Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Formal legal recognition of same-sex couples that provides at least some rights and responsibilities of marriage has spread rapidly throughout Western Europe, beginning with Denmark in 1989 and now in eight other countries. This article draws on conceptual frameworks of institutional change from several social sciences to explain why the nine countries recognize same-sex partnerships, while other countries with similar economic statuses, social histories, and religious traditions do not. One strand of theory focuses on the efficiency-enhancing potential of institutions, and a second strand of theory focuses on the conflict over institutional change. This paper uses both quantitative regression analysis and Qualitative Comparative Analysis of efficiency-related and conflict-related variables, including social norms, religiosity, political resources, and economic incentives, to explain the pattern of SSPR adoption. The findings suggest that tolerant attitudes toward homosexuality, low religiosity, and high levels of cohabitation are the primary predictors of a country’s legal recognition of same-sex partners.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Amusement park survival is not singularly dependent on tourist attendance. As exemplified by Walt Disney Company theme parks, there is obvious attention to merchandise, particularly items that will advertise the company and the theme park. This study examines the risk of product cannibalism tied to retooling ride attractions at the U.S. Disney theme parks – when new product lines are introduced, distracting from already popular items – and the risk of consumer fatigue from too many product choices. A field study was conducted at the Disneyland Resort in California and secondary data analysis was conducted using DVD archive footage of the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. Additionally Walt Disney Company monthly and annual SEC financial reports are examined to take into consideration the overall financial health of the company from 2000-2006, a period in which the 45th and 50th anniversaries of Disneyland occurred. 1 Table, 7 Photographs, 25 References.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The paper analyses Swedish, Danish and British news about Europe from the perspective that television news narratives are sites where collective (i.e. national and international) identities are cultivated and mobilised through the contrast between ‘we’ and ‘others’. The issue is not if European stories are domesticated to fit national news bulletins, but how events are domesticated, and what meanings are made from these by the programmes’ producers. The results indicate that viewers are offered different images of Europe during the week 15-21 November 1999, and that the journalists play active roles in constructing ‘themes’ which link together different types of news stories about Europe into stories about ‘us’. The Swedish ‘we’ was characterised as a moralising global villager, slightly superior but willing to adapt to the outside world, the Danish ‘We’ appeared as an anxious and conscientious European, trying to do its share, despite its reservations on EU cooperation. The British ‘We’ was characterised as the engaged international humanitarian who prefers to keep a distance from time-consuming Euro-squabbles.

Publication Type: Session Paper
Abstract: This paper will explore various inflections of the ‘branded self’ across marketing literature, reality television, and online social networks. Under post-Fordism, the practice of self-branding is explicitly narrated, marked by the visual codes of the mainstream culture industry, and subject to the extraction of monetary value. Contemporary marketing literature identifies the construction of a branded persona as a central rhetorical strategy in the negotiation of increasingly complex corporate environments. Reality television shows such as “The Apprentice” and “American Idol” invent narratives of self-branding and simultaneously produce branded personae. On websites like 2night.com photographers take pictures of partying young people and link them to advertisements online, blurring distinctions between private self and instrumental associative object. Other websites such as facebook.com may be seen as inventories of branded ‘selves.’ With self-branding, Giddens’ “reflexive project of the ‘self’” becomes a strategic and cynical practice of image-invention designed for future profit.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Though the subject has in many ways fallen from prominence in academic debate, American civil religion as a language of political discourse once more came to prominence in the wake of the September 11th attacks and during the buildup to the war in Iraq. Taking a historical perspective, I argue that many of the civil religious themes which were used by the current administration to generate compliance with its domestic and foreign policy agenda originate in the administration of Woodrow Wilson and the rhetoric which surrounded American involvement in the First World War. I locate two visions of the American political project within the tradition of American civil religion: one, which I term the model perspective, conceives of the United States as an example for the world to see and emulate, while the other, which I refer to as the missionary perspective, conceives of the American political project as being to spread the “good news” of democratic governance across the globe. I argue that these two perspectives have consequences for American foreign policy, with eras dominated by the model perspective tending isolationist, while times marked by the missionary perspective tend interventionist. The two, however, are not mutually exclusive, and it is my claim that when both perspectives are strongly present, as I argue is the case in the Wilson administration, American foreign policy is at its most aggressive.