Dual Crises Research Articles

Toward Action:John Dewey on the Dual Crises of Modern Education

Toward Action:John Dewey on the Dual Crises of Modern Education

In Focus: What's So Funny about Comedy and Humor Studies? Introduction

In Focus: What's So Funny about Comedy and Humor Studies?Introduction Maggie Hennefeld (bio), Annie Berke (bio), and Michael Rennett (bio) A guy walks into a bar. No, wait. Three guys walk into a bar. No. Let us start over. Twenty-some professors, graduate students, contingent lecturers, and independent scholars walk into a gray-toned hotel conference room, arrange the chairs into a makeshift semicircle, and energetically debate the future of comedy and humor studies as an academic field. It might not sound like the start of a promising joke, but if it's any consolation, it only gets funnier from there. The essays that follow have been borne out of our annual meetings of the Comedy and Humor Studies Scholarly Interest Group at the Society of Cinema and Media Studies Conference.1 Across the essays in this section, our goal is to highlight the exciting scholarship in our field while also drawing attention to its limits and blind spots. We argue that comedy studies has been widely marginalized, deployed only to consider conventional genre comedies or identifiable comedic performers. Yet comedic issues have crucial bearing on nearly every aspect of contemporary life, media culture, and interdisciplinary humanities scholarship. Above all, this section is a springboard for exploring many of these untapped intersections of comedic modes, social politics, and critical media scholarship. The Opposite of Comedy Is … "Comedy" used to mean the opposite of "tragedy," but now laughter sprawls out everywhere. In an era when breaking-news headlines read like satirical Onion articles, social activism is fueled by pithy memes, and comedians [End Page 137] are often better equipped to explain current events than scholars or journalists, it is crucial to reconceptualize the genre's qualities, as well as its psychological dynamics and social politics. Contemporary uncertainties about comedy's limits stem from broader cultural and institutional shifts. The utter ubiquity of comedy in twenty-first-century life dovetails with profound technological changes that have fundamentally altered our very notions of truth, knowledge, and the evidentiary status of the sign. For example, the indexicality debates, which questioned the material basis of the digital image, loomed large for film and media studies throughout the early 2000s.2 Comedy and humor scholars have approached these crises of mediation and belief primarily through notions of "fake news" and "truthiness," which are both variants of political satire. The comedian Stephen Colbert famously defined "truthiness" in 2004 as "the fact that you don't think with your head but that you know with your heart." He elaborates: "Who's Britannica to tell me that the Panama Canal was finished in 1914? If I want to say it was 1941, that's my right."3 When emotion holds a higher purchase on knowledge than science or rational debate, laughter plays a vital civic function: to signify truth against the rampant spread of disinformation (e.g., climate-change denialism) and the digital media–precipitated crisis of the indexical sign and evidentiary image. Since the rise of truthiness during the George W. Bush presidency, comedy scholars such as Jonathan Gray, Ethan Thompson, and Amber Day have argued that political laughter holds the power to reinvigorate civic discourse while renewing the capacity for media images to sustain belief in scientific evidence and fact-based knowledge.4 But it is doubtful that political satire can still defend democratic values in the age of "post-truth," election cyberhacking, and the appropriation of "fake news" as authoritarian disinformation. In response to these dual crises of liberal democracy and liberating laughter, scholars in the field have questioned their earlier optimism about the genre while imagining new ways in which political laughter can continue to be globally consequential. Books, edited collections, and conference panels have proliferated, including Stand-Up Comedians as Public Intellectuals, "Political Laughter and Its Consequences," and Behind the Laughs: Community and Inequality in Comedy.5 Alongside this commitment to the contemporary, a rich array of archival studies have explored the historical formations of comedy's capacity to effect social change while defending the methodological value of archival documentation and exploring new approaches to humor historiography. [End Page 138] The essays in this section continue that important work of framing the...

Contingent work in the US recycling industry: Permatemps and precarious green jobs

Over the last decade US economic policy discourse has held that a turn toward green industry (e.g., renewable energy, recycling, green construction), is a vital solution to the dual crises of environmental degradation and the erosion of high quality blue collar work. At the same time, the US economy has seen the expansion of ever more precarious and contingent work. One manifestation of this increase of precarious work is the growth of the temp industry and particularly the proliferation of permatemps—workers pursuing fulltime, permanent employment through staffing services, often in insecure and poorly-compensated positions. In this research we explore the experience of work in recycling plants in the US and analyze the entwinement of recycling companies and temp agencies. Based on interviews and observations at recycling plants and temp agencies in three Central Illinois counties, we find that recycling companies face a management tension in which workers must be highly regimented but also very flexible—choreographed yet unscripted. Recyclers turn to temp agencies to resolve this tension. Temp firms provide a flexible-yet-vulnerable workforce and in other ways assist recyclers in regulating labor and producing vulnerability, which transforms workers into fungible bodies trapped on a treadmill of low-wage work. The fundamentally unsafe and insecure character of recycling work calls into question the rosy notion of high-quality, career track green collar jobs. Instead, temp work in the recycling industry exemplifies precariousness.

Space, Theory, and Hegemony: The Dual Crises of Asian Area Studies and Cultural Studies

The classical form of area studies based on the notion of culture-language areas has been critiqued by globalization theorists and poststructuralists as old-fashioned (pre-globalization) and theoretically naive (empirical). However; the death of area studies would leave students of Asian societies in a theoretically and politically fraught situation. While the essentialism of classical area studies must be abandoned, the critiques presented by globalization and poststructuralist theorists often presume that capitalist globalization entails the erasure of borders, the homogenization of cultures, and the end of spatiality as a domain of theoretically significant difference. These views are critiqued as ideologically driven and empirically unfounded, Geography remains a theoretically significant domain of discursive and cultural difference under globalization. A theoretically sophisticated area studies project therefore remains an essential method for understanding the twenty-first century world.

Edge of Irony: Modernism in the Shadow of the Habsburg Empire. Marjorie Perloff. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016. Pp. xi+204.

<i>Edge of Irony: Modernism in the Shadow of the Habsburg Empire</i>. Marjorie Perloff. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016. Pp. xi+204.

The Mutual Housing Experiment: New Deal Communities for the Urban Middle Class

The political era of the New Deal was nothing if not exceptional. By realigning political coalitions, the dual crises of the Great Depression and World War II gave the federal government an opportunity to systematically intervene in the economy and society. Yet in many cases, these interventions were also innovations. In conditions of crisis, politicians, experts, and labor organizers drew on both expertise and tacit knowledge to develop and test out new programmatic ideas. One such experiment, chronicled in Kristin M. Szylvian’s excellent book, was the construction of cooperative housing under the auspices of the Federal Works Agency (FWA). In the small handful of communities developed under the FWA’s Mutual Plan, residents collectively owned and managed affordable housing. Yet the project was stillborn. By the 1950s, policymakers had turned their attention toward the idea of “home ownership for all,” supported by the federal subsidy of commercial market mortgages. Szylvian’s narrative forces us to reexamine the New Deal as a moment of government experimentation delimited by powerful market actors. The ideas that animated the Mutual Plan emerged organically from reformers’ on-the-ground experiences with federal emergency relief efforts. One of these reformers was Colonel Lawrence Westbrook, a Texas politician turned New Deal administrator. After undertaking several projects with the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, Westbrook managed a cooperative housing program for autoworkers in Pontiac, Michigan. When the United States entered World War II, he was poised to introduce his cooperative models as a response to housing shortages in areas where war-related industrial activity was ramping up. Experimentation with cooperative housing was also a fundamentally collaborative enterprise. Westbrook’s plan could not have proceeded without the support of labor activist John Green. With Green’s help, organized labor successfully campaigned for the passage of the Lanham Act, which appropriated funds for defense housing. Working in cooperation with Green, Westbrook worked out the details of the Mutual Plan—which would create mutual housing associations that would lease and eventually buy federally built or financed communities.

Facts, Values, and Democracy Worth Wanting: Strategic Public Deliberation in the Era of Trump

In this paper, I characterize the troubling emergence of “post-truth” politics, represented by the election of Donald Trump in the U.S. and similar developments in other national contexts, in terms of dual crises of epistemic and political legitimacy. I argue that the dichotomy between facts and values plays a key role in these crises, and that democratic deliberation represents a particularly promising opportunity to overcome this dichotomy and legitimate political discourse at a national scale. In order to make this case, I draw upon developments in the field of educational program evaluation and apply the insights gleaned to suggest possibilities for leveraging strategic public deliberation to ground and legitimate political discourse and discussion in the Trump era.

Coping with the dual crises of legitimation and representation in research

The dual crises of representation and legitimation pose significant dilemmas for researchers, as they cast doubt over the value of the research process. However, critical examination of these crises can encourage researchers to reflect on questions of philosophical and pragmatic importance, such as: What does truth mean? and What makes for good research? The crises are therefore worthy of investigation. In this paper I introduce and critically examine the dual crises by asking: If these crises are 'real', how, as interpretive researchers should we cope with them?

Editors Select AJP Articles That Stood Out in 2016

Editors Select <i>AJP</i> Articles That Stood Out in 2016

Beyond Tragedy: Differential Commoning in a Manufactured Housing Cooperative

AbstractCaught between the dual crises of declining economic opportunity and diminishing public assistance, people on the economic margins resist threats to their livelihoods by opting to share resources. The processes involved in managing these “commons” are often messy and paradoxical amid differing livelihood concerns and subject positions. Unevenness tends to emerge along new and existing lines of power. Rather than reducing such tendencies to a “tragedy” to be eliminated, I argue that grappling with uneven relations offers a more dynamic account of commoning: “differential commoning”. This paper takes as its example the residents of a “manufactured housing” community who organized as a cooperative in response to the threat of eviction. Their struggle to collectivize, I suggest, illustrates the need for a more situated conceptualization of commoning, rather than a concept defined within the rigidity of economic rationality or the homogeneity of some imagined community.

Pentecostals and Development in Nigeria and Zambia

Faith-based community organising is becoming increasingly recognized as an effective form of democratic engagement and community development, especially among low-to-middle income urban communities in the United States and Britain. This article focuses on two African Pentecostal initiatives with no formal links to Western community organising networks: the Young Ambassadors for Community Peace and Inter-Faith Foundation in Nigeria and the Jubilee Centre in Zambia. In both countries, neoliberal economics, associated with diminished public sectors and decreased government interventionism, has taken its toll, resulting in increased levels of unemployment, poverty and violent conflict. In response, these initiatives are engaged in citizen mobilization through training church and community leaders, and empowering ordinary people to improve the quality of life in their communities. While faith-based community organising is relatively rare in Nigeria and Zambia, the case studies discussed in this article show the potential of this form of intervention for generating social capital and addressing the dual crises of poverty and violence that assail the African continent. The article assesses the added value of Pentecostal beliefs and practices in relation to civic engagement and development.

Evaluation of solid fuel char briquettes from human waste.

The developing world faces dual crises of escalating energy demand and lack of urban sanitation infrastructure that pose significant burdens on the environment. This article presents results of a study evaluating the feasibility of using human feces-derived char as a solid fuel for heating and cooking and a potential way to address both crises. The study determined the energy content and the elemental composition of chars pyrolyzed at 300, 450, and 750 °C. Fecal chars made at 300 °C were found to be similar in energy content to wood chars and bituminous coal, having a heating value of 25.6 ± 0.08 MJ/kg, while fecal chars made at 750 °C had an energy content of 13.8 ± 0.48 MJ/kg. The higher heating values of the studied chars were evaluated using their elemental composition and a published predictive model; results found good agreement between the measured and predicted values. Fecal chars made at low temperatures were briquetted with molasses/lime and starch binders. Briquettes made with 10% starch had an average impact resistance index of 79 and a higher heating value of 25 MJ/kg. These values are comparable to those of commercial charcoal briquettes, making fecal char briquettes a potential substitute that also contributes to the preservation of the environment.

Improving the Quality and Lowering the Cost of Health Care: Medicare Reforms from the National Commission on Physician Payment Reform

Improving the Quality and Lowering the Cost of Health Care: Medicare Reforms from the National Commission on Physician Payment Reform

Avoiding the doomsday predictions: The dual crises of antibiotic resistance and the failing antibiotic pipeline

Avoiding the doomsday predictions: The dual crises of antibiotic resistance and the failing antibiotic pipeline

The Origins of the Permanent War Economy: A Consequence of Government, Not Capitalism

This paper explains the origins of the permanent war economy in the United States. We emphasize the combined efforts of three key interest groups (military, labor unions, and industry) that arose in the context of the dual crises of the Great Depression and World War II. During the depression and the war that followed, there arose a partnership between industry, the military, and politicians. These crises, combined with the State’s monopoly over the military, created the opportunity for these interests to influence the trajectory of economic activity in a self-serving, and lasting, manner.

Crossing to the Other Shore: Navigating the Troubled Waters of Cultural Loss and Eco-Crisis in Late-Socialist China

Using the dual crises of cultural loss in Kunming, Yunnan Province, China, and environmental degradation at adjacent Dianchi Lake as background, this paper coins a new term, ignowledge, to describe a particular “technology of rule” in the Chinese political system. Ignowledge is a power tied to culturally specific conceptions of modernity, development, politics, ecology, eco-politics, and environmentality.

Global Trend of Low-carbon Economy and China’s Responses

Abstract Based on the analysis on the global economic crisis, climate change crisis and their mutual underlying reasons, the authors believe that low-carbon economy has become an inevitable choice to break through the dual crises, coordinate the economic development, and protect the global climate. The global trend of low-carbon economy finds expression in Green Recovery currently, while, in a long run, it will give rise to a new pattern of world competition in politics, economy, technology, trade and finance. The impact of the global trend of low-carbon economy on China can not be overlooked, and it is both a challenge and an opportunity for China’s future development. Based on comparative studies on the low-carbon economy of China, the U. S., EU and Japan, the authors conclude that China should blaze a new path of lowcarbon economy development with Chinese characteristics, and the authors have put forward relevant countermeasures for China to address the global trend of low-carbon economy from angles of...

Non-Value-Added Time

The dual crises of high healthcare costs and the nursing shortage require a better understanding of inpatient nursing unit activities and, more specifically, their costs and the drivers of inefficiencies. This includes knowing not only how staff spend their time but also how much of this time is non-value-added (NVA) because wasted time leads to both high costs and nurse dissatisfaction. The authors discuss a study that determined the NVA time and costs of acute care nursing unit staff, identified drivers of high-cost NVA time, and compared activities and costs by type of nursing unit. These data have considerable implications for developing efficient and effective nursing care delivery models and for implementing process improvement and staff satisfaction initiatives.

Tomorrow's Workforce: The Needs for Immigrant Workers and Strategies to Retain Them

U.S. corporations are facing dual crises with an aging workforce and a shrinking pool of younger talent. The current workforce consists primarily of baby boomers who are beginning to reach retirement age, and prospects for replacing the exiting workers do not look promising. Some corporations are turning to immigrants to alleviate these problems. While there are benefits of having immigrants in the workforce, issues related cultural and value differences also exist. Therefore, corporations must develop strategies to effectively utilize and retain immigrants in order to remain competitive.

The Silver Tsunami: One Educational Strategy for Preparing to Meet America's Next Great Wave of Underserved

The Silver Tsunami:One Educational Strategy for Preparing to Meet America’s Next Great Wave of Underserved Anne M. Summer (bio) Silver tsunami is the compelling phrase coined by the authors of a 2001 Pew Report that considered the possible consequences of baby boomers approaching retirement.1 Many health professionals, including those of us at the University of New England, believe the phrase is an apt description for the swell of older people, gaining momentum, and surging toward the health care system over the next twenty years. Like the actual tsunami originating around Indonesia in 2004, leaving unbelievable devastation in its wake, this swelling tide of America's elderly threatens to overwhelm our health care system. We are unprepared to care for what will soon be the largest, and in many ways, most challenging segment of our population. According to 2000 Census data,2 people over the age of 65 currently constitute approximately 13% of the population. Close to 28% of those folks live alone, and that percentage approaches 39% for those 85 and over; women outnumber men in this latter category by a margin of three-to-one. Approximately 10% of elders live in poverty. This is less than the U.S. adult percentage, but it is significant to note that more women than men are affected, and that without the continued stability of Social Security income, nearly one of every two elders, regardless of gender, would have an income level below the poverty line.3 Geographically, about one-fourth of the total elderly population resides in non-metropolitan and rural areas; overall, these elders face greater poverty, have less education, and generally report poorer health than their more urban counterparts. They also face disadvantages in health systems' accessibility, resources, transportation, and work force availability.4 Most projections estimate that, by 2020, the proportion of the total population that is 65 and over will have risen to approximately 20%, or one-in-five. These are sobering statistics, especially in combination with the complex, multifaceted health issues associated with aging. Most elders acknowledge one or more physical, sensory, or self-care disabilities, and have at least one chronic illness.2 It is not just matters of medical/physical health that cause concern; indeed both oral health and mental health stand at the vanguard of needs. As noted in the Surgeon General's Report of 1999, ". . . more than any other area of health and medicine, the mental health field is plagued by disparities, particularly as they relate to the elderly." [End Page 503] Over the past decade, calls for a health care workforce more adequately prepared to care for elders have been raised within the health care system as well as by patients and clients. Since the early 1990s, The American Geriatric Society (AGS) has been encouraging a proactive response to the impending, dual crises of insufficient numbers within the workforce, and inadequate education about care of older patients by that workforce. In 2002, there was a call for increased numbers of specialty-trained geriatricians, and for general practice physicians to obtain additional education and certifications in geriatrics.5 The AGS reissued its set of basic competencies for care of older patients, for medical education,6 as did several other specialty and health professional groups. There was strong encouragement to all health professions to increase their educational content in geriatric care. In 2006, AGS reframed their guidelines for care of elders, and suggested that, aside from nursing home residents, only a small subset of the nation's community dwelling elders required geriatric specialty care (perhaps 15%—those with multiple, complex, chronic conditions). The AGS described interdisciplinary team function as the benchmark practice for this level of care. They also acknowledged that peer-reviewed literature supported innovative care delivery systems, including the use of geriatric assessment, care coordination, multidisciplinary teams, and a holistic approach to patient care that involved clinical, psychosocial, and environmental follow-up.7 The overall response to the pleas of health and policy groups for action can kindly be described, so far, as underwhelming. The final distressing contributors to this quandary are the reports discussing the aging/approaching retirement of the existing health care workforce, and the variety of...