Search results

Published in 1955, Personal Influence is a study of how middle America made political and consumer decisions in small primary groups and how ordinary people were both influenced and influencing. The Vietnam War challenged the paradigm as a new generation of scholars turned to larger units—state and society—and the power the media might have in reinforcing class structure. Part II of this article examines the application of the paradigm in voting studies from Walter Lippmann as the prototypical cosmopolitan to the locals of Decatur. The conclusion raises questions about the future based on globalization and the decline of the nation-state. Drawing on Dayan and Katz's work in studying televised events, this article shares their perspective based on aesthetics, which would give more attention to culture.

Published in 1955, Personal Influence is a study of how middle America made political & consumer decisions in small primary groups & how ordinary people were both influenced & influencing. The Vietnam War challenged the paradigm as a new generation of scholars turned to larger units-state & society-& the power the media might have in reinforcing class structure. Part II of this article examines the application of the paradigm in voting studies from Walter Lippmann as the prototypical cosmopolitan to the locals of Decatur. The conclusion raises questions about the future based on globalization & the decline of the nation-state. Drawing on Dayan & Katz's work in studying televised events, this article shares their perspective based on aesthetics, which would give more attention to culture. References. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright 2006 The American Academy of Political and Social Science.]

AbstractThe relationship between scientific knowledge and legal discourse is raised once again by a recent decision of the Supreme Court of Canada, a case involving a young Aboriginal woman who was pregnant and ordered by the court to remain in a drug treatment program at a health center until the baby was born. Her glue-sniffing habit was deemed dangerous to the normal development of the fetus. The Court held that her solvent-dependency did not justify the original court action, but both the Court and the various interveners disregarded the current state of our knowledge on the fetal syndromes. There is thus a continuing disconnect between the scientific understanding of fetal risk and the development of Constitutional law around women's reproductive rights. This paper reviews the case and follows it through the appellate process; we examine the research literature on fetal syndromes tracking the changes over time. Finally we comment on the interventions by the Winnipeg Child and Family Services, the Women's Health Rights Coalition, by The Canadian Civil Liberties Association, and both The Canadian Abortion Rights Action League and the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund.

This article critically examines the 1992 decision by the Supreme Court of Canada on pornography (Butler v. the Queen). The decision, like the LEAF (Legal Education Action Fund), argues that the dehumanizing and degrading images of women in pornography undermine the achievement of gender equality and reinforce existing inequality. Section 15 of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms takes precedence over Section 2(b) freedom of expression. More immediately, Section 163(8) of the Criminal Code of Canada remains the primary instrument for dealing with pornography. These arguments fail to distinguish between degradation and devaluation; they offer no evidence of a connection between pornography and its effects on gender stratification, nor do they feel obliged to offer such evidence despite the extensive literature on inequality by the social science community. Citing the Sears-Roebuck case on gender discrimination, the author demonstrates that the enemy of gender equality is the stereotype of the idealized traditional woman, not the one-dimensional lust-driven nymphomaniac of pornography. Her opposite is not the "stud" of pornography who is in a constant state of tumescence but "economic man" who sublimates his sexual passion in sports, cars, politics, and money. Censorship, it is suggested, infantilizes women and contributes to their dependency. The article comments on the doctrine of "balancing" rights and on the meaning of "equality" within a feminist context. The larger questions of a trend toward the legalization of cultural issues and the role of the judiciary (weak in European democracies but strong in the American tradition) are raised.

The current agitation in Canada for stronger censorship laws reflects, in part, a return to a more conservative political environment, with its typical emphasis on deregulating the economy & regulating morality. Max Weber's "worldly asceticism" appears to be as much a response to the late crises of capitalism as it was instrumental to its early development. The preoccupation with "violence" by antipornography activists is seen here as an attack on Wc physicality; it is also suggested that the problem from a feminist perspective is not the eroticization of violence but the eroticization of power, which may take many benign forms. The Fraser report (Pornography and Prostitution in Canada: Report of the Special Committee on Pornography and Prostitution, Vol 1, Ottawa, 1985) rejects the claims that exposure to pornography leads to acts of sexual aggression such as rape; instead, it directs attention to the way in which pornography obstructs women's aspirations for equality. The question is raised of whether equality & freedom of expression are tradeoffs or are necessary for each other. Modified AA