In The Unity of the Capitalist Economy and State, Geert Reuten offers a systematic exposition of the capitalist system, showing that the capitalist economy and the capitalist state constitute a unity. In its critique of contemporary economics, the book argues that in order to comprehend the capitalist system, one requires a full synthetic exposition of the economic and state institutions and processes necessary for its continued existence. A synthetic approach also reveals a range of components that are often obscured by partial analyses. In its systematic character, Reuten's work takes inspiration from Marx's provisional outline of the capitalist system in Capital, while also addressing fields that Marx left unfinished-such as the capitalist state.

What is the social structure of Chinese society in the 21st century? How should China address the problem of migrant workers? How can China form a modern society? These key sociological issues are some of the topics this book covers. This book is a collection of the research articles and lectures that Dr. Lu Xueyi, the former Head of the Institute of Sociology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has published since the 1980s. The author discusses the social structure, social stratification, social construction, and development of contemporary Chinese society. Arguing that the gap between economic and social development has become the major social issue facing modern China, the author advocates paying close attention to the country's social structure and the growth of the middle class. The book will be of interest to all scholars and students of Sociology and Chinese Studies.

This cross-disciplinary volume brings together diverse perspectives on children's food occasions inside and outside of the home across different geographical locations. By unpacking mundane food occasions - from school dinners to domestic meals and from breakfast to snacks - Feeding Children Inside and Outside the Home shows the role of food in the everyday lives of children and adults around them. Investigating food occasions at home, schools and in nurseries during weekdays and holidays, this book reveals how children, mothers, fathers, teachers and other adults involved in feeding children, understand, make sense of and navigate ideological discourses of parenting, health imperatives and policy interventions. Revealing the material and symbolic complexity of feeding children, and the role that parenting and healthy discourses play in shaping, perpetuating and transforming both feeding and eating, this volume shows how micro and macro aspects are at play in mundane and everyday practices of family life and education. This volume will be of great interested to a wide range of students and researchers interested in the sociology of family life, education, food studies and everyday consumption.

"Intellectuals in the Modern Islamic "World reconsiders the typology and history of intellectuals in the Arabic world from the late 19th century to present day.
This volume distinguishes itself from other major studies on modern thought in Islam by examining this topic beyond the context of the Arabic world. The first section of this book concentrates on a journal, al-Manar, published between 1898 and 1935, and read by a wide range of audiences throughout the Islamic world, which inspired the imagination and arguments of local intelligentsias in the first half of the 20th Century. The second part concentrates on the formation, transmission and transformation of learning and authority, from the Middle East to Central and South Asia, through the 20th century.
Providing a rich variety of case studies, by international authors of the most varied disciplinary scope, Intellectuals in the Modern Islamic World meets the highest academic requirements in a spirit of comparative vision and openness to the dynamism of contemporary societies of the Islamic world. This book is essential reading for those with research interests in Islam and intellectual thought.""

An important analysis of the difference class makes in reproductive health choices Can you run a marathon, drink coffee, eat fish, or fly on a plane while pregnant? Such questions are just the tip of the iceberg for how most pregnant women’s bodies are managed, surveilled, and scrutinized during pregnancy. The Reproduction of Inequality examines the intense social pressure that expectant and new mothers face when it comes to their health and body-care choices. Drawing on interviews with dozens of pregnant women and new mothers from poor, middle-class, and mixed-class backgrounds, Katherine Mason paints a vivid picture of the immense weight of expectation that comes with the early stages of motherhood. The women in Mason’s study universally sought to give their children a healthy start in life; however, their chosen approaches varied based on their socio-economic class. Whereas middle-class mothers attempted a complete lifestyle change and absolute devotion to the achievement and maintenance of “the healthy pregnant body,” poorer women made strategic choices about which health goals to prioritize on a limited budget, lacking the economic and cultural capital required to speak and perfectly adhere to the language of “good health.” The unfortunate result is that middle-class mothers are more likely to be seen by others and by themselves as “good” parents, whereas the efforts of working-class mothers are often misread as displaying inadequate concern about their health and that of their child. This in turn contributes to longstanding stereotypes about poor families and communities, and limits their children's chances for upward mobility. The Reproduction of Inequality is a compelling analysis of the impact of class on new mothers’ approaches to health and wellness, and a sobering examination of how inequality shapes mothers’ efforts to maximize their own health and that of their children.

There are almost as many works about intellectuals as there are intellectuals. Perhaps this is because intellectuals are masters of the word and their mastery is often used to write about themselves. Indeed, with the possible exceptions of sports figures and film actors, intellectuals may be the most overpublicized people in America. In this classic study, originally published in 1974, Charles Kadushin examines the attitudes of that class of people known as the American intellectual elite.
While most works on intellectuals first establish who should be included under the title "intellectual," and debate their characteristics, Kadushin instead sets forth a sociological history of leading American intellectuals of the late 1960s. The book's concern, however, is primarily with time and place. While "The American Intellectual Elite" is very much about social circles and the networked "small world" of intellectuals defined by the institutions such as the journals and magazines around which they gathered, the uniqueness of this volume is the recognition that fact must come before theory. Thus, the collective attitude of leading intellectuals of the sixties are presented in a straightforward and dispassionate manner on topics as diverse as the Vietnam War, race relations, foreign and domestic policy, and the place of intellectuals in the resolution of such issues.
Now in paperback with a new introduction by the author, "The American Intellectual Elite" is an influential work that will be valued by students of sociology, members of the intellectual elite, and professionals and students of contemporary American history.
"What a boon to sociologists of knowledge, and, in fact, to anyone who cares about the role and future of intellectuals to have THE AMERICAN INTELLECTUAL ELITE back and print and with a thoughtful new essay by the author that places the work in the context of thirty years of social and cultural change that have transpired since its publication. Professor Kadushin not only recognized that intellectuals populate an intellectual field that is, to a far greater extent than others, constituted and sustained by the networks of relationships among them but he pioneered in the application of social network analysis to identify both players and links using concrete social data. In a conversation too frequently dominated by the empirically undisciplined claims of those with the greatest stakes in the debate, THE AMERICAN INTELLECTUAL ELITE stands out as a beacon of careful research and clear thinking. One hopes that social scientists and other interested in modern intellectual life will read it carefully, and even that republication may inspire replication." - Professor Paul DiMaggio, Princeton University
"Charles Kadushin" is professor emeritus of sociology at the Graduate Center of CUNY and Distinguished Scholar at Brandeis University, and has also taught at Columbia University and Yale University's School of Management. He is the author of "Why People Go to Psychiatrists."

In the first decades of the twentieth century, print-centered organizations spread rapidly across the United States, providing more women than ever before with opportunities to participate in public life. While most organizations at the time were run by and for white men, women-both Black and white-were able to reshape their lives and their social worlds through their participation in these institutions.Organizing Women traces the histories of middle-class women-rural and urban, white and Black, married and unmarried-who used public and private institutions of print to tell their stories, expand their horizons, and further their ambitions. Drawing from a diverse range of examples, Christine Pawley introduces readers to women who ran branch libraries and library schools in Chicago and Madison, built radio empires from their midwestern farms, formed reading clubs, and published newsletters. In the process, we learn about the organizations themselves, from libraries and universities to the USDA extension service and the YWCA, and the ways in which women confronted gender discrimination and racial segregation in the course of their work.

This book offers a critical analysis of consumer credit markets and the growth of outstanding debt, presenting in-depth interview material to explore the phenomenon of mass indebtedness through the life trajectories of self-identified debtors struggling with the pressures of owing money. A rich and original qualitative study of the close relationship between financial capitalism, consumer aspirations, social exclusion and the proliferation of personal indebtedness, The Dark Side of Prosperity examines questions of social identity, subjectivity and consumer motivation in close connection with the socio-cultural ideals of an 'enjoyment society' that binds the value of the lives of individuals to the endless acquisition and disposal of pecuniary resources and lifestyle symbols. Critically engaging with the work of Giddens, Beck and Bauman, this volume draws on the thought of contemporary philosophers including Zizek, Badiou and Ranciere to consider the possibility that the expansion of outstanding consumer credit, despite its many consequences, may be integral to the construction of social identity in a radically indeterminate and increasingly divided society. A ground-breaking work of critical social research this book will appeal to scholars of social theory, contemporary philosophy and political and economic sociology, as well as those with interests in consumer credit and cultures of indebtedness.

"First Farmers: the Origins of Agricultural Societies" offers readers an understanding of the origins and histories of early agricultural populations in all parts of the world.

Uses data from archaeology, comparative linguistics, and biological anthropology to cover developments over the past 12,000 years
Examines the reasons for the multiple primary origins of agriculture
Focuses on agricultural origins in and dispersals out of the Middle East, central Africa, China, New Guinea, Mesoamerica and the northern Andes
Covers the origins and dispersals of major language families such as Indo-European, Austronesian, Sino-Tibetan, Niger-Congo and Uto-Aztecan

This volume addresses the contested relationship between social stratification and social movements in three different ways: First, the authors address the relationship between social stratification and the emergence of protest mobilization. Second, the texts look at social stratification and social positions to explain variations in political orientations, as well as differing aims and interests of protestors. Finally, the volume focuses on the socio-structural composition of protestors. Social Stratification and Social Movements takes up recent attempts to reconnect research on these two fields. Instead of calling for a return of a class perspective or abandoning the classical social movement research agenda, it introduces a multi-dimensional perspective on stratification and social movements and broadens the view by extending the empirical analysis beyond Europe.

This book contains a major statement by one of America's most preeminent sociologists on what remains an important problem in American history and social analysis: the nature and extent of movement within American society from one status to another. The most important images of mobility involve self-improvement by changing location (going to the frontier, coming to the big city), and by changing social class (second-generation immigrants). Almost all sociological and historical analysis has been limited to these themes. Strauss extends the concept to a wide range of ideologies, institutional contexts, and social movements; his analysis is based on a formal theory of status passage and develops a partial theory of mobility. Strauss addresses a theme that underscores much of one strand of his work: the changing articulation of individuals with their social structure and institutions. The book follows on from the theoretical presuppositions of "Discovery of Grounded Theory" and the formal theory presented in "Status Passage." Strauss was continually concerned with American social and intellectual life in its historical and contemporary manifestations. No one else has looked at the important phenomenon of mobility in this broad a context and from this point of view. The book remains important to those concerned with the social history of America and with problems of social change. "Anselm Strauss" (1916-1996) was professor of sociology and chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago where he also taught. He was a pioneer in bridging the gap between theory and data in sociology. "Joseph Gusfield" is Emeritus Professor in Sociology at University of California, San Diego. He received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago and taught there, at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, at the University of Illinois before going to UCSD. Among his major works are "Symbolic Crusade: Status Politics and the American Temperance Movement, "and "The Culture of Public Problems: Drinking-Driving and the Symbolic Order." He has also taught and conducted research in India and Japan.

Class Structure and Economic Growth was first published in 1971.

Urbanisation and urban development are the focus of this comprehensive account which introduces readers to the far-reaching changes now taking place in Chinese cities. New and established scholars from the fields of geography, sociology and urban planning, including Chinese social scientists, contribute chapters on the development of Chinese cities up to the turn of the twenty-first century. All their work reflects the most recent scholarship.

The book's original approach links the visible changes in urban life to changes in the larger political economy of China. Conversely, broad concepts that are central to understanding the country's re-emergence on the world stage, such as the transition from socialism, market reform, and globalization, are made tangible in their effects on people's daily lives in Chinese cities and in detailed examination of how these cities have developed. Case materials are drawn from all China's major cities, but particular attention is paid to Shanghai and Hong Kong.

This title was first published in 2002: The trade union movement in twentieth-century Britain has been a cornerstone for society's marginalized members - women, disabled people, lesbians and gay men and people from black and ethnic minority communities. As these groups of workers self-organized to reform their unions, they built a bridge between the old social movement based around class position and labour identity and the new social movements based around civil rights and status stratifications. This book presents a detailed look at self-organization within public sector unions through the emergence of four self-organized groups within NALGO and later, UNISON. Drawing upon unique insider knowledge of the alliances and antipathies between the self-organized groups and the host union, the book also provides fascinating revelations of the tensions between self-organized groups themselves. This study will be essential reading for students of political sociology and industrial relations.

The linguistic origin of the term Dalit is Marathi, and pre-dates the militant-intellectual Dalit Panthers movement of the 1970s. It was not in popular use till the last quarter of the 20th century, the origin of the term Dalit, although in the 1930s, it was used as Marathi-Hindi translation of the word "Depressed Classes". The changing nature of caste and Dalits has become a topic of increasing interest in India. This edited book is a collection of originally written chapters by eminent experts on the experiences of Dalits in India. It examines who constitute Dalits and engages with the mainstream subaltern perspective that treats Dalits as a political and economic category, a class phenomenon, and subsumes homogeneity of the entire Dalit population. This book argues that the socio-cultural deprivations of Dalits are their primary deprivations, characterized by heterogeneity of their experiences. It asserts that Dalits have a common urge to liberate from the oppressive and exploitative social arrangement which has been the guiding force of Dalit movement. This book has analysed this movement through three phases: the reformative, the transformative and the confrontationist. An exploration of dynamic relations between subalternity, exclusion and social change, the book will be of interest to academics in the field of sociology, political science and contemporary India.

Based on the re-discovery of a lost sociological project led by Norbert Elias at the University of Leicester, this book re-visits the project: The Adjustment of Young Workers to Work Situations and Adult Roles. Norbert Elias's Lost Research makes use of the interview booklets documenting the lives of nearly 900 Leicester school leavers at the time, to give a unique account of Elias's only foray into large-scale, publicly funded research. Covering all aspects of the research from the development of the research proposal, the selection and management of the research team, the fieldwork, Elias's theoretical work to the ultimate demise of the research project, this book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of existing Eliasian texts by introducing this project to a wider audience and investigating and applying Elias's theoretical work to the areas of youth and school to work transitions. Shedding new light on Elias's thought, whilst exploring questions of methodology and the relevance of older research to modern questions, this book will be of interest to social theorists, as well as sociologists with interests in research methodology and the history of sociology.

Noted scholar Lois Weis first visited the town of Freeway in her 1990 book, Working Class Without Work. In that book we met the students and teachers of Freeway's high school to understand how these working-class folks made sense of their lives. Now, fifteen years later, Weis has gone back to Freeway for Class Reunion. This time her focus is on the now grown-up students who are, for the most part, still working class and now struggling to survive the challenges of the global economy.
Class Reunion is a rare and valuable longitudinal ethnographic study that provides powerful, provocative insight into how the lives of these men and women have changed over the last two decades--and what their prospects might be for the future.

This unique collection of original essays brings a comparative perspective to issues of social inequality. First-rate sociologists from around the world have contributed to this exciting and rigorous volume, drawing upon their own research in the fields of race and ethnicity, class and inequality, and gender and sexuality. * Contains original essays by first-rate scholars on issues of social inequalities around the world* Features research and examples from the USA, Canada, UK, Australia, France, Portugal, Finland, and Japan* Reviews research on issues of social inequalities from the fields of race, class, and gender* Reflects on methodological issues and the strengths of qualitative research* Provides students with an important overview of the development of social stratification studies

Revisiting Gramsci's Notebooks offers a rich collection of historical, philosophical, and political studies addressing the thought of Antonio Gramsci, one of the most significant intellectuals of the twentieth century. Based on thorough analyses of Gramsci's texts, these interdisciplinary investigations engage with ongoing debates in different fields of study. They are exciting evidence of the enduring capacity of Gramsci's thought to generate and nurture innovative inquiries across diverse themes. Gathering scholars from different continents, the volume represents a global network of Gramscian thinkers from early-career researchers to experienced scholars. Combining rigorous explication of the past with a strategic analysis of the present, these studies mobilise underexplored resources from the Gramscian toolbox to confront the actuality of our 'great and terrible' world. Contributors include: F. Antonini, A. Bernstein, D. Boothman, W. Buddharaksa, T. Chino, R. Ciavolella, C. Conelli, A. Crezegut, V. Cuppi, Y. Douet, A. Freeland, F. Frosini, L. Fusaro, R. Jackson, A. Loftus, S. Meret, S. Neubauer, A. Panichi, I. Pohn-Lauggas, R. Roccu, B. Settis, A. Showstack Sassoon, A. Suceska, P.D. Thomas, N. Vandeviver, M.N. Wroblewska.

Examining how Marxist theory is lacking but much needed in a variety of analytical contexts, this book traces the theoretical maze in which Marxism currently finds itself, and from which it is trying to exit while remaining epistemologically intact. Scholar Tom Brass cogently argues that when Marxism is stripped of any or all of its core elements-such as class formation/consciousness/struggle, and a socialist transition-it ceases to be recognizable as Marxism at all. Consequently, the book constitutes an attempt by Marxist political economy to extricate itself from mistaken attempts to conflate it with the cultural turn, identity politics, bourgeois economics, or varieties of populism and nationalism, while grappling with the danger of not mapping Marxism in relation to those discourses.

"Cutting-edge."--Patrick Bond

"This fascinating book fills a vacuum that has weakened the believers in Marxist resistance in Africa."--Joseph Iranola Akinlaja, general secretary of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, Nigeria

" An] excellent collection."--"Socialist Review"

"Read this for inspiration, for the sense that we are part of a world movement."--"Socialist Worker "(London)

"Grab this book. Highly recommended."--Tokumbo Oke, "Bookmarks"

This collection of essays and interviews studies class struggle and social empowerment on the African continent.

Employing Marxist theory to address the postcolonial problems of several different countries, experts analyze such issues as the renewal of Islamic fundamentalism in Egypt, debt relief, trade union movements, and strike action. Includes interviews with leading African socialists and activists.

With contributions from Leo Zeilig, David Seddon, Anne Alexander, Dave Renton, Ahmad Hussein, Jussi Vinnikka, Femi Aborisade, Miles Larmer, Austin Muneku, Peter Dwyer, Trevor Ngwane, Munyaradzi Gwisai, Tafadzwa Choto, and Azwell Banda.

Leo Zeilig coordinated the independent media center in Zimbabwe during the presidential elections of 2002 and, prior to this, worked as a lecturer at Universite Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal. He then worked for three years as a lecturer and researcher at Brunel University, moving later to the Center of Sociological Research at the University of Johannesburg. He has written on the struggle for democratic change, social movements, and student activism in sub-Saharan Africa. Zeilig is co-author of "The Congo: Plunder and Resistance 1880-2005."

A new appraisal of the military careers and activities of soldiers from elite medieval families. In 1277 the recently crowned king of England, Edward I, invaded Wales; his army, large for the time, was none the less modest by his later standards. Most of his countrymen had not been on active service outside the realm for twenty years and more, if at all, yet over the course of the following four decades, up to the battle of Bannockburn in 1314, they would be called upon to fight in four different theatres of war: in Wales, Gascony, Flanders and Scotland. Although the identities of many of the men who fought in these wars, particularly those of the thousands of peasant foot soldiers, will never be known, the names of a large proportion of the men-at-arms can be located inthe records of central government. This book utilises these sources - pay-rolls, horse inventories, wardrobe books and others - to examine the military careers and activities of these men-at-arms, focusing on five main themes: mobilisation; military command; service patterns among the gentry; retinues and their composition; and 'feudal' service. Dr DAVID SIMPKIN is Teacher of History at Birkenhead Sixth-Form College.

This title was first published in 2001. This detailed study of European trade unions also addresses academic concerns about the continuing relevance of the class concept as an analytical tool. As a social movement, the trade union has always used the class principal to unite and defend workers, and the diverse contributions to this volume enable the more accurate positioning of class discourse within both the debate about trade unions and wider sociological inquiry.

An award-winning journalist's investigation into Amazon's true impact on inequality. The market value of Amazon.com has exceeded one trillion dollars. In 2020, its annual revenue increased by over 100 billion dollars. As the company insinuates itself ever further into our lives, Alec MacGillis investigates how it is reshaping society. With empathy and breadth, he tells the stories of those who've thrived and struggled in this rapidly changing environment, and shows how Amazon has even become a force in Washington, DC. The result is an intimate account of contemporary capitalism: its drive to innovate, its dark, pitiless magic, and its remaking of our world with every click.

This book explores the relation between democracy and industrialization in United States history. Over the course of the 1930s, the political center almost disappeared as the Democratic New Deal became the litmus test of class, with blue collar workers providing its bedrock of support while white collar workers and those in the upper-income levels opposed it. By 1948 the class cleavage in American politics was as pronounced as in many of the Western European countries-such as France, Italy, Germany, or Britain-with which we usually associate class politics. Working people created a new America in the 1930s and 1940s which was a fundamental departure from the feudalistic and hierarchical America that existed before. They won the political rights of American citizenship which had been previously denied them. They democratized labor-capital relations and gained more economic security than they had ever known. They obtained more economic opportunity for them and their children than they had ever known and they created a respect for ethnic workers, which had not previously existed. In the process, class politics re-defined the political agenda of America as-for the first time in American history-the political universe polarized along class lines. Eric Leif Davin explores the meaning of the New Deal political mobilization by ordinary people by examining the changes it brought to the local, county, and state levels in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, and Pennsylvania as a whole.