Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Comparing Risks Thoughtfully, Adam M. Finkel

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

Dr. Finkel argues that comparing risks is neither impossible nor immoral - but is nonetheless very difficult. He then discusses two major pitfalls of making such comparisons, one commonly cited and one routinely ignored, before sketching a framework for improving them.

Ideology, Social Commentary And Resistance In Popular Music: A Case Study Of Singapore, Phua Siew Chye, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Popular music as a site of struggles over meaning is focused upon, where the social and political relations between different groups in Singapore society are mirrored. How ruling elites and everyday people make use of the same cultural form--popular music--for different purposes is examined.

Identifying Differences Is A Problem, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Her mother is black and Native American; her father is Mexican and Italian; so with what racial and ethnic group does she identify? On her college entrance application she wrote "African-American." This topnotch student, with demonstrated ability in scholarship, athletics, music, leadership and community involvement, is exactly the type of student Harvard wants, sos he has been invited to be in its entering class this fall. No small feat since nine of 10 applicants are rejected.

Ethnicity and race are two of the 10 criteria used at Harvard in making selections for admission, for diversity is the key word today, …

A Catalyst For Culture: Early Child Development And Education In Japan, Kate Swenson

Senior Scholar Papers

A popular Western perception of Japan is that it is an eminently homogeneous and conformist society. However, both conformity and homogeneity, recognized even by the Japanese themselves, coexist with the concept of individuality, which is valued in a manner unique to its culture. In order to come to a deeper understanding of that dynamic, it is important to comprehend the specifics of child rearing and education within Japanese society. Based in part on the author's observational fieldwork conducted while in Japan in 1994, the thesis explicates the manner in which various core relationships exhibit the socialization of an individual that …

Religion And Healing The Mind/Body/Self, Meredith B. Mcguire

Sociology & Anthropology Faculty Research

In order to understand the linkage between religion and healing, we must go well beyond the theme of body regulation. Although religion does involve body regulation and control, and although these functions are reflected in healing practices, there are many other ways by which religion is linked with human bodies. We will arrive at a far richer appreciation of this linkage if we start with a broad sociology of the human body, its illnesses and healing, and ask the expanded question: How is religion involved in these complex processes?

[Review Of] Eugene Eoyang, Coat Of Many Colors: Reflections On Diversity By A Minority Of One, Russell Endo

Ethnic Studies Review

Eoyang's volume is a collection of personal essays that call for a more diverse conception of American culture and society. While the latter, of course, is a familiar if not universally-accepted theme, this actually is an unconventional and highly effective book because of the range of issues it covers and the author's basic writing strategy.

[Review Of] Fred L. Gardaphe, Italian Signs, American Streets: The Evolution Of Italian American Narrative, Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum

Ethnic Studies Review

This indispensable interpretation of Italian American narrative literature can fruitfully be used in many ethnic and cultural programs. It is a study distinguished by familiarity with vernacular Italian American culture, as well as consciousness of the losses as well as gains in education in the dominant WASP culture. Trying to reconcile the difference between what Antonio Gramsci called the organic intellectual and the assimilated intellectual, Gardaphe has adopted "a culture-specific criticism that is sensitive to both Italian and American cultures."

[Review Of] Verad Amit-Talai And Caroline Knowles, Eds. Re-Situating Identities: The Politics Of Race, Ethnicity, And Culture, David Covin

Ethnic Studies Review

While the lead title of this book, Re-Situating Identities, is entirely on target, the subtitle, The Politics of Race, Ethnicity, and Culture, is far off the mark. The book is primarily about identity. It has precious little to do with politics. This might be apparent from the contributors, whom the editors identify as sociologists, anthropologists, and cultural theorists. There is not a political scientist among them. The omission, however, is not necessarily indicative of an absence of politics, because sociologists, anthropologists, and cultural theorists often write good politics. That is not the case in this instance. Though the editors make …

[Review Of] Arjun Appadurai, Modernity At Large, Cultural Dimensions Of Globalization, Hope J. Schau

Ethnic Studies Review

Modernity at Large is a collection of essays (most of which are reprinted from other sources, e.g., Public Culture) that link the themes of modernity and globalization to contemporary everyday social practice, and to group individual identity construction and expression. Appadurai takes up the conditions of modernity which for him include science as a dominant ideology, obsession with technological development, colonial social relations, and the primacy of national communities. Weaving these conditions with issues of globalization, which he defines as instantaneous worldwide telecommunications (phone, fax, and internet), increased international or transnational migration, the expanding scope and impact of mass media, …

Household Patterns Of The Elderly And The Proximity Of Children In A Nineteenth-Century City, Verviers, Belgium, 1831–1846, George Alter, Lisa Cliggett, Alex Urbiel

Lisa Cliggett

No abstract provided.

Memories From A Danish American Parsonage, Bodil S. Sorensen

The Bridge

Those of us who grew up in the Danish-American

colonies of the 30' s and 40' s experienced a life that has

now disappeared. It was a rich and unique life. It was a

time of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation immigrants adjusting

to the American culture and at the same time cherishing

their particular brand of Danish heritage.

Making "Music At The Margins"? A Social And Cultural Analysis Of Xinyao In Singapore, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Formalist critics and aestheticians have argued that music does not possess any kind of "extra-musical" significance, that there is no meaning beyond the form and structural relations of the notes. For them, music exemplifies the laws of mathematical harmony and proportion rather than the social and political contexts within which it is produced, reproduced and consumed. This view has been challenged by a number of social theorists: Max Weber, Theodor Adorno and Edward Said have all argued for an understanding of music within its social, cultural, economic and political contexts. Such analysis of popular music is now unquestioned. Indeed, it …

Popular Music And A Sense Of Place In Singapore, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper illustrates how popular music written, produced, and performed by Singaporeans provides a means through which the culture and society of Singapore may be understood. Music with English language text conveys a sense of place and reflects a distinctively Singaporean spirit and identity. The paper examines four themes: the portrayal of Singapore's multiracial population which reflects a unique cultural synthesis; the Singaporeans' concept of urbanity, manifested as the simultaneous attraction and repulsion towards the city and the desire for nature and the rustic; the distinctive social engineering in Singapore; and the way in which global issues are imported into …

International Review Of Women And Leadership: Special Issue, Volume 2 Number 1: Women And Politics, Marian Sawer

Research outputs pre 2011

This year is the 75th anniversary of the election of Edith Cowan to the Western Australian parliament, the first woman to be elected to an Australian parliament. It is highly appropriate that the International Review of Women and Leadership should commemorate this anniversary with a special issue dedicated to women and politics. This has enabled us to use Edith Cowan's experience of parliamentary politics as a prism through which to examine continuing dilemmas of women's representation in public life - including concepts of women's interests, equality and difference, separatism versus integration and independence versus partisanship...

"Nyatiti Is My People": Music And The Reconstruction Of Culture Among The Luo Of Western Kenya, Ian Eagleson

Honors Papers

In this thesis I contend that experiencing music is a fundamental activity in the realization of cultural identity. Music reinforces cultural identity by enacting significant forms and practices that embody meaning, meaning particular to the identity of a culture. When people hear music that is significant in their culture it excites certain feelings in them which reinforce and regenerate their identity with that culture. Participation in music is a condition that evokes a vivid impression in the participant like no other activity in social life. Functionally, this impression may reinforce themes impressed on actors in other ways; however, the way …