Topical Issues of American Behavioral Scientist - Böcker

The 2004 American Presidential campaign was a watershed event for many reasons, but especially because the line between statesmanship and showmanship became extremely blurred.  Because of the importance of this American election, American Behavioral Scientist is dedicating four issues, entitled Campaign 2004, Volumes 1-4, edited by J. Gregory Payne of Emerson College, to analysis of Campaign 2004, both Presidential and Senatorial, and contemporary issues and dynamics in political communication.

According to public relations guru, James Grunig, political communication is more and more about meaningful relationships the public has with candidates who try to mirror their values, beliefs, and attitudes.  Campaign 2004 was unique because of the use of new technologies such as cable television talk shows, the Internet, Web pages, blogs, and VNRs (simulated video new releases) enabled candidates to target their messages and communication images to smaller groups. The new media challenged the traditional mainstream media by providing a venue for unrestrained, less commercial, and sometimes more global information. Campaign 2004 also shamelessly used staged pseudoevents and celebrity spectacles as "infotainment,' and spent over $620 million on mostly negative political advertising to spell out issues and to try to set the future political agenda.  The four volumes of Campaign 2004 evaluate the successes and failures of Campaign 2004 and offer some practical insights for future campaigns.

Volume I of Campaign 2004 concentrates on campaign rhetoric and the battle for attention in the campaign primaries.  Volume 2 changes direction by focusing on the effectiveness of presidential debates, political advertising, and leadership, as well as showcasing the Senate races in South Dakota and Illinois.  Volume 3 considers trends in new media, mediated reality, and the politics of pseudoevents and celebrity/spectacle, while Volume 4 offers international reflections and perspectives on democracy, and elections in the Middle East and Europe. 

Campaign 2004,  Volumes 1-4 belongs in the library of every one interested in political science, political communication, international relations, mass communication, mass media, journalism, sociology, marketing/advertising, discourse analysis, and rhetoric.

Volume 1: Constructing the New American Ideals/Idols in Democracy (ISBN: 1-4129-3921-6)Volume 2: De/Constructing the Mediated Realities of Presidential debates, Political Advertising, and Showvase Senate Races (ISBN: 1-4129-3922-4)Volume 3: The Political Celebrity Spectacle: De/Constructing Image Meaning/Mongering (ISBN: 1-4129-3923-2)Volume 4: Style versus Substance in E-Politics and International Perspectives on Democracy (ISBN: 1-4129-3924-0)

Communitarianism is an intriguing social theory that states community and the social bonds of family, traditional values, and education are the main building blocks of a new supranational global order.  One of its strongest proponents, Amitai Etzioni, posits that  the "transnational threats facing humankind today are so overwhelming that soon all nations will experience a convergence of values and priorities, which will lay the groundwork for eventual global governance. " The eight articles presented by the August 2005 issue of American Behavioral Scientist offer a fascinating and spirited dialogue regarding the concurrences and contradictions of communitarianism within the context of international relations. They tackle a range of topics first addressed in Etzioni's treatise From Empire to Community: A New Approach to International Relations, including:

This issue offers a balanced view of  a much-disputed theory and belongs in the library of every political scientist , sociologist , and everyone interested in the state of the world around them.

This issue examines patterns of on-going racial and ethnic inequality in the increasingly heterogeneous American workplace. The six articles in this sensitive and thoughtful issue of American Behavioral Scientist, entitled Race, Ethnicity, and Inequality in the Workplace: Evolving Issues and edited by George Wilson of Miami University, analyze the various aspects of this "modern discrimination," including the dynamics of hiring, promotions, and job dismissals; the aspects of work that impact child development; how politics influences the enforcement of Equal Employment Opportunity standards; the intentional/unintentional use of statistics to reinforce inequalities; and the continuing wage gap for Latinas and African American females.

The penetrating articles investigate important topics such as:

· Why African American males continue to be handicapped in the promotion/upward mobility process (Smith)

· Why African-American males are more vulnerable to job dismissals because of layoffs, firings, downsizing, retrenchments, and mergers than White males (Wilson)

· Why African American children of parents in prestigious/high-status occupations do not have the same school/academic performances and health outcomes as White children with parents with similar occupations (Conley and Yeung)

· The role political environments play in enforcing racial and ethnic equality laws and the variegated patterns of segregation since the 1960s (Stainback, Robinson, and Tomaskovic-Devey

· How racial, ethnic, and gender-based statistics are used to enable inconspicuous but effective institutional discriminatory policies (Baumle and Fossett)

· Trends and causes of wage inequality among Latina and African American females compared to White females from the 1990s to the present (Browne and Askew)

As the evidence in these papers shows, both overt and subtle inequities based on race and ethnicity still exist in the American workplace. This issue of American Behavioral Scientist is a useful tool to examine the intricacies and impacts of this "modern discrimination," and should be included in every sociology and business library!

"Homelessness is not one problem, but many different kinds of problems involving many different kinds of people, each of them homeless for different reasons or who have become homeless in different ways… Among the homeless of today are men, women, children, and whole families; victims of domestic violence and male abandonment; young, middle-aged, and elderly; veterans; illegal immigrants; persons of every ethnic description; people who are homeless for strictly economic reasons; others who are homeless because they drink and drug too much; the lucid and the deranged; and on through a long list…."

                                                James Wright

                                                University of Central Florida

Bringing together international perspectives from sociology, political science, public policy, criminology, urban studies, adolescent research, and social work, this fascinating April 2005 issue of American Behavioral Scientist (ABS), entitled Homelessness and the Politics of Social Exclusion focuses on pioneering research about how the homeless are marginalized in societies around the world and the consequences of this social exclusion. 

Based on presentations at the American Sociological Association's 2003 Annual Meeting, the authors of this unique volume discuss:

Whether the original cause of a person's homelessness is economic, social, cultural or political, homelessness carries a stigma  This absorbing issue of American Behavioral Scientist offers new ways of observing this global social problem and should be included in every sociology, social work, and political science library!

From science to politics, the era of the the Enlightenment is widely recognized as a crucible for modern Western culture. It has shaped vast portions of the Western world view, including our conceptions and experiences of happiness, family life, the nation-state, and religious and ethnic identities.  However, in recent years, scholars from both the sciences and the humanities have debated the question of how we should understand, and to what extent we should endorse, our debt to the Enlightenment. The January 2006 issue of American Behavioral Scientist offers rigorous engagement of pro-Enlightenment and Counter-Enlightenment perspectives, continuing a debate that began in the late eighteenth century.  The opening essays by James Schmidt and Graeme Garrard offer historically and linguistically nuanced defenses of plural uses of the term "enlightenment"— especially to capture the distinction between the process of enlightenment and the era of the Enlightenment. The remaining articles more closelyexamine several questions about the Enlightenment's legacy for contemporary life:

The remaining essays by Darrin M. McMahon, Eileen Hunt Botting, Adam Sutcliffe, Russell Arben Fox, and Damon Linker review these questions from different perspectives and assess the value of the Enlightenment's legacy in various spheres of human life.  McMahon's essay focuses on the Enlightenment's impact on the modern understanding of happiness and social welfare.  Botting's essay concentrates on how Mary Wollstonecraft's Enlightenment philosophy contributed to the development of the "modern social imaginary" of the egalitarian family.  Sutcliffe and Fox illustrate how Western conceptions of religious, ethnic, and national identities have been shaped in critical dialogue with, or in opposition to, the rationalistic, universalistic strands of Enlightenment thought.  Linker argues that we should resist Heidegger's rejection of the philosophical process of enlightenment and  that we should instead embrace the Enlightenment's promotion of the normative ideal and political practice of critical public discourse about our relationships to one another and the world around us.

This issue of American Behavioral Scientist offers an accessible survey of current research on the contemporary relevance of the Enlightenment and should be in the library of every political scientist, sociologist, historian, humanist, philosopher, and student!

Social class, race, and ethnicity all influence health care disparities for many health care services and illnesses, such as heart disease and stroke, cancer, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and maternal and child health care.  Public health scholars have advanced numerous reasons for these disparities, including physician biases, patients' fatalistic attitudes, cultural patterns, lack of health insurance, and institutional racism. Communication plays a critical role in conveying, reinforcing, and helping to reduce health care inequities. The eight articles in the February 2006 issue of American Behavioral Scientist explore how racial disparities in health care outcomes are related to communication issues. Article highlights include:

Taken together, these eight articles provide new directions for research on communication and racial disparities. They also provide thoughtful suggestions for campaign practitioners. This incisive issue of American Behavioral Scientist should be in the library of everyone interested in health communication, health disparities, health promotion, minority health, cultural competency training, doctor-patient communication, and public health.

The March 2006 issue of American Behavioral Scientist, entitled Institutions in the Making: Identity, Power and the Emergence of New Organizational Forms  features new insights on institutional change and theory, exploring, collectively and individually, how new institutions first emerge within and among organizations.  Based on a workshop entitled "New Public and Private Models of Management: Sensemaking and Institutions" in Skagen, Denmark in Summer 2005, the 11 articles look at key organizational trends in institutional change, including corporate governance, social responsibility, and new work roles.

The first two articles deal with mediating the micro-macro divide in institutional theory. Pedersen and Dobbin offer insights into the four types of processes through which practices and ideas from the wider organizational field become distinct organizational cultures.  Hallett and Ventresca reexamine Gouldner's Patterns of Industrial Bureaucracy and the "coupling" processes that were considered key mechanisms in the emergence of new institutional forms.

Campbell and Boxenbaum focus on the rise of corporate social responsibility. Campbell explores the political and economic motives that underlie the current definition of corporate social responsibility, and raises the question of why corporations ever act in socially responsible ways.  Boxenbaum shows how a practice from one place can be adapted into a different environment by going through the processes of individual preferences, strategic reframing, and local grounding.

The next three articles target corporate governance in diverse arenas such as the European defense industry and the American thrift industry.  Fligstein and Enrione, Mazza, and Zerboni review how decision-makers negotiate new institutional models with interested groups, and how decision-makers may end up creating institutions that are not anything like what they originally envisioned.  Haveman and Rao  investigate how change in the form of governance occurred over time and circumstance.

Patriotta and Lanzara, Meyer and Hammerschmid, and Westenholz each consider how work roles and identities become institutionalized and how they affect organizations. Drawing on wide-ranging examples from an automotive factory, public administrators in Austria, and IT workers, the last three articles attempt to account for the global and local dynamics that shape worker identities and roles.

Together these articles suggest a number of promising research avenues for those interested in how new organizational elements, ideas, and practices come about and evolve.  This issue should be in the library of every forward-thinking manager, organizational behaviorist, industrial and organizational sociologist, and business school professors and students.

There are 1.3 million Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel, who encompass 19.4% of the country's total population. There are another 3, 762, 005 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip whose educational experiences and opportunities continue to be affected by Israeli occupation. Researchers have documented institutionalized political, economic, and social discrimination, as well as the Palestinian minority's lower levels of income, educational opportunity, employment, property ownership, and community infrastructure and development.

The state-run educational system, which is subdivided into Jewish and Arab systems, has been essential in creating and maintaining these gaps.

The April 2006 issue of American Behavioral Scientist explores the role of Palestinian Arab education as a public policy tool and reviews key issues regarding how education shapes culture, individual and communal development, social stratification, economics, and politics in Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories.

The challenging articles in this provocative issue examine a far-reaching array of contentious topics, including:

Whether one agrees or not with the controversial views expressed in this exceptional issue, these six articles highlight key educational issues that must be faced, debated, and grappled with in order to build the foundations of a lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis

This issue should be in the library of everyone interested in Middle East Studies, International Studies, International Politics, International Law, Human Rights, Educational Policy, Sociology of Education, and Social Change.

The largest social change in the last 50 years has been the increase in the number of women, especially mothers of young children, in the formal work force. The May 2006 and June 2006 volumes of American Behavioral Scientist look at how this powerful transformation has impacted the venerable foundations of work and family, and reflect on the changes needed in organizational practices, social and public policy, families, and society in general to adapt to the changing 21st century workforce.

Changes at the Intersection of Work and Family: Organizational and Worker Perspectives, Volume 1 (May 2006), edited by Diane F. Halpern and Heidi R. Riggio, focuses on organizational and worker perspectives. Many studies have shown that there is a substantial and practical return-on-investment for employers that adopt and commit to policies that help employees better manage the needs of both work and family, including fewer missed days of work, fewer "come late" or "leave early" days, reduced employee turnover, improved morale, and a better commitment to the employer.  Volume 1 emphasizes topics such as the need for improved work-life policies, successful and promising public policy approaches, long-term work-life case studies from IBM, the dual-earner 60-hour work week, work-family and obesity and other health issues, the real and perceived negative consequences of taking advantage of family-friendly policies, the differences between male and female caregivers, and a whole-life approach to managing work and family.Changes at the Intersection of Work and Family: Family Perspectives, Volume 2 (June 2006), edited by Heidi R. Riggio and Diane F. Halpern, highlights family perspectives and issues such as working parents' expanding need for child care, after-school care, elder care, and medical leave.  The six articles in this volume examine how policymakers and organizations can help maximize working families' health, productivity and happiness. 

Volume 2 covers subjects such as maternal employment and healthy child and young adult development, how working affects mothers' self-identity and other positive factors, the stress of parents coping with after-school child care, why community programs and support such as after-school programs are so necessary to working families, and how dual-earning households mutually influence each others retirement planning.

The same important point is made in all of the articles in both volumes: there are tremendous changes taking place in families and in workplaces, and social, organizational, and public policies must be better aligned to meet to the needs of and to benefits from the greater diversity in today's families and workforce. Written by outstanding scholars and researchers in public policy, economics, sociology, psychology, business, and family studies, including Barbara Gault, Vicky Lovell, E. Jeffrey Hill et al., Tammy D. Allen, Jeremy Armstrong, Robert Drago et al., Noelle Chesley, Stewart D. Friedman, Allen W. Gottfried, Adele E. Gottfried, Patricia M. Raskin, Rosalind C. Barnett, Karen C. Gareis, Marcie Pitts-Catasouphes, and Phyllis Moen, the articles in both volumes ask critical questions and offer some interesting and sensible solutions to the changing realities of work and family.

These volumes should be in the library and in the classrooms of everyone interested in Public Policy, Business/Management, Psychology, Family Studies, Sociology, and Economics.