Sociologists have always recognized the “double function” of religion in the legitimation of power and privilege and in protest and opposition, but theories of secularization and modernization predicted the declining significance of religion in contemporary public life. We review new approaches to religious activism and legitimation efforts in the United States and in the world-system that stress the interrelatedness of religion and politics. Then we evaluate the contributions of new theories of social movements and culture, Marxism, and feminism to new conceptualizations of the relationships among religious struggles, inequality, and political order today.

In October 2000, a coal impoundment structure emptied more than 300 million gallons of toxic coal waste into the streams of Martin County, Kentucky. This study compares surveys conducted in the months following the disaster with surveys administered 10 years later to determine the long-term impacts of the disaster on trust in government, corporations, and experts. We find that the social trust levels in Martin County partially recovered in the 10 years since the impoundment rupture. This suggests that technological disasters, including those that result in toxic contamination, do not always permanently damage the social fabric of the communities that experience them. However, some factors suggest that Martin County's recovery in trust may be unwarranted, which, in turn, raises concerns about this community's susceptibility to environmental hazards and possible future disasters.

Based upon oral history interviews with 49 agriculturalists from Harlan and Letcher Counties, Kentucky, this paper documents the gender division of labor among these farm families, from the 1920s through the present. It also compares 17 wives' and husbands' accounts of farm work. While these data generally conform to patterns documented in previous sociological investigations of gender roles on family farms, a comparison of men's and women's accounts of farm work and life suggests several issues relevant to research on gender and farm families. First, women and men differ in their descriptions of work and in the words they use to describe farm ownership. In addition, men's discussions of the work of their wives, sisters, and daughters vary significantly from their descriptions of the work of their mothers and grandmothers. And, finally, these accounts suggest that there are gender differences in attitudes toward farming. Each of these areas raises questions that merit further empirical investigation.

Memorial

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