Capitalism and its Critics offers an accessible account of major theories of capitalism from the industrial revolution to the present day. The book provides a comprehensive account of the economic and social thought of key theorists from Adam Smith and Karl Marx to David Harvey and Thomas Piketty. Capitalism has long been the subject of passionate debate, and today such contestations are perhaps more timely than ever. For its advocates, capitalism brings democracy and freedom and is the cornerstone of modernity and of progress. For its critics, capitalism is based on the exploitation of labour and is responsible for the destruction of the environment as well as colonialism. Whether capitalism survives the century, or whether an alternative social system emerges, may very well determine the fate of humanity. Capitalism and its Critics gives a comprehensive critical analysis of the most important theorists of capitalism, including Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Joseph Schumpeter, Karl Polanyi, F.A. Hayek, J.M. Keynes, David Harvey, and Thomas Piketty. The book discusses some of the main debates about capitalism and considers alternatives in the twenty-first century. The 12 chapters are loosely chronologically organised around the main approaches and historical phases in the history of capitalism. Central themes of the book are the ideas of capitalist crisis and of tensions between democracy and capitalism in the making of modernity. A highly readable, informative and engaging text, Capitalism and its Critics is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding capitalism and its alternatives.

This book introduces the value of a Darwinian social evolutionary approach to understanding social change. The chapters discuss several different perspectives on social evolutionary theory, and go on to link these with comparative and historical sociological theory, and two case-studies. Kerr brings together social change theory and theories on nationalism, whilst also providing concrete examples of the theories at work. The book offers a vision of rapprochement between these different areas of theory and study, and to where this could lead future studies of comparative history and sociology. As such, it should be useful to scholars and students of nationalism and social change, sociologists, political scientist and historians.

Between the years 1964 and 1974, Ethiopian post-secondary students studying at home, in Europe, and in North America produced a number of journals. In these they explored the relationship between social theory and social change within the project of building a socialist Ethiopia. Ethiopia in Theory examines the literature of this student movement, together with the movement's afterlife in Ethiopian politics and society, in order to ask: what does it mean to write today about the appropriation and indigenisation of Marxist and mainstream social science ideas in an Ethiopian and African context; and, importantly, what does the archive of revolutionary thought in Africa teach us about the practice of critical theory more generally?

This timely and fascinating feminist ethnography is the first of its kind to focus on commercial surrogacy workers in Russia and from other countries of the former Soviet Union. Examining surrogacy workers' reproductive labour, and experiences of stratification and migration, the study presents innovative insights into current research on global surrogacy practices and travels for assisted reproduction. It links to wider fields of studies, such as ethnicity, feminism, women's and gender studies in the post-Soviet sphere. Weis expertly brings together rigorous ethnographic research, feminist debates and anthropological theory to explore the attributed significance of origin, citizenship, race, ethnicity and religion, and the cultural framing and social organization of surrogacy as an economic exchange; thereby challenging and contributing to the discourse of surrogacy as a gift, a labour of love, a maternal sacrifice or work. Tracing surrogacy workers' journeys for surrogacy work across Russia, Weis introduces geographic and geopolitical stratifications as two new lenses of stratified reproduction to analyse how surrogacy in Russia builds on and propels surrogacy workers' mobility and results in reproductive migrations. Given the rapid global increase in the use of surrogacy and its increasingly internationalised nature, Weis's research has implications for surrogacy users, medical practitioners and regulators, as well as researchers concerned with (cross-border) surrogacy, reproductive stratifications and reproductive justice. Shortlisted for the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness Book Prize 2022

Presenting a wide range of international case studies, the contributors to this book study the impact of Covid-19 on the risks faced by communities around the globe. Examining cases from the Americas, Europe and Asia - including Mexico, Brazil, China, India, France, and Belgium - Kuah, Guiheux, Lim and their collaborators look at how communities have coped with the social and economic impacts of the pandemic, as well as the public health concerns. Using a framework of risks, fear, and trust, they evaluate how the global health crisis has both revealed and exacerbated a deep crisis of confidence in institutions and systems around the world. In reaction to this they also look at how individuals, social groups and communities have faced fears and built trust at a more local level. The units of spatial analysis in these cases include urban cities, neighbourhoods, slum settlements, migrant camps, schools, markets and homes, for a broad spectrum of case types and rich empirical data. Essential reading for social scientists including sociologists, anthropologists and scholars of other disciplines looking to understand the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic internationally and on a multi-scalar level.

""Social Capital" is an important crtique that should stimulate further analysis and dicussion of what constitutes community."
-- "New Political Science"

"The reader emerges with a good sense of the gaps in Putnam's work- or more appropriately in the context of this book, the way in which the 'feelgood' factor of Putnam's work deserves critical analysis."
--"Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations"

This collection tackles the theme of isolation and the breakdown of mediating social institutions. It is, in part, a response to Robert Putnam's "Bowling Alone" as well as an attempt to create a broader idea of civil society. These original essays contribute to the examination of democratic theory and practice, exploring one of the most popular causes of this decline in public trust--social capital.

These critical essays are written by specialists and scholars in American politics and American political thought. They utilize diverse methodologies--empirical and philosophical--and multiple perspectives to examine critically the social capital discourse and how it is related to political participation, civic engagement, and American democracy.

Drawing on never before used archival materials, Replacing the Dead exposes the history of Soviet and Russian abortion policy. It is not unusual for nations recovering from wars to incentivize their populations to raise their birthrates. The post-World War II Soviet pronatalism campaign attempted this on an unprecedented scale, aiming to replace a lost population of 27 million. Why, then, did the USSR re-legalize abortion in 1955? Mie Nakachi uses previously hidden archival data to reveal that decisions made by Stalin and Khruschev under the rubric of 'family law' created a society of broken marriages, "fatherless" children, and abortions, each totaling in the tens of millions. The government reversed laws regarding paternal responsibility, thereby encouraging men to impregnate unmarried women and widows, and blocked available contraception, overriding the advice of the medical establishment. Some 8.7 million out-of-wedlock children were born between 1945 and 1955 alone. In the absence of serious commitment to supporting Soviet women who worked full-time, the policy did extensive damage to gender relations and the welfare of women and children. Women, famous cultural figures, and Soviet professionals initiated a movement to improve women's reproductive health and make all children equal. Because Soviet leaders did not allow any major reform, an abortion culture grew among Soviet women and spread throughout the Soviet sphere, including Eastern Europe and China. Based on groundbreaking research, Replacing the Dead traces how the idea of women's right to an abortion emerged from an authoritarian society decades before it did in the West and why it remains the dominant method of birth control in present-day Russia.

1. Unlike more conventional texts, this book offers over 50 pithy and thought-provoking essays on a wide range of socially and legally prohibited acts, offering students a critical analysis of these issues. 2. Each entry offers further readings and suggestions for other media to develop the reader's understanding of these issues. 3. The new edition has been updated and extended and includes new entries on issues such as the alt-right, protest, online abuse, cybercrime, drug trafficking, populism and use of weapons.

Constructive Conflicts explains how large-scale conflicts-such as clashes between different ideological, religious, ethnic, and racial groups; civil wars; labor-management struggles; and public policy disputes-can be waged more constructively, with more positive consequences and fewer destructive consequences for those involved. Drawing on research from political science, sociology, social-psychology, neuroscience, cultural studies, and other disciplines, Dayton and Kriesberg follow the lifecycle of social and political conflicts as they emerge, escalate, de-escalate, become settled, and often emerge again in new forms. Throughout the book the authors present examples of conflict episodes that have avoided extreme coercion or violence and which have resulted in the advancement of the interests of most parties involved. The book gives policymakers, concerned citizens, and students a powerful analytical framework, supported by data, for understanding and constructively intervening in conflicts of different type and scale, offering a way out of the destructive cycles of conflict management which have come to characterize contemporary social and political relations. The sixth edition pays increased attention to changes in the social and political landscape including the rise of nationalism, the erosion of liberal internationalism, conflicts related to COVID response, political polarization, and the Black Lives Matter movement. Additionally, the growth of 'bottom-up' strategies for peace and conflict management, the rise of misinformation in a 'post-truth' era, and insights from neuroscience all inform this major revision. This edition is also supplemented with end-of-chapter critical reflections, updated cases and tools for conflict analysis, and ancillary teaching materials, including experiential exercises, simulations, and PowerPoints.

"Modern Privacies" addresses emergent transformations of privacy in western societies from a multidisciplinary and international perspective. It examines social and cultural trends in new media, feminism, law, work and intimacy which indicate that our perceptions, evaluations and enactments of privacy in constant flux.

Prozorov offers a radical reinterpretation of contemporary Russian politics in terms of Agamben's philosophy. Reconstructing Agamben's conception of the end of history, that challenges the Hegelian thesis, Prozorov approaches post-communist Russia as a post-historical terrain, in which the teleological dimension of politics has been deactivated.

Ordinal Data Modeling is a comprehensive treatment of ordinal data models from both likelihood and Bayesian perspectives. Written for graduate students and researchers in the statistical and social sciences, this book describes a coherent framework for understanding binary and ordinal regression models, item response models, graded response models, and ROC analyses, and for exposing the close connection between these models. A unique feature of this text is its emphasis on applications. All models developed in the book are motivated by real datasets, and considerable attention is devoted to the description of diagnostic plots and residual analyses. Software and datasets used for all analyses described in the text are available on websites listed in the preface.

It is common to hear that we live in unique, turbulent and crisis-ridden times and this turbulence, transformation and crisis are said to be deeply significant - perhaps threatening - for the human sciences. Responding to such claims, this book provides an accessible engagement with pressing contemporary topics, such as violence, social movements, equality, identity and democracy. Foregrounding the imagination of possibilities (utopia), the mapping of the present (theory), and the transformation of the world-system (historical and global questions), the book surveys central issues and paradigms in contemproary political sociology, urging a recommitment to certain concepts and traditions for guidance in thinking and acting in the world.

This book offers a conceptual map of Habermas' philosophy and a systematic introduction to his work. It does so by systematically examining six defining themes-modernity, discourse ethics, truth and justice, public law and constitutional democracy, cosmopolitanism, and toleration-of Habermas' philosophy as well as their inner logic. The text distinguishes itself in content and perspective by offering a very clear conceptual map and by providing a new interpretation of Habermas' views in light of his overarching system. In terms of scope, the book touches upon Habermas' broad range of works. As for method, the text illustrates key concepts in his philosophy making it a useful reference aid. It appeals to students and scholars in the field looking for a current introductory text or supplementary reading on Habermas.

There are many answers to the question of why life is worth living, but they all presuppose that good lives are sensuously enjoyable. Time seems to stand still in the moment when we enjoy food and drink, peaceful, laughing relationships with friends, or lay quietly, allowing the beauty of nature and human creations to unfold before us. Embodied Humanism: Toward Solidarity and Sensuous Enjoyment explores ways that enjoyment is also political. The history of political struggle is a history of fighting back against silencing, hunger, and violent domination, but also fighting for social peace, need-satisfaction, voice, and democratic power. Tracing the values of embodied humanism across history and across cultures and identities, the book finds a more comprehensive universal humanist ethic around which old and emerging struggles can be unified. Ultimately, Jeff Noonan argues, these struggles can be directed towards creating institutional structure and individual dispositions that will secure the social conditions in which our capacities for receptive openness and delight are satisfied for each and all.

How might practice theories and engagement with practice contribute to and advance theological study of religion and religious life and practices? This volume explores and discusses how theological engagement with practice, theoretically as well as empirically, might profit from theories of practice developed in disciplines such as philosophy, sociology, education and organisational studies during the recent decades, but so far scarcely employed within theology. In part I, the volume unfolds key components of practice theory, especially as they have more recently been developed within sociological practice theories, reflect on their significance and potential with regard to theology. In part II, these perspectives are employed in the study of concrete religious practices - established as well as experimental religious practices, and collective as well as individual ones. By unfolding connections between theology and practice theories, and reflecting on practice theories' analytical and theoretical potential for theological study of religion, the book will be of interest for any scholar in the study of contemporary religion and practical theology.

In a critical, comparative study of the sociological literature, this book explores the term "time," and the various interconnections between time and a broad cluster of topics that create a conceptual labyrinth. Various understandings of time manifest themselves in the context of many individual social problems-there is no single vision in sociology of how to grasp time and address within social theory. This book, therefore, attempts to define an approach to the concept of time and its associated terms (duration, temporality, acceleration, compression, temporal structures, change, historical consciousness, and others). The volume is guided by a critical engagement with three main questions: a) the formation of human understanding of time; b) the functioning of temporal structures at different levels of social reality; c) the role and place of time in general sociological theory.

Mad Hazard is a memoir of the career and life of Stephen Turner, chronicling a life in social theory. Showcasing how Turner's later work on expertise, tacit knowledge, cognitive science, leadership, and liberal democracy developed out of his early interests, this volume describes the institutional and personal constraints and pressures, as well as the personal relationships, that facilitated and shaped an academic career. From Turner's childhood in the racially violent South Side of Chicago, the development of his interests in social theory, through to his education in the shadow of the war in Vietnam and a period of social and personal turmoil, this biographical work shows us not only the development of academic thinking, but the evolution of an academic career. The rebellion within sociology against the hegemonic Merton-Parsons conception of sociology and the methodological orthodoxies of the time leads through to a discussion of the philosophy of science and social science, and from there to a reassessment of the inherited view of the classics, to science studies, and to political and international relations theory - the comprehensive nature of Mad Hazard means the reader can truly understand how Turner's academic journey evolved. Revealing an academic career not dependent on prestige and academic power, but also not untouched by hierarchy and academic politics, Mad Hazard is appealing for readers interested in the field of social theory, and beyond that, those interested in the evolution of intellectual life in the present university.

A lively, thoughtful history of America's Jews, exploring their complex relationships with national culture, identity, and politics-and each other. You can be called a Bad Jew-by the community or even yourself-if you don't keep kosher, don't send your children to Hebrew school, or enjoy Christmas music; if your partner isn't Jewish, or you don't call your mother enough. But today, amid fears of rising antisemitism, what makes a Good or Bad Jew is a particularly fraught question. There is no answer, argues Emily Tamkin. Several million now identify as American Jews; but they don't all identify with one another. American Jewish history, like all Jewish history, has been about transformation-and full of discussions, debates and hand-wringing over who is Jewish, how to be Jewish, and what it means to be Jewish. Bad Jews is a rich, absorbing reflection on 100 years of American Jewish identities and arguments. Tamkin's fascinating, diverse interviews explore the complex story of American Jewishness, and its evolving, conflicting positions, from assimilation, race, and social justice; to politics, Zionism, and Israel. She pinpoints the one truth about Jewish identity: It's always changing.

Kaj Ilmonen was a pioneer in the third wave of the sociology of consumption. This book provides a balanced overview of the sociology of consumption, arguing that the enthusiasm of 'the third wave' exaggerated the role of the symbolic and imaginary at the expense of the materiality of human societies.

Few of us, amidst our daily chores and responsibilities, consider how mundane infrastructures-from electrical grids to sewage systems-have developed over millennia in ways that enable everything we cherish, from democracy to technological innovation to individual liberty. But what drives the evolution of this infrastructure? And why is infrastructure so critical to human flourishing? In this book, the most innovative and interdisciplinary study of cultural evolution ever produced, new concepts are explored, new histories are brought into contact and new ground-breaking insights are defended. What makes creativity unique in human societies is not only our capacity to generate and modify our diverse individual intuitions about the social and physical world, but also our capacity to form and leave groups fluidly in a dancing rhythm of oscillation across the expanse of history. This book walks the reader carefully through these processes, with clear concepts and an approachable writing style.

This volume explores the conflict between two forces: party polarization and party factionalism. The major change in America's two political parties over the past half-century has been increased polarization, which has led to a new era of heightened inter-party competition resulting in stronger and more cohesive parties. At the same time, elections, particularly primaries, often reveal deep internal factional divisions within both the parties, and the 2020 election was no different. The Democratic coalition typically pits moderate or establishment candidates against progressive activists and candidates, while the Republican Party in 2020 was, at times, polarized not only between moderates and conservatives but between those willing to criticize President Trump and those who would not. How did these two opposing forces shape the outcome of the 2020 election, and what are the consequences for the future of American party politics and elections?

Many of us have had the experience of suddenly realizing that the keys or glasses which we have been looking for in vain were right in front of us the whole time. Looking for something does not guarantee that you will notice it, as the capacity of our sense organs far exceeds our mental capabilities. Whether we know it or not, we organize our perception systematically and that requires focusing our attention: some things move to the foreground, other elements recede into the background. While neuroscience and psychology can tell us a lot about our cognitive hardware, the cognitive software we use often goes unnoticed. In this book, Eviatar Zerubavel argues that we notice and ignore things not just as human beings, but as social beings. What we attend and do not attend to is a function of the fact that we are lawyers rather than detectives, Koreans rather than Americans, theologians rather than economists, vegans rather than omnivores. It is our environment and our social lives that often determine how we actually use our vision and hearing to access the world. Drawing on fascinating examples from the art world, optical illusions, and all walks of life, Zerubavel investigates how what we notice or ignore varies across cultures and throughout history. A subtle yet powerful examination of one of the central features of our conscious life, this book offers a way to think about all that might otherwise remain hidden in plain sight.

What do we mean by the word "social?" In The Centrality of Sociality, scholars respond to themes of The Concept of the Social in Uniting the Social Sciences and Humanities in dialogue with Michael E. Brown. The Centrality of Sociality provides analyses of important distinctions between individual and society, agency-dependent and agency-independent objectivity, subject and object, theory and theorizing, and action and "course of activity." Apart from its theoretical interest, the book raises questions about the compelling idea that "the individual is the ultimate referent of moral discourse," formulating the question "what is human about human affairs" in such a way that the difficulties involved in defining the word individual appear to place in jeopardy the idea of the individual. The chapters analyze themes such as the conceptualization of the social vis-a-vis the individual, theories of action, and notions of subject-object relations. A thought-provoking collection of research, this edited volume is key reading for scholars and researchers in sociology.