Sociology

Sociology emerged in response to the problem of social order in modern society in the wake of the American and French Revolutions and the rise of industrialism and market capitalism. Sociology had its roots in the theories of August Comte and Herbert Spencer and in empirical work previously conducted by census bureaus, state labor boards, and reform organizations. By the 1880s, sociologists had perceived a threat in the alliance with biology: It undercut the need for a separate discipline and, in Spencer\u27s laissez-faire version, tainted the discipline among social reformers and other constituencies crucial to its success. In Dynamic Sociology, the American Lester Frank Ward addressed both issues. On the surface, American and European sociology during the interwar decades was a study in contrasts. The 1960s spelled the end of \u27modern\u27 sociology. In the United States, Parsons\u27s hegemony and Merton\u27s \u27middle range\u27 compromise gave way to a politically charged humanist/positivist divide

Ideology

I develop a model of ideologies as collectively sustained (yet individually rational) distortions in beliefs concerning the proper scope of governments versus markets. In processing and interpreting signals of the efficacy of public and market provision of education, health insurance, pensions, etc., individuals optimally trade off the value of remaining hopeful about their future prospects (or their children’s) versus the costs of misinformed decisions. Because these future outcomes also depend on whether other citizens respond to unpleasant facts with realism or denial, endogenous social cognitions emerge. Thus, an equilibrium in which people acknowledge the limitations of interventionism coexists with one in which they remain obstinately blind to them, embracing a statist ideology and voting for an excessively large government. Conversely, an equilibrium associated with appropriate public responses to market failures coexists with one dominated by a laissez-faire ideology and blind faith in the invisible hand. With public-sector capital, this interplay of beliefs and institutions leads to history-dependent dynamics. The model also explains why societies find it desirable to set up constitutional protections for dissenting views, even when ex-post everyone would prefer to ignore unwelcome news.ideology, statism, laissez-faire, cognitive dissonance, wishful thinking, institutions, political economy, psychology

The production and consumption of history : a discourse on heritage and nostalgia in the 1990s : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Geography at Massey University

The dialectic of history as an ideology and history as a commodity can underpin a discourse on the production and consumption of history as heritage and nostalgia in the 1990s. History as an ideology is erased from the dominant space of representation, by history as a commodiy; therefore, history as an ideology needs to be discussed separately from history as a commodity even though they are not independent categories; this is because they are mutually constitutive of each other. The processes and structures that underwrite this dialectic, Capitalism and Modernity, produce different outcomes in different places and at different times; outcomes such as the cabinets of curiosity during early modernity, modernist and postmodernist museums, heritage sites such as country houses, a shopping mall and a disneyfied theme park arranged around a historic locale and the gentrification of some parts of the inner City of London. These objects of history are produced, reproduced and consumed by social actors in different places and at different times. The production and consumption of history as an object does not explain why these particular outcomes exist in the places and the times that they do. These outcomes need to be explained, and can be explained, by using a dialectical methodology. Such an explanation would look at the underlying processes and structures of Capitalism and modernity

Capstone 2014 Art and Art History Senior Projects

It gives us great pleasure to introduce the Gettysburg College Art and Art History senior Capstone projects for 2014. These projects serve as the culmination of the Studio Art and Art History majors. They are as rich and varied as the students themselves and exemplify the commitment the Department of Art and Art History places on creativity and scholarship in a liberal arts education. [excerpt] This booklet profiles Art Senior Projects by Bailey K. Beardsley, Lisa R. Del Padre, Tobi C. Goss, Rebecca A. Grill, Anna B. Heck, Japh-O\u27Mar A. Hickson, Danielle T. Janela, Lauren E. Kauffman, Megan P. Quigg, Justin Rosa, Angela M. Schmidt, Erin E. Slattery, and Caroline E. Volz. This booklet profiles Art History Senior Projects by Niki Erdner, Emily A. Francisco, Rose C. Kell, Katherine G. Kiernan, Tara K. Lacy, Shelby A. Leeds, and Molly E. Reynolds