Mary P. Follett (1868-1933) brought new dimensions to the theory and practice of management and was one of America's preeminent thinkers about democracy and social organization. The ideas Follett developed in the early twentieth century continue even today to challenge thinking about business and civic concerns. This book, the first biography of Follett, illuminates the life of this intriguing woman and reveals how she developed her farsighted theories about the organization of human relations. Out of twenty years of civic work in Boston's immigrant neighborhoods, Follett developed ideas about the group basis of democracy and the foundations of social interaction that placed her among leading progressive intellectuals. Later in her career, she delivered influential lectures on business management that form the basis of our contemporary discourse about collaborative leadership, worker empowerment, self-managed teams, conflict resolution, the value of inclusivity and diversity, and corporate social responsibility.

Falk argues that the failure to achieve what he terms “humane global governance” is partially due to the exclusion of religious and spiritual dimensions of human experience from the study and practice of government. The book begins with a section on dominant world order trends and tendencies with respect to global governance. This is followed by consideration of the extent to which these recent world order trends that are shaping the historical situation at the end of the second millennium are also creating a new, unexpected opening for religious and spiritual energies, a development that has problematic as well as encouraging aspects. This religious resurgence is also discussed as part of the double-edged relevance of religion to global governance. The final section argues in support of the inclusion of emancipatory religious and spiritual perspectives in world order thinking and practice, along with an enumeration of potential contributions.

Breaking with prevailing scholarship, 'Deciphering the Global' relocates the terms of debate surrounding globalisation from the heights of global markets, states, and international corporations to the messier, more complex ground of the local, where broad globalisation trends are negotiatied in interesting and often unexpected ways.

What we consider to be healthy is shaped by society; we compare our own health with those around us and identify illness according to social norms. But how are these standards established and how do they change? Is health a personal trouble or a public issue? And can sociology allow us to develop a comprehensive analysis of the determinants of health?
This book examines how social theory shows us that health is not only shaped by our access to medical interventions, but also by power and inequality. From the personal experience of the unwell individual to the social, historical, cultural, and economic factors that affect national morbidity rates, the text looks at medical sociology from micro and macro levels. The chapters use examples from the most significant empirical work in the field to shed light on and challenge classical and contemporary social theory. In particular, the book looks at recent developments in medical sociology by specifically analyzing:
- Inequities based on income, gender, and racism
- The role of the pharmaceutical industry in shaping our ideas about disease
- Medical encounters and the medicalization of everyday life
- The structure of health care systems and health care reforms
"Health and Social Theory" is a concise, comprehensive and cutting edge account of medical sociology. It is essential critical reading for all scholars and students interested in the field.

Deploying a distinctive disaggregative approach to the study of 'religion', this volume shows that spiritual movements with extensive counterfactual beliefs have been much more creative than one might expect. Specifically, Wayne Hudson explores the creativity of six spiritual movements: the Baha'is, a Persian movement; Soka Gakkai, a Japanese movement; Ananda Marga and the Brahma Kumaris, two reformed Hindu movements; and two controversial American churches, The Church Universal and Triumphant and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Most of these movements have counterintuitive features that have led Western scholars making Enlightenment assumptions to dismiss them as irrational and/or inconsequential. However, this book reveals that these movements have responded to modernity in ways that are creative and practical, resulting in a wide range of social, educational and cultural initiatives. Building on research surrounding the ways in which spiritual movements engage in cultural productions, this book takes the international research in a new direction by exploring the utopian intentionality such cultural productions reveal.

Communication Technology and Social Change is a distinctive collection that provides current theoretical, empirical, and legal analyses for a broader understanding of the dynamic influences of communication technology on social change. With a distinguished panel of contributors, the volume presents a systematic discussion of the role communication technology plays in shaping social, political, and economic influences in society within specific domains and settings. Its integrated focus expands and complements the scope of existing literature on this subject. Each chapter is organized around a specific structure, covering: *Background-offering an introduction of relevant communication technology that outlines its technical capabilities, diffusion, and uses; *Theory-featuring a discussion of relevant theories used to study the social impacts of the communication technology in question; *Empirical Findings-providing an analysis of recent academic and relevant practical work that explains the impact of the communication technology on social change; and *Social Change Implications-proposing a summary of the real world implications for social change that stems from synthesizing the relevant theories and empirical findings presented throughout the book. Communication Technology and Social Change will serve scholars, researchers, upper-division undergraduate students, and graduate students examining the relationship between communication and technology and its implications for society.

This controversial book shows that there is more to economics than dry models and esoteric equations. By investigating the rise and fall of postwar Keynesianism and focusing on the experience of the United States, the author adopts an interdisciplinary approach to show that economics is rooted in the flesh and blood history of social conflict. This timely study concludes with a discussion of the viability of Keynesianism today, in the context of recurrent crisis in the global economy and the rise of new social movements.

Why are people who live in liberal welfare regimes reluctant to support welfare policy? And conversely, why are people who live in social democratic welfare regimes so keen to support it? These core questions lie at the heart of this intriguing book. By examining how different welfare regimes influence public support for welfare policy, the book explores the institutional settings of different regimes and how each produces its own support. While previous studies in this field have failed to link the macro-structure of welfare regimes and the micro-structure of welfare attitudes, this book redresses this problem by combining welfare regime theory and literature on deservingness criteria alongside empirical evidence from national and cross-national data. While recent trends in welfare state development such as cuts in benefit levels and increased use of targeting, combined with increased immigration, might very well influence our perceptions of the deservingness of the needy, this book provides a strong, convincing and provoking argument that challenges the micro-foundation of present comparative welfare state theory. The result is an important work for all studying and working in the fields of public policy and social welfare.

Throughout his career, French philosopher Pierre Bourdieu sought to interrogate what he described as the "social unconscious," the means by which power is held and transmitted across generations. Bourdieu's work has been hugely influential across the social sciences and humanities for decades, yet this book argues that few scholars are using his work to its full potential. Drawing on recently released lectures, this is a systematic account of Bourdieu's full body of work, from his early research in Algiers to his last lectures in Paris, showing how Bourdieu he continued to develop his concepts of habitus, field, capital, power and socio-cultural reproduction well into his later years. It also offers a nuanced reading of Bourdieu's thinking about education, class, language, knowledge and culture.

For this important selection from Weber, sections of text from Weber's major works (Gesammelte, Aufsatze Zur Religionssoziologie, including The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism; General Economic History; and The Agrarian Sociology of Ancient Civilisations) have been carefully edited and substantially translated to form a coherent and integrated volume. Professor Andreski's aim has been to use Weber's own works to explain crucial turns in the evolution of societies and cultures, while eliminating the difficulties of language and frequent mistranslation which have previously made Weber so difficult and baffling for students new to his work. An essay by Andreski introduces the selections, which are centred on Weber's principal interest, the relationship between capitalism, religion and bureaucracy. He seeks to correct those misinterpretations of Weber's work which have stressed his classification, rather than his attempts to theorise and explain social phenomena on the basis of a comparitive analysis of universal historical trends. This book was first published in 1983.

One common characteristics of a complex system is its ability to withstand major disturbances and the capacity to rebuild itself. Understanding how such systems demonstrate resilience by absorbing or recovering from major external perturbations requires both quantitative foundations and a multidisciplinary view on the topic.
This book demonstrates how new methods can be used to identify the actions favouring the recovery from perturbations. Examples discussed include bacterial biofilms resisting detachment, grassland savannahs recovering from fire, the dynamics of language competition and Internet social networking sites overcoming vandalism.
The reader is taken through an introduction to the idea of resilience and viability and shown the mathematical basis of the techniques used to analyse systems. The idea of individual or agent-based modelling of complex systems is introduced and related to analytically tractable approximations of such models. A set of case studies illustrates the use of the techniques in real applications, and the final section describes how one can use new and elaborate software tools for carrying out the necessary calculations.
The book is intended for a general scientific audience of readers from the natural and social sciences, yet requires some mathematics to gain a full understanding of the more theoretical chapters.
It is an essential point of reference for those interested in the practical application of the concepts of resilience and viability

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.

Max Weber (1894-1920) is generally recognized as one of the founding fathers of modern sociology. This collection pays homage to his continuing influence, not just within sociology, but also political theory, science and religion. The books carefully chosen for this collection provide an overview of all his most important ideas. They are critically assessed and analyzed to gain a real comprehension of his life's work.

Psychosocial studies challenges the traditions of psychology and sociology from a genuinely transdisciplinary perspective. The book reflects this agenda in its varied theoretical and empirical strands, producing a newly contextualised and restless body of understanding of how 'psychic' and 'social' processes intertwine.

This book uses the work of Jurgen Habermas to interrogate leisure as a meaningful, theoretical concept. Drawing on examples from sport, culture and tourism, and going beyond concerns about the grand project of leisure, Spracklen argues that leisure is central to understanding wider debates about identity, postmodernity and globalization.

The last few decades have witnessed an explosion in ideas and theories on art. Art itself has never been more popular, but much recent thinking remains inaccessible and difficult to use. This book assesses the work of leading thinkers (including artists) who are having a major impact on making, criticizing and interpreting art. Each entry, written by a leading international expert, presents a concise, critical appraisal of a thinker and their contribution to thought about art and its place in the wider cultural context. A guide to the key thinkers who shape today's world of art, this book is a vital reference for anyone interested in modern and contemporary art, its history, theory, philosophy and practice. Theodor ADORNO * Roland BARTHES * Georges BATAILLE * Jean BAUDRILLARD * Walter BENJAMIN * Jay BERNSTEIN * Pierre BOURDIEU * Nicholas BOURRIAUD * Benjamin BUCHLOH * Daniel BUREN * Judith BUTLER * Noel CARROLL * Stanley CAVELL * TJ CLARK * Arthur C. DANTO * Gilles DELEUZE * Jacques DERRIDA * George DICKIE * Thierry DE DUVE * James ELKINS * Hal FOSTER * Michel FOUCAULT * Michael FRIED * Dan GRAHAM * Clement GREENBERG * Fredric JAMESON * Mike KELLEY * Mary KELLY * Joseph KOSUTH * Rosalind KRAUSS * Julia KRISTEVA * Barbara KRUGER * Niklaus LUHMANN * Jean-Francois LYOTARD * Maurice MERLEAU-PONTY * WTJ MITCHELL * Robert MORRIS * Linda NOCHLIN * Adrian PIPER * Griselda POLLOCK * Robert SMITHSON * Jeff WALL * Melanie KLEIN * Albrecht WELLMER * Richard WOLLHEIM

The Invisible Religion is a modern classic of social science. Its influence goes well beyond sociology as it continues to inspire research in such diverse fields as sociology of knowledge, ethnology, theology, sociology of religion, and religious studies. In this volume, the author endeavours to answer one of the most important questions regarding religion in modern times: Are Western societies indeed becoming more secular as they modernize? His surprising answer is still part of the ongoing debates about secularization as he argues that rather than a decline of religion, we are witnessing a shift from an older Church-centered form, to another invisible and still largely unexplored form of religion. Explaining why focusing only on Church when discussing religion is inadequate, this book presents a thorough case for reframing the question of the status of religion in modern life in a way that makes visible forms of religion hitherto unseen, and sketches some aspects of this new form. As such, it will appeal to sociologists with interests in social theory, religion, and the secularization thesis.

In a time of unprecedented political and economic transformation, the middle classes of Victorian and Edwardian England became principal players in a new social order. Nowhere did their culture, values and identity gain clearer expression than in their sports, and their influence is still felt in the way we organise, play and think of sport today.

A Sport-Loving Society presents a selection of groundbreaking essays from the journals which have defined sport history over the past three decades. These essays explore the role of the social institutions and issues of the Victorian and Edwardian periods in shaping the sports of the English middle classes, including:

• education
• the emancipation of women
• religion
• culture and class
• diplomacy and war.

Showcasing the work of prominent sport historians, this book demonstrates the value of sport as a vehicle for the study of wider social change.

The chapters in this volume represent steps in the direction of demonstrating the importance of efforts to theorize the dynamics of specific social, cultural, political, and/or economic processes to the social sciences in general. They aim to clarify how those efforts are central to the core mission of each of the social sciences, and how social theory is both especially well positioned to tackle this challenge and to accept responsibility for illuminating related possibilities. The papers address the nature and importance of 'process' in studying modern (industrialized, post-industrial, capitalist, postmodern, globalizing, etc.) societies - at macro, meso, or micro-scale. The volume's overall purpose is to assemble a set of essays that invent, develop, and/or demonstrate strategies for theorizing one or several dynamic processes, so as to identify, illustrate by example, and analyze specific problems as well as connect theorizations of process across different disciplines of inquiry.

Drawing inspiration from Pierre Bourdieu's social space theory, this book provides an unprecedent overview of class relations, covering topics such as class polarisation, cultural reproduction, political orientations, and globalisation. The book applies Bourdieusian social space approach to show how class boundaries have been maintained or transformed in different European countries. Based on quantiative data, it proposes a renewal of the analysis of distances, divides, and relations of domination between social classes, documenting objective and symbolic boundaries that form the basis of individuals' living and working conditions in 11 European countries. Focusing on transformations of wealth inequalities, education strategies, and European labour markets, the book examines the role of cultural, economic and social capital. It will be of interest to students and scholars across the social sciences, in particular to those studying social and wealth inequalities in a comparative perspective and Master's students in European studies.

The world we live in is constantly changing. Climate change, transforming gender conceptions, emerging issues of food consumption, novel forms of family life and technological developments are altering central areas of our forms of life. This raises questions of how to cope with and understand the moral changes implicit in such alterations. This volume is the first to address moral change as such. It brings together anthropologists and philosophers to discuss how to study and theorize the change of norms, concepts, emotions, moral frameworks and forms of personhood.

1. The concept of social harm is gaining in ground in Criminology as an alternative way of reconceptualizing crime within a wider context. This book offers a major intervention in taking stock of the field and suggesting ways forward. 2. This book would certainly be used as supplementary reading across a number of courses in criminological and social theory, as well as upper level courses on social problems and advanced criminological theory. 3. This book is multi-disciplinary, moving beyond criminology to consider liberal political economic theory and moral philosophy.

In this major new collection, leading experts in the field of economic sociology combine to provide a critical overview of the latest approaches to the study of economics in the social sciences. Traditionally social scientists have taken one of two approaches towards the economy, either emphasizing the rationality of economic actors and the objective reality of market forces or alternatively rejecting these very notions as abstractions which do violence to the embeddedness of economic relations in social and cultural life. In contrast, The Technological Economy argues for a new understanding of the relationship between the economy and culture. In developing its critical analysis of the new economic sociology, this book is exceptional in adopting cultural approaches to the economy, whilst taking the role of economics in the formation of markets seriously.

Theodor W. Adorno and Jurgen Habermas both champion the goal of a rational society. However, they differ significantly about what this society should look like and how best to achieve it. Exploring the premises shared by both critical theorists, along with their profound disagreements about social conditions today, this book defends Adorno against Habermas' influential criticisms of his account of Western society and prospects for achieving reasonable conditions of human life. The book begins with an overview of these critical theories of Western society. Both Adorno and Habermas follow Georg Lukacs when they argue that domination consists in the reifying extension of a calculating, rationalizing form of thought to all areas of human life. Their views about reification are discussed in the second chapter. In chapter three the author explores their conflicting accounts of the historical emergence and development of the type of rationality now prevalent in the West. Since Adorno and Habermas claim to have a critical purchase on reified social life, the critical leverage of their theories is assessed in chapter four. The final chapter deals with their opposing views about what a rational society would look like, as well as their claims about the prospects for establishing such a society. Adorno, Habermas and the Search for a Rational Society will be essential reading for students and researchers of critical theory, political theory and the work of Adorno and Habermas.