The Origins of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Presents the history of the 1948 adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, focusing on the prior status of human rights in international law and the cultural/ideological aspects of the debates surrounding its adoption. This chapter shows both the Western origin of the core human rights concepts and the positive-law nature of the Universal Declaration. it also shows that the cultural issues were present from the very start of the modern human rights era

The Local Importance of Tourism: The Case of San Francisco

The importance of tourism as a stimulus to local economies is well known. Few areas have been able to accurately quantify this economic importance, however, allowing for ranking of tourism along side other local industries. San Francisco (SF) has undertaken a multi-faceted research program which revealed that far more visitors come to the City than were previously counted. Through primary research, for the first time SF is able to estimate the number of people staying with friends and relatives. Surprisingly, this missing market segment constitutes more visitor-days than those staying in the City\u27s 23,000 hotel rooms. Due to the more intimate contact involved, visitors staying in private homes form the strongest bridge for international understanding. Of those staying in SF Bay Area homes, 15% were international origin. Visitors exert a profound impact on the SF economy. The visitor industry , actually a collection of businesses from several sectors of the economy, employs more people than any single traditional private industry in SF (e.g., 18% more than SF\u27s financial industry). Of special interest was the dramatic finding that an astounding 41% of SF employed adults felt that their jobs were supported in part by tourism

Essay: Religion and Globalization

Sociologists of religion have usually treated globalization as a cause of religious developments, which is not false. Religion also, however, affects globalization in four ways. 1) It contributes to new ways of conceiving of the global field. 2) It contributes to \u27glocalization\u27, which is the increased heterogeneity that globalization brings. 3) It both highlights and shapes power relations in new ways, including South-South connections. 4) It sheds new light on sacred processes outside of religious organization. Each of these is a fruitful area for study

Spiritual Healing Among the American Followers of a Japanese New Religion: Experience as a Factor in Religious Motivation

Observers of the new religions in Japan and America have often argued that these religions attract followers who want a supportive and authoritative group to which they can belong. People unable to find fulfillment in mainstream religious or secular life, the argument goes, may turn to new religions as compensation. In them, they gain social ties and a coherent view of the world they previously lacked. This study, based on ethnographic research at the San Francisco mission of Sekai Kyusei-kyo (Church of World Mes-sianity) in the mid-1970s, argues that the situation is much more complex. Members reported being attracted to the church not primarily by social ties and ideology, but by their experience of the group\u27s main religious practice: a form of spiritual healing called johrei. A specific experience seems to have been a key part of their religious motivation. This experience is not the whole story, though. While members regarded johrei as central, their interpretations of it varied with their cultural backgrounds. Second-generation Japanese Americans, older white spiritualists and young counter-cultural whites each incorporated johrei and church teachings into the cultural/ideological frameworks that they brought to the church on conversion. While experience was not apprehended raw , the church cannot be said to have given them a coherent view they lacked; nor were inadequacies in their prior socio-cultural situations key to their choices. Religious as well as social factors played a role

Cultural Context and the Definition of Religion: Seeing with Confucian Eyes

Established definitions of religion reflect Euro-American history, which treats religion as largely a matter of beliefs embedded in formal organizations. Confucian approaches to religion are much different. This article explores these approaches to identify aspects of religion that Confucian approaches reveal but that Western notions hide

A Conceptual Model for Employer Training to Manage Employee Counter-Productive Behaviors

The purpose of this study was to develop a model for employer training to manage employees who possess counter-productive behaviors. With the increasing encouragement for employers to hire without discriminating, the number of individuals with disabilities in the workforce will rise. There is limited training in universities and businesses to teach how to deal with difficult individuals. Qualitative research in the form of focus groups was conducted. The following research objectives were developed: 1) Identify components of counter-productive behaviors that need to be managed in the workplace. 2) Develop behavioral management strategies that need be learned by employers. 3) Integrate the findings of counter-productive behaviors with behavior management strategies into a model that can be used to instruct employers in the management of counter-productive behaviors of employees. From the research, a conceptual model was developed using the andragogical model of Knowles, Holton and Swanson (1998). In planning the framework for the training, the instructional design of Morrison, Ross and Kemp (2007) was used. Two levels of training for a company were developed for: 1) top management and 2) middle management and front line supervisors. Objectives for top management were to obtain: 1) knowledge of profitability of training, 2) knowledge about laws mandating hiring, 3) knowledge about laws mandating accommodation and 4) approval for the training of middle management and front line supervisors. Objectives for middle management and front line supervisor training were: 1) identify counter-productive behaviors, 2) obtain knowledge of possible causes of counter-productive behaviors, 3) obtain knowledge of possible accommodations and modifications and 4) evaluate understanding and willingness to implement strategies in the workplace. Five employee counter-productive behaviors of absenteeism, difficulty concentrating, inappropriate social skills, impulsivity and negativity were reported. Additional counter-productive behaviors of anger outbursts, anxiety, communication, irritability, over activity, shifts in mood, excessive talking and lack of awareness of nonverbal social cues were suggested. The most frequent accommodations were flexible breaks and scheduling. Other strategies reported were creating task lists, modifying workspace, relocating worker to a different workspace, use of ear phones to block out noise and use of a mentor. It was also determined that employees do not request accommodations or modifications for fear of retribution on the job. This model provides a guide for detailed training to meet the objectives of top management, middle management and front line supervisors of a company

Understanding Medjugorje: A Khaldunian Approach to a Marian Apparition

Medjugorje’yi Anlamak: Meryem Ana’nın Görünmesi Hadisesine İbn Halduncu Bir Yaklaşım [Alternative Title] Sociologists have generally treated the reports of the Marian apparitions at the Bosnian village of Medjugorje (starting in 1981) as religious phenomena. The later eruption of war in that region, on the other hand, was cast as an ethnic conflict – albeit one that split on supposedly religious lines. This discursive divide stems from the standard sociological treatment of ‘religion’ and ‘ethnicity’ as being fundamentally different sorts of things. In the standard view, “religion” has to do with beliefs and organizations, while ‘ethnicity’ is a matter of tribal, ultimately biological, heritage. Unlike Western sociologists, Ibn Khaldun famously applied the same conceptual resources to religion and to ethnicity, seeing them both as potential sources of “groupfeeling”. Both could sustain group identities in the face of conflict and change, and in the same way. This article evaluates the Khaldunian approach by placing “the miracles at Medjugorje” in the context of southwestern Bosnia’s locally constituted ‘ethnic’ identities. It tracks the complex ways in which both religion and ethnicity were used to heighten group divisions. It ultimately concludes, however, that the Khaldunian approach does not adequately capture the dynamics of either the ‘miracles’ or of the instrumentalism that drove the Bosnian conflict. Öz: Sosyologlar, Bosna-Hersek’in Medjugorje köyünde meydana gelen Meryem Ana’nın görünme olayına dair bildirilenleri (1981 yılında başlamış olan) genellikle dini hadiseler olarak ele alır. Bu bölgede daha sonra patlak veren savaş diğer taraftan etnik bir çatışma olarak biçimlendirilmiştir ve aynı zamanda iddialara göre dini çizgiler üzerinden ayrım gösterir. Bu söylemsel ayrım, ‘din’ ve ‘etnisite’ kavramlarının esas olarak farklı türler olarak ele alınmalarından kaynaklanır. Bu tarz bir ele alış, alışagelmiş sosyolojik bir mahiyet taşır. Standart bakış açısından ele alındığında, “din” inançlar ve örgütlerle ilişkiliyken, ‘etnisite’ kabileye aittir; nihayetinde biyolojik ve kalıtımsaldır. Batılı sosyologların aksine, İbn Haldun, herkesin çok iyi bildiği üzere aynı kavramsal kaynakları din ve etnisiteye uygulamış; her ikisini de “grup hissiyatı”nın olası kaynakları olarak görmüştür. Her ikisi de çatışma ve değişiklik anlarında grup kimliklerinin sürdürülmesini sağlayabilir ve bunu aynı şekilde yapar. Bu makalede “Medjugorje’de yaşanan mucizeler” güneybatı Bosna’nın yerel olarak teşkil edilmiş ‘etnik’ kimlikleri bağlamına yerleştirilmiş ve bu doğrultuda Ibn Haldun’a ait yaklaşım değerlendirilmiştir. Bu değerlendirme, hem din hem de etnisitenin grup arasındaki ayrımları arttırmak için kullanılan karmaşık yolları izlenmektedir. Ibn Haldun’a ait yaklaşımın ‘mucizelerin’ ya da Bosna çatışmasını yönlendiren enstrümantalizmin dinamiklerini yeterli şekilde yakalamadığı sonucuna varılmıştır

Families and Religions: An Anthropological Typology

This chapter outlines a typology of relationships between religious ideas and family structures, based on the work of anthropologist Mary Douglas. It illustrates that typology with descriptions of the religious and family differences between Nepalese Hindus, Nepalese Buddhists, and Coast Miwok Indians. It ends with some suggestions about how the typology might be used to analyze North American religionshttps://inspire.redlands.edu/oh_chapters/1041/thumbnail.jp

Networks, Homes, or Congregations: Exploring the Locus of Immigrant Religiosity

The sociology of religion in the United States has considerable experience with the study of immigrant religion. Unfortunately, the assimilationist model that has dominated this study is only partly relevant to contemporary transnational migrations. This chapter assesses the latest version of this assimilationist model, R. Stephen Warner’s “new congregationalism”. While rightly focusing attention on the role that local congregations play in adjusting immigrants to American life, this approach underplays two key aspects of contemporary immigrant religiosity: 1) the transnational religious networks that make immigration no one-way street; and 2) the importance of non-churched religious practices, with their implications for the sustenance of religious identity. These two structural matters, along with the issue of race, question the completeness of the new congregationalism as a paradigm for under- standing immigrant religion. They also throw doubt on any point of view that focuses primarily on religion’s role in adjusting immigrants to their host societies.https://inspire.redlands.edu/oh_chapters/1043/thumbnail.jp