Social Theory and Social Practice is a unique effort at applied social theory. Hans L. Zetterberg believes that social research has now advanced so far that social scientists can give advice without being restricted to new research projects. They can use previously proven theories as the basis for sound practical recommendations. This approach has profound implications in the application of social science to problems in business management, labor strife, government decision-making, in such areas as education, health and human welfare. It remains a pioneering discourse for practitioners of social research and social policy. Zetterberg gives a searching review of the various ways in which social practitioners attempt to use the accumulated knowledge of social science. He proceeds with a compact summary of the knowledge of the academicians of social science, noting that practitioners are often unaware of much useful academic knowledge. The process by which this knowledge is transformed into practical advice is spelled out in detail, and is illustrated with examples from an actual consultation about problems faced by an art museum that wanted to increase its audience. Chapter 1 identifies the problem; chapter 2, "The Knowledge of Social Practitioners," outlines practitioners' reliance on scientific knowledge; chapter 3, "The Knowledge of Social Theorists," discusses sociological terms and sociological law; chapter 4, "The Practical Use of Social Theory through Scholarly Consultants," explores the actual specificity of social theory and its uses, while the concluding chapter examines the uses of consultants, covering some prerequisites for the successful use of applied science. The book rejects the widespread view that in order to put social science to use, we have to popularize its content. Zetterberg's approach is rather to translate a client's problem into a powerful theoretical statement, the solution to which is calculated and then presented to the client as down-to-earth advice. This volume will be of immediate interest to scholars in the field of social theory; to consultants and practitioners who give advice on social problems and policy decisions; and to executives who use advice from social scientists.

Social Theory and Social Practice is a unique effort at applied social theory. Hans L. Zetterberg believes that social research has now advanced so far that social scientists can give advice without being restricted to new research projects. They can use previously proven theories as the basis for sound practical recommendations. This approach has profound implications in the application of social science to problems in business management, labor strife, government decision-making, in such areas as education, health and human welfare. It remains a pioneering discourse for practitioners of social research and social policy.

Zetterberg gives a searching review of the various ways in which social practitioners attempt to use the accumulated knowledge of social science. He proceeds with a compact summary of the knowledge of the academicians of social science, noting that practitioners are often unaware of much useful academic knowledge. The process by which this knowledge is transformed into practical advice is spelled out in detail, and is illustrated with examples from an actual consultation about problems faced by an art museum that wanted to increase its audience.

Chapter 1 identifies the problem; chapter 2, "The Knowledge of Social Practitioners," outlines practitioners' reliance on scientific knowledge; chapter 3, "The Knowledge of Social Theorists," discusses sociological terms and sociological law; chapter 4, "The Practical Use of Social Theory through Scholarly Consultants," explores the actual specificity of social theory and its uses, while the concluding chapter examines the uses of consultants, covering some prerequisites for the successful use of applied science. The book rejects the widespread view that in order to put social science to use, we have to popularize its content. Zetterberg's approach is rather to translate a client's problem into a powerful theoretical statement, the solution to which is calculated and then presented to the client as down-to-earth advice.

This volume will be of immediate interest to scholars in the field of social theory; to consultants and practitioners who give advice on social problems and policy decisions; and to executives who use advice from social scientists.

The subtitle of this volume, Surrounded by Symbols, describes mankind's unique environment. The book tells how freedom in using language creates social reality. A language for civility and scholarship avoids spuma, magic, and defensive bilge. Taking a telescoping view, we study vibrations in symbolic environments between tradition and modernity, faithfulness and pragmatism, and between materialism and humanism. Taking a microscopic view, we see the descriptive, evaluative, and prescriptive language, often imbued with emotions, forming a universal minimum vocabulary of social reality.

This third book on The Many-Splendored Society examines how we use language to inspire human beings to live in and develop their societies. We prompt ourselves by using "justifying vocabularies" and we prompt others by the use of "compelling vocabularies." These motivating vocabularies are short pieces of language with remarkable leverage. They epitomize the power of the language brain. Six justifying vocabularies are unique to each of the societal realms of science, art, economy, religion, polity, and morality. Four justifying vocabularies are at the core of the dominating ideologies in free societies: individualism, meritocracy, universalism, and egalitarianism. We review the far-reaching implications of some compelling vocabularies such as the selfish fact that people trust those who are like themselves more than they trust people unlike themselves. We deal with vocabularies avoiding social exclusion and preserving favorable self-images. As humans, we also have unselfish vocabularies trustful of others, for example, abetting the survival of our beneficial encounters and upholding the order that upholds us. In the final part in this volume, we find a synthesis of - or, better expressed, a "zipper" between - justifying and compelling vocabularies. We conclude that ordinary words in the zipped vocabularies actually can arrest a society's disintegration into the chaos of everybody's war against everyone else. This dual motivation can be strong enough to compete with bodily spontaneities and, in a majority of circumstances, be strong enough to serve as a substitute for violence as a means of social control. Their use makes for a civilized life, where conflicts are resolved, not by force, but by words, and where violence is reduced to the minimum needed to defend civility.

The Many-Splendored Society is a multi-volume groundwork that explains how man's language creates social reality. The subtitle of this second volume, An Edifice of Symbols, points to a set of general categories and dimensions, all based on properties of language, for the study of social reality. We learn about norms and contracts, organizations, networks, mass media, folk life, and city life. Most important, we find out how symbols create the societal realms of science, economy, polity, art, religion, and morality. These realms have different goals and rationalities and exhibit different spontaneous orders. When they join so that no one overwhelms the others, we have a many-splendored society. An Edifice of Symbols ends with a summary in the form of a grand table of societal realms. A chemist might see this table as kindred to his field, for it has some properties of a Periodic System of the type discovered in chemistry in the nineteenth century. When you know the place of any phenomenon placed in this table of social reality, you learn a great deal of its characteristics. This is another of the author's achievements to give the general reader a Chock Full o'Nuts with exciting discoveries in social science, and to give professionals a systematic view of social reality.