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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > General
Leadership is not something one does alone. It is an expression of collective, community action--unified action of leaders and followers who trust enough to jointly achieve mutual goals. The task of creating a culture conducive to interactive trust is perhaps the preeminent leadership task. This practical guide identifies the key elements leaders need to manipulate to create such a trust culture in any work environment. By learning to shape culture to meet changing needs--by learning to be continually responsive to the organization's vision as well as to the needs of a changing follower core--the leader can create the situation necessary for any successful organization, one where followers can trust others and feel free to work together to gain mutually desired goals.
At the heart of the historical and social sciences lies the remarkable gray area of learning processes. "Learning" is usually perceived as individual childhood development at home and at school and has been written about extensively. However, little is known about learning processes outside primary and secondary socialization although insight into these learning processes appears indispensable for an understanding of social changes or the lack thereof. On the basis of historical and current case studies, philosophical reflections, and critical commentaries, Mergner (1940-1999) opened up this important area through his "theory of social limits to learning," designed to explain not only why people accept or reject structures of domination but also why people trying to emancipate themselves nonetheless form and accept new structures of domination. This anthology presents Mergner's seminal work to the non-German speaking world for the first time in order to give it the wider recognition it so clearly deserves.
Since unification German society and institutions have been challenged by various transformations and the need to adjust to changing conditions. While much has been accomplished, many political, legal, and institutional problems remain. This volume deals with selected aspects of domestic and European policy, political parties, the challenge of direct democracy, and federalism in unified Germany - all issues that have been the subject of much discussion, political posturing, legislation, and, to some extent, constitutional amendments and court decision for many years, if not decades. In conclusion, a British scholar looks at German federalism and a number of public policy issues from a comparative perspective and arrives at some surprising and encouraging results.
How often are the perspectives of Puerto Rican students recognized, listened to, and taken into account? Not very often, according to this incisive study which deals with the struggles that these students confront in U.S. schools. As active participants in the shifting balances of power, in the dialectic of language, and in the battle over whose knowledge, experience, and voice are recognized and accepted, Puerto Rican students are uniquely aware of the language and power relation. Their efforts at trying to make sense out of and fashion a voice from the multiple and often contradictory realities that comprise their daily existence, however, are misinterpreted or ignored. This book challenges generally accepted perspectives and practices among teachers and calls for new pedagogies that respond to the complex needs of these students. Special focus is placed on the effect that colonial status has had historically on the political, socioeconomic, and psychological reality of the Puerto Rican people. Through the voices of Puerto Rican children and those of Puerto Rican and other Latino adolescents, the book explores how the past and present intersect in people's lives, inform pedagogy, and shape the conditions and struggles through which students come to know.
The interrelations of science and technology as an object of study seem to have drawn the attention of a number of disciplines: the history of both science and technology, sociology, economics and economic history, and even the philosophy of science. The question that comes to mind is whether the phenomenon itself is new or if advances in the disciplines involved account for this novel interest, or, in fact, if both are intercon nected. When the editors set out to plan this volume, their more or less explicit conviction was that the relationship of science and technology did reveal a new configuration and that the disciplines concerned with 1tS analysis failed at least in part to deal with the change because of conceptual and methodological preconceptions. To say this does not imply a verdict on the insufficiency of one and the superiority of any other one disciplinary approach. Rather, the situation is much more complex. In economics, for example, the interest in the relationship between science and technology is deeply influenced by the theoretical problem of accounting for the factors of economic growth. The primary concern is with technology and the problem is whether the market induces technological advances or whether they induce new demands that explain the subsequent diffusion of new technologies. Science is generally considered to be an exogenous factor not directly subject to market forces and, therefore, appears to be of no interest."
Focusing on service-providing organizations established by health and human service professionals in post-Communist Poland, this book adds a new dimension to the sociological study of voluntary organizations. The author investigates the motives and interests of the people who establish these organizations and the connections among organizational forms, the social organizations of production, and the occupational interests of professional service providers.
After the collapse of communism, many states are faced with the challenges of democratization; they need to establish their legitimacy in an uncertain economic climate and within a geopolitical order. This book brings Max Weber's sociology to bear on this transformation of the political landscape. The essays in this volume develop Weberian concepts and apply his comparative-historical method with the aim of deepening our understanding of these problems. They cover a wide range of examples, from the United States to Western and Eastern Europe, and from Russia and Japan to the Islamic states.
Very little has been written to address the emerging trends in social software and technology. With these technologies and applications being relatively new and evolving rapidly, research is wide open in these fields. Social Software and Web 2.0 Technology Trends fills this critical research need, providing an overview of the current state of Web 2.0 technologies and their impact on organizations and educational institutions. Written for academicians and practicing managers, this estimable book presents business applications as well as implementations for institutions of higher education with numerous examples of how these technologies are currently being used. Delivering authoritative insights to a rapidly evolving domain of technology application, this book is an invaluable resource for both academic libraries and for classroom instruction.
The Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are thriving after hundreds of years of German colonization, numerous wars of conquest, and demographic Russification. Their cultures have survived, perhaps through a conscious effort to sustain many of their most ancient customs and traditions. Though the Baltic States are responding to modern and postmodern international trends, contemporary developments in the region's cultural life are part of an ongoing conversation about the way in which the Balts understand their histories, destinies, and national identities. This timely overview of the reemerging states portrays the Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians as they see themselves-through a historical lens. The Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are thriving after hundreds of years of German colonization, numerous wars of conquest, and demographic Russification. Their cultures have survived, perhaps through a conscious effort to sustain many of their most ancient customs and traditions. Though the Baltic States are responding to modern and postmodern international trends, contemporary developments in the region's cultural life are part of an ongoing conversation about the way in which the Balts understand their own histories, destines, and national identities. This timely overview of the reemerging states portrays the Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians as they see themselves-through a historical lens. The approach in each of the topical chapters is to generalize what is common among the three states and then to focus on each country in turn. Chapters on the land, people, and history; religion; marriage, family, gender, and education; holidays, cuisine, and leisure activities; language, folklore, and literature; media and cinema; performing arts; and art are a superb introduction to the Baltics and to the unique aspects of the countries. Lithuania's culture has been heavily influenced by Poland, and the capital, Vilnius, was a thriving center of Jewish learning until the Nazi years. Latvia is the most ethnically diverse and Russian-influenced. Estonia sees itself as a European country, indeed, Scandinavian.
Inheritance and Wealth in America is a superb collection of original essays, written in nontechnical language by experts in sociology, economics, anthropology, history, law, and other disciplines. Notable chapters provide - an outstanding interpretative history of inheritance in American legal thought - a critical review of the literature on the economics of inheritance at the household and societal levels - a superb history of Federal taxation of wealth transfers, and - a sociological examination of inheritance and its role in class reproduction and stratification. This groundbreaking work is of value to any researcher dealing with the transmission of wealth and privilege across generations.
Using literacy practices in the newly independent post-apartheid Namibia as a lens through which to examine the effects of globalisation, this broad case study looks at issues surrounding tourism, state control and the new forces of consumerism. By placing literacy at the centre of an investigation into social and cultural change as experienced by individuals, Papen shows that in times of change, reading and writing are always implicated in structures of power and inequality. The book considers language practices that can exclude some members of Namibian society and also looks at the strategies used by local people to accommodate and even embrace the onward march of global English and the influx of foreign visitors, practices and modes of commerce and interaction.
practice, some of which is translated into the standard forms of public discourse, in publication, and then retranslated by readers and adapted again to local practice at self-selected other sites. Less may be left implicit, and additional personal and contextual information is carried, by the "informal" methods of communication which mediate local projects and international publication. But both methods of communication are screens as well as conduits of information. History and Background of the Volume When the planning of this volume began in the spring of 1977, it seemed a natural part of the mandate for the Yearbook. There had also been a number of more specific calls for deeper studies of research in social and historical context (3). These calls can be seen as giving permission and legitimacy to ask questions otherwise seen as irrelevant, or even disrespectful, and as attempts to develop new perspectives from which to ask and to answer them. The implied and expressed irreverence toward traditions and institutions of great respect may have prolonged this process of initial apologetics. In any case, in May 1977 the theme of 'The Social Process of Scientific Investigation' was proposed to the Editorial Board for Volume IV as "the heart of the subject. " That is, the ethnographic and detailed historical study of actual scientific activity and thinking at or close to the work site.
In myriad ways, humans have gradually tailored their world to meet immediate material needs. In so doing, we have, in the minds of many, systematically altered a formerly hospitable environment into one more ambiguous in its effect on the human organism. Just as environments have adapted in response to human activity, so too is the human body now, in turn, forced to adapt to these altered conditions. Today, mysterious illnesses, from chronic fatigue to Gulf War Syndrome, meet us at every turn. Yet even as an increasing number of people attribute ailments to environmental problems, the suspected relationships between illness and environment remain unclear. Illness and the Environment examines how sick people and their allies struggle to achieve public recognition of somatic complaints and disabilities that they contend are related to "manufactured environments." The first of its kind, the anthology considers the political, legal, and medical conflicts arising from these illnesses, and will prove invaluable to researchers, scholars, public policy makers, trial attorneys, and activist organizations.
This book examines the process of political and social reform that Colombia has experienced in the past decade. As the relationship between the state, the economy and the society are redefined in Latin America, Colombia has also undergone substantial transformations. This story offers a Colombian dimension to the increasing interest in processes of state reform elsewhere. The approach is interdisciplinary and will be of interest to political scientists, economists, sociologists, geographers and historians.
"Civil Society" has been experiencing a global renaissance among social movements and political thinkers during the last two decades. This collection of original papers by junior and senior scholars offers an important comparative-historical dimension to the debate by examining the historical roots of civil society in Germany and Britain from the seventeenth-century revolutions to the beginning of the welfare state.
Pain research is still dominated by biomedical perspectives and the need to articulate pain in ways other than those offered by evidence based medical models is pressing. Examining closely subjective experiences of pain, this book explores the way in which pain is situated, communicated and formed in a larger cultural and social context. Dimensions of Pain explores the lived experience of pain, and questions of identity and pain, from a range of different disciplinary perspectives within the humanities and social sciences. Discussing the acuity and temporality of pain, its isolating impact, the embodied expression of pain, pain and sexuality, gender and ethnicity, it also includes a cluster of three chapters discusses the phenomenon and experience of labour pains. This volume revitalizes the study of pain, offering productive ways of carefully thinking through its different aspects and exploring the positive and enriching side of world-forming pain as well as its limiting aspects. It will be of interest to academics and students interested in pain from a range of backgrounds, including philosophy, sociology, nursing, midwifery, medicine and gender studies.
"Taken as a whole, the collection provides a useful grounding in
contemporary Durkheimian studies." . CHOICE
Despite a substantial legacy of literature on EU interest representation, there is no systematic analysis available on whether a European model of interest representation in EU governance is detectable across functional, and territorial, categories of actors. 'Functional' actors include associations for business interests, the professions, and trade unions, as well as 'NGOs' and social movements; territorial based entities include public actors (such as regional and local government), as well as actors primarily organised at territorial level. What are the similarities and differences between territorial, and functional, based entities, and are the similarities greater than the differences? Are the differences sufficient to justify the use of different analytical tools? Are the differences within these categories more significant than those across them? Is there a 'professionalised European lobbying class' across all actor types? Does national embeddedness make a difference? Which factors explain the success of actors to participate in European governance? This book was originally published as special issue of Journal of European Integration.
Bridging the gap between historical theory and the study of historical memory, this series crosses the boundaries between both academic disciplines and cultural, social, political and historical contexts. In an age of rapid globalization, which tends to manifest itself on an economic and political level, locating the cultural practices involved in generating its underlying historical sense is an increasingly urgent task. Identity has become a core concept of the social and cultural sciences. Bringing together perspectives from sociology, anthropology, psychology, history, and literary criticism, this book offers a comprehensive and critical overview on how this concept is currently used and how it relates to memory and constructions of historical theory."
In 1665 Crispina Peres, the most powerful trader in the West African
slave trafficking port of Cacheu, was arrested by the Inquisition. Her
enemies had conspired to denounce her for taking treatments prescribed
by Senegambian healers: the djabakós. But who was Peres? And why was
the Portuguese Inquisition so concerned with policing the faith of a
West African woman in today’s Guinea-Bissau?
The multiple impact of the May 1968 events in France is here reviewed and analysed, initially through a narrative account of the events themselves and then through a systematic survey of the various manners in which they have been interpreted and reproduced in France. This covers successively political, social/sociological, and cultural texts - first-hand accounts along with works by political activists and academic social scientists - before moving to a consideration of fictional works (novels and feature films) dealing with or set during the events.
Northern Ireland is frequently characterized in terms of a "two traditions" paradigm, representing the conflict as being between two discrete cultures. Proceeding from an analysis of the historical and religious context, this study demonstrates the reductionist nature of the "two traditions" model, highlighting instead the complexity of ethnic identities and cultural traditions. It thus shows why attempts at reconciliation like the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, which seeks to promote the concept of a "parity of esteem" based on this identity model., are fraught with difficulties. Reflecting on the applicability of the concept of multiculturalism in the context of Northern Ireland, the author proposes a re-conceptualisation of Northern Irish culture along lines that steer clear of binary oppositions. From the Contents: 'Webs of Significance'; Dis-membering the Past; Divided by Common Cosmologies; A Discourse in Difference; The Process if 'Cruthinitude'; Un Unclaimed Tradition; Ethnic Nationality; The 'Fuzzy Frontier'; The 'Common Ground'
While sociological modernists were outrageously presumptious in their claims for sociological knowledge, postmodernists have gone to another extreme in claiming that it has no more truth status than fiction. Critical of both positions, Sociological Reasoning develops an original typology of approaches to social scientific theory and research which is distinguished by its openness and reflexive awareness of rhetorical and methodological aspects of knowledge claims. Laced with graphic illustrative examples, this is a strikingly well-written text that will appeal to students at undergraduate level and beyond. |
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