Shakespeare's critics have often claimed that plays such as The Merchant of Venice, King Lear, and Coriolanus allegorize the ways in which class conflict influences the transition from feudalism to capitalism in England. Revisionist historians have argued, however, that the rise of capitalism was more often conditioned by the unintended consequences of social policy, rather than by polarized class positions. This study uses revisionist historical accounts of the transitional period in order to offer a new methodology for understanding the representation of social and economic change in Shakespearean drama.
Does multiculturalism ‘work’? Does multiculturalism policy create social cohesion, or undermine it? Multiculturalism was introduced in Canada in the 1970s and widely adopted internationally, but more recently has been hotly debated, amid new concerns about social, cultural, and political impacts of immigration. Advocates praise multiculturalism for its emphasis on special recognition for cultural minorities as facilitating their social integration, while opponents charge that multiculturalism threatens social cohesion by encouraging social isolation.
In considering how a new Handbook of Research in Social Studies Education might be organized, we looked not only to the previous Handbook of Research on Social Studies Teaching and Learning (1991), but also to National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) position statements, publications, and committee structures, to the arguments of critics and proponents of the fi eld, and to the work of scholars who identify themselves with the fi eld. We searched out defi nitions of social studies, statements of purpose, and themes that linked (or divided) theory, research, and practice. As the chapters that follow demonstrate, social studies is a complex, challenging, and largely under-researched fi eld. Given its many disciplinary roots, competing perspectives about appropriate goals, and ongoing confl ict over the content of the social studies curriculum, social studies will no doubt remain complex,challenging, and, one hopes, dynamic. It need not remain under-researched. We hope that this Handbook will not only outline the present state of things, but encourage the kind of new research needed to move the fi eld forward and foster the civic competence that advocates for the social studies have long claimed as a fundamental goal of the fi eld.
Explaining theory and research in an accessible but thorough manner, Gender and Social Psychology critically evaluates the contribution that psychology has made to the study of gender, examining key issues such as family roles and parenting, inequalities in education, jobs and pay, and the effects of media representation of the sexes.
The first comprehensive treatment of stereotypes and stereotyping, this text synthesizes a vast body of social and cognitive research that has emerged over the past-quarter century. Provided is an unusually broad analysis of stereotypes as products both of individual cognitive activities and of social and cultural forces. While devoting careful attention to harmful aspects of stereotypes, their connections to prejudice and discrimination, and effective strategies for countering them, the volume also examines the positive functions of generalizations in helping people navigate a complex world.
