Hochschild’s new book on understanding the American right

Hochschild, Arlie Russell. 2016. Strangers in Their Own Land Anger and Mourning on the American Right. The New Press.

Strangers in their own land coverHochschild travels deep into a stronghold of the conservative right: Louisiana bayou country—an area on the brink of environmental crisis and suffering from poor health, widespread poverty, and low literacy rates and life expectancy. Her mission: to scale the “empathy wall” and do what so few of us do: trulylisten to the other side in order to understand why they believe—and feel—the way they do.

Over the course of five years, Hochschild situated herself in “red” America: she attends fish fries, gumbo cook-offs, Pentecostal church services and Trump rallies; visits schools, political party groups and oil-soaked wetlands; and engages in long, thoughtful conversations while pouring over photo albums, during card games, and over cookies at kitchen tables. Strangers in Their Own Land goes beyond the commonplace liberal idea that many on the political right have been “duped” into voting against their interests. In the right-wing world she explores, Hochschild discovers powerful forces—fear of cultural eclipse, economic decline, perceived government betrayal—which override self-interest, as progressives see it, and help explain the emotional appeal of a candidate like Donald Trump. Even as Hochschild gets to know people who strongly oppose many of the ideas she champions, she discovers surprising common ground in philosophy (belief in fairness and hard work ), in ideas (“let’s get big money out of government,” one Tea Party member tells her) and in policy (“Lets ban the deposit of fracking waste in our nature preserves.”)

For desk and exam copies, please contact Sam Hall.

Book Series Call for Submissions

ASA Rose Series in Sociology, a book series published by the Russell Sage Foundation, is seeking book proposals. The Rose Series publishes cutting-edge, highly visible, and accessible books that offer synthetic analyses of existing fields, challenge prevailing paradigms, and/or offer fresh views on enduring controversies. Books published in the Series reach a broad audience of sociologists, other social scientists, and policymakers. Please submit a 1-page summary and CV to: Lee Clarke, rose.series@sociology.rutgers.edu. For more information, visit http://www.asanet.org/research-publications/rose-series-sociology.

PPST special issue on Perverse Politics

From an interview with the co-editors of the issue:

Evren Savci: We align ourselves with transnational and anti-imperialist feminists who problematize “woman” as a universal category that is assumed to represent shared interests that follow from core elements of experience and existence that are also assumed to be shared among women. The volume brings together key empirical examples from around the world that demonstrate the limitations of such assumptions, and tries to think about alternative epistemologies that will lead to a more promising and relevant feminist politics.

The issue contains contributions by Savina Balasubramanian, Elizabeth Berstein, Jennifer Carlson, Kimberly Hoang, Ann Orloff and Talia Shiff, and Evren Savci, and is available here.

ASA Election Results

The election results are in and we have a new Chair-Elect and two new Section Council members. Please join us in congratulating

Thomas Janoski (University of Kentucky): Chair-Elect

G. Cristina Mora (UC Berkeley): Section Council

Jennifer Hsu (University of Alberta): Section Council

We look forward to working with you!

ASA Sessions and Meeting

Reception and Business Meeting

Joint Reception with Global & Transnational Sociology and Sociology of Culture

Saturday, August 20, 6:30pm

Section on Political Sociology Business Meeting

Sunday 1:30-2:10pm

 

Sat, Aug 20

4:30pm

147. Regular Session. Political Sociology 2

Session Organizer: Rebecca R. Scott, University of Missouri-Columbia

Presider: Joshua Edward Olsberg, National University

Has the Tea Party Radicalized the Political Conversation? Suggestions from the 2012-2016 Republican Primary Debates. David R. Dietrich, Texas State University

The Political Epistemics of Rural Conservatism. Philip George Lewin, Florida Atlantic University

The Politicization of Immigration and Welfare: A New Swedish Dilemma. Maureen A. Eger, Umeå University; Joakim Kulin, Stockholm University

Neoliberal Spirit as an Oppositional Political Culture in Turkey’s Gezi Park Movement. Onur Kapdan, UCSB

On Shaky Ground: Power,Spatial Inequality and the Politics of Energy Development. Peter M. Hall, Colorado State University; Stacia S. Ryder, Colorado State University

 

6:30pm

Joint Reception with Global and Transnational and Culture

 

Sun, Aug 21

8:30am

191. Section on Political Sociology Invited Session. Political Representation in Crisis? Movements, Parties, and New Activisms

Session Organizer: Gianpaolo Baiocchi, NYU

 

10:30am

226. Section on Political Sociology Paper Session. How Political Culture Matters

Session Organizer: Paul R. Lichterman, University of Southern California

Presider: Genevieve Zubrzycki, University of Michigan

Collective Memories, Political Culture, and Policy: The Case of Irish Humanitarianism. Joachim J. Savelsberg, University of Minnesota

Geopolitical Cultures of Race and the Power of Modern Culture. Chandra Mukerji, University of California, San Diego

Political Cultures, Social Movement Dynamics, and the Life Course: Understanding the Impacts of Biographies on Mobilization. Pablo Lapegna, University of Georgia

Remaking Socialism: Ideology, Legitimacy and Economic Transformation in China, 1976-1992. Wen Xie, University of Chicago

Self-interest and Shared Struggle: The Role of Cultural Individualism in Multi-issue Social Justice Activism. Jack Delehanty, University of Minnesota; Michelle Oyakawa, The Ohio State University

Discussant: Paul R. Lichterman, University of Southern California

 

12:30-1:30pm

261. Section on Political Sociology Roundtable Session and Business Meeting

Roundtables Session Organizer: Rhys H. Williams, Loyola University Chicago

 

Table 1. Partisanship and Polarization

Table Presider: Kate Pride Brown, Georgia Institute of Technology

Associational Networks in America: Political Polarization on the Rise. Ya-Feng Lin; Isaiah Fink Avraham Cohen, Louisiana State University

Building Identities and the Boundaries Between Them in the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election. Morgan Johnstonbaugh

Partisanship, Political Culture, and Minimum Wage Policy. Daniel Tope, Florida State University; Clayton M. Gumber, Florida State University; Daniel Lanford, Florida State University

Pathways to Policy: Partisanship and Bipartisanship in Renewable Energy Legislation. Kate Pride Brown, Georgia Institute of Technology; David J. Hess, Vanderbilt University

Tweeting Ideology: Using Text Analysis to Create a Measure of Partisanship. Jason Scott   Radford, University of Chicago; Betsy Sinclair, Washington University in St. Louis

 

Table 2. Activism and Social Movements

Table Presider: Emily Brissette, Bridgewater State University

Beyond the Spectacle of “Violent Protest”: Rethinking Violence at Occupy Oakland. Emily Brissette, Bridgewater State University

Prefigurative Social Movements and the State in the 21st Century. Heather Anne Hax, Towson University; William Tsitsos, Towson University

Repertoires of Activism: Accounting for Individual, Cultural and Contextual Factors. Anna Slavina, University of Toronto