Description
Book SynopsisGroup respect and group self-respect are central issues today for class, gender, race and religious groups. This book explores changing public attitudes, the causes and consequences of group disrepect and proposes an agenda for action to expand group respect.
Trade ReviewThis book blessedly ends the psychologists' monopoly over the subject of respect. In clear prose, the authors show that if you want to understand respect, or just seek to get it, you need a lively sociological imagination. Their sociological take on the subject deserves respect (if I can use the word) and shines new light on American society and politics. -- Charles Derber, Boston College; author of Welcome to the Revolution: Universalizing Resistance for Social Justice and Democracy in Perilous Times
Authors focus on issues of respect, looking at the problem as a group issue. They analyze the costs of disrespect for the groups. Their concern is particularly on 'identity groups,' that is cleavages other than those caused by differences in basic economic position. On the other hand, they recognize that disrespect has important economic consequences for these identity groups. As the authors note, this emphasis is different from focusing on the status and prestige of individuals. In turn, the authors consider the level of respect given to other groups as also a weapon used by dominant groups to advance their position at the cost of the groups that they disrespect. Going beyond this and taking off on Goffman's famous phrase, 'the presentation of self in everyday life,' the authors analyze the 'presentation of the group to the group.' A very interesting and provocative claim is made that disrespect gets harder to achieve as a group gets closer to eliminating disrespect. -- Stanley Lieberson, professor of sociology, Harvard University
The moral economy of respect takes center stage in this engaging book about the ways in which groups in our society are honored or dismissed as unworthy. Racial, ethnic, and class groups on the receiving end of discrimination and putdowns no longer accept this treatment as legitimate and fight to put an end to it through the courts, the media, and in everyday encounters across social boundaries. This book will enlighten social scientists, philosophers, and readers concerned with the language of respect in which we are so thoroughly steeped. -- Katherine S. Newman, Harvard Wiener Professor of Urban Studies, Kennedy School of Government and dean of social science, Radcliffe Institute for Adv
Table of ContentsChapter 1 The Respect Revolution Chapter 2 The Respect Deficit Chapter 3 Disrespecting Attitudes Chapter 4 The Class Face of Respect Chapter 5 The Costs of Disrespect Chapter 6 Roads to Disrespect Chapter 7 Group Self-Respect Chapter 8 Knotty Problems Chapter 9 The Longest Miles Chapter 10 Afterword
