When the most recent generation of community building initiatives (CCIs) was launched in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the field wanted to invest in and learn about the effectiveness of a kind of initiative that was meant to bring together the best of what had been learned during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s about how to go about promoting change…

This article defines and discusses placeless organizations as sites and generators of learning on a large scale. The emphasis is on how placeless organizations structure themselves to carry out social transformation--necessarily involving intensive learning--on a national or global scale. The argument is made that place is not a necessary…

Crime problems in rapidly growing communities have been viewed from a number of different theoretical perspectives. This paper offers a structural analysis that focuses on the density of acquaintanceship. When a small and stable rural community suddenly experiences rapid growth, one of the expected consequences can be a significant decline in the…

This study explores the relationship between economic events which occurred during the 1970s and 1980s and the development of a proletarian class structure in the United States. Contrary to theoretical expectations, the data show a decisive acceleration in the growth of the managerial class. Internationalization of business and technological and…

Beginning with an overview of the anthropological heritage of educational anthropology, the outgoing editor of this journal reviews the development of the field and comments on the implications of anthropology for research on educational policy. (Author/GC)

The reunification process in Germany and its effect on distance education policies and practices in the East provide an occasion to test the relevance of the Fordist framework. Discussion includes characteristics of a neo- or post-Fordist distance education system, the failure of Fordism as a theory of industrialized society, and the Fordism…

Reviews the literature attesting to the strengths of African-American families and explores ways in which those strengths can be affirmed in the infrastructure of the family system. Explores a conceptualization of empowerment that involves rejecting a structural functionalist perspective in favor of a sociocultural framework. Discusses…

Interrogates the prevailing concept of the state as a regulative idea. Introduces Michel Foucault's notion of "governmentality" and investigates how it has historically been linked to education and to the Scandinavian "Caring State." Explores changing tasks of education and the nature of social contracts that could correspond…

The global rescaling of the world, culture, and education has influenced how people experience their situationality, meaning-making, and learning in relation to the Other. This article explores the implications of spatial analysis for rethinking education in new conditions of cultural complexity. The experience of living and learning with…

The concept of anomie is one of the classics of sociological theory. Developed by scholars such as Emile Durkheim and Robert K. Merton, the concept refers to the absence of clear social norms and values and to a lack of sense of social regulation. However, whereas Merton focused on features of relative deprivation that cause anomie, Durkheim was…

Develops a theoretical framework that explicates factors determining the level of care given and care received by cohorts moving through different stages of later life. Specifies four proximate determinants of caregiving and three proximate determinants of care receiving. Focuses on social changes that could reduce the burden of aging. (RJM)

Suggests Anthony Giddens' theory of "structuration" offers a framework for the study of social activity that will help analyze the process of reification. Demonstrates the usefulness of structuration to policy analysis and explores the evolution and consequences of definitions of cable television prior to the "blue sky" era.…

The Hegelian model of society as an organism is used to analyze what makes multicultural societies healthy or unhealthy, how to make the transition from one to the other, and potential roles for educational and political systems in that process. Discussion focuses on the American southwest. (Author/MSE)

Points out unresolved issues in stratification theory and measurement and discusses implications for family research. Presents results of a survey of the use of socioeconomic stratification variables in family research articles, 1991-93. Asserts the need to place socioeconomic variables in theoretical concept. (JPS)

In their comments regarding Goodman, Liang, Helms, Latta, Sparks, and Weintraub's article "Training Counseling Psychologists as Social Justice Agents: Feminist and Multicultural Principles in Action," Kiselica, Palmer, Thompson and Shermis, and Watts offered a number of useful suggestions for elaborating on social justice theory,…