The Academic Professions and American Society

2018 ◽  
pp. 38-78
Author(s):  
Steven Brint
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Current System ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Organizational Processes ◽  
American Life ◽  
American Society ◽  
The Many ◽  
Academic Professions ◽  
Critical Literature

This chapter presents a portrait of the dominant system for organizing and pursuing knowledge and the contributions of that system to American life. It aims to convey some of the hidden strengths of the current system while revealing several of the vulnerabilities that have made it a target for those who would like to use it for more exclusively utilitarian purposes. While it is true that much academic research is intended for other academics, it is easy to miss the many unheralded ways that academic research informs public discourse, public policy, and organizational processes. The chapter then attempts to offer a more rounded picture of the contributions made by university researchers and educators than can be found in the critical literature.

How Media Shapes the Public Discourse and Influences Health

2020 ◽  
pp. 23-35
Author(s):  
Alonzo L. Plough
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Multiple Roles ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
The Public ◽  
Inaccurate Information ◽  
Modern Media ◽  
Multiple Media ◽  
American Society ◽  
The Many

This chapter describes the multiple roles of modern media in determining not only what consumers know, but also how and what they think. The exponential growth of ideologically driven cable channels and social media, dovetailing with cutbacks in newspaper staffing and coverage, point to the many ways that the power and reach of media are shifting even as they continue to reshape American society and norms. In this environment, multiple media compete for viewers, readers, and listeners who will click on their websites, buy their products, sign their petitions, and often accept their spin, especially if it reinforces personal perspectives. Thoughtful information about complex public health issues is easily lost in that context, leading too many people to base their decision-making on incomplete, biased, and even inaccurate information. For the news media to help build a Culture of Health, people need to understand how it works, what it does, and how it can be used for widespread benefit.

scholarly journals The Documentation Status Continuum: Citizenship and Increasing Stratification in American Life

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiffany Joseph
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Affordable Care Act ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
American Life ◽  
Documentation Status ◽  
Over Time ◽  
The Continuum

Public discourse on immigration and benefits access has been contentious. Amid increasing anti-immigrant sentiment, scholars have examined immigrants’ marginalization as a form of civic stratification, where boundaries based on documentation status affect immigrants’ experiences and benefits granted by the state. This scholarship lacks a framework outlining existing documentation status categories, their alignment relative to each other, and how policy (re)configures those categories over time. This article argues that the documentation status continuum (DSC) framework fills these gaps. In the DSC, undocumented immigrants are at one end and citizens are at the other, with many documentation statuses in between. Public policy creates these statuses and generates stratification through allocating benefits based on one’s DSC position. Policy also shapes movement along the continuum, which shapes benefits eligibility. Using the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) as a policy example and interviews conducted with 153 immigrants, healthcare professionals, and immigrant organization employees in Boston, this article demonstrates that life along the DSC reveals stratification between citizens and noncitizens. This has implications for various outcomes that sociologists examine.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Valls
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
Color Blind ◽  
American Society ◽  
Liberal Political Theory

The persistence of racial inequality in the United States raises deep and complex questions of racial justice. Some observers argue that public policy must be “color-blind,” while others argue that policies that take race into account should be defended on grounds of diversity or integration. This chapter begins to sketch an alternative to both of these, one that supports strong efforts to address racial inequality but that focuses on the conditions necessary for the liberty and equality of all. It argues that while race is a social construction, it remains deeply embedded in American society. A conception of racial justice is needed, one that is grounded on the premises provided by liberal political theory.

The Insidious Momentum of American Mass Incarceration

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franklin E. Zimring
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Next Generation ◽  
Single Generation ◽  
American Life ◽  
Peak Rate ◽  
Or Practice

The phenomenal growth of penal confinement in the United States in the last quarter of the twentieth century is still a public policy mystery. Why did it happen when it happened? What explains the unprecedented magnitude of prison and jail expansion? Why are the current levels of penal confinement so very close to the all-time peak rate reached in 2007? What is the likely course of levels of penal confinement in the next generation of American life? Are there changes in government or policy that can avoid the prospect of mass incarceration as a chronic element of governance in the United States? This study is organized around four major concerns: What happened in the 33 years after 1973? Why did these extraordinary changes happen in that single generation? What is likely to happen to levels of penal confinement in the next three decades? What changes in law or practice might reduce this likely penal future?

What’s Next for a National Infrastructure Policy: An Encore or a Requiem?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1087724X2110146
Author(s):  
Richard G. Little
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Infrastructure Systems ◽  
Infrastructure Policy ◽  
Policy Objectives ◽  
The Many ◽  
National Infrastructure ◽  
Roll Out

In an essay almost 30 years ago, Professor Dick Netzer of NYU asked the question “Do We Really Need a National Infrastructure Policy?” and came to the conclusion that we did not. As the Biden Administration prepares to roll out a multi-trillion dollar infrastructure package, the nation is faced with numerous questions regarding the infrastructure systems necessary to support continued economic growth and environmental sustainability. The purpose of this essay is to look to recent history for guidance for how to proceed by revisiting the underlying premises of the Netzer essay and reconsider whether a National Infrastructure Policy is needed. Because linking infrastructure to broader public policy objectives could both unite the nation and position it to address the many challenges that the 21st century will present, I believe the idea of a National Infrastructure Policy definitely deserves a second look.

scholarly journals Representation and Agency of Aging Superheroes in Popular Culture and Contemporary Society

Societies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Kateřina Valentová
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Graphic Novel ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Social Events ◽  
Cultural Expressions ◽  
American Society ◽  
The Many

The figure of the superhero has always been regarded as an iconic representative of American society. Since the birth of the first superhero, it has been shaped by the most important historical, political, and social events, which were echoed in different comic issues. In principle, in the superhero genre, there has never been a place for aging superheroes, for they stand as a symbol of power and protection for the nation. Indeed, their mythical portrayal of young and strong broad-chested men with superpowers cannot be shattered showing them fragile or disabled. The aim of this article is to delve into the complex paradigm of the passage of time in comics and to analyze one of the most famous superheroes of all times, Superman, in terms of his archetypical representation across time. From the perspective of cultural and literary gerontology, the different issues of Action Comics will be examined, as well as an alternative graphic novel Kingdom Come (2008) by Mark Waid and Alex Ross, where Superman appears as an aged man. Although it breaks the standards of the genre, in the end it does not succeed to challenge the many stereotypes embedded in society in regard to aging, associated with physical, cognitive, and emotional decline. Furthermore, this article will show how a symbolic use of the monomythical representation of a superhero may penetrate into other cultural expressions to instill a more positive and realistic portrayal of aging.

scholarly journals Basic Science and The NIH

1994 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold Varmus
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
New Orleans ◽  
Annual Meeting ◽  
Basic Science ◽  
Cell Biology ◽  
National Institutes Of Health ◽  
Keynote Speech ◽  
American Society

The following is an edited version of the Keynote Speech delivered at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology by Harold Varmus, Director of the National Institutes of Health. The address, entitled Basic Science and the NIH, was given at the opening of the meeting in New Orleans on December 11, 1993. It was Varmus' first public policy talk as NIH Director.

DEVELOPMENT OF CORPORATE CULTURE DURING THE SPREAD OF COVID-19 ON THE EXAMPLE OF AMERICAN SOCIETY

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 138-143
Author(s):  
EKATERINA V. GORLOVA ◽  
◽  
NATALYA S. RESHETNIKOVA ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Corporate Culture ◽  
Corporate Values ◽  
The Mass Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
American Society ◽  
The Many ◽  
Country People

The many changes caused by COVID-19 have impacted all areas of our lives. Since the beginning of the pandemic in every country, people have experienced the same fears: getting sick, being left without a livelihood, dying, losing loved ones, etc. In many states, support was provided by both the government and the employer. Our analyze show how the employees themselves assessed the level of relations between them and the company through the connecting thread of corporate culture. We have determined that, in general, in many cases there is an increase in corporate values, information coming from managers is more trustworthy than information from the mass media. Honesty, openness and communication are becoming the new flagships for the development of corporate culture.

scholarly journals Introduction to the analysis of public policies

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-6
Author(s):  
Prof. univ. dr. habil. Mihaela Rus ◽  
Lect. univ. dr. Mihaela Sandu ◽  
Tanase Tasente
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
National Level ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Monitoring And Evaluation ◽  
Cultural Environment ◽  
Action Program ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Applied Approach

We can talk about public policies when a public authority - central or local - intends, with the help of a coordinated action program, to modify the economic, social, cultural environment of social actors. At national level, public policies can appear from any of the major state institutions (Parliament, President, Government, central or local authorities). The study of public policies is different from the traditional academic research, having an applied approach, oriented towards: (1) designing and developing solutions for the problems of society, (2) Interdisciplinarity, (3) Orientation towards problem solving: it does not have a purely academic character, but it is oriented towards the problems of the real world, looking for solutions for them, (4) Normativity. The general stages of this process are as follows: (1) defining the problem, (2) making the decision, (3) implementation of public policy, (4) monitoring and evaluation of public policy.

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