Suchergebnisse

Considers the ways social scientists participate in the policy process; on what aspects they concentrate and what areas they avoid. Examines the uses made of ideas and information generated by social scientific research. Discusses the structural and cultural conditions that facilitate or impede political influence of social scientists. (AFH)

The Social Science Information Service (SSIS), sponsored by the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, provides current social science information on provisions of emerging legislation to members of Congress. Its mode of operation is described. It is not a lobby, even though the bills of potential interest are brought to the director's attention by the Congressional liaison. A brief history of the SSIS is presented; comments & research findings brought to Congressional committees have involved problems of aging, nutrition, national health insurance, work satisfaction, juvenile delinquency, family & child services, coercive therapy, & runaway youth. The most recent activity has been the location of information on noneconomic effects of unemployment. The latest annual report includes material on the rights of children, aging, newsletter appeals, juvenile delinquency & runaway youth. Proposed activities include presentations on crime, energy, welfare reform, health care, & aging. SSIS hopes to develop relations with Congressional staff members to provide consultants to bring social science information to bear on the drafting of legislation & the proposal of new legislation. SSIS also plans to make further contacts with social science professional organizations to promote cooperation in locating relevant research. Modified Author Summary.

This article defends laws in the social sciences. Arguments against social laws are considered and rejected based on the "open" nature of social theory, the multiple realizability of social predicates, the macro and/or teleological nature of social laws, and the inadequacies of belief-desire psychology. The more serious problem that social laws are usually qualified ceteris paribus is then considered. How the natural sciences handle ceteris paribus laws is discussed and it is argued that such procedures are possible in the social sciences. The article ends by arguing that at least some social research is roughly as well as confirmed as good work in evolutionary biology and ecology.

An article emphasizing 'the responsibility of soc sci'ts to adjust to the changing conditions of the changing world.' Because of the launching of Sputnik, great nat'l interest in the physical sci's developed, & extensive programs, with an emphasis on educ, were formulated to further the sel's. Although some of these programs were intended to include the soc sci's as well, their major concern has been the natural sci's. 3 major areas of responsibility of soc sci'ts today are discussed: (1) 'The responsibility to preserve & re-emphasize the soc sci's in the face of the pressure created by the near-hysterical urge to improve the fields of physical sci & engineering.' (2) To train well-qualified soc sci teachers. It is suggested that a BA be recognized as a teaching degree. (3) 'To maintain our integrity & to pursue our res & teaching in the face of the opposition & criticism which are always present in the soc sci's.' D. Pollack.

Rachel Buff's innovative study of festivals in two American communities launches a substantive inquiry into the nature of citizenship, race, and social power. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork as well as archival research, Buff compares American Indian powwows in Minneapolis with the West Indian American Day Carnival in New York. She demonstrates the historical, theoretical, and cultural links between two groups who are rarely thought of together and in so doing illuminates our understanding of the meaning of home and citizenship in the post-World War II period. The book also follows the history of federal Indian and immigration policy in this period, tracing the ways that migrant and immigrant identities are created by both national boundaries and transnational cultural memory.In addition to offering fascinating discussions of these lively and colorful festivals, Buff shows that their importance is not just as a form of performance or entertainment, but also as crucial sites for making and remaking meanings about group history and survival. Cultural performances for both groups contain a history of resistance to colonial oppression, but they also change and creatively respond to the experiences of migration and the forces of the global mass-culture industry.Accessible and engaging, Immigration and the Political Economy of Home addresses crucial contemporary issues. Powwow culture and carnival culture emerge as vital, dynamic sites that are central not only to the formation of American Indian and West Indian identities, but also to the understanding modern America itself: the history of its institution of citizenship, its postwar cities, and the nature of metropolitan culture