This book explores the growing attention that sociology has started to give to environmental issues in terms of peace and social justice. With a focus on sociological theory and its development, it reconstructs the long journey made by the social sciences towards the reconstruction, in a single theoretical paradigm, of the problems associated with the implementation of conditions of peace and sustainability. Beginning from the premise that environmental issues are never purely environmental, but entail political, economic and social implications, Sustainable Development and Peace offers an understanding of where we are heading, and how, reflecting on present challenges and possible directions for the future. It will therefore appeal to scholars of sociology, social theory, development studies, politics and environmental studies.

One of Marxism's chief failings is its dependence on trans-historical categories. Theorists such as Jürgen Habernas also fall short by restricting their critique to the cultural sphere. This book extends the reach of critical theory and its key idea of intersubjectivity to the economic system. The economy is a realm of morality that social movements influence in the course of their struggles.

In this extraordinary work, Peter Alexander Meyers shows how the centerpiece of the Enlightenment--"society "as the symbol of collective human life and as the fundamental domain of human practice--was primarily composed and animated by its most ambivalent figure: Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Displaying this new "society" as an evolving field of interdependence, "Abandoned to Ourselves" traces the emergence and moral significance of dependence itself within Rousseau's encounters with a variety of discourses of order, including theology, natural philosophy, and music. Underpinning this whole scene we discover a modernizing conception of the human Will, one that runs far deeper than Rousseau's most famous trope, the "general Will." As "Abandoned to Ourselves" weaves together historical acuity with theoretical insight, readers will find here elements for a reconstructed sociology inclusive of things and persons and, as a consequence, a new foundation for contemporary political theory.

Exploring, clarifying and moving beyond the distinction between 'community' and 'society' for which he is best known, this book rediscovers the work of Ferdinand Toennies, providing fresh insights into his thought, which are often overlooked for want of a grasp of his background in philosophy. With attention to the fact that Toennies always wrote from a sociological perspective, it considers the importance of the breadth of his writing on a range of subjects, including politics, philosophy, economics and ethics, these being the foundations of social policy - a field with which Toennies was concerned as a scholar who sought not only to understand the world, but to change it for the better. The first book to provide an accessible overview of Toennies' work that places his thought in context, explores his key concepts and demonstrates his continuing relevance in sociology - a discipline he helped to establish - Reintroducing Ferdinand Toennies will appeal to scholars and students with interests in social theory, the history of sociology, and the sociology of Ferdinand Toennies.

The aims of this Introduction are to characterize the philosophy of science and technology, henceforth PS & T, to locate it on the map ofiearning, and to propose criteria for evaluating work in this field. 1. THE CHASM BETWEEN S & T AND THE HUMANITIES It has become commonplace to note that contemporary culture is split into two unrelated fields: science and the rest, to deplore this split - and to do is some truth in the two cultures thesis, and even nothing about it. There greater truth in the statement that there are literally thousands of fields of knowledge, each of them cultivated by specialists who are in most cases indifferent to what happens in the other fields. But it is equally true that all fields of knowledge are united, though in some cases by weak links, forming the system of human knowledge. Because of these links, what advances, remains stagnant, or declines, is the entire system of S & T. Throughout this book we shall distinguish the main fields of scientific and technological knowledge while at the same time noting the links that unite them.

This book presents a comprehensive, lucid, and accessible approach to environmental sociology. It traces the origins of environmental sociology and examines the realist-constructionist debate in ecology for a holistic exploration of the field. The volume: Presents a step-by-step systematic approach to the study of environmental sociology Includes case studies from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas and introduces theoretical perspectives from Asia and Africa to provide a more comprehensive view of the field Has a separate section on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and climate change Discusses ecological movements in India and highlights environmental issues of the Global South A key text for undergraduates, postgraduates, and civil services aspirants, this book goes beyond western scholarship to include indigenous approaches to the field. It will be indispensable for students of sociology, climate change, environmental studies, and sustainable development.

How would the history of international relations in 'the East' be written if we did not always read the ending - the Rise of the West and the decline of the East - into the past? What if we did not assume that Asia was just a residual category, a variant of 'not-Europe', but saw it as a space of with its own particular history and sociopolitical dynamics, not defined only by encounters with European colonialism? How would our understanding of sovereignty, as well as our theories about the causes of the decline of Great Powers and international orders, change as a result? For the first time, Before the West offers a grand narrative of (Eur)Asia as a space connected by normatively and institutionally overlapping successive world orders originating from the Mongol Empire. It also uses that history to rethink the foundational concepts and debates of international relations, such as order and decline.

Deborah Chambers draws on the metaphor of friendship as a strategy for exploring contemporary changes in informal social ties. She traces the shift from fixed and permanent ties of family, neighbourhood and community to fluid and transient ties typified by computer mediated communication. Focusing on relations of gender, she argues that friendship is a resource that maintains relations of power and reshapes identities through patterns of association ranging from gendered work and leisure networks, virtual communities, Internet dating and mobile phone use. These changes raise critical questions about care and responsibility for the Other.

As our society confronts climate change, authoritarianism, and epidemics, what can examples from the past tell us about our present and future? How Worlds Collapse offers case studies of societies that either collapsed or overcame cataclysmic adversity. The authors of this volume find commonalities between past civilizations and our current society, tracing patterns, strategies, and early warning signs that can inform decision making today. While today's complex world presents unique challenges, many mechanisms, dynamics, and fundamental challenges to the foundations of civilization have been seen throughout history - highlighting essential lessons for the future.

The Genesis of Modernity reconstructs the ideas of three of the most important social and political theorists of the Twentieth Century, Max Weber, Michel Foucault and Eric Voegelin, on the distant roots and sources of modernity. Drawing upon the conceptual tools of social theory and political philosophy, complimented by approaches based in the fields of anthropology, comparative mythology and the history of ancient philosophy, this book will prove to be a timely and valuable contribution to this developing area, bringing together the ideas of a group of social and political theorists whose work so far has remained largely unconnected. This book will be essential reading for academics and advanced students concerned with social theory, political theory, sociology, history and philosophy.

Between the Psyche and the Social is the first collection of its kind to offer original, interdisciplinary essays on questions of social subjectivity. Contributors engage the disciplines of feminism, psychoanalytic theory, queer theory, postcolonial theory, film theory, literary criticism, and philosophy to transform the psychoanalytic study of social oppression. The book considers such questions as, How can psychoanalysis and critical social theory engage and transform one another? How can the social dimensions of subjectivity be understood within the framework of a classic psychoanalytic theory that rejects the social domain that gives rise to subjectivity in the first place? Between the Psyche and the Social reclaims the contributions of psychoanalysis, feminism, queer theory, postcolonial, and political theories in order to change the parameters of the current debates on the social dimensions of subjectivity.

Sociologists have not neglected the study of relationships, but there remains no central definition of what a relationship is. Conceptualizing and Modeling Relational Processes in Sociology offers a definition of relationships that supports a conceptual tool and visualization technique for analyzing relational processes that are otherwise difficult to model using standard ethnographic and social network analysis techniques. Grounded in the work of social psychologists and relational sociologists and built on the premise that relationships are both remembered and imagined, Joslyn introduces disjointed fluidity: a new concept which maintains that relationships are molded by a flow of changing circumstances and dynamic cognitive processes. Featuring data from an ethnographic study of doctoral student mentorship, Joslyn uses this cutting-edge perspective to detail the mechanisms by which relationships are created, maintained, and dissolved. Pioneering a computational ethnographic technique that visualizes the properties and characteristics of relational processes, the author offers an exciting contribution to the efforts of relational sociologists to build a universal conceptualization of relationships. With broad appeal across scholars and graduate students in the social and behavioral sciences, Joslyn presents new ideas for expanding relationship modeling methods in a way that unites relationship scholars and extends relational theory. This is a captivating read for both methodologists and practitioners in relational fields, such as marketing, library sciences, criminal justice/legal psychology, and psychotherapy.

The critical theory of the Frankfurt School has undergone numerous and at times fundamental changes over the last ninety years. Since the late 1960s, it has been characterized primarily by Jurgen Habermas's "communicative turn" and a focus on normative foundations. Today, that "second generation" exists side-by-side with a "third generation" represented most prominently by Axel Honneth's turn toward recognition, ethical life, and the normative reconstruction of social institutions. This volume brings together critical voices on the state and direction of Frankfurt School theory today by examining Honneth's theory in light of both current challenges and the intellectual and political ambitions that have shaped the tradition from its beginning. United in their strong commitment to critical scholarship, the authors collected here approach Honneth's work from different backgrounds, employ a wide variety of methodologies, and write in different genres, ranging from the sober scholarly analysis to programmatic and political appeals. The collective aim of these reflections is not to reject Honneth's theory but to build upon his work and incorporate his themes of recognition and social freedom into a new project of critical theory that can prove adequate to the political and social crises of our time.

This book explores a variety of interconnected themes central to contemporary Marxist theory and its further development as a critical social theory. Championing the critique of political economy as a critical theory of society and rejecting Marxian economics as a contradiction in terms, it argues instead that economic categories are perverted social categories, before identifying the sheer unrest of life - the struggle to make ends meet - as the negative content of the reified system of economic objectivity. With class struggle recognised as the negative category of the cold society of capitalist wealth, which sees in humanity a living resource for economic progress, the author contends that the critique of class society finds its rational solution in the society of human purposes, that is, the classless society of communist individuals. A theoretically sophisticated engagement with Marxist thought, A Critical Theory of Economic Compulsion will appeal to scholars of social and political theory with interests in critical theory and post-capitalist imaginaries.

This book uses an interdisciplinary inter-mediational approach to reflect on the relational complexity of unsettlement as a predominant sensibility of the present epoque. The book tackles interrelated aspects of unsettlement including temporality, the disconcerting effects of the Anthropocene, the biomedical facets of unsettlement and the post-pandemic futures. It uses a chimeric approach combining essayistic and speculative fiction writing methods, negotiating rational, affective and imaginative ways of inquiry, and showing rather than merely explaining. The book poses questions, but gives no ready-made answers, and invites to think together on the unsettlement as a negatively global human condition that can be collectively made into a generative move of resurgence and refuturing. Contributing to critical reflections on the main features and sensibilities of the current epoque, the book will be of interest to scholars and undergraduate and graduate students, as well as the general public, interested in critical global and future perspectives, in decolonial research, gender studies and posthumanities.

This book considers the experience of enchantment in art. Considering the essential characteristics, dynamics and conditions of the experience of enchantment in relation to art, including liminality, it offers studies of different kinds of artistic experience and activity, including painting, music, fiction and poetry, before exploring the possibility of a life oriented to enchantment as the activity of art itself. With attention to the complex relationship between wonder in art and the programmatic disenchantment to which it is often subject, the author draws on the thought of a diverse range of philosophers, sociological theorists and artists, to offer an understanding of art through the idea of enchantment, and enchantment through art. An accessible study, richly illustrated with experience - both that of the author and others - Art and Enchantment will appeal to scholars and students of sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and anyone with interests in the nature of aesthetic experience.

True Believers and the Great Replacement explores the responses of segments of Western cultures who fear that changes in the racial, religious, and ethnic makeup of society threaten their way of life. The Great Replacement Theory (that suggests that the traditional character of Western society is being undermined by outsiders) is discussed. Analysed with reference to the Critical Race Theory and the 'Cancel Culture' movement, the author examines the anxieties and reactions of those who feel alienated by a world of rapid and disorienting change. Drawing upon the thought of Eric Hoffer and Emile Durkheim, these responses are discussed in terms of the concepts of Anomie and the True Believer in innovative and effective ways. Based on this analysis, strategic responses are suggested. The volume will appeal to scholars and practitioners involved with issues of race and ethnicity, business and social and cultural analysis.

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'.

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 volume examines Max Weber's pre-World War I thinking about bureaucracy. It suggests that Weber's vision shares common components with the highly efficient Prussian General Staff military bureaucracy developed by Clausewitz and Helmuth von Moltke. Weber did not believe that Germany's other major institutions, the Civil Service, industry, or the army could deliver world class performances since he believed that they pursued narrow, selfish interests. However, following Weber's death in 1920, the model published by his wife Marianne contained none of the military material about which Weber had written approvingly in the early chapters of Economy and Society. Glynn Cochrane concludes that Weber's model was unlikely to include military material after the Versailles peace negotiations (in which Weber participated) outlawed the Prussian General Staff in 1919.

As our society confronts climate change, authoritarianism, and epidemics, what can examples from the past tell us about our present and future? How Worlds Collapse offers case studies of societies that either collapsed or overcame cataclysmic adversity. The authors of this volume find commonalities between past civilizations and our current society, tracing patterns, strategies, and early warning signs that can inform decision making today. While today's complex world presents unique challenges, many mechanisms, dynamics, and fundamental challenges to the foundations of civilization have been seen throughout history - highlighting essential lessons for the future.

This title explores the skills and attitudes of information science professionals born between 1961 and 1977, the so-called Generation X. The book provides advice on how managers and organization leaders can recruit, manage and retain information professionals from the group.

Using experimental surveys as a primary source, Kim and Kim compare a wide range of developed countries to assess the determinants of generalized social trust. With data from Belgium, France, Italy, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, the Netherlands, and the United States, Kim and Kim present a detailed picture of trust at the individual level, across different ethnic groups, and across different regions with economic and cultural distinctions. They focus on a range of concepts, including generalized trust and familism; causal relationships among cultural values, particularized trust, and institutional trust at the individual level; and relationships between culture, wealth, and governance at the macro-level. In doing so, they consolidate substantial quantitative data with rigorous theoretical analysis and advance our understanding of social trust and prosociality in general. A valuable resource for researchers and advanced students in political science, sociology, and social psychology around the world.

Evolutionary Social Theory and Political Economy traces the origins, extension, marginalization and revival of evolutionary approaches to social theory from the Enlightenment through the beginning of the 21st century. It demonstrates how changes in understandings of social evolution corresponded to changes in definitions of Political Economy and how both reflected changes in the Philosophy of Science. This book is written for students and researchers alike in all the social sciences. Economists will benefit from understanding how ideas about evolution in Economics corresponded to ideas about evolution in other social sciences, and Social Scientists outside of Economics will benefit from understanding how Economics has related to their discipline.

--A timely analysis of how to make democracies more administratively effective--and true to the intentions of democracy --The lead author is a distinguished political philosopher --Valuable assigned reading for advanced courses on social theory, political theory, public administration, democracy, political sociology, and more