We constantly hear about 'the consumer'. The 'consumer' has become a ubiquitous person in public discourse and academic research, but who is this person? The Making of the Consumer is the first interdisciplinary study that follows the evolution of the consumer in the modern world, ranging from imperial Britain to contemporary Papua New Guinea, and from the European Union to China. It makes a novel contribution by broadening the study of consumption from a focus on goods and symbols to the changing role and identity of consumers. Offering a historically informed picture of the rise of the consumer to its current prominence, authors discuss the consumer in relation to citizenship and ethics, law and economics, media, work and retailing.Contributors include:Donald Winch (University of Sussex)Frank Trentmann (Birkbeck College, University of London)Vanessa Taylor (Birkbeck College, University of London)Marie-Emmanuelle Chessel (CNRS: Centre de Recherches Historiques, cole des Hautes tudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris)Michelle Everson (Birkbeck College, University of London)Erika Rappaport (University of California, Santa Barbara)Uwe Spiekermann (Georg-August University, Gttingen)Jos Gamble (Royal Holloway University)Stephen Kline (Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada)Frank Mort (University of Manchester)Ina Merkel (Philipps-Universitt, Marburg, Germany)James G. Carrier (Indiana University and Oxford Brookes University)Ben Fine (SOAS: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London)

Globalization and changes to statehood challenge our understanding of space and territory. This book argues that we must understand that both the modern state and globalisation are based on a cartographic reality of space. In consequence, claims that globalization represents a spatial challenge to state territory are deeply problematic.

It is well known that the social definition of individuals and ethnic groups helps legitimize how they are addressed by law enforcement. The philosophy of the social construction of crime and criminal behaviour reflects how individuals, such as police officers, construct meaning from the perspective from which they emerge, which in turn influences their law enforcement outlook. In the field, this is generally viewed through a positivist frame of reference which fails to critically examine assumptions of approach and practice. Written by an international specialist in this area, this is the first book which attempts to situate the social construction of crime and criminal behaviour within the philosophical context of phenomenology and how these constructions help inform, and ultimately justify, the policies employed to address them. Challenging existing thinking, this is essential reading for academics and students interested in social theory and theories of criminology.

This volume includes contributions from experts such as Gil Musolf, Michael Katovich, Joseph Kotarba, Norbert Wiley, Alina Pop, Marco Marzano, John Pruit, Amanda Pruit, Carol Rambo, Norman Conti, Laura Rosenberg, Krzysztof Konecki, Erick Laming, Christopher J. Schneider, Stacey Hannem, Robert Perinbanayagam, Veronica Manlow, and Christopher Ferree to provide a robust and interdisciplinary critique of contemporary culture. For its breadth and depth of research, this volume of Studies in Symbolic Interaction is essential reading for researchers and students across the social sciences interested in current symbolic interactionist thought and contemporary readings of social situations.

What ought the political role of the intellectual to be? What challenges does the post-structuralist project present for Marxist accounts of the intellectual? What is the relationship between the university and the wider society of which it is part? This text, which includes important contributions from authors such as Warren Montag and Sean Sayers, considers different attempts by Marxist and post-Marxist writers to theorize these and other important related questions.

Regression Analysis for Social Sciences presents methods of regression analysis in an accessible way, with each method having illustrations and examples. A broad spectrum of methods are included: multiple categorical predictors, methods for curvilinear regression, and methods for symmetric regression. This book can be used for courses in regression analysis at the advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate level in the social and behavioral sciences. Most of the techniques are explained step-by-step enabling students and researchers to analyze their own data. Examples include data from the social and behavioral sciences as well as biology, making the book useful for readers with biological and biometrical backgrounds. Sample command and result files for SYSTAT are included in the text.
Key Features
* Presents accessible methods of regression analysis
* Includes a broad spectrum of methods
* Techniques are explained step-by-step
* Provides sample command and result files for SYSTAT

Television, movies, news, and social media; we're living in a world where we're inundated with stories and information. Yet somehow, instead of learning about each other and coming together, our nation is more divided than ever. Despite our access to facts and information, research indicates that our distrust of others is at a record high. In everyday interactions, we deal with people who seem to be operating in an entirely different reality than us-because they are. In Context is Everything: How to Navigate Life in Multiple Realities, author David James Bright explains how each of us is raised in our own unique context and how that context shapes our identity, narratives, beliefs, and willingness to interpret facts. Bright pulls from his extensive work as a mental health, career, and school counselor to help readers better understand how we create our own social narratives and identities. Through personal anecdotes, real-world examples, case studies, doses of humor, and research, you'll learn how our personal biases and tendencies can affect how we interact with others, especially those with different life experiences or those of different social classes, ethnic backgrounds, sexual identities, or political affiliations. By facilitating greater levels of personal understanding and self-reflection, Context is Everything encourages readers of all backgrounds to recognize our common thread of humanity and to come together despite our varying worldviews and perspectives. The book is an ideal supplementary text for courses in sociology, psychology, and counseling, especially those with focus on human services professional identity, social justice, social constructivism, and capstone experiences.

Globalization and consumerism are two of the buzzwords of the early twenty-first century. In Consuming Cultures, renowned scholars explore the links between modernity and consumption. The book fills a gap in contemporary thinking on the subject by approaching it from a truly global point-of-view. It draws on case studies from around the world, with Africa, Asia and Central America featuring as prominently as Western countries. A transnational perspective allows the authors to investigate the diversity of consumer cultures and the interaction between them. The authors look at the genealogy of the modern consumer and the development of consumer cultures, from the porcelain trade and consumption in Britain and China in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, to post Second World War developments in America and Japan, and the contemporary consumer politics of cosmopolitan citizenship. Challenging and pioneering, Consuming Cultures problematizes popular accounts of globalization and consumerism, decentring the West and concentrating on putting history back into these accounts.

Can society operate without gender and even biological sex classifications? Queer Post-Gender Ethics argues that we could exist, formulate our relationships and be sexual in more androgynous ways. Outlining a political vision for how a post-gender sociality might be achieved, it presents queer social practices for a truly gender neutral world.

Herbert Spencer remains a significant but poorly understood figure in 19th century intellectual life. His ideas on evolution ranged across the natural sciences and philosophy, and he pioneered new ideas in psychology and sociology. This book comprehensively examines his work and strips away common misconceptions about his sociology.

Montesquieu has often been considered the first social theorist. Today, when a number of authors have pronounced 'the end of the social', it is time to reconsider its beginnings. What did it mean to 'discover the social'? What did it allow one to say that could not previously be said? What sorts of epistemological moves were required in order for this discovery to become possible? This book responds to these questions with a wide-ranging, original interpretation of The Spirit of the Laws. It demonstrates that Montesquieu provides several different senses and usages of the social, each of which builds on the others. The result is a 'divided concept' that challenges later, more simplistic understandings, and allows him to illuminate a number of the fractures central to our modernity. The last chapter brings the discussion forward, and asks what can be retrieved from Montesquieu in order to confront the present crisis of the social and its associated disciplines.

The years between 1865 and 1920 were eventful ones for the sake of Missouri. It was not only the time of Jesse James, Scott Joplin, and Mark Twain, of progressive governors Joseph Folk and Herbert Hadley, of the first general strike in St. Louis and some especially vicious vigilante activity, it was also the time when Missouri, like many other states, was being transformed by the tides of industrialism and economic growth. This social history examines the social and economic forces that resisted economic development in Missouri. Here, Thelen explores the various ways that people attempted to maintain their values and dignity in the face of overwhelming new economic, cultural, and political pressures, and analyzes the grassroots patterns that emerged in response to rapid social change. Thelen, who is one of the leading historians of the Progressive period in America, contends that people found their strength not in class solidarity or other Marxist responses but in what he calls "the resistance of folk memories," which allowed them to call upon the best elements of their collective past to help them cope with the new situation.

The focus of this volume is on the further development of the Quality of Life Theory and the means to measure the concept. The volume summarizes Michalos' fundamental assumptions about the nature of quality of life or human well-being and explains in detail the two variable theory of the quality of life. It gives an update of the journal Social Indicators Research after forty years, an explanation of the role of community indicators in connecting communities, and a critical review of the much publicized Stiglitz, Sen and Fitoussi report. It deals with the multiple discrepancies theory (MDT), the empirical theory designed to provide the foundation of the pragmatic theory of value. Other concepts discussed in this volume are the stability, sensitivity, and other different features of measures of domain and life satisfaction and happiness, measures of arts-related activities and beliefs, measures of knowledge, attitudes and behaviour concerning sustainable development, and the role of quality of life in sustainable development research. The volume concludes with discussions on connections between social indicators and communities, aspects of community quality of life in Prince George, British Columbia and Jasper, Alberta, and British Columbians' expectations and attitudes going into the third millennium.

"Deleuzian Encounters" brings together sixteen accessible, thought-provoking essays that examine the practical and ethical implications of Deleuze's philosophy for different contemporary social issues. Topics explored include: the environment, terrorism, refugees, indigenous reconciliation, gender, suicide, intellectual disability, injecting drug use, classroom teaching and global activism. Each contribution provides practical examples of how to make use of Deleuze's thought in social research, and offers fresh insights into the creative and innovative potentials Deleuze's philosophy holds for social thought and action.

In the 1970s and 80s, identities seemed to be 'fixed' or 'socially constructed' through categories of class, 'race', ethnicity, gender, sexualities and religion as they were passed from one generation to the next. These days we are much more able to choose who we want to be. We have begun to recognise the diversity, fragmentation and fluidity of identities, but how do we create and shape our own? "Embodying Identities" shapes a new language of social theory that allows people to embody their differences with a sense of dignity and self-worth, enabling them to come to terms with the complexities of their lived identities in a post-modern globalised world. The book recognises that we have to understand the networks of complex affiliations and belongings that shape identities. It draws on diverse traditions within classical social theory that have emerged from Marx, Weber and Durkheim, as well as more recent traditions of critical theory and post-structuralism, to illuminate transitions from the modern to the post-modern. Using contemporary examples, "Embodying Identities" will be of interest to sociology, politics, social work, philosophy and cultural studies students. It will also be of value to social work practitioners and anyone attempting to understand how we form and live our complex and embodied identities.

As issues and circumstances investigated by anthropologists are becoming ever more diverse, the need to address social affiliation in contemporary situations of mobility, urbanity, transnational connections, individuation, media, and capital flows, has never been greater. Thinking Through Sociality combines a review of classical theories with recent theoretical innovations across a wide range of issues, locales, situations and domains. In this book, an international group of contributors train attention on the concepts of disjuncture, field, social space, sociability, organizations and network, mid-range concepts that are "good to think with." Neither too narrowly defined nor too sweeping, these concepts can be used to think through a myriad of ethnographic situations.

Karl Marx is, perhaps, the founding figure of modern social theory. His ideas and writings have been entwined with some of the twentieth century's greatest struggles for justice, and some of its worst repression. He has inspired an equal measure of followers and critics, and entirely diverse lines of research and theory. Each new generation of social thinkers have advanced theories in the wake of Marx, proving his undying contemporary relevance. In this illuminating and concise collection of readings, Karl Marx emerges as the first theorist to give a comprehensive social view of the birth and development of capitalist modernity that began with the Second Industrial Revolution and still exists today.

Organized analytically, each section of readings relates to an enduring facet of Marxist thought. Along with Marx's own writing, there are fifteen contemporary essays on a variety of topics showing the influence of Marx on today's world. Editorial introductions are included at the beginning of the volume and of each section to situate the readings historically and intellectually. Every student and scholar of social theory and Marxism will find this to be the defining collection of Marxist modern thought.

Based on new empirical evidence, this book provides a comparative analysis of the transition from school to work across the European Union. It examines the negative impacts of the recent employment turbulences on school leavers' integration into the labour market, as well as identifying the individual, social, and economic factors that facilitate smooth transitions.

Opposing mainstream social science, usually hostile towards coercion and the state, the author sees social order as based on self regulation and the allegiance of the individual to the dominant culture. He points out the flaws in what is chiefly a Lockean-Parsonian tradition and then proposes that the Hobbesian view be included in social analysis.

After many years in which it appeared to be losing the pre-eminent position it had occupied in the lexicon of the social and human sciences, the term 'capitalism' has once again become a matter of critical concern, both theoretically and substantively, in a range of disciplinary fields. The global financial and environmental crises, and the shifting of economic power associated with the rise of the BRICs and the sovereign debt contagion in the Eurozone, for example, have all put the norms, practices, and devices of capitalist conduct back under the spotlight. Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello's The New Spirit of Capitalism has become a seminal text since its publication, sparking debate about the meaning, significance, and effects of contemporary changes in economic and organizational life, and becoming a reference point in political discussions about the welfare state, collective action in a 'networked' world, and reconciliation of the interests of social justice with the 'laws of the markets'. This edited book offers the first comprehensive attempt to examine the power and reach of Boltanski and Chiapello's argument, the text's theoretical and methodological perspectives, tools, and techniques, and to do so in relation to the development of neo-liberal capitalism in the period since its original publication and in particular the culmination of these developments in the ongoing crisis since the financial collapse of 2007-8. The volume provides both a balanced critique and overview of New Spirit, but also shows how it can be used in a variety of empirical studies to develop new insights into the functioning and regulation of capitalism in the contemporary era. The volume brings together leading scholars from a range of disciplinary fields such as Sociology, Management and Organization Studies, and Geography. Luc Boltanksi and Eve Chiapello also offer their thoughts on the continuing relevance of New Spirit over a decade after its publication, and in the context of contemporary global economic and political developments.

Herbert Lionel Adolphus Hart was born in Yorkshire in 1907 to second generation Jewish immigrants. Having won a scholarship to Oxford University, he went on to become the most famous legal philosopher of the twentieth century. From 1932-40 H.L.A Hart practised as a barrister in London. He was pronounced physically unfit for military service in 1940, and was recruited by MI5, where he worked until 1945. During his time at the Bar he had continued to study philosophy and at M15 his interest was further stimulated by his philosopher colleagues in M16, Stuart Hampshire and Gilbert Ryle. After the war, Hart returned to Oxford to take up a philosophy fellowship, later to become Professor of Jurisprudence. H.L.A Hart single-handedly reinvented the philosophy of law and influenced the nation's thinking in the 1960s on abortion, the legalization of homosexuality, and on capital punishment. Hart's approach to legal philosophy was at once disarmingly simple and breathtakingly ambitious, combining as it did the insights of Austin and Bentham and the new linguistic philosophy of J.L. Austin and Ludwig Wittgenstein. He sought to elucidate a concept of law which would be of relevance to all forms of law, wherever or whenever they arose: his bestselling book, The Concept of Law, has sold tens of thousands of copies worldwide. In 1941, he married Jenifer Williams (a high-ranking civil servant, later an Oxford academic) with whom he had four children. Their relationship was an enduring if unconventional one. In the early 1950s, Jenifer was rumoured to be having a long-standing affair with Isaiah Berlin, one of Hart's closest friends. She was also, falsely, accused by the Sunday Times of having been a Russian spy, an allegation which was all the more scandalous given Hart's position at MI5 during the War. Nicola Lacey draws on Hart's previously unpublished diaries and letters to reveal a complex inner life. Outwardly successful, Hart was in fact tormented by doubts about his intellectual abilities, his sexual identity and his capacity to form close relationships. Her biography also sheds fascinating light on the origins of his ideas, and assesses his overall contribution. Above all, it chronicles of a life which had a depth ands impact far greater than many of Hart's readers have realized.

Knowledge And Global Power is a ground-breaking international study which examines how knowledge is produced, distributed and validated globally.

The former imperial nations – the rich countries of Europe and North America – still have a hegemonic position in the global knowledge economy. Fran Collyer, Raewyn Connell, João Maia and Robert Morrell, using interviews, databases and fieldwork, show how intellectual workers respond in three Southern tier countries, Brazil, South Africa and Australia. The study focuses on new, socially and politically important research fields: HIV/AIDS, climate change and gender studies.

The research demonstrates emphatically that ‘place matters’, shaping research, scholarship and knowledge itself. But it also shows that knowledge workers in the global South have room to move, setting agendas and forming local knowledge.

French thinkers such as Lacan and Derrida are often labelled as representatives of 'poststructuralism' in the Anglophone world. However in France, where their work originated, they use no such category; this group of theorists - 'the poststructuralists' - were never perceived as a coherent intellectual group or movement. Outlining the institutional contexts, affinities, and rivalries of, among others, Althusser, Barthes, Foucault, Irigaray, and Kristeva, Angermuller - drawing from Bourdieu's concepts of cultural capital and the academic field - insightfully explores post-structuralism as a phenomenon. By tracing the evolution of the French intellectual field after the war, Why There is No Poststructuralism in France places French Theory both in the specific material conditions of its production and the social and historical contexts of its reception, accounting for a particularly creative moment in French intellectual life which continues to inform the theoretical imaginary of our time.

Since the linguistic turn in Frankfurt School critical theory during the 1970s, philosophical concerns have become increasingly important to its overall agenda, at the expense of concrete social-scientific inquiries. At the same time, each of the individual social sciences???especially economics and psychology, but also political science and sociology???have been moving further and further away from the challenge key representatives of the so-called ???first generation??? of Frankfurt School critical theorists (Adorno, Horkheimer, and Marcuse) identified as central to the promise and responsibility of social science: to illuminate those dimensions of modern societies that prevent the reconciliation of facts and norms. As professional disciplines, each individual social science, and even philosophy, is prone to ignoring both the actuality and the relevance for research of alienation and reification as the mediating processes that constitute the reference frames for critical theory. Consequently, mainstream social-scientific research tends to ???progress??? in the hypothetical: we study the social world as if alienation, reification, and more recent incarnations of those mediating processes had lost their shaping force???while, in the context of globalization, their manifestations are ever more apparent, and tangible. The chapters included in this volume of Current Perspectives in Social Theory highlight the problematic nature of mainstream perspectives, and the growing need to reaffirm how the specific kind of critique the early Frankfurt School theorists advocated is not less, but far more important today.

Contributions examine the links between political geographies andglobalization; Marxism and public sociology; anti-Semitic workers and Jewish stereotypes; governmental rationality and state power; restricted ???eros??? and contemporary politics; Marcuse and the psycho-politics of transformation; contemporary theory and consumer society; and the theory of C. Wright Mills.
*Nine chapters from some of the most respected personalities in the field
*A broad and diverse look at social science and critical threory