Academic literature on the topic 'Public action myth'

Organized crime and the mob figures who run it have long captured the imagination of the American public, appearing since the early twentieth century as characters in a host of popular books, movies, and television programs. But often what the public knew of such figures and their criminal careers was as much myth as fact. This book offers highly readable, carefully researched biographies that dispel the the myths but preserve the fascination surrounding 10 infamous New York mob leaders of the twentieth century. Each in-depth biography will help interested readers understand how and why each o

Building on the core ideas in the author’s book The Entrepreneurial State: debunking private vs. public sector myths, the chapter looks at the narrow way in which public policy is viewed in economics and the implications of this for our understanding of wealth creation. Focusing on the relationship between the State and innovation-led growth, it looks at the key role that public policies have had in taking on extreme risk and uncertainty in the innovation process. This has entailed the State acting not just as lender of last resort, but as investor of first resort. In this context, economic po

Attempting to reveal the real causes of the 1929 stock market crash, Bierman refutes the popular belief that wild speculation had excessively driven up stock market prices and resulted in the crash. Although he acknowledges some prices of stocks such as utilities and banks were overprices, reasonable explanations exist for the level and increase of all other securities stock prices. Indeed, if stocks were overpriced in 1929, then they more even more overpriced in the current era of staggering growth in stock prices and investment in securities. The causes of the 1929 crash, Bierman argues, lie

“Why is there such an active and ongoing resistance to mandatory vaccination? This book examines why vaccination as a public health measure continues to be highly controversial. Objections to mandatory vaccination are widespread in the world today. Rather than being a new development, such objections have existed since vaccinations were first introduced. This book provides complete coverage of the history and background of vaccination issues in the United States and around the world, along with a detailed examination of the issues related to the use of vaccination today, and supplies readers w

This all-encompassing encyclopedia provides a broad perspective on U.S. politics, culture, and society, but also goes beyond the facts to consider the myths, ideals, and values that help shape and define the nation. Demonstrating that political culture is equally rooted in public events, internal debates, and historical experiences, this unique, three-volume encyclopedia examines an exceptionally broad range of factors shaping modern American politics, including popular belief, political action, and the institutions of power and authority. Readers will see how political culture is shaped by th

AbstractIt will be argued that the dominant form of current academic science is based on ideas and concepts about science and research that date back to philosophy and sociology that was developed since the 1930s. It will be discussed how this philosophy and sociology of science has informed the ideas, myths and ideology about science held by the scientific community and still determines the popular view of science. It is even more amazing when we realize that these ideas are philosophically and sociologically untenable and since the 1970s were declared obsolete by major scholars in these same disciplines. To demonstrate this, I delve deep to discuss the distinct stages that scholars in philosophy, sociology and history of science since 1945 to 2000 have gone through to leave the analytical-positivistic philosophy behind. I will be focusing on developments of their thinking about major topics such as: how scientific knowledge is produced, the scientific method; the status of scientific knowledge and the development of our ideas about ‘truth’ and the relation of our claims to reality. It will appear that the positivistic ideas about science producing absolute truth, about ‘the unique scientific method’, its formal logical approach and its timeless foundation as a guarantee for our value-free, objective knowledge were not untenable. This is to show how thoroughly the myth has been demystified in philosophy and sociology of science. You think after these fifty pages I am kicking a dead horse? Not at all! This scientific demystification has unfortunately still not reached active scientists. In fact, the popular image of science and research is still largely based on a that Legend. This is not without consequence as will be shown in Chap. 10.1007/978-94-024-2115-6_3. These images of science have shaped and in fact distorted the organisational structures of academia and the interaction between its institutes and disciplines. It also affects the relationship of science with its stakeholders in society, its funders, the many publics private and public, and policy makers in government. In short, it determines to a large degree the growth of knowledge with major effects on society.

AbstractScience in Transition, which started in 2013, is a small-scale Dutch initiative that presented a systems approach, comprised of analyses and suggested actions, based on experience in academia. It was built on writings by early science watchers and most recent theoretical developments in philosophy, history and sociology of science and STS on the practice and politics of science. This chapter will include my personal experiences as one of the four Dutch founders of Science in Transition. I will discuss the message and the various forms of reception over the past 6 years by the different actors in the field, including administrators in university, academic societies and Ministries of Higher Education, Economic Affairs and Public Health but also from leadership in the private sector. I will report on my personal experience of how these myths and ideologies play out in the daily practice of 40 years of biomedical research in policy and decision making in lab meetings, at departments, at grant review committees of funders and in the Board rooms and the rooms of Deans, Vice Chancellors and Rectors.It has in the previous chapters become clear that the ideology and ideals that we are brought up with are not valid, are not practiced despite that even in 2020 they are still somehow ‘believed’ by most scientists and even by many science watchers, journalists and used in political correct rhetoric and policy making by science’s leadership. In that way these ideologies and beliefs mostly implicitly but sometimes even explicitly determine debates regarding the internal policy of science and science policy in the public arena. These include all time classic themes like the uniqueness of science compared to any other societal activity; ethical superiority of science and scientists based on Mertonian norms; the vocational disinterested search for truth, autonomy; values and moral (political) neutrality, dominance of internal epistemic values and unpredictability regards impact. These ideas have influenced debates about the ideal and hegemony of natural science, the hierarchy of basic over applied science; theoretical over technological research and at a higher level in academic institutions and at the funders the widely held supremacy of STEM over SSH. This has directly determined the attitudes of scientists in the interaction with peers within the field, but also shaped the politics of science within science but also with policy makers and stakeholders from the public and private sector and with interactions with popular media.Science it was concluded was suboptimal because of growing problems with the quality and reproducibility of its published products due to failing quality control at several levels. Because of too little interactions with society during the phases of agenda setting and the actual process of knowledge production, its societal impact was limited which also relates to the lack of inclusiveness, multidisciplinarity and diversity in academia. Production of robust and significant results aiming at real world problems are mainly secondary to academic output relevant for an internally driven incentive and reward system steering for academic career advancement at the individual level. Similarly, at the higher organizational and national level this reward system is skewed to types of output and impact focused on positions on international ranking lists. This incentive and reward system, with flawed use of metrics, drives a hyper-competitive social system in academia which results in a widely felt lack of alignment and little shared value in the academic community. Empirical data, most of it from within science and academia, showing these problems in different academic disciplines, countries and continents are published on virtually a weekly basis since 2014. These critiques focus on the practices of scholarly publishing including Open Access and open data, the adverse effects of the incentive and reward system, in particular its flawed use of metrics. Images, ideologies and politics of science were exposed that insulate academia and science from society and its stakeholders, which distort the research agenda and subsequentially its societal and economic impact.

The hype around e-government can also be understood in terms of myths. Myths play an important role in policy formulation because they can inspire and convince and thus can stimulate collective action. However, they can also blur our perspective on reality. In such cases people talk about ‘hypes’. In this chapter we look at policy documents regarding the first waves in the establishment of electronic government in Australia, Canada, Denmark and the Netherlands. We discuss these documents in terms of myths in order to understand the cleft between the ambitions of these documents and daily reality. Four myths are constructed and discussed: the myth of a new and better government which operates as a single unit, the myth of technological progress, the myth of rational information planning and the myth of the intelligent and empowered consumer.

Just as sustainability has come to serve as a euphemism for profit-minded redevelopment, public participation and community engagement have become a ritualized but ultimately empty performance of democracy and shared decision making. This chapter examines how environmental justice activists have navigated the nonprofit funding system and the constant pressure to participate in various forms of citizen engagement. These have included requests from academics wishing to further institutional missions that emphasize public engagement. They also included invitations to sit on steering committees, to attend countless public hearings, to submit public testimonies about new development projects, to participate in urban planning initiatives, and more. Activists have found that such activities drain their time and energy, siphoning it away from their long-term goals. Ultimately, rather than supporting democratic action, institutionalized forms of civic engagement have undermined democracy itself.

This chapter zooms in on colour blindness. Focussing on the racial domains of politics and criminal justice, it explores the correlation between race and colour and the enjoyment of civil and political rights. It argues that it was not just government inaction but also a lack of collective action from race-first and other groups why dark-skinned Jamaicans struggled more than others to exercise their civil and political rights. But while successive governments lacked the commitment to create a society where all Jamaicans irrespective of race and colour could enjoy their ‘fundamental rights’, they did their best to present Jamaica as a colour-blind nation. This chapter will also explore the purposes of this myth of racial harmony that was developed after the Second World War.

Abstract The myth of left and right is the false belief that a principle underlies the political spectrum. While it is undeniable that many Americans hold their political views in packages that we call ideologies—those who support abortion rights, for instance, are also more likely to support income tax increases, pacifism, and affirmative action—the question is “why?” Two theories propose an answer. The essentialist theory says that it’s because all positions considered left- or right-wing share an underlying philosophy or worldview, while the social theory says that it’s because people conform to political tribes. Evidence from the laboratory, survey data, and history all show that the social theory is the better explanation. While the essentialist theory dominates our political culture, and explains the ubiquity of the political spectrum in public discourse, it has been soundly falsified.

Abstract The myth of left and right is the false belief that a principle underlies the political spectrum. While it is undeniable that many Americans hold their political views in packages that we call ideologies—those who support abortion rights, for instance, are also more likely to support income tax increases, pacifism, and affirmative action—the question is “why?” Two theories propose an answer. The essentialist theory says that it’s because all positions considered left or right wing share an underlying philosophy or worldview, while the social theory says that it’s because people conform to political tribes. Evidence from the laboratory, survey data, and history all show that the social theory is the better explanation. While the essentialist theory dominates our political culture, and explains the ubiquity of the political spectrum in public discourse, it has been soundly falsified.

This chapter looks at ways in which Candyman (1992) offers a discourse on urban myth, and how it utilises actual urban legends such as ‘Bloody Mary’. Social scientists and folklorists have theorised that such urban legends construct and reinforce the worldview of the group within which they are told, sometimes through an acting out of the legends themselves: a form of ‘ostension’. In Candyman, that worldview speaks of minority oppression and the outward projection of the dispossessed as Other. Despite Clive Barker's then-unawareness of the term ‘urban legend’, a number of classic urban myths already appear in ‘The Forbidden’, including the tale of the hook, razorblades in sweets, and the public toilet castration. Bernard Rose would develop the self-reflexive aspects of the story in his adaptation, the sense that the story is very much about itself, about the experience of horror and the nature of campfire storytelling.

Progress toward social justice in public health requires actions to reduce the extremes of social injustice, well beyond health and health services, within each country and globally. Economic inequalities have never been greater than now, although structural inequalities of power, income, and living standards have long been present throughout the world. This chapter describes how social injustice can be reduced by promoting equitable and sustainable human development. It discusses economic and social requirements for a greater justice in public health, myths about the costs of equity and social justice, and multidimensional indicators of poverty and inequalities. It concludes with a discussion of what needs to be done, including making equity an economic priority, providing international support, utilizing the Sustainable Development Goals for poverty reduction, and taking other actions toward social justice. Two text boxes address the roles of international nongovernmental organizations and foundations in promoting equitable and sustainable human development.

Neuroscience has witnessed profound scientific and technological advancements over recent decades, transforming our understanding of the brain and leading to significant improvements in both diagnosing and treating neurological disorders. This field of knowledge is an exciting topic for researchers and health professionals, psychologists, educators, and even the general public. The rapid expansion and the complexities of neurosciences have also led to the emergence and spread of several neuromyths. These myths concern various misconceptions or unfounded beliefs arising from incorrect interpret

The Qiang ethnic minority had a population of around 300,000 at the time of the earthquake. The Qiang mostly inhabit the poorest and most socially disadvantaged remote rural mountainous areas of the Wen Chuan and Mao Wen Qiang Autonomous Counties of Sichuan. The Qiang have a continuous cultural history dating from the Diqiang groups of the Xia Dynasty (16th to 11th century BC). They have their own language and animistic belief system, and have developed their own traditional ways of dealing with disasters. The Qiang’s myth of “Bubita” (God) and the legend of “Mutazhu and Douanzhu” (a heroic st

Si vuole esplorare il significato nella pratica di alcune parole chiave quali cambiamento,
 collasso, emergenza, memoria, rischio e la loro eventuale capacità di esplicitare i nessi tra
 geografia e storia nei territori sensibili.
 Per i sapere non esperti, la nozione di rischio diventa cangiante: declinata al passato in forma di
 mitografia o respinta e scomoda declinazione del futuro, al presente tende a perdere un
 significato proprio per scivolare nel campo semantico dell'emergenza. Questa coniugazione
 produce azioni, nell'unità di spazio-temporale del disast

Background: Hepatitis B is a disease that affects the liver, leading to cirrhosis and even hepatocellular carcinoma. Being an infectious disease, anyone is at risk of being affected by it. Especially, young adults who are sexually active, drug users and not well-informed. Methods and Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate the level of knowledge that teenagers have about this disease and also the attitude they have about awareness or preventive measures to be affected by the Hepatitis B virus. The data was collected from high school students of the three largest public high sch

Care has long been a gendered attribute, frequently associated with women but rarely, until very recently, understood as an ethic and action shaping the built environment. This paper proposes using the lens of care to uncover women’s material culture contributions to the built environment. Histories that focus on the formal intersection of architecture and town planning and their professional identities can exclude women makers who, historically had to find other ways to shape built material culture. Under the rubric of care, this paper examines how women makers worked in applied art media acr