Diversity and Its Discontents: Cultural Conflict and Common Ground in Contemporary American Society

by Smelser, Neil J.; Alexander, Jeffrey C.

• ISBN13: 9780691004365
• ISBN10: 0691004366
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-05-01
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

Never before has the legitimacy of a dominant American culture been so hotly contested as over the past two decades. Familiar terms such as culture wars, multiculturalism, moral majority, and family values all suggest a society fragmented by the issue of cultural diversity. So does any social solidarity exist among Americans? In Diversity and Its Discontents, a group of leading sociologists, political theorists, and social historians seek to answer this question empirically by exploring ideological differences, theoretical disputes, social processes, and institutional change. Together they present a broad yet penetrating look at American life in which cultural conflict has always played a part. Many of the findings reveal that this conflict is no more or less rampant now than in the past, and that the terms of social solidarity in the United States have changed as the society itself has changed.The volume begins with reflections on the sources of the current "culture wars" and goes on to show a number of parallel situations throughout American history--some more profound than today's conflicts. The contributors identify political vicissitudes and social changes in the late twentieth century that have formed the backdrop to the "wars," including changes in immigration, marriage, family structure, urban and residential life, and expression of sexuality. Points of agreement are revealed between the left and the right in their diagnoses of American culture and society, but the essays also show how the claims of both sides have been overdrawn and polarized. The volume concludes that above all, the antagonists of the culture wars have failed to appreciate the powerful cohesive forces in Americans' outlooks and institutions, forces that have, in fact, institutionalized many of the "radical" changes proposed in the 1960s. Diversity and Its Discontents brings sound empirical evidence, theoretical sophistication, and tempered judgment to a cultural episode in American history that has for too long been clouded by ideological rhetoric.In addition to the editors, the contributors are Seyla Benhabib, Jean L. Cohen, Reynolds Farley, Claude S. Fischer, Frank F. Furstenberg, Jr., John Higham, David A. Hollinger, Steven Seidman, Marta Tienda, David Tyack, R. Stephen Warner, Robert Wuthnow, and Viviana A. Zelizer.

Table of Contents

CONTRIBUTORS	vii
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION: SOURCES OF CULTURAL CONFLICT	1	(36)
CHAPTER ONE Introduction: The Ideological Discourse of Cultural Discontent Paradoxes, Realities, and Alternative Ways of Thinking	3	(16)
Jeffrey C. Alexander
Neil J. Smelser
CHAPTER TWO The Culture of Discontent Democratic Liberalism and the Challenge of Diversity in Late-Twentieth-Century America	19	(18)
Robert Wuthnow
PART TWO: HOW MUCH HAS REALLY CHANGED?	37	(154)
CHAPTER THREE Cultural Responses to Immigration	39	(24)
John Higham
CHAPTER FOUR Preserving the Republic by Educating Republicans	63	(22)
David Tyack
CHAPTER FIVE Racial Issues: Recent Trends in Residential Patterns and Intermarriage	85	(44)
Reynolds Farley
CHAPTER SIX Immigration, Opportunity, and Social Cohesion	129	(18)
Marta Tienda
CHAPTER SEVEN Family Change and Family Diversity	147	(20)
Frank F. Furstenberg, Jr.
CHAPTER EIGHT Contesting the Moral Boundaries of Eros A Perspective on the Cultural Politics of Sexuality in the Late-Twentieth-Century United States	167	(24)
Steven Seidman
PART THREE: SOCIAL CHANGE AND NEW FORMS OF SOCIAL CONNECTION	191	(54)
CHAPTER NINE Multiple Markets: Multiple Cultures	193	(20)
Viviana A. Zelizer
CHAPTER TEN Uncommon Values, Diversity, and Conflict in City Life	213	(16)
Claude S. Fischer
CHAPTER ELEVEN Changes in the Civic Role of Religion	229	(16)
R. Stephen Warner
PART FOUR: RETHINKING DIVERSITY AND SOCIAL SOLIDARITY	245	(68)
CHAPTER TWELVE National Culture and Communities of Descent	247	(16)
David A. Hollinger
CHAPTER THIRTEEN Does Voluntary Association Make Democracy Work?	263	(30)
Jean L. Cohen
CHAPTER FOURTEEN Civil Society and the Politics of Identity and Difference in a Global Context	293	(20)
Seyla Benhabib
INDEX	313