic changes inhibit the maintenance of middle-class boundaries; the Christ of the poor and disenfranchised will become increasingly relevant to the (diminishing) middle class. This development could have a profound effect on the shape of Christianity in the US; in such a scenario, it is plausible that Liberation Theology could assume a mainstream position in US Christianity. The face of God will be greatly changed when beheld through the lens of despair. >> Am I making sense, or have I had too many eggnogs? Jeff >> >> > From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sun Dec 24 07:59:15 1995 Date: Sun, 24 Dec 1995 11:56:05 +0500 To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: jjanosko@vt.edu (Jeff Janosko) Subject: Note about Holy Dramas Hello Socgrads, To my comments concerning T.R. Young's "Dramas of the Holy", I wish to add that T.R.'s article about holy dramas discusses political economy much more fully than does his posting, which is excerpted from the article. Have a Happy New One, Jeff From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sat Dec 30 05:59:11 1995 Date: Sat, 30 Dec 95 06:57:18 EST From: "T R. Young" <34LPF6T@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU> Organization: Central Michigan University Subject: Identity Wars and the Globalization of Capital To: GRADUATE STUDENTS IN SOCIOLOGY Mini-lecture #96-01 in a Series prepared for graduate students in the social sciences by the Red Feather Institute; supported with the kind help of the Socgrad Network and the good people at Central Michigan University. T.R. Young *********** A: Mind, Self and Society become Dis-connected: In 1981, I wrote a book entitled, New Sources of Self in which I made a case that the old sources of self were no longer adequate to the structure of interaction in the massified societies which had developed since the turn of the century. The case, in brief, is that there is not sufficient depth and breath of role involvement in 'short-take' societies upon which to hang social identities. One spends by far the greatest amount of time in massified schools; in massified factories, shops, sports activities, prisons, and other social structures most hostile to the self-system. Moral agency is lost from the structure of self as one becomes a functionary in a bureaucratized, hierarchal and impersonal office, shop, store or army. People lose the ancient anchorage of gender as a social structural support for self since work, school and market ignore gender in pursuit of profit and productivity. Religion, that most honorific grounding of self becomes irrelevant in social enterprizes oriented to instrumental rationality rather than human values. Ethnicity, too, becomes diluted and transformed into superficiality; it is reduced to food items in a restaurant or yearly reunions at large hotels. A great many people vested self and social being into occupational identities; these too, become too frail and flimsy a foundation for something as encompassing as 'self.' One no longer inherits crafts and trades from fathers. One no longer can count on being an employee at a given shop, office or factory for all of one's life. With the huge and continuing movement of capital/jobs/factories from industrial societies to the countries with low labor costs, few environmental laws, low taxes and 'friendly' governments, ever more people become dispossessed from occupation as a source of self. B. New Sources of Self Emerge: In that book, I listed the new ways in which people sought to identify and to present themselves in an ever more inadequate social life world. These new sources of self included Astrology, exotic religions, physical fitness and body parts, body and costuming styles, special names of plants, animals, stars, and activity. These new sources of self, said I, were highly personal [rather than socially anchored] and highly changeable. C. Identity Wars. I was quite wrong. I did not anticipate the new and often angry determination of people to reclaim race, gender, caste, class, and ethnicity as grounding for self. In the 1990's, as jobs disappear, communities grow larger and more dangerous, as wages drop and the tax base for social justice erodes while demands for welfare increase, people turn back to these ancient sources of self in desperation. Men form masculine support groups and reclaim an impossible 'warrior' archtype. Women try to reclaim and renew femininity in opposition to the de-feminization of society at work and in school. People who know little about their own genetics shout racism slogans and hurl racist epithets. A vast anger at the federal government grows under the expectation and failure of the government to 'do something' to restore the social base for a strong and socially estimable self system. In universities, especially, identity wars break out over course content, new programs aimed at honoring Afro-Americans, Women, Native Americans and others who, in an earlier century served as the point of invidious comparison to we 'white,' middle class, european males in high status protestant churches. We began to label every effort to re-order status hierarchies as 'political correctness' and into the term, packed a great deal of anger and vitriol. D. Order and Disorder in Global Systems. In 1993, Jonathan Friedman wrote an essay by that title [Social Research, 60, 2:205-234]. In that article he made the case that both nations and whole regions have been moving toward entropy for the past two decades. He said that the transfer of capital/jobs to the southern hemisphere and the far East has resulted in increased competition and instability in Europe and North America. One has to concede the point. He makes another point that, with this globalization of capital, the old assumptions of modernity about progress and social evolution has been replaced by a new politics of 'cultural identity,' a politics of the local. I agree with this point as well. Old, disprized peoples both East and West, claim new status honor and have both the economic power, the political power and with the new liberation theologies, the moral power to claim full standing as estimable ethnic enclaves at home and a people with social honor in far places. Among the Maori, Native American Indians, the basque in northern Spain as with Afro-Americans in the USA, there is an 'ethnification' with which to repair and restore the lost foundations of mind, self and social solidarity. One should note that, in the former socialist states, the despair and disorder has produced considerable damage to the social process; rather than repair it such that each ethnic/relgious enclave could live in peace, justice and with dignity, 'ethnic purification' stains both history and peoples with stains which will further despoil the social identity at hand. In the old USSR, there is an unseemly rush to various forms of crime as individuals, friends and whole families try to position themselves in the midst of those chaotic regimes now flashing through those countries. The same is, of course, true in the USA...however crime has been a way of life for quite some time in this most changeable society. E. The Re-unification of Macro- and Micro Analysis. A great many sociologists, political scientists and political economist thus reunite structural analysis of class and capital with the micro-politics of hatred, racism, homophobia, anti-feminist invective and dis-valuation of liberal democracy...heard in the various talk shows on radio... personified best perhaps by Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh taps a real crises in the inter-connections of mind, self, morality and society. He offers and supports old and hitherto adequate foundations for self; race, gender, class, and ethnicity. He uses a fine and effective sense of humor to attack liberal government in areas where it is most vulnerable while he ignores with a sweeping blindness the ugly and structurally inadequate solutions of racism, gay-bashing, gender pandering, and class inequality. That so many millions listen and laugh and nod in approval is something to consider by all social scientists. F. The Quest for Social Peace, Social Honor and Social Justice. When one looks at the Identity Wars and at the failings of modernity in the claims to which we were/are all socialized, it is easy to despair and to turn to quite privatized sources of self and security. There is, however, reason to belive that, out of this turmoil, uncertainty, anger and ethnic struggle, entirely new and more humane social forms will emerge in the 21st century. 1. The new sciencs of Chaos and Complexity teach us that entropy and anarchy are not the end-states to which disorder and uncertainty lead. Rather, qualitatively new forms of biological and social life emerge. Some of these are indeed ugly and most hostile to the human condition. But some will embody democratic social and communal values. 2. For every exclusive and degrading form of religion now abroad in the land, new forms and more encompassing and more tolerant forms of religion appear. Feminist theology, Black theology, liberation theology and postmodern theology offer quite a different approach to the scope and nature of sanctification/profanation. I expect these to be most influential in the 21st Century. 3. Bloc formation. We are seeing today, the emergence of political and economic blocs...they are based, it is true, on common language, religion, proximity, and/or ancient emnity toward colonial masters. However they do offer a larger social base than the micro-politics of racism, ethno-centrism and macho posturing. 4. The Internationalization of Social Science. The Internet has provided a structural base for a much more global social science. The kinds of racist, chauvinist, and sexist sociology my generation recieved from those trained in the 1920's, 30's and 40's will be replaced by your generation...which has the benefit of research and reasoning from Asia, Africa, South America and the South Pacific ...no longer can the claims of structural-functionalists about the advantages and necessities of various kinds of inequality, progress and elitism be sustained in the various conferences, journals, and graduate schools as once they were and now they are. 5. There is a whole congery of informed and reflective journalist scholars/essayists who bring to their readers a much more civil and sustainable vision of the future. They are voices in the wilderness to which we must and shall listen. 6. A whole generation of postmodern critics have forever ruined the simple and simplistic visions of society and social control put in place by modernists. The hopes of truth, sure and certain knowledge, of social control informed more by psychology than by the club and fist have been shattered by postmodernist. Some look at this demotion of order, certainty, predictability, falsificability and rationality and despair. Others, myself included, look at the end of the modern in more affirmative ways. If both god-given laws of society and the iron-like laws of nature no longer hold; no longer serve as base for society and social control, then room opens up for human agency and an authentic demand for moral/ethical judgment. No longer are we reduced to compliance with pre-given laws, rules, reasons and necessities. Now we are responsible. Now we must make judgments about how we shall live; if we live in dignity and with encompassing justice we can take pride; if we live in hatred and make unending war on others weaker and more vulnerable, we can no longer claim the protection of God or Nature. If evil walks abroad in the land, we can no longer blame the Devil, Satan or other such pre-modern agents...we are responsible. With the end of the modern and the advent of postmodern sensibility, we have tasted of the fruit of the tree of knowledge and we are no longer innocent if we chose to be racists, national/ethnic chauvinists or support the tyranny of gender privilege. We are responsible. T.R. Young, New Year's Eve T.R.YOUNG@CMICH.EDU