Research Monographs and Policy Papers

The first section of this page presents the research monographs I wrote in the early 1980s on politics and social psychology that were published by the Institute for Advanced Studies in Sociology. These manuscripts were later revised or supplemented with other materials and eventually were published in different forms in either books or academic journals.

Welsh, J. F.  (1983).  The structure of self in dramaturgical society:  The mutable self and role distance as forms of self-estrangement.   Transforming Sociology Series, No. 94. Livermore, Colorado: The Institute for Advanced Studies in Sociology.

This manuscript was one of three publications on critical social psychology that appeared in 1983 from the Institute. This study attempted to add and create critical dimensions in the understandings of self and role in dramaturgical sociology. Basically, I analyzed the social psychological concepts of the mutable self and role distance using the framework that both are forms of self-estrangement, or a type of alienation in which objective and subjective reality are forcibly separated. The idea of the mutable self is that person's really do not have a core self or a being that persists from time to time and from place to place. Instead, the self mutates or changes in order to adapt to specific circumstances. Role distance is the idea that persons internally deny what their overt or external behavior implies about them. Self-estrangement is the false and forced alienation of a person's intention or meaning and how they objectively behave. I argued that social psychology is quite right to study and understand the reality of the mutable self and role distance, but that their also needed to be a critique of or challenge to these practices. How can people live authentically human lives if their sense of who they are is dependent upon external circumstances? How can people live authentically human lives if they fail to connect meaning with their external behavior? It seemed to me that self-estrangement is a pre-human, pre-rational form of behavior. Unfortunately, the facts of our social world demand this of individuals. his study laid the foundation for my chapter on self-estrangement that appeared in The Drama of Social Life.

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Welsh, J. F.  (1983).  The social psychology of fraud.  Transforming Sociology Series, No. 96. Livermore, Colorado: The Institute for Advanced Studies in Sociology.

The concept of fraud was central to my work on social psychology at this stage in my career. In this early study, I explored the concept of fraud in everyday interactions by counterposing the metaphor of puppet theater against the challenges of living an authentic human life. In puppet theater, the puppet reacts to the puppeteer pulling the strings and, thereby, forcing behavior. The behavior lacks meaning and mediated by an external agent. Authentic human behavior is meaningful. People are intentional and rational when they are living fully human lives or acting in a fully human manner. To elaborate on the concept of fraud, I discussed the work of Dale Carnegie, particularly his guidance for masking feelings and meanings in order to succeed in business and complex organizational life. Opposed to Carnegie's prescriptions is the story of Pinnochio in which the struggle is to become human. Carnegie's work is concerned with distorting communication in alienated, reified environments; the tale by Carlo Collodi is about overcoming alienation and reified on the path to becoming human. 

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Welsh, J. F.  (1983).  The presentation of self in capitalist society:  Social sources of impression management. Transforming Sociology Series, No. 97. Livermore, Colorado: The Institute for Advanced Studies in Sociology.

This monograph outlined the macro-level societal and historical factors that have shaped how individuals interact in everyday life. To this point, dramaturgical sociology saw itself as a type of social psychology that was unconnected to macro-level dynamics. This study challenged that idea and argued that dramaturgy needed to be expanded to include a linkage between the social system and the life-world experienced by individuals. The paper identified three social and historical sources of dramaturgical behaviors: capitalist exchange relations, bureaucratic forms of social organization, and alienated consumption patters characteristic of contemporary state capitalism.

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Welsh, J. F.   (1981).  The contradictions of born-again politics.   In T. R. Young, (Ed.)  Religion and politics, Livermore, Colorado: The Institute for Advanced Studies in Sociology.

The connection between religion and politics has been an important dynamic historically and in the current period. In the early 1980s, the evangelical tendencies in American Christianity were transformed into a phenomenon I called "born again politics." This transformation entailed a significant shift in the political and religious expression of born-again Christianity. Most importantly, the process of reality construction shifted from a typically small face to face participatory process to one dominated by large-scale, high tech communications technologies controlled by religious, political, and corporate elites. Culturally, the shift was from a reciprocal, participatory process of reality construction, within an evangelical framework, to an asymmetrical, top-down process.  The rise of born-again politics, which was enormously helpful to the ascendance of the conservative presidency of Ronald Reagan, adumbrated the demise of born-again religion.

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Welsh, J. F.  (1980).  Dramaturgy and mystification:  Political life in the United States.  Transforming Sociology Series, No. 70. Livermore, Colorado: The Institute for Advanced Studies in Sociology.

This monograph was my initial manuscript on dramaturgy and political mystification in the United States. Refined and revised sections of this mongraph were eventually published in academic journals and as book chapters. In the original study I was concerned with the ways in which the political system in the United States uses dramaturgical technologies to present itself as participatory, democratic, and accountable, while masking or mystifying elitist and authoritarian practics. This study also applied the methodology of immanent critique to the study of political ideology.  Immanent critique counterposes what a social formation says about itself to what it is or what it is becoming. In dramaturgical analysis, the contradiction is between the thing-in-itself and the thing-as-it-presents-itself.

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Welsh, J. F.  (1979).  The destruction of social reality:  Berger and Luckmann.  Transforming Sociology Series, No. 48. Livermore, Colorado: The Institute for Advanced Studies in Sociology.

This manuscript was a very early effort to analyze the critical and conservative dimensions in the work of Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann, particularly their classic statement on the sociology of knowledge, The Social Construction of Reality. The basic argument of this monograph was that Berger and Luckmann did not present the fully dialectical model of reality construction they promised. In fact, there are a number of places in their work where the dialectic completely collapses. Their tendency was to collapse objective and subjective reality into objective reality, or to collapse the interaction between the individual and the social into the social. They elevated objective facts and subordinated subjective meanings in their discussions of how social institutions are created, how self-identities are formed, and how individualis interact in the social environment. The manuscript argued that the dialectical and emancipatory potential of the social construction of reality must be extricated from their work if the sociology of knowledge is to aid in the transformation of society to a more humane place to experience life. This study became the foundation for other critiques of Berger and Luckmann that appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Ideology.  

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This section of this page lists the technical reports and policy papers I wrote for the Kansas Board of Regents between 1987 and 1998. Part of my responsibilities for the Board was to research significant policy issues and to present the Board and universities with the findings and alternative policy choices on a fairly broad array of topics pertaining to the governance and administration of colleges and universities. During the eleven year period I worked for the Board, these reports and papers constituted the bulk of my scholarship. Much of what is presented here became the foundation for the courses I later taught and for some of the research projects I pursued later.   

The Kansas Board of Regents is a nine member lay board that is responsible for public higher education in the State of Kansas.  It has a fairly large staff that assists it and the universities in governance and management. The professional staff includes academicians and researchers who analyze trends and challenges confronting higher education and makes recommendations to the Board and universities on policies and programs.  My work with the Board was always based on the principle that policy analysis and development should be guided by the methodology of the social sciences. My goal was to always try to inform policy discussions with information and perspective that was based on some form of disciplined inquiry and to help the Regents improve the universities and their service to their many constituents. The following policy papers and technical research reports reflect this interest in my work with the Board.

Welsh, J. F.,  & Peterson, T.  (1997).  VISION 2020 and academic programs in the Kansas regents system.  Topeka:  Kansas Board of Regents.

Welsh, J. F.  (1996).  Beyond geographic jurisdiction: A new vision for distance education.  Topeka: Kansas Board of Regents.

Welsh, J. F. (1995).  Toward reinvention:  Transforming the Kansas regents universities for the 21st century.  Topeka:  Kansas Board of Regents.

Welsh, J. F.  (1995).  Improving the learning environment: Faculty workload and undergraduate education.  Topeka: Kansas Board of Regents.

Welsh, J. F.  (1995).  Higher education and economic development:  Demonstrating impacts and expanding opportunities.  Topeka: Kansas Board of Regents.

Welsh, J. F.  (1994).  The transition to postsecondary education:  College preparation in an era of educational reform.  Topeka:  Kansas Board of Regents.

Welsh, J. F.  (1994).  Interinstitutional student tracking:  Policy objectives and organizational alternatives in reporting transfer student outcomes.  Topeka:  Kansas Board of Regents.

Koplik, S. Z., & Welsh, J. F.  (1993).  Forget football:  The real campus contest pits teaching against research.  Stateline, (January), 10 - 11.

Welsh, J. F.  (1993).  Student academic dishonesty in higher education:  Social context and institutional response.  Topeka:  Kansas Board of Regents.

Welsh, J. F.  (1993).  Quality performance accreditation:  Educational restructuring and its impact on Kansas higher education.  Topeka:  Kansas Board of Regents, September.

Welsh, J. F.  (1993).  Institutional and program accreditation:  Issues and policy options.  Topeka:  Kansas Board of Regents, September.

Welsh, J. F.  (1993).  Doctoral education and the regional universities.  Topeka:  Kansas Board of Regents, May.

Welsh, J. F.  (1993).  The accreditation of business education.  Topeka:  Kansas Board of Regents, March.

Welsh, J. F.  (1992).  The governance and coordination of postsecondary education:  Issues and alternatives for Kansas.  Topeka:  Kansas Board of Regents, November 1992.

Welsh, J. F.  (1992).  Associate degrees and technology education in Sedgwick county:  Workforce needs and options for program delivery.  Topeka:  Kansas Board of Regents, March 1992.

Welsh, J. F.  (1992).  Report of the task force on faculty evaluation.  Topeka:  Kansas Board of Regents, January.

Welsh, J. F.  (1991).  Qualified admissions and enrollment management:  A new approach to implementing admissions standards.  Topeka:  Kansas Board of Regents, November.

Welsh, J. F.  (1991).  From aspiration to achievement:  Mission development in the Kansas regents system, 1992 - 2000.  Topeka:  Kansas Board of Regents, June.

Welsh, J. F.  (1991).  Constructing partnerships in Kansas higher education:  A proposal to reorganize the governance of Kansas postsecondary education.  Topeka:  Kansas Board of Regents, February.

Welsh, J. F.  (1990).  Report of the governor's commission on the reform of educational governance.  Topeka:  Kansas Board of Regents, December.

Welsh, J. F.  (1990).  Report of the task force on the future of Kansas college of technology.  Topeka:  Kansas Board of Regents, June.

Welsh, J. F.  (1989).  The academic calendar in the Kansas regents system:  Policies, trends, and issues.  Topeka:  Kansas Board of Regents, November.

Welsh, J. F.  (1989).  Fiscal incentive funding:  A qualitative approach to financing higher education.  Topeka:  Kansas Board of Regents, October.

Welsh, J. F.  (1988).  State variations in assessment policies:  A comparison of seven states.  Topeka:  Kansas Board of Regents, December.

Welsh, J. F.  (1988).  Regents distinguished professors:  Issues, problems and policies.  Topeka:  Kansas Board of Regents, January.

Welsh, J. F.  (1987).  National and regional trends in admissions standards.  Topeka:  Kansas Board of Regents, October.

Welsh, J. F.  (1987).  Selective admissions:  Toward a distinctive system of Regents universities.  Topeka:  Kansas Board of Regents, September.