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Social Theory in the Real World (PDF)
by Steven MilesSocial Theory in the Real World is concerned with illustrating the practical benefits of social theory. Many students find it hard to relate the real insights provided by social theory to their real life experiences, and many lecturers struggle to demonstrate the relevance of social theory to everyday life. This book offers an accessible, non-patronizing solution to the problem, demonstrating that social theory need not be remote and obscure, but if used in imaginative ways, it can be indispensable in challenging our common sense perceptions and understandings. The book identifies the key themes of contemporary social theory: mass society, postindustrialism, consumerism, postmodernism, McDonaldization, risk and globalization, and uses the insights of both classical and contemporary theorists of social change to highlight the potential of imaginative theorizing.
Social Welfare: Scottish Perspective (Routledge Revivals)
by Mono ChakrabartiThis title was first published in 2001. This volume, adopting a Scottish perspective, concentrates on welfare issues in the UK. The book acknowledges the fact that the Scottish legislative base has, historically, been different from the rest of the country, and explores the impact of these differences upon the nature of welfare institutions and service provision. The contributors also critically investigate the important changes being implemented in Scotland within the disaggregated local authority structure, exposing the resource implications for service providers. The book tackles policy issues ranging from poverty and social security to health care, education and criminal justice. An analysis of the relevant laws is incorporated into every chapter, together with an investigation of the crucial implications of social and welfare policies for family structure, class and ethnicity.
Social Welfare: Scottish Perspective (Routledge Revivals)
by Mono ChakrabartiThis title was first published in 2001. This volume, adopting a Scottish perspective, concentrates on welfare issues in the UK. The book acknowledges the fact that the Scottish legislative base has, historically, been different from the rest of the country, and explores the impact of these differences upon the nature of welfare institutions and service provision. The contributors also critically investigate the important changes being implemented in Scotland within the disaggregated local authority structure, exposing the resource implications for service providers. The book tackles policy issues ranging from poverty and social security to health care, education and criminal justice. An analysis of the relevant laws is incorporated into every chapter, together with an investigation of the crucial implications of social and welfare policies for family structure, class and ethnicity.
Socialist Welfare in a Market Economy: Social Security Reforms in Guangzhou, China
by Yongxin Zhou Nelson Chow Yeubin XuThis title was first published in 2001. Using the city of Guangzhou as a case study, this text looks at how China has adopted a market economy, whilst still maintaining state-owned enterprises and an all-embracing social security system which protects the majority of Chinese workers. This volume examines three questions: can socialist social welfare co-exist with the market economy?; can state-owned enterprises survive in a market economy?; and has China succeeded in creating a market economy without sacrificing its socialist ideals? The study demonstrates that compromises have been necessary to accomodate both socialist and market objectives. continuing to support workers with social security benefits has, for example, made enterprises less competitive, and disparities in benefits arise as workers are allowed to supplement the minimum guaranteed income through savings in individual accounts.
Socialist Welfare in a Market Economy: Social Security Reforms in Guangzhou, China
by Yongxin Zhou Nelson Chow Yeubin XuThis title was first published in 2001. Using the city of Guangzhou as a case study, this text looks at how China has adopted a market economy, whilst still maintaining state-owned enterprises and an all-embracing social security system which protects the majority of Chinese workers. This volume examines three questions: can socialist social welfare co-exist with the market economy?; can state-owned enterprises survive in a market economy?; and has China succeeded in creating a market economy without sacrificing its socialist ideals? The study demonstrates that compromises have been necessary to accomodate both socialist and market objectives. continuing to support workers with social security benefits has, for example, made enterprises less competitive, and disparities in benefits arise as workers are allowed to supplement the minimum guaranteed income through savings in individual accounts.
Society and Culture: Scarcity and Solidarity (PDF)
by Chris Rojek Professor Bryan S TurnerSociety and Culture reclaims the classical heritage, provides a clear-eyed assessment of the promise of sociology in the 21st century and asks whether the `cultural turn' has made the study of society redundant. Sociologists have objected to the rise of cultural studies on the grounds that it produces cultural relativism and lacks a stable research agenda. This book looks at these criticisms and illustrates the relevance of a sociological perspective in the analysis of human practice. The book argues that the classical tradition must be treated as a living tradition, rather than a period piece. It analyzes the fundamental principles of belonging and conflict in society and provides a detailed critical survey of the principal social theories that offer solutions to the challenges of modernism.
Sociocybernetics: Complexity, Autopoiesis, and Observation of Social Systems (Controversies in Science)
by Rudolf F. Geyer Johannes Van Der ZouwenIn an effort to shed light on recent developments in sociocybernetic research, this volume represents recent and advanced thinking in this rapidly developing field. The authors address the core problems in social science caused by increasing societal complexity and analyze the inadequacy of many of the methodological tools still used for grappling with nonlinear, self-organizing systems. Together, the 18 contributors propose elements of a new methodology based on sociocybernetic principles aimed at describing and explaining the growth of societal complexity, the contribution of autopoiesis of societal subunits to more societal complexity, and the new simulation-based methodology needed to observe complex social systems. This unique volume contributes to a greater understanding of sociocybernetics and its uses as a method for researching modern problems of increasing complexity and interdependence.The first part of the book deals with increasing societal complexity and contains chapters on its overall development, the complexity of brain-environment interaction loops, organizational change, the development of human values, and the increasing interpenetration of societal subsystems. The second part concentrates on a current issue in sociocybernetics: autopoiesis, or self-production. The chapters included in Part II concentrate on embodied cognition, on the applicability of autopoiesis to business firms, on its roots in Aristotelian philosophy, and on the possibility of societal control and steering in democratic societies. Part III, more focused on methodology, discusses the difficulties inherent in observing complex social systems. The chapters deal with the problems of cross-cultural comparative research, simulation of the evolution of social systems, longitudinal simulation of education systems, and the methodological difficulties associated with analyzing the unexpected complexities of mutually interacting nonlinear systems.
Sociolinguistics and Social Theory
by Nikolas Coupland Srikant Sarangi Christopher N. CandlinThe empirical and descriptive strengths of sociolinguistics, developed over more than 40 years of research, have not been matched by an active engagement with theory. Yet, over this time, social theorising has taken important new turns, linked in many ways to linguistic and discursive concerns. Sociolinguistics and Social Theory is the first book to explore the interface between sociolinguistic analysis and modern social theory. The book sets out to reunite sociolinguistics with the concepts and perspectives of several of the most influential modern theorists of society and social action, including Bakhtin, Foucault, Habermas, Sacks, Goffman, Bourdieu and Giddens. In eleven newly commissioned chapters, leading sociolinguists reappraise the theoretical framing of their research, reaching out beyond conventional limits. The authors propose significant new orientations to key sociolinguistic themes, including- - social motivations for language variation and change- language, power and authority- language and ageing- language, race and class- language planningIn substantial introductory and concluding chapters, the editors and invited discussants reassess the boundaries of sociolinguistic theory and the priorities of sociolinguistic methods. Sociolinguistics and Social Theory encourages students and researchers of sociolinguistics to be more reflexively aware and critical of the social bases of their analyses and invites a reasessment of the place sociolinguistics occupies in the social sciences generally.
Sociolinguistics and Social Theory
by Nikolas Coupland Srikant Sarangi Christopher N. CandlinThe empirical and descriptive strengths of sociolinguistics, developed over more than 40 years of research, have not been matched by an active engagement with theory. Yet, over this time, social theorising has taken important new turns, linked in many ways to linguistic and discursive concerns. Sociolinguistics and Social Theory is the first book to explore the interface between sociolinguistic analysis and modern social theory. The book sets out to reunite sociolinguistics with the concepts and perspectives of several of the most influential modern theorists of society and social action, including Bakhtin, Foucault, Habermas, Sacks, Goffman, Bourdieu and Giddens. In eleven newly commissioned chapters, leading sociolinguists reappraise the theoretical framing of their research, reaching out beyond conventional limits. The authors propose significant new orientations to key sociolinguistic themes, including- - social motivations for language variation and change- language, power and authority- language and ageing- language, race and class- language planningIn substantial introductory and concluding chapters, the editors and invited discussants reassess the boundaries of sociolinguistic theory and the priorities of sociolinguistic methods. Sociolinguistics and Social Theory encourages students and researchers of sociolinguistics to be more reflexively aware and critical of the social bases of their analyses and invites a reasessment of the place sociolinguistics occupies in the social sciences generally.
The Sociological Ambition: Elementary Forms Of Social And Moral Life (PDF)
by Chris Shilling`The Sociological Ambition is a superb book. It is beautifully written, expertly edited and renders complex and original ideas entirely accessible. This is a modern classic' - Journal of Contemporary Religion.
The Sociological Ambition: Elementary Forms of Social and Moral Life
by Philip A Mellor Professor Chris Shilling`The Sociological Ambition is a superb book... It is beautifully written, expertly edited and renders complex and original ideas entirely accessible... This is a modern classic' - Journal of Contemporary Religion `For all social scientists who are fed up with corporate-style textbooks, which appeal to the lowest common denominator The Sociological Ambition must come as a relief. Shilling and Mellor have written an account of their discipline but they have done so with a multi-purpose task in mind' - Irish Journal of Sociology In a comprehensive reassessment of the field, Chris Shilling and Philip A Mellor examine the various attempts that have been made to reconstruct sociology over the last century, arguing that classical and contemporary social theories must be studied in relation to the ambition that first shaped and established the discipline. The authors begin by situating sociology in its historical, philosophical and theological contexts; examining how the founders of the discipline developed competing analyses of the processes elementary to social and moral life through their unique contributions. The result is a landmark work in recent sociological study. Accomplished and erudite, this book will be required reading for students of sociology, social theory, religious studies and cultural studies.
The Sociological Ambition: Elementary Forms of Social and Moral Life
by Philip A Mellor Professor Chris Shilling`The Sociological Ambition is a superb book... It is beautifully written, expertly edited and renders complex and original ideas entirely accessible... This is a modern classic' - Journal of Contemporary Religion `For all social scientists who are fed up with corporate-style textbooks, which appeal to the lowest common denominator The Sociological Ambition must come as a relief. Shilling and Mellor have written an account of their discipline but they have done so with a multi-purpose task in mind' - Irish Journal of Sociology In a comprehensive reassessment of the field, Chris Shilling and Philip A Mellor examine the various attempts that have been made to reconstruct sociology over the last century, arguing that classical and contemporary social theories must be studied in relation to the ambition that first shaped and established the discipline. The authors begin by situating sociology in its historical, philosophical and theological contexts; examining how the founders of the discipline developed competing analyses of the processes elementary to social and moral life through their unique contributions. The result is a landmark work in recent sociological study. Accomplished and erudite, this book will be required reading for students of sociology, social theory, religious studies and cultural studies.
Sociology and the Environment: A Critical Introduction to Society, Nature and Knowledge
by Alan IrwinCan sociology help us to tackle environmental problems? What can sociology tell us about the nature of the environment and about the origins and consequences of environmental risks, hazards and change? In this important new book Alan Irwin maps out this emerging field of knowledge, teaching and research. He reviews the key sociological debates in the field and sets out a new framework for analysis and practice. Among the themes examined are constructivism and realism, sustainable development and theories of the risk society. Readers are also introduced to communities at risk, institutional regulation and the environmental consequences of technology. Particular topics for discussion include genetically modified organisms, nuclear power, pesticide safety and the local hazards of the chemical industry. Rather than maintaining a fixed boundary between nature and society, Irwin highlights the hybrid character of environmental issues and emphasizes the role of social and cultural factors within environmental policy. Combining theoretical discussion and case-studies with a sensitivity to the concerns of environmental policy and practice, Sociology and the Environment provides an excellent introduction to an expanding and immensely important field. It will be a valuable text for students and scholars in sociology, geography, environmental studies and related disciplines.
Sociology and the Environment: A Critical Introduction to Society, Nature and Knowledge
by Alan IrwinCan sociology help us to tackle environmental problems? What can sociology tell us about the nature of the environment and about the origins and consequences of environmental risks, hazards and change? In this important new book Alan Irwin maps out this emerging field of knowledge, teaching and research. He reviews the key sociological debates in the field and sets out a new framework for analysis and practice. Among the themes examined are constructivism and realism, sustainable development and theories of the risk society. Readers are also introduced to communities at risk, institutional regulation and the environmental consequences of technology. Particular topics for discussion include genetically modified organisms, nuclear power, pesticide safety and the local hazards of the chemical industry. Rather than maintaining a fixed boundary between nature and society, Irwin highlights the hybrid character of environmental issues and emphasizes the role of social and cultural factors within environmental policy. Combining theoretical discussion and case-studies with a sensitivity to the concerns of environmental policy and practice, Sociology and the Environment provides an excellent introduction to an expanding and immensely important field. It will be a valuable text for students and scholars in sociology, geography, environmental studies and related disciplines.
Sociology as an Art Form
by Robert Nisbet""One of our most original social thinkers,"" according to the New York Times, Robert Nisbet offers a new approach to sociology. He shows that sociology is indeed an art form, one that has a strong kinship with literature, painting, Romantic history, and philosophy in the nineteenth century, the age in which sociology came into full stature. Sociology as an Art Form is an introduction for the initiated and the uninitiated in so-ciology.Nisbet explains the degree to which sociology draws from the same creative impulses, themes and styles (rooted in history), and actual modes of representa-tion found in the arts. He shows how the founding sociologists such as Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and Simmel constructed portraits (of the bourgeois, the worker, and the intellectual) and landscapes (of the masses, the poor, the factory system), all reflecting and contribut-ing to identical portraits and landscapes found in the literature and art of the period. In addition to marking the similarities between sociologists' and artists' efforts to depict motion or movement, Nisbet emphasizes the relation of sociology to the fin de siecle in art and literature, with examples such as alienation, anomie, and degeneration. He creates an elegant, brilliantly reasoned appraisal of sociology's contribution to modern culture.This book will be of interest to sociologists, artists, and anyone interested in how the fields relate to one another.
Sociology as an Art Form
by Robert Nisbet""One of our most original social thinkers,"" according to the New York Times, Robert Nisbet offers a new approach to sociology. He shows that sociology is indeed an art form, one that has a strong kinship with literature, painting, Romantic history, and philosophy in the nineteenth century, the age in which sociology came into full stature. Sociology as an Art Form is an introduction for the initiated and the uninitiated in so-ciology.Nisbet explains the degree to which sociology draws from the same creative impulses, themes and styles (rooted in history), and actual modes of representa-tion found in the arts. He shows how the founding sociologists such as Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and Simmel constructed portraits (of the bourgeois, the worker, and the intellectual) and landscapes (of the masses, the poor, the factory system), all reflecting and contribut-ing to identical portraits and landscapes found in the literature and art of the period. In addition to marking the similarities between sociologists' and artists' efforts to depict motion or movement, Nisbet emphasizes the relation of sociology to the fin de siecle in art and literature, with examples such as alienation, anomie, and degeneration. He creates an elegant, brilliantly reasoned appraisal of sociology's contribution to modern culture.This book will be of interest to sociologists, artists, and anyone interested in how the fields relate to one another.
Sociology of Education Today
by J. DemaineIt is almost twenty years since Macmillan published Jack Demaine's Contemporary Theories in the Sociology of Education . This completely new book brings together important recent work of the most prominent sociologists working in the field of education today, and reaffirms the reputation of sociology of education as an international discipline at the forefront of original research and analysis. The book examines a wide range of empirical issues and different theoretical perspectives.
Sociology of Law (Law And Society Ser.)
by Norman K. Denzin Georges GurvitchGeorges Gurvitch occupies an interesting position in the development of the sociology of law. In the period immediately preceding its quantitative expansion, he produced an explicitly conceived systematic theoretical intervention. What is particularly significant about Gurvitch's Sociology of Law at first appears as a contradiction. His work has had very little lasting impact on developments within the field of the sociology of law. At best, his existence is occasionally footnoted, but he engendered no great controversy or debate, nor does he have any active contemporary "disciples." Despite this lack of attention, Gurvitch work provides a concentrated expression of the theoretical problems that beset the field. The core of Gurvitch's sociology of law is at root a continuation of the efforts, apparent in the work of Max Weber, to resolve or integrate the dualism which is so markedly affecting law. It is the apparent dualism between law as a positive institution resting upon a framework of social power, while at the same time being a system of values or norms having some compelling internal strength and validity. Gurvitch's Sociology of Law shines as a beacon in the ongoing quest for a transformative vision of law. The new introduction by Alan Hunt discusses Gurvitch's place in the history of the sociology of law and the context in which his works should be placed. It also features a brief biography of the sociologist as well as a discussion of the central features of Gurvitch's sociology. This book will be of interest to students of sociology and law.
Sociology of Law: Towards A Sociology Of Law As Governance (Law And Society Ser.)
by Norman K. Denzin Georges GurvitchGeorges Gurvitch occupies an interesting position in the development of the sociology of law. In the period immediately preceding its quantitative expansion, he produced an explicitly conceived systematic theoretical intervention. What is particularly significant about Gurvitch's Sociology of Law at first appears as a contradiction. His work has had very little lasting impact on developments within the field of the sociology of law. At best, his existence is occasionally footnoted, but he engendered no great controversy or debate, nor does he have any active contemporary "disciples." Despite this lack of attention, Gurvitch work provides a concentrated expression of the theoretical problems that beset the field. The core of Gurvitch's sociology of law is at root a continuation of the efforts, apparent in the work of Max Weber, to resolve or integrate the dualism which is so markedly affecting law. It is the apparent dualism between law as a positive institution resting upon a framework of social power, while at the same time being a system of values or norms having some compelling internal strength and validity. Gurvitch's Sociology of Law shines as a beacon in the ongoing quest for a transformative vision of law. The new introduction by Alan Hunt discusses Gurvitch's place in the history of the sociology of law and the context in which his works should be placed. It also features a brief biography of the sociologist as well as a discussion of the central features of Gurvitch's sociology. This book will be of interest to students of sociology and law.
The Sociology of Religion: Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives
by Malcolm B. HamiltonThis clear introduction to the sociology of religion combines a discussion of key theorists with a modern emphasis on the diversity of religious beliefs and practices. Malcolm Hamilton's expanded second edition brings the discussion fully up-to-date, and extends its material on secularization and religious sects, giving a broad comparative view. Drawing on the insights of history, anthropology and sociology, he surveys classic and contemporary theory to give a full picture of the variety and scope of theoretical perspectives.
The Sociology of Religion: Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives
by Malcolm B. HamiltonThis clear introduction to the sociology of religion combines a discussion of key theorists with a modern emphasis on the diversity of religious beliefs and practices. Malcolm Hamilton's expanded second edition brings the discussion fully up-to-date, and extends its material on secularization and religious sects, giving a broad comparative view. Drawing on the insights of history, anthropology and sociology, he surveys classic and contemporary theory to give a full picture of the variety and scope of theoretical perspectives.
Software Process Technology: 8th European Workshop, EWSPT 2001 Witten, Germany, June 19-21, 2001 Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science #2077)
by Vincenzo AmbriolaThis book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th European Workshop on Software Process Technology, EWSPT 2001, held in Witten, Germany, in June 2001.The 18 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 31 submissions. Among the areas addressed are process evolution, experiences, mobility and distribution, UML process patterns, and process improvement.
Solidarity in Health and Social Care in Europe (Philosophy and Medicine #69)
by R. Ter MeulenOF 'SOLIDARITY' IN UK SOCIAL WELFARE Here then, perhaps, is a British version of solidarity in social welfare, but early there are strong tensions between the powerfully liberal individualistic strands of the British understanding of the functions of the state and the socialistic or communitarian tendency of a commitment to universal welfare provision. In the search for the roots of this understanding of welfare we shall survey, fitst, the historical background to these tensions in some early British political philosophers, starting with Hobbes and ending with Mill. We then consider the philosophical and social influences on the Beveridge Report itself, and we will trace the emergence of the philosophy of the welfare state in the era following the Second World War. Finally we consider the contemporary debate, as it relates to the 'Third Way' thinking of New Labour. 2. A mSTORICAL SKETCH In the previous section we observed that the philosophy underlying the Beveridge Report could be described as 'liberal collectivism'. What are the historical antecedents of this strange amalgam of individualism and collectivism? Within the short scope of this chapter, any account of the philosophical history must be little more than a sketch, but we can perhaps understand most debates in British socio-political thought as a continuing dialogue with the well known claim of Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan that all political institutions are founded on egoistic motives.
Sortals and the Subject-predicate Distinction (2001)
by Michael DurrantThis title was first published in 2001. The problem of the subject-predicate distinction has featured centrally in much of modern philosophy of language and philosophical logic, and the distinction is taken as basic or fundamental in modern philosophical logic. Michael Durrant seeks to demonstrate that the distinction should not be taken as basic or fundamental and argues that the reason for it being held to be fundamental is a failure to acknowledge the category and role of the sortal. A sortal is a symbol which furnishes us with a principle for distinguishing and counting particulars (objects) and whick does so in its own right relying on no antecedent principle or method of so distinguishing or counting. This book explores sortals and their relationship to the subject-predicate distinction; arguing that the nature of sortal symbols has been misconstrued in much modern writing in the philosophy of logic by failing to distinguish sortals from names and predicates.
Sortals and the Subject-predicate Distinction (2001)
by Michael DurrantThis title was first published in 2001. The problem of the subject-predicate distinction has featured centrally in much of modern philosophy of language and philosophical logic, and the distinction is taken as basic or fundamental in modern philosophical logic. Michael Durrant seeks to demonstrate that the distinction should not be taken as basic or fundamental and argues that the reason for it being held to be fundamental is a failure to acknowledge the category and role of the sortal. A sortal is a symbol which furnishes us with a principle for distinguishing and counting particulars (objects) and whick does so in its own right relying on no antecedent principle or method of so distinguishing or counting. This book explores sortals and their relationship to the subject-predicate distinction; arguing that the nature of sortal symbols has been misconstrued in much modern writing in the philosophy of logic by failing to distinguish sortals from names and predicates.