Word: sociologist
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...where photographers Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher come in. For 25 years, working separately and then together, the two women have crisscrossed the continent from Senegal to Ethiopia, from Morocco to South Africa, observing and documenting traditional native ceremonies. Although not working scientists (Fisher was trained as a sociologist before she switched to photography; Beckwith came to the field from a background in art), they have studied their subjects with the thoroughness of professional researchers, visiting all but seven of Africa's 53 nations and capturing on film most of the rituals that are still practiced on the continent...
Stengel reveals the shallow roots of his argument that civil engagement is alive and well in this country when he cites Princeton sociologist Robert Wuthnow's suggestion that we are eschewing large, bureaucratic organizations for smaller, flexible ones that "fit our life-style." This sounds more like convenience-store values for those who can't be bothered with deep commitment. Stengel's apologist thinking is especially disturbing in the context of a society in which the middle and lower classes are rapidly losing ground while a small group of the economically elite amasses more and more of the nation...
...raisings have never been strictly local. While many conservative thinkers have suggested that America's traditional associations sprang up like indigenous flowers from the soil of American goodness, the recent Oval Office handshakes serve as a reminder that Washington has always been a conspirator in grass-roots organizing. As sociologist Theda Skocpol has written, many of the U.S.'s most cherished volunteer associations, such as the Red Cross, the Salvation Army and Catholic Charities, worked side by side with government. Conservatives have lamented the fact that today's newest associations are often parochial, nimby-style protest groups. But even...
There is no conscious movement here, just a work in progress. Yet combined, these disparate voices reach a mighty throng. Sociologist Paul Ray, who has been studying the makeup of the self-help and healing movements for eight years, calls the eager listeners "Cultural Creatives"--some 44 million strong, 60% women, mostly middle and upper class, with auxiliary interests in ecology and women's issues. Others suggest that they have already been named: they are the baby boomers, who happen to have begun turning 50 this year and are looking for ways to face their mortality...
William Julius Wilson's books, says Bill Clinton, "made me see race and poverty and the problems of the inner city in a different light." Indeed, no thinker has done more than the 60-year-old sociologist to explain why the black underclass sank into such misery and isolation at the same time millions of other African Americans were escaping from the ghetto to create a vibrant middle class...