Suchergebnisse

Prologue : a snowy day in Racine -- Introduction : of seniors, for seniors -- Causes, commitment, and culture -- Coming of age -- Where the actions are -- Movement memories and eventful experience -- Staff power and senior authority -- Diversities -- The nexus of politics -- Our fair share.

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- CHAPTER ONE Being in Nature -- CHAPTER TWO Meaningful Mushrooms -- CHAPTER THREE Sharing the Woods -- CHAPTER FOUR Talking Wild -- CHAPTER FIVE Organizing Naturalists -- CHAPTER SIX Fungus and Its Publics -- CHAPTER SEVEN Naturework and the Taming of the Wild -- Notes -- Index

Introduction: A Mesoworld -- Coordination: The Dynamics of Collaboration and Commitment -- Relations: Friendship and the Politics of Sociability -- Association: Bonding, Banding, and Bridging -- Place: Performance and Solidarity -- Conflict: Scratching Consensus's Veneer -- Control: Patrolling Civil Society -- Extensions: Tiny Publics and Distant Worlds -- Conclusion: Circuits of Action -- Afterword: The COVID Hinge.

ch. 1. The chaining of social problems : solutions and unintended consequences in the age of betrayal -- ch. 2. The cultural frameworks of prejudice : reputational images and the postwar disjuncture of Jews and Communism -- ch. 3. Erasing the Brown Scare : referential afterlife and the power of memory templates -- ch. 4. The construction of historical equivalence : weighing the Red and Brown Scares -- ch. 5. Resurrecting the red : Pete Seeger and the purification of difficult reputations -- ch. 6. Notorious support : the America First Committee and the personalization of policy -- ch. 7. The isolationist blacklist? : Lillian Gish and the America First Committee -- ch. 8. Honest brokers : the politics of expertise in the 'who lost China?' debate -- ch. 9. Sticky reputations : Adolf Hitler and the stigma of memory work.

Title Page -- Copyright -- About the Series -- Other Works in the Series -- Dedication -- Contents -- About the Author -- Introduction: Tiny Publics as Social Order -- 1. The Power of Groups -- 2. The Dynamics of Idioculture -- 3. The Power of Constraints and Exteriority -- 4. Norms and Action -- 5. The Performance of Ideology -- 6. Wispy Communities -- 7. Tiny Publics in Civil Society -- 8. The Extension of the Local -- 9. Action and Its Publics -- Notes -- References -- Index

If all politics are local, then so is almost everything else, argues sociologist Gary Alan Fine. We organize our lives by relying on those closest to us--family members, friends, work colleagues, team mates, and other intimates--to create meaning and order. In this thoughtful and wide-ranging book, Fine argues that the basic building blocks of society itself are forged within the boundaries of such small groups, the "tiny publics" necessary for a robust, functioning social order at all levels. Action, meaning, authority, inequality, organization, and institutions all have their roots in small groups. Yet for the past twenty-five years social scientists have tended to ignore the power of groups in favor of an emphasis on organizations, societies, or individuals. Based on over thirty-five years of Fine's own ethnographic research across an array of small groups, Tiny Publics presents a compelling new theory of the pivotal role of small groups in organizing social life. No social system can thrive without flourishing small groups. They provide havens in an impersonal world, where faceless organizations become humanized. Taking examples from such diverse worlds as Little League baseball teams, restaurant workers, high school debate teams, weather forecasters, and political volunteers, Fine demonstrates how each group has its own unique culture, or idioculture--the system of knowledge, beliefs, behavior, and customs that define and hold a group together. With their dense network of relationships, groups serve as important sources of social and cultural capital for their members. The apparently innocuous jokes, rituals, and nicknames prevalent within Little League baseball teams help establish how teams function internally and how they compete with other teams. Small groups also provide a platform for their members to engage in broader social discourse and a supportive environment to begin effecting change in larger institutions. In his studies of mushroom collectors and high school debate teams, Fine demonstrates the importance of stories that group members tell each other about their successes and frustrations in fostering a strong sense of social cohesion. And Fine shows how the personal commitment political volunteers bring to their efforts is reinforced by the close-knit nature of their work, which in turn has the power to change larger groups and institutions. In this way, the actions and debates begun in small groups can eventually radiate outward to affect every level of society. Fine convincingly demonstrates how small groups provide fertile ground for the seeds of civic engagement. Outcomes often attributed to large-scale social forces originate within such small-scale domains. Employing rich insights from both sociology and social psychology, as well as vivid examples from a revealing array of real-work groups, Tiny Publics provides a compelling examination of the importance of small groups and of the rich vitality they bring to social life. -- Publisher description.

"Sticky Reputations focuses on reputational entrepreneurs and support groups shaping how we think of important figures, within a crucial period in American history - from the 1930s through the 1950s. Why are certain figures such as Adolf Hitler, Joe McCarthy, and Martin Luther King cemented into history unable to be challenged without reputational cost to the proposer of the alternative perspective? Why are the reputations of other political actors such as Harry Truman highly variable and changeable? Why in the 1930s was it widely believed that American Jews were linked to the Communist Party of America but by the 1950s this belief had largely vanished and was not longer a part of legitimate public discourse? This short, accessible book is ideal for use in undergraduate teaching in social movements, collective memory studies, political sociology, sociological social psychology, and other related courses"--