Social Change and Political Mobilization in the United States: A Methodological Note

1976 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 545-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessey F. Marquette
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Change ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Mobilization

Social Change and Political Mobilization in the United States: 1870–1960

1974 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 1058-1074 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse F. Marquette
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Causal Model ◽  
Threshold Effect ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Process Of Change ◽  
General Search ◽  
The Relationship

The central problem of the general search for explanations of political change has been the lack of adequate explanations of the relationship between social change and political change. This research proposes and tests a six-variable causal model of the process of social change and political mobilization in the United States during the period 1870 to 1960. The variables used are based on previous theoretical efforts which have indicated that the process of social and political change is a syndrome. From these previous efforts a new model is synthesized. The model is found to operate as proposed during the period 1870 to 1910, and a simplified version in four variables is identified for the period 1920 to 1960.One of the central questions explored by this research is the degree to which the pattern of social change alters as the process of change proceeds through time. The transition in the United States is explained by reference to the threshold effect of two social infrastructures—urbanization and government activity in education.In light of the identification of the model, an attempt is then made at revising certain aspects of modernization theory.

Lawyers as Activists

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael C. Dorf ◽  
Michael S. Chu
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Court Action ◽  
The Government ◽  
Trump Administration

Lawyers played a key role in challenging the Trump administration’s Travel Ban on entry into the United States of nationals from various majority-Muslim nations. Responding to calls from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), which were amplified by social media, lawyers responded to the Travel Ban’s chaotic rollout by providing assistance to foreign travelers at airports. Their efforts led to initial court victories, which in turn led the government to soften the Ban somewhat in two superseding executive actions. The lawyers’ work also contributed to the broader resistance to the Trump administration by dramatizing its bigotry, callousness, cruelty, and lawlessness. The efficacy of the lawyers’ resistance to the Travel Ban shows that, contrary to strong claims about the limits of court action, litigation can promote social change. General lessons about lawyer activism in ordinary times are difficult to draw, however, because of the extraordinary threat Trump poses to civil rights and the rule of law.

Leadership Continuity and Change in Hmong Refugee Communities in the United States

1997 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-228
Author(s):  
Jeremy Hein
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
International Migration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Host Society ◽  
Leadership Positions ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
Authority Structures

Political violence and international migration have the potential to disrupt leadership continuity in Hmong refugee communities in the United States. At the same time, clan and village authority structures from Laos favor leadership continuity despite dramatic social change. Data on 40 Hmong leaders in ten communities are used to determine if the indigenous sources of leadership continue to determine who becomes a leader after resettlement. The majority of leaders were leaders in Southeast Asia and have close kin who were leaders, indicating leadership continuity. Whether these leaders have held few or many leadership positions in the United States, however, is not determined by prior leadership or kinship, but by factors associated with acculturation. Initial leadership status in a host society is linked to authority structures from the homeland, but social change influences subsequent leadership careers.

The Feminization of Etiquette Literature: Foucault, Mechanisms of Social Change, and the Paradoxes of Empowerment

1996 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 417-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Arditi
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Change ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Discursive Space ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Space ◽  
The 19Th Century

This paper explores the opening of a discursive space within the etiquette literature in the United States during the 19th century and how women used this space as a vehicle of empowerment. It identifies two major strategies of empowerment. First, the use or appropriation of existing discourses that can help redefine the “other” within an hegemonic space. Second, and more importantly, the transformation of that space in shifting the lines by which differentiation is produced to begin with. Admittedly, these strategies are neither unique nor the most important in the history of women's empowerment. But this paper argues that the new discourses formulated by women helped forge a new space within which women ceased being the “other,” and helped give body to a concept of womanhood as defined by a group of women, regardless of how idiosyncratic that group might have been.

In the Long Shadows of Inaction: The Quiet Building of a Climate Protection Movement in the United States

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne C. Moser
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
State Government ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Public Acceptance ◽  
Climate Protection ◽  
Civic Society ◽  
The Us ◽  
Fertile Ground ◽  
Reduce Emissions

Many observers perceive the US as an obstructionist force in global efforts to address greenhouse gas emissions. Federal leadership—despite rhetoric—remains absent even as the scientific consensus about the urgency of climate change and public acceptance of the reality of the problem are growing. This situation has created fertile ground for bottom-up political mobilization and action to reduce emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. Using an actor-centered model of social movement evolution, this paper surveys the signs in civic society, the private sector, and at local and state government levels for the emergence of a climate protection movement in the United States. Diverse initiatives are networked and expanding, thus creating pressure for more federal action. This paper paints a more optimistic and realistic picture of actual efforts in climate protection in the United States, the immensity of the challenges remaining notwithstanding.

scholarly journals Life diagrams: a methodological and analytical tool for accessing life histories

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-21
Author(s):  
Johanna Söderström
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Life History ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Research Participant ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Analytical Tool ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Post War

The article argues for the utility of life diagrams as a methodological and analytical tool across various life history projects. Using research on post-war political mobilization among former combatants (in Colombia, Namibia and the United States), the article demonstrates how a life diagram can modify the interview and become a useful analytical tool. During the interview the diagram helps both the research participant and the interviewer to compare different events, weigh various experiences, and ensure that all periods of the life are covered even if the interview is not done chronologically. During the analysis, the diagram offers a contrast with the transcript of the interview, and the shape of the life diagram can be compared across interviews in search of similar types. This visual turn can help address issues of empowerment, through promoting the research participants’ own interpretation of their lives.

Social Justice, the Ethics of Care, and Market Economies

2002 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. 355-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard K. Caputo
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Gender Roles ◽  
Ethics Of Care ◽  
The United States ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Social Concern ◽  
Social Agenda ◽  
Caregiver Needs

This essay explores the roles of social justice and the “ethics of care” as animating forces for social change in light of the near universal ascendance of the principles of market-based economics and of their extension into nonmarket areas of social concern, particularly in the United States. The main argument is that linking the “ethics of care,” social justice, and power makes possible the development of a democratic political and social agenda that can respectively aid in meeting the caregiver needs of the nation and contribute to the transformation of gender roles associated with care.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document