An Evaluation of the Novels of Mari Sandoz

Mari Sandoz’ is an established Nebraskan writer; she is known primarily for her biographical and historical books. So recognized is Mari Sandoz as a Nebraska author that the governor of Nebraska proclaimed August 23, 1954, “Mari Sandoz Day” in honor of the publication of The Buffalo Hunters.1 But Miss Sandoz has been recognized beyond the confines of her own state. Old Jules, the biography of her father, won the Atlantic Monthly Press non-fiction award in 1935. In 1959, Mari Sandoz received the Buffalo Award of the New York Posses of the Westerners for The Cattlemen. Her books have been published in Swiss and German editions, with Old Jules being named the book of the month in the Scandinavian countries, and it was serialized and issued in half a dozen editions.1 Most of her pertinent material on Mari Sandoz comes from magazine reviews of her work and from short articles. While quite well known for her non-fiction, Mari Snadoz has written, in addition, many short stories and eight other books consistently listed as fiction. One indication of a book’s readability is the number of reprintings and editions that the book has had. Old Jules was copyrighted in 1935 and again in 1963. A paperback edition was published in 1962. Her contribution to Midwest Americana is recognized in her historical non-fiction. Her work is said to be beautifully written and full of striking images and masterful descriptions.3 The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the five “fiction novels” of Mari Sandoz in terms of the fundamental requirements of fiction established by Robert Penn Warren and Cleanth Brooks in Understanding Fiction and The Scope of Fiction. (see more in text

Discursive arenas: deliberation and the constitution of identity in public participation at local level

This article is based on empirical research into public participation in two English cities. It discusses issues related to motivations to take part in public participation initiatives and the way in which individual and collective identities may be constructed through participation. Drawing on social movement theory it emphasises the importance both of networks and values in prompting participation and it illustrates this with examples drawn from participation initiatives based around identities: age, gender, ethnicity, and issues/interests such as health inequalities, community regeneration and social care service provision. The analysis suggests it is important to understand the histories and motivations of officials as well as citizens who take part, and questions the priority given to 'representation' in constituting the membership of participation forums

Public participation and collaborative governance

This paper draws on the findings of a study within the ESRC's Democracy and Participation Programme. It explores the processes of participation within deliberative forums – such as user panels, youth forums, area based committees – developed as a means of encouraging a more active, participating mode of citizenship and of improving welfare services by making them more responsive to users. Our findings open up a number of issues about constraints on the development of ‘collaborative governance’. To understand these constraints, we suggest, there is need to locate participation initiatives in the context of government policy, to explore ways in which such policy is interpreted and enacted by strategic actors in local organisations and to examine the perceptions of members of deliberative forums themselves. Our findings highlight the constraints on the ‘political opportunity structures’ created by the enhanced policy focus on public participation, and the consequent limits to ‘collaborative governance’. We discuss how governance theory and social movement theory can each contribute to the analysis, but also suggest productive points of engagement through which each of these bodies of theory might enrich the other