Talking Politics Research Articles

Fama. The Politics of Talk and Reputation in Medieval Europe

Article Fama. The Politics of Talk and Reputation in Medieval Europe was published on August 1, 2005 in the journal Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte: Germanistische Abteilung (volume 122, issue 1).

Divisive War and Family Peace: The Vietnam War and the Politics of Family Talk

Dans cet article, l'A se penche sur la diversite de la culture politique aux Etats-Unis. A travers l'exemple de la guerre du Vietnam, l'A analyse les reactions des familles dont les parents etaient pour moitie des veterans ou des opposants a la guerre, et tente de comprendre le processus de socialisation politique familiale et la communication entre parents et enfants concernant la guerre du Vietnam

Fama: The Politics of Talk and Reputation in Medieval Europe, edited by Thelma Fenster and Daniel Lord Smail

<i>Fama: The Politics of Talk and Reputation in Medieval Europe</i>, edited by Thelma Fenster and Daniel Lord Smail

Fama: The Politics of Talk and Reputation in Medieval Europe. Edited by Thelma Fernster and Daniel Lord Smail (Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2003) 227 pp. $49.95 cloth $19.95 paper

April 01 2005 Fama: The Politics of Talk and Reputation in Medieval Europe Fama: The Politics of Talk and Reputation in Medieval Europe. Edited by ThelmaFernster and Daniel LordSmail (Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2003) 227 pp. $49.95 cloth $19.95 paper Robert E. Lerner Robert E. Lerner Northwestern University Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Robert E. Lerner Northwestern University Online ISSN: 1530-9169 Print ISSN: 0022-1953 © 2005 Massachusetts Institute of Technology and The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Inc.2005 The Journal of Interdisciplinary History (2005) 35 (4): 627. https://doi.org/10.1162/002219505323382654 Cite Icon Cite Permissions Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Search Site Citation Robert E. Lerner; Fama: The Politics of Talk and Reputation in Medieval Europe. The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 2005; 35 (4): 627. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/002219505323382654 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAll JournalsThe Journal of Interdisciplinary History Search Advanced Search This content is only available as a PDF. © 2005 Massachusetts Institute of Technology and The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Inc.2005 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Table of Contents

Abstract 2004 Dates of Interest On Motivating Volunteers…. Crisis Preparedness Ready Volunteers for Evacuation Plans Publicizing Volunteers, Volunteer Programs ‘Meet the People of Mayo’ Highlights Volunteers Explore Relationships With Colleges, Universities Management Procedures Managing Volunteers Who Fill Multiple Positions Targeted Recruitment Invite the Self‐Employed to Join Your Ranks Accommodating Those Who Give Their Time Ever Considered Having a Volunteer Lounge? Corporate Profile 750,000 TelecomPioneers Donate 22 Million Service Hours Nurturing Camaraderie Among Volunteers ‘Koffee Kafe’ Stimulates Volunteer Fellowship Trends That Impact Your Work Survey on State of Volunteer Resources Management Websites of Interest Excelerator Grants Available for Certain U.S. States Don't Put Off Dealing With a Procrastinator Teleconference With Distant Volunteers Learn How to Discipline Funding Your Programs Should You Ask Your Volunteers to Donate Financially, Too? For Your Consideration Working With Older Volunteers Give Older Volunteers the Confidence to Achieve Policies and Procedures Have a Procedure for Handling Volunteer Complaints Volunteer Complaint Procedures Accommodating Episodic Volunteers Have a System in Place That Invites ‘Flex Volunteers’ Callers Pledge 224,589 Hours to Volunteer‐a‐thon Share Your Knowledge Customize Recognition How Do Your Facility Structures, Grounds Rate? Screening Procedures Rejecting a Volunteer Applicant Requires Tact Youth as Volunteers Tips for Launching a Youth Volunteer Program Matching Volunteers With Jobs How to Involve Volunteers in More Specialized Jobs Training Techniques Use Modeling to Train Volunteers Educating Fellow Employees Help Employees See Volunteers' Human Side Group or Solo — Which Do Your Volunteers Prefer? Collaborative Recognition Efforts ‘Heart of the Tetons’ Celebrates Area's Volunteerism, Philanthropy Time Management Tips Volunteering's Benefits People Who Give, Live Longer Getting the Job Done Look to Your Neighborhood for Help Social Benefits of Volunteering Searching for Mr. or Ms. Right? Foster a Positive Climate Avoid Talking Politics

Reviews of Books:Fama: The Politics of Talk and Reputation in Medieval Europe Thelma Fenster, Daniel Lord Smail

Reviews of Books:Fama: The Politics of Talk and Reputation in Medieval Europe Thelma Fenster, Daniel Lord Smail

Fama: The Politics of Talk and Reputation in Medieval Europe (review)

Fama: The Politics of Talk and Reputation in Medieval Europe (review)

Thelma Fenster and Daniel Lord Smail, eds., Fama: The Politics of Talk and Reputation in Medieval Europe. Ithaca, N.Y., and London: Cornell University Press, 2003. Pp. ix, 227; black-and-white figures. $49.95 (cloth); $19.95 (paper).

Thelma Fenster and Daniel Lord Smail, eds., Fama: The Politics of Talk and Reputation in Medieval Europe. Ithaca, N.Y., and London: Cornell University Press, 2003. Pp. ix, 227; black-and-white figures. $49.95 (cloth); $19.95 (paper).

Film Cultures Reader (review)

The influence of cultural studies on film analysis has been considered, in certain disciplinary circles, something akin to the sociological barbarians at the aesthetic gates. The articles collected in Graeme Turner's Film Cultures Reader illustrate, to the contrary, that film studies has largely been enriched by the contributions of new disciplines. Indeed, this collection stresses the advantage of a plurality of approaches. As Turner argues in the preface, "recent shifts" in the direction of film studies "reveal the benefit of some relatively new disciplinary influences from cultural studies, television studies, audience studies or ethnography, and social history" (xix). The vari- ety of methodologies afforded by these disciplines multiplies the terms of investigation, building on crucial questions and techniques of analysis offered by more formalist approaches without imagin- ing the text as a mere excuse for talking politics. Unlike the more polemical dismissals of screen theory (such as those of the cognitivists), Turner and his contributors recognize the important questions opened up by psychosemiotics and earlier approaches to the complex set of relations obtaining between texts, contexts, and effects. But certainly, while we can somewhat sanguinely assume that no one in this second century of film criticism would deny either the imprint of the social on art or the imprint of art on the social, the complex nature of this interaction has yet to be settled.

Talking trash: the cultural politics of daytime TV talk shows

1 Talk Shows, Public Discourse, and Cultural Politics 2 The Business of Talk 3 Talk Shows and Everyday Life 4 Making Sense of the Shows: Discerning Legitimate Discourse 5 The Lure of the Show: Talk Shows as Entertainment 6 Utopian Hauntings?

Emergent Public Spheres: Talking Politics in Participatory Governance

This article addresses the question of whether and how participation in government promotes the conditions for participants to engage in the open-ended and public-minded discussion heralded by democratic theorists. Ethnographic evidence shows how participants in assemblies of the “participatory budget” in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil, created open-ended and public-minded discussion in two of the city's poor districts. The urban poor of Latin American have often been treated as unlikely candidates for democratic engagement, but in these meetings participants regularly carved out spaces for civic discourse and deliberation, deploying a language of the commonality of needs as a vocabulary of public interest. In a district with organized networks of civil society, experienced community activists played an important role in curtailing conflict, while in a district without such networks, the assemblies were severely disrupted at times by virtue of being the “only place in the community” that could serve as a staging ground for some participants to manage their reputations. A comparison with a prior period in both districts shows that before the budgeting assemblies were created it was difficult to sustain any kind of regular meeting place beyond individual neighborhoods to carry out these discussions. The notion of the “public sphere” is broadened, calling for a revision of the stark separation of state and civil society in democratic theory.

Emergent Public Spheres: Talking Politics in Participatory Governance

This article addresses the question of whether and how participation in government promotes the conditions for participants to engage in the open-ended and publicminded discussion heralded by democratic theorists. Ethnographic evidence shows how participants in assemblies of the “participatory budget” in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil, created open-ended and public-minded discussion in two of the city’s poor districts. The urban poor of Latin American have often been treated as unlikely candidates for democratic engagement, but in these meetings participants regularly carved out spaces for civic discourse and deliberation, deploying a language of the commonality of needs as a vocabulary of public interest. In a district with organized networks of civil society, experienced community activists played an important role in curtailing conflict, while in a district without such networks, the assemblies were severely disrupted at times by virtue of being the “only place in the community” that could serve as a staging ground for some participants to manage their reputations. A comparison with a prior period in both districts shows that before the budgeting assemblies were created it was difficult to sustain any kind of regular meeting place beyond individual neighborhoods to carry out these discussions. The notion of the “public sphere” is broadened, calling for a revision of the stark separation of state and civil society in democratic theory.

In the Waiting Room of Literature: Helen Grund and the Practice of Travel and Fashion Writing

Helen Grund was one of Weimar Germany's most intriguing authors of fashion journalism and short prose. Her essays, published between 1925 and 1935 in the Frankfurter Zeitung and Die Dame , enriched in various ways the generic spectrum of the feuilleton and the travelogue ( Reisebericht ) and thus constructed a medium of expression frequently preferred by many women writers and reporters of that time. Grund's short prose could also serve as an example of the representation of a specifically feminine experience in the modern metropolis and can be read as a testimony of the German flâneuse .

New Voices in the Public Sphere: A Comparative Analysis of Interpersonal and Online Political Talk

Political conversation for many people is a taboo activity, particularly with acquaintances or strangers. Online, there are a wealth of political conversation spaces, designed for acquaintances and strangers to interact. The question is are there people talking politics online who do not do so face-to-face. This essay presents findings on people’s reported political conversation behaviour online and offline from secondary survey analysis of a research project studying the effects of political deliberation. The survey analysis suggests that there are people who talk politics online who do not do so in face-to-face situations, and they are categorically different than those who do so face-to-face. The Internet may provide a new context for political conversation for those who would not normally engage in face-to-face political conversations, thus bringing new voices into the public sphere.

Reexamining the Politics of Talk: Partisan Rhetoric in the 104th House

Drawing off the work of Maltzman and Sigelman (1996), this paper looks at the propensity of members to speak on the House floor during minute speeches in the 104th Congress. I used a negative binomial event count model to predict not only who will participate in one in general, but also who will engage in partisan rhetoric, which was such an important aspect of the volatile 104th Congress. The model finds that, while general participation can be predicted, we can also use a number of explanatory variables, such as tenure, electoral insecurity, ideological intensity, party rank, constituency time zone, and party identification to understand why some members engage in partisan rhetoric during minutes and why others do not. The findings have implications both for understanding partisan behavior in the 104th Congress and for understanding and predicting minute speaking practices in the future.

Jiang Talks Politics. Who Listens? Institutionalization and Its Limits in Market Leninism

Systemic constraints exist today in China on the exercise of supreme power. Structurally, a major source of the power of the general secretary of the Party derives from his authority to control personnel assignments throughout the country. But this power has been dramatically transformed. Despite Jiang's efforts to manipulate personnel assignments to his advantage, the centralized nomenklatura personnel system has nonetheless declined in importance as a lever of power and as a locus of centralized control. This has occurred for the following reasons:

Examining Frame Formation in Peer Group Conversations

Frame analysis has been used to examine the ways in which movement groups articulate their goals, recruit participants, and respond to the counterframes of their opponents. But, with the notable exception of William Gamson's Talking Politics, theorists have not paid serious attention to the conversations of peer groups. This essay revisits some of Gamson's observations in an attempt to extend the scope of existing theory on frame analysis and peer group conversations. I begin with the premise that collective action frames are not only the product of shared, cultural narratives and personal experiences; they are also shaped by behavioral expectations, that are specific to the group, that regulate how the group “talks politics”, and that delimit the boundaries of group-belonging. In exploring these group-specific dynamics, I draw attention to the relationship between “interaction frames”, that are used to structure the dialogue of the group and “speaking positions”, that are used to align new action-demands and political ideas with the preexisting frames of the group. My intent, in introducing these concepts, is not to provide a finished methodology but to present a beginning framework for future research and discussion. As I suggest here, the most promising answer to the questions posed by this essay lies in expanding the dialogue between the Goffmanian undercurrents of frame analysis and aspects of systems theory.

Feminism for the 21st Century

The 1990s brought a plethora of books on culture wars, correctness, identity politics, and discord among feminists. The first book in this review, Lillian Robinson's In the Canon's Mouth: Dispatches from the Culture Wars, differs from the others discussed here in it is not an edited volume and does not look at divisions among women. This book presents essays and lectures Robinson has written over the last fifteen years on multiculturalism, correctness, culture wars, curriculum change, and challenges to the established canon. Robinson identifies power struggles as the heart of these conflicts since, as she cogently states, when we are talking culture, we are talking politics (xiii). Robinson asks what culture means, what it should mean, whose culture we are talking about, and who is doing the telling. She points out how unlikely it is the stories of women, people of color, gays and lesbians, and minority/ethnic groups will be candidates for canonization. Why? Because of the assumption they constitute the marked variant, whereas the experience of straight white men is considered a universal. Another area she addresses is the political correctness debates. She suggests we use the words fighting racism or fighting sexism instead of political correctness so opponents' agendas would become apparent. For those who call for a focus on the American experience, Robinson illustrates how multiculturalism operates under another assumption: that we have no single national identity or belief system.... Our cultural diversity is the result of a common history we experienced differ-

Media, morality, and madness: The case against Sleaze TV

“Media, Morality, and Madness: The Case against Sleaze TV”; offers an alternative way of understanding media effects by looking at the moral panics that swirl around certain forms of popular culture and by focusing on the distinction between “high”; and “low”; culture that is implicit in effects research. The essay is organized in four parts. The first deals with the politics of culture; the second reframes the debate around popular culture in terms of Stuart Hall's concept of “moral panic”; the third provides an analysis of talk show narrative and communicative strategies that give rise to such panics; and the fourth concludes the essay with a discussion of the politics of talk show talk.

“Where can Americans talk politics: Civil society, intimacy, and the case for deep citizenship”

Voluntary associations are often said to be the fount of democracy. They are said to foster all sorts of goods in citizens, simultaneously: solidarity and trust, wide‐ranging deliberation, political knowledge, broadened horizons, and political power. This essay explores the tensions between these different goods. First, using Michael Schudson's historical study, The Good Citizen, and my own fieldwork in a range of voluntary associations as springboards for questioning, the essay asks how people in everyday conversations create these different, possibly incompatible goods. The essay argues that contemporary speech genres for voluntary associations resonate deeply with the very discrepant, clashing forms of citizenship Schudson discovered in past eras of American history. Finally, using some tentative ethnographic evidence from intimate settings and bureaucratic settings, the essay asks how people might cultivate some of these goods in institutions that are not “voluntary associations,” that do not just meet after dinner.