Christianity in the United States has long been organized around congregations and denominations. However, a different type of organization operating outside of these traditional structures is claiming an increasingly important place in the religious market. The growth of Christian nonprofits, popularly called "parachurch" organizations, has been recognized by churchgoers and social scientists alike as an important development that is transforming the composition and dynamics of American Christianity. The size, resources, and activities of this population have made it the public face of American Christianity and altered the relationship between individuals, churches and denominations. Beyond the Congregation utilizes data on almost 2,000 of the largest and most influential Christian nonprofits in the United States to answer some of the key questions raised by these organizations. What explains the growth of Christian nonprofits? What activities are they pursuing? How are they funded and how do they use those funds? Beyond the Congregation provides a much needed examination of these issues that is accessible and informative for scholars, nonprofit executives, religious leaders and the general public.

This book provides an in-depth examination of the Yungdrung Bon religion in light of globalization. In its global dimension, Bon has been attracting a growing number of Westerners, particularly to its Dzogchen teachings and meditation practices. In this expansion, Bon operates in a dynamic context where forces that create changes in the tradition coexist, sometimes in tension and sometimes in tandem, with other forces that aim to preserve it. In tracing the process through which Bon has become a global religion, this monograph narrates the story of the principal figures who initially facilitated this transmission, following their journey from Tibet to India and Nepal. The narrative then moves to explore the dynamics taking place in the transmission and reception of Yungdrung Bon in Western countries, opening up a new viewpoint on the expansion of Tibetan religious traditions into the West and painting a comprehensive picture of the modern history of the Yungdrung Bon religion as narrated by its participants. In so doing, it makes an invaluable contribution to the study of Tibetan traditions in the West as well as to the wider history of religions, social anthropology, psychology, and conversion studies.

This book select successful cases of poverty reduction and alleviation in the Guizhou province of China, which reflects the highest number and widest distribution of people living in poverty. The local government seeks to achieve sustainable development goals and find multiple solutions to the problem.. The book introduces local experiences and presents the whole process from policy making to practice.

This ground-breaking study of the baby boomer generation, who are now entering old age, breaks new ground in ageing research. This post-war cohort has experienced a range of social, cultural, and medical changes in regard to their notions of body, from the introduction of the Pill and the decoupling of sex and procreation to the H-Bomb and Earthrise. Yet, paradoxically, ageing is also universal. This exciting book reflects the intersection of time, ageing, body and identity to give a more nuanced and enlightened understanding of the ageing process.

This volume focuses on critical issues surrounding the intersection of genetics, health, and society. It provides a critical examination of sociological and biomedical approaches to genomics, including strengths and limitations of each perspective.

This original volume examines forms and limits of human inquiry from a largely sceptical point of view. Human beings are endowed with cognitive agency. Our grasp of the world, and of ourselves, are not merely responses to external stimuli; they are reflective products of human inquiry. At one point in human history it was thought that modern science, especially theoretical physics, is the paradigm of human inquiry. Where does this form of inquiry significantly apply? Are there limits on its claims of truth and objectivity? How much of the vast canvas of human experience does it cover? Where do other forms of inquiry, such as philosophy, religion, and the arts, attain their salience? With the emergence of the scientific study of the human mind itself, these critical questions have taken a more intriguing form in recent decades. Can human inquiry investigate its own nature? Can the scientific theory of language explain the richness of human expression? Can a science of the mind account for human experience? These probing questions on the scientific enterprise are usually addressed from the outside, as it were, by humanists and critical theorists. In these essays, they are examined from the inside by a philosopher whose primary academic work concerns the study of the human, linguistic mind. In that sense, the sceptical inquiry turns on itself.

Social Policy, Welfare State, and Civil Society in Sweden I-II gives a comprehensive account of the global invention of the welfare state, from the far north of the West to the global East and Southeast, and from its social policy origins to the most recent challenges from civil society. This second volume aims at the civil society challenge to the welfare state since 1988, or "the lost world of social democracy." It opens with an overview of the three generations of comparative welfare state research, from Harold Wilensky to Gosta Esping-Andersen, Theda Skocpol and onwards. Inspired by the work of Norbert Elias, Karl Polanyi, and Stein Rokkan as well as by Benedict Anderson, Tom Nairn and Elinor Ostrom, the civilizing process and embeddedness of the welfare-industrial complex are scrutinized. The author's key concepts are imagined welfare communities, and common pool resources in (civil) society and state. Privatization trends in Sweden - from take-off to bonanza - and domestic resistance to the powers of the day are then lucidly assessed, and the simultaneous deconstruction and reconstruction of a once famous welfare state is elaborated with force and vigour. Finally, the cross-national Scandinavian differences are outlined. The five essays of volume II emphasize the historical relativity of social welfare institutions and argue against all developmental metaphysics. This work is an updated and enlarged edition in two volumes of Sven Hort's well-known and wide-ranging dissertation Social Policy and Welfare State in Sweden, published under the author's birth name Sven E. Olsson in 1990. The first volume contains the original four essays and covers the formation and evolution of the Swedish welfare state 1884-1988. In praise of the new edition: "The publication of this book in 1990 marked a turning point in understanding of how the Swedish welfare state should be conceptualized both from a historical and comparative perspective. Its combination of sophisticated theoretical perspectives and in-depth empirical analysis became a model for many later studies of welfare state regimes. Added to the timely new edition is a 'volume II' sequel that updates and deepens the analysis of how the Swedish welfare state has fared during the era of globalization. This new edition is a 'must read' for everyone interested in the history and future of welfare state regimes." - Bo Rothstein, August Rohss Chair in Political Science, University of Gothenburg In praise of the first edition: ..". takes us beyond simple analyses, emphasizing the deep historical roots of social democracy in Sweden and considering the role of ideas, the organization of politics, and the activities of social classes other than labor in building and securing Swedish social policy. Olsson's book presents a comprehensive overview of the development of the Swedish welfare state and a detailed consideration of several key episodes of welfarestate development." - American Journal of Sociology "This is a very scholarly and broad ranging analysis of the postwar Swedish welfare state ... which is invaluable for comparative policy analysis." - Critical Social Policy ..". essential reading for sociologists and political scientists." - Contemporary Sociology Sven E. O. Hort is Professor in Social Welfare at the College of Social Sciences, Seoul National University, Korea. He is an alumnus of Lund University. In Sweden he taught sociology at Linneaus and Sodertorn universities. Currently he is the chief editor of the Swedish journal Arkiv. Tidskrift for samhallsanalys and a deputy editor of European Societies. With Stein Kuhnle he is the author of "The Coming of East and South-East Asian Welfare States," Journal of European Social Policy (2000).

Ethics and Anthropology comprehensively embraces issues and dilemmas faced in all four of the discipline's fields. Not merely a subject to be considered when seeking the approval of institutional review boards, ethics is anthropology. Fluehr-Lobban explores the critical application of core ethical principles do no harm, apply informed consent in all stages of research, practice transparency, collaborate from the initial stages of crafting a proposal and executing research through writing and publication of findings. She provides a frank, up-to-date consideration of best practices and trends and incorporates recommendations from the most recent AAA Code of Ethics. To help students understand the art of ethics in principle and in practice, she draws on anthropological history and discourse as well as cross-cultural and interdisciplinary examples; questions for discussion round out each chapter."

This edited volume offers a new approach to understanding social conventions by way of Martin Heidegger. It connects the philosopher's conceptions of the anyone, everydayness, and authenticity with an analysis and critique of social normativity. Heidegger's account of the anyone is ambiguous. Some see it as a good description of human sociality, others think of it as an important critique of modern mass society. This volume seeks to understand this ambiguity as reflecting the tension between the constitutive function of conventions for human action and the critical aspects of conformism. It argues that Heidegger's anyone should neither be reduced to its pejorative nor its constitutive dimension. Rather, the concept could show how power and norms function. This volume would be of interest to scholars and students of philosophy and the social sciences who wish to investigate the social applications of the works of Martin Heidegger.

This book unpacks the politics of climate change in Australia in the context of successive conservative Coalition governments resisting any moves to mitigate emissions and as local communities and transnational corporations struggle with each other to control the transition to a sustainable energy future. As Australia has abundant clean energy resources in terms of solar and wind, the book offers a test case for study of the energy policy transition in the 21st century. It does so by using tools from political economy and sociology, teasing out public attitudes to renewable energy technologies and innovative infrastructure investments, unpacking the complex parameters of this historical debate, tracing the rise of household 'prosumers' and arguing the case for grassroots ownership of renewable infrastructure or 'energy sovereignty' - already pioneered by some isolated communities in Australia. The cultural and emancipatory benefits of cooperative ventures are well known. However, capitalism is not readily defeated by democracy. The promotion of individual households as 'virtual power stations', of 'smart technologies' and even of cryptocurrency into the energy transition innovative mix opens up ever new horizons for corporate control.

New speakers are an increasingly important aspect of the revitalization of minority languages since, in some cases, they can make up the majority of the language community in question. This volume examines this phenomenon from the viewpoint of three minority languages: Breton, Yiddish and Lemko.

Advances in Experimental Social Psychology continues to be one of the most sought after and cited series in this field. Containing contributions of major empirical and theoretical interest, this series represents the best and brightest in new research, theory, and practice in social psychology. This serial is part of the Social Sciences package on ScienceDirect, and is available online beginning with volume 32 onward.

This book uses survey data in "hot spots" around the globe, to analyse various models of social justice, particularly the principle of equality, from a pragmatic perspective. Starting with ordinary actors, social movements, and concrete contexts, the authors question foundations of social and political democracy in our times. They focus on how social actors deal with the principles of justice and judgments of justice at work and in their social lives. The book suggests that the increase in social inequalities in recent decades contrasts with the blurring of the aims of social justice. At a time when the reconsideration of politics largely depends on its relevance to and aspirations for social justice, the authors of this book question contemporary developments by illustrating its variety, according to specific historical, institutional, social and organizational contexts.The book will be useful to students and scholars in the social sciences, especially those interested in moral questions regarding social justice, from an empirical and practical point of view.

Through an ethnographic study of schooling in the Republic of Tatarstan, this book explores how competing notions of nationhood and belonging are constructed, articulated and negotiated within educational spaces. Amidst major political and ideological moves toward centralization in Russia under the Putin presidency, this small provincial town in Tatarstan provides a unique case of local attempts to promote and preserve minority languages and cultures through education and schooling. Ultimately, the study reveals that while schooling can be an effective instrument of the state to transform individuals as well as society as a whole, school also encompasses various spaces where the agency of local actors unfolds and official messages are contested. Looking at what happens inside schools and beyond-in classrooms, hallways and playgrounds to private households or local Islamic schools-Dilyara Suleymanova here offers a detailed ethnographic account of the way centrally devised educational policies are being received, negotiated and contested on the ground.

Soldier repatriation from Afghanistan has impacted debate about the war. This study highlights this impact with particular focus on Britain, Denmark and Germany. All three countries deployed soldiers soon after the 9/11 attacks, yet their role in Afghanistan and the casualty rates suffered, have been vastly different. This book looks at how their casualties influenced the framing of the war by analysing the political discourse about the casualties, how the media covered the repatriation and the burials, and how the dead were officially recognised and commemorated. Explaining how bodies count is not done exclusively by focusing on the political leadership and the media in the three countries, the response from the men and women in Afghanistan to the official framing of the war is given particular weight. Martinsen contributes to our understanding of European strategic culture by showing how countries respond to the same security challenges.

Shaping Rural Areas in Europe. Perceptions and Outcomes on the Present and the Future sets out to investigate the effect of urban perceptions about the rural and consequent demands on rurality on the present and future configurations of rural territories in Europe in the early twenty-first century. This volume presents and discusses a broad range of case studies and theoretical and methodological approaches from different academic fields, mainly Anthropology, Sociology and Geography.

The authors of this timely book, Who Gets What?, harness the expertise from across the social sciences to show how skyrocketing inequality and social dislocation are fracturing the stable political identities and alliances of the postwar era across advanced democracies. Drawing on extensive evidence from the United States and Europe, with a focus especially on the United States, the authors examine how economics and politics are closely entwined. Chapters demonstrate how the new divisions that separate people and places-and fragment political parties-hinder a fairer distribution of resources and opportunities. They show how employment, education, sex and gender, and race and ethnicity affect the way people experience and interpret inequality and economic anxieties. Populist politics have addressed these emerging insecurities by deepening social and political divisions, rather than promoting broad and inclusive policies.

He had a dream. He dreamt that he lived in a land where the people were free. They were free to live their lives and raise their families, in the light of their own god, without the interference or dictation from the king, the court, the state, or the church, the American dream.

This book restores the concept of topology to its rhetorical roots to assist scholars who wish not just to criticize power dynamics, but also to invent alternatives. Topology is a spatial rather than a causal method. It works inductively to model discourse without reducing it to the actions of a few or resolving its inherent contradictions. By putting topology back in tension with opportunity, as originally designed, the contributors to this volume open up new possibilities for post-critical practice in "wicked discourses" of medicine, technology, literacy, and the environment. Readers of the volume will discover exactly how the discipline of rhetoric underscores and interacts with current notions of topology in philosophy, design, psychoanalysis, and science studies.

What are the theoretical parameters that produce the category public intellectual? By pondering the conceptual elements that inform the term, this book offers not just a political critique, but a sense of the new challenges its meanings present. This collection complicates the notion of public intellectual while arguing for its continued urgency in communities formal and informal, institutional and abstract. While it is not quite accurate to say public intellectuals have disappeared entirely, it is clear they function differently in an age of global neoliberalism and techno-digital overdrive. Today the idea of the public intellectual bears only the slightest resemblance to what it was fifty or even twenty-five years ago. The essays in this collection provide a number of different ways to imagine the fate of public intellectuals and offers a thorough exploration of the commonplace ideologies and politics associated with them.

This interdisciplinary volume brings together leading scholars from several disciplines to uncover the key to young people's socialization within institutional settings, from school to the workplace. Among the questions they consider are: what aspects of interactional competence are relevant for participation in practical activities within those settings? What are the interactional procedures through which diverse facets of interactional competence are recognized, legitimized and assessed in the course of practical activities? How do these procedures shape and reflect social institutions and people's understanding of them? The collection discusses interactional competences across a variety of institutional settings, and reflects on the institutional order by scrutinizing how such competences are interactionally treated within everyday institutional practices. The volume enriches an interdisciplinary understanding of fundamental concepts in the social sciences and will therefore be of interest to those working within linguistics, sociology, education, psychology of work, and speech therapy.

The nature and configuration of borders, and the relationship between state borders and societies, have changed. In the 21st century, internationalism, transnationalism, and super-diversity have further provoked complexities and anxieties. It seems that as border and migration regimes undergo dramatic transformations, their public profile increases. This book revisits borders, bordering practices, and meanings, with a particular focus on the United Kingdom as a case study. Bastian A. Vollmer examines not only the theoretical and historical dimensions of borders but also various empirical data, including extensive text corpora and dozens of in-depth interviews. Expanding on the concept of vernacular security-that is, an everyday understanding of security-he argues that the existential value of borders is not merely physical, but extends into the order and future construction of states and societies. This book demonstrates decisively that the concept of the border has not left the centre stage of philosophy, political theory, and political sociology, but has instead emerged as a focal point for multidisciplinary engagements. It further demonstrates how attention to a vernacular perspective can inform those engagements, yielding vital insights. As such, it should appeal to students and scholars across disciplines interested in the contemporary development and relevance of borders and their discursive cultures.

This cutting edge work offers an alternative perspective on existing paradigms of modernization and development that originated in the West from the vantage point of non-western, late-modernizing societies. It considers how East Asian philosophical ideas enrich the reformulation of the concept of development or societal development, and how influential principles of traditional culture such as yin-yang dialectic interact with modern ideas and technology. It addresses the significance of alternative discourses as culturally independent scholarship, and the problems of pervasive mechanisms of social, political, economic, and cultural dependence in the global academic world.