Despite its wide currency, the term "mass society" is distinctly ambiguous. This ambiguity raises the question of the utility of the sociological concept of mass society for explaining political phenomena, specifically, the susceptibility of democratic systems to mass politics. Part 1 of the thesis attempts a precise definition of mass society using as a basis the various views of the theorists. A critical analysis of the concept is then undertaken in Part 2. Before the model is defined, however, the historical origins of the concept are examined briefly. Its roots can be traced back to the founders of Western culture. The concept of mass runs like a thread through the history of political thought reaching its zenith in the 1930's and the post-war period. Then, it was elaborated upon by such theorists as Arendt, Fromm, Kornhauser and Selznick. Since that time it has vied with class analysis as the main explanation of the rise of totalitarianism in the West. As the concept of the mass(es) was the antecedent of the theory of mass society, it is essential to define the former clearly. The masses are the atomized non-elites in society whose members are unattached, socially unstructured and undifferentiated, and distinguished by alienation and mediocrity. Complementing this notion of the mass(es) is the concept of the elite(s). They are minorities who hold positions of authority in the central institutions and control the central value systems which guide and legitimate these institutions. A model of mass society is next outlined and is contrasted with the following societal types: feudal and pluralistic. A mass society is characterized by accessible elites and available non-elites (or masses) with no group structure mediating between the two. It is this paucity of viable primary and secondary groups in mass society that distinguishes it from either a feudal or pluralistic society. The main factors contributing to the "decline of community" in mass society are rapid industrialization, rapid urbanization, bureaucratization and the development of mass culture. In Part 2, three main criticisms are levelled at the democratic (not the aristocratic) theorists of mass society. First, their analyses are a blend of empirical and normative ingredients and not, as they claim, descriptive only. Second, the concept is too imprecise and third, it is too selective to qualify for the label "scientific." More specifically, the critique takes the following form. The elitist bias of the theorists is exposed in their discussion of the elite-mass relationship. A critical examination of the notion of atomization so crucial to the theory of mass society is next undertaken. The pluralist bias of the theorists is, then, brought to light. It is argued that in their discussion of the "decline of community" in a mass society, an idealized model of pluralistic society is implicitly postulated as the norm. Their model is idealized because only positive features of such a society are incorporated into it and because it minimizes (or even ignores) such factors as the role of power, the nature of conflict, the unorganized, economic interests, the effects of strains and the consequences of cultural diversity. What emerges most clearly from this critique of the concept of mass society are the scientific pretensions of the democratic theorists. In other words, far from being an accurate, objective description of social and political reality, as they claim, the concept resembles more of an ideology riddled with their value judgments. The theory of mass society, then, is an ideological position and not a scientific concept. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

Errata pasted behind front end papers. / Bibliography: leaves 290-337. / x, 338 leaves ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Presents non-scriptural prophecy as an example of shared culture from a historical perspective, rather than a literary one. Further uncovers the interests and motivations of non-learned adherents of prophecy and ultimately reveals that many people in the sixteenth century shared a common interest in prophecy that transcended social and other boundaries. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of History, 1997?

Errata pasted behind front end papers. / Bibliography: leaves 290-337. / x, 338 leaves ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Presents non-scriptural prophecy as an example of shared culture from a historical perspective, rather than a literary one. Further uncovers the interests and motivations of non-learned adherents of prophecy and ultimately reveals that many people in the sixteenth century shared a common interest in prophecy that transcended social and other boundaries. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of History, 1997?

This thesis focuses on Hannah Arendt’s theory of natality, which is identified with the event of birth into a pre-existing human world. Arendt names natality the “ontological root” of political action and of human freedom, and yet, as critics of Arendt’s political writings have pointed out, this notion of identifying freedom with birth is somewhat perplexing. I return to Arendt’s phenomenological analysis of active human life in The Human Condition, focusing on the significance of natality as the disclosure of a unique “who” within a specific relational web. From there, I trace the distinct threats to natality, speech-action, and worldly relations posed by the political philosophical tradition, on the one hand, and by the modern biopolitical “rise of the social” on the other. Drawing connections between Arendt’s theory of the social and Michel Foucault’s work on the biopolitical management of populations, my thesis defends Arendt’s contentious distinction between social and political life; the Arendtian social, I argue, can fruitfully be read as biopolitical. / Graduate

Thesis (doctoral)--Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 188-197).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Carleton University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 244-268). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Orientador: Roberto Akira Goto / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Educação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-21T16:45:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Andrade_FlavioRovanide_D.pdf: 1479213 bytes, checksum: a9b8e3a2880adf464ccfebb3059ad0b1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / Resumo: Esta tese tem por objeto o pensamento de Hannah Arendt (1906-1975), naquilo que se refere às relações entre educação e totalitarismo constantes em sua obra, tendo como ponto de partida o ensaio "A crise na educação", de 1958. Inicia-se esclarecendo que o trato de Arendt sobre assuntos políticos se faz sob o assombro do fenômeno totalitário, que segundo a autora explodiu nossas categorias do pensamento político e nossos padrões de julgamento moral. Demonstra que suas análises não se baseiam em nenhuma metodologia, mas consiste num impulso fenomenológico com vistas a compreender os principais eventos do mundo moderno, pensando sem arrimos, por meio de uma análise conceitual transmitida na forma de narrativa. Posteriormente, passa-se à análise das teses contidas em "A crise na educação", crise caracterizada pelo rebaixamento dos níveis escolares, após a aplicação servil e indiscriminada de pressupostos teóricos fundamentados na progressive education; utiliza-se como aporte conceitual parte significativa da obra da autora. Conclui-se, do pensamento de Arendt, que a crise da autoridade e da tradição está na base da crise educacional, pois a educação, enquanto instância pré-política, não pode prescindir de ambas, mas caminha em um mundo que não mais está ordenado pela autoridade nem coeso pela tradição, e, sobretudo, porque a recusa dos adultos em exercer a autoridade sobre as crianças equivale a eles não assumirem a responsabilidade pelas crianças e pelo mundo, embora elas precisem de sua orientação até que possam se inserir no mundo comum, onde deverão exercer sua liberdade. Depois, busca-se analisar a natureza do totalitarismo em Hannah Arendt, com a finalidade de trazer à luz as principais características totalitárias das quais se podem extrair consequências para o mundo não totalitário, destacando-se a limitação da liberdade e da espontaneidade, a solidão organizada, a superfluidade, a ideologia e a logicidade, questões que Arendt analisa pela ótica da perda do mundo e do senso comuns. Finalmente, busca-se situar o problema específico da educação no conjunto das preocupações de Hannah Arendt com o fenômeno totalitário, concluindo-se que há conexões textuais e conceituais, pois a crise educacional local reflete a crise geral à medida que é, pela recusa da autoridade e geração do conformismo, uma atitude frente ao novo no sentido de negar-lhe o direito de no mundo se firmar. / Abstract: This thesis has as its object the thought of Hannah Arendt (1906-1975), concerning the relations between education and totalitarianism that appear in her work, having as its starting point the essay "The crisis in education", 1958. It begins by explaining that Arendt's approach on political affairs is under the amazement of the totalitarian phenomenon, which according to the author burst our categories of political thought and our standards of moral judgment. It shows that her analyzes are not based on any methodology, but it consists on a phenomenological impulse in order to understand the key events of the modern world, thinking without considering, based on a conceptual analysis transmitted in a narrative form. Subsequently, it focus on the analysis of the theses presented in "The crisis in education", crisis characterized by the lowering of school levels, after the servile and indiscriminate application of theoretical assumptions based on progressive education; using as framework a significant part of her work. It is concluded, considering the thought of Arendt, that the crisis of authority and tradition is the basis of educational crisis, since education, being a pre-political instance, cannot be separated from both, but it walks into a world that is neither ordered by the authority nor cohesive by tradition, and, above all, because adult's refusal of exercising their authority on children is equivalent to their not being responsible for children and the world, although they need their guidance until they can be inserted in common world, where they should exercise their freedom. Then, it tries to analyze the nature of totalitarianism in Hannah Arendt's though, with the purpose of enlightening the main characteristics of totalitarian from which consequences for a non-totalitarian world can be extracted, highlighting the limitation of freedom and spontaneity, the organized loneliness, the superfluity, ideology and the logicality, issues that Arendt analyzes from the perspective of the loss of world and common senses. Finally, it seeks to locate the specific problem of education among the concerns of Hannah Arendt with the totalitarian phenomenon, concluding that there are textual and conceptual connections, because the local educational crisis reflects the general crisis as it is, by the refusal of authority and the generation of conformism, an attitude toward the new to deny you the right to grow and establish yourself in the world. / Doutorado / Filosofia e História da Educação / Mestre em Educação

Heft 7 der Zeitschrift Coils of the serpent.

<p>The intent of this study is to consider changes in the naturalization of the self-as-object in both behavioral and mental spheres, or the "self-as-instrument" and "self-consciousself", respectively. The concern here is on the naturalness versus historicalness accorded these two aspects of the self-as-object. A focused examination of the treatment of the self-as-object in three theoretical schools, the Chicago School, Mass Society Theory, and Post-Modern school, assists in drawing the conclusion that the more the self-as-object is separated in these two spheres, the more the self-as-instrument, and in particular and self-as-egoistic-instrument, is naturalized. Further attendant with this separation is a selfconscious-self that becomes an increasingly historical and problematic construct.</p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

L’apparition de l’internet et sa propagation sur 38,8% de la population mondiale entre 1995 et 2013 indiquent que les nouveaux médias ont causé des changements significatifs dans les sociétés à travers le monde. Les caractéristiques du nouveau medium, telles que l’interactivité et la possibilité de son utilisation de n’importe quel lieu, à tout moment, pointent la possibilité élevée de développement de l’addiction par ses utilisateurs. Les données indiquent la hausse de l’utilisation générale des médias au cours des soixante dernières années. D’autre part, pendant cette même période a été notée la baisse de la participation politique, ensemble avec le déclin de la socialisation et de la participation active dans des organisations professionnelles. Les questions de recherche sont réparties en de grandes questions, relatives à l’examen sur les personnes qui sont plus sujettes à devenir dépendantes aux medias, à découvrir si les personnes sont plus dépendantes aux medias anciens ou nouveaux et à clarifier quelles sont les conséquences de la dépendance aux médias, y compris son impact sur la participation politique. Les ouvrages des penseurs classiques ont été examinés pour servir de fondement aux hypothèses, portant une attention particulière à l’anomie, l’aliénation et la société de masse. L’examen des ouvrages de la littérature contemporaine a été focalisé sur les notions de la structure sociale moderne, de l’avancée technologique, de la mondialisation, de la déception par la démocratie, du nouveau paysage médiatique et du narcissisme. L’hypothèse principale, résultat de l’examen des perspectives théoriques différentes, indique que les changements sociaux, telle que l’apparition de la production de masse et l’expansion des medias de masse, réduisent la possibilité d’expression et augmentent la manipulation de l’intérêt du profit. Cela peut être à l’origine des frustrations qui engendrent des sortes différentes de dépendance, qui remplacent les buts non réalisés, causant ainsi la baisse de la participation politique. Cette baisse permet aux “mauvaises personnes”, qui exercent mal les fonctions représentatives, de devenir des acteurs sociaux, ce qui peut, potentiellement, causer davantage de frustrations. La recherche a été conduite à l’aide d’un sondage représentatif, mis en œuvre en Serbie en 2011. Cette étude établit une nouvelle méthodologie de mesure de la dépendance par le biais d’un seul sondage; pour la première fois, elle distingue des personnes dépendantes aux médias par le niveau de leur dépendance et la longueur d’utilisation des médias comme indices objectifs, tandis qu’elle comprend aussi des indices subjectifs..... / Appearance of internet and its spread to 38.8% of world population from 1995 to 2013 indicate that new media bring significant changes to societies around the world. Features of new media such as interactivity and possibility to use it from anywhere anytime indicate internet may be highly addictive. Data point to increases in overall media use over the last 60 years. On the other hand, decreases in political participation are registered together with decline in socializing and active membership in professional organizations for the same period. Research questions are divided into large ones relating to examination of what kind of people are more susceptible to becoming media addicts, finding out if people are more addicted to old than to new media and inquiring into consequences of media addiction including its effects to political participation. Classical thinkers have been examined as basis for hypotheses with special attention directed towards anomie, alienation and mass society. Nowadays literature has been examined as well, focusing on modern social structure, advance of technology, globalization, disappointment with democracy, new media landscape and narcissism. Main presumption coming from examination of different theoretical perspectives is that social changes such as appearance of mass production and expansion of mass media decreased possibilities for expression and increased manipulation of profit interest. This may be causing appearance of frustrations leading towards different kinds of addictions as substitutions for unrealized goals, thus causing decrease in political participation. This decrease makes it possible for “wrong people” to become social agents as they perform representative functions in poor manner, which potentially causes more frustration.Research was conducted through nationally representative survey in Serbia during 2011. This study establishes new methodology to measure addiction to all media through a single survey; it divides media addicts according to level of their addiction and uses length of media use as objective indicator, for the first time, while it also includes subjective indicators.