Synopses & Reviews
In recent years, family law has catapulted from the shadows to the spotlight in public consciousness. The issues that family law addresses--divorce, custody, single parenthood, same-sex marriage, prenuptial contracts, unmarried cohabitation, alternative families--have attracted enormous public attention and have become the subject of celebrated legal disputes, newspaper and magazine articles, television shows and movies, and Presidential campaigns. The modern family serves as a highly-charged symbol of the conflicts that arise within an American culture that professes devotion both to individual rights and family obligations.
Family law has shown increasing willingness in the last two decades to resolve these conflicts in favor of individual rights. It has placed heightened emphasis on the autonomy of individual family members, exhibiting greater suspicion of the family as a constraint on self-development. This has translated into a waning influence for the moral vision of family life that assigns rights and obligations to those with formal legal identities such as spouses, parents, or children--a vision expressed in the legal model of status. In its stead has entered the alternative vision of contract, which enables individuals themselves to establish the terms of their relationships, with regulation limited to cases of imminent harm. This vision strives to free individuals from the fetters of communal expectations so that they can pursue genuine intimacy with others.
In this timely work, Regan delves into recent legal cases, social theory, and family history to challenge the assumption that contract should serve as the governing principle of family law. The devaluation of status, he claims, puts us at risk of losing the resonance of the family as a cultural model of the responsibilities that flow from relationships with others. In a postmodern world marked by fragmentation of both identity and personal relationships, intimate commitment may rest more than ever on the ability of culture to orient the individual within shared norms of conduct. The challenge therefore is to construct a new model of status--shorn of sexist assumptions, yet based on commitment and responsibility--that will preserve the distinctive character of family law as a narrative about self and other in intimate relationship.
Review
"A very serious effort to revive family status norms as a source of identity and intimacy, all with a reassuring awareness that gender roles traditionally associated with family status simply will not do." -Katharine T. Bartlett,Duke University School of Law
Review
"Regan draws upon remarkably wide reading in family history, social theory, and recent legal cases to fashion an interpretation and critique of recent developments in family law. His book is part of a larger communitarian turn in recent social criticism, which seeks to reconcile individual liberty and autonomy with older notions of duty, interdependence, and collective responsibility. He is seeking to shape a legal discourse that will help sustain notions of ongoing personal responsibility at a time when an older conception of family law, built around concepts of moral fault and gender or role-based rights and responsibilities, has collapsed. An important book." -Steven Mintz,University of Houston
Review
“Andreana Clay's insightful study of activism among youth of color masterfully shows the ways that teenagers are politically active in their schools and communities. Rejecting stereotypes of Black, Latino and Asian youth as apathetic and causing social problems, this book shows us their commitment to fight for social change. A profoundly optimistic book, The Hip-Hop Generation Fights Back provides a fascinating glimpse of the optimism and resilience of the next generation of leaders who are essential to America's future.”-Patricia Hill Collins,author of From Black Power to Hip Hop
Review
“The Hip-Hop Generation Fights Back is a unique and important study of youth activism today. Clay skillfully uses the insights of young people to provide a detailed depiction and explanation of how young people are creating and engaging in social activism in the 21st century. This is an essential book to read for anyone interested in and concerned with youth organizing and activism.”-Cathy J. Cohen,author of Democracy Remixed: Black Youth and the Future of American Politics
Review
“The very concept of youth culture and resistance has become such a sociological cliché that in the face of such resistance we often respond with cynicism. Clays important The Hip-Hop Generation Fights Back cuts through this cynicism, allowing the hip-hop generation to speak for themselves about their humanity and the world that they are making for themselves and their communities.”-Mark Anthony Neal,editor of That's the Joint: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader
Review
"This engaging work demonstrates that despite common stereotypes, youth today are committed to bringing about social change by using popular culture. Relevant for sociology and African American, urban studies, ethnic, and American studies collections."-Choice ,
Review
“…we are left with a deeper appreciation of the imprint youths make in the grassroots world of social change.”-Amy L. Best,
Review
"[W]ell designed and deftly executed... Andreana Clay's fine study asks and answers important questions by drawing evidence and ideas from the imagination and insights of young people struggling to survive and thrive in a society that has largely abandoned them. Clay has chosen to write a book that is not merely a chronicle of oppressed peoples suffering, but a call to action to join in their struggle.-Cultural Sociology,
Synopsis
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From youth violence, to the impact of high stakes
educational testing, to editorial hand wringing over the moral failures of
hip-hop culture, young people of color are often portrayed as gang affiliated,
"troubled," and ultimately, dangerous. The Hip-Hop Generation Fights Back examines
how youth activism has emerged to address the persistent inequalities that
affect urban youth of color. Andreana Clay provides a detailed account of the
strategies that youth activists use to frame their social justice agendas and
organize in their local communities.
Based on two years of fieldwork with youth affiliated with
two non-profit organizations in Oakland, California,
The Hip-Hop Generation Fights Back shows how youth integrate the history
of social movement activism of the 1960s, popular culture strategies like
hip-hop and spoken word, as well as their experiences in the contemporary urban
landscape, to mobilize their peers. Ultimately, Clay's comparison of the
two youth organizations and their participants expands our understandings of
youth culture, social movements, popular culture, and race and ethnic
relations.
Synopsis
From youth violence, to the impact of high stakes educational testing, to editorial hand wringing over the moral failures of
hip-hop culture, young people of color are often portrayed as gang affiliated, "troubled," and ultimately, dangerous. The Hip-Hop Generation Fights Back examines how youth activism has emerged to address the persistent inequalities that affect urban youth of color. Andreana Clay provides a detailed account of the strategies that youth activists use to frame their social justice agendas and organize in their local communities.
Based on two years of fieldwork with youth affiliated with two non-profit organizations in Oakland, California, The Hip-Hop Generation Fights Back shows how youth integrate the history of social movement activism of the 1960s, popular culture strategies like hip-hop and spoken word, as well as their experiences in the contemporary urban landscape, to mobilize their peers. Ultimately, Clay's comparison of the two youth organizations and their participants expands our understandings of youth culture, social movements, popular culture, and race and ethnic relations.
Synopsis
From youth violence, to the impact of high stakes educational testing, to editorial hand wringing over the moral failures of hip-hop culture, young people of color are often portrayed as gang affiliated, “troubled,” and ultimately, dangerous. The Hip-Hop Generation Fights Back examines how youth activism has emerged to address the persistent inequalities that affect urban youth of color. Andreana Clay provides a detailed account of the strategies that youth activists use to frame their social justice agendas and organize in their local communities.
Based on two years of fieldwork with youth affiliated with two non-profit organizations in Oakland, California, The Hip-Hop Generation Fights Back shows how youth integrate the history of social movement activism of the 1960s, popular culture strategies like hip-hop and spoken word, as well as their experiences in the contemporary urban landscape, to mobilize their peers. Ultimately, Clays comparison of the two youth organizations and their participants expands our understandings of youth culture, social movements, popular culture, and race and ethnic relations.
Synopsis
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From youth violence, to the impact of high stakes educational testing, to editorial hand wringing over the moral failures of hip-hop culture, young people of color are often portrayed as gang affiliated, troubled, and ultimately, dangerous. The Hip-Hop Generation Fights Back examines how youth activism has emerged to address the persistent inequalities that affect urban youth of color. Andreana Clay provides a detailed account of the strategies that youth activists use to frame their social justice agendas and organize in their local communities.
Based on two years of fieldwork with youth affiliated with two non-profit organizations in Oakland, California, The Hip-Hop Generation Fights Back shows how youth integrate the history of social movement activism of the 1960s, popular culture strategies like hip-hop and spoken word, as well as their experiences in the contemporary urban landscape, to mobilize their peers. Ultimately, Clay's comparison of the two youth organizations and their participants expands our understandings of youth culture, social movements, popular culture, and race and ethnic relations.
About the Author
Andreana Clay is Associate Professor of Sociology at San Francisco State University.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vii
1. Youth
Crisis, Rebellion, and Identity 1
2. Keep Your Eyes on the Prize
The Contemporary Struggle 23
3. Its Gonna Get Hard
Negotiating Race and Gender in Urban Settings 55
4. Hip-Hop for the Soul
Kickin Reality in the Local Scene 91
5. Queer Youth Act Up
Tackling Homophobia Post-Stonewall 121
6. Big Shoes to Fill
Activism Past and Present 153
7. Conclusion
Sampling Activism 181
Appendix 191
Notes 199
Bibliography 215
Index 223
About the Author 230