For more than three hundred years, the American South was essentially a plantation society, in which the plantation system penetrated all aspects of social, cultural, economic, and political life. During this period, plantation slavery evolved into the key institutional component of Southern society and played an integral role in its development. This interdisciplinary collection of essays provides a sociological framework for the interpretation of historical data on plantation slavery by addressing different questions concerning four broad areas of research--theoretical perspectives; social institutions; race, gender, and social inequality; and social change and social transformations. The contributors depict slave plantations as organized social systems that contributed significantly to the racial stratification of the Southern plantation society, and in this way served as the origin of contemporary race relations and social inequality in America.

On August 9, 1965, 53 men died in the impoverished hills of rural Arkansas. Their final breaths came in a government facility deep underground while their loved ones were at home expecting their return. The incident at Launch Complex 373-4 remains the deadliest accident to occur in a U.S. nuclear facility. The 53: Rituals, Grief, and a Titan II Missile Disaster analyzes the event. It looks at causes but more importantly at how the mishap has affected daughters and sons for nearly six decades. It gives new sociological insight on technological disasters and the sorrow following them. The book also details how surviving family members managed themselves and each other while benefiting from the support of friends and strangers. It describes how institutions blame the powerless, and how powerful organizations generate distrust and secondary trauma. With an analysis of the event and post-disaster life, their children share stories on what went wrong and how they keep moving forward.

Why do people behave the way they do? Up to now, ritual has been seriously underutilized for studying human behavior, i.e., ritual. The structural ritualization theory, attempts to narrow this gap in our understanding of the social causes and consequences of our actions by focusing on the ritualized behaviors that define much of our daily lives. Taking a broad approach to science in sociology this perspective is grounded in a commitment to three goals: the development of theory, substantiating these concepts through empirical evidence, and the application of this knowledge to social problems, dehumanizing conditions in contemporary society, and enriching our personal lives. This book is the first to comprehensively describe the structural ritualistic theory, which since its inception a decade ago, has developed in several directions involving different lines of cumulative research. This book shows how structural reproduction has occurred throughout the world, how rituals can be strategically used and power can influence rituals, and how the disruption of ritualized practices and the reconstitution of ritual subsequent to such events are of crucial importance for human beings. Weaving its way through the book Knottnerus discusses why ritual provides a missing link in sociology and helps us better explain the extreme complexity of human action and social reality."

"Recent Developments in the Theory of Social Structure" is an integrated collection of essays reviewing and assessing progress in social structural analysis since 1970. Organizationally, the book is divided into six parts corresponding to six analytical levels of social structure: social relationships, social networks, intraorganizational relations, interorganizational relations, societal stratification and the world system. The ten essays expound and assess what has been learned about the influences of social structure on human behaviour at each level of analysis. In the introduction, the editors examine the metatheoretical issues in structural analysis and promote the cause of theory integration.

Why do people behave the way they do? Up to now, ritual has been seriously underutilized for studying human behavior, i.e., ritual. The structural ritualization theory, attempts to narrow this gap in our understanding of the social causes and consequences of our actions by focusing on the ritualized behaviors that define much of our daily lives. Taking a broad approach to science in sociology this perspective is grounded in a commitment to three goals: the development of theory, substantiating these concepts through empirical evidence, and the application of this knowledge to social problems, dehumanizing conditions in contemporary society, and enriching our personal lives. This book is the first to comprehensively describe the structural ritualistic theory, which since its inception a decade ago, has developed in several directions involving different lines of cumulative research. This book shows how structural reproduction has occurred throughout the world, how rituals can be strategically used and power can influence rituals, and how the disruption of ritualized practices and the reconstitution of ritual subsequent to such events are of crucial importance for human beings. Weaving its way through the book Knottnerus discusses why ritual provides a missing link in sociology and helps us better explain the extreme complexity of human action and social reality."

Portraying people who have lived and worked in long-term nursing home facilities, Elder Care Catastrophe reveals how organizational dynamics and everyday rituals have unintentionally led to resident neglect and abuse. Backed up by research and grounded in sociological theory, this book offers alternative models for lessening the maltreatment of people living in nursing homes. It provides critical information for family members struggling with nursing home issues, nursing home employees, policy-makers, students and researchers concerned with elder care issues.

On the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of The Sociological Imagination by C. Wright Mills, the 'bureaucratic ethos' that he described continues to define our world more than ever before. In Bureaucratic Culture and Escalating World Problems eleven contributors systematically continue and develop Mills' broad vision of the scientific method. They analyse escalating bureaucratic barriers that prevent us from solving our many pressing social, environmental, and economic problems.

On the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of The Sociological Imagination by C. Wright Mills, the 'bureaucratic ethos' that he described continues to define our world more than ever before. In Bureaucratic Culture and Escalating World Problems eleven contributors systematically continue and develop Mills' broad vision of the scientific method. They analyse escalating bureaucratic barriers that prevent us from solving our many pressing social, environmental, and economic problems.