Value orientation, left-right placement and voting

In this article we try to disentangle the constraints between traditional lines of political polarization (left-right placement) and newer distinctions (materialist/postmaterialist values) among mass publics. It is shown that voting or party preference is most clearly related to the left-right placement of the respondents. However, this placement is directly and strongly dependent on the materialist/postmaterialist orientation, while background variables like education, income and age are linked to voting via this value orientation. The materialist/postmaterialist orientation appears to be the present-day interpretation of the dominant political conflict in advanced industrial society. Although alignments and orientations count for a substantive part of the variance in voting, the power of these models to predict the actual vote of people turns out to be rather poor

Struggling towards Salvation: Narrative Structure in James Baldwin\u27s Go Tell It on the Mountain

This paper argues that John Grimes, the protagonist of James Baldwin\u27s Go Tell It on the Mountain, represents the struggle inherent in the path towards salvation and holds the potential ability to break down the binaries that create this struggle. Of particular interest is a similarity in the narrative framing of John’s story with Jesus Christ\u27s, as told in the four Gospels. The significance of both their symbolic power is dependent on a multitude of narrative viewpoints, in John’s case the tragic pasts offered of his aunt, father and mother in the novel’s medial section. Their stories inform the identity crisis the black church creates for John in the first section yet ties him to this church for his ultimate conversion on the threshing floor at the novel’s close. Baldwin critiques the conversion experience as largely relational to the power structure of the black church, but he also highlights the cultural and historical necessity of converting through the unfortunate fates of those who refuse the experience. John’s ultimate significance as a Christ-like figure of salvation maintains an ambivalent relationship to the black church while offering love as an avenue for bridging the binaries facing him and serving greater collective purpose for the plight of the oppressed

Young people's uses of celebrity: Class, gender and 'improper' celebrity

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 34(1), 2013, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/01596306.2012.698865.In this article, we explore the question of how celebrity operates in young people's everyday lives, thus contributing to the urgent need to address celebrity's social function. Drawing on data from three studies in England on young people's perspectives on their educational and work futures, we show how celebrity operates as a classed and gendered discursive device within young people's identity work. We illustrate how young people draw upon class and gender distinctions that circulate within celebrity discourses (proper/improper, deserving/undeserving, talented/talentless and respectable/tacky) as they construct their own identities in relation to notions of work, aspiration and achievement. We argue that these distinctions operate as part of neoliberal demands to produce oneself as a ‘subject of value’. However, some participants produced readings that show ambivalence and even resistance to these dominant discourses. Young people's responses to celebrity are shown to relate to their own class and gender position.The Arts and Humanities Research Council, the British Academy, the Economic and Social Research Council, and the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science Engineering and Technology

Privileged Mexican migrants in Europe: Distinctions and cosmopolitanism on social networking sites

This article examines the ways in which classed distinctions are related to the construction of increasingly cosmopolitan identities on Social Networking Sites (SNSs) amongst Mexican migrants from relatively privileged backgrounds living in Europe. It centres on how user demographics shape many of the concerns and outcomes pertaining to the use of SNSs. It considers the implications of the fact that SNSs are predominantly used by a demographic considered as non-marginalized, mobile and as possessing relatively privileged economic, cultural and social backgrounds. It analyses the ways in which online identities are constructed on SNS profiles using multimedia content to represent specific lifestyles and cultural practices that are used to make distinctions amongst participants, and are related to social, cultural and economic capital. A critical analysis is presented as to how users represent cosmopolitan identities online through the display of tastes and lifestyles in SNS content and into how these representations relate to users’ privileged positions in Mexican society. Bourdieu’s concept of distinction is used to emphasize the utility of considering different forms of capital in analysing the use of SNSs and profile content generated by a specific demographic. This article demonstrates how the analysis of SNS use may contribute towards an understanding of how classed distinctions are made based on this use and of how users negotiate the posting of profile content according to these distinctions and manage (select, edit and share) their representations

Framing children's citizenship: exploring the space of children's claims for social justice using Nancy Fraser's conception of representation

This paper seeks to contribute to a dynamic understanding of the space of children‟s citizenship by exploring perspectives generated by children age 5-13 in two countries in the light of Nancy Fraser‟s (2008) theory of representation. To ensure that understandings of the spaces of children‟s citizenship are guided by the views of children themselves, the paper reports findings from six Children‟s Research Groups who, in a process inspired by Freire (1973), acted and reflected on their understandings of citizenship using participatory methods that they created. The spaces they describe in their data were analysed drawing on Fraser‟s theories for reframing claims to social justice. This synthesis of empirical research and political theory suggests the need to supplement Fraser‟s theory of representation with more diffuse understandings of how influence occurs in relational spaces. The dynamic spaces of children‟s citizenship can then be conceived of as framed by a concern for social justice that children identify and deepened by exploring the way in relationships, institutions and networks influence the achievement of this claim over time, for different social groups. This approach enables children‟s citizenship to be located simultaneously in children‟s lived practices, in local and in global distributions of actions, attitudes and resources

The Myths and Justifications of Sex Segregation in Higher Education: VMI and The Citadel

Access to higher education, particularly to the specialized and elite education that is part of the tracking system leading to prestigious and highly remunerative positions, is a measure of equality. This article argues that segregated schooling for women limits their access to the same educational and associational opportunities men have, and that arguments supporting segregation are based on unsound criteria. It further argues that whatever the intent or ideological underpinning of such arguments, they ultimately have a negative outcome for women’s equality in society

Editorial: Un(precedent)ED

The 30th Volume of The Journal of Social Theory in Art Education is unprecedented, in many ways. First the theme is unprecedented, or, rather, Un(predecedent)ED. This typographical wordplay, quite common throughout the history of JSTAE, troubles habitual readings of the term, allowing for interpretations that open up possibilities, however brief, for new forms of research, theorizing and artmaking. These are just a few of the interpretations of the volume theme, which each of the authors addresses in a unique manner. Some approach the theme head on, while others choose a more oblique angle of analysis and exploration. Some deal with unprecedented events and actions, while others discuss historical examples, analyzing the development of precedence in art educational practice, and offering suggestions for novel forms of research, pedagogy, and artmaking

Ethical beginnings: Reflexive questioning in designing child sexuality research

Counselling young children referred for sexualised behaviour can challenge therapists’ ideas about childhood and sexuality. This area of practice is complex and sensitive, and calls upon collaboration with a range of significant adults in children's lives. Purpose: This paper examines a researcher's process of movement from counselling practice into qualitative research practice, and the use of reflexive questioning to explore ethical issues within the study. Design: Shaped by social constructionist ideas and discourse theory, ethical questions are outlined within the design stage of a doctoral research project on sexuality in children's lives in Aotearoa New Zealand. Limitations: This paper explores ethics in the design of a current study: there are no results or conclusions

Integration and the Achievement Gap: Innovation in Dallas, Texas

Educatio

Addressing discrimination and inequality among groups:

Poverty reduction, Hunger, Poverty, Discrimination, economic and political inequalities, Policies, Private sector employment,