African Americans

Sociology ◽  
2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alford A. Young, Jr.

African Americans have been the focus of wide-ranging studies in sociology for more than a century. Research on this group has been central to the formation of the sociological subfields of race and ethnic relations, urban sociology, and the sociology of identity. In these and other subfields, sociologists have explored how African Americans experienced the transition from the rural South to northeastern and midwestern urban-based communities (occurring from the early to the mid-20th century during a period labeled the Great Migration), how and why they engaged in social protest activities during the late 1950s and 1960s, and how they have experienced and confronted the increasing poverty and socioeconomic despair that unfolded in American cities since the middle of the 20th century. Sociologists also have explored the social identity of African Americans as that identity has been transformed since the mid-20th century and as it has affected, and been affected by, intellectual and political transformations in multiraciality, gender, sexual orientation, and other identities.

1981 ◽  
Vol 14 (02) ◽  
pp. 262-263
Author(s):  
Thomas E. Mann

By now most of you are aware of the severe cuts in federal funding for the social and behavioral sciences and for the humanities proposed by the Reagan Administration.At the National Science Foundation, while support for the natural sciences is slated to increase, the proposed budget for the social and economic sciences calls for a 65 percent reduction.At the National Institute of Mental Health (ADAMHA), the Administration proposes toeliminateall social research, which is expected to include research on the family, socialization of children, effects of separation and divorce, evaluation of prevention efforts with children, effects of mass media on behavior of children. In addition, the definition probably will include social policy research, research on race and ethnic relations, studies of community structure and change and studies of social institutions.


Author(s):  
Rosemary L. Hopcroft

This chapter provides an overview of The Oxford Handbook of Evolution, Biology, and Society. Chapters in the first part of this book address the history of the use of method and theory from biology in the social sciences; the second part includes chapters on evolutionary approaches to social psychology; the third part includes chapters describing research on the interaction of genes (and other biochemicals such as hormones) and environmental contexts on a variety of outcomes of sociological interest; and the fourth part includes chapters that apply evolutionary theory to areas of traditional concern to sociologists—including the family, fertility, sex and gender, religion, crime, and race and ethnic relations. The last part of the book presents two chapters on cultural evolution.


Pragmatics ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 14 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 291-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roderick N. Labrador

Hawai’i’s multiculturalism and perceived harmonious race and ethnic relations are widely celebrated in popular and academic discourse. The image of Hawai’i as a “racial paradise,” a rainbow of peacefully coexisting groups, partially stems from the fact that among the various racial and ethnic groups there is no numerical majority and from the common belief in equality of opportunity and status. Hawai’i ethnic humor is part and parcel of the maintenance and continued reinforcement of the notion of Hawai’i as “racial paradise” with underlying racializing and stigmatizing discourses that disguise severe social inequalities and elide differential access to wealth and power. In this paper, I examine the intersection of language, humor, and representation by analyzing the linguistic practices in the comedy performances of Frank DeLima, a pioneer in Hawai’i ethnic humor, and excerpts from Buckaloose: Shmall Keed Time (Small Kid Time), a comedy CD by Da Braddahs, a relatively new but tremendously popular comedy duo in Hawai’i. Central to these comedy performances is the use of a language variety that I call Mock Filipino, a strategy often employed by Local comedians to differentiate the speakers of Philippine languages from speakers of Hawai’i Creole English (or Pidgin). A key component to understanding the use of Mock Filipino is the idea of “Local” as a cultural and linguistic identity category and its concomitant multiculturalist discourse. I argue that the Local comedians’ use of Mock Filipino relies on the myth of multiculturalism while constructing racializing discourses which position immigrant Filipinos as a cultural and linguistic Other, signifying their outsider status and their subordinate position in the social hierarchy and order. The linguistic practices in the comedy performances are thus identity acts that help to produce and disseminate ideas about language, culture, and identity while normalizing Local and reinforcing Hawai’i’s mainstream multiculturalist ideology.


Kavkazologiya ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 181-193
Author(s):  
T.Sh. BITTIROVA ◽  

This article aims to determine the place of the topic of social justice in the work of the classic of Karachai-Balkarian literature Kyazim Mechiev and the forms of its artistic embodiment. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that for the first time the poet's social lyrics are viewed in a broad historical context, in relation to the chronotope. The results obtained showed the scale of the poet's thinking, his sensitivity to historical and political transformations in the life of highland society. The work establishes how the events of the early twentieth century are refracted through the author's worldview and what place the theme of social protest occupies in the poetic heritage of the classic of Karachai-Balkarian literature K.B. Mechiev. Analyzed the poems of K. Mechiev, dedicated to the pre-revolutionary and revolutionary events, the civil war, their accordance to historical realities. The article reveals the depth and scale of reflection of the challenges of the time in the poet's work, his pain, despair and hope.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karida L. Brown

My dissertation project is an empirical examination of the ways in which social transformations of the 20th century—read along the grain of the Great Migration—impacted the collective identity of African Americans over space and time. In this work, I will analyze the racialized subjectivity and identity (trans)formation of a diaspora of African Americans who partook in an intergenerational migration from the plantations of central Alabama to the coalfields of southeastern Kentucky in the first half of the 20th century, and then moved on to urban cities throughout the United States throughout the Civil Rights-era. The latter generation of migrants collectively experienced major shifts in the social structures of their community of origin, such as transitioning from “colored schools” to a State mandated integrated school system, retrenchment in the labor economy of a single-industry community, and the subsequent mass out-migration from their community of origin. These jolts to the social structures of their society not only altered their horizon of opportunity, but also resulted in major dislocations in the cultural systems that informed their collective identity. Particular to the case, I am concerned with the ways in which these cultural traumas—memories of events that collectivities believe rended the social fabric of their society—impacted the collective identity of this diaspora. In spite of their geographic dispersion, this generation of migrants has managed to stay connected through a set of “invented traditions” that they constituted at the tail end of their out-migration. For example, the Eastern Kentucky Social Club—an organization established by this group of migrants in 1970—has hosted a reunion in different cities across the country every year for the last forty-four years. At its height, this event drew over 3,000 African American migrants from across the country. The broader aim of the project is to reconstruct the rich history and culture of this special population of Black Appalachians to put forth a re-examination of W.E.B. Du Bois’ phenomenological analysis of racialized subjectivity and African American identity formation in 20th century America.The overarching research questions that guide this study are (1) How do we explain the emergence of their post-migration diasporic identity? (2) How has their collective identity been negotiated, transformed and reinscribed through their changing, and sometimes contested, subjectivity as racialized American citizens through the continuum of the pre and post civil rights era? I will specifically focus on three events that have been the site of transformation for the individuals in my case, (1) the school desegregation process—an event that occurred almost a decade after the Brown vs. Board of Education decision in this region, (2) the mass out-migration from southeastern Kentucky—a community level event that was a precursor to the emergence of their diasporic identity, and (3) the construction of the EKAAMP archive—an event that marks the institutional transference from memory to history. These eventful temporalities provide three categories of analysis that will allow me to make important linkages to my research questions in the context of the past, present, and future.


2014 ◽  
pp. 555-562
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Pasieka

Non-whites, non-males and other non-genuine citizens. The reproduction of social inequalities as seen in Karen Brodkin’s 'How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says about America'The article offers a review of Karen Brodkin’s How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says about America. Brodkin analyses the social and political transformations in America and puts the analysis in the context of her own autobiography. The first issue that Brodkin investigates are the processes that led to the change in the social status of Jews and other immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe in the 20th century. Second, Brodkin tries to understand her own origins, as well as different life styles and ways of perceiving the Jewish identity present in her family. Beside the analysis itself, Brodkin also offers many interesting remarks on the construction of racial and ethnic categories, discrimination, and the interactions between the ethnic, class and gender aspects of one’s identity. Niebiali, niemężczyźni i inni nieprawdziwi obywatele. O reprodukcji społecznych nierówności w książce Karen Brodkin „How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says about Race in America”Artykuł ten stanowi recenzję książki amerykańskiej antropolożki Karen Brodkin, zatytułowanej How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says about Race in America (‘Jak Żydzi stali się białymi i co mówi to o zjawisku rasy w Ameryce’), która łączy analizę przemian społeczno-politycznych w Stanach Zjednoczonych z autobiograficznym studium własnych doświadczeń autorki. Tym samym Brodkin podejmuje dwa zasadnicze problemy. Pierwszym z nich jest próba zrozumienia procesów, które doprowadziły do zmiany statusu społecznego Żydów oraz innych imigrantów ze wschodniej i południowej Europy w dwudziestowiecznej Ameryce. Drugą analizowaną kwestią jest próba zrozumienia przez autorkę jej własnego pochodzenia, sytuacji rodzinnej, obowiązujących w jej rodzinie rożnych modeli życia i rożnych sposobów postrzegania tożsamości żydowskiej. Podejmując wymienione zagadnienia, Brodkin oferuje szereg cennych refleksji dotyczących konstrukcji kategorii rasowych i etnicznych, zjawiska dyskryminacji oraz relacji pomiędzy tożsamością etniczną, klasową i genderową.


2021 ◽  
pp. 026858092110053
Author(s):  
Takashi Machimura

This article aims to describe the recent changes in urban sociology in Japan, especially by focusing on dominant urban narratives and their historical background. Japanese cities have rushed through a compressed modernity since the early 20th century. The sweeping crisis in the 21st century can be regarded partially as one of its consequences. New urban crises such as disparity and poverty, loss of habitat, internal populism, and various risks are emerging. At the same time, various challenges unique to cities are also rising. Incremental and contingent restructuring has been urged through a process of both merging and colliding of ‘the persistent’ and ‘the newly generated’ factors inside of cities. How do we imagine a sustainable form of cities through repositioning them in an uncertain future? More incisive urban research is now demanded to explain the relation between the social, political, cultural, and material factors in a city.


Author(s):  
Christopher D. Cantwell

Home to more than half the U.S. population by 1920, cities played an important role in the development of American religion throughout the 20th century. At the same time, the beliefs and practices of religious communities also shaped the contours of America’s urban landscape. Much as in the preceding three centuries, the economic development of America’s cities and the social diversity of urban populations animated this interplay. But the explosive, unregulated expansion that defined urban growth after the Civil War was met with an equally dramatic disinvestment from urban spaces throughout the second half of the 20th century. The domestic and European migrations that previously fueled urban growth also changed throughout the century, shifting from Europe and the rural Midwest to the deep South, Africa, Asia, and Latin America after World War II. These newcomers not only brought new faiths to America’s cities but also contributed to the innovation of several new, distinctly urban religious movements. Urban development and diversity on one level promoted toleration and cooperation as religious leaders forged numerous ecumenical and, eventually, interfaith bonds to combat urban problems. But it also led to tension and conflict as religious communities busied themselves with carving out spaces of their own through tight-knit urban enclaves or new suburban locales. Contemporary American cities are some of the most religiously diverse communities in the world. Historians continue to uncover how religious communities not only have lived in but also have shaped the modern city.


The Oxford Handbook of Evolution, Biology, and Society explores a growing area within sociology: research that uses theory and/or methods from biology. The essays in this handbook integrate current research from all strands of this new and developing area. The first section of this book has essays that address the history of the use of method and theory from biology in the social sciences; the second section has papers on evolutionary approaches to social psychology; the third section has chapters describing research on the interaction of genes (and other biochemicals such as hormones) and environmental contexts on a variety of outcomes of sociological interest; and the fourth section includes papers that apply evolutionary theory to areas of traditional concern to sociologists-including the family, fertility, sex and gender, religion, crime, and race and ethnic relations. The last section of the book presents two chapters on cultural evolution.


2017 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 67-79
Author(s):  
Jitka Zítková

Conception of literary education in Czech curriculumfor primary school in the second half of the 20th centuryThe article has a historical and comparative character. It is concerned with the conception of literary education as a part of the Czech language as a school subject in the primary school curriculum. The author pays attention mainly to the period of the second half of the 20th century but she takes account of the previous and the present curriculum, too. The aims, content and methods of literary education in the curriculum are studied separately in each period of its development there. The main tendencies in their conception are defined. A few concepts are described as tendencies to stability, e.g. the presence of customary aims, the presence of three basic sections of content without their further inner hierarchy, and the presence of methodical crux within the direct work with texts. As one of the most distinct changes and movements, we can classify the decrease and then expire of ideological stress on the curriculum, making terminology more and more accurate but without needful definitions and shortening of newer curriculum. The changes of curriculum have always reflected both the social and political transformations and their results.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document