Recent years have seen a surge of interest in 'the commons' based on a simple yet radical idea: great improvements in production and management could be achieved by reducing barriers to knowledge exchange and power-sharing. Ranging from meadows, forests and parks to language, open-source software (FLOSS and Blockchain) and 3D printers, the commons are distributed or common property resources/infrastructures that are self-managed by their user communities. While acknowledging the significant contributions that can be made through commons-based peer production, this book provides a critical examination of the commons with the aim of contributing to their long-term sustainability. In particular, the book examines the relation of Blockchain to the commons by illustrating the case study of the Commons Stack. Drawing on a range of interdisciplinary ideas and methodologies, the book argues that there are a number of economic and social barriers that are obstructing the wider reproduction of the commons. Problems with access to capital and training, the lack of entrepreneurial and managerial skills and the absence of institutional support from governments, larger co-ops and NGOs are some of the external difficulties facing the commons today. Meanwhile, localism, gated communities, vested interests, atavism, traditionalism, ideology, conflict, neo-conservatism and techno-elitism represent some of the internal contradictions inherent in the commons. Through overcoming these contradictions, the ultimate goal is to transform capitalism into the postcapitalism of the commons: the creation of a social economy self-organised around the commons. This book provides vital reading for anyone interested in the commons, from economics, techno-politics and across the social sciences.

An Introduction to Sociology is your essential guide to understanding the social forces that shape our lives and the world around us. This innovative textbook introduces you to the key theories, themes, and concepts in the discipline of sociology and helps you to develop as a sociologist by providing comprehensive coverage of all the main areas of study. Presenting you with the history, current debates and recent research developments for each topic, this book covers everything from classical sociologies and traditional subjects such as class, families, and religion, through to more progressive areas like digital society, social media, migration, and the interconnectedness of modern global society. The book's extensive coverage means it can be used throughout your studies, from first year to final year. Key features: Each chapter is written by an internationally renowned expert who uses specialist insight and the latest research to provide a reliable and up-to-date overview. Includes a selection of unique learning features such as "Hear from the Expert" boxes and "Key Cases" from around the world, as well as reflective activities and revision questions that will enhance your knowledge. Features a section titled "What is sociology useful for?" which includes chapters on the public value of sociology and the role of sociology in contemporary society. The book is supported by a wide-ranging collection of online teaching and learning resources including exclusive video content from SAGE Video, links to SAGE Journal Articles, sample essay questions, and a selection of multiple-choice questions. This definitive text is perfect for first-year sociology undergraduates and anyone studying sociology at university or college level.

This book is a groundbreaking attempt to rethink the landscapes of the social world and historical practice by theorising 'social haunting': the ways in which the social forms, figures, phantasms and ghosts of the past become present to us time and time again. Examining the relationship between historical practices such as archaeology and archival work in order to think about how the social landscape is reinvented with reference to the ghosts of the past, the author explores the literary and historical status and accounts of the ghost, not for what they might tell us about these figures, but for their significance for our, constantly re-invented, re-vivified, re-ghosted social world. With chapters on haunted houses and castles, slave ghosts, the haunting airs of music, the prehistoric origin of spirits, Marxist spectres, Freudian revenants, and the ghosts in the machine, Ghosts, Landscapes and Social Memory adopts multi-disciplinary methods for understanding the past, the dead and social ghosts and the landscapes they appear in. A sociology of haunting that illustrates how social landscapes have their genesis and perpetuation in haunting and the past, this volume will appeal to sociologists and social theorists with interests in memory, haunting and culture.

Few studies of Foucault have examined his thought from a sustained interdisciplinary perspective. Through the interpretative prism of the concept of the 'Totality of Reason', this book suggests an original analytical reading of Foucault's thought. This book addresses Foucault's characterizations of the Enlightenment, asking whether the developmental history of the modern conception of knowledge - from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment - warrants the conclusion he draws. From the perspective of a critical evaluation of Foucault's thesis on 'the crisis of modernity', the book examines whether Foucault, the philosophical and social critic, truly belongs to those intellectual trends known as a 'deconstruction' and 'post-modernism' that advocate a wholesale rejection of the project of modernity, demonstrating how a classification of this kind contributes to an impoverishment of our understanding of Foucault's thought. This book will attract the attention of readers interested in Foucault, and what is broadly perceived to be the 'crisis of modernity'. It will appeal to scholars and advanced students of sociology, political philosophy and political science, psychology, philosophy, interdisciplinary studies and cultural studies.

'Morland predicts the future of humanity in 10 illuminating statistics (could the Japanese and Italians now go the way of the dodo?) and looks back to how ebbs and flows of population have shaped history, such as the Soviet Union's plummeting birth rate in the 1960s, which hastened the end of the Cold War.' - The Daily Telegraph 'The Best Books for Summer 2022' The great forces of population change - the balance of births, deaths and migrations - have made the world what it is today. They have determined which countries are superpowers and which languish in relative obscurity, which economies top the international league tables and which are at best also-rans. The same forces that have shaped our past and present are shaping our future. Illustrating this through ten illuminating indicators, from the fertility rate in Singapore (one) to the median age in Catalonia (forty-three), Paul Morland shows how demography is both a powerful and an under-appreciated lens through which to view the global transformations that are currently underway. Tomorrow's People ranges from the countries of West Africa where the tendency towards large families is combining with falling infant mortality to create the greatest population explosion ever witnessed, to the countries of East Asia and Southern Europe where generations of low birth-rate and rising life expectancy are creating the oldest populations in history. Morland explores the geographical movements of peoples that are already under way - portents for still larger migrations ahead - which are radically changing the cultural, ethnic and religious composition of many societies across the globe, and in their turn creating political reaction that can be observed from Brexit to the rise of Donald Trump. Finally, he looks at the two underlying motors of change - remarkable rises in levels of education and burgeoning food production - which have made all these epochal developments possible. Tomorrow's People provides a fascinating, illuminating and thought-provoking tour of an emerging new world. Nobody who wants to understand that world should be without it.

Sorokin and Civilization is a festschrift to Pitirim Sorokin, one of the most famed figures of twentieth-century sociology and first president of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations (ISCSC). He was a giant of the twentieth-century stage in the larger world as well. He debated with Trotsky, exchanged ideas with Pavlov, and received a personal invitation to meet with President Masaryk of Czechoslovakia. His principled dissent from sociological orthodoxy frequently anticipated that of Charles Wright Mills, Alfred McClung Lee, and Alexander Solzhenitsyn. He was, to paraphrase Joseph Ford, a scholar among statesmen and a statesman among scholars. The volume is divided into four parts: "A Life Remembered"; "Sorokin as Gadfly"; "Sorokin's Methodology"; and, "Applying Sorokin's Theories." Contributors and chapters to this volume include: "Sorokin's Life and Work" by Barry V. Johnston; "The Sorokin-Merton Correspondence on Puritanism, Pietism, and Science" by Robert K. Merton; "Sorokin and American Sociology: The Dynamics of a Moral Career in Science" by Lawrence T. Nichols; "Sorokin as Dialectician" by Robert C. Hanson; "Applying Sorokin's Typology" by Michel P. Richard; and "Transitions, Revolutions, and Wars" by William Eckhardt. Sorokin and Civilization will appeal to all those with an interest in cultural and historical processes and the life and theories of Sorokin.

Current debates about experts are often polarized and based on mistaken assumptions, with expertise either defended or denigrated. Making Sense of Expertise instead proposes a conceptual framework for the study of expertise in order to facilitate a more nuanced understanding of the role of expertise in contemporary society. Too often different meanings of experts and expertise are implied without making them explicit. Grundmann's approach to expertise is based on a synthesis of approaches that exist in various fields of knowledge. The book aims at dispelling much of the confusion by offering a comprehensive and rigorous framework for the study of expertise. A series of in-depth case studies drawn from contemporary issues, including the climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, provide the empirical basis of the author's comprehensive approach. This thought-provoking book will be of great interests to students, instructors and researchers in a range of fields in the humanities, social sciences, and science and technology studies.

This book traces the major stages in the evolution of the sociological concept of marginality, highlighting in particular the contribution made by Gino Germani. Its purpose is to analyse, starting with the sociological theory of the early 1960s, the progressive maturation of the scientific status of the concept of marginality, and to test the theoretical premise that gave rise to Germani's theory of marginality. The author begins by examining the contribution of the Chicago School. He explores the complex relationship between the theory of marginality and modernization by analysing North American theses and the criticisms mainly generated in Latin America. The goal is to reconstruct Germani's theoretical model of marginality, addressing its application to contemporary social and economic conditions. Giardiello's analysis is intertwined with two themes that are central to Germani's thought about marginality. The first concerns the origin of the concept of social exclusion within sociological thought. The second shows how marginality is clearly a phenomenology connected to the contradictions of modernity. Germani's paradigm of marginality enables the social scientist to resolve the contradictions between the analytical perspectives that deal with marginality in an objective way and the one that observes it subjectively.

Mary Douglas's seminal work Purity and Danger (Routledge, 1966) continues to be indispensable reading for both students and scholars today. Marking the 50th anniversary of Douglas's classic, the present volume sheds fresh light upon themes raised by Douglas by drawing on recent developments in the social sciences and humanities, as well as current empirical research. In presenting new perspectives on the topic of purity and impurity, the volume integrates work in anthropology and sociology with contemporary ideas from religious studies, cognitive science and the arts. Containing contributions from both established and emerging scholars, including protegees of Douglas herself, Purity and Danger Now is an essential volume for those working on purity and impurity across the full spectrum of the social sciences and humanities.

Originally published in 1895, this title provides fascinating insights into the development of socialism in the decades prior to the explosion of 20th century socialist revolutions. Kaufmann examines the influences of Christian ideas and European society on socialism to give a fuller picture of the movement at the turn of the century as well as offers his predictions for the future of socialism in Europe. This title is ideal for students of sociology and history, particularly students interested in the development of modern intellectual movements.

This book explores the thought of - and is dedicated to - David Frisby, one of the leading sociologists of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Presenting original examinations of his unique social theory and underlining his interdisciplinary approach to the critical interpretation of modern metropolitan society and culture, it emphasises Frisby's legacy in highlighting the role of the social researcher as a collector, reader, observer, detective and archivist of the phenomena and ideas that exemplify the modern metropolis as society. With contributions from sociologists, cultural theorists, historians of the city, urban geographers and designers, and architectural historians and theorists, The Detective of Modernity constitutes a wide-ranging engagement with Frisby's profound legacy in social and cultural theory.

Periods of great social change reveal a tension between the need for continuity and the need for innovation. The twentieth century has witnessed both radical alteration and tenacious durability in social organization, politics, economics, and art. To comprehend these changes as history and as guideposts to the future, Peter F. Drucker has, over a lifetime, pursued a discipline that he terms social ecology. The writings brought together in The Ecological Vision define the discipline as a sustained inquiry into the man-made environment and an active effort at maintaining equilibrium between change and conservation.

The chapters in this volume range over a wide array of disciplines and subject matter. They are linked by a common concern with the interaction of the individual and society, and a common perspective that views economics, technology, politics, and art as dimensions of social experience and expressions of social value. Included here are profiles of such figures as Henry Ford, John C. Calhoun, Soren Kierkegaard, and Thomas Watson; analyses of the economics of Keynes and Schumpeter;and explorations of the social functions of business, management, information, and technology. Drucker's chapters on Japan examine the dynamics of cultural and economic change and afford striking comparisons with similar processes in the West.

In the concluding chapter, "Reflections of a Social Ecologist," Drucker traces the development of his discipline through such intellectual antecedents as Alexis de Tocqueville, Walter Bagehot, and Wilhelm von Humboldt. He illustrates the ecological vision, an active, practical, and moral approach to social questions. Peter Drucker summarizes a lifetime of work and exemplifies the communicative clarity that are requisites of all intellectual enterprises. His book will be of interest to economists, business people, foreign affairs specialists, and intellectual historians.

Nationalism is now the dominant narrative in Russian politics, and one with genuine popularity in society. Russian Nationalism and Ethnic Violence is a theoretical and empirical study which seeks to break the concept of "ethnic violence" into distinguishable types, examining the key question of why violence within the same conflict takes different forms at certain times and providing empirical insight into the politics of one of the most important countries in the world today. Theoretically, the work promises to bring the content of ethnic identity back into explanations of ethnic violence, with concepts from social theory, and empirical and qualitative analysis of databases, newspaper reports, human rights reports, social media, and ethnographic interviews. It sets out a new typology of ethnic violence, studied against examples of neo-Nazi attacks, Cossack violence against Meskhetian Turks, and Russian race riots. Russian Nationalism and Ethnic Violence brings hate crimes in Russia into the study of ethnic violence and examines the social undercurrents that have led to Putin's embrace of nationalism. It adds to the growing body of English language scholarship on Russia's nationalist turn in the post-Cold War era, and will be essential reading for anyone seeking to understand not only why different forms of ethnic violence occur, but also the potential trajectory of Russian politics in the next 20 years.

Welfare State, Universalism and Diversity is a thought-provoking book dealing with key ideas, values and principles of social policies and asking what exactly is meant by universal benefits and policies? Is the time of post-war universalism over? Are universalism and diversity contradictory policy and theory framings? Well-known scholars from different countries and fields of expertise provide a historically informative and comprehensive view on the making of universal social policies. Universalism is defined and implemented differently in the British and Scandinavian social policies. Service universalism is different from universalism in pensions. The book underlines the multiple and transformative nature of universalism and the challenge of diversity. There certainly is need for a greater diversity in meeting citizen s needs. Yet, universalism remains a principle essential for planning and implementing sustainable and legitimate policies in times characterized by complex interdependences and contradictory political aims. This impressive book is an attempt to untangle the multiple meanings of universalism and clarify the concept's relevance to contemporary policy debates. It will prove invaluable for students, researchers and practitioners in social policy, public policy, social administration, social welfare, social history, social work, sociology and political sciences. Policy makers and administrators involved with social and public policies, social services, social welfare, and social work will also find this book groundbreaking. Contributors: A. Anttonen, A. Borchorst, J. Clarke, J. Goul Andersen, L. Haikio, B. Hvinden, M. Kautto, J. Newman, J. Sipila, K. Stefansson, M. Szebehely, M. Vabo

First published in 1985, this book provides a comprehensive reappraisal of the diverse Communist development strategies that shaped the twentieth century. Robert Bideleux emphasises the appalling human and economic costs of the most widely adopted 'Stalinist' strategies of forced industrialisation and rural collectivisation. He also reconsiders the powerful arguments in favour of the most feasible and cost-effective alternatives to Stalinism, including 'village communisms' and 'market socialisms'. A highly readable and challenging study, this reissue will be of particular value to students with research interests in Development Studies, East European History and Politics.

First published in 1991, this title provides a comprehensive and objective account of the basis of 'green' arguments and their social and political implications. By the beginning of the 1990s, environmental awareness had become widespread, popular, and fashionable throughout the West, adopted by politicians, manufacturers and advertising agencies. The book sets out to explain why and how the 'green wave' developed, and examines the forces still shaping green politics and policies at an international level. With important implications across the fields of Sociology, Development Studies and Environment and Sustainability, this reissue will be valuable to a broad student and research readership.

Social Bridges and Contexts in Criminology and Sociology brings together leading scholars to commemorate the illustrious career and enduring contributions of Professor James F. Short, Jr., to the social sciences. Although Professor Short is best known as a gang scholar, he was a bridging figure who advanced the study of human behavior across multiple domains. Individual chapters document Professor Short's intellectual development and highlight the significance of his theoretical and empirical work in a range of specialty areas, including suicide and homicide, criminological theory, field and self-report survey research methodologies, white-collar crime, hazards and risks, levels of explanation, microsocial group processes, and the etiology of gang violence and delinquency. A special feature of this book is the collection of brief personal reflection essays appearing after the main chapters. Authored by Professor Short's students, colleagues, collaborators, and friends, these essays provide powerful testimonials of the influence of his intellectual legacy as well as his generous spirit and commitment to mentorship. Written in a clear and direct style, this book will appeal to students and scholars of criminology and sociology, and all those interested in the important contributions of Professor James F. Short, Jr., to these subject areas.

First published in 1973, this book is concerned with the question of whether Sociology is, or ought to be, a theoretical science. Keith Dixon argues that the pretence to the theoretical is a hindrance to the development of the field of Sociology, which devalues significant empirical work by giving status to research findings only in so far as they relate to often arbitrary theoretical concerns. Dixon addresses the historical dimension in the explanation of human nature and rational action. This reissue will be of particular value to students and academics with an interest in the empirical and theoretical methodology applied to Sociological research.

1. This is still the leading book on the market offering an introductory overview of Queer Criminology. The new edition has been fully updated to include new development in theory and research and offers further coverage of international issues and a new chapter on intersectionality. 2. This book is useful supplementary reading for courses on gender and crime, law and sexuality, multiculturalism and criminal justice and diversity and criminal justice and can also be used as a core text on the growing number of courses covering Queer Criminology. 3. The original edition was winner of the 2016 Book Award from the American Society of Criminology, Division of Critical Criminology.

Obligations: New Trajectories in Law provides a critical analysis of the role of obligations in contemporary legal and social practices. As rights have become the preeminent feature of modern political and legal discourse, the work of obligations has been overshadowed. Questioning and correcting this dominant image of our time, this book brings obligations back into view in a way that fits better with the realities of contemporary social life. Following a historical account of the changing place and priorities of obligations in modernity, the book analyses how obligations and practices of obedience are core to understanding how law sustains conditions of inequality. But it also explores the enduring role obligations play in furthering individual and collective well-being, highlighting their significance in practices that prioritize human and environmental needs, common goods, and solidarity. In doing so, it also offers an alternative and cogent assessment of the force, and the potential, of obligations in contemporary societies. This original jurisprudential contribution will appeal to an academic and student readership in law, politics, and the social sciences.

Any study of contemporary industrial societies must take into account the role of power, ideology and class, and the degree to which these determine the development of social structures. This book, first published in 1977 and based on a selection of eleven papers given at a conference of the British Sociological Association, focuses upon aspects of continuity and change in modern society, comparing and contrasting dimensions of class, cleavage and control in capitalist and socialist societies. This book is key reading for students of both sociology and business studies.

Journeys through Emerging Adulthood takes the reader on a tour of contemporary transitions to adulthood, reporting on the latest cross-national and cross-cultural research into young adulthood and separating fact from fiction about this important life phase. Alan Reifman shows how today's youth are taking more time to enter traditional adult roles, and explores the benefits and disadvantages of this gradual emergence into adulthood. This essential textbook navigates the research that reveals the substantial variety in young people's paths to adulthood. It covers the spectrum of the young adult experience, examining the influence that parents have on their grown children's progress and identity as adults, and considering the impact of traditional milestones such as higher education, establishing a career, forming romantic relationships and becoming a parent. It examines key topics including mental health in emerging adults and the likelihood of substance abuse, and how young adults might reach out into the community through volunteerism, religious involvement and political activism. Each section includes examples and studies conducted in a range of countries, exploring how the journey to adulthood can vary according to cultural context as well as individual circumstance. The book affirms that while there is great variety in how one transitions to adulthood, there is no correct path, and most people fare well - or even thrive - in adulthood. Featuring end-of-chapter summaries, quizzes and activities, Journeys Through Emerging Adulthood provides an accessible yet comprehensive overview of this significant life stage, connecting fundamental psychological theories with modern social phenomena. Reifman's text is essential reading for both undergraduate and graduate students of psychology, human development and sociology, as well as students and researchers of any discipline interested in the path to adulthood.

This book is devoted to the reintroduction of the remarkable approach to sociological inquiry developed by Harvey Sacks. Sacks's original analyses - concerned with the lived detail of action and language-in-interaction, discoverable in members' actual activities - demonstrated a means of doing sociology that had previously seemed impossible. In so doing, Sacks provided for highly technical, detailed, yet stunningly simple solutions to some of the most trenchant troubles for the social sciences relating to language, culture, meaning, knowledge, action, and social organisation. In this original collection, scholars working in a range of different fields, including sociology, human geography, communication and media studies, social psychology, and linguistics, outline the ways in which their work has been inspired, influenced, and shaped by Sacks's approach, as well as how their current research is taking Sacks's legacy forward in new directions. As such, the collection is intended to provide both an introduction to, and critical exploration of, the work of Harvey Sacks and its continued relevance for the analysis of contemporary society.

Written by a team of experts on the contemporary global capitalist political economy who are able to shed light on the inner workings of global capitalism and the capitalist globalization process that has led to the growth and development of capitalism from the national to the global level, this groundbreaking volume provides critical analyses of the causes and consequences of the Great Recession of 2008-2009. Through a careful examination of the origin, development and aftermath of the catastrophic economic crisis from which the world is still trying to recover, editor Berch Berberoglu and his colleagues demonstrate that those most responsible for the economic collapse are the ones least affected by its devastating impact felt most severely by working people around the world. Ultimately, this book argues that it is only through the systematic restructuring of the world economy by the working class that society will be able to prevent the boom and bust cycle of global capitalist crises and usher in a more egalitarian socialist economy and society.

In this detailed investigation of masculine gendered identity, first published in 1990, David Jackson uses his own personal history to look at the specific ways in which men become masculine . In doing so he examines, but also offers some positive challenges to, the assumed qualities and values of growing up manly . Jackson looks closely at the psychological and social forces active in his own development: relations with his father, violence at school, male banter and joking, sporting activities, boys comics, and sexual relations. The title is a deliberate blend between life story and critical commentary that makes use of some areas of post-structuralist theory to make visible the social and emotional processes that contribute to one man s life history. With an innovative theoretical approach, this reissue will be of particular value to those interested in the social, psychological and cultural forces that have gone into the historical shaping of men and masculinities. "