Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Working from the claim that U.S. involvement in the affairs of other nations, particularly those in the Middle East, is a type of manufactured risk, with terrorism or "blowack" being the possible outcome, this paper examines the role of the mass media in managing this risk.

A rich collection of empirical evidence from media coverage, military documents, administration tactics, and research studies are marshalled to specify this hypothetical process. This data is then considered in the context of theories of social systems and individual agency from Talcott Parsons and Anthony Giddens. Careful attention is given to possible mechanisms of media influence on individual action, examined through the lens of each theorist's work.

A surprisingly influential role for the mass media is suggested in the works of both writers, though to differing degrees. Specifically, the research indicates a high probability of media continuing to informally partner with the state to manage the risks that accompany globalization.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The analysis of manufacturer-supplier relationships in Japan has contributed significantly to the advancement of interorganizational theory. It has yielded broad evidence that long-term collaborative partnerships enable firms to exploit the incentive benefits of market-based exchange while reaping the learning and coordination benefits of internalization within a corporate hierarchy. In this paper, we go beyond the issues of trust and cooperation that have occupied much prior theory and research on supplier relations in considering another dimension along which collaborative agreements may be arrayed. We build on transaction and network theories respectively to propose two types of long-term collaborative ties: dyadic or bilateral governance and network embeddedness. A comparative analysis of collaborative relationships in product and process development between two Japanese TV manufacturing companies and their suppliers provides empirical evidence for the distinctive effect of network ties over dyadic relationships for collaborative knowledge-sharing.

Publication Type: Abstract Proposal
Abstract: At least six standardized types of nude female figurines, ranging in date from the New Kingdom to the Late Period (ca. 1550-664 BCE), have been excavated from the Mut Precinct, Karnak. These ceramic figurines, with their characteristic torso-level breakage and frequent refuse context, have been identified as components of magico-medical rites to protect and heal. Close examination of the materials and techniques used in creating these nude female figures, as well as comparison with other genres of ceramic art, suggests that the Mut Precinct figurines were manufactured by experienced craftsmen at a state-supplied workshop, most likely one situated within the Karnak complex.

This paper will detail the materials and techniques used to produce female figurines like those found at the Mut Precinct, trace the distribution of these types of figures throughout Egypt, and identify several probable centers of ceramic figurine production. It will be shown that for some types of female figurines, a high degree of state sponsorship, technical expertise, and knowledge of iconographic trends was necessary to produce the final product. The implications of this material study for our understanding of the ritual function of ceramic female figurines will also be addressed.

Publication Type: Poster
Abstract: The British campaign to abolish the slave trade began in earnest in 1787, with politicians, clergy, activists and laypeople working together to make the transportation of Africans from their native lands to lives of slavery in the West against the law. Through impassioned speeches, verse upon verse of poetry, sermons, pamphlets and books, letters and petitions, and even some visual aids—tokens, ship models—activists raised the money, gathered the political support and finally was successful in persuading Parliament to ban the importation of slaves to Great Britain and its colonies beginning in 1807. Although it would be another thirty years before slavery was abolished in Great Britain, the foundation of what could be called modern political and social activism was established by this campaign. This movement also saw the birth of what today would be called marketing “tie-ins”: products that were specifically produced to appeal to those consumers who wanted to support the anti-slavery movement in a very tangible way and were ready to spend the money necessary to purchase the products that would illustrate that support.

Recent research, both popular and scholarly, has focused on how a relatively small group of people managed to mobilize British popular opinion to support what was, for most Britons, an issue that had little relevance to their daily lives. This research has focused, for the most part, on the following areas:

1) The role of religion in the organization of the movement.
2) How the loss of the American colonies led to an increased discussion of the ideas of slavery and freedom throughout British society.
3) How the slave trade came to be seen as economically disadvantageous despite the profits that were earned by those who undertook slaving voyages.
4) The role of women in gathering signatures on petitions, instituting and supporting boycotts of slave-produced goods, and raising funds.
5) The role of international networks in exchanging ideas, raising money and marshaling support for the movement.

Another area of study has centered on how consumer products—prints, ceramics, books and textiles, for example—gave concrete expression to the abstract notions of abolition and freedom and also helped to rouse public opinion in favor of abolition. The image of the kneeling slave with the motto, “Am I Not a Man and a Brother” introduced by Josiah Wedgwood in 1787, was appropriated, in one form or another, by manufacturers of all types of products as well as pamphleteers, artists and poets. However, there appears to have been very little research on the manufacturers themselves and the reasons why they decided that an investment in the manufacture, promotion and sale of abolition-related products would be commercially viable and economically successful. By examining one transfer-printed Staffordshire jug, and identifying the sources of the prints and, hopefully, the manufacturer of the jug as well as the retailer, I hope to come to some conclusions as to why manufacturers of consumer goods decided that products with abolition-related motifs would be profitable as well as popular.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The workforce at the GM auto assembly factory in Lordstown, Ohio, fabled in the industrial sociology literature because of its militancy during a 1972 labor dispute, has been slowly whittled down over the past two decades from a high of 12,000 in the early 1980’s to around 2500 today, primarily through the process of attrition: not hiring replacements for retiring employees, instead transferring these assembly jobs to its burgeoning production complexes in Mexico and to non-unionized domestic suppliers. To explain why this famously radical workforce has accepted this downsizing, this summary of a longitudinal interview project with workers moves beyond accepted accounts of deindustrialization by considering the political, material and ideological conditions underlying concessionary bargaining . As its threats to relocate production have become less credible and consequential, GM has turned to tactics which actively secure worker consent to job loss (Burawoy 1985). In sum, Lordstown has witnessed the replacement of a hegemonic despotism (in which threats of capital withdrawal constitute a “war of movement”), with a hegemonic despotism (whose job reductions through voluntary retirements entail a “war of attrition”).