No description available.

No description available.

<p>In contrast to the plethora of sociological interpretations that read Baudrillard's corpus of works through the themes that he analyzed in the late '60s and '70s, this work attempts to re-read Baudrillard through his recent publications. Sociological approaches center on a Marxist critique of capitalism and on the themes of simulation and simulacra. They therefore tend to see Baudrillard's recent work as "unreadable," for the latter does not offer an alternative social position. A philosophical reading of Baudrillard through his latest work does not presuppose that Baudrillard is to offer an alternative social position, hence this reading is capable of questioning the basis of sociological approaches to Baudrillard.</p> <p>This reading attempts to disclose the themes of simulation and seduction as a critique of perspectivism that brings forth semiological and seductive forms of postperspectivism. The uncovering of the grounds of perspectivism goes hand-in-hand with interpreting semiological and fatal strategies not as historical but as genealogical undertakings. This approach presupposes a re-placement ofBaudrillard's body of works from a Marxist to a Nietzschean context. Within this context fatal strategy is no longer seen as a reversal of the semiological strategy or a form of ressentiment directed at "subjective" strategies, but rather as a further genealogical "archaeology" of simulacra. When Baudrillard's recent works are seen as "raw phenomenology," they are capable of offering new conceptions of subjectivity, reduction, reference, and meaning. However, a phenomenological reading of fatal strategy calls for the abandonment of the Baudrillardian "wager" that only opposes the appearance of an event to its meaning. Instead of a mere opposition, fatal strategy is to uncover non-meaning as the fundamenlal presupposition of meaning. If this step is taken, fatal strategy is no longer an alternative social position or a reversal of "metaphysics of presence," but rather a form of thinking that comes to terms with the infinity and anonymity of language.</p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Current studies in the field of occupational sociology often present the deficiency of regarding workplace and work community as a backdrop, in front of which workers perform their duties. The two elements have not been receiving the attention they deserve. In light of this, this thesis argues that instead of merely setting the scene for investigation, workplace and work community are crucial and deciding factors in the construction of work identity. During the process, the influence of clients, including supervisors, peers and customers also comes in and participates in portraying this identity. Employing data collected through personal work experience, participant observation and in-depth interviews in commercial kitchens, this thesis advocates a conceptual model to explain the impact of these elements during the construction of work identity, and the dynamics among them therein. In terms of research method, this is also a demonstration of the importance of "going back to the workplace" when conducting similar researches under the auspice of occupational sociology. / Fung Yat-chung. / "December 2004." / Adviser: Lui Tai-lok. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-01, Section: A, page: 0356. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 200-202). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

This thesis explores the historical roots of scientific medicine in an effort to highlight the lack of humanist intersubjectivity within the contemporary medical model. The study notes that contemporary medicine is overtly scientific and that its scientific framework is upheld and furthered by a medical model which draws legitimation from the irrefutability of what is referred to variously within this work, as its scientific "regime". It is shown that in terms of the humanist tradition people, not science, constitute the epicentre of meaningful experiential participation in the defining of human social reality. This, it is argued, implies a radically different ontology from other sociological perspectives on medicine. The thesis suggests that the contemporary medical model loses sight of the patient's ability to cognitively participate in the defining of illness, diagnosis and treatment in terms of his/her experience thereof , and argues that contemporary medicine, by advancing the idea that it alone has the correct and only answer to such problems, has led to a situation which promotes an overmedicalisation of society . The study gives an indication of the way in which this overmedicalisation has led to areas of human life becoming conceived of only in relation to medical expertise. In this respect it is noted that medicine has so successfully infiltrated the human consciousness (involving areas as diverse as childbirth, genetic engineering, transplant surgery and death), that decisions on health are invariably taken from a foundation of scientific legitimation which seems to exclude the patient as subject. It is argued that this way of making decisions reinforces the requirement for a scientific medical model which as it negates the human element insidiously amplifies its power over human life; thereby devaluing the very people it seeks to serve. The thesis suggests that in terms of a humanist reading of the Oath of Hippocrates, medical decisions can only be taken within a framework of experiential involvement which includes both medical expertise and lay understanding. It is indicated that when this happens, social reality functions in terms of a symbolic participation which fosters a commitment to equalise the conditions of human existence, and promotes a dialogical negotiatory process which is both intersubjectively and ongoingly produced.

Medicine has proven particularly successful with regard to its development and maintenance of a primary position within the professions. While many analyses of the medical profession have dealt with its unique status, explanations of authority relations have largely been presented as medicine's jockeying for power with other elite occupational types. In the following work, medicine's organization is used as a context for the subsequent analysis. Individual medical practitioner ties to the American Medical Association are tested for degree of association with organizational platforms and policies. The "distance" between medicine and other health-related industries is described as a feature of the wieldy AMA's diffuse authority. The strong association of medicine with science and the physical role are considered as equally important elements in the professional dominance of medicine. Finally, the medical client is brought into the analysis, pointing to the substantial contribution of clients as assistants to medical authority. Each aspect is described as a dimension of the medical profession, necessary for the definition and protection of its boundaries.

This dissertation examines the lives of recently-arrived Mexican immigrant youth who arrive to New York City from both rural and urban Mexico, and either enter into formal school settings, or remain out of these settings, foregoing formal schooling altogether or entering into non-formal educational institutions. Based on a qualitative case study of fifty-three Mexican youth, both pre and post immigration, this dissertation employs transnational theory, cultural and social reproduction theory, and life course theory to explain how even prior to immigration, youth are already forming ideas about work and school-going in the United States. Subject both to the social and economic conditions of their home communities, as well as to the messages they receive from their kin and friends already in New York City related to age, work and schooling, Mexican immigrant youth's worldviews are oriented towards particular pathways prior to immigration. Post-immigration, Mexican immigrant youth continue, for the most part, on these pathways, as they interact with social institutions and fields in New York, including the labor market and the educational system. Contributing to current immigration and education literature which emphasizes the formal school-going practices of immigrant youth, this dissertation broadens this discussion to explore not only their practices in pre and post immigration settings, but also how they impact school-going or non school-going.

A central feature of modern government is its role in designing welfare improving policies to address and correct market failures stemming from externalities and public goods. The rationale for most modern environmental regulations stems from the failure of markets to efficiently allocate goods and services. Yet, as with any policy, distributional effects are important there exist clear winners and losers. Despite the clear theoretical justification for environmental and energy policy, empirical work credibly identifying both the source and consequences of these externalities as well as the distributional effects of existing policies remains in its infancy. My dissertation focuses on the development of empirical methods to investigate the role of environmental and energy policy in addressing market failures as well as exploring the distributional implications of these policies. These questions are important not only as a justification for government intervention into markets but also for understanding how distributional consequences may shape the design and implementation of these policies. My dissertation investigates these questions in the context of programs and policies that are important in their own right. Chapters 1 and 2 of my dissertation explore the economic costs and distributional implications associated with the largest environmental regulatory pro- gram in the United States, the Clean Air Act. Chapters 3 and 4 examine the social costs of air pollution in the context of transportation externalities, showing how effective transportation policy has additional co-benefits in the form of environmental policy. My dissertation remains unified in both its subject matter and methodological approach - using unique sources of data and sound research designs to understand important issues in environmental policy.

In recent years, there has been a growing body of research demonstrating that the way parents make choices about schools is anything but colorblind. In fact, some research suggests that parents, particularly middle- or upper-middle-class white parents, make choices about where to live and send their children to school based on perceptions of public school quality and the race and class composition of the school district and/or schools (see Johnson and Shapiro, 2005; Cucchiara, 2008; Lewis, 2003; Holme, 2002; Posey, 2012; Roda & Wells, 2013). This qualitative case study extends this body of literature by not only examining parents' choices between highly segregated schools and school districts but also within an urban elementary school that offers two self-contained academic programs--a majority white Gifted and Talented ("G&T") program and a majority black and Latino General Education ("Gen Ed") program. It asks how the meanings that parents make about their available school choice options and their sense of "place" within the school system and larger society help to perpetuate and legitimize the separate, stratified system and how this "sense making" is intertwined with the inertia working against changing the system. This study begins to address these questions by examining the ways that "advantaged" parents--namely white, higher income and highly educated parents (see Bilfulco, Ladd and Ross, 2009)--make sense of their child's place[ment] within a demographically changing New York City elementary school with a G&T and Gen Ed program. Interviews were conducted with 41 advantaged parents with similar degrees of economic and social advantage whose children were enrolled, based on one test score, in the G&T program, Gen Ed program or both to understand the ways in which these social actors simultaneously embody, resist, and reproduce the social structures in which they live their lives and educate their children. Findings indicate that parent's struggle for high-status positions in the status hierarchy across programs and classrooms in their school. Meanwhile, they embody contradictory dispositions related to their sense of the "place" where they and their children belong within a segregated two-track school, their desire for their children to be exposed to racial/ethnic and socio-economic "diversity" - at least in the abstract and if their children are not in the minority, and their drive to provide their children with the "best" education, even when they are uncertain about what that means within this context. In contradictory ways, parents say they would prefer to enroll their children in diverse schools that have strong educational programs. But, for most of these advantaged parents, having their children enrolled in a program with other students "like them" in terms of their social status and privilege and thus being associated with other parents "like them" was the most important factor, superseding all other desires, including "diversity." They continue to make choices that privilege their children and perpetuate the status quo. Therefore, studying the contradictions that result from their school choices in a highly segregated system can tell us important information about why social conditions change or get reproduced and how policies could be altered to create fewer distinctions between schools and programs.

No description available.