Crisis, Politics and Critical Sociology Studies in Critical Social Sciences Series Editor David Fasenfest Wayne State University Editorial Board Chris Chase-Dunn, University of California-Riverside G. William Domhoff , University of California-Santa Cruz Colette Fagan, Manchester University Martha Gimenez, University of Colorado, Boulder Heidi Gottfried, Wayne State University Karin Gottschall, University of Bremen Bob Jessop, Lancaster University Rhonda Levine, Colgate University Jacqueline O’Reilly, University of Brighton Mary Romero, Arizona State University Chizuko Ueno, University of Tokyo VOLUME 17 Crisis, Politics and Critical Sociology Edited by Graham Cassano & Richard A. Dello Buono LEIDEN • BOSTON 2010 Cover design: Wim Goedhart Photograph by David Fasenfest Th is book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Crisis, politics, and critical sociology / edited by Graham Cassano & Richard A. Dello Buono. p. cm. — (Studies in critical social sciences ; v. 17) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-17948-6 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Sociology—Philosophy. 2. Critical theory. 3. Neoliberalism. 4. Political culture. I. Cassano, Graham. II. Dello Buono, Richard Alan. III. Title. IV. Series. HM585.C74 2009 301.01—dc22 2009031412 ISSN 1573-4234 ISBN 978 90 04 17948 6 Copyright 2010 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, Th e Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. Brill has made all reasonable eff orts to trace all right holders to any copyrighted material used in this work. In cases where these eff orts have not been successful the publisher welcomes communications from copyright holders, so that the appropriate acknowledgements can be made in future editions, and to settle other permission matters. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to Th e Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands CONTENTS On the Contributors ......................................................................... vii Chapter One What is Critical Sociology? ................................... 1 Graham Cassano PART I A CRITICAL SOCIOLOGY OF POLITICS Chapter Two Refl ections on the Sociology Liberation Movement of 1968 ........................................................................ 19 Robert J. S. Ross Chapter Th ree Scholarship from a Critical Perspective ........... 27 David Fasenfest and Rhonda F. Levine Chapter Four A Left Weberian Road to Identity Politics in the United States ........................................................................... 37 James W. Russell PART II POLITICS AND THE NEW ADMINISTRATION Chapter Five It’s Real! Racism, Color Blindness, Obama, and the Urgent Need for Social Movement Politics ............... 47 Eduardo Bonilla-Silva and Victor Ray Chapter Six President Obama and Political Culture in the United States .................................................................................. 59 Marco A. Gandásegui, Jr. Chapter Seven Martin Luther King’s Dream, Obama and Post Racial Society—Can We Yet Hope for a New Narrative? ........................................................................................ 83 Rodney D. Coates vi contents PART III REVISITING SOCIAL THEORY AND POLITICS Chapter Eight Why New Socialist Th eory Needs Guy Debord: On the Practice of Radical Philosophy ............. 109 Richard Gilman-Opalsky Chapter Nine Th e Case for a Critical Sociology of Religion ........................................................................................... 135 Warren S. Goldstein Chapter Ten Moving From Attitudes to Behavior: Using Social Infl uence to Understand Interpersonal Racial ............. 143 Oppression Chavella T. Pittman Chapter Eleven Teletechnology and Internal Dialogue ........... 161 Gordon Gauchat and Casey Borch Chapter Twelve On Surveillance as a Solution to Security Issues ............................................................................................... 183 Vida Bajc Chapter Th irteen Th e Political Economy of School Violence in Trinidad: Towards a Caribbean Th eory of Youth Crime .................................................................................. 197 Daphne Phillips Bibliography ........................................................................................ 225 Index Name Index .................................................................................... 243 Subject Index .................................................................................. 247 ON THE CONTRIBUTORS Vida Bajc is Assistant Professor at Methodist University in North Carolina. She completed her Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Pennsylvania in May 2008 and consequently a Postdoctoral Fellow with The Surveillance Project in the Department of Sociology at Queen’s University, Canada. She is editor of three journal special issues: “Watching Out: Surveillance, Security, and Mobility” (with John Torpey) for the American Behavioral Scientist (2007); “(Dis)Placing the Center: Pilgrimage in a Mobile World” (with Simon Coleman and John Eade) for Mobilities (2007); and “Collective Memory and Tourism” for Journeys: Th e International Journal of Travel and Travel Writing (2006). Her edited book (with Willem de Lint) Security and Everyday Life is forthcoming with Routledge. She currently has another edited book under way for Routledge, tentatively titled Securing the Olympics. Her book manuscript in progress, based on several years of ethnographic fi eldwork in the area of Jerusalem and its surrounds, is titled Christian Pilgrimage in Jerusalem: Performing Social Realities. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva is a Professor of Sociology at Duke University. He is the author of four books to date, White Supremacy and Racism in the Post-Civil Rights Era, Racism without Racists, and White Out (with Woody Doane), and White Logic, White Methods: Racism and Social Science (with Tukufu Zuberi). He is working on another book critical on methodology matters (with G. Baiocchi and H. Horton) and on a book titled Th e Invisible Weight of Whiteness: Th e Racial Grammar of Everyday Life in America. He is the 2008 recipient of the Lewis A. Coser Award for theoretical agenda setting in sociology. Casey Borch is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His interests include the development and testing of theories that bridge the gap between micro and macro research. Recent work examines patterns of exchange in economic exchange networks, the eff ects of military spending on social welfare, and the social networks of adolescents. He has published papers in journals such as Social Psychology Quarterly, Public Opinion Quarterly, the Journal of Mathematical Sociology, and the Journal of Adolescence. He viii on the contributors teaches classes on advanced statistical methods, political sociology and Symbolic Interactionism. Graham Cassano teaches in the Department of Sociology and Anthro- pology, Oakland University, Michigan, and serves on the editorial board of Rethinking Marxism and is an Associate Editor of the jour- nal Critical Sociology. He has published on Th orstein Veblen, Georg Simmel, and the American labor movement. He is currently at work on a study of cinematic representations of organized labor during the 1930s and 1940s. Rodney D. Coates was born in East St. Louis, IL. he received his B.A. from Southern Illinois University, an M.A. in sociology and anthro- pology from the University of Illinois, and second M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago. He holds the rank of professor in the Department of Sociology and Gerontology at Miami University. Dr. Coates specializes in the study of race and ethnic relations, inequal- ity, critical race theory, and social justice. He has published dozens of articles; several edited books, and frequently writes on issues of race and ethnicity, education and public policy, civil rights and social justice. His 2004 edited book Race and Ethnicity: Across time, space and discipline won the Choice award from the American Library Association. In 2007 Coates received the Joseph Himes Career Award in Scholarship and Activism from the Association of Black Sociologists. Dr. Coates is an associate editor for Critical Sociology. He is currently fi nalizing an edited volume on Covert Racism for Brill Press. Richard (“Ricardo”) A. Dello Buono is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology, Manhattan College. His research areas include comparative social problems and Latin American/ Caribbean Studies. He has been a visiting professor at the New College of Florida, University of Havana, National University of Colombia, Autonomous University of Zacatecas and a Fulbright Professor at the University of Panama. He is author of Latin America aft er the Neoliberal Debacle (2009, Rowman and Littlefi eld) and co-editor of Imperialism, Neoliberalism and Social Struggles in Latin America, with Jose Bell Lara (2007, Brill); Cuba in the 21st Century: Realities and Perspectives, with Jose