This book explores the relevance of social networking from the perspective of its users to reveal the sociological significance of (inter)active experiences on Facebook. In doing so, the work examines obscure aspects of Facebook by addressing such questions as: What constitutes keeping in touch?; how is knowing of the other different from being with the other?; and why is the presence of others such an important element of Facebook? Social Ties in Online Networking discusses the significance of social networking activity through a collection of interviews with the users of Facebook. It analyses what they do, what they like and watch, but first and foremost how they intend their own actions and others' actions to be perceived within the realm of social media. This book is an exploration of relationships, which will be of interest to academics and students in sociology, social theory, human geography, social networking, media studies and social psychology.

This book conducts a critical investigation into everyday intercultural recognition and misrecognition in the domain of paid work, utilising social philosopher Axel Honneth's recognition theory as its theoretical foundation. In so doing, it also reveals the sophistication and productivity of Honneth's recognition model for multiculturalism scholarship. Honneth and Everyday Intercultural (Mis)Recognition is concerned with the redress of intercultural related injustice and, more widely, the effective integration of ethically and culturally diverse societies. Bona Anna analyses the everyday experiences of cross-cultural misrecognition in a distinctive ethno-cultural group, including social norms that have been marginalised in the contexts of employment. In this endeavour, she deploys key constructs from Honneth's theory to argue for individual and social integration to be conceptualised as a process of inclusion through stables forms of recognition, rather than as a process of inclusion through forms of group representation and participation. This book will appeal to students and academics of multiculturalism interested in learning more about the usefulness of Honneth's recognition theory in intercultural inquiry, including the ways in which it can circumvent some of the impasses of classical multiculturalism.

Zygmunt Bauman is one of the most inspirational and controversial thinkers on the scene of contemporary sociology. For several decades he has provided compelling analyses and diagnoses of a vast variety of aspects of modern and liquid modern living. This book considers the theoretical significance of his contribution to sociology, but also discusses and adopts a critical stance towards his work. The Sociology of Zygmunt Bauman introduces and critically appraises some of the most significant as well as some of the lesser known of Bauman's contributions to contemporary sociology. An international team of scholars delineates and discusses how Bauman's treatment of these themes challenges conventional wisdom in sociology, thereby revising and revitalizing sociological theory. As a special feature, the book concludes with Bauman's intriguing reflections and contemplations on his own life and intellectual trajectory, published here for the first time in English. In this postscript aptly entitled 'Pro Domo Sua' ('About Myself'), he describes the pushes and pulls that throughout the years have shaped his thinking.

This book explores the idea of social class in the liberal tradition. It collects classical and contemporary texts illustrating and examining the liberal origins of class analysis-often associated with Marxism but actually rooted in the work of liberal theorists. Liberal class analysis emphasizes the constitutive connection between state power and class position. Social Class and State Power documents the rich tradition of liberal class theory, its rediscovery in the twentieth century, and the possibilities it opens up for research in the new millenium.

Baudrillard, Youth, and American Film examines the portrayal of youth in American cinema with Jean Baudrillard's radical social theory and philosophical system. Kline uses Baudrillard's corpus to analyze the troubling effects of the portrayal of youth in American teen films, namely, its contribution to discursive violence against young people which holds such a prominent place in many adult-controlled, modern institutions like schools. This kind of violence has multiple iterations, including the inability to imagine youth as meaningful political actors, the insistence on taking teenagers to be morally impoverished, and the propensity for viewing young people as thoroughly heteronomous. While there are certainly pockets of exception, violent discourses often animate institutional disregard for youth. Kline promotes Baudrillard's fatal theory as a way for critical educators, philosophers, sociologists, and other concerned pedagogues to argue for an alteration in the way that youth is portrayed in American films, and to discourage the negative discourse that have colonized conceptions and treatment of young people.

The eighteenth-century Enlightenment saw the birth of an era which sought legitimacy not from the past but from the future. No longer would human beings invoke the authority of tradition; instead, modern societies emerging in the West justified themselves by their success at increasing, through the application of scientific knowledge, human control over the world. Ever since this notion of modernity was formulated it has provoked intense debate.

In this wide-ranging historical introduction to social theory, Alex Callinicos explores the controversies over modernity and examines the connections between social theory and modern philosophy, political economy and evolutionary biology. He offers clear and accesssible treatments of the thought of Montesquieu, Adam Smith and the Scottish Enlightenment, Hegel, Marx, Tocqueville, Maistre, Gobineau, Darwin, Spencer, Kautsky, Nietzsche, Durkheim, Weber, Simmel, Freud, Lukacs, Gramsci, Heidegger, Keynes, Hayek, Parsons, the Frankfurt School, Levi-Strauss, Althusser, Foucault, Habermas and Bourdieu, and concludes by surveying the state of contemporary social thought.

A remarkably comprehensive and lucid primer, Social Theoryis essential reading for students of politics, sociology and social and political thought.

The Volume and Dynamics of International Migration provides a theoretical account of the causes, nature, and extent of the movement of international South-North migrants between affluent and poorer countries. The puzzle is: why are there so few international migrants out of most places? And why are there so many out of so few places? Only once migration out of a few places has started, do we see relatively more people moving. Mass mobility proceeds only when migrant networks turn local assets into transnational ones. The book also examines the reasons why many immigrants continue to keep ties to their places of origin, and why these ties do not hinder the adaptation of newcomers to immigration countries. These ties span immigration and emigration countries and form transnational social spaces, ranging from border-crossing families to refuges diasporas. Transnational social formations carry far-reaching implications for immigration adaptation, dual citizenship, and transnationalizing civil societites. The author provides an empirical grounding for his arguments by analysing the Turkish-German example.

The authors describe a view that our short-, medium-, and long- term behavior, interactions, and relationships--whether planned or spontaneous, purposeful or playful--can be understood in terms of goal-directed systems. An understanding of action theory and research methods used in applied settings is provided. It leads to the conclusion that individual processes are joint processes and the joint construction of lives should be monitored to understand ongoing personal and social involvements.

The unique contribution of this book lies in its bringing together and extending of basic features of the theory of goal-directed action systems previously published in a range of scattered research and conceptual articles in the literature. Professionals including clinicians, counselors, social workers, researchers, doctors, nurses, and physical or occupational therapists will find in this book an accessible means to understand, act on, research, and intervene in the behavioral processes they encounter in everyday work.

The concept of "chaos", and chaos theory, though it is a field of study specifically in the field of mathematics with applications in physics, engineering, economics, management, and education, has also recently taken root in the social sciences. As a method of analyzing the way in which the digital age has connected society more than ever, chaos and complexity theory serves as a tactic to tie world events and cope with the information overload that is associated with heightened social connectivity. The Handbook of Research on Chaos and Complexity Theory in the Social Sciences explores the theories of chaos and complexity as applied to a variety of disciplines including political science, organizational and management science, economics, and education. Presenting diverse research-based perspectives on mathematical patterns in the world system, this publication is an essential reference source for scholars, researchers, mathematicians, social theorists, and graduate-level students in a variety of disciplines.

After critiquing chaos, catastrophe, and complexity theories, showing their limitations in the contemporary era, Rich furthers the development of crisis theory and applies the crisis theory approach to biological and social evolution. Treating evolution in the context of crisis theory, he shows that as evolution is both genetic and social, social evolution is an extension of biological evolution. As physical evolution results from problem solving, social evolution develops from the solving of historically significant problems, bringing about, for instance, the post-World War II era of knowledge. In this context, Rich discusses the problems of our era, with an emphasis on the paradox of industrialization and its consequences for wealthy and poor nations alike. The paradox of industrialization is approached in terms of crisis theory and resolved.

This book illustrates how leisure, as with other complex ideas that hold currency in today's world, suffers at the level of common sense, due to a combination of oversimplification, moral depreciation, and even lack of recognition. Leisure's modern legacy is both profound and immense, as a product of approximately 45 years of steady research, application and theory development. The common sense view of free-time activities, therefore, can and should be challenged. Stebbins provides this confrontation by tackling four particular themes: that gatekeepers within the institutions of higher education and funding agencies for research often fail to attach adequate resources to the idea of leisure; that the general population are guided by certain common sense definitions and largely unaware of how an informed view of free time could be beneficial; that practitioners within certain fields continue to refuse to engage with the idea of leisure despite its benefit for their clients; and that the weak reception of the science of leisure within mainstream social sciences suggests a similarly warped understanding of how people use their free time. Leisure's Legacy will be of interest to scholars of Leisure Studies and all those wishing to learn more about the vital importance of leisure in modern Western society.

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Winner of the 2015 David Easton Prize, awarded by the American Political Science Association (APSA) Global forces are eroding the ability of states to exert sovereign control over their populations, territories, and borders. Yet when dominated subjects across the world dream of freedom, they continue to conceive of it in sovereign terms. Sovereign freedom haunts the imagination of oppressed ethnic minorities, popular masses ruled by foreign powers or homegrown tyrants, indigenous peoples, and individuals chafing under customary or governmental restrictions. On Sovereignty and Other Political Delusions draws on political theory and on two case studies - the encounter between Anglo-American settlers and Native American tribes, and the search for Jewish sovereignty in Palestine - to probe the allure of the idea of sovereign freedom and its self-defeating logic. It concludes by shifting its sights from political to economic sovereign power and by pursuing intimations of non-sovereign freedom in the contemporary age.

A volume in International Social Studies Forum: The Series Series Editors Richard Diem, University of Texas at San Antonio and Jeff Passe, University of North Carolina, Charlotte This volume explores issues involved with teaching social theory to preservice teachers pursuing degrees through teacher education programs and experienced teachers and administrators pursuing graduate degrees. The contributors detail their experiences teaching theoretical perspectives regarding race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, power, and the construction of schools as an institution of the state. The editors and contributors hope to offer the beginning of a colleagial dialogue within the field of education (both inside and outside the academy) about the relevance and pedagogical issues associated with such material. Additionally, the contributors offer advice on missteps to avoid and provide success stories that give hope to those who also wish to engage in the practice of teaching theory to teachers.

Setting the context for the upheavals and transformations of contemporary China, this text provides a re-assessment of Max Weber's celebrated sociology of China. Returning to the sources drawn on by Weber in The Religion of China: Confucianism and Taoism, it offers an informed account of the Chinese institutions discussed and a concise discussion of Weber's writings on 'the rise of modern capitalism'. Notably it subjects Weber's argument to critical scrutiny, arguing that he drew upon sources which infused the central European imagination of the time, constructing a sense of China in Europe, whilst European writers were constructing a particular image of imperial China and its Confucian framework. Re-examining Weber's discussion of the role of the individual in Confucian thought and the subordination, in China, of the interests of the individual to those of the political community and the ancestral clan, this book offers a cutting edge contribution to the continuing debate on Weber's RoC in East Asia today, against the background of the rise of modern capitalism in the "little dragons" of Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea, and the "big dragons" of Japan and the People's Republic of China.

Identifying scientism as religion's secular counterpart, this collection studies contemporary contestations of the authority of science. These controversies suggest that what we are witnessing today is not an increase in the authority of science at the cost of religion, but a dual decline in the authorities of religion and science alike. This entails an erosion of the legitimacy of universally binding truth claims, be they religiously or scientifically informed. Approaching the issue from a cultural-sociological perspective and building on theories from the sociology of religion, the volume unearths the cultural mechanisms that account for the headwind faced by contemporary science. The empirical contributions highlight how the field of academic science has lost much of its former authority vis-a-vis competing social realms; how political and religious worldviews define particular research findings as favorites while dismissing others; and how much of today's distrust of science is directed against scientific institutions and academic scientists rather than against science per se.

Moving, slowing down, or watching others moving allows people to cross physical, symbolic, and temporal boundaries. Exploring the imaginative power of liminality that makes this possible, Liminal Moves looks at the (im)mobilities of three groups of people - street monkey performers in Japan, adolescents writing about migrants in Italy, and men accompanying their partners in Switzerland for work. The book explores how, for these 'travelers', the interplay of mobility and immobility creates a 'liminal hotspot': a condition of suspension and ambivalence as they find themselves caught between places, meanings and times.

Three major social theories--mass society, pluralism, and bureaucracy--are often employed to interpret and explain modern societies. Although frequently invoked, the theories themselves are poorly understood. This book seeks to clarify the background, context, and major arguments of the theories, assess the claims and validity of each, provide expert commentary, and suggest avenues for further work in each area. Drawing on work in the humanities, history, sociology, economic history, and political science, Hamilton is able to provide readers with a clear, concise, and accurate overview of the adequacy of these theories as well as their empirical validity.

Beginning with the mass society theory, Hamilton offers a systematic empirical assessment of its major tenets and its abundant shortcomings. While the validity of the mass society theory does not hold up, there is more support for pluralism, and Hamilton adeptly assesses its arguments while suggesting a more realistic and partitive reading of the theory. And while the image of an all-pervasive and growing bureaucracy seems to overwhelm society, Hamilton argues that the theory seriously misrepresents the character of modern life. Working through each of these theories using an integrated approach, the author concludes each assessment with suggestions for which elements of the theory should be retained, which should be reworked, and which should be discarded altogether.

"This book is a significant contribution to . . . broad political thought, one that should stimulate a great deal more."
--"New Political Science"

"His most innovative contribution is to fuse sociological theories of civil society with corporate law."--"Social Control and Law"

The corporate mega-mergers of the 1980s and 1990s raise many troubling questions for social scientists and legal scholars. Do corporate globalism and the new, streamlined corporation help or hinder the development of civil society? Does the new power that increasingly deregulated businesses wield undermine the rights of citizens, or is this threat being exaggerated? Who has the authority to get things done in a corporation's name and who can be held legally responsible for a corporation's misbehavior? What role, if any, should the courts play in strengthening the rights of individuals who challenge the actions of big business?

David Sciulli maps the legal limits of corporate power in our democratic society, and explores the role of the corporate judiciary in creating public policy. He argues that the judiciary must be more vigilant and act to curb corporate abuses. He demonstrates that when corporations exercise their private power in civil society, they are just as capable as the state of exercising it in ways that are dangerous, arbitrary, and challenge the basic institutional arrangements of society. Finally, Sciulli calls for sociologists to involve themselves more deeply in issues of corporate governance and commit their discipline to influencing the decisions of the courts.

Marks & Spencer is an institution synonymous with quality, reliability, and customer care. But do we associate it with "fashion"? Drawing on previously unpublished company archives, "Fashion for the People" considers the company's contribution to British--and, since the 1970s, international--fashion. The author discusses how, from the 1920s, Marks & Spencer brought fashion to the high street, offering well-designed clothing at affordable prices. She examines the unique ways in which the company has democratized fashion, arguing that its pioneering role in the development of new fabrics, the employment of designers as consultants and its marketing and promotional strategies have changed the ways in which we understand and consume fashion. Marks & Spencer is not just a stalwart of the British high street. As this book shows, it has also brought fashion to the masses.

This volume will examine the varied roles that women and children play in period of warfare, which in most cases deviate from their perceived role as noncombatants. Using social theory about the nature of sex, gender and age in thinking about vulnerabilities to different groups during warfare, this collection of studies focuses on the broader impacts of war both during warfare but also long after the conflict is over. The volume will show that during periods of violence and warfare, many suffer beyond those individuals directly involved in battle. From pre-Hispanic Peru to Ming dynasty Mongolia to the Civil War-era United States to the present, warfare has been and is a public health disaster, particularly for women and children. Individuals and populations suffer from displacement, sometimes permanently, due to loss of food and resources and an increased risk of contracting communicable diseases, which results from the poor conditions and tight spaces present in most refugee camps, ancient and modern. Bioarchaeology can provide a more nuanced lens through which to examine the effects of warfare on life, morbidity, and mortality, bringing individuals not traditionally considered by studies of warfare and prolonged violence into focus. Inclusion of these groups in discussions of warfare can increase our understanding of not only the biological but also the social meaning and costs of warfare.

Marilyn Strathern is among the most creative and celebrated contemporary anthropologists, and her work draws interest from across the humanities and social sciences. Redescribing Relations brings some of Strathern's most committed and renowned readers into conversation in her honour - especially on themes she has rarely engaged. The volume not only deepens our understanding of Strathern's work, it also offers models of how to extend her relational insights to new terrains. With a comprehensive introduction, a complete list of Strathern's publications and a historic interview published in English for the first time, this is an invaluable resource for Strathern's old and new interlocutors alike.

This important text argues for a 'strong' notion of structuration theory in contrast to the seminal but more abstract and relatively under-developed project represented by Anthony Giddens's writings. Emphasis on the duality of structure is placed at the centre of the tradition. It is argued that the distinctive power of structuration theory lies in its potential to critically investigate a specific range of in situ questions. Structuration Theory produces a synthesis that draws on Giddens's work, on other versions of the structuration problematic, and on key empirical uses of the approach. The final chapters make use of extended case examples to illustrate the critical power of strong structuration.

This thoroughly revised and updated third edition provides an expanded analysis of the nature and future of sociological theory. It offers new sections on feminist, post-colonial, and critical race theories, as well as a discussion of theories of system, structure and complexity. John Scott paints an overview of early developments in sociological thinking, before exploring the principal theorists and theoretical approaches of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. A review of general theory sets the scene for the strong narrative on contention and convergence that is developed throughout the book. Scott argues that the works of the theorists considered provide the basis for a vibrant future for understanding sociology as a cooperative intellectual venture. Analysing emerging debates on modernity and post-modernity, this book looks towards the development and future of theorising in sociology. Lively and accessible in its approach, Sociological Theory will be an essential guide for scholars and students of sociology and sociological theory seeking clear discussions and critical reflections on theoretical ideas.

Anthropologist Diane E. King has written about everyday life in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which covers much of the area long known as Iraqi Kurdistan. Following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's Ba'thist Iraqi government by the United States and its allies in 2003, Kurdistan became a recognized part of the federal Iraqi system. The Region is now integrated through technology, media, and migration to the rest of the world. Focusing on household life in Kurdistan's towns and villages, King explores the ways that residents connect socially, particularly through patron-client relationships and as people belonging to gendered categories. She emphasizes that patrilineages (male ancestral lines) seem well adapted to the Middle Eastern modern stage and viceversa. The idea of patrilineal descent influences the meaning of refuge-seeking and migration as well as how identity and place are understood, how women and men interact, and how "politicking" is conducted. In the new Kurdistan, old values may be maintained, reformulated, or questioned. King offers a sensitive interpretation of the challenges resulting from the intersection of tradition with modernity. Honor killings still occur when males believe their female relatives have dishonored their families, and female genital cutting endures. Yet, this is a region where modern technology has spread and seemingly everyone has a mobile phone. Households may have a startling combination of illiterate older women and educated young women. New ideas about citizenship coexist with older forms of patronage. King is one of the very few scholars who conducted research in Iraq under extremely difficult conditions during the Saddam Hussein regime. How she was able to work in the midst of danger and in the wake of genocide is woven throughout the stories she tells. Kurdistan on the Global Stage serves as a lesson in field research as well as a valuable ethnography.