invitation

[Benjamin Rifkin]

I am posting the following invitation to write a paper to be published in a
professional journal for a colleague, Ken Doyle, associate professor of mass
communication at the U. of Minnesota (Twin Cities).  Please respond off-list
to Dr. Doyle at <KenDoyle at umn.edu>.

- Ben Rifkin

**************

I'm looking for someone to write a short article on Slavic culture for a
special issue of the American Behavioral Scientist I'm editing for Sage
Publications on "Ethnicity and Money."  Sage Publications is a major
international publisher of social science research;  American Behavioral
Scientist is their flagship journal, and "the" place to publish papers on
this topic.

I envision a 10-12 page "think piece" comparing what money [wealth] *means*
to people in two (or more) Slavic cultures, or Russian culture and any
Central Asian culture or culture of the Caucasus.  All papers in the
collection will examine two or more cultures, to benefit from comparison
and contrast.

"Meaning" is necessarily ambiguous:  Here it can signify meaning in any
philosoophical sense, or it can simply refer to the values, attitudes,
customs, and rituals people attach to money and property.

Any thoughtful approach is fine -- literary, historical, sociological,
clinical, etc.  The goal is to get readers thinking about how cultures help
define the meanings of money and property, and how the way different
peoples deal with money and property gives insight into their cultures.
Contributors come from many disciplines in the humanities and social
sciences.  None is a "specialist" in the meanings of money.

The approach needs to be grounded in scholarship but, because of the
diversity of the audience, not too "academic," i.e.,  limited jargon,
accessible to scholars and practitioners from a wide range of disciplines,
scholarly bibliography; footnotes acceptable but not required.  Deadlines
are tight -- a good draft in 4-6 weeks, a finished version by late April,
early May. Estimated publication Fall 2000.

To give you a sense of what the special issue will look like, I picture two
sections.  In the first, authors will discuss contrasting cultures from
around the world.  In the second, other authors will examine selected
American minority groups and the "mainstream" US culture.

Examples of the first include:  Italians vs. Swiss, British vs. South Asian
Indians, Mainland Chinese vs. Taiwanese vs. HongKongese.  Examples of the
second:  American Indians vs. US Mainstream, Arab Americans vs. US Mainstream,
Chicano/Latinos vs. the US Mainstream, and American Blacks vs. the US
Mainstream. I would love to add a paper on Slavic cultures to the first
part of this collection.

This special issue is a sequel to my recent book The Social Meanings of
Money and Property: In Search of a Talisman (Sage).

If you're interested, please e-mail KenDoyle at umn.edu the following
information:

Name, academic affiliation, title or rank
Cultures you intend to examine
Experience living in or studying those cultures
Paragraph-long abstract

Thanks very much,

Kenneth O. Doyle, Licensed Psychologist,
Associate Professor, and Co-Director
Mass Communication Research Division
School of Journalism & Mass Communication
University of Minnesota -- Twin Cities