This volume exposes the contested history of a virtue so central to modern disciplines and public discourse that it can seem universal. The essays gathered here, however, demonstrate the emergence of impartiality. From the early seventeenth century, the new epithet 'impartial' appears prominently in a wide range of publications. Contributors trace impartiality in various fields: from news publications and polemical pamphlets to moral philosophy and historical dictionaries, from poetry and drama to natural history, in a broad European context and against the backdrop of religious and civil conflicts. Cumulatively, the volume suggests that the emergence of impartiality is implicated in the period's epochal shifts in epistemology and science, religious and political discourse, print culture, and scholarship. Contributors include: Joerg Jochen Berns, Tamas Demeter, Derek Dunne, Anne Eusterschulte, Christine Gerrard, Rainer Godel, N.J.S. Hardy, Rhodri Lewis, Hanns-Peter Neumann, Joad Raymond, Bernd Roling, Bastian Ronge, Richard Scholar, Nathaniel Stogdill, Anita Traninger, and Anja Zimmermann.

Over half of all American Jewish children are being raised by intermarried parents. This demographic group will have a tremendous impact on American Judaism as it is lived and practiced in the coming decades. To date, however, in both academic studies about Judaism and in the popular imagination, such children and their parents remain marginal. Jennifer A. Thompson takes a different approach. In Jewish on Their Own Terms , she tells the stories of intermarried couples, the rabbis and other Jewish educators who work with them, and the conflicting public conversations about intermarriage among American Jews. Thompson notes that in the dominant Jewish cultural narrative, intermarriage symbolizes individualism and assimilation. Talking about intermarriage allows American Jews to discuss their anxieties about remaining distinctively Jewish despite their success in assimilating into American culture. In contrast, Thompson uses ethnography to describe the compelling concerns of all of these parties and places their anxieties firmly within the context of American religious culture and morality. She explains how American and traditional Jewish gender roles converge to put non-Jewish women in charge of raising Jewish children. Interfaith couples are like other Americans in often harboring contradictory notions of individual autonomy, universal religious truths, and obligations to family and history. Focusing on the lived experiences of these families, Jewish on Their Own Terms provides a complex and insightful portrait of intermarried couples and the new forms of American Judaism that they are constructing.

Max Weber believed that discipline underpins modern rationalized society. For Weber, modern discipline is the quality that gives a population the capacity to coordinate action across vast expanses. But modern discipline also requires individuals to shape their very psychobiological being to fit the larger socioeconomic system, be it a military unit, factory, bureaucracy, or other unit of modern society. Max Weber and the Modern Problem of Discipline explores how Weber developed his ideas using examples from Ancient Egypt to the modern world and asks how his description of a habitus of discipline informs understanding of modernity not just in Europe but in places that continue to befuddle well-educated and well-paid modern economists, strategists, and politicians in places like the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Myanmar/Burma. These are the areas that, as Weber would have said, are still governed by traditional authority rather than the legal- disciplined habitus of rational authority brought by the modernizing outsiders. This book challenges development economists, foreign service officers, government officials, administrators, and development workers to rethink modern discipline and the costs that modern legal-rational rule imposes on traditional societies. By doing so, this book goes beyond standard prescriptions for good governance, free markets, and property rights, which underpin modern development planning. To describe modern discipline, Tony Waters also draws on more the contemporary work of Karl Polanyi, James Scott, Goran Hyden, Teodor Shanin, and James Ferguson, among others. Each describes how and why independent peasantries ignored and even resisted the blandishments and trinkets proffered by development bureaucracies to sell their traditional rights in the modern marketplace. Waters agrees with them about farmer resilience, but he takes the argument a step further by pointing out that Weber was proposing a general theory of a disciplined modernity, not one focused on just a particular society.

Renowned social and political theorist Bob Jessop explores the idea of civil society as a mode of governance in this bold challenge to current thinking. Developing theories of governance failure and metagovernance, the book analyses the limits and failures of economic and social policy in various styles of governance. Reviewing the principles of self-emancipation and self-responsibilisation it considers the struggle to integrate civil society into governance, and the power of social networks and solidarity within civil society. With case studies of mobilisations to tackle economic and social problems, this is a comprehensive review of the factors that influence their success and identifies lessons for future social innovation.

This innovative book provides a critical analysis of diverse experiences of Co-creation in neighbourhood settings across the Global North and Global South. A unique collection of international researchers, artists and activists explore how creative, arts-based methods of community engagement can help tackle marginalisation and stigmatisation, whilst empowering communities to effect positive change towards more socially just cities. Focusing on community collaboration, arts practice, and knowledge sharing, this book proposes various methods of Co-Creation for community engagement and assesses the effectiveness of different practices in highlighting, challenging, and reversing issues that most affect urban cohesion in contemporary cities.

The social and economic systems of any country are influenced by a range of factors. As the global population grows in developing nations, it has become essential to examine the effects of urbanization. Urbanization and Its Impact on Socio-Economic Growth in Developing Regions is a pivotal reference source for the latest research findings on the role of urban growth on the socio-economic infrastructures in developing regions. Featuring extensive coverage on relevant areas such as job creation, sustainability, and transportation planning, this publication is an ideal resource for city development planners, decision-makers, researchers, academics, and students interested in emerging perspectives on socio-economic development.

Extreme metal--one step beyond heavy metal--can appear bizarre or terrifying to the uninitiated. Musicians of this genre have developed an often impenetrable sound that teeters on the edge of screaming, incomprehensible noise. Extreme metal circulates on the edge of mainstream culture within the confines of an obscure 'scene', in which members explore dangerous themes such as death, war and the occult, sometimes embracing violence, neo-fascism and Satanism. In the first book-length study of extreme metal, Keith Kahn-Harris draws on first-hand research to explore the global extreme metal scene. He shows how the scene is a space in which members creatively explore destructive themes, but also a space in which members experience the everyday pleasures of community and friendship. Including interviews with band members and fans, from countries ranging from the UK and US to Israel and Sweden, Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge demonstrates the power and subtlety of an often surprising and misunderstood musical form.

Most contemporary moral and political philosophers would like to have an argument showing that morality is rationally required. In From Rationality to Equality, James P. Sterba provides just such an argument and further shows that morality, so justified, requires substantial equality. His argument from rationality to morality is based on the principle of non-question-beggingness and has two forms. The first assumes that the egoist is willing to argue for egoism non-question-beggingly, and the second only assumes that the egoist is willing to assent to premises she actually needs to achieve her egoistic goals. Either way, he argues, morality is rationally (i.e., non-question-beggingly) preferable to egoism. Sterba's argument from morality to equality non-question-beggingly starts with assumptions that are acceptable from a libertarian perspective, the view that appears to endorse the least enforcement of morality, and then shows that this perspective requires a right to welfare which, when extended to distant peoples and future generations, leads to equality. He defends his two-part argument against recent critics, and shows how it is preferable not only to alternative attempts to justify morality, but also to alternative attempts to show that morality leads to a right to welfare and/or to equality.

The idea of civilization recurs frequently in reflections on international politics. However, International Relations academic writings on civilization have failed to acknowledge the major 20th-century analysis that examined the processes through which Europeans came to regard themselves as uniquely civilized - Norbert Elias's On the Process of Civilization. This book provides a comprehensive exploration of the significance of Elias's reflections on civilization for International Relations. It explains the working principles of an Eliasian, or process-sociological, approach to civilization and the global order and demonstrates how the interdependencies between state-formation, colonialism and an emergent international society shaped the European 'civilizing process'.

At a time when women are being exhorted to ""lean in"" and work harder to get ahead, Letting Go: Feminist and Social Justice Insight and Activism encourages both women and men to ""let go"" instead. The book explores alternatives to the belief that individual achievement, accumulation, and attention-seeking are the road to happiness and satisfaction in life. Letting go demands a radical recognition that the values, relationships, and structures of our neoliberal (competitive, striving, accumulating, consuming, exploiting, oppressive) society are harmful both on a personal level and, especially important, on a social and environmental level. There is a huge difference between letting go and ""chilling out."" In a lean-in society, self-care is promoted as something women and men should do to learn how to ""relax"" and find a comfortable work-life balance. By contrast, a feminist letting-go and its attendant self-care have the potential to be a radical act of awakening to social and environmental injustice and a call to activism.

Subcultures have long captured the imagination of sociologists and the public alike. Making an important contribution to sociology, Subcultures is delightful reading for those who are interested in groups at the fringes of society such as Dead heads, members of the LGBTQ culture, gamers, and even subcultural elements of some alt-right groups. Illustrating the diverse application of the 'subculture' concept within sociology, this edited collection showcases insights ranging from studies on music subcultures, to groups who are formed through their leisurely pursuits (e.g. live action roleplaying and backpacking), and how these groups develop their sense of self and identity. Using a diverse range of approaches, the chapters illustrate the flexibility in the subculture concept - at times stretching the term to its breaking point. This lively collection of articles is of interest to those wanting to know more about the core principles of symbolic interactionism, and the diversity of human life.

At a time when women are being exhorted to ""lean in"" and work harder to get ahead, Letting Go: Feminist and Social Justice Insight and Activism encourages both women and men to ""let go"" instead. The book explores alternatives to the belief that individual achievement, accumulation, and attention-seeking are the road to happiness and satisfaction in life. Letting go demands a radical recognition that the values, relationships, and structures of our neoliberal (competitive, striving, accumulating, consuming, exploiting, oppressive) society are harmful both on a personal level and, especially important, on a social and environmental level. There is a huge difference between letting go and ""chilling out."" In a lean-in society, self-care is promoted as something women and men should do to learn how to ""relax"" and find a comfortable work-life balance. By contrast, a feminist letting-go and its attendant self-care have the potential to be a radical act of awakening to social and environmental injustice and a call to activism.

In the immense literature on globalization, the work of Roland Robertson stands out. In particular, his insistence that globalization manifests itself primarily as glocalization, the simultaneity of the global and the local, of homogenization and heterogenization continues to influence how a wide variety of observers understand the process, including those who contest it. In honour of Robertson's lifetime contributions, this volume brings together a set of essays that demonstrate the cogency of his approach, point out directions in which it can be further developed, and illustrate the insight it can provide in topics as varied as religion, football, wine, morality, and UFOs. Contributors include: Peter Beyer, John Boli, Didem Buhari Gulmez, Rebecca Catto, Richard Giulianotti, Ulf Hannerz, David Inglis, Paul James, Habibul Haque Khondker, Anne Sophie Krossa, Frank Lechner, Kristian Naglo, John H. Simpson, Manfred B. Steger, and George M. Thomas.

In the first edition of this book published in 1988, Shirley Engle and I offered a broader and more democratic curriculum as an alternative to the persistent back-to-the-basics rhetoric of the '70s and '80s. This curriculum urged attention to democratic practices and curricula in the school if we wanted to improve the quality of citizen participation and strengthen this democracy. School practices during that period reflected a much lower priority for social studies. Fewer social studies offerings, fewer credits required for graduation and in many cases, the job descriptions of social studies curriculum coordinators were transformed by changing their roles to general curriculum consultants. The mentality that prevailed in the nation's schools was "back to the basics" and the basics never included or even considered the importance of heightening the education of citizens. We certainly agree that citizens must be able to read, write and calculate but these abilities are not sufficient for effective citizenship in a democracy. This version of the original work appears at a time when young citizens, teachers and schools find themselves deluged by a proliferation of curriculum standards and concomitant mandatory testing. In the '90s, virtually all subject areas including United States history, geography, economic and civics developed curriculum standards, many funded by the federal government. Subsequently, the National Council for the Social Studies issued the Social Studies Curriculum Standards that received no federal support. Accountability, captured in the No Child Left Behind Act passed by Congress, has become a powerful, political imperative that has a substantial and disturbing influence on the curriculum, teaching and learning in the first decade of the 21st century.

This book provides an introduction to classical social theory through discussion, application, and synthesis of the work of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and George Herbert Mead. Rather than merely summarizing and evaluating their continuing influence, their ideas and ways of reasoning are applied in thoroughly developed fashion to contemporary issues and historical events of enduring importance. In the process, contributions of these three very different authors are used to complement each other and are eventually synthesized, making clear that they can be melded into one multilevel, even if tentative and rudimentary, theoretical perspective. The book is intended to systematically and compactly introduce the most useful concepts of the three classical theorists. However, new concepts are typically introduced as part of the narrative, rather than in box-text definitional fashion. This is consistent with the books primary purpose: to enable the reader to begin to think like Marx, Durkheim, and Mead, especially insofar as their work can be synthesized into one point of view, dealing with inter-related macro-level, middle range, and micro-level social phenomena. The section on Marx will be longer than the sections on Durkheim and Mead. In part, the length of the discussion of Marx's work is due to use of this section to begin introducing pertinent ideas of Durkheim and Mead.

In this seminal book, Krumer-Nevo introduces the Poverty-Aware Paradigm: a radical new framework for social workers and professionals working with and for people in poverty. The author defines the core components of the Poverty-Aware Paradigm, explicates its embeddedness in key theories in poverty, critical social work and psychoanalysis, and links it to diverse facets of social work practice. Providing a revolutionary new way to think about how social work can address poverty, she draws on the extensive application of the paradigm by social workers in Israel and across diverse poverty contexts to provide evidence for the practical advantages of integrating the Poverty-Aware Paradigm into social work practices across the globe.

Institutions of Law offers an original account of the nature of law and legal systems in the contemporary world. It provides the definitive statement of Sir Neil MacCormick's well-known 'institutional theory of law', defining law as 'institutional normative order' and explaining each of these three terms in depth. It attempts to fulfil the need for a twenty-first century introduction to legal theory marking a fresh start such as was achieved in the last century by H. L. A. Hart's The Concept of Law. It is written with a view to elucidating law, legal concepts and legal institutions in a manner that takes account of current scholarly controversies but does not get bogged down in them. It shows how law relates to the state and civil society, establishing the conditions of social peace and a functioning economy. In so doing, it takes account of recent developments in the sociology of law, particularly 'system theory'. It also seeks to clarify the nature of claims to 'knowledge of law' and thus indicate the possibility of legal studies having a genuinely 'scientific' character. It shows that there is an essential value-orientation of all work of this kind, so that valid analytical jurisprudence not merely need not, but cannot, be 'positivist' as that term has come to be understood. Nevertheless it is explained why law and morality are genuinely distinct by virtue of the positive character of law contrasted with the autonomy that is foundational for morality.

View the Table of Contents
Read the Introduction

Read the Authors' Op-Ed on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

aSin No More is superbly written, moving across each topic with freshness and sensitivity.a
--Jonathan Simon, author of "Governing through Crime: How the War on Crime Transformed American Democracy and Created a Culture of Fear"

"In this elegant and nuanced account, Dombrink and Hillyard explore how the depth of America's commitment to liberty and individualism has co-existed oddly with the forceful anti-libertarianism of the religious right. Their analysis of the bedrock values that America cares most about has important implications beyond the specific issues the authors address, making this an important resource for anyone wishing to understand the evolution of the national conscience, and its influence upon law and politics."
--Roger Magnusson, author of "Angels of Death: Exploring the Euthanasia Underground"

aSin No More represents a brilliant interweaving of the complexities of economic interests, public opinion, court and legislative action. The authors demonstrate the impact of these forces in understanding the recent normalization of gambling and the steady progress in gay rights. They show there are also early signs of achieving death with dignity and freedom for stem cell research, but access to abortion is increasingly in jeopardy. This book is sure to have a major impact on debate, research and policy in these areas.a
--John F. Galliher, co-author of "The Criminology of Edwin Sutherland"

aDespite the intense culture wars and the ascendancy of religious and cultural conservatism over the past forty years, John Dombrink and Daniel Hillyarddemonstrate that there has also been a marked increase in tolerance for behavior long thought to be immoral. The process of change has been uneven and episodic, a process the authors term aproblematic normalization.a But there has been substantial change. The authorsa findings are counter-intuitive. But they are convincing. This is an important book, and it should find a wide audience.a
--Malcolm M. Feeley, co-author of "Judicial Policy Making and the Modern State"

Sin No More offers a vivid examination of some of the most morally and politically disputed issues of our time: abortion, gay rights, assisted suicide, stem cell research, and legalized gambling. These are moral values issues, all of which are hotly, sometimes violently, contested in America. The authors cover these issues in depth, looking at the nature of efforts to initiate reforms, to define constituencies, to mobilize resources, to frame debates, and to shape public opinion -- all in an effort to achieve social change, create, or re-write legislation. Of the issues under scrutiny only legalized gambling has managed to achieve widespread acceptance despite moral qualms from some.

Sin No More seeks to show what these laws and attitudes tell us about Americansa approach to law and morality, and about our changing conceptions of sin, crime and illegality. Running through each chapter is a central tension: that American attitudes and laws toward these victimless crimes are going through a process of normalization. Despite conservative rhetoric the authors argue that the tide is turning on each of these issues, with all moving toward acceptance, or decriminalization, in society. Each issue is at a different point interms of this acceptance, and each has traveled different roads to achieve their current status.

Value without Fetish presents the first in-depth English-language study of the influential Japanese economist Uno Kozo's (1897-1977) theory of 'pure capitalism' in the light of the method and object of Marx's Critique of Political Economy. A close analysis of the theories of value, production and reproduction, and crisis in Uno's central texts from the 1930s to the 1970s reveals his departure from Marx's central insights about the fetish character of the capitalist mode of production - a departure that Lange shows can be traced back to the failed epistemology of value developed in Uno's earliest writings. By disavowing the complex relation between value and fetish that structures Marx's critique, Uno adopts the paradigms of neoclassical theories to present an apology rather than a critique of capitalism.

"The controversial pundit dishes out and takes punishment in this anthology of rancorous essays by him and the leftist comrades he abandoned to embrace the invasion of Iraqa]There's red meat aplenty for pro- and anti- Hitchens readersa]"
--"Publishers Weekly"

aHitchensas style is so dazzling it is easy to forget that it is rooted in a solid belief in secularism, feminism, and reason. These are the core principles of the Left and we have no choice but to defend them. As they are assaulted by psychopathic Islamistsabroad and betrayed by empty headed phonies at home, it is good to know that Hitchens is on our side.a
--Nick Cohen, columnist, "The Observer"

aCottee and Cushman have produced not only a priceless collection of Christopher Hitchens's key writings over the past few years; they have also documented wonderfully the most essential characteristics of the post-9/11 Anglo-American left. Christopher Hitchens and His Critics is must reading for anybody interested in the big topics befalling our lives.a
--Andrei S. Markovits, University of Michigan

Christopher Hitchens--political journalist, cultural critic, public intellectual and self-described acontrariana--is one of the most controversial and prolific writers of his generation. His most recent book, "God is Not Great," was on the "New York Times" bestseller list in 2007 for months. Like his hero, George Orwell, Hitchens is a tireless opponent of all forms of cruelty, ideological dogma, religious superstition and intellectual obfuscation. Once a socialist, he now refers to himself as an aunaffiliated radical.a As a thinker, Hitchens is perhaps best viewed as apost-ideological, a in that his intellectual sourcesand solidarities are strikingly various (he is an admirer of both Leon Trotsky and Kingsley Amis) and cannot be located easily at any one point on the ideological spectrum. Since leaving Britain for the United States in 1981, Hitchensas thinking has moved in what some see as contradictory directions, but he remains an unapologetic and passionate defender of the Enlightenment values of secularism, democracy, free expression, and scientific inquiry.

The global turmoil of the recent past has provoked intense dispute and division among intellectuals, academics, and other commentators. Hitchensas writing during this time, particularly after 9/11, is an essential reference point for understanding the genesis and meaning of that turmoil--and the challenges that accompany it. This volume brings together Hitchensas most incisive reflections on the awar on terror, a the war in Iraq, and the state of the contemporary Left. It also includes a selection of critical commentaries on his work from his former leftist comrades, a set of exchanges between Hitchens and various left-leaning interlocutors (such as Studs Terkel, Norman Finkelstein, and Michael Kazin), and an introductory essay by the editors on the nature and significance of Hitchensas contribution to the world of ideas and public debate. In response, Hitchens provides an original afterword, written for this collection.

Whatever readers might think about Hitchens, he remains an intellectual force to be reckoned with. And there is no better place to encounter his current thinking than in this provocative volume.

Wiefek presents evidence of a link between individual-level economic concerns and political opinion. Conceptualizing economic anxiety by applying social psychological theory to the distinct characteristics of the new American economy, she presents evidence that this postindustrial economic anxiety shapes beliefs and policy opinions, above and beyond ideology, partisanship, and income. Journalists and political commentators have written extensively on the political consequences of the strains created by the transformation of the U.S. economy over the last thirty years. Yet, the individual-level anxiety accompanying America's transition to a postindustrial, globalized economy has not been explored in any systematic way. In fact, what clear empirical evidence we do have strongly suggests that citizens do not link their personal fortunes to their political opinions. Wiefek argues that the way in which political scientists normally go about looking for these connections misses what citizens experience in their daily lives, particularly their emotional reactions. The measures commonly used by political scientists do not tap the specific features of America's post-1973 economic transformation or the anxiety, insecurity, and fear it engenders. Wiefek presents a conceptualization of economic anxiety that draws upon psychological, sociological, economic, and political science theories and findings, and the distinct nature of the new economy. Using data from a mail survey, she estimates the impact of economic anxiety and presents strong evidence of its predictive power on political opinion. She concludes with a discussion of the political implications of these findings and argues that the progressive political potential of shared anxieties will require reversing the anti-government bias endemic to our current public dialogue.