Social Problems and Inequality explores integrated and root-cause-based explanations of complex social problems. Written in clear and understandable language, allowing it to be used for classroom purposes, it addresses the most fundamental principles of how humans, acting through social units, create, and eventually can remedy, social problems. With a central focus on the problem of inequality and the manner in which this is manifested in crime, social class and stratification, this book examines the key theoretical perspectives relevant to the study and solution of social problems, whilst drawing upon rich illustrations and case studies from the US and Europe to offer a thorough examination of the nature, common root causes and social remedies of social problems. Providing discussions of both theoretical approaches and concrete applications, Social Problems and Inequality investigates the sources of various prejudices and attitudes that contribute to social problems and the associated issues of globalization, economic greed and imperialism. Accessible in style and comprehensive in its coverage, this book will appeal to students and scholars of social problems across the social sciences.

'Manufactured' Masculinity should be considered essential reading for scholars in the humanities and social sciences at every level and in all parts of the academic world. It weaves together brilliantly the elements of the 'manufacture' of masculinity in the period world-famous 'public' school system for the privileged which serviced the largest empire, the world has ever known, at the zenith of its control and which has had a significant influence in the formation of the modern world. This authoritative study of the making of British imperial masculinity shines light on the period of Muscular Christianity, Social Darwinism and Militarism as meshed ideological instruments of both power and persuasion.

This magisterial study reveals the extraordinary and paramount influence of games fields as the 'machine tools' in an 'industrial process' with the schools as 'workshops' containing 'cultural conveyor-belts' for the production of robust, committed and confident servants of empire, and templates for imperial reproduction in imperial possessions. Mainly on efficient 'production belt' playing fields of the privileged minds were moulded, attitudes were constructed and bodies shaped - for imperial manhood. Earlier 'manliness' was metamorphosized, morality was redefined and militarism at the high point of imperial grandeur was an adjunct. Professor Mangan outlines this unique process of cultural conditioning with a unique range of evidence and analysis.

This book was published as a special double issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

One of the most puzzling problems of our time is society's changing attitude toward truth and lying. Are we experiencing the breaking down of our moral values as many ethicists claim or are we confronted with a new moral paradigm? Serban explores the new moral relativism within the context of the unprecedented social-political and technological advances of the last decades. With the classical values under siege, a new concept of right and wrong has emerged based on a blurred distinction between truth and falsehood. Many forms of lying are considered subjective truth. Political correctness and spinning are part of the social interaction promoted by lawyers, politicians, activist judges, media, among others.

Serban documents that man, in the process of pursuing his goals, tends to manipulate others. Adapting through deception, particularly in crisis, is part of our animal heritage. Our thought processes, protective of our emotions and self-image, are perfectly adapted for the task of lying. Historically, people have always lied, regardless of social-moral restraints and legal prohibitions. Man--to successfully compete in this rapidly changing world full of conflicts, duplicity, and half-truths--either have to learn the new rules of self-protection in the social game of manipulative interaction or become losers. Psychiatrists, sociologists, psychologists, social workers, legal professionals, all other students of human behavior and also general readers interested in understanding the dynamic of social deception will find the work of particular value.

Since the beginning of the modern age, studies of ongoing transformations of social life, human sociality, and social relations and institutions have been at the forefront of social theory, alongside changes in politics, culture, and economy - and links between all of the above. In the twenty-first century, the speed at which these transformations have been occurring has accelerated precipitously, and it is impossible to predict what human civilization will look and exist like in a few decades. The essays included in this volume illuminate mediations of the individual-society relationship from a variety of angles, both explicitly and implicitly. They highlight the need to consider the consequences of choices made by collective decision-makers, politicians and leaders of organizations; as well as from processes that sustain the functioning and stability of individual nation-states and global society, for better or worse, and to varying degrees. They represent diverse traditions of social theorizing, including sociological and critical theory, analytically as well as normatively oriented theory, and examine the impact of transformations on several dimensions of societal life today

Although numerous studies of religious rituals have been conducted by religious studies scholars, anthropologists, sociologists, and psychologists, it is rare to find a work that brings scholars from different disciplines together to discuss the similarities and differences in their research. This book represents contributions by leading scholars from several disciplines that show the diversity of approaches to religious rituals, while also providing cross-disciplinary perspectives on this topic.

The goals of the chapters are to consider where the field currently stands in understanding religious rituals and what novel ideas can improve our knowledge about these practices; and furnish innovative applications of theory by discussing particular examples which are drawn from the authors? fieldwork. The chapters cover Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, and Islamic rituals, thus providing a view of how ritual practices vary across the globe, but also how they share some important characteristics.

In western society it is taken for granted that tourism is a necessary element of contemporary lifestyle, but while many people recognize its importance, they are usually more concerned with its contribution to the economy than with its social, cultural, and political significance. As a social action, tourism is at least partly based on the appeal of distance in time, space, and culture, which offers people the opportunity to question conditions they take for granted, and, by distancing themselves from everyday life, to re-examine the meaning of their lives.
Within a traditional society, however, the action of distancing from normality is usually negatively sanctioned. By contrast, under modernity people mostly have the necessary resources to transcend the everyday world through experiences which are at a distance from their daily lives. Tourism thus has much to do with the conditions and consequences of modernity and is, in short, an indicator of the ambivalence of modernity. It is from this perspective that this book attempts to broaden the established line of enquiry into the relationship between tourism and modernity.
The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 contextualizes tourism in terms of the relationship between Logos-modernity and Eros-modernity. Part 2 then deals with the relationship between modernity and the motivations and experiences of tourists. Finally, Part 3 focuses on the conditions of modernity that lure tourists towards leisure and pleasure travel.

First published in 1976, this book is concerned with the nature of classification in the social sciences. Its thesis is that classifications are dependent upon and are derived from theoretical explanations. Classification is not a theoretically neutral typification or ordering of social forms. This is because objects classified a " societies, social institutions a " are not given to knowledge independently of the categories which construct them and because the categories of classification are themselves the products of theories.

Important ideas that helped shape 20th-century thought--ideas which continue to hold great significance for anyone interested in the social world--are made accessible in this illuminating volume. Readers will be motivated to delve into the deeper pool of knowledge available on major social theorists and their groundbreaking ideas. A mixture of biographical and historical ideas, this book was written to introduce social theory to a broad audience. It looks at the intersection between the theorist as a social actor and as a reflection of his or her time. The volume's breadth makes it a useful tool for those interested in sociology and its many luminaries.

Niklas Luhmann offers an accessible introduction to one of the most important sociologists of our time. It presents the key concepts within Luhmann's multifaceted theory of modern society, and compares them with the work of other key social theorists such as J?rgen Habermas, Michel Foucault, and Zygmunt Bauman.

The book pays particular attention to introducing and discussing Luhmann's original sociological systems theory. It presents a thorough investigation into the different phases of his oeuvre, through which both the shifting emphases as well as the continuities in his thinking are shown. The primary focus of this text is Luhmann's theory of modern society as being differentiated into a plethora of ?function systems? ? such as politics, law, and economy ? which operate according to their own distinct logics and which cannot interfere with one another. For Luhmann, this functional differentiation works as a bulwark against totalitarian rule, and as such is a key foundation of modern democracy. Furthermore, the book critically examines the implications of this functional differentiation for inclusion and exclusion dynamics, as well as for the understanding of power and politics.

This is a key text for both undergraduate and postgraduate students of areas including contemporary social theory, political sociology, and sociology.

Conceived as a response to the economic naAvety and implicit metropolitan bias of many 1950s and 60s studies of a ~the sociology of developmenta (TM), this volume, first published in 1975, provides actual field studies and theoretical reviews to indicate the directions which a conceptually more adequate study of developing societies should take.

Much of the book reflects strongly the influence of Andre Gunder Frank, but the contributors adopt a critical attitude to his ideas, applying them in empirical situations within such African and American countries as Kenya, Guyana, Tanzania and Peru. Others pursue the lines of enquiry opened up by Latin American theories of economic a ~dependencya (TM) and by the new school of French economic anthropology.

First published in 1983, FranAois Perrouxa (TM)s A New Concept of Development analyses the major paradox of our era: the desire for progress and the mistrust of its consequences. The authors argues that the approach to the question of development may be the key to understanding both the present and what the future brings, representing a pattern which will seek to shape mana (TM)s potential to his designs.

By analysing the ideas and theories propounded by the economic approach the authora (TM)s aim is to clarify both the meaning and direction of research in development. A scientific, oriented economy and efficient strategies should and must be the two components of one and the same momentum, required to go beyond the perilous paradox of our era.

Dr Prestona (TM)s book, first published in 1982, presents a critical history of development studies since the Second World War, linking the recent, neo-Marxist, debate with the whole tradition in the field, going back to the work of economists like Arthur Lewis.

He identifies a series of a ~schoolsa (TM) and evaluates their contribution, supplying in each case a careful analysis, informed by the sociology of knowledge, of the work of its leading theorists. His final assessment draws on the critical theory of Habermas, arguing that social theorising is essentially practical; a matter of the construction, criticism and comparative ranking of ideologies, and that theorists should therefore consider what it makes sense for them to do or say, given their circumstances and the problems they address.

First published in 1991 this text provides an incisive analysis of theories concerning the origins of economic inequality between nations. Central to the authora (TM)s investigation is the concept of underdevelopment, and a focus on successive Western a ~systems of conceptualisationa (TM) of the relationship between the west and the rest of the world. The first part of the book concerns the Marx/Engels theory of the Asiatic mode of production, and the anti-Imperialist reaction against Eurocentrisim initiated by the theoretical synthesis of J. A. Hobson. This is followed by an examination of the post-World War II era, particularly the evolution of development studies and the differing versions of dependency theory.

The author concludes with an analysis of the most recent reactions against economic imperialism and dependency theory, and concludes with an assessment of their implications for the further economic development of todaya (TM)s Third World.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Max Weber, central thinkers to the discussion of political legitimacy, represent two very different stages and forms of social theory: early modern political philosophy and classical sociology. In these studies, Dr Merquior describes and assesses their individual contributions to the understanding of the concept of political legitimacy. Dr Merquior compares Rousseau and Weber to a handful of other major theorists and highlights the contemporary prospects of the alternatives between democratic participation and bureaucratizm. This book was first published in 1980.

The Philosophy of Social Science Reader is an outstanding, comprehensive and up-to-date collection of key readings in the philosophy of social science, covering the essential issues, problems and debates in this important interdisciplinary area.

Each section is carefully introduced by the editors, and the readings placed in context. The anthology is organized into seven clear parts:

• Values and Social Science
• Causal Inference and Explanation
• Interpretation
• Rationality and Choice
• Individualism
• Norms
• Cultural Evolution.

Featuring the work of influential philosophers and social scientists such as Ernest Nagel, Ian Hacking, John Searle, Clifford Geertz, Daniel Kahneman, Steven Lukes and Richard Dawkins, The Philosophy of Social Science Reader is the ideal text for philosophy of social science courses, and for students in related disciplines interested in the differences between the social and natural sciences.

Anthony Smith's important work on the concept of social change, first published in 1973, puts forward the paradigm of historical change as an alternative to the functionalist theory of evolutionary change. He shows that, in attempting to provide a theory of social change, functionalism reveals itself as a species of 'frozen' evolutionism. Functionalism, he argues, is unable to cope with the mechanisms of historical transitions or account for novelty and emergence; it confuses classification of variations with explanation of processes; and its endogenous view of change prevents it from coming to grips with the real events and transformations of the historical record. In his assessment of functionalism, Dr Smith traces its explanatory failures in its accounts of the developments of civilisation, modernisation and revolution. He concludes that the study of 'evolution' is largely irrelevant to the investigation of social change. He proposes instead an exogenous paradigm of social change, which places the study of contingent historical events at its centre.

First Published in 1988, this volume works towards a new understanding and exploration of the rise and development of modern society, taking its lead from two classical theorists, Emile Durkheim and Max Weber. The key concept of this approach is the 'interpenetration' of different spheres of action. Richard Munch begins with an exploration of the points of convergence and divergence in the works of Durkheim and Weber. He then builds, from Durkheim, a new theory of social order as a complex set of ordering, dynamizing, identity-producing and goal-setting factors. Munch also constructs a new theory of personality development, based on Durkheim's view of the duality of human nature. He concludes by assessing weber's contribution to our understanding of how modern social order emerged, showing that the unique features of modern society emerged from the 'interpenetration' of cultural, political, communal and economic spheres in action.

This radical appraisal of Durkheim's method, first published in 1988, argues that fundamental errors have been made in interpreting Durkheim. Mike Gane argues that to understand The Rules it is necessary also to understand the context of the French society in which the book was written. He explores the cultural and philosophical debates which raged in France during the period when Durkheim prepared the book and establishes the real and unsuspected complexity of Durkheim's position: its formal complexity, its epistemological complexity, and its historical complexity.

As America experiences the growing pains associated with the rapid social changes in the economy, technology, and culture, various groups must develop coping mechanisms to help them deal with the anxiety that is brought on by such changes. Generation Xers, on the cutting edge of these changes, are no exception. More so than any other group, elite Xers, those who are succeeding in the new economy, have adopted a unique personality style, chameleonism, as a defense mechanism. People with a chameleon personality pretend to be what others want them to be in an effort to obtain for themselves the kind of security Xers feel previous generations have enjoyed, but which may not be available to their own generation. Rosen further argues that this personality component, of pretending to be something one is not, becomes a permanent part of the personality when it is practiced and used frequently enough. This riveting examination of the Xer generation sheds new light on the survival mechanisms employed by those who feel threatened by social changes, even as they participate in and benefit from them.

The author begins by providing a careful explanation of the chameleon personality before delving into the special problems and obstacles (both real and perceived) that torment elite Xers, and their ways of dealing with these issues. He discusses various sources of anxiety and how the chameleon personality comes into play with regard to conflict between generations, conflict between the genders, and conflict brought on by immigration and foreign competition. While Rosen's approach is primarily socio-psychological, he also provides historical background on issues of social change and other attempts at dealing with it in the past. He presents a reasoned examination of the chameleon personality as it is manifested in America's Generation X in an effort to shed light on this unique segment of our population.

As Europe's public realms face upheaval, this is the first book to identify how social solidarity is being reinvented from below and redefined from above. Interdisciplinary transnational approaches provide new insights into the relationship between national and transnational social solidarity across Europe.Valuable to students, policy makers and scholars, it reveals social solidarity as the defining pillar of European integration, bringing a greater dimension and integrity beyond democracy across nation states.

What is the relationship between feminism and popular culture? Has there been a 'backlash' against feminism or is feminism now part of contemporary 'commonsense'? Can feminism learn from popular culture? Feminism in Popular Culture explores these questions through a diverse range of texts and sites - from news coverage, 'The Vagina Monologues', the Scream trilogy, 'Ally McBeal' and 'Sex and the City', sex documentaries and TV cooks, to breakdancing, beauty salons and computer game-playing. Feminism in Popular Culture does not assume that popular culture could benefit from a feminist 'makeover'. Rather, it analyses how different meanings of feminism have been negotiated within popular culture - how popular culture has made sense of feminism.

First published in 1967, this essay in the interpretation of radical social thought deals mainly with the radical theorists rather than the doctrines of social and political movements, but makes an exception in an important discussion of the new radicalism of the 1960s. The author's main concern is to lay bare the connections between intellectual dissent and theories of society, and in so doing to to explore the neglected subject of the heritage of American radical thinking.

Readers of this book will not only emerge enlightened by Professor Bottomore's impressive knowledge of American radical thought, but with a greatly increased understanding of contemporary American history. He ends with the question of whether the new radicalism can find a firmer basis than the student movement or the negro revolt; cn produce an ideology both responsive to the doutbs and complexties of our time and capable of directing action to plausible ends.

This volume discusses, and manifests, three interrelated perspectives in social theory. First, that all knowledge, including scientific knowledge, is theoretical: there are alternative perspectives, or theories, about any phenomenon. Second, that all knowledge, including scientific knowledge is political: these alternative perspectives are contested, as they are related to different groups with different interests. Third, that all knowledge, including scientific knowledge, is social: alternative perspectives have alternative social causes and alternative social effects.

Intended as a resource for students and researchers alike, Theory, Sport and Society is a collection of 16 papers that span past, present and future approaches to the sociological study of sport. It includes both a selection of the 'founding' theorists whose work remains so pertinent to seeing sport sociologically, as well as more contemporary and interdisciplinary perspectives. The contributors include a range of experienced and young scholars in the field.

-- This collection represents the major theoretical perspectives that inspire and guide those who study sports in society. Thoughtfully written chapters show us that the sociology of sport continues to be the site for diverse and provocative theoretical approaches

-- This volume provides useful insights about major theoretical models that scholars have used to study sports. The book will help people who are unfamiliar with these frameworks to read the sport sociology literature with much greater insight and understanding

-- It is not an easy task, blending a history of ideas, discussions of epistemology and methodology, and applications to the world of sport. But, if you want to see how prominent and reflective sociologists who have worked on sport have mapped their specialist sub-fields, this book is a good place to start