The destruction of a synagogue community: polarization in a postindustrial world

Article Abstract:

Examining a case study of a consultation to a synagogue community, this article describes how the community polarized around its Rabbi's support for the Palestinian rebellion in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. By studying both the processes of polarization and the dynamics of the consultation, the article explores how a polarized community can destroy the real and psychological public space that it needs to heal its divisions and proposes that consultants can help a polarized community revitalize its public space by providing structure and boundaries inside the consultation process itself, by facilitating conversation so that substantive differences can be explored, and by interpreting the consulting process so that unconscious fantasies and unverbalized feelings can be examined. The article suggests that as we enter into a multicultural world where identities are negotiated, we need to develop a consulting technology that can help communities tolerate, protect, and sustain the many identities embedded in the texture of community life. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Case studies, Community life, Polarization (Social sciences)

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Saluting in social context

Article Abstract:

The article examines the stylistic variations of the military custom of saluting, which both reflects the military hierarchy and provides a medium for the expression of individuals' attitudes toward the system. Specific examples, conventions, and categories of saluting are presented, drawn from the author's previous experience as a United States Army officer, with reference to official guidelines and discussions with other military personnel. Common instances of individual manipulation of the standard rules for saluting are considered signs of structural ambiguity and of overlapping - and sometimes contradictory - systems of military power, values, and authority. Based on evidence of a complex interplay of social definitions in a relatively closed and regimented system, the author warns against using rigid or deterministic models of the relationship between individual action and social structure. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Research, Individualism, Social classes, Social class, Authority, Individuality, Military ceremonies, honors, and salutes, Military ceremonies

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