Synopses & Reviews
In the spring of 1996, when numerous reports of bovine spongioform encephalopathy, popularly known as "mad cow disease," coincided with an outbreak of a similar neuropathological disease in humans, a panic spread across Britain, Europe, and subsequently to the United States. Described as "the biggest crisis the European Union ever had," the mad cow controversy raised important issues about the ways in which risks to the public heath are assessed, disseminated, and controlled. Was the "epidemic" merely a failure of management, the lessons of which could be incorporated into a new strategy for dealing with public anxiety? Was it an isolated case of poor decision-making in a highly volatile economic sector, or was it the kind of nightmare that could face any government responsible for public safety? And what role did the media play in exacerbating an already spiraling crisis?
Divided into four major sections-"Scientific/Historical Perspectives"; "Politics as Health"; "Understanding the Crisis"; and "Lessons and Possibilities" - Mad Cow Crisis assembles the perspectives of a range of experts on this strange and frightening phenomenon, with a view to helping us comprehend how and why such crises occur. Both a careful consideration of how we interpret risk and uncertainty and a step-by-step guide to managing public fear, this important book will interest anyone concerned with public health, communication, science, economics, and medicine.
Review
“Offers a new framework to examine selfhood and self identity in the context of immigration.”
-India New England,
Review
“A productive move in developing new directions in the study of desire, agency, and ambiguous inequality among immigrant populations in the contemporary Americas.”
-Aisha Khan,New York University
Review
“Bhatia offers a well historicised, theoretically astute analysis of the racial, cultural and ethnic identities of Indian immigrants and their families living in predominantly white suburbs of New England.”
-South Asian Diaspora,
Review
“Offers a new framework to examine selfhood and self identity in the context of immigration.”
“Effectively blends identity theory and ethnography to examine the immigrant experience of first-generation, professional Indians. Provoking reflection on the racial dynamics and identity politics of American society, this work goes a long way towards humanizing what it means to be an immigrant in the United States.”
“A productive move in developing new directions in the study of desire, agency, and ambiguous inequality among immigrant populations in the contemporary Americas.”
“Bhatia offers a well historicised, theoretically astute analysis of the racial, cultural and ethnic identities of Indian immigrants and their families living in predominantly white suburbs of New England.”
Review
“Effectively blends identity theory and ethnography to examine the immigrant experience of first-generation, professional Indians. Provoking reflection on the racial dynamics and identity politics of American society, this work goes a long way towards humanizing what it means to be an immigrant in the United States.”
-Cynthia Lightfoot,Penn State University, Delaware County
Synopsis
The Indian American community is one of the fastest growing immigrant communities in the U.S. Unlike previous generations, they are marked by a high degree of training as medical doctors, engineers, scientists, and university professors.
American Karma draws on participant observation and in-depth interviews to explore how these highly skilled professionals have been inserted into the racial dynamics of American society and transformed into “people of color.” Focusing on first-generation, middle-class Indians in American suburbia, it also sheds light on how these transnational immigrants themselves come to understand and negotiate their identities.
Bhatia forcefully contends that to fully understand migrant identity and cultural formation it is essential that psychologists and others think of selfhood as firmly intertwined with sociocultural factors such as colonialism, gender, language, immigration, and race-based immigration laws.
American Karma offers a new framework for thinking about the construction of selfhood and identity in the context of immigration. This innovative approach advances the field of psychology by incorporating critical issues related to the concept of culture, including race, power, and conflict, and will also provide key insights to those in anthropology, sociology, human development, and migrant studies.
About the Author
Scott C. Ratzan is Assistant Professor at Emerson College's Division of Communication Studies and Tufts University School of Medicine's Department of Family Medicine and Community Health. He is Editor in Chief of the Journal of Health Communication.