Suchergebnisse

Ernest Gellner's understanding of the social role of absurdity is discussed & illustrated with examples of how different kinds of irrationality have social consequences. Gellner notes that anthropologists often attempt to explain away apparent incongruities with two principles of charitable interpretation: elastic contextualization & underlying structuralism. It is argued that moral & cognitive uncertainty is universal & expressed through incoherence. Absurdity may also be the consequence of a mistake or stupidity. Carlo M. Cipolla's (1989) useful analysis of stupidity is shown to be widely applicable. There is considerable reluctance to call stupid incoherence perceived by ethnographers, but not their hosts. It is argued that the recognition of absurdity is often superior to the principle of charity when interpreting societies. 28 References. H. von Rautenfeld

The material & symbolic meanings of knowledge, resource, & conceptual transfers from Western to Eastern Europe are discussed in a case study analysis of a Danish-funded civil society foundation's attempts to assist Albanian nongovernmental organizations. The privatization & democratization efforts currently pursued in Eastern Europe are largely the result of Western intervention. Through foreign aid programs, government support, & international development agencies, programs, symbols, & resources are transferred from West to East. The efforts to export Danish civil society involve not only the transfer of resources, but also conceptual models & representations. Power brokers in both regions have the ability to alter these representations, & Western models of civil society are naturally transformed in new social, cultural, & political contexts. Although this inequal relationship can & has been exploited by both East & West, it is concluded that Danish projects have helped in the creation of foundations for a productive & distinctly Albanian form of civil society. T. Sevier

Discusses the origins & development of modern markets, with particular focus on neoliberalism, the "culture of the market," & the "culture of consumption." But while consumption has unquestionably gained social & analytic centrality in studies of neoliberalism, we must keep in mind that the producers of commodities & services need to labor incessantly to stir & provoke consumer desires & imaginings. That is, it is imperative to challenge the prominence granted to consumption within neoliberal discourse & to stress anew the crucial, if not preeminent, role of production. The neoliberal privilege of consumerism also overlooks the increasing range of techniques & cultural & economic resources utilized by mediators in advertising, design, fashion, & the media to foster an evidently insatiable desire by consumers for consumption. K. Coddon

Der Beitrag untersucht, in welcher Weise die Möglichkeiten von Kindern, autonomes und selbstbestimmtes Verhalten zu entwickeln, durch die neuen Alltagszusammenhänge in der modernisierten Gesellschaft beeinflusst werden. Ergebnisse eines Forschungsprojektes (Zeiher und Zeiher 1994) über die täglichen Aktionen von Kindern nach Raum und Zeit gegliedert dienen zur Erklärung, in welcher Weise Modernisierungsprozesse die räumlichen und zeitlichen Strukturen der Welt verändert haben. In einem zweiten Schritt wurden auf der Grundlage von Fallstudien von 10jährigen Kindern aus der Bundesrepublik Deutschland die eigentlichen Aktivitäten und Interaktionen von Kindern aus deren eigener Sicht ermittelt. Dabei wird deutlich, wie sehr die individuellen Entscheidungen der Kinder abhängig sind von ihrer gegenwärtigen Lebenssituation und Lebensgeschichte und wie sehr sich Kinder größere Autonomie und Entscheidungsfreiheit in ihren Aktivitäten und sozialen Beziehungen wünschen. (ICH).

The importance of social networks in the determination of life opportunities is discussed in a case study, drawing on interview & structured diary data from Lida, a middle-aged female teacher from St. Petersburg, Russia. The most important components of Lida's social network are her mother & children, but neither her extended family nor absent husband plays a significant role in her social life. Lida is strongly committed to school, with the vast majority of her social relations occupied by teachers & school-related individuals. This commitment has led to a blurring of the boundaries between her work & family life. Although she is devoted to her work, she feels that teaching was forced on her during her education. Further, she cannot explore other possibilities since her social network is teacher-dominated. It is concluded that the closed nature of her social network & her upbringing in socialist culture have contributed to a general feeling of lack of control over her own life. 3 Figures. T. Sevier

Explores the impacts of new information & communication technologies (ICTs) on various aspects of everyday life, considering ICTs as (1) both objects & media, (2) material & symbolic, (3) embedded in time & space, (4) involving both active & passive use, & (5) shifting boundaries between public & private spaces. Secondary research is drawn on to analyze social & cultural factors affecting the speed & scale of household adoption of ICTs, noting variations by gender, age, & household composition. The process by which ICTs are "domesticated" is also discussed. The impacts of ICTs on individual social life are examined, including isolation, the potential for addiction, & perceptions of/relationships with the outside world. Implications for policy making & social planning are considered. K. Hyatt Stewart

Factors that affect second-generation Mexican American's capacity to maintain transnational relations with relatives & other individuals in Mexico are investigated. Several determinants that significantly influence ethnic communities' capacity to establish transnational ties are identified including existing racial, class, & gender hierarchies in the US. An overview of the formation & objectives of the Ticuani Youth Group, an organization established in New York is presented, emphasizing the organization's attempts to improve the lives of people living in Ticuani, Mexico, & combat racial stereotypes of Mexican Americans. Multiple problems that resulted in the group's eventual demise are identified, eg, conflicts with organizations established by first-generation Mexicans & group members' unwillingness to address the extent of political corruption in Ticuani. Additional attention is directed toward exploring the effects that membership in the Ticuani Youth Group had upon members' lives. The effects that cultural assimilation pressures have upon immigrant communities' formation of transnational relations are also considered. 35 References. J. W. Parker

The author investigates four instances of social violence: (1) the institutional, political, & economic abuses that fostered the AIDS epidemic among hemophilia patients; (2) Maoist totalitarian control over ordinary Chinese citizens; (3) structural violence in middle-class & inner-city American society; & (4) the cultural violence of appropriated & naturalized images in the media. Because social violence has multiple forms & dynamics, the current taxonomies of violence -- public vs private, ordinary vs extreme political violence -- are inadequate to explain either the uses of violence in the social world or its varied effects in experiences of suffering. The ethnography of social violence suggests that the social dynamics of everyday practices are essential to understanding how larger orders of social violence combine with the microcontexts of local power to shape human problems in ways that are resistant to the standard social policies & intervention programs. 23 References. A. Funderburg