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Secularization and the World Religions
The question of religion, its contemporary and future significance and its role in society and state is currently perceived as an urgent one by many and is widely discussed within the public sphere. But it has also long been one of the core topics of the historically oriented social sciences. The immense stock of knowledge furnished by the history of religion and religious studies, theology, sociology and history has to be introduced into the public conscience today. This can promote greater awareness of the contemporary global religious situation and its links with politics and economics and counter rash syntheses such as the “clash of civilizations”. This volume is concerned with the connections between religions and the social world and with the extent, limits, and future of secularization. The first part deals with major religious traditions and their explicit or implicit ideas about the individual, social and political order. The second part gives an overview of the religious situation in important geographical areas. Additional contributions analyze the legal organization of the relationship between state and religion in a global perspective and the role of the natural sciences in the process of secularization. The contributors are internationally renowned scholars like Winfried Brugger, José Casanova, Friedrich Wilhelm Graf, Hans Joas, Hans G. Kippenberg, Gudrun Krämer, David Martin, Eckart Otto and Rudolf Wagner.
Semiotic Approaches to Urban Space: Signs and Cities (Spatial Interventions)
This book outlines the future of semiotic research in the study of urban spaces, with chapters authored by leading scholars in the field. It offers thought-provoking explanations of semiotic theory, methodology and applications with the goal of exploring recently developed approaches to the interpretive aspects of urban space.Capturing the advances in research techniques within the field, this book will introduce the reader to key contemporary debates within the study of urban spaces. Chapters focus on the important topics of meaning-making and interpretation within cities. State-of-the-art approaches are presented to provide an enlightening outlook into this ever-evolving subject area.Semiotic Approaches to Urban Space will be a valuable resource for both undergraduates and postgraduates in the fields of semiotics and urban studies, alongside those in disciplines such as visual studies and human geography. Researchers in these fields will find the cutting-edge research within this book to be of great interest.
Sex, Sea, and Self: Sexuality and Nationalism in French Caribbean Discourses, 1924-1948 (Contemporary French and Francophone Cultures #81)
by Jacqueline CoutiSex, Sea, and Self reassesses the place of the French Antilles and French Caribbean literature within current postcolonial thought and visions of the Black Atlantic. Using a feminist lens, this study examines neglected twentieth-century French texts by Black writers from Martinique and Guadeloupe, making the analysis of some of these texts available to readers of English for the first time. This interdisciplinary study of female and male authors reconsiders their political strategies and the critical role of French creoles in the creation of their own history. This approach recalibrates overly simplistic understandings of the victimization and alienation of French Caribbean people. In the systems of cultural production under consideration, sexuality constitutes an instrument of political and cultural consciousness in the chaotic period between 1924 and 1948. Studying sexual imagery constructed around female bodies demonstrates the significance of agency and the legacy of the past in cultural resistance and political awareness. Sex, Sea, and Self particularly highlights Antillean women intellectuals’ theoretical contributions to Caribbean critical theory. Therefore, this analysis illuminates debates on the multifaceted and conflicted relationships between France and its overseas departments and expands ideas of nationhood in the Black Atlantic and the Americas.
Sexual Citizenship and Social Change: A Dialectical Approach to Narratives of Tradition and Critique (Sexuality, Identity, and Society)
by Darren LangdridgeOver the last thirty years in the West, there has been enormous change in social and state acceptance regarding sex and sexualities, with an apparent new acceptance and openness towards diverse sexual practices and sexualities. Much of this change has come about through community claims for rights grounded in critical social theory and the language of citizenship. While accepting that much of the critique has been valuable in advancing rights for sexual minorities, Sexual Citizenship and Social Change argues that the mode of critique itself may become problematic. Examining the use and abuse of critique in contemporary sexuality scholarship and associated activism, Darren Langdridge implicates a particular form of critique that is detached, unfettered, and set loose from the usual anchor of tradition. Even the most ostensibly well-meaning critic--and associated critique--can become problematic when their arguments are detached from tradition. Further, the book shows that this unrestrained excess of critique is particularly dangerous because it emerges from within minority sexual communities and their allies, not from the usual conservative opposition to progressive change. Theoretically and empirically grounded, Sexual Citizenship and Social Change draws on ideas and findings from psychology, sociology, politics, and philosophy and offers a radical challenge to the unfettered adoption of a critical approach in sexualities scholarship and activism. It highlights why we need to shine a critical lens on critique itself, while also anchoring it in a more constructive relationship with its natural opposite: tradition.
Sexual Heretics: Male Homosexuality in English Literature from 1850-1900 (Routledge Library Editions: Literature and Sexuality)
by Brian ReadeThe years between 1850 and 1900 were the vintage years of a discreet homosexual culture in England. In this period, educational, personal and foreign influences all contributed to the establishment of a trend expressed in the works of authors such as John Addington Symonds, Walter Pater, and A.E. Housman, and in those of lesser writers, now largely forgotten. This book, first published in 1970, is an anthology of English prose and verse, either homosexual in tone or providing a vehicle for homosexual emotions, and in several examples even overtly and experimentally frank. The book includes an introduction by Brian Reade explaining the network of friendships and associations which underlay this development and tracing some of its origins.
Sexual Heretics: Male Homosexuality in English Literature from 1850-1900 (Routledge Library Editions: Literature and Sexuality)
by Brian ReadeThe years between 1850 and 1900 were the vintage years of a discreet homosexual culture in England. In this period, educational, personal and foreign influences all contributed to the establishment of a trend expressed in the works of authors such as John Addington Symonds, Walter Pater, and A.E. Housman, and in those of lesser writers, now largely forgotten. This book, first published in 1970, is an anthology of English prose and verse, either homosexual in tone or providing a vehicle for homosexual emotions, and in several examples even overtly and experimentally frank. The book includes an introduction by Brian Reade explaining the network of friendships and associations which underlay this development and tracing some of its origins.
Sexual Racism and Social Justice: Reckoning with White Supremacy and Desire
In the late 1970s, American sociologist Charles Stember called sexual racism "the emotional barrier to an integrated society." Defining sexual racism as "the sexual rejection of the racial minority," Stember gave name to a social phenomenon epitomized in his time by interracial marriage. Today, our digital dating world has reignited interest in sexual racism through debates over the role of race in partner selection, while studies identify blatant and subtle examples of sexual racism in everyday life and the detrimental effects on the health and wellbeing of individuals and our societies. Bringing together a collection of research, personal reflection, and creative work, Sexual Racism and Social Justice provides a comprehensive, in-depth account of sexual racism from an international and interdisciplinary perspective. With an array of methods, disciplines, and positionalities, the volume argues that sexual racism is in the very foundations of our societies, determining the ideas, bodies, and systems positioned as desirable. Chapter authors illuminate new understandings of the relationship between sex and race, arguing that to undesire whiteness is to help undo sexual racism. Ultimately, the volume proposes tangible changes to theoretical, conceptual, and practical work to achieve two primary goals of social justice: eliminating racism in our societies and fostering truly liberated sexual plurality.
Sexuality in Premodern Europe: A Social and Cultural History from Antiquity to the Early Modern Age
by Univ. Prof. Dr. Franz X. EderHow did sexual relationships work before, in and outside of marriage in the pre-modern era? What problems did contraception and sexually transmitted diseases pose? How did people deal with prostitution and pornography back then? What were the possibilities for same-sex and queer desire and practice? Using numerous examples and sources from across the continent, Sexuality in Premodern Europe shows that even in earlier centuries, sexual life had an elementary significance for the coexistence of couples and communities. It was just as decisive for how individuals saw themselves and others as it was for maintaining the social, economic and political order.Franz X. Eder interestingly emphasises the socio-historical view of sexuality, offering an apt foil for the cultural perspective which is so prevalent in the field. In this book, sexual behaviour is understood and thought about as social practice. From this vantage point, Eder deals with the function of the sexual in upbringing and socialization, its significance for the image of men and women, its role in marriage initiation, and the importance of sexual life for marital relationships and concubinage.Deviant and discriminated sexual forms such as prostitution, pornography and same-sex acts are also addressed throughout. The book explores the ways in which many people gained sexual experiences before, besides or beyond marriage, even if these experiences were forbidden in former societies. While research into the history of sexuality has so far dealt with such forms of the sexual primarily from the point of view of regulation and sanctioning, here they are understood as 'positive' practices that allowed people to understand and take ownership of their sexual desire.
Shirts, Shifts and Sheets of Fine Linen: British Seamstresses from the 17th to the 19th centuries
by Dr Pam InderShirts, Shifts and Sheets of Fine Linen explores how the jobs of the 'seamstress' evolved in scope, and status, between 1600-1900.In the 17th and early 18th centuries, seamstressing was a trade for women who worked in linen and cotton, making men's shirts, women's chemises, underwear and baby linen; some of these seamstresses were consummate craftswomen, able to sew with stitches almost invisible to the naked eye. Few examples of their work survive, but those that do attest to their skill. However, as the ready-to-wear trade expanded in the 18th century, women who assembled these garments were also known as seamstresses, and by the 1840s, most seamstresses were outworkers for companies or entrepreneurs, paid unbelievably low rates per dozen for the garments they produced, notorious examples of downtrodden, exploited womenfolk. Drawing on a range of original and hitherto unpublished sources, including business diaries, letters and bills, Shirts, Shifts and Sheets of Fine Linen explores the seamstress's change of status in the 19th century and the reasons for it, hinting at the resurgence of the trade today given so few women today are skilled at repairing and altering clothes. Illustrated with 60 images, the book brings seamstresses into focus as real people, granting new insights into working class life in 18th- and 19th-century Britain.
Significant Emotions: Rhetoric and Social Problems in a Vulnerable Age
by Ashley FrawleySignificant Emotions is a piercing examination of the rising use of emotional signifiers in public debate and the rhetoric of an increasingly expansive array of social problems. Building on ideas developed in Ashley Frawley's previous book, Semiotics of Happiness, it examines in detail the 'emotional turn' across the social sciences and the broader cultural rise of the 'age of emotion' and its influence on how we talk about and approach new social issues. The book explores the rise of supposedly 'positive' emotional signifiers that have gained prominence as powerful causes of and solutions to nearly every social ill-from promoting self-esteem, happiness and mindfulness to concerns for well-being and mental health. Conceptualizing the rise and comparative decline of these emotional signifiers as cycles of discovery, adoption, expansion, and exhaustion, the book argues that rather than calling into question one or another of these signifiers, it is necessary to penetrate deeper to the underlying cultural currents that drive their adoption and contribute to their rhetorical power. Through a systematic and in-depth exploration of the appearance of these trends in a variety of claims-making activities across academia, traditional and social media, and social policy, Frawley argues that the 'age of emotion' does not represent a step toward a more enlightened and emotionally aware society. Rather, it signifies a preoccupation with emotional deficits and a firm belief that emotional disorientation ultimately underlies nearly every social ill. Emerging from the analysis is the conclusion that emotions have become key signifiers of broader cultural tendencies to affirm conservatism over progress, vulnerability over resilience, and the determined self over the free willing subject.
Single Parents and Child Support Systems: An International Comparison (New Horizons in Social Policy series)
Taking a novel approach to child support policy analysis, Single Parents and Child Support Systems locates the transfer of payments between separated parents within a wider social policy ecosystem and compares the political, institutional and administrative dimensions of child support policy enactment across the globe. Featuring contributions from an interdisciplinary collective of researchers in social policy, social work, sociology, economics and law, the book assesses how child support policies align conceptually with other social policies. Single Parents and Child Support Systems begins by setting out how children’s and single parents’ economic welfare is conceived across countries in relation to the triple burden of financial, caring and administrative responsibilities faced by single mothers. Chapters map how post-separation child support policy reinforces or breaks from the gender and family logics that underpin welfare and family policies in 10 different countries spanning corporatist, liberal and Nordic welfare regimes. Offering extensive coverage of a diverse range of international legal provisions and social policies, this stimulating book will be an essential resource for academics and researchers of social policy, social work, family law and gender studies. Its practical insights and suggested avenues for reform will also benefit policy makers, child support administrators and legal professionals.
Social (Progressing the Sustainable Development Goals series)
Combining theoretical and empirical research with global case studies, this innovative book examines the complex relationships between social (in)equality, community well-being and quality of life. Insightful and forward-thinking, it explores strategies for fostering strong communities, focusing on the importance of social connections, shared resources and a sense of belonging.Centred on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 10, which advocates reducing income inequality, promoting social inclusion, ensuring equal opportunities and advocating for egalitarian policies, the book explores the interconnectedness between these targets and quality of life and community well-being. Chapters address critical issues such as income disparities, access to healthcare and education, community philanthropy, reforms in historic preservation recognizing inequalities and systemic barriers that perpetuate inequality. SDG 10 is a baseline in some chapters, connecting to one or more of the other 16 SDGs as collective indicators for global change.Extensive and multidisciplinary in its analysis, Social (In)equality, Community Well-being and Quality of Life will be an enlightening read for students, researchers and academics in the fields of development studies, human geography, public policy, sociology, planning and urban studies. It will also benefit international practitioners and policymakers working in sustainable development, social policy and public policy.
A Social Cognition Perspective of the Psychology of Religion: “Why God Thinks Like You" (Scientific Studies of Religion: Inquiry and Explanation)
by Luke GalenAn exploration of how psychological mechanisms produce intuitions, beliefs, behaviors, and experiences that are misattributed as being unique outcomes of religious or spiritual influences. Written from a social psychology perspective, this book proposes that religious and spiritual content represent one possible interpretation of the output of processes that also produce and govern nonreligious content. In looking at why people believe in God, and why belief in God is often linked with a range of positive outcomes such as prosociality, morality, health, and happiness, the author uses a critical lens that challenges past theories of religion's functions and adds new perspectives into a discipline that is often limited by an exclusive focus on evolutionary theory. This book features several cross-cutting themes-including “dual process” theory and an exploration of how various social cognition mechanisms and biases can channel or shape religious content-and provides a continuous through-line linking the underlying building blocks of thought, as studied in the cognitive sciences of religion (CSR) to specific religious and spiritual concepts using a social cognition lens.
Social Economy Science: Transforming the Economy and Making Society More Resilient
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Academic and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Lack of progress in the area of global sustainable development and difficulties in crisis management highlight the need to transform the economy and find new ways of making society more resilient. The social economy is increasingly recognized as a driver of such transformations; it comprises traditional forms of cooperative or solidarity-based organizations alongside new phenomena such as impact investing or social tech ventures that aim to contribute to the public good. Social Economy Science provides the first comprehensive analysis of why and how social economy organizations create superior value for society. The book draws on organizational theory and transition studies to provide a systematic perspective on complex multi-stakeholder forms of action. It discusses the social economy's role in promoting innovation for impact, as well as its role as an agent of societal change and as a partner to businesses, governments, and citizens.
The Social Epidemiology of the COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened health disparities worldwide. Across all nations, the burden of COVID-19 has fallen most heavily on the socially disadvantaged. In the United States, the COVID-19 mortality rate for Black Americans is over twice that of their White American counterparts, and people in prisons have more than double the COVID-19 mortality rate of the general U.S. population. Other social dimensions such as income, gender, sexuality, and immigration status have also played a significant role in COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and mortality. The Social Epidemiology of the COVID-19 Pandemic provides an interdisciplinary analysis of the pandemic's effect across populations and its disproportionate impact on vulnerable groups in society, including racial/ethnic minority, immigrant, and incarcerated populations. Written by leading international scholars, this essential volume describes how the COVID-19 pandemic intersects with nearly every social determinant of health, from race and ethnicity to income inequality, and how such interactions compound existing structural disadvantages. Using examples from upper-middle and high-income countries such as the United States, contributing experts delve into the differential impacts of COVID-19 by major social determinants of health and reveal the resultant effect of pandemic-related policy on health outcomes. Together, these authors underline the urgent need for further integration of social epidemiology into public health decision-making to ensure that every population receives the care it requires. Drawing from research across epidemiology, sociology, psychology, and public policy, The Social Epidemiology of the COVID-19 Pandemic illuminates the stark disparities exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the valuable insights from social epidemiology that can inform a more equitable pandemic response.
A Social History Database of East European Jewish Deserted Wives, 1851-1900
by Haim SperberThe Database is a companion volume to The Plight of Jewish Deserted Wives, 18511900 (978-1-78976-168-9). It comprises circa 5000 entries, providing name, date and circumstance, with extensive cross-reference to aid future researchers. Agunot (Agunah, sing., meaning anchored in Hebrew) is a Jewish term describing women who cannot remarry because their husband has disappeared. According to Jewish law (Halacha) a woman can get out of the marriage only if the husband releases her by granting a divorce writ (Get), if he dies, or if his whereabouts is not known. Women whose husbands cannot be located, and who have not been granted a Get, are considered Agunot. The Agunah phenomenon was of major concern in East European Jewry and much referred to in Hebrew and Yiddish media and fiction. Most nineteenth-century Agunot cases came from Eastern Europe, where most Jews resided (twentieth-century Agunot were primarily in North America, and will be the subject of a forthcoming book). Seven variations of Agunot have been identified: Deserted wives; women who refused to receive, or were not granted, a Get; widowed women whose brothers-in-law refused to grant them permission to marry someone else (Halitza); women whose husbands remains were not found; improperly or incorrectly written Gets; women whose husbands became mentally ill and were not competent to grant a Get; women refused a Get by husbands who had converted to Christianity or Islam.
Social Identity, Intergroup Conflict, And Conflict Reduction
by Richard D. Ashmore Lee Jussim David Wilder
Social Network Analysis: Research Methods (Bloomsbury Research Methods)
by Prof. John ScottThis book introduces the non-specialist reader to the principal ideas, nature and purpose of social network analysis. Social networks operate on many levels, from families up to the level of nations, and play a critical role in determining the way problems are solved, organizations are run, and the degree to which individuals achieve their goals. Social network theory maps these relationships between individual actors and has become hugely influential across the social sciences. Assuming no prior knowledge of quantitative sociology, and avoiding technicalities, this book presents the key ideas in context through examples and illustrations. Using a structured approach to understanding work in this area, John Scott signposts further reading and online sources so that readers can develop their knowledge and skills to become practitioners of this research method. A series of Frequently Asked Questions takes the reader through the main objections raised against social network analysis. The new edition updates the overview of the discipline with more recent work and current research in sociology.
Social Neuroscience: Toward Understanding The Underpinnings Of The Social Mind
by Alexander Todorov Susan Fiske Deborah Prentice
Social Policy in Capitalist History: Perspectives on Poverty, Work and Society
by Ayşe BuğraThis invigorating book approaches social policy as a response to socioeconomic tensions and conflicts brought about by capitalist development, exploring how such policy reflects and shapes the world of work and socioeconomic life. Ayşe Buğra presents a historical overview of the ideas and politics of social policy in a discussion framed around the interrelated questions of poverty, work and inequality. Tracing the origins of modern social policy back from the early capitalist societies of Europe to the present era of global neoliberal capitalism, Buğra explores the debates on social assistance, labour market regulation and social risk protection in different phases of capitalist history. Chapters discuss liberal, conservative and socialist imaginations of society and conceptualisations of social justice, highlighting the complexity of the conflicts and alliances shaping the politics of social policy. The book ultimately draws attention to the contemporary relevance of the history of social policy and politics for the current state of global politics, marked by the rise of authoritarian populist trends. Bringing a unique perspective to critical scholarship on capitalism, Social Policy in Capitalist History will prove indispensable to academics and postgraduate students of economic history and sociology, social policy, industrial and employment relations and political economy.
Social Reformism 2.0: Work, Welfare and Progressive Politics in the 21st Century
by Maurizio Ferrera Joan Miró Stefano RonchiAutomation, digitalisation, the post-industrial transition and climate change are creating new social risks which are not adequately supported by established welfare state institutions. In this timely book, Maurizio Ferrera, Joan Miró and Stefano Ronchi propose critical social and institutional policy reform in response to the nation state’s inability to maintain a balanced ecosystem between democracy, the market economy, welfare and the rule of law. Social Reformism 2.0 provides a diagnosis of the critical issues facing the welfare state, namely the transition to post-industrialisation, globalisation and European integration, and the fourth technological revolution. Situating the European social model within a multi-crisis context, this book surveys the current reform trends in social policy, addressing decades of global development, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the climate emergency, before proposing a number of strategic policy reforms. It ultimately champions a transition towards a greener economy and a realignment of progressive politics, highlighting the central role Europe plays in coordinating and stimulating change. Offering a highly detailed yet accessible critique, this socially pertinent study will strongly appeal to students and academics with an interest in political science, European studies, sociology, social and public policy analysis and welfare state research. It will also highly benefit policymakers, bureaucrats, practitioners and stakeholders involved in social governance processes at a national and European level.
The Social Science of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Call to Action for Researchers
Although the world has experienced many epidemics, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is exactly that--novel. The impacts on society's way of life, education, family, and economy are drastic. As a result, people seek explanations that have answers rooted in social science. The Social Science of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Call to Action for Researchers draws on theories derived from the social sciences to address the multitude of questions raised by the pandemic and to inspire a future generation of researchers. This book focuses specifically on the social science of a pandemic. While medical, health, and other sciences are critical to understanding a pandemic, so, too, is understanding the role of society and person. Together, psychology and society shape every aspect of life, and the COVID-19 pandemic is no exception to this pattern. Parts of society--and science--will be forever affected. Edited by Monica K. Miller, The Social Science of the COVID-19 Pandemic is a collection of academic essays written by a group of international authors. The book begins by overviewing the timeline of the pandemic and how it affected life. It then discusses behaviors and experiences during the pandemic, followed by sections on outcomes after the pandemic and best practices for conducting future studies during or about the pandemic. This book is an expansive, go-to text designed to help promote recovery from the pandemic, to minimize the negative effects of similar events in the future, and to inform social science research going forward.