"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
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.
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这本厚重的书摆在我的书架上,封面那种低调而深邃的蓝色,总让我忍不住伸手去触摸。我得说,初读时我有些被它的广度震慑住了。作者似乎对人类社会光谱的每一个角落都抱有近乎痴迷的探究欲,从宏观的社会结构变迁,到微观的个体身份认同危机,几乎无所不包。我尤其欣赏它在梳理历史脉络时的那种严谨,它没有简单地将复杂的历史事件标签化,而是层层剥开,试图还原出那些决定性时刻背后的多重驱动力。读到中间部分,我感觉自己像是在参与一场漫长而细致的考古工作,那些曾经模糊的概念,经过作者的细致描摹,变得触手可及,带着历史的尘埃和温度。它迫使你跳出自己习惯的认知框架,去审视那些你习以为常的社会规范是如何在时间的长河中被构建、被挑战,最终又被重新塑形的。对我而言,最引人入胜的是它对“张力”的捕捉,那种看不见的、在不同群体间持续拉扯的力量,它将这些无形的冲突,具象化成了可以被分析和讨论的结构。读完之后,世界在我眼中似乎变得更立体、更复杂,少了几分非黑即白的断言,多了几分令人敬畏的灰色地带。
评分这本书的叙事节奏变化非常奇特,有时候像是一场疾风骤雨,用极其紧凑的排比句和尖锐的论断,让你喘不过气来,感受到那种社会变革的巨大冲击力;而另一些时候,它又会突然放缓,沉入对某个具体案例的田野调查,那种细腻入微的描述,仿佛能让你闻到那个特定社区的气味。我特别喜欢它对语境依赖性的强调。作者始终在提醒我们,任何关于“差异”的讨论都必须置于特定的时空背景之下,脱离了历史和地域的限制,讨论本身就会变得虚妄。这让我想起年轻时读过的那些教条式的教材,这本书简直是对此类僵硬思维的有力反驳。它不满足于指出问题,更深入地探究了“为什么这个问题会以这种特定形式出现?”这种追问,让整本书的智识密度大大增加。阅读过程中,我常常需要停下来,合上书本,去对照现实世界中发生的一些新闻事件,试图用书中的模型来解释那些纷乱的表象,这种互动体验是极具价值的。
评分我通常对这类探讨社会复杂性的著作抱持着一种审慎的态度,因为很多时候,它们要么流于空泛的理论说教,要么沦为情绪化的口号堆砌。但这本书,着实给了我一个惊喜,或者说,一个智力上的挑战。它的论证结构犹如一座精密的钟表,每一个齿轮——无论是引用的哲学思辨、社会学模型,还是那些扎实的统计数据——都必须精确地咬合,才能驱动起最终的结论。我花了相当长的时间去消化其中关于“认同政治”演变的章节,作者对不同时代背景下,身份建构的内在逻辑进行了令人信服的剖析。最让我感到震撼的是,它在展示冲突的同时,并未放弃对潜在融合路径的探索,那种在批判中寻求建设性的努力,是许多同类作品所缺乏的。我甚至觉得,这本书与其说是在陈述事实,不如说是在提供一套观察世界的透镜,让你用更锐利、更具穿透力的眼光去看待日常生活中那些被遮蔽的权力关系。它不是一本让人读起来舒服的书,但它绝对是一本值得反复研读的参考之作,尤其适合那些不满足于表面现象,渴望深入探究社会肌理的读者。
评分我很少会把一本书读到书页都有些卷边,但这本书是个例外。它的影响力在于,它改变了我与他人交流的方式。以往,在讨论到社会议题时,我可能会不自觉地陷入自己立场内的术语循环,而现在,我更倾向于先探询对方的“立足点”在哪里,他们的“差异”是从何种历史经验中产生的。这本书强大的地方在于,它不是在教你“相信什么”,而是在教你“如何思考”这些本质上就难以达成一致的问题。它提供了一种坚实的、多维度的分析框架,让你在面对激烈争论时,能够保持一种清醒的距离感,不被情绪洪流裹挟。对于任何希望提升自己批判性思维能力,并对人类社会互动模式抱有深切好奇心的人来说,这本书都是一份无价的财富。它不是一本提供简单答案的读物,它是一份邀请函,邀请你去参与一场永无止境的、关于我们共同存在的意义的深刻对话。
评分坦率地说,这本书的学术性是毋庸置疑的,但它的可读性却出乎意料地高,这绝非易事。作者显然在努力地搭建一座桥梁,连接冰冷的学术殿堂与广大的公众讨论空间。他没有回避那些晦涩的理论术语,但总能用极具画面感的比喻来阐释其核心要义。特别是关于“结构性不平等”的部分,他没有止步于抽象的公式,而是通过一系列跨文化的比较案例,展示了这些结构是如何潜移默化地影响着个体的选择和命运,让人读来既有智力上的满足感,又带着一丝挥之不去的忧虑。我感觉作者在用一种近乎悲悯的笔触,描绘着人类在追求自身同一性的过程中,无意间制造出的那些深刻裂痕。这本书就像一面棱镜,将单一的光束折射成斑斓的光谱,让你不得不正视每一种色彩的存在和意义,即便某些色彩并不那么“悦目”。这种对复杂性的拥抱,是它最宝贵的品质。
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