Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The so-called "Factory" where Andy Warhol and others made art, held parties, did drugs, and engaged in sex acts of various sorts defines one popular notion of what an 'alternative' cultural space is. This paper explores the model of alternative collectivity or community that Warhol articulates and performs through in the "screen tests" Warhol made of the residents of and visitors to the Factory. The several hundred screen tests (the catalogue raisonné, edited by Callie Angell, will be published in the spring of 2006) comprise one of Warhol's many obsessive collecting projects (from the cookie jars and jewelry made famous by the Sotheby's auction of his estate to the cock photos and "time capsules" which have come to light more recently). Collecting, as Walter Benjamin noted, always brings objects together in order that they can mingle with others that are like them in one way or another. Thus, in assembling his collection of screen tests, Warhol not only indexically marks the persons who came through the Factory, but in so doing, translates their presence out of the everyday realm of identity into a specific cinematic space where they all dwell together in a field of likeness. I argue that this process of translating objects of perception and emotion into fields of similarity is a more general principle in Warhol's work, and is indeed the condition of possibility for Warhol of emotional attachment more generally. Without likeness there is no liking. And Pop Art, as Warhol said, is "liking things." By producing and proliferating likenesses, as he does in the screen tests, Warhol offers an escape from the binary opposition between the same and the different and thereby not only displaces the primary organizing logic of capitalism (in which everything must be at once universally exchangeable - the same - and qualitatively specific - the different) but also opens a space for a conception of desire that would not fall into the hetero-homo binary that dominates the modern discourses of sexuality. Thus, I argue, the screen tests model a queer mode of affiliation or collectivity based not on "identity" but on likeness, one which draws upon, democratizes and perverts mainstream mass media techniques, marking the space thus created as 'alternative,' but not for that reason closed or difficult to enter. After all, Warhol thought that "everybody should like everybody." It's just a question of noticing the likenesses, or, failing that, producing them.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: High reliability theorizing has contributed greatly to understanding organizing processes in high-risk environments. By chiefly focusing on the characteristics of mind in high reliability theory, other elements of this phenomenon are marginalized by the privileging of a managerial bias. This meta-theoretical analysis will recast the high reliability notion of mindfulness through a poststructuralist lens using deconstruction to identify what is absent and what is needed to explain a communicative perspective on this phenomenon.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper contributes to the literature assessing the relationship between community structural characteristics, community dynamics and crime by replicating and extending the work of Sampson et al. (1997). For this replication we use data incorporating census data, community survey data and police calls for service data. In the community survey used in this data collection, collective efficacy was measured with questions identical to those used in the PHDCN. With this measure, these data allow a replication and extension of the ecological model originally tested by Sampson et al. (1997). Replication of this work is critical in light of evidence demonstrating that the relationship between community dynamics and crime varies from community to community (Elliott et al. 1996). The data upon which the current work is based were drawn from Mesa Arizona a community with demographic characteristics clearly distinct from Chicago IL. Results based on these data will inform the generalizability of Sampson et al.’s (1997) results. In addition to replication, we also extend Sampson et al.’s ecological model by testing the relationship between community structural characteristics, collective efficacy and drug sales and use as well as property crime and violence.

Publication Type: Paper (prepared oral presentation)
Abstract: There exists, by now, a wealth of evidence which demonstrates the importance of social identities for collective participation and the shape of collective action. There is far less which addresses the nature of experience within these events or upon the impact of participation upon individuals and society. In this paper I draw upon a range of theoretical arguments and empirical studies (including such diverse phenomena as football matches and religious festivals) in order to propose a model of the relationship between participation, experience and impact. The model has four steps. First, for those who identify with the relevant social category, social relations are transformed towards intimacy, support and acceptance. Second, this creates the conditions of co-action and empowers group members to transform the social world in line with their collective norms and values. Third, such ‘collective self-realisation’ (CSR) results in powerful positive affect. Fourth, both directly, and as mediated through positive affect, CSR impacts both upon the well-being of participants and upon their identification with the social group. In concluding I shall discuss the implication of this analysis for understanding the way individual, collective and societal levels of explanation inter-relate. More specifically, I shall address (a) the connection between social and clinical/health factors, and (b) the connection between collective performance and the categories which structure society.

Publication Type: Paper (prepared oral presentation)
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Recent studies introduce collective narcissism - an emotional investment in an unrealistic belief about the greatness and prominence of an in-group - as a form of group esteem that is reliably linked to out-group negativity and inter-group aggressiveness. Correlational data suggest that this link is mediated by the perception of the actions of other groups as undermining the positive image of the in-group (Golec de Zavala et al, 2008). In this paper we present results of three studies that further validate those findings in experimental context. These studies allow for describing causal links between insult and aggressive reaction that is moderated by the individual level of collective narcissism. The studies are set in different contexts: (i) criticism expressed by members of competing departments of psychology in Poland (with collective narcissism measure with reference to a group of students at a given department, Studies 1 and 2) and (ii) criticism expressed by British media about Polish anti-Semitism (with collective narcissism measured in relation to national group, Study 3). The results confirm that collective narcissists are more likely to react aggressively to criticism than people low in collective narcissism. This relationship is mediated by the perception of critical opinion as threatening. Collective narcissism is related to negative attitudes and hostile behaviors towards the source of threat. Presented indicate that the Threatened Egotism Theory (e.g. Bushman & Baumeister, 1998) can be extended into the inter-group domain.