Review by Choice Review
A compact work with big ambitions, this volume seeks to specify causal factors affecting the quality of public life in Spain. Though the empirical context is contemporary Spain, Fishman (sociology, Univ. of Notre Dame) intends his findings to apply more generally. His central hypothesis is that social ties with groups other than one's own can decisively affect one's perception of politics and political possibilities. Specifically, through interviews with 300 working-class leaders in 49 towns throughout Spain, the author finds that workers within the postcommunist subculture who have strong ties with intellectuals (journalists, artists, professors) tend to link local political issues to broader national and international contexts in a conceptual framework the author labels "globalizing discursive horizons." By contrast, postcommunist workers with few or no ties to intellectuals often see little connection between local problems and the larger world. Such an association does not hold, however, for the Socialist subculture, where the development of globalizing discourses tends to arise from other causal dynamics, notably involvement in the anti-Franco opposition. While extending some of the conclusions beyond Spain may be problematic, this is an empirically rigorous and theoretically sophisticated assessment of the social underpinnings of modern democracy. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. W. R. Smith Lake Forest College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
