Sheldon Ungar
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 156193 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Sheldon Ungar |
| NOMBRES | Sheldon |
| APELLIDO | Ungar |
| FIRMA | UNGAR S |
| AFILIACIONES | University of Toronto |
| VERIFICADO | No |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 34 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 383 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 34 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1980 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2017 |
| ÍNDICE H | 8 |
Arms Races in International Politics
Each chapter of this well-conceived and informative volume examines the forces that cause and sustain arms races, and the relationship between arms races and the outbreak of wars. Each chapter also draws on the three explanatory models suggested by the volume's editors: technological imperatives, domestic politics, and the action-reaction cycle. Starting with the Anglo-German naval race that preceded World War I and terminating with post–Cold War…
Media Context and Reporting Opportunities on Climate Change
This paper asks why the extreme real-world weather events of the summer of 1988 created a social scare in the USA while the comparable weather impacts of 2012 did not. It uses these two summers to exemplify the importance of the broader context surrounding the media. The key background factors are: the dominant issue culture in which the media function; grassroots environmental social movements; and both political and scientific claims-making on …
Global Bird Flu Communication
Drawing predominately on a once-a-day Google News Alert for newspaper coverage of the “bird flu,” this study examines global discourses on this topic in terms of alarming and reassuring coverage. Three stages of discourse are identified. The first is termed sounding the alarm, where fearful claims making predominates. The second is mixed messages, and involves a continuation of the threat with efforts to moderate it with elements of reassurance, …
Ignorance as an under-identified social problem1
This paper examines the persistence and intensification of ignorance in the ostensible knowledge society. Given the ubiquity of ignorance, it focuses on research and observations dealing with functional knowledge deficits that challenge the ideal of the well-informed citizen. These developments are traced back to the contradictory dynamics of the knowledge society, specifically information explosions in the knowledge economy and the resultant kno…
Creating a Climate for Change
The need for effective communication, public outreach and education to increase support for policy, collective action and behaviour change is ever present, and is perhaps most pressing in the context of anthropogenic climate change. This book is the first to take a comprehensive look at communication and social change specifically targeted to climate change. It is a unique collection of ideas examining the challenges associated with communicating…
Understanding Globalization
An Invitation to Environmental Sociology (review)
An Invitation to Environmental Sociology
Part I: The Material Chapter 1: Environmental Problems and Society Chapter 2: Consumption and Materialism Chapter 3: Money and Markets Chapter 4: Technology and Science Chapter 5: Population and Development Chapter 6: Body and Justice Part II: The Ideal Chapter 7: The Ideology of Environmental Domination Chapter 8: The Ideology of Environmental Concern Chapter 9: The Human Nature of Nature Chapter 10: The Rationality of Risk Part III: The Practic…
Silencing science
This paper examines the silencing of science, that is, efforts to prevent the making of specific scientific claims in any or all of the arenas in which these claims are typically reported or circulated. Those trying to mute the reporting or circulation of scientific claims are termed “partisans.” The paper examines silencing through a systematic examination of the “rapid responses” to a smoking study published in the British Medical Journal claim…
Misplaced Metaphor
Cet article soutient que la métaphore de la société du savoir est une transposition non critique de L'économie du savoir. On y examine trois approches différentes: L'idée d'un citoyen bien informé, les mesures institutionnelles et les attentes sociales pour être bien informé ainsi que le rôle d'Internet dans sa prestation de renforcements critiques d'une société du savoir. Ces trois approches se révèlent sérieusement déficientes. L'article suggGr…
Permissible Dose
Moral panic versus the risk society
This paper compares moral panic with the potential political catastrophes of a risk society. The aim of the comparison is threefold: 1. to establish the position of risk society threats alongside more conventional moral panics; 2. to examine the conceptual shifts that accompany the new types of threats; and 3. to outline the changing research agenda. The paper suggests that as new sites of social anxiety have emerged around environmental, nuclear…
Knowledge, ignorance and the popular culture
This paper begins with the “knowledge-ignorance paradox”—the process by which the growth of specialized knowledge results in a simultaneous increase in ignorance. It then outlines the roles of personal and social motivations, institutional decisions, the public culture, and technology in establishing consensual guidelines for ignorance. The upshot is a sociological model of how the “knowledge society” militates against the acquisition of scientif…
Hot Crises and Media Reassurance
Drawing on the sociology of moral panic, this paper argues that the media will shift from alarming to reassuring coverage when a 'hot crisis' portends a possible grass root panic. To determine whether this moderation effect follows from dread-inspiring events that are developing in unpredictable and potentially threatening ways, the paper compares newspaper and magazine coverage of emerging diseases with their coverage of Ebola Zaire. The results…
Bringing the Issue Back in
Journal Article Bringing the Issue Back In: Comparing the Marketability of the Ozone Hole and Global Warming Get access Sheldon Ungar Sheldon Ungar 1University of Toronto At Scarborough **Direct correspondence to Sheldon Ungar, Division of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, 1265 Military Trail Scarborough, Ontario MIC 1A4. E-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed…
No Laughing Matter
As personified in jokers, fools, and clowns, humour is an integral part of human history [44]. Humour can lighten what might otherwise be dull, tense, or tedious situations. Common definitions of humour emphasize and laughter, implying some form of benign diversion. But recent research suggests that jokes are not events that are funny - or harmful - as such. Rather, entails a dynamic process where the characteristics of the joke teller and the au…
Social scares and global warming
The author contends that the factors that contributed substantially to the protocols to protect the ozone layer are not likely to generalize to global warming. Instead, extreme events capable of unleashing social scares may be necessary to stimulate significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. The article summarizes the sociology of social scares and argues that recent developments pertaining to global warming are best explained by this concept.…
Apples and oranges
Citizens against the MX
Journal Article Citizens against the MX: Public Languages in the Nuclear Age. By Matthew Glass. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993. xxiv, 188 pp. $29.95, ISBN 0-252-01928-8.) Get access Sheldon Ungar Sheldon Ungar University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 81, Issue 2, September 1994, Pages 829–830, https://doi.org/10.2307/2081418 Pub…
The Rise and Fall of Nuclearism
The Rise and Fall of Nuclearism
Journal Article The Rise and Vail of Nuclearism: Fear and Faith as Determinants of the Arms Race. By Sheldon Ungar. (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1992. x, 214 pp. Cloth, $32.50, ISBN 0-271-00840-7. Paper, $14.95, ISBN 0-271-00841-5.) Get access Gregory Sumner Gregory Sumner University of Detroit Mercy, Detroit, Michigan Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, V…
The Great Collapse, Democratic Paralysis and the Reception of the Bomb
Expanding the traditional question of how and why the bomb was built when it was, this paper asks how socio-historical factors influenced the reception of the bomb in the West. It suggests that the bomb was received as the 'winning weapon' and that this view of it was linked to two historical factors: the Great Collapse, which undermined belief in historical progress and threatened the survival of the democracies; and the failure of balancing, th…
The Rise and (Relative) Decline of Global Warming as a Social Problem
This article extends recent work on the public arenas approach to social problems (Hilgartner and Bosk 1988) by examining changes in audience receptiveness to claims-making activities. Scientists' claims about global warming failed to attract much public attention until the extraordinary heat and drought of the “summer of '88” created a social scare. That is, environmental claims are most likely to be honored—and accelerate demands in the politic…
Civil religion and the arms race
Dans cette communication, l'auteur examine l'interaction entre la religion civile et la politique dans la course aux armements nucléaires à la lumière de la théorie de Bellah selon laquelle la religion civile s'élabore dans les ‘temps difficiles’. Pour l'auteur, la bombe atomique a posé des problèmes particuliers pour les valeurs américaines, problèmes qu'on a surmontés en l'alignant symboliquement sur certains éléments de la religion civile amér…
Is Nihilism Dead
Journal Article Is Nihilism Dead? Get access Sheldon Ungar Sheldon Ungar University of Toronto Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 51, Issue 1, Spring 1990, Pages 97–103, https://doi.org/10.2307/3711344 Published: 01 March 1990
Moral panic versus the risk society
This paper compares moral panic with the potential political catastrophes of a risk society. The aim of the comparison is threefold: 1. to establish the position of risk society threats alongside more conventional moral panics; 2. to examine the conceptual shifts that accompany the new types of threats; and 3. to outline the changing research agenda. The paper suggests that as new sites of social anxiety have emerged around environmental, nuclear…
Hot Crises and Media Reassurance
Drawing on the sociology of moral panic, this paper argues that the media will shift from alarming to reassuring coverage when a 'hot crisis' portends a possible grass root panic. To determine whether this moderation effect follows from dread-inspiring events that are developing in unpredictable and potentially threatening ways, the paper compares newspaper and magazine coverage of emerging diseases with their coverage of Ebola Zaire. The results…
The Rise and (Relative) Decline of Global Warming as a Social Problem
This article extends recent work on the public arenas approach to social problems (Hilgartner and Bosk 1988) by examining changes in audience receptiveness to claims-making activities. Scientists' claims about global warming failed to attract much public attention until the extraordinary heat and drought of the “summer of '88” created a social scare. That is, environmental claims are most likely to be honored—and accelerate demands in the politic…
An Invitation to Environmental Sociology
Part I: The Material Chapter 1: Environmental Problems and Society Chapter 2: Consumption and Materialism Chapter 3: Money and Markets Chapter 4: Technology and Science Chapter 5: Population and Development Chapter 6: Body and Justice Part II: The Ideal Chapter 7: The Ideology of Environmental Domination Chapter 8: The Ideology of Environmental Concern Chapter 9: The Human Nature of Nature Chapter 10: The Rationality of Risk Part III: The Practic…
No Laughing Matter
As personified in jokers, fools, and clowns, humour is an integral part of human history [44]. Humour can lighten what might otherwise be dull, tense, or tedious situations. Common definitions of humour emphasize and laughter, implying some form of benign diversion. But recent research suggests that jokes are not events that are funny - or harmful - as such. Rather, entails a dynamic process where the characteristics of the joke teller and the au…
Ignorance as an under-identified social problem1
This paper examines the persistence and intensification of ignorance in the ostensible knowledge society. Given the ubiquity of ignorance, it focuses on research and observations dealing with functional knowledge deficits that challenge the ideal of the well-informed citizen. These developments are traced back to the contradictory dynamics of the knowledge society, specifically information explosions in the knowledge economy and the resultant kno…
Bringing the Issue Back in
Journal Article Bringing the Issue Back In: Comparing the Marketability of the Ozone Hole and Global Warming Get access Sheldon Ungar Sheldon Ungar 1University of Toronto At Scarborough **Direct correspondence to Sheldon Ungar, Division of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, 1265 Military Trail Scarborough, Ontario MIC 1A4. E-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed…
Social scares and global warming
The author contends that the factors that contributed substantially to the protocols to protect the ozone layer are not likely to generalize to global warming. Instead, extreme events capable of unleashing social scares may be necessary to stimulate significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. The article summarizes the sociology of social scares and argues that recent developments pertaining to global warming are best explained by this concept.…
Global Bird Flu Communication
Drawing predominately on a once-a-day Google News Alert for newspaper coverage of the “bird flu,” this study examines global discourses on this topic in terms of alarming and reassuring coverage. Three stages of discourse are identified. The first is termed sounding the alarm, where fearful claims making predominates. The second is mixed messages, and involves a continuation of the threat with efforts to moderate it with elements of reassurance, …
Apples and oranges
A Coding Method for the Analysis of Moral Discourse
Development of a social scientific study of morality, cutting across various disciplines and methodological approaches, is proposed. Drawing on both quantitative methods associated with content analysis, and the more naturalistic methods of discourse analysis, the authors outline a new methodfor the coding of moral discourse at three levels of analysis: (1) by the sides taken in the dispute, topics introduced, the "voice" of the moralizer, and ke…
Self-mockery
The first part of the paper delineates grounds for doubting that enhancing performances are as pervasive as the self-presentational literature suggests. Then, the notion of structural ambivalence is used to demonstrate that there is considerable 'leeway' in role taking, especially in the case of humorous or playful behaviour. Extending this analysis, it is argued that self-mockery constitutes an important aspect of the presentation of self. The r…
Moral Panics, The Military-Industrial Complex, and The Arms Race
This study argues that the generalized fear of the Soviet threat was punctuated by moral panics that provided a signal impetus to the arms race. The growth of the American nuclear arsenal came in three large waves (the Truman. the Eisenhower/Kennedy/McNamara, and the Reagan buildups), the result of panics unleashed by startling and spectacular Soviet challenges to American nuclear hegemony (the Soviet atomic bomb, the Sputnik/Cuban missile crisis…
Misplaced Metaphor
Cet article soutient que la métaphore de la société du savoir est une transposition non critique de L'économie du savoir. On y examine trois approches différentes: L'idée d'un citoyen bien informé, les mesures institutionnelles et les attentes sociales pour être bien informé ainsi que le rôle d'Internet dans sa prestation de renforcements critiques d'une société du savoir. Ces trois approches se révèlent sérieusement déficientes. L'article suggGr…
The Effects of the Certainty of Self-Perceptions on Self-Presentation Behaviors
Sheldon Ungar, The Effects of the Certainty of Self-Perceptions on Self-Presentation Behaviors: A Test of the Strength of Self-Enhancement Motives, Social Psychology Quarterly, Vol. 43, No. 2 (Jun., 1980), pp. 165-172
Civil religion and the arms race
Dans cette communication, l'auteur examine l'interaction entre la religion civile et la politique dans la course aux armements nucléaires à la lumière de la théorie de Bellah selon laquelle la religion civile s'élabore dans les ‘temps difficiles’. Pour l'auteur, la bombe atomique a posé des problèmes particuliers pour les valeurs américaines, problèmes qu'on a surmontés en l'alignant symboliquement sur certains éléments de la religion civile amér…
The Effects of Status and Excuse on Interpersonal Reactions to Deviant Behavior
Afield experiment was conducted to test the effects of an status (high vs. low) and the presence or absence of remedial rituals (i.e., an excuse) on the attributions and derogatory remarks-made about a minor interactional infraction in a public encounter. The results revealed that derogatory remarks varied inversely with the offendets status; but status did not affect the attribution of blame for the incident. Less blame was attributed to the off…
Understanding Globalization
The Great Collapse, Democratic Paralysis and the Reception of the Bomb
Expanding the traditional question of how and why the bomb was built when it was, this paper asks how socio-historical factors influenced the reception of the bomb in the West. It suggests that the bomb was received as the 'winning weapon' and that this view of it was linked to two historical factors: the Great Collapse, which undermined belief in historical progress and threatened the survival of the democracies; and the failure of balancing, th…
Is Nihilism Dead
Journal Article Is Nihilism Dead? Get access Sheldon Ungar Sheldon Ungar University of Toronto Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 51, Issue 1, Spring 1990, Pages 97–103, https://doi.org/10.2307/3711344 Published: 01 March 1990
Attitude Inferences from Behavior Performed Under Public and Private Conditions
The Effects of the Certainty of Self-Perceptions on Self-Presentation Behaviors
Sheldon Ungar, The Effects of the Certainty of Self-Perceptions on Self-Presentation Behaviors: A Test of the Strength of Self-Enhancement Motives, Social Psychology Quarterly, Vol. 43, No. 2 (Jun., 1980), pp. 165-172
The Effects of Others' Expectancies on the Fabrication of Opinions
Three field experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that the expectations which generalized or proximate others hold for knowledge about a subject will affect the rate at which people fabricate opinions. In what was ostensibly a man-in-the-street interview for a radio program, respondents were asked to comment on both actual public events and on “counterfeit” but plausible public events. In Experiments 1 and 2, Cs were used to manipulat…
The Effects of Status and Excuse on Interpersonal Reactions to Deviant Behavior
Afield experiment was conducted to test the effects of an status (high vs. low) and the presence or absence of remedial rituals (i.e., an excuse) on the attributions and derogatory remarks-made about a minor interactional infraction in a public encounter. The results revealed that derogatory remarks varied inversely with the offendets status; but status did not affect the attribution of blame for the incident. Less blame was attributed to the off…
The sex-typing of adult and child behavior in toy sales
Self-mockery
The first part of the paper delineates grounds for doubting that enhancing performances are as pervasive as the self-presentational literature suggests. Then, the notion of structural ambivalence is used to demonstrate that there is considerable 'leeway' in role taking, especially in the case of humorous or playful behaviour. Extending this analysis, it is argued that self-mockery constitutes an important aspect of the presentation of self. The r…
Say It Ain't So, Ben
This study examines some well-known attributional tendencies in a unique situation. Specifically, it examines attributions for the unexpected fall of a Canadian hero, Ben Johnson, who was stripped of his Olympic gold medal for the use of anabolic steroids. The results reveal a reversal of the fundamental attributional bias and the use of base rate information in observers' attributions. The findings are interpreted and discussed in terms of Pyszc…
A Coding Method for the Analysis of Moral Discourse
Development of a social scientific study of morality, cutting across various disciplines and methodological approaches, is proposed. Drawing on both quantitative methods associated with content analysis, and the more naturalistic methods of discourse analysis, the authors outline a new methodfor the coding of moral discourse at three levels of analysis: (1) by the sides taken in the dispute, topics introduced, the "voice" of the moralizer, and ke…
Is Nihilism Dead
Journal Article Is Nihilism Dead? Get access Sheldon Ungar Sheldon Ungar University of Toronto Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 51, Issue 1, Spring 1990, Pages 97–103, https://doi.org/10.2307/3711344 Published: 01 March 1990
Moral Panics, The Military-Industrial Complex, and The Arms Race
This study argues that the generalized fear of the Soviet threat was punctuated by moral panics that provided a signal impetus to the arms race. The growth of the American nuclear arsenal came in three large waves (the Truman. the Eisenhower/Kennedy/McNamara, and the Reagan buildups), the result of panics unleashed by startling and spectacular Soviet challenges to American nuclear hegemony (the Soviet atomic bomb, the Sputnik/Cuban missile crisis…
Civil religion and the arms race
Dans cette communication, l'auteur examine l'interaction entre la religion civile et la politique dans la course aux armements nucléaires à la lumière de la théorie de Bellah selon laquelle la religion civile s'élabore dans les ‘temps difficiles’. Pour l'auteur, la bombe atomique a posé des problèmes particuliers pour les valeurs américaines, problèmes qu'on a surmontés en l'alignant symboliquement sur certains éléments de la religion civile amér…
The Great Collapse, Democratic Paralysis and the Reception of the Bomb
Expanding the traditional question of how and why the bomb was built when it was, this paper asks how socio-historical factors influenced the reception of the bomb in the West. It suggests that the bomb was received as the 'winning weapon' and that this view of it was linked to two historical factors: the Great Collapse, which undermined belief in historical progress and threatened the survival of the democracies; and the failure of balancing, th…
The Rise and (Relative) Decline of Global Warming as a Social Problem
This article extends recent work on the public arenas approach to social problems (Hilgartner and Bosk 1988) by examining changes in audience receptiveness to claims-making activities. Scientists' claims about global warming failed to attract much public attention until the extraordinary heat and drought of the “summer of '88” created a social scare. That is, environmental claims are most likely to be honored—and accelerate demands in the politic…
The Rise and Fall of Nuclearism
The Rise and Fall of Nuclearism
Journal Article The Rise and Vail of Nuclearism: Fear and Faith as Determinants of the Arms Race. By Sheldon Ungar. (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1992. x, 214 pp. Cloth, $32.50, ISBN 0-271-00840-7. Paper, $14.95, ISBN 0-271-00841-5.) Get access Gregory Sumner Gregory Sumner University of Detroit Mercy, Detroit, Michigan Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, V…
Apples and oranges
Citizens against the MX
Journal Article Citizens against the MX: Public Languages in the Nuclear Age. By Matthew Glass. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993. xxiv, 188 pp. $29.95, ISBN 0-252-01928-8.) Get access Sheldon Ungar Sheldon Ungar University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 81, Issue 2, September 1994, Pages 829–830, https://doi.org/10.2307/2081418 Pub…
Social scares and global warming
The author contends that the factors that contributed substantially to the protocols to protect the ozone layer are not likely to generalize to global warming. Instead, extreme events capable of unleashing social scares may be necessary to stimulate significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. The article summarizes the sociology of social scares and argues that recent developments pertaining to global warming are best explained by this concept.…
No Laughing Matter
As personified in jokers, fools, and clowns, humour is an integral part of human history [44]. Humour can lighten what might otherwise be dull, tense, or tedious situations. Common definitions of humour emphasize and laughter, implying some form of benign diversion. But recent research suggests that jokes are not events that are funny - or harmful - as such. Rather, entails a dynamic process where the characteristics of the joke teller and the au…
Hot Crises and Media Reassurance
Drawing on the sociology of moral panic, this paper argues that the media will shift from alarming to reassuring coverage when a 'hot crisis' portends a possible grass root panic. To determine whether this moderation effect follows from dread-inspiring events that are developing in unpredictable and potentially threatening ways, the paper compares newspaper and magazine coverage of emerging diseases with their coverage of Ebola Zaire. The results…
Bringing the Issue Back in
Journal Article Bringing the Issue Back In: Comparing the Marketability of the Ozone Hole and Global Warming Get access Sheldon Ungar Sheldon Ungar 1University of Toronto At Scarborough **Direct correspondence to Sheldon Ungar, Division of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, 1265 Military Trail Scarborough, Ontario MIC 1A4. E-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed…
Knowledge, ignorance and the popular culture
This paper begins with the “knowledge-ignorance paradox”—the process by which the growth of specialized knowledge results in a simultaneous increase in ignorance. It then outlines the roles of personal and social motivations, institutional decisions, the public culture, and technology in establishing consensual guidelines for ignorance. The upshot is a sociological model of how the “knowledge society” militates against the acquisition of scientif…
Moral panic versus the risk society
This paper compares moral panic with the potential political catastrophes of a risk society. The aim of the comparison is threefold: 1. to establish the position of risk society threats alongside more conventional moral panics; 2. to examine the conceptual shifts that accompany the new types of threats; and 3. to outline the changing research agenda. The paper suggests that as new sites of social anxiety have emerged around environmental, nuclear…
Permissible Dose
Misplaced Metaphor
Cet article soutient que la métaphore de la société du savoir est une transposition non critique de L'économie du savoir. On y examine trois approches différentes: L'idée d'un citoyen bien informé, les mesures institutionnelles et les attentes sociales pour être bien informé ainsi que le rôle d'Internet dans sa prestation de renforcements critiques d'une société du savoir. Ces trois approches se révèlent sérieusement déficientes. L'article suggGr…
Sociology (23 obras) · Political science (18 obras) · Psychology (14 obras) · Philosophy (12 obras) · Law (11 obras) · Social Psychology (10 obras) · Epistemology (9 obras) · Philosophy (9 obras) · Politics (9 obras) · Computer Science (8 obras)