Digital Commons Network^™

On Dialogue Studies, Donal Carbaugh

Donal Carbaugh

The study of dialogue is a way to open several intellectual arenas for investigation while at the same time offering insights into multiple scenes of practical yet culturally diverse human practices. This article reviews several such arenas including studies of dialogue as a culturally distinctive form of communication, dialogue as an approach to understanding social practices, dialogic ethics, as well as dialogue as an integrative view of not only cultural practice but also natural environments. Throughout, dialogue studies are cast as a broad field with distinct disciplines within it, as holding deep value for understanding diversity in peoples’ practices, as …

Beyond The Plaza: Barcelona’S Okupa Squatters At Work In The Wake Of La Crisis, Justin Helepololei

Justin AK Helepololei

As ongoing, financial crisis has kept millions in precarity - and over 40% of Spain's youth unemployed - mass mobilizations of the country's indignados have continued to fill the country's streets and plazas. Nearly one year after the original 15M demonstrations, city-wide occupations have triggered a profusion of more localized and issue-based assemblies. Beyond the plazas, squatter-activists of Barcelona's decades-old “okupa movement” have helped to facilitate the continuation of these dialogues by offering space within dozens of pre-existing squats and even opening new sites to host such interactions. Leveraging decades of experience and skill in re-appropriating spaces, squatters create room …

Why We Need Theories V.2, M.J. Peterson

M.J. Peterson

This is a presentation for incoming college students explaining why they already have theories, introducing the distinction between theories and models, and indicating the characteristics of good theories.

The Discourse Of Judging, John Brigham

John Brigham

No abstract provided.

Regional Integration As Revised Authority Relationships, M.J. Peterson

M.J. Peterson

This paper suggests that regional integration can be understood as a process of altering existing authority relationships so that existing national authority relationships are modified and overlain by a wider regional authority relationship.

The Changing Politics Of Diversity: Lessons From A Federal Technical Assistance Grant, Erica Frankenberg, Kathryn A. Mcdermott, Elizabeth Debray, Ann Blankenship

Kathryn A. McDermott

This paper begins with background information on the federal grant program, and on the scholarship that has informed our research. We then provide brief sketches of the eleven grantee districts and how they have used their federal funds. Our analysis focuses on how the school districts defined diversity, and how local politics were shaped by national factors like the economic recession. These policies fundamentally affect the distribution of educational and social opportunity within communities, and, in fact, may be even more subject to local variation and political dynamics than were earlier federal diversity efforts. We conclude that existing ambiguity about …

Lessons From A Federal Grant For School Diversity: Tracing A Theory Of Change And Implementation Of Local Policies, Elizabeth Debray, Kathryn A. Mcdermott, Erica Frankenberg, Ann Blankenship

Kathryn A. McDermott

In 2009, the U.S. Department of Education made grants to eleven school districts under the Technical Assistance for Student Assignment Plans (TASAP) program. The impetus for the program came mainly from the Council of Great City Schools, which was concerned that school districts would respond to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Parents Involved in Community Schools decision by dismantling policies intended to maintain diverse school enrollments. In this paper, we use data from interviews with federal and local participants to identify the theory of change behind TASAP and to determine the local effects of TASAP. The federal government’s intentions for the …

Rape Culture, Due Process And Sexuality, John Brigham

John Brigham

No abstract provided.

Nanotechnology And Society: Emerging Organizations, Oversight And Public Policy Systems, Sarah Keister, Goncalves Michelle, Jane E. Fountain

Jane E. Fountain

This report summarizes key points of a National Science Foundation supported national workshop, “Nanotechnology & Society: Emerging Organizations, Oversight, and Public Policy Systems,” that was held on September 23-24, 2010 at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMA). The central lessons drawn from three panels form the body of the report. The first panel focused on constructing policy frameworks for policymaking with presentations by Terry Medley, Global Director of Corporate Regulatory Affairs, DuPont; Timothy Malloy, Professor of Law, University of California Los Angeles; and Jordan Paradise, Associate Professor of Law, Seton Hall University. The second panel, International and Federal Policy Emergence, …

Ethics In Science And Engineering: Redefining Tools And Resources, Goncalves Michelle, Jane E. Fountain, Adamick Jessica, Billings Marilyn

Jane E. Fountain

The leaders of the ESENCe beta site project organized

a national workshop, “Ethics in Science and Engineering:

Redefining Tools and Resources,” that was held on

October 22-23, 2009 at UMass Amherst. The workshop

objectives, broadly speaking, were twofold: first, to

explore the potential for leveraging the university’s role

as a locus of education and mentoring for ethics and

RCR in science and engineering and, second, to explore

the potential and limitations of digital tools, including

social media, for supporting such growth. The workshop

initiated a dialogue between university faculty involved in

ethics research and education and library and information

scientists. …

W. Bush’S Judicial Legacy: Mission Accomplished, Sheldon Goldman, Sara Schiavoni, Elliot Slotnick

Sheldon Goldman

No abstract provided.

Obama And The Federal Judiciary: Great Expectations But Will He Have A Dickens Of A Time Living Up To Them?, Sheldon Goldman

Sheldon Goldman

This essay speculates on what an Obama judiciary might look like and how the selection process is likely to play out. This is presented against the backdrop of past experience. First, the essay traces the demographic diversification of the federal bench from the presidencies of Franklin Roosevelt through George W. Bush. Second, this essay considers ideological diversity and presents voting data from the first three completed terms of the Roberts Court. Third, the essay considers the selection process, including confirmation of lower-court judges by the Senate. It concludes that President Obama can be expected to promote further gender, race, and …

Sex In Context: The Constitution Of Images, John Brigham

John Brigham

This paper examines the changing context for sexual images and the details that give law meaning. The details are evident in Congressional efforts to regulate sex on the Internet and the Supreme Court’s response as well as various contexts for encountering forbidden images from stag films and peep shows to the local public library and sex sites on the web. The paper is part of a larger project on seeing law and the idea of “Blind Justice.” It was originally developed for an issue of Law, Text, Culture that was called “Trouble With Pictures” where the focus was on pictures …

Selecting Lower Court Federal Judges On The Basis Of Their Policy Views, Sheldon Goldman

Sheldon Goldman

No abstract provided.

International Environmental Justice: Building The Natural Assets Of The World’S Poor, Krista Harper, S. Ravi Rajan

Krista M. Harper

In recent years, vibrant social movements have emerged across the world to fight for environmental justice –- for more equitable access to natural resources and environmental quality, including clean air and water. In seeking to build community rights to natural assets, these initiatives seek to advance simultaneously the goals of environmental protection and poverty reduction. This paper sketches the contours of struggles for environmental justice within and among countries, and illustrates with examples primarily drawn from countries of the global South and the former Soviet bloc. This working paper is also accessible at the folllowing URL: http://www.peri.umass.edu/236/hash/28d064d65f/publication/107/ A newer, revised …

Great Expectations? The Changing Role Of “Europe” In Romani Activism In Hungary, Krista Harper, Peter Vermeersch

Krista M. Harper

Contemporary political action for ethnic and national minorities in Europe appears to be increasingly directed towards supra- and transnational structures. This development seems indicative of the growth of a European space for minority activism – a public space that is less state-centered, that allows claims to be framed in terms of European standards and therefore facilitates the emergence of an active European citizenship. In theory, this “Europeanization” of minority politics may offer minority activists additional avenues for raising demands about cultural recognition and economic equalization. This article seeks to identify the possible implications of the Europeanization of minority politics by …

The Politics Of Appointing Catholics To The Federal Courts, Sheldon Goldman

Sheldon Goldman

No abstract provided.

'Wild Capitalism’ And ‘Ecocolonialism’: A Tale Of Two Rivers, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

The development and pollution of two rivers, the Danube and Tisza, have been the site and subject of environmental protests and projects in Hungary since the late 1980s. Protests against the damming of the Danube rallied opposition to the state socialist government, drawing on discourses of national sovereignty and international environmentalism. The Tisza suffered a major environmental disaster in 2000, when a globally financed gold mine in Romania spilled thousands of tons of cyanide and other heavy metals into the river, sending a plume of pollution downriver into neighboring countries. In this article, I examine the symbolic ecologies that emerged …

Design Excellence, John Brigham

John Brigham

No abstract provided.

Landscapes Of Fear In Springfield, John Brigham

John Brigham

This is an English version of a paper I published in Spanish as part of an Onati symposium on "fear of crime in medium sized cities".

Celebrity As Authority In Law, John Brigham, Jill Meyers

John Brigham

No abstract provided.

The Genius Of The Nation Versus The Gene-Tech Of The Nation: Science, Identity, And Gmo Debates In Hungary, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

Introduction In the late 1990s, Hungarian politicians, environmentalists, and agricultural lobbyists weighed the pros and cons of allowing genetically modified (GM) food and seeds to enter the Hungarian market. Starting around 1994, a small group of Hungarian environmentalists began researching GM issues. Initially, they feared that as a post-socialist country seeking foreign investment, Hungary would become prey to multinational corporations seeking an ‘emerging market’ with a lax regulatory environment. The terms of the debate were reframed over time, notably following 1998, when a number of European Union member states banned the imports of GM foods and when Hungarian expatriate geneticist …

The Supreme Court & The Closet, John Brigham

John Brigham

This chapter is about the Supreme Court learning what it means to be gay. This happened between the Court’s rulings on the Georgia sodomy law in Bowers v. Hardwick and the Texas law in Lawrence. Oral argument is placed at the center of this process, particularly the work of Paul M. Smith who argued against the constitutionality of the Texas law. Attorney Smith, described as openly gay, was a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell in 1980-81. Powell’s reassessment of his vote to uphold the Georgia law in Bowers laid the foundation for the way Lawrence was handled. …

Mapping Political Violence In A Globalized World: The Case Of Hindu Nationalism, Sangeeta Kamat, Biju Mathew

Sangeeta G. Kamat

No abstract provided.

Improv At The Supreme Court, John Brigham

John Brigham

No abstract provided.

Chernobyl Stories And Anthropological Shock In Hungary, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

The Budapest Chernobyl Day commemoration generated a creative outpouring of stories about parental responsibilities, scientific knowledge, environmental risks, and public participation. I examine the stories and performances elicited by the tenth anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in April 1996. In these “Chernobyl stories,” activists criticized scientific and state paternalism while engaging in alternative practices of citizenship. The decade between the catastrophic explosion and its commemoration coincides with the development of the Hungarian environmental movement and the transformation from state socialism. Chernobyl Day 1996 consequently became an opportunity for activists to reflect upon how the meaning of citizenship and public …

The Constitution Of Interests: Institutionalism, Critical Legal Studies And New Approaches To Sociolegal Scholarship, John Brigham

John Brigham

No abstract provided.

Law In Politics: On The Lower East Side, John Brigham, Diana Gordon

John Brigham

No abstract provided.

Coming Home, John Brigham, Christine Harrington

John Brigham

No abstract provided.

Black Intellectuals And The American Social Scene, William Strickland

William L. Strickland

This lead essay is an examination of Black Intellectuals in the post-Civil Rights Movement era and asks what has happened to the black perspective in this new political period.