Money,mail and markets: Reflections on direct mail in American politics

Direct mail has become one of the orthodox stage properties of America's campaigns, and its successes include the transformation of Republican contributors from a rich coterie to a broad base of donors. But while its role is acknowledged, it has not been fully explained: rather, the mail is treated as a magical if somewhat erratic panacea.This article attempts to remedy that deficiency. Direct mail succeeds because unlike other media it can deliver a specialized message to distinctive groups, made personal through the agency of new technology and therefore engendering unique loyalties. The mail represents activism for the inactive, bringing political expression and influence to an alienated provincial conservatism, and it works by the diligent discovery of names and personal details of prospective supporters. But success is not inevitable. When time is short, or where obscure local candidates solicit national support, direct mail will give its employers disappointing results.     

The Observers Observed

Donna Haraway, Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science (Routledge, 1989), £40 hardback.

Mary Jacobus, Evelyn Fox Keller, Sally Shuttleworth (eds), Body/Politics: Women and the Discourses of Science (Routledge, 1990), £35.00.

Ludmilla Jordanova, Sexual Visions: Images of Gender in Science and Medicine between the Eighteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1989), £21.25 hardback, £12.95 paperback

Londa Schiebinger, The Mind Has No Sex? Women in the Origins of Modem Science (Harvard University Press, 1989), £23.50.     

Communication frightens me: Derrida on communication

ABSTRACT

In this tribute to Jacques Derrida my main aim is to emphasise the radical nature of his questioning of the assumptions of the Western philosophical tradition without ever turning his back on this very tradition. The focus is only on one aspect of his thinking, namely his views on the notion of communication. These views are interpreted as representative of his general approach, and certainly provide an excellent illustration of his broader intellectual work. Attention is given to his articulation of the traditionally accepted views on communication and his alternative to this tradition is explored in terms of his deconstructive approach. Reference is made to terms that feature in a prominent way in communication, namely idealisation, intentionality, context, meaning, reading and writing, among other things. This enquiry leads in a spontaneous way, and as a natural consequence of his style of thinking, to an ethic of communication made very briefly explicit in the areas of thinking, theorising, reading and writing.     

Coalitions of Contention: The Case of the WTO Protests in Seattle

Coalitions of organizations are cooperative arrangements that require ongoing management of conflicts among members and potential members. Using data on both successful and unsuccessful attempts at coalition building during the 1999 protests against the WTO in Seattle, we explain the variation in the formation of one type of coalition of organizations, the 'event coalition', in which social movement organizations coalesce around a specific protest event. We find that objectively common organizational interests and framing are necessary but not sufficient for explaining coalition partnering. Organizational representatives must also calculate a benefit from pooled resources and be able to commit credibly to delivering promised resources and to resolving the inevitable tensions that arise among coalition partners.     

“To This Day She Continues to Struggle with the Terror Imposed upon Her”: Rape Narratives in Victim Impact Statements

This study locates the victim impact statements of raped women in the sociolegal context of significant sentencing law reforms introduced in Canada to address an ascendant victim’s rights movement. We examine 38 reported sentencing decisions in sexual assault cases in Ontario, Canada (1999–2010). Our objectives are to discern (a) whether the archetype of the ideal victim continues to influence juridical discourse after conviction and (b) what narratives of harm intersect with sentencing objectives and aggravating factors. Our findings suggest women express profound fear of re-victimization and traumatic effects of sexual violence regardless of the relational context of their rape experience. Most surprisingly, our data show sentencing judges view the sexual assault of an intoxicated rape victim as an aggravating factor. Future consideration for victim impact statements in sexual assault cases is discussed.