What You Want to Hear

2019 ◽  
pp. 186-212
Author(s):  
John Marsh
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
Unemployment Insurance ◽  
Alcoholics Anonymous ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Self Help

This chapter discusses hope, how it works, and what people in the 1930s hoped for. It begins with a late science fiction story (Isaac Asimov’s “Liar!”) that reveals how hope works or, at least, how those who do not think much of hope think hope works. It then returns to one particularly ambiguous archive of Great Depression hope: the largely unprecedented genre of self-help books and success manuals. Many of these books reflect the tempered hopes of the decade, nowhere more so than in the pages of Alcoholics Anonymous, published in 1939. The skepticism about hope is also reflected in the politics of the decade. Chastened by the blasted hopes of the Depression, the greatest contribution policymakers made during the 1930s was to develop safety net provisions—unemployment insurance, social security—founded on the belief not that everything would turn out well but could turn out badly.

scholarly journals Working the Self: Truth-Telling in the Practice of Alcoholics Anonymous

Human Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fredrik Palm
Keyword(s):  
Alcoholics Anonymous ◽  
The Self ◽  
Twelve Step ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
Twelve Step Programs ◽  
Critical Studies ◽  
Self Help ◽  
Close Study ◽  
Care Of Self

AbstractThis article interrogates twelve step practice within Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) from the perspective of Foucault’s later work on governance, truth-telling and subjectivity. Recent critical studies of addiction tend to view self-help cultures like that of AA and related twelve step programs as integral parts of contemporary power/knowledge complexes, and thus as agents of the modern “will to knowledge” that Foucault often engages with. In line with the widespread Foucauldian critique of governmentality, addiction self-help culture is thus conceived as one that primarily reproduces abstract, neoliberal norms on health and subjectivity. The argument put forward in this article aims to upset this framework attending to a number of features of twelve step practice that, arguably, bear striking resemblances to Foucault’s later discussions of ethics, care of self and truth-telling. In this, it is suggested that a close study of AA practices, might interrupt assumptions about contemporary addiction discourse and its relationship to issues of truth and power often reproduced in Foucauldian critiques.

From the Golden to the Dark Decade, From Reforms to Isms and Ologies

1980 ◽  
Vol 15 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 457-470
Author(s):  
John Pinder
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Full Employment ◽  
Demand Management ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Applied Social Science ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Welfare State

THE 1950s WERE A WONDERFUL DECADE FOR APPLIED SOCIAL science: for the belief that reason addressed to economic and social problems can improve the human condition. Compare the 1950s with the 1930s and ask how much of the improvement was due to Keynes and Beveridge. It is inevitable that a generation of debunkers should follow whose answer would be ‘not much’. But that would have seemed a strange conclusion in the 1950s; and the view of the 1950s was surely right. We had full employment in place of 10 per cent unemployment in the 1920s and nearly 15 per cent in the 1930s; and after the first years of post-war reconstruction, it was reasonable to attribute this to Keynesian demand management. We had a safety net through which relatively few fell into poverty; and this was Beveridge's social security and the welfare state.

Depression and the Welfare State

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David R. Mayhew
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
Time Span ◽  
Social Provision ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Security Act ◽  
Franklin Delano Roosevelt ◽  
High Place

This chapter navigates the 1930s and groups two impulses into it: responding to the Great Depression and building a welfare state equipped with instruments of social provision. Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Democrats blended these two impulses when they executed their New Deal in the 1930s. However, on current inspection, the blend is confusing and sometimes contradictory, and there is a difference in time span. Responding to the Great Depression was clearly a 1930s drive; whereas the Social Security Act of 1935 still enjoys its high place at the top of the American welfare state. The chapter shows how the timeline on building U.S. social provision runs a lot longer before and afterward.

scholarly journals From Literature to Image—Aesthetic Features of Space Megastructure Cities in American Sci-Fi Movies

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 116-121
Author(s):  
Zhi Li ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Digital Design ◽  
Aesthetic Value ◽  
Scene Design ◽  
Self Help ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Space Colonization ◽  
Design Style ◽  
The Impact

The concept of Space megastructures is originated from science fiction novels. They symbolize the material landscape form of a comprehensive advancement of intelligent civilization after the continuous development of technology. Space megacity is actually an expansion process of human development in the future. It is not only a transformation of space colonization but also a mapping of self-help homeland. Therefore, it is a symbol of technological optimism and a future utopia in the context of technology. In contemporary times, sci-fi movies use digital technology to translate the giant imagination in literature into richer digital image landscapes. Space giant cities are one of the most typical digital images with spectacle view, which reflects the impact of American sci-fi movie scene design on the landscape and preference that human will be living in the future. The aesthetic preferences and design principles of the future picture, and the aesthetic value of science fiction as a medium of imagination are revealed. The aim of this article is to explore the digital design style of space megastructure with utopia sense in science fiction movies, and analyzes its aesthetic connotation.

scholarly journals Finding the Right Balance: Financial Self-Help Organizations as Sources of Security and Insecurity in Urban Indonesia

2000 ◽  
Vol 45 (S8) ◽  
pp. 159-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hotze Lont
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Social Function ◽  
Self Help ◽  
The World ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The Right ◽  
Financial Arrangements ◽  
Main Shortcoming ◽  
The Way

Financial self-help organizations can be found in many parts of the world, and the cities of Java are among the areas where they are particularly widespread. Since about the 1950s, interest in these institutions among anthropologists and development sociologists has increased considerably. Analyses of financial self-help organizations have most often focused on their economic or their social function; few scholars have pointed to their function as providers of security and identified self-help organizations as typical forms of local social security institutions. The main shortcoming of most of these studies is that they base their conclusions solely on an analysis of the financial arrangements provided by these self-help organizations, neglecting the accommodating practices that people undertake in order to fit the provisions of self-help organizations to their own household needs. This essay explores the observation that financial self-help organizations do not simply provide security through the different kinds of insurance mechanisms they might contain, but that, particularly through the way in which people use them and participate in them, these institutions become meaningful for coping with insecurity. It examines the question of whether participation in financial self-help organizations contributes to the ability of households to cope with adversities and deficiencies in a concrete social context. Research aiming to answer this question was conducted in Bujung, an urban ward on the outskirts of Yogyakarta, on the island of Java.

Influence of Carl Jung and William James on the Origin of Alcoholics Anonymous

2000 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven W. Finlay
Keyword(s):  
Life Events ◽  
Alcoholics Anonymous ◽  
William James ◽  
History Of Psychology ◽  
Carl Jung ◽  
Self Help ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Carl Gustav Jung ◽  
A Current

Alcoholics Anonymous is probably the most influential self-help organization in the world, with a current worldwide membership approaching 2 million. The origin of the organization has ties to Carl Gustav Jung and William James, 2 very prominent figures in the history of psychology. A brief history of the events that led to the formation of Alcoholics Anonymous is presented, with particular emphasis on the influence of Jung and James. An account of relevant life events of both Jung and James is provided, in addition to a summary of their views on alcoholism and its treatment. Speculation is offered on how the 2 men might view their unsolicited association with the organization.

Conclusions: progressive alternatives to austerity

2020 ◽  
pp. 155-176
Author(s):  
David Etherington
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Labour Party ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Security System ◽  
Employment Policy ◽  
Job Rotation ◽  
Employment Rights

There is another way and alternative to austerity. Despite the defeat of a Corbyn led (anti- austerity) Labour Party, there are conditions and opportunities for challenging neoliberalism and inequalities. Key to this is questioning the austerity narrative relating to the economy and public services. Alternative policies are assessed including for through collective bargaining, enhanced employment rights, a remodelled social security system which offers a adequate safety net and linking welfare to employment policies through job rotation. Democratising welfare and employment policy through local government is seen as central to a more inclusive agenda

scholarly journals 2Is Social Security Part of the Social Safety Net?

2009 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey R. Brown ◽  
Julia Lynn Coronado ◽  
Don Fullerton
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Social Safety Net ◽  
The Social
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