Kenneth H. Tucker

Beyond Tocqueville : civil society and the social capital debate in comparative perspective

Recent discussion about the role of civil society in democratic governance around the world and the decline of social capital in the US has raised pressing theoretical and empirical questions about the character of contemporary societies and the social and institutional correlates of sound and dynamic democracies. This debate has reached a North American and European audience that extends well beyond academia. The predominant refrain in the debate, following Alexis de Tocquevilles 160-year-old analysis of democracy in America, attaches tremendous importance to the role of voluntary associations in contemporary democracies. Participation in such groups is said to produce social capital, often linked to high levels of social trust. Social capital in turn is conceived as a crucial national resource for promoting collective action for the common good. Beyond Tocqueville presents 21 varied essays on how civic engagement and political and economic cooperation are generated in contemporary societies, linking theoretical discourse with public policy and actual behaviors.

Anthony Giddens and modern social theory

Introduction PART ONE: THE RECONSTRUCTION OF SOCIAL THEORY The Legacy of Classical Sociological Theory New Rules of Sociological Method Positivism, Interpretive Sociology and Structuration Theory Structuration Theory Reconceptualizing Agency and Structure PART TWO: SOCIAL CHANGE AND MODERNITY The State, Capitalism and Social Change The Culture of Modernity From the Critique of Postmodernism to the Rise of the New Social Movements The Problems and Possibilities of a Democratic Public Life in Late Modern Societies Feminism, Sexuality and Self-Identity Conclusion

How New are the New Social Movements

A groundswell of literature has appeared recently regarding new social movements in the United States and Europe (including the ecology, womens, citizens and anti-nuclear movements) (Touraine, 1985; Boggs, 1986; Evans and Boyte, 1986). Contemporary critical theorists, particularly Jurgen Habermas and Jean Cohen, have placed new social movements at the center of their analyses. According to these theorists, modern social movements provide avenues for the development of new values and identities, as well as novel interpretations of social life, revitalizing a decaying public sphere and freeing participants from the iron cage of instrumental assumptions. New social movements thus represent the main vehicle by which a non-instrumental rationality can be brought into public life. The theorists reject the working class as such a democratizing agent, looking instead to broad-based, non-productivist movements for the implementation of such goals (Cohen, 1985; Habermas, 1987). This essay will evaluate the theoretical and empirical adequacy of Habermass and Cohens approach to social movements. It will concentrate on the problematic distinction between old and new movements that lies at the center of their perspective. These authors do not discuss in any depth the variety of nineteenth and early twentieth-century labor movements, from the Knights of Labor to revolutionary syndicalism to the German Social Democratic Party, that appeared in the United States and Europe. The bulk of my analysis concentrates on late nineteenthand early twentiethcentury French syndicalism. This movement receives special scorn from Cohen, for she argues that it foreshadowed authoritarian regimes. Yet syndicalism can be understood in the very Habermasian categories that she applies to new social movements. Though syndicalism and other labor movements did not confront the same specific issues as those in contemporary times, and they

Aesthetics, Play, and Cultural Memory: Giddens and Habermas on the Postmodern Challenge

This essay examines the response of Habermas to Giddens to postmodern criticism of modernity. Although Giddens and Habermas recognize that the « totalizing critique » of postructuralism lacks a convincing analysis of social interaction, neither of their perspectives adequately addresses the postmodern themes of aesthetics, play, and cultural memory. Giddens and Habermas believe that these dimensions of social life are important ; yet they remain underdevelopped in their approaches. This essay explores the theoritical consequences of aesthetics, play, and cultural traditions for social theory, drawing on the pragmatists, the psychoanalyst Winnicott, and early critical theory.

From the Imaginary to Subjectivation: Castoriadis and Touraine on the Performative Public Sphere

Neither Habermas nor his communitarian and poststructuralist critics sufficiently explore the non-linguistic, playful, and performative dimensions of contemporary public spheres. I argue that the approaches of Castoriadis and Touraine can inform a theoretical understanding of the history and current resonance of this public sphere of performance. Their concepts of the social imaginary, the autonomous society, and subjectivation highlight the role of fantasy, images, individualism, and other non-rational factors in late modern public life.

French revolutionary syndicalism and the public sphere

Acknowledgements Introduction: Prologue 1. The Belle Epoque and revolutionary syndicalism Part I. Reconfiguring the Language of Labour: The Advantages and Limitations of a Habermasian Historical Sociology: 2. Syndicalism, the New Orthodoxy and the postmodern turn 3. Public discourse and civil society: Habermas, Bourdieu and the new social movements Part II. Visions of Modernity in the Liberal and Proletarian Public Spheres: Positivism, Republicanism and Social Science: 4. The liberal and proletarian public spheres in nineteenth-century France 5. The fin-de-siecle public sphere, the academic field and the social sciences Part III. Exploring Revolutionary Syndicalism: 6. Pelloutier, Sorel and revolutionary syndicalism 7. Reformulating revolutionary syndicalism 8. Toward a new public sphere: Taylorism, consumerism and the postwar CGT Conclusion: 9. The legacy of syndicalism Notes Index.

Norbert Elias and Modern Sociology: Knowledge, Interdependence, Power, Process

companies. The book’s three-level institutional theoretical framework is an appropriate and innovative approach to making sense of the multi-faceted nature of CSR issues and the multiple levels through which global CSR norms develop. Empirically, such an approach is able to make sense of both global institutional developments as well as variation in a firm’s response to CSR pressures. The range of events and developments in CSR as they impact the mining industry, comprehensively documented by Dashwood, is remarkable. Complex empirical realities such as how sustained NGO scrutiny, limited locations for resource extraction, senior management leadership, and prominent environmental mishaps interfaced to create varied approaches to CSR among mining companies cannot be well served by perspectives limited only to either side of the external/internal and normative/rationalchoice debates in the literature. Theoretically, the book’s three-level institutionalism also joins an emerging conversation within sociology about how to reconcile explanations of structure, agency, and contingency, and provides a thorough application of what such a synthesis would look like in a concrete empirical setting. The structure-agencycontingency conversation is an ongoing one and Dashwood’s agency-centered institutionalism shows how social scientific approaches can take the lead in new scholarship on the emergence and outcomes of the global sustainability movement. Readers will glean most from the book’s in-depth look at how internal organizational factors shaped differential responses to global CSR, here presented in three case studies of prominent Canadian mining companies: Noranda, Placer Dome, and Barrick Gold. Based on extensive interviews with firm executives, Dashwood makes a strong and convincing case that the role of senior management was crucial to explaining variations in company responses to global CSR pressures. In the case of Noranda and Placer Dome, senior executives and especially environmentally-conscious CEOs were quick and keen to respond not only to external events but also to engage proactively with social and environmental stakeholders at the global level to contribute to dialogues about evolving environmental standards in the mining industry. Whether to preempt government regulation, foster an organizational culture around sustainability issues, or even to confront investment decisions in developing countries with little to no regulatory oversight, the case studies in the book provide a very detailed look at how internal organizational dynamics dramatically shape how businesses engage with CSR issues.

Renewal in the French Trade Union Movement: A Grassroots PerspectiveRenewal in the French Trade Union Movement: A Grassroots Perspective, by ConnollyHeather. New York, NY: Peter Lang, 2010. 248pp.

This book begins with the creation of the colony of the Philippines in 1898 and ends with national independence in 1946. However, the book does not center upon either; instead, it focuses on the economic, political, and legal struggles of Filipino immigrants in the United States. The book is organized chronologically, although there is some overlap of periods across chapters. The first chapter deals with the racial politics of empire and the establishment of the Philippines as a colony of the United States. This lays the groundwork for the analysis of the political economy of Filipino immigration (1900s–1920s) in the second chapter. The next chapter deals more specifically with social and legal barriers that Filipinos confronted during the first three decades of the century. Chapter Four is a study of violence directed against Filipinos in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Finally, last two chapters deal with the political negotiations for independence, the participation of Filipinos in the Second World War, and the consequences for immigrants in the United States. The colonization of the Philippines resulted in the creation of a new legal category: the U.S. national, that is, those persons owing allegiance to the United States because they were at the same time citizens of one of its colonies. However ‘‘nationals’’ were not full-fledged citizens of the United States, and this initially led to considerable confusion about their rights to entry and to work. This ambiguous political status set the stage for the immigration of Filipinos who came to work in agri-business, first in Hawaii and then to the western and southwestern states. Later, Filipinos would also find work in service and industrial sectors. The first generation of Filipino immigrants struggled for and soon (in 1906) attained the right, as U.S. nationals, to unlimited entry into the United States. The author skillfully shows how Filipinos were clearly agents, and not merely victims, in this process: they were active in both class struggles, to obtain better wages and conditions, and legal battles, to achieve right of entry into the United States. Even though they gained the right to unrestricted immigration, Filipinos confronted other legal barriers regarding interracial marriage, property rights, and naturalization as U.S. citizens. In addition, local governments also attempted to police the color line by passing laws enforcing social segregation. In general, the legal issues were complicated by two principal factors. First, the laws were not always created with Filipinos in mind and the existing racial categories did not easily apply. Indeed, part of the strategy of Filipinos was to argue that they were outside of the laws that were erected explicitly against Afro-Americans, Mexicans, and ‘‘Asiatics,’’ namely, Chinese and Japanese. Second, the interests of local ‘‘nativists’’ often conflicted with those in agribusiness or the federal government. On the one hand, the nativists sought to preserve white privilege, dominance, and the color line; they opposed Filipino immigration. On the other hand, agricultural enterprises were in favor of Filipino workers, although they also sought ways to divide and conquer them whenever workers organized and pressed for better working conditions. In addition, the federal government was obliged to concede some degree of legal and naturalization rights to Filipinos. In the international sphere, it was not good politics to simply exclude them as ‘‘aliens’’ in U.S. society. Especially interesting is the analysis of the diverse and often contradictory positions of the local nativists in towns, counties, and states, the economic interests of agribusiness in the region, and the laws and policies of the federal government. In addition, the full range of actions and strategies of Filipinos on different fronts is fully explained.

60.95 paper. ISBN: 9783034301015.

Samuel Colt certainly knew how to throw a party. Shortly before his marriage to Elizabeth Hart Jarvis on June 5, 1856, Colt invited friends as well as his laborers to attend a gala reception at his new Hartford office building, known as Charter Oak Hall. Although ostensibly a party for his workers, it was in reality a testament to the ego of Samuel Colt. Upon entering the hall, visitors saw a staircase decorated with sixty muskets that Colt had refashioned as rifles. As the guests walked further into the space, they were met by a large portrait of Samuel Colt flanked on one side by an American flag and on the other by the state of Connecticut’s coat of arms. Beneath the portrait, more rifles encircled a bronzed stallion fiercely raised on its hind legs, the symbol of Colt’s manufacturing enterprise. Colt revolvers crafted in the shape of stars were centered between the windows, all of which were filled with rifles and pistols. Finally, when guests looked up to the ceiling, a cluster of revolvers attached to the gas chandeliers pointed straight down at them. As the Hartford Courant reported, “The general effect may be better imagined than described.”1 Colt’s penchant for guns, ostentatious wealth, self-promotion, and spectacle was extreme even by present-day standards.

The Education of Samuel Colt

On the death of Samuel Slater, the acclaimed father of American manufactures, the local Pawtucket Chronicle made a less flattering assessment of him: “Mr. Slater was not exactly a generous man. He gave little to public institutions and regarded not the appeals of private individuals. His object was gold. No man was more indefatigable.”1 Yet Slater had his supporters who saw in him and other manufacturers the embodiment of a new type of American character who looked to combine wealth, virtue, and patriotism into a new procapitalist mix. After his death, some biographers tried to transform him into an American icon. George S. White published the Memoir of Samuel Slater in 1836, a year after Slater’s death. White was “anxious to make the volume of some permanence and benefit to the cause of American manufacturers. “Furthermore,” he wrote, “I think the work is calculated to promote a patriotic attention to the general enterprise and prosperity of the country.”2