scholarly journals A Compensatory Control Account of Meritocracy

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 313-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Goode ◽  
Lucas A. Keefer ◽  
Ludwin E. Molina
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Personal Control ◽  
The United States ◽  
Hard Work ◽  
Compensatory Control ◽  
The Future ◽  
Economic Ideology ◽  
Insight Into

Why are people motivated to support social systems that claim to distribute resources based on hard work and effort, even when those systems seem unfair? Recent research on compensatory control shows that lowered perceptions of personal control motivate a greater endorsement of external systems (e.g., God, government) that compensate for a lack of personal control. The present studies demonstrate that U.S. citizens’ faith in a popular economic ideology, namely the belief that hard work guarantees success (i.e., meritocracy), similarly increases under conditions of decreased personal control. We found that a threat to personal control increased participants’ endorsement of meritocracy (Studies 1 and 2). Additionally, lowered perceptions of control led to increased feelings of anxiety regarding the future, but the subsequent endorsement of (Study 2) or exposure to (Study 3) meritocracy attenuated this effect. While the compensatory use of meritocracy may be a phenomenon unique to the United States of America, these studies provide important insight into the appeal and persistence of ideologies in general.

scholarly journals Natural(ly) men: masculinity and gendered anti-ageing practices in Finland and the USA

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 356-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
HANNA OJALA ◽  
TONI CALASANTI ◽  
NEAL KING ◽  
ILKKA PIETILÄ
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
The United States ◽  
Hard Work ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Aged People ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Global North ◽  
And Performance

ABSTRACTThe neo-liberal ideologies that point to individual responsibility for risks increasingly influence countries of the global North. The anti-ageing industry reflects this dictate and encourages middle-aged people to use their products and services to manage their ageing. However, given the negative connotations attached to the term ‘anti-ageing’, which is usually seen to focus on aesthetics and thus be a woman's concern, men may be likely to disavow being involved in such activities. The article uses interview data collected from men aged 42–70 from Finland and the United States of America to explore whether and how men adhere to the call to manage their ageing when such anti-ageing activities are seen to be potentially feminising. We find that these men reflected neo-liberalism in the sense that they felt that, although ageing cannot be prevented, it can be controlled. Also while they generally rejected anti-ageing products and services that they judged to affect aesthetics, they reported that they use those that they define as promoting health and performance instead. For them, masculinity is the instrumental focus on performance to the exclusion of beauty or attractiveness. Masculine anti-ageing bodily strategies must also be ‘natural’, involving hard work rather than the use of products, which they regard as never having been scientifically proven to enhance performance. Thus, in talk of their anti-ageing, men distance themselves from women.

scholarly journals Women in war work, 1914-1918

1919 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Mary Louise Reid Brown
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
The United States ◽  
Hard Work ◽  
Popular Belief ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
Women In War ◽  
Conditions Of Work

Contrary to the popular belief that women in factories are doing men's work, are the facts which are brought to light as the conditions of work when the factory system was established in the United States of America. It is incontestible that when the factory system was first established women were urged to go into factories. Men were engaged in agriculture and the "Friends of Industry" replied to those citizens who declared that manufactures would ruin agriculture that "not one fourth of the employees in manufacture were able-bodied men fit for famring." Economic gains were at first used as an arguement. Gallatin in 1831 "concluded that the surplus product obtained by the employment of owmen in a single cotton mill of 200 employees was $14,000 annually." Another writer in the "Boston Centinel" said "that machinery enables women and children who are unable to cultivate the earth to make us indepdent of foreign supplies." This entrance of women into factories was not a hardhsip because women had done much of the hard work of spinning and weaving in the homes, and later the famer's daughter had worked in the "manufcatures."

scholarly journals Financial Aspects and the Future of the Pharmaceutical Industry in the United States of America

2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasenko Karamehic ◽  
Ognjen Ridic ◽  
Goran Ridic ◽  
Tomislav Jukic ◽  
Jozo Coric ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Pharmaceutical Industry ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Future

NARA

2015 ◽  
pp. 1023-1031
Author(s):  
Kristen Cissne
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
The United States ◽  
American People ◽  
Official Record ◽  
Digital Format ◽  
National Archives ◽  
The Future ◽  
Changing Times

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is considered the official record keeper of the United States of America. In existence for over 75 years, NARA is responsible for a significant amount of records. With the changing times and technology, NARA has been faced with the challenge of becoming an organization focused on making these records available in a digital format. NARA has risen to the challenge in a multitude of ways. It continues to transform and discover new ways to meet the demands of its customer, the American people. This case study explores the major steps taken towards the digitization effort, and the biggest challenges faced. It covers the successes met thus far and expected plans for growth in the future.

NARA

2014 ◽  
pp. 306-317
Author(s):  
Kristen Cissne
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
The United States ◽  
American People ◽  
Official Record ◽  
Digital Format ◽  
National Archives ◽  
The Future ◽  
Changing Times

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is considered the official record keeper of the United States of America. In existence for over 75 years, NARA is responsible for a significant amount of records. With the changing times and technology, NARA has been faced with the challenge of becoming an organization focused on making these records available in a digital format. NARA has risen to the challenge in a multitude of ways. It continues to transform and discover new ways to meet the demands of its customer, the American people. This case study explores the major steps taken towards the digitization effort, and the biggest challenges faced. It covers the successes met thus far and expected plans for growth in the future.

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