Women’s History and Religious Innovation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Braude
Keyword(s):  
Women Leaders ◽  
Public Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Women's Christian Temperance Union ◽  
Private Matter ◽  
Frances Willard

Scholars agree in discerning discrepancies between men and women in discussions of secularization, yet often base such discussions on relatively shallow social survey data about individual piety. This chapter points away from views of women’s religiosity as a private matter towards the role of women’s organizations in public life. Such groups epitomize the voluntarism that is often suggested as an explanation of the vibrancy of nineteenth- and twentieth-century religious movements in the United States, in contrast to secularization in Europe. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union in particular offers opportunities for comparison. When its leader, Frances Willard, relocated to England, she expected to generate the same enthusiasm that had made her one of the most influential women leaders in America. The attempt foundered on the lack of receptivity among British women for Willard’s famous ‘Do Everything’ policy, an attempt they viewed as distinctively American.

The Arts as a Polarized Issue and the Role of Political Trust in Promoting the Arts: Evidence From the United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-97
Author(s):  
Lim Jae Young ◽  
Woo Harin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Moderating Role

The arts in the United States, for a long time received strong support from both sides of the political aisle. However, in recent years, the arts have been transformed into a partisan issue that pits conservatives against liberals. The article points to the importance of political trust as a means of helping conservatives overcome their ideological inclinations and support the arts. Scholars argue that political trust influences more strongly individuals who perceive a given policy to be one that imposes ideological risks for them compared with those without such risks. Focusing on the moderating role of political trust, the article examines whether political trust can help alleviate the conservatives’ hostility to the arts. Relying on the 2016 General Social Survey, the article finds that conservatives have no direct relationship with arts spending, but they will be more likely to support arts spending when this is contingent upon political trust.

POLITICAL ATHEISM: THE SECULARIZATION AND LIBERALIZATION OF AMERICAN PUBLIC LIFE

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 249-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID SEHAT
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
Public Reason ◽  
Public Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
Overlapping Consensus ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
The Past

The United States is a deeply Christian country, but over the last sixty years American public culture has become increasingly detached from religious concerns. Christian activists, when not speaking within the Republican Party, have had to assert their privilege in a way that they never had to do in the past. In spite of their efforts, the role of Christianity in culture and politics has seen a more or less continuous decline. This essay examines how and why that process occurred. It puts forward a schematic narrative that relies on the concepts of public reason, the avant-garde, and an overlapping consensus to explain how different people came together in the mid-twentieth century to secularize and liberalize American public life.

scholarly journals The Role of The Physical and Social Environment for Physical Activity for College Students During the Covid-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 13-30
Author(s):  
Melissa Bopp ◽  
Oliver W.A. Wilson ◽  
Lucas D. Elliott ◽  
Kelsey E. Holland ◽  
Michele Duffey
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
College Students ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
The United States ◽  
Neighborhood Environment ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The Social

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic created significant disruptions for college students, impacting health and physical activity (PA). Changes to the PA environment presented many challenges for students.Purpose: To examine the influence of the physical and social environment on PA participation for college students during the onset of COVID-19 restrictions.Methods: This cross-sectional, mixed methods survey used an online questionnaire during the onset of COVID-19 restrictions with a volunteer sample of college students at a large university in the United States. Participants self-reported their demographics, PA level and environment for PA, and responded to an open-ended question about their PA participation during the pandemic. Correlations and independent samples t-tests examined relationships between PA and the environment. Qualitative data were scanned to identify overarching themes.Results: Participants (n = 395) were predominantly Non-Hispanic White and female. The neighborhood environment and access to PA equipment were associated with PA for both men and women. Major qualitative themes highlighted the role of the physical environment and PA. Participating in PA with friends and family was positively associated with PA for both men and women as well.Conclusions: This study provides insight on the importance of the social and built environment for encouraging and supporting PA among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic which may provide insight for distance education as higher education evolves.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
B. Zorina Khan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Growth ◽  
Technological Change ◽  
Knowledge Economy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Modern Knowledge ◽  
Wealth Of Nations

Knowledge and ideas, incentives, and institutions are central for understanding technological change and long-term economic growth. This book bridges the current disconnect between the economics of technological change and the analysis of institutions. The discussion draws on detailed information about the experience of over one hundred thousand ingenious men and women in Britain, France, and the United States, whose inventions helped to create the modern knowledge economy. These results overturn longstanding myths of invention about elites, innovation prizes, and “entrepreneurial states,” and instead highlight the pivotal role of property rights and markets in ideas in explaining technological progress and the wealth of nations.

The Role of Firms in Gender Earnings Inequality: Evidence from the United States

2017 ◽  
Vol 107 (5) ◽  
pp. 384-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isaac Sorkin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Random Search ◽  
The United States ◽  
Search Model ◽  
High Wage ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Gender Earnings Gap ◽  
Earnings Gap ◽  
The Us

This paper documents that in the US, men are more likely than women to work in both high-wage firms and high-wage industries. I then ask why this sorting occurs. I consider two main explanations: men and women have different preferences, and men and women have different opportunities. Through the lens of a simple random search model, I find that the dominant explanation for sorting is differences in opportunities. One implication of this result is that women are at firms that offer better nonpay characteristics, and this plays an important role in explaining the gender earnings gap.

CULTURAL ELITE OR POLITICAL VANGUARD? AMERICAN VOLUNTEERS JOIN THE EUROPEAN WAR, 1914–1917

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 636-649 ◽  
Author(s):  
Axel Jansen
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Significant Shift ◽  
American Government ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
War Zone ◽  
Cultural Elite ◽  
Political Perspective ◽  
War Effort ◽  
Personal Decision

This essay investigates the motives by American volunteers during the neutrality period between 1914 and 1917 who decided to go to the war zone in Europe. Thousands of American men and women supported the Allies as nurses, doctors, ambulance drivers, soldiers, or fighter pilots. Even though they had chosen to support one side in the war, however, even avid and well-connected supporters of the Allies rarely called for U.S. intervention. The absence of a political perspective was tied to peculiar personal motives. Calling for intervention in the war would have turned the fight into a national cause and public duty, reducing the value of a personal decision to go to war. When the United States entered the war in 1917, some volunteers joined the American war effort to support their flag, whereas others abandoned a war they no longer considered interesting. These responses were part of a significant shift in the role of American government.

Every Sparrow That Falls: Understanding Animal Rights Activism as Functional Religion

2000 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 305-330
Author(s):  
Wesley V Jamison ◽  
Caspar Wenk ◽  
James V Parker
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Religious Belief ◽  
Animal Rights ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Animal Rights Activism ◽  
Meaningful Role

AbstractThis article reports original research conducted among animal rights activists and elites in Switzerland and the United States, and the finding that activism functioned in activists' and elites' lives like religious belief. The study used reference sampling to select Swiss and American informants.Various articles and activists have identified both latent and manifest quasi-religious components in the contemporary movement Hence, the research followed upon these data and anecdotes and tested the role of activism in adherents' lives. Using extensive interviews, the research discovered that activists and elites conform to the five necessary components of Yinger's definition of functional religion: intense and memorable conversion experiences, newfound communities of meaning, normative creeds, elaborate and well-defined codes of behavior, and cult formation. The article elaborates on that schema in the context of animal rights belief, elucidates the deeply meaningful role of activism within a filigree of meaning, and concludes that the movement is facing schismatic forces not dissimilar to redemptive and religious movements

Professional Practitioners and Contact Persons Explicating Special Types of Falun Gong Practitioners

2005 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 62-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noah Porter
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
Falun Gong ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Hierarchical Nature ◽  
Professional Practitioners ◽  
Speak Up

This study, based on ethnographic fieldwork in the United States with Falun Gong practitioners, explores the role of "contact persons" and "professional practitioners." The role of contact persons has been misinterpreted by some scholars as being more authoritative than my fieldwork suggests; in instances in which contact persons overstep their authority, other practitioners speak up to contradict them. Professional practitioners are the only practitioners who are relatively isolated from society by living in temples. By showing the non-hierarchical nature of these social roles, I demonstrate how Falun Gong is able to organize regular events despite being a decentralized network of peers. This case study provides a model for understanding the kind of globally dispersed, technologically aware religious movements that are likely to become more common in the future.

Resisting the Enforcement of Sexual Harassment Law

2012 ◽  
Vol 37 (01) ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justine E. Tinkler
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
The United States ◽  
Legal Compliance ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Sexual Harassment Law ◽  
The Status ◽  
Sexual Harassment Policy ◽  
Harassment Policy

Most people in the United States believe that sexual harassment should be illegal and that enforcement is necessary. In spite of such widespread support for antiharassment regulations, sexual harassment policy training provokes backlash and has been shown to activate traditional gender stereotypes. Using in-depth interviews and participant observations of sexual harassment policy training sessions, this study uncovers the micro-level mechanisms that underlie ambivalence about the enforcement of sexual harassment law. I find that while the different locations of men and women in the status hierarchy lead to different manifestations of resistance, gender stereotypes are used to buttress perceptions that sexual harassment laws threaten norms of interaction and status positions that men and women have an interest in maintaining. The research has implications for understanding the role of law in social change, legal compliance, and the potential/limits of law for reducing inequality.

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