In brief:
"There are no Americans in the United States." (Varenne 1987: 391).
However:
"All human beings on the planet are at risk of being held accountable for (not) being American." (Varenne 1987: 391).
Short development:
When I write about "America" I write about institutions like the Supreme Court whose rulings cannot be escaped by any one who happens to be on the territory of the United States (whether citizen, all of residents with various kinds of visas, as well as those without visas or other documentation).
When I write about "America" I also write about the controversies that lead institutions to rule, and rule again (on matters like abortion, affirmation action, marriage, guns, etc.).
When I write about "America" I write about whatever is referenced when writers for the New York Times (as exemplar of the serious "progressive"), or writers for First Things (as exemplar of the serious "conservative"), write that "we [are headed for catastrophy]."
And again:
I now wish I had titled my first book Together in America (rather than Americans Together)
By 2023, when planning research, or advising students planning research in the United States, I'd say :
- continue looking for better ways to summarize the patterns that make America (on the correct assumption that all statements so far (from de Tocqueville onward) are, at best, approximations. To achieve this, do some of the following (as I did in my early work through 1992):
- look for what appears to be the most powerful arguments one can make when constructing an institution. In other words, look for controversy and conversations about the future, particularly when this conversation is to end with the making of new consequences for (not) performing as now required. For example:
- Reforming marriage and invoking "love"
- Reforming schooling and invoking measurable merit,
- Reforming "gender" and invoking "individual freedom"
- look for what appears to be the most powerful arguments one can make when constructing an institution. In other words, look for controversy and conversations about the future, particularly when this conversation is to end with the making of new consequences for (not) performing as now required. For example:
- continue documenting difficulties directly linked to the pattern (assuming for the moment that current approximations of the pattern are sufficient). For example
- in the organization of schooling as Varenne & McDermott have been doing (1998), building on Jules Henry (1963) and developed by Jill Koyama (2010)
- Works of relevance to America by Hervé Varenne (1977-1998)
- Works of relevance to America by Hervé Varenne (1998 to present)