Adeptly navigating one of the most pressing issues on the current global agenda, this topical Research Handbook provides a comprehensive and research-based exploration of the sociology of migration. As well as highlighting the field’s achievements and current challenges, it explores key concepts used in current research, methods employed, and the spheres and contexts in which migrants participate. Presenting an open and pluralistic approach to international migration, this Research Handbook offers a wealth of conceptual analysis, featuring insightful contributions from over 40 leading scholars. Split into three thematic sections, it expertly examines a wide range of theoretical terms, research methods and techniques, and provides an in-depth analysis of the significant work that has been carried out to date in relation to migration. It ultimately sheds light on important discussions surrounding the origins of the sociology of migration, considering not only past events, but also future directions of research for this ever-evolving field of study. Offering a unique and forward-thinking perspective, this authoritative Handbook will serve as a fundamental reference for students, scholars, and practitioners in the fields of sociology and social policy, development studies, and political science, as well as in the wider social sciences.

Although many contemporary scholars have deepened our understanding of civil society, a concept that made its entry into modern social thought in the 17th century, by offering insightful exegetical inquiries into the tradition of thinking about this concept, critiquing the limits of civil society discourse, or seeking to offer empirical analyses of existing civil societies, none have attempted anything as bold or original as Jeffrey C. Alexander's The Civil Sphere. While consciously building on this three centuries long tradition of thought on the subject, Alexander has broken new ground by articulating in considerable detail a theoretical framework that differs from what he sees as the two major perspectives that have heretofore shaped civil society discourse. In so doing, he has sought to construct from the bottom up a model of what he calls the civil sphere, which he treats in Durkheimian fashion as a new social fact. In this volume, six internationally recognized scholars comment on the civil sphere thesis. Robert Bellah, Bryan S. Turner, and Axel Honneth consider the work as a whole. Mario Diani, Chad Alan Goldberg, and Farhad Khosrokhavar offer analyses of specific aspects of the civil sphere. In their substantive introduction, Peter Kivisto and Giuseppe Sciortino locate the civil sphere thesis in terms of Alexander's larger theoretical arc as it has shifted from neofunctionalism to cultural sociology. Finally, Alexander's clarifies and further elaborates on the concept of the civil sphere.

This volume is first consistent effort to systematically analyze the features and consequences of colonial repatriation in comparative terms, examining the trajectories of returnees in six former colonial countries (Belgium, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, and Portugal). Each contributor examines these cases through a shared cultural sociology frame, unifying the historical and sociological analyses carried out in the collection. More particularly, the book strengthens and improves one of the most important and popular current streams of cultural sociology, that of collective trauma. Using a comparative perspective to study the trajectories of similarly traumatized groups in different countries allows for not only a thick description of the return processes, but also a thick explanation of the mechanisms and factors shaping them. Learning from these various cases of colonial returnees, the authors have been able to develop a new theoretical framework that may help cultural sociologists to explain why seemingly similar claims of collective trauma and victimhood garner respect and recognition in certain contexts, but fail in others.

Never before published, "American Society" is the product of Talcott Parsons 's last major theory-building project. During the 1970s, Parsons worked persistently to fulfill his earlier promise to produce a general book on American society. The surviving manuscript, completed just a few weeks before his death, is just such a book and much more. Beyond its rich reading of American society, it offers a systematic presentation and major revisions of his previous landmark theoretical positions: the attempt to elaborate a non-nostalgic theory of modernity, to link macro and micro perspectives, to defend the possibility of objective sociological knowledge, to analyze national specificities within the context of worldwide trends, to develop an adequate conception of societal integration grounded in fully pluralistic premises. Even after the passage of many years, the book imparts a remarkably provocative interpretation of U.S. society and a creative approach to social theory.

Never before published, "American Society" is the product of Talcott Parsons 's last major theory-building project. During the 1970s, Parsons worked persistently to fulfill his earlier promise to produce a general book on American society. The surviving manuscript, completed just a few weeks before his death, is just such a book and much more. Beyond its rich reading of American society, it offers a systematic presentation and major revisions of his previous landmark theoretical positions: the attempt to elaborate a non-nostalgic theory of modernity, to link macro and micro perspectives, to defend the possibility of objective sociological knowledge, to analyze national specificities within the context of worldwide trends, to develop an adequate conception of societal integration grounded in fully pluralistic premises. Even after the passage of many years, the book imparts a remarkably provocative interpretation of U.S. society and a creative approach to social theory.

This volume is first consistent effort to systematically analyze the features and consequences of colonial repatriation in comparative terms, examining the trajectories of returnees in six former colonial countries (Belgium, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, and Portugal). Each contributor examines these cases through a shared cultural sociology frame, unifying the historical and sociological analyses carried out in the collection. More particularly, the book strengthens and improves one of the most important and popular current streams of cultural sociology, that of collective trauma. Using a comparative perspective to study the trajectories of similarly traumatized groups in different countries allows for not only a thick description of the return processes, but also a thick explanation of the mechanisms and factors shaping them. Learning from these various cases of colonial returnees, the authors have been able to develop a new theoretical framework that may help cultural sociologists to explain why seemingly similar claims of collective trauma and victimhood garner respect and recognition in certain contexts, but fail in others.

Modern social thought is largely the intellectual product of a number of "great minds." Revisiting the central theories of Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Simmel, Mead, Parsons, Goffman, Garfinkel, and Luhmann, this text introduces readers to a select group of thinkers who have made significant, distinctive, and controversial contributions to the development of modern social theory.
Offering a careful selection of primary sources that encourage direct engagement with the writings, Poggi and Sciortino emphasize the theoretical insights and problems that remain valuable to discussions of social theory today. Each chapter introduces key ideas, whether classical or contemporary, through a discussion of each theorist's contribution to the exploration of the human actors and the consequences, potentialities, and vulnerabilities embedded in social relationships. "Great Minds" was originally published in Italian. This first-ever English-language edition includes a new final chapter on the work of Luhmann.

Modern social thought is largely the intellectual product of a number of "great minds." Revisiting the central theories of Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Simmel, Mead, Parsons, Goffman, Garfinkel, and Luhmann, this text introduces readers to a select group of thinkers who have made significant, distinctive, and controversial contributions to the development of modern social theory.
Offering a careful selection of primary sources that encourage direct engagement with the writings, Poggi and Sciortino emphasize the theoretical insights and problems that remain valuable to discussions of social theory today. Each chapter introduces key ideas, whether classical or contemporary, through a discussion of each theorist's contribution to the exploration of the human actors and the consequences, potentialities, and vulnerabilities embedded in social relationships. "Great Minds" was originally published in Italian. This first-ever English-language edition includes a new final chapter on the work of Luhmann.