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Politics of Meaning/Meaning of Politics

Cultural Sociology of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election

  • Book
  • © 2019

Overview

Editors:
  1. Jason L. Mast

    1. Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. Jeffrey C. Alexander

    1. Department of Sociology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • The first volume to synthesize the reactions of leading cultural sociologists to the 2016 presidential election
  • Provides a comprehensive accounting of the election’s key actors, institutions, and processes
  • Allows scholars and students to see the methodologies and theories of cultural sociology in action

Part of the book series: Cultural Sociology (CULTSOC)

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Table of contents (15 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvii
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  2. Introduction: Fragments, Ruptures, and Resurgent Structures: The Civil Sphere and the Fate of “Civilship” in the Era of Trumpism

    • Jason L. Mast
    Pages 1-16

  3. Election 2016: New Developments and Reiterations

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 17-17
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    2. Politics as a Vacation

      • Robin Wagner-Pacifici, Iddo Tavory
      Pages 19-34

    3. When Voters Are Voting, What Are They Doing? Symbolic Selection and the 2016 US Presidential Election

      • Matthew Norton
      Pages 35-52

  4. Media and News Journalism: Narrative and Fake News

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 53-53
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    2. Deep Stories, Nostalgia Narratives, and Fake News: Storytelling in the Trump Era

      • Francesca Polletta, Jessica Callahan
      Pages 55-73

    3. Journalism After Trump

      • Ronald N. Jacobs
      Pages 75-93

  5. The Meanings of Donald Trump

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 95-95
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    2. On the Construction Sites of History: Where Did Donald Trump Come From?

      • Mabel Berezin
      Pages 97-114

    3. Donald’s Dick: A Man Against the Institutions

      • Roger Friedland
      Pages 115-133

  6. The American Right and Trump-Bannonism

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 135-135
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    2. Raging Against the Enlightenment: The Ideology of Steven Bannon

      • Jeffrey C. Alexander
      Pages 137-148

    3. On “The Flight 93 Election”: Enemies and Apocalypticism in American Political Culture

      • Alexander Riley
      Pages 149-162

  7. Religion: The Fates of White Christian Evangelicals and Muslim Americans

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 163-163
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    2. Why Evangelicals Voted for Trump: A Critical Cultural Sociology

      • Philip Gorski
      Pages 165-183

    3. Muslims as Outsiders, Enemies, and Others: The 2016 Presidential Election and the Politics of Religious Exclusion

      • Ruth Braunstein
      Pages 185-206
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Keywords

About this book

The 2016 U.S. presidential election revealed a nation deeply divided and in flux. This volume provides urgently needed insights into American politics and culture during this period of uncertainty. The contributions answer the election’s key mysteries, such as how contemporary Christian evangelicals identified in the unrepentant candidate Trump a hero to their cause, and how working class and economically struggling Americans saw in the rich and ostentatious candidate a champion of their plight. The chapters explain how irrationality is creeping into political participation, and demonstrate how media developments enabled a phenomenon like “fake news” to influence the election. At this polarized and contentious moment, this volume satisfies the urgent need for works that carefully analyze the forces and tensions tearing at the American social fabric. Simultaneously intellectual and accessible, this volume is designed to illuminate the 2016 U.S. presidential election and its aftermath for academics and students of politics alike. 

Editors and Affiliations

  • Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Jason L. Mast

  • Department of Sociology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Jeffrey C. Alexander

About the editors

Jason L. Mast is a Research Fellow at the Normative Orders Excellence Cluster at Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He is the author of The Performative Presidency: Crisis and Resurrection During the Clinton Years.  

Jeffrey C. Alexander is Lillian Chavenson Saden Professor of Sociology at Yale University, and a Director of the Center for Cultural Sociology. He is the author of The Performance of Politics: Obama’s Victory and the Democratic Struggle for Power and co-author of Obama Power.


Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Politics of Meaning/Meaning of Politics

  • Book Subtitle: Cultural Sociology of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election

  • Editors: Jason L. Mast, Jeffrey C. Alexander

  • Series Title: Cultural Sociology

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95945-0

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG, part of Springer Nature 2019

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-95944-3Published: 23 November 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-95945-0Published: 12 November 2018

  • Series ISSN: 2946-3572

  • Series E-ISSN: 2946-3580

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XVII, 292

  • Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations, 3 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Political Sociology, Sociology of Culture, Sociological Theory, Media Sociology, US Politics

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