The tradition of the legend of Mary Hawkins provides an example of how urban legends develop and circulate in a community. The legend is a part of a larger tradition of story telling and of urban legends such as "The Roommate's Death" which follow the same format. The legend is believed to be true, and many believe an actual event is the basis for the story. It is perpetuated by word of mouth, and like a ripple in a still body of water, it reaches beyond the campus and into the mainstream of the local community by means of the print media. Telling the story serves many functions for students at Eastern Illinois University and especially for those women living in Pemberton Hall, the oldest women's residence hall in Illinois. The legend taps into rules of society concerning roles of women. It also touches on anxieties held by people from every economical, political, gender and religious affiliation. There is a value in the telling and hearing of the story that serves to recognize and address anxieties in human beings living in a society that is not always safe. The threat of personal harm or of injury and not being able to get help needed is recognized in the story. The legend also gives residents of Pemberton Hall and students of Eastern Illinois University, a sense of community identity. People enjoy telling the story to amuse and frighten one another. A legend such as this one, touches the lives of most people who hear it.
The concept of pleasure has emerged as a multi-faceted social and cultural phenomenon in studies of media audiences since the 1980s. In thesestudies different forms of pleasure have been identified as explaining audience activity and commitment. In the diverse studies pleasure has emerged as a multifaceted social and cultural concept that needs to be contextualized carefully. Genre and genre variations, class, gender, (sub-)cultural identity and generation all seem to be instrumental in determining the kind and variety of pleasures experienced in the act of viewing. This body of research has undoubtedly contributed to a better understanding of the complexity of audience activities, but it is exactly the diversity of the concept that is puzzling and poses a challenge to its further use. If pleasure is maintained as a key concept in audience analysis that holds much explanatory power, it needs a stronger theoretical foundation. The article maps the ways in which the concept of pleasure has been used by cultural theorists, who have paved the way for its application in reception analysis, and it goes on to explore the ways in which the concept has been used in empirical studies. Central to our discussion is the division between the 'public knowledge and the 'popular culture projects in reception analysis which, we argue, have major implications for the way in which pleasure has come to be understood as divorced from politics, power and ideology. Finally, we suggest ways of bridging the gap between these two projects in an effort to link pleasure to the concepts of hegemony and ideology. ; (VLID)2800202
The concept of pleasure has emerged as a multi-faceted social and cultural phenomenon in studies of media audiences since the 1980s. In these studies different forms of pleasure have been identified as explaining audience activity and commitment. In the diverse studies pleasure has emerged as a multi-faceted social and cultural concept that needs to be contextualized carefully. Genre and genre variations, class, gender, (sub-)cultural identity and generation all seem to be instrumental in determining the kind and variety of pleasures experienced in the act of viewing. This body of research has undoubtedly contributed to a better understanding of the complexity of audience activities, but it is exactly the diversity of the concept that is puzzling and poses a challenge to its further use. If pleasure is maintained as a key concept in audience analysis that holds much explanatory power, it needs a stronger theoretical foundation. The article maps the ways in which the concept of pleasure has been used by cultural theorists, who have paved the way for its application in reception analysis, and it goes on to explore the ways in which the concept has been used in empirical studies. Central to our discussion is the division between the 'public knowledge' and the 'popular culture' projects in reception analysis which, we argue, have major implications for the way in which pleasure has come to be understood as divorced from politics, power and ideology. Finally, we suggest ways of bridging the gap between these two projects in an effort to link pleasure to the concepts of hegemony and ideology.
This dissertation deals with the period bridging the era of extreme housing shortages in Stockholm on the eve of industrialisation and the much admired programmes of housing provision that followed after the second world war, when Stockholm district Vällingby became an example for underground railway-serviced "new towns". It is argued that important changes were made in the housing and town planning policy in Stockholm in this period that paved the way for the successful ensuing period. Foremost among these changes was the uniquely developed practice of municipal leaseholding with the help of site leasehold rights (Erbbaurecht). The study is informed by recent developments in Foucauldian social research, which go under the heading 'governmentality'. Developments within urban planning are understood as different solutions to the problem of urban order. To a large extent, urban and housing policies changed during the period from direct interventions into the lives of inhabitants connected to a liberal understanding of housing provision, to the building of a disciplinary city, and the conduct of 'governmental' power, building on increased activity on behalf of the local state to provide housing and the integration and co-operation of large collectives. Municipal leaseholding was a fundamental means for the implementation of this policy. When the new policies were introduced, they were limited to the outer parts of the city and administered by special administrative bodies. This administrative and spatial separation was largely upheld throughout the period, and represented as the parallel building of a 'social' outer city, while things in the inner 'mercantile' city proceeded more or less as before. This separation was founded in a radical difference in land holding policy: while sites in the inner city were privatised and sold at market values, land in the outer city was mostly leasehold land, distributed according to administrative – and thus politically decided – priorities. These differences were also understood and acknowledged by the inhabitants. Thorough studies of the local press and the organisational life of the southern parts of the outer city reveals that the local identity was tightly connected with the representations connected to the different land holding systems. Inhabitants in the south-western parts of the city, which in this period was still largely built on private sites, displayed a spatial understanding built on the contradictions between centre and periphery. The inhabitants living on leaseholding sites, however, showed a clear understanding of their position as members of model communities, tightly connected to the policy of the municipal administration. The organisations on leaseholding sites also displayed a deep co-operation with the administration. As the analyses of election results show, the inhabitants also seemed to have felt a greater degree of integration with the society at large, than people living in other parts of the city. The leaseholding system in Stockholm has persisted until today and has been one of the strongest in the world, although the local neo-liberal politicians are currently disposing it off.
To develop effective programs for civic education in the schools today, educators must confront in some countries a deepening hostility to the inculcation of a national, or civic, identity in any form. Much of this hostility emanates from those who espouse something called "cultural democracy," or what has recently been called "illiberal multiculturalism." This form of multiculturalism may be described as an effort to "close young people off into identities already ascribed to them" and to make them think that they bear no personal responsibility for their thinking or behavior because -so the illiberal multiculturalist claims-both are determined by their "culture" or their "race, ethnicity, or gender." In drawing on the various academic disciplines in the school curriculum, civic educators have tended to overlook literary study for its potential contribution to civic education, both to strengthen it and to address these anti-civic forces. The ultimate purpose of this essay is to show how the construction of literature curricula and the study of literature can contribute to these goals. In this essay, I describe the anti-civic forces now at work in literature programs in American schools and explain why these forces exist. I then suggest how literature programs can honor the essence of literary study (that is, the teaching of literature as literature) and at the same time strengthen the underpinnings of a constitutional democracy centered on individual rights and a concept of personal responsibility as well as combat the anti-civic forces emanating from illiberal multiculturalism. Although I will of necessity use examples from chiefly American and British literature to illustrate my suggestions, civic educators in other countries can draw on the literature of their own countries as support for civic education and to combat these anti-civic forces provided they are clear about what they are trying to accomplish.
Yuk-lin Lui. ; Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1997. ; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 1-7 (last gp.)). ; Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction ; Scope and purpose --- p.1 ; Literature Review --- p.3 ; Chapter (A) --- Major Approaches In Social Movements --- p.3 ; Chapter [1] --- The Resources Mobilization Framework --- p.3 ; Chapter [2] --- The political process Model --- p.5 ; Chapter -- --- Structure of political Opportunities --- p.5 ; Chapter -- --- Organizational Strength --- p.6 ; Chapter -- --- Cognitive Liberation --- p.6 ; Chapter -- --- Social Control Response to A Movement --- p.7 ; Chapter [3] --- The New Social Movement School --- p.9 ; Chapter (B) --- The Study of the Feminist Movement in Hong Kong --- p.13 ; Methodology --- p.15 ; Outline of the Thesis --- p.20 ; Chapter Chapter 2 --- The Women's Movement in Hong Kong: A Historical Review ; The Women's Movement in Hong Kong: ; The Transformation of Women's Collective Identity --- p.1 ; The First-wave Women's Movement --- p.7 ; Chapter [1] --- The Actors --- p.7 ; Chapter [2] --- The Approaches of the Actors --- p.9 ; The Second-wave Women's Movement --- p.10 ; Chapter [1] --- The proliferation of Women's Concern Groups and the Construction of a New Gender Discourse in the 1980s --- p.10 ; Chapter [2] --- The New Wave Movement and Feminism --- p.12 ; Chapter [3] --- "Diversification,politicization, Cooperation, and popularization" --- p.16 ; Chapter [4] --- The Weak Ideological Orientation of the Movement --- p.18 ; Conclusion --- p.20 ; Chapter Chapter 3 --- The Awakening --Explaining the Movement in the1980s ; Socio-economic Development --- p.1 ; Structure of political Opportunities --- p.4 ; Chapter [1] --- Government Stance on Women's Issues --- p.5 ; Chapter [2] --- The Issue of 1997 --- p.6 ; Organizational Strength --- p.9 ; Cognitive Liberation --- p.12 ; Conclusion --- p.15 ; Chapter Chapter 4 --- The Golden Era -- Explaining the Movement in the Early1990s ; Socio-economic Development --- p.1 ; Structure of ...
En este artículo indagamos sobre los modos en que algunas mujeres asumieron su identidad como madres construyendo desde ella una respuesta colectiva ante la violencia de estado, formulada en términos de demanda de justicia. Para ello, analizamos las experiencias de las mujeres que, durante la última dictadura (1976/83) y bajo la democracia (a partir de 1983) se organizaron para la denuncia de la violencia de estado y la demanda de justicia, con el propósito de identificar y analizar sus formas diferenciales de intervención en la arena pública. ¿Qué aprendizajes sociales han permitido a estas mujeres construirse como colectivo? ¿De que forma se ha producido ese pasaje desde la identidad individual como madres/esposas/hermanas a una identidad colectiva en la que la maternidad se convierte en la llave para su salida al mundo público? La indagación en el itinerario de estas mujeres, en su aprendizaje, en sus experiencias colectivas construidas a partir de una identidad individual como madres nos permite aproximarnos e intentar descifrar los modos de interacción y transformación de las mujeres en un contexto histórico específico. Así, una de las cuestiones que analizamos en el artículo es el proceso de aprendizaje que tuvo y tiene lugar dentro de un movimiento social que no es exclusivamente de mujeres y en el cual ellas sin necesariamente discutir el lugar masculino ni plantear una ruptura global con los modelos de género produjeron un nuevo espacio de intervención en la escena pública. Sostenemos que es el pasaje de la identidad de madre hacia la construcción de la maternidad como subjetividad política lo que ha propiciado en términos individuales su crecimiento y en términos colectivos la emergencia de un campo de activismo capaz de producir ciudadanía. Es a través de la descripción y análisis de este proceso que finalmente concluimos que el carácter productivo de este activismo parece residir, desde nuestra perspectiva, en su capacidad de ampliar el campo de lo público, de generar lazos y solidaridades horizontales, que tienden a una creciente ciudadanización a través de la lucha por el derecho a los derechos. ; The paper examines the modes in which some women appropriated their identity as mothers in order to build a collective answer to State violence in terms of a demand of justice. As a means to identify and analyze the distinctive forms in which these women acted in the public arena, the paper inquires into the experiences of women who under the last dictatorship (1976/83) and under the democratic regime (since 1983) organized themselves to denounce State violence and seek justice. What social skills have enabled these women to construct themselves as a collective group? How did they pass from their separate individual identities as mothers/wives/sisters to a collective identity in which motherhood becomes the key to their emergence in the public scene? The inquiry into these women's itinerary, their learning, their collective experiences built upon their individual identities as mothers, allows an approximation to the deciphering of their modes of interaction and transformation in a specific historical context. Hence, one of the questions analyzed in the article is the learning process that had and has place within a social movement whose members are not exclusively women and where women, without necessarily contesting the place of men or advocating a global rupture with gender models, produced anyway a new space of intervention in the public scene. The paper argues that the passage from the mother identity to the construction of motherhood as political subjectivity has allowed the individual growth of these women and the collective appearance of a citizenship-building field of activism. Through the description and analysis of this process the article concludes that the productive character of this activism seems to lie in its capacity to enlarge the public field and to generate horizontal ties and solidarities that tend to a increasing citizenship construction through the struggle for the right to rights.
Women and Post-Conflict Reconstruction: Issues and Sources is a review of literature dealing with political, economic and social reconstruction from a gender perspective. One of its objectives is to go beyond conventional images of women as victims of war, and to document the many different ways in which women make a contribution to the rebuilding of countries emerging from armed conflicts. Special attention is given to women's priority concerns, to their resources and capacities, and to structural and situational factors that may reduce their participation in reconstruction processes. A second aim is to shed light on how post-war reconstruction processes influence the reconfiguration of gender roles and positions in the wake of war, and how women's actions shape the construction of post-war social structures. Following the brief Introduction is a chapter on political reconstruction. It raises questions concerning women's participation in peace-building and democratization. In order to illuminate women's expectations regarding their roles and status in post-war society, the chapter opens with a brief discussion of how and to what extent various liberation movements have addressed women's issues. While some movements considered women's issues to detract attention from the main goal of their struggle, many movements regarded women's liberation as an integral dimension of their overall struggle for social justice. The fact that women's issues were included on the political agendas and that women themselves were mobilized to participate actively in the fighting is demonstrated to have been instrumental in raising women's political awareness and their expectations of state and society today. The ensuing discussion of women's participation in formal and informal peace-building activities shows that in most cases women are excluded from formal peace negotiations. Such high-level negotiations are identified as male domains, which means that they also employ discourses and practices that are closer to men's reality than to women's. As a result, women also lack direct influence in the identification of reconstruction priorities that are usually part of a peace agreement. Nevertheless, women are demonstrated to play an influential role through their work in grassroots organizations working for peace and reconciliation. From within these organizations, women constantly challenge the authorities and other members of society with demands for peace, non-discrimination, accountability, recognition of human rights, etc. While always positioned on the margins, these organizations show their ability to mobilize large numbers of women, and to translate individual grievances into legitimate social concerns. Moreover, many of them play a significant role in building a new culture of peace at the local level by organizing peace education and community-based reconciliation and social reconstruction activities. Democratization processes are generally applauded, because they are assumed to guarantee accountability and to grant all citizens the possibility to participate in political life. However, studies on elections and decentralization demonstrate several flaws when it comes to women's position. Many countries emerging from armed conflict have adopted new constitutions that grant women equal political, social and economic rights, and many governments have developed new quota systems to ensure women equal representation in decision-making institutions at all levels. However, the implementation of these laws and good intentions often runs into major obstacles. At the government level the problems include a lack of financial resources and a lack of gender awareness or political will among staff. Other major problems are to be found at the social level, where the new discourse of gender equality may run counter to existing social norms regarding gender roles. The examples discussed show that, in some cases, local authorities and male members of society may discourage or prohibit women from participating in political activities. Moreover, the fact that the division of labour has not changed in favour of women, but rather added to their burden, also poses practical limitations on the possibilities for active involvement of women. Despite these constraints, women have made remarkable contributions in many countries. In the context of elections women have organized civic education targeting women, and they have convinced women of the importance of their vote. Educated women have organized legal counselling to inform women about their rights and to help them exercise these rights. Chapter three deals with economic reconstruction and the strategies that women develop to cope with war-induced changes in the economic environment and to meet the growing responsibilities for the survival and well-being of family and relatives. The focus is on the relationship between women's economic activities and their socio-economic position. The first section of the chapter concentrates on women's involvement in agricultural production, which often constitutes a major source of income. In addition to problems of landmines, a lack of agricultural inputs and farm implements, a shattered infrastructure and the inaccessibility of markets, etc., which equally trouble male farmers, women face a number of particular challenges. First, women often lack legal rights to land and other resources which, in the context of social disintegration where a large number of women become single providers, may reduce their ability to survive on farming alone. In some countries, women are organizing themselves to lobby state and local authorities for increased access to such resources, but in many cases women are forced off the land and are compelled to seek other sources of income. Another problem facing women in agriculture is the dismantling of traditional work groups due to displacement, divorce, death, etc. This has often resulted in the creation of new co-operative associations and voluntary self-help groups which combine old institutions and current social conditions. When cultivating the family land is no longer an option, some women join the casual agricultural labour force. While this opportunity enables women to employ their skills and to earn an income, recent analyses suggest that this may in fact mean that women come to occupy a marginal position in the new structure of rural social stratification. Another area which proved to be of great importance to women's livelihoods was the burgeoning informal sector, with petty trade and small-scale businesses as major sources of income. The documentation of women's involvement in this sector showed a great variety in experiences. Some women took up activities in which they had also been involved prior to the war, but many engaged in innovative projects, even when it meant a break with existing social norms, as they took up jobs perceived to be male jobs. Some women established businesses on the basis of local resources and demand, while others established elaborate trading networks which cut across ethnic boundaries and national borders. Again, women's capacity to build and mobilize extensive social networks had a positive impact. But while women generally proved to be eager and capable entrepreneurs, the sustainability of their enterprises was often constrained by a lack of capital and marketing skills, not to mention the fact that the sector itself is highly insecure and fluctuating. Moreover, women's economic success would in some cases result in social stigmatization and exclusion, due to clashes with prevailing norms or jealousy. Finally, the formal sector is discussed. For various reasons, societies emerging from war usually experience a high unemployment rate, and women are often particularly marginalized with regard to access to formal employment. In some cases this is a result of the fact that women generally have poorer educational qualifications, but research also suggests that discriminatory practices are still frequent. One of the few areas where women seem privileged is the social sector, but because this sector is often exposed to budgetary cuts, women's access to income and status from this field is reduced. Nevertheless, women continue to perform related tasks, but as semi-professionals or even as volunteers. The fourth chapter focuses on social reconstruction, specifically on the rehabilitation of social services (health care and education) and wider issues of social integration. With regard to the first aspect, the main questions are whether the social sector recognizes women's particular needs, and whether it seeks to build on women's skills and capacities. The discussion on social integration shifts the focus to how women are positioned in processes of inclusion and exclusion, and to how women's strategies and activities influence social integration. Studies on the rehabilitation of social services suggest that even though women's needs and rights are increasingly recognized officially, women continue to be discriminated against with regard to access to education for social and cultural reasons. Health care and other social facilities also remain inadequate, with consequences not only for women's health, but also for their ability to participate in political and economic life. The material clearly demonstrates that social issues were generally given high priority by women themselves, and many women in post-conflict societies make a major contribution to their rehabilitation. In rural as well as urban areas, women have re-established primary education for children as a means to build local capacities and influence their socialization, and women are often involved in providing primary health care and socio-economic assistance on a self-help basis to people in crisis. However, as noted above, while such activities are generally welcomed, they are often considered but a natural extension of women's domestic obligations and hence are not remunerated or responded to with offers of training. In addition to ordinary health care problems, intrastate wars produce a number of specific health problems known as psycho-social traumas. These traumas may stem from experiences of forced displacement, torture, rape, violence, witnessing killings, etc. In some cases, women have been particularly vulnerable to this kind of assault on mind and body. But women have also been very active in addressing the scars that such experiences leave, organizing voluntary organizations which offer medical and psychological treatment. Moreover, they have helped former victims to overcome their distress and reintegrate, by offering skills training and income-generating activities. Another issue which has been addressed by women's organizations is the growth of violence within post-war societies. Through classroom education and workshops, women have sought to raise awareness about violence against women and to change the attitudes that consider such violence acceptable. As the discussion on social integration points out, there has long been a tendency to focus exclusively on the reintegration of returnees, internally displaced persons and demobilized soldiers, or of persons who have become marked and marginalized due to torture, disability, widowhood, etc. However, to the extent that any post-war society is inevitably undergoing profound changes in its socio-economic and political composition, the issue of integration is relevant to all members of society. This chapter focuses on this aspect from a gender and family perspective, and shows how integration often also has disintegrative aspects. Newly gained economic freedom and independence, long years of separation and exposure to new social environments and attitudes, new perceptions of the role of the family and its members, and forced migration in search of employment, all contribute to continued dismantling of existing social institutions and the establishment of new ones. Social integration, in other words, is not simply about "coming home", but about defining new guiding social values and establishing corresponding relationships and institutions based on a combination of factors including kinship, socio-economic interests, and shared experiences and circumstances. In the final chapter, conventional conceptualizations of women in conflict and post-conflict situations are examined. The chapter also contains some suggestions for alternative concepts and approaches which appear to be better tools for our understanding of women's situation and thus for the development of programmes that will assist women in their multiple efforts to rebuild their lives. It is pointed out that our understanding of women's roles in post-war societies and of their contributions to post-war reconstruction must go beyond the universalistic narrative of "women's experience of war". The specificity and diversity of women's experiences must be acknowledged. Only on this basis can we conduct comparative analyses and begin to develop a deeper general understanding of post-war reconstruction from a gender perspective. Second, the concluding chapter stresses the need to supplement the image of women as vulnerable victims with an image of women as a highly differentiated group of social actors, who possess valuable resources and capacities and who have their own agendas. Women influence the course of things, and their actions are constitutive of post-war societies. The reduction of women to targets and beneficiaries both fails to recognize their contributions and contributes to their marginalization. A third point stressed in the conclusion is the need for gender-specific data and gender-focused analysis. While special attention is given to women throughout the publication, so as to make visible the previously invisible, the aim has been to see women's situation within a gender framework which pays attention to how gender roles and relationships are continuously constructed and contested by different actors, and which recognizes the gender dimension inherent in all aspects of post-war reconstruction. The gender perspective is also relevant for the achievement of sustainable peace. As the analysis strongly suggests, the failure to recognize gender issues may produce new social tensions and contribute to the differentiating struggles over identity, status and power that are so distinctive for societies which have recently achieved peace.
[Abstract] This essay reviews the extensive and varied subjects that Women Studies have developed in the USA in the last decades of the 20th~century.The author empha~ sizes the diversity and richness of the theoretical currents that crystalized during the '90s, which transends the patriarchal model in an analysis of particualr issues which are in relation to the situation of women in society. Topics such as the nature of dif~ ference and sexuality; the integration of technology and science; the need of acti~ vism in matters of social justice and equality. Special emphasis is given to an analy~ sis of the politics of identity which allows oppressed minorities to have access to legitimization that will transcend gender, class, culture, language and nationality. Women Studies in the USA at the end of the century strives to find a common ground of identification with all those that, like women, have been silenced and ignored by the hegemonies discourse. ; [Resumen] Es un ensayo que revisa los variados aspectos en los que se han desarrollado los Estudios de las Mujeres en los Estados Unidos en las últimas décadas del siglo XX. La autora enfatiza la riqueza y diversidad de las corrientes teóricas que cristalizan a finales de losa ños 90 y superan el modelo patriarcal en una análisis de aspectos con~ cretos que buscan su relación con la posición de las mujeres en la sociedad. Se abor~ dan temas como la sexualidad, la integración de la ciencia y la tecnología, la nece~ sidad de activismo poítico en cuestiones de justicia social e igualdad. Y hay un énfa~ sis especial en el análisis de las políticas de identidad que permiten a las minorías buscar una legitimidad que trascienda el género, las clase social, la cultura, la len~ gua y la nacionalidad. Los estudios de las mujeres, ahora llamados más frecuente~ mente estudios de género, han tenido en los Estados Unidos un desarrollo extraor~ dinario en las últimas décadas del siglo XX y tratan, a comienzos del nuevo siglo, de encontrar un terreno común de identificación con todos aquellos movimientos que han sido durante siglos ignorados y silenciados por el discurso dominante.
Die Dissertation ist ein Beitrag zur Debatte um die Revision des amerikanistischen Lektürekanons. Ihre drei Schwerpunkte sind die Geschichte und Mythologie der Karibikinsel Puerto Rico, die soziale Lage und das Image der Puertoricaner in den USA sowie die auf Englisch erschienene Erzählliteratur von Autoren puertoricanischer Herkunft. (1) Die spanische Kolonie Puerto Rico kam 1898 in den Besitz der USA und erlebte in der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts einen rasanten ökonomischen Aufstieg, der mit wachsender Abhängigkeit vom amerikanischen Wohlfahrtsstaat erkauft ist. In freien Referenden bejahte jeweils eine knappe Mehrheit den Zwitterstatus ihrer Insel, die bis heute weder ein Staat der USA noch ein souveränes Land ist. Da jedoch der Kongress in Washington über die Zukunft des Commonwealth of Puerto Rico zu bestimmen hat, bleibt die Insel eine Kolonie der USA. Puerto Ricos Mythologie ist von Stereotypen geprägt, die sich zu einem negativen Klischee vom Nationalcharakter des Landes verdichtet haben. Die amerikanische Dominanz in Politik, Wirtschaft und Kultur verstärkt die von vielen beklagte Schizophrenie Puerto Ricos. Die Chance einer Lösung des puertoricanischen Syndroms verspricht nur die nationale Unabhängigkeit. (2) Stereotype bestimmen auch das Bild von den übergesiedelten Puertoricanern, den Nuyoricans, in der Öffentlichkeit der USA. Das Negativimage der kaum assimilierten Gruppe wird von den Massenmedien verfestigt, obwohl seriöse Studien zeigen, dass frühere Immigranten ähnliche Probleme mit sich brachten. Die Mehrheit der US-Experten propagiert nach wie vor die allmähliche Assimilation der Übersiedler im Rahmen eines kulturellen Pluralismus. Bei den Puertoricanern geht der Trend seit dem Aufkommen des Multikulturalismus in Richtung einer hybriden, bikulturellen Identität, in ein Wort gefasst mit dem Begriff Nuyorican. Die Dissertation bietet eine Auswertung der auf Englisch erschienenen Literatur über die Puertoricaner in den USA unter 15 Aspekten: Kultur, Religion, Bildung, Sprache, Politik, Arbeit, welfare, Wohnverhältnisse, ethnicity, race, class, gender, Familie, Law and order und Migration. Am Beispiel von belletristischen Texten, Spielfilmen und Musicals wird gezeigt, dass die Puertoricaner in diesen Genres größtenteils wohlwollend dargestellt erscheinen. Das gilt auch für das Musical West Side Story, dem viele Kritiker zu Unrecht vorwerfen, die puertoricanischen Jugendlichen als Gangster zu stigmatisieren. (3) Die puertoricanische Prosa in englischer Sprache hat im Kanon der amerikanischen Literatur und in der Kritik bisher kaum eine Rolle gespielt. Vor allem die zahlreichen Neuerscheinungen der achtziger und neunziger Jahre werden hier erstmals auf historisch-soziologischer Basis analysiert. Allgemeine Trends der neueren Nuyorican-Literatur sind ihre Diversifizierung und Feminisierung. Größere Vielfalt gibt es heute bei den Schauplätzen, den Textsorten und den Themen. Das Thema gender steht nicht nur bei den Frauen, sondern auch bei männlichen Autoren oft im Mittelpunkt. Von den Autoren, die New York zum Schauplatz gewählt haben, ist Abraham Rodriguez, Jr. der bedeutendste. Rodriguez erzählt von Teenagern in der South Bronx, deren puertoricanische Ethnizität kein bestimmender Faktor mehr ist. So ist er der am weitesten amerikanisierte Autor der Nuyoricans. Die überzeugendste Interpretation des Migrationsprozesses bietet Esmeralda Santiago. Bei ihr steht die Kritik am traditionellen puertoricanischen Sexismus im Zentrum. Eine feministische Grundtendenz haben auch die in Puerto Rico angesiedelten, zum Teil magisch-realistischen Werke von Rosario Ferré. Die besten Werke von Rodriguez, Santiago, Ferré und weiteren Puertoricanern verdienen Anerkennung als wertvoller und zukunftweisender Beitrag zur amerikanischen Literatur. ; The thesis contributes to the debate about the revision of the American literary canon. Its first focus is on the history and mythology of Puerto Rico, the second on the social situation and image of the Puerto Ricans in the U.S., and the third on the prose literature by authors of Puerto Rican descent published in English. (1) The Spanish colony of Puerto Rico became a possession of the U.S. in 1898 and experienced a rapid economic rise in the second half of the 20th century, at the expence of growing dependence on the American welfare state. In free referendums the people of Puerto Rico have so far condoned the intermediate status of their island, which still is neither a state of the union nor an independent nation. But in fact the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico remains a colony of the U.S., as the real power to decide about its status lies with Congress. Puerto Rico's mythology has from the start been dominated by stereotypes, which have resulted in a negative cliché of its national character. The United States' political, economic and cultural hegemony has reinforced the alleged schizophrenic state of Puerto Rico. The only chance of healing this Puerto Rican syndrome is the island's national independence. (2) Stereotypes have also determined the image in the American public of the Puerto Ricans who have migrated to the mainland. The bad reputation of this hardly assimilated group is constantly being confirmed by the mass media, although serious studies prove that earlier immigrants had similar problems. Most U.S. experts still advocate the migrants' gradual assimilitation according to the ideal of cultural pluralism. Since the rise of multiculturalism, within the U.S. Puerto Rican community the trend has been going towards a hybrid, bicultural, Nuyorican identity. The dissertation assesses the literature about Puerto Ricans in the U.S. published in English from 15 key aspects: culture, religion, education, language, politics, work, welfare, housing, ethnicity, race, class, gender, family, law and order und migration. A critical look at books, movies and musicals by non-Puerto Ricans shows that in these genres migrants from Puerto Rico have by and large been portrayed benevolenty. This is true even for the musical West Side Story, which has often been wrongly blamed for stigmatizing Puerto Rican youngsters as gangsters. (3) Puerto Rican prose literature in English has so far played little role in the American canon and in criticism. This thesis offers the first analysis of the many new volumes from the eighties and nineties on a socio-historical basis. The overall trends of recent Nuyorican literature are its diversification und feminization. There is a greater diversity of settings, text types and themes. Gender is a central issue not only with the women, but also with a number of male authors. Of those writers who take New York as the setting, Abraham Rodriguez, Jr. is the most important. Rodriguez's books are about teenagers in the South Bronx whose Puerto Rican ethnicity is no crucial factor any more. Thus he is the most Americanised author among the Nuyoricans. The most convincing interpretation of the migratory process is Esmeralda Santiago's. Her main thrust is against the Puerto Rican tradition of sexism. The works of Rosario Ferré, some told in magic realism and all set in Puerto Rico, also have a feminist tendency. The best books by Rodriguez, Santiago, Ferré and a few more Puerto Ricans deserve to be recognised as a valuable and visionary contribution to American literature.
[spa] Mi tesis doctoral lleva por título: El carisma político en la Teoría Sociológica. La investigación se ha centrado en definir el concepto de carisma político a través de distintos autores de la Teoría Social. El autor más relevante es, sin duda, Max Weber quien abordó en toda su complejidad la dimensión del concepto de carisma. Weber incluso considera que el carisma es capaz de cambiar la historia. Los autores previos que trataron el tema son Platón, Maquiavelo, Carlyle y Nietzsche y Durkheim quien desarrolló el concepto de "efervescencia colectiva". Hay que destacar que si bien estos autores construyen el concepto y se preguntan por el fenómeno carismático, no lo mencionan explícitamente. Por otra parte, Le Bon y Freud analizaron el concepto desde el punto de vista de la psicología de las masas. Después de Weber deben ser destacadas las aportaciones de Edward Shils quien incidió en la importancia del concepto de carisma propiamente dicho. Shils destacó su carácter central, además de ser un elemento generador de orden en las sociedades. Asimismo, observó su capacidad de legitimar un poder político. Otros autores modernos que han trabajado sobre el fenómeno y las relaciones carismáticas son Luciano Cavalli, Salvador Giner, David Aberbach, Ronald M. Glassman, Kyösti Pekonen, William H. Swatos, Charles Lindholm, Peter Kivisto y David Tàbara, entre otros. Cavalli ha enfatizado la necesidad de un liderazgo personal en las democracias occidentales, así como, la relación de confianza y responsabilidad que se establece entre el líder y el electorado. Giner enfatiza la metaracionalidad del carisma y su manufactura en las sociedades modernas. Mi hipótesis central es que a pesar que el carisma sea irracional, siempre tiene un cierto grado de racionalidad, aspecto que puede ser explicado a través de cada cultura, a través de cada uno de los seguidores del líder. En la dimensión carismática encontramos otros aspectos muy relacionados con el carisma político, tales como el carisma de la religión, el liderazgo político, el populismo, la identidad y los movimientos sociales. La gran revolución del carisma tuvo lugar durante los años sesenta debido a la generalización del uso de la televisión. Ésta ha transformado la morfología del carisma y la imagen pública de los políticos. Así, los medios de comunicación se han convertido en esenciales para ganar las elecciones. Por otra parte, el concepto de carisma ha sido trivializado por la prensa. Otro campo de investigación de gran interés es el carisma de género. A pesar que podemos definir el carisma como una característica perenne de todas las sociedades y a pesar que no podamos concebir las relaciones sociales sin su presencia, éste tiene un lado oscuro. Puede convertirse en peligroso al servicio de demagogos e ideologías como el fascismo. Así, un exceso de fascinación por el carisma puede ir en contra de la cultura política y del espíritu crítico de las democracias. No obstante, el carisma es un atributo necesario para todo tipo de líderes políticos democráticos, sin el cual los políticos no pueden triunfar electoralmente. Considero el carisma peligroso y simplista, puede incluso sustituir la cultura política, sin embargo, no podemos ignorarlo. Las muestras de afecto, las emociones, son presentes en las manifestaciones políticas y refuerzan las distintas adhesiones a los líderes y a sus partidos. ; [eng] TITLE: POLITICAL CHARISMA IN SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY AUTHOR: BLANCA DEUSDAD University of Barcelona. Economics Faculty. Department of Sociological Theory.My Doctoral dissertation bears the title: Political Charisma in Sociological Theory ("El carisma político en la Teoría Sociológica"). I have focused my research on defining the concept of charisma through the different authors of Social Theory. The most relevant author is Max Weber who explains all the dimension of the concept of charisma. Weber even considers that charisma is able to change history. The previous authors that deal with the term are Plato, Machiavelli, Carlyle and Nietzsche, Durkheim who has developed the concept of collective effervescence. Even though these authors build the concept, they do not mention it explicitly. Moreover, Le Bon and Freud analyze the concept from the point of view of Psychology of the masses and Ortega y Gasset was concerned with the need of good government. After Weber the theories of Edward Shils must be underlined. He stresses the importance of the concept of charisma, especially as a central, order-creating and order-disclosing element. Furthermore, he emphasizes the charisma that contains the legitimacy of political power. In addition, modern authors as Luciano Cavalli, Salvador Giner, David Aberbach, Ronald M. Glassman, Kyösti Pekonen, William H. Swatos, Charles Lindholm, Peter Kivisto and David Tàbara, among others, study charisma and its demonstrations in modern societies. Cavalli underlines the need of a personal leadership in governments and its relation of confidence and responsibility with the electorate. Giner emphasizes the metarationality of charisma and its manufacture in Modern Societies. My central hypothesis is that even though charisma is irrational, it always has a certain degree of rationality, which can be explained by means of each culture, by means of every leader's follower. In the charismatic dimension there are other aspects very closely related to political charisma, but apart of charisma of religion, such as political leadership, populism, identity and social movements The greatest revolution took place in the sixties due to the increasing use of television. TV has transformed charisma's morphology and the politicians' public image in the mass media has become essential to win elections. Furthermore, the term has been trivialised by the press. It is also important to develop the research of charisma of gender. Even if charisma is a perennial feature of all societies and we cannot leave without it, it is a double-edged sword. It may become dangerous; it can support some ideologies such as fascism. An excess of fascination can go against political culture and the critical spirit of the democracies.Charisma is an attribute necessary to all kind of political leaders in the democracies, without which leaders could not, became successful in political elections. We consider charisma dangerous and simplistic, it can even substitute the political culture yet we cannot ignore it. Emotions, affections are present in political demonstrations and reinforce political adherences.