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

Published by Princeton University Press 1999

Diversity and Its Discontents

Cultural Conflict and Common Ground in Contemporary American Society

Edited by: Neil J. Smelser and Jeffrey C. Alexander

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691228334

Overview
Contents

About this book

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.

Author / Editor information

Neil J. Smelser is the Director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. His books include The Handbook of Economic Sociology (Princeton), coedited with Richard Swedberg. Jeffrey C. Alexander is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. His most recent book is Real Civil Societies: Dilemmas of Institutionalization.

Reviews

"Neil Smelser and Jeffrey Alexander have put together an important and most unusually coherent volume dealing with many key topics of current American academic and intellectual discourse: social diversity, cultural conflict, and social solidarity. Without being pollyannish, documenting troubles where they exist, this volume uses theoretical analysis and extensive empirical data to criticize what has become our 'culture of discontent.'"—Bernard Barber, Columbia University

Topics

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