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Most discussions of legitimation focus on factors that are expected to contribute to it, such as tradition, expertise, or prosperity. Less attention has been paid to "the dark side" of legitimation, which depends heavily on evading attention. A potentially informative approach is to learn from professionals with special expertise in evading attention while making things "disappear" - magicians. Rather than seeking overt control over the audience, they perform in plain view, largely by using well-timed distractions, or "misdirection." Preliminary evidence suggests that similar techniques may be widely used in political contexts, with some of the most effective forms of misdirection involving diversionary reframing - diverting attention away from any questions about existing distributions of privilege, not by brute force, but by changing the subject, especially by raising questions about the legitimacy of critics. These and related techniques clearly deserve to be the focus of additional research.

To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682X.2010.00344.x Byline: Margarita V. Alario (1), William R. Freudenburg (2) Abstract: Some of the best-known social scientific theories of risks are those that have been elaborated by Anthony Giddens and Ulrich Beck. Although their arguments differ greatly, they agree in seeing the technologically induced risks of today's 'Risk Society' as global-so pervasive that they transcend all socioeconomic as well as geopolitical and national boundaries. Most empirical work, however, provides greater support for a theoretical tradition exemplified by Short and Erikson. In this paper, we argue that many of the technological mega-risks described by Giddens and Beck as 'transcending' social boundaries are better described as 'Titanic risks,' referring not so much to their colossal impact as to the fact that-as was the case for the majority of the victims on the Titanic-actual risks are related to victims' socioeconomic as well as sociogeographic locations. Previous research has shown this to be the case with high-risk technologies, such as nuclear energy and weaponry, and also with localized ones, such as toxic waste disposal. This article illustrates that the same is true even for the most genuinely 'global' risks of all, namely those associated with global climate disruption. Author Affiliation: (1)University of Wisconsin, Whitewater (2)University of California, Santa Barbara

Habermas's discursive model in 'Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere' calls for political participation in the maintenance of the ecology, and proposes an increased public role to prevent environmental damages. Environmental protection should be handed over to public bodies, which through their combined efforts can prevent the harm to the ecology.

Ulrich Beck's risk society model correctly draws attention to the degree to which environmental risk has become a global political issue, but does not take into account the social asymmetries that result in disparate environmental impacts. Beck suggests that a paradigm shift has already occurred in response to global environmental risk, However, the preexisting social inequalities have not been superseded. Environmental risks instead fall disproportionately on the poor and exacerbate conflicts between the industrialized and developing nations. Responses involve either environmental engineering or broader social change toward sustainable growth.

The military regime of Brazil and Chile are known to have violated human rights and the enforcement of detrimental environmental policies. They have both remained unaccountable for the negative impact of their environmental policies. Constitutional and democratic rights and environmental protection are all unfamiliar thoughts to Brazil and Chile. Economic issues as well as environmental issues and human rights are all unavoidable moral responsibilities for developing nations.

Department of Sociology, The State University of New York at Potsdam, Potsdam, NY 13676 International Journal of Comparative Sociology Vol.34 (1993) pp.222-230 [No abstract [...]

The article reports that the implementation of ecosystem restoration policy is being undertaken throughout the United States. The success of this policy is often determined by the acceptability of restoration and its physical impacts on the landscape. Notwithstanding the formal scientific parameters, it has been in the political arena where the ranges of desirable ecosystem projects have been both contested and supported. Workable scientific solutions to empirical questions of urban ecosystem restoration have depended in no small measure on the democratic deliberation of reaching agreeable policy goals. To the extent that science-based environmental policy making have increasingly become woven into the fabric of democratic societies, an analytic deliberative strategy of decision making looms to be a promising component to urban ecological restoration projects. Tracking the ups and downs of these projects reveal the evolving support to the goals of urban ecosystem restoration and conservation, as much as some of the adverse impact that the initial decoupling of ecological sciences from democratic processes had in the overall implementation of this policy.

The article focuses on the environmental legislative reform program of the U.S. 104th Congress. According to the author, the expanding influence of the global economic and political institutions such as the World Trade Organization, the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund would make the political leaders to be less capable of asserting political authority to deliver their promises including environmental issues. She stresses that the 104th Congress in the 1994 election represent the most anti-environmentalist Congress.

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one on the concept of public participation in the cleanup of contaminated military facilities and another on the impact of the environmental movement on the promotion of environmental knowledge.

The article focuses on the environmental legacy of authoritarianism in the context of Brazil and Chile. Insufficient attention has been paid to the environmental legacy of the military regimes in South America. Notwithstanding, the ideological and repressive resources of social control enforced destructive environmental practices, which for the most part went uncontested. It is only now that the evidences clearly demonstrate how damaging the policies of the military regimes were to the environment. The authoritarian administrations became the main agent in what can appropriately be called a campaign against nature whereby human rights and environmental issues were relegated to the status of luxury, for solving internal upheavals and economic crises allegedly resulted in a scenario in which these countries could not afford to engage in democratically or environmentally informed policies. The democratization process now occurring throughout South America and the concurrent strengthening of the civil society will hopefully provide the political atmosphere necessary to expose information relevant to human rights and environmental violations, and beyond.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the oilsands industry in Canada, privatization of water resources across the world, and role of higher education institutions in imparting awareness of ecological sustainability.

An introduction to this issue of "Sociological Imagination" is presented.