Inequality and Stratification Commons^™

The Cell Phone As An Agent Of Social Change, Abu Sadat Nurullah

Abu Sadat Nurullah

The widespread adoption of the cell phone as a tool of communication and entertainment has revolutionized society, redefining patterns of social contact and relationships among individuals. Overall, the cell phone has transformed daily life of individuals to such an extent that it can be thought of as an agent of social change.

Diabolical Frivolity Of Neoliberal Fundamentalism, Sefik Tatlic

Sefik Tatlic

Today, we cannot talk just about plain control, but we must talk about the nature of the interaction of the one who is being controlled and the one who controls, an interaction where the one that is “controlled” is asking for more control over himself/herself while expecting to be compensated by a surplus of freedom to satisfy trivial needs and wishes. Such a liberty for the fulfillment of trivial needs is being declared as freedom. But this implies as well the freedom to choose not to be engaged in any kind of socially sensible or politically articulated struggle.

Summary: Israeli- Palestinian Ethnic Conflict, Allen Gnanam

Allen Gnanam

The Israeli- Palestinian ethnic conflict will continue to escalate throughout both the short term and long term world future. The current and future animosity between both ethnic groups can be attributed to (a) history based accounts and religious tensions, (b) polarizing ideologies held by both sides, and (c) middle eastern resentment toward the Jewish state of Israel. History based accounts will refer to both biased historical accounts and factual historical events that have contributed to the Israeli- Palestinian ethnic conflict. Concepts such as ethnicity, nationalism, ideology, Palestinians, Israeli’s, Arabs, and religion will be conceptualized in the research paper.

Israeli- Palestinian Ethnic Conflict, Allen Gnanam

Allen Gnanam

This research paper discusses the historical, religious, and ideological factors linked to the Israeli- Palestinian ethnic conflict, and how these factors have contributed to middle eastern resentment toward the Jewish State of Israeli. The Modernist Theory, Perceptual Framework, and he Domestic Framework have been applied to the analysis of the Israeli- Palestinian ethnic conflict, in order to demonstrate the intensity of the above factors and their provocative role in the conflict. Other provocative issues that are discussed in this paper include territorial wars, ethnic nationalism, the competition for natural resources, the biased dissemination of historical text through educational institutions, and …

Exploring Cyberfriendship Formation Among Malaysian Youth, Abu Sadat Nurullah

Abu Sadat Nurullah

Cyberspace has become a common place for youth to involve in online networking and to make new friends. This paper focuses on: a) the dynamics of cyberfriendship formation; b) the role of self-disclosure, alienation, and frequency of online interaction on formation of cyberfriendship; and c) the extent of satisfaction achieved from that relationship. A stratified random sample of 250 youth (Mean age = 21.16, SD = 1.36) studying in different undergraduate faculties from a large Malaysian university responded to self-tailored questionnaires. The results revealed that 85.6% youth have formed online friendship using multiple communication channels. Major findings of this research …

The Descendants Of Enslaved Africans, Gloria Gordon Phd

Gloria Gordon PhD

This paper discusses the implications for British culture of superimposing on enslaved Africans and Europeans black and white cultures as a means of establishing power differentials between members of the two groups from the 16th century onwards. The personal and collaborative experiential action research and inquiry research methods used to surface the data are shared. The black-white duality is defined and discussed in terms of how it works to hold blacks and whites in a dysfunctional symbiotic oppositional relationship to one another. The social distance strategies embedded in British culture to maintain and perpetuate these power differentials are crystallised as …

The Evolution Of Education Has Not Been Televised: Educational Inequalities And The Impact Of Change, Andree Robinson-Neal

Andree Robinson-Neal

The historical evolution of education and impact of its inequalities have not been televised. The world is more often exposed to “overcomology” —society’s assertion that oppressed peoples or so-called minorities have overcome past injustices and are now able to access the same educational opportunities as so-called majority groups. This paper provides a Gil Scott-Heron-esque review of the effects of inequalities on this key social institution.

Weighty Speech: Addressing Body Size In The Classroom, Yofi Tirosh

Yofi Tirosh

The politics of body size has been the topic of intriguing feminist work. Although in my view this issue is still undertheorized, I have long sought for a way to bring what does exist in the literature into my academic activities. The opportunity arose when, as a graduate student at the University of Michigan in 2001, I taught an undergraduate mini-course in the women's studies program, which I named Weight as a Cultural Question.

This essay discusses two pedagogical challenges I faced while teaching a class. Both questions deal with the extent to which it is productive to talk about …

Rights Of Inequality: Rawlsian Justice, Equal Opportunity, And The Status Of The Family, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

Is the family subject to principles of justice? In A Theory of Justice, John Rawls includes the (monogamous) family along with the market and the government as among the "basic institutions of society" to which principles of justice apply. Justice, he famously insists, is primary in politics as truth is in science: the only excuse for tolerating injustice is that no lesser injustice is possible. The point of the present paper is that Rawls doesn't actually mean this. When it comes to the family, and in particular its impact on fair equal opportunity (the first part of the the Difference …

Free Speech, Toxic Tort, And The Battle Of Sugar Creek, Robert R.M. Verchick

Robert R.M. Verchick

No abstract provided.

Democracy And Multiculturalism, Raphael Cohen-Almagor, Will Kymlicka

raphael cohen-almagor

One of the most pressing issues facing liberal democracies today is the politicization of ethnocultural diversity. Minority cultures are demanding greater public recognition of their distinctive identities, and greater freedom and opportunity to retain and develop their distinctive cultural practices. In response to these demands, new and creative mechanisms are being adopted in many countries for accommodating difference. This paper discusses some of the issues raised by these demands, focusing in particular on the difficulties, which arise in North America and Israel when the minority seeking accommodation is illiberal. Historically, liberal democracies have hoped that the protection of basic individual …

Class, Gender, And Parental Values In The 1990s, Hong Xiao

Hong Xiao

Previous research documents a persistent relationship between social class and parental values. Middle-class parents are more likely to emphasize autonomy, and working-class parents are more likely to stress conformity in children. More recent literature, however, suggests a gender difference in the effects of class on values. Feminist scholarship also claims a gender gap in fundamental value orientations. Drawing data from the U.S. sample in the World Values Survey, this research examines the intersections of class and gender as they influence parental values in the 1990s. The findings suggest that while social class continues to be a source of the valuation …

The Limits Of Cultural Pluralism: An Israeli Perspective, Raphael Cohen-Almagor

raphael cohen-almagor

The primary aims of this paper are (a) to examine the importance of cultural norms and what part they play in requiring us to tolerate others out of respect, and (b) to formulate some guidelines designed to prescribe boundaries to liberty and tolerance conducive to safeguard the rights of individuals and, in turn, democracy. I argue that a liberal democracy can interfere in the business of its sub-cultures when some cultural norms subvert the basic principles upon which a liberal society is founded. Here I address, inter alia, the issues of female circumcision, murder for family honour, and blood feuds. …

Being True To What We Profess: Management Education And Inquiry - A Black British Perspective, Gloria Gordon Phd

Gloria Gordon PhD

The term ‘towards bicultural competence’ in the title of my doctoral thesis: Towards Bicultural Competence: Researching for Personal and Professional Transformations refers to my desire to become competent in negotiating the two cultures (British and African Caribbean) of my dual heritage. The lack of competence which is implied in the title has been a major problem in my personal and professional life and was therefore an important insight thrown up by my research efforts.

Relativism, Reflective Equilibrium, And Justice, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

THIS PAPER IS THE CO-WINNER OF THE FRED BERGER PRIZE IN PHILOSOPHY OF LAW FOR THE 1999 AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE BEST PUBLISHED PAPER IN THE PREVIOUS TWO YEARS.

The conflict between liberal legal theory and critical legal studies (CLS) is often framed as a matter of whether there is a theory of justice that the law should embody which all rational people could or must accept. In a divided society, the CLS critique of this view is overwhelming: there is no such justice that can command universal assent. But the liberal critique of CLS, that it degenerates into …

What's Wrong With Exploitation?, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

Abstract: Marx thinks that capitalism is exploitative, and that is a major basis for his objections to it. But what's wrong with exploitation, as Marx sees it? (The paper is exegetical in character: my object is to understand what Marx believed,) The received view, held by Norman Geras, G.A. Cohen, and others, is that Marx thought that capitalism was unjust, because in the crudest sense, capitalists robbed labor of property that was rightfully the workers' because the workers and not the capitalists produced it. This view depends on a Labor Theory of Property (LTP), that property rights are based ultimately …

In Defence Of Exploitation, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

The concept of exploitation is thought to be central to Marx's Critique of capitalism. John Roemer, an analytical (then-) Marxist economist now at Yale, attacked this idea in a series of papers and books in the 1970s-1990s, arguing that Marxists should be concerned with inequality rather than exploitation -- with distribution rather than production, precisely the opposite of what Marx urged in The Critique of the Gotha Progam.

This paper expounds and criticizes Roemer's objections and his alternative inequality based theory of exploitation, while accepting some of his criticisms. It may be viewed as a companion paper to my What's …

Black Women Managers And Participatory Action Research, Gloria Gordon Phd

Gloria Gordon PhD

This paper informs on the work of an action research group set up to investigate the status and experiences of black women managers within an organisational context in the UK. It relates how the group rapidly becomes a ‘participatory’ action research group when it is recognised that the black women managers share the common perception that theirs’ is an experience of oppression and potential powerlessness in their organisational setting. Empowerment results as common experiences shared are identified also the immediate and longer term steps being taken towards their ‘emancipation’.

The Paradox Of Ideology, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

A standard problem with the objectivity of social scientific theory in particular is that it is either self-referential, in which case it seems to undermine itself as ideology, or self-excepting, which seem pragmatically self-refuting. Using the example of Marx and his theory of ideology, I show how self-referential theories that include themselves in their scope of explanation can be objective. Ideology may be roughly defined as belief distorted by class interest. I show how Marx thought that natural science was informed by class interest but not therefore necessarily ideology. Capitalists have an interest in understanding the natural world (to a …

Functional Explanation And Metaphysical Individualism, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

A number of (present or former) analytical Marxists, such as Jon Elster, have argued that functional explanation has almost no place in the social sciences. (Although the discussion is framed in terms of a debate among analytical Marxists, the point is quite general, and Marxism is used for illustrative purposes.) Functional explanation accounts for what is to be explained by reference to its function; thus, sighted organism have eyes because eyes enable them to see. Elster and other critics of functional explanation argue that this pattern of explanation is inconsistent with "methodological individualism," the idea, as they understand it, that …

From Libertarianism To Egalitarianism, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

A standard natural rights argument for libertarianism is based on the labor theory of property: the idea that I own my self and my labor, and so if I "mix" my own labor with something previously unowned or to which I have a have a right, I come to own the thing with which I have mixed by labor. This initially intuitively attractive idea is at the basis of the theories of property and the role of government of John Locke and Robert Nozick. Locke saw and Nozick agreed that fairness to others requires a proviso: that I leave "enough …

Theism For The Masses, Non-Dualism For The Monastic Elite: A Fresh Look At Sankara's Trans-Theistic Spirituality, Lance E. Nelson

Lance E. Nelson

No abstract provided.

The Logic Of Protest Action, Herman L. Boschken

Herman L. Boschken

In recent years, there has been a noticeable growth in political protest involving groups of widely diverging interests. The rising incidence of protest seems paradoxical to the apparent growth of affluence in society. This paper attempts to resolve this paradox by contending that most forms of protest are a function of the degree of separation between (a) the values and goals of those controlling collective decision processes and (b) the diversity of interests and aspirations in segmented society at large. Through protest action, disenfranchised groups are able to impose "external" costs on "establishment" regimes that lead to alteration of the …