Erving Goffman (1922-82) is considered to be among the greatest and most inventive of American sociologists. His works first appeared at a time when traditional, formal American sociology dominated the scene. They introduced fresh, new ideas and ways of thinking about the individual in the social world.

Although Goffman is more often thought of as being grounded in symbolic interactionism, he was in fact the first to raise questions about the socially constructed self, the distinction between public identity versus the private self, the role of gender in society, and the study of public spaces. These themes remain of primary interest today, making Goffman one of the most influential thinkers in late twentieth-century social thought.

For the first time in any collection, readers will have access to the complete development of Goffman's writing and thinking from his earliest, lesser-known works to his final masterpiece "Felicity's Condition." Included in this collection are pieces from Goffman's classic works including "Stigma, Asylums, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life," and "Forms of Talk."

Durkheim's Ghosts is a fascinating presentation of the tradition of social theory influenced by Emile Durkheim's thinking on the social foundations of knowledge. From Saussure and Levi-Strauss to Foucault, Bourdieu and Derrida, today's criticisms of modern politics and culture owe an important, if unacknowledged, debt to Durkheim. These engaging and innovative essays by leading sociologist Charles Lemert bring together his writings on the contributions of French social theory past and present. Rather than merely interpret the theories, Lemert uses them to explore the futures of sociology, social theory, and culture studies. Durkheim's Ghosts offers the reader original insights into Durkheim's legacy and the wider French traditions for the cultural and social sciences. Of special note is the book's new and exciting theory of culture and semiotics. Provocative, scholarly, imaginative and ambitious this book will be invaluable to anyone interested in social theory, culture, and intellectual history of modern times.

The most definitive report ever on verdict effects, this book gives striking new evidence that media assessments of presidential debates sway voters. The authors conducted 2,350 surveys and extensive analysis of news reports to scrutinize the post-debate news of 1988. They also examined the effects of the attack ads used by Bush and Dukakis. They found that the news media consistently downplay debate content and instead emphasize their own views on candidate performance--media verdicts influence voters as much as the debates themselves.

Extensive content analyses and more than 2,350 surveys were conducted to analyze media verdicts on the 1988 debates. The verdicts on Bush, Dukakis, Quayle, and Bentsen announced in post-debate newscasts are compared with those from debates in 1984, 1980 and 1976. The study finds that the news media consistently downplay debate content and instead emphasize their own views on candidate performance. These media verdicts influence voters as much as the debates themselves. The study also examines the effects of attack ads used by Bush and Dukakis, and finds that they backfired--network news probably rebroadcast more excerpts of attack ads in 1988 than ever before. Television journalists, the essays in this book show, have become increasingly less interested in how the debates served the information needs of the voters and increasingly more preoccupied with how they affected the ambitions of the candidates. A noticeable trend in 1988 was as the fall debates went on, voters' beliefs that further debates would be helpful to them went down. Another finding of the study deals with a huge tactical error that the League of Women Voters committed by simultaneously announcing its withdrawal and blasting the format and ground rules imposed on it by the Commission on Presidential Debates. Also, the spin doctors who continually spouted insider information during the 1988 campaign gained more legitimacy and impact than ever before--and had a very strong effect on American public affairs journalism. This intriguing book, which also provides policy recommendations for the debates, their sponsors, and the news media, is useful to journalists, researchers, and civic groups concerned with elections, government, campaign reform, and communications.

Due to the importance of philosophy in the Enlightenment, European social theory has dominated discourses of theory to the present day. Yet, looking deeper, Americans have made important contributions from very different social and cultural perspectives. Drawing from Euro and American traditions alike, this new book builds, for the first time, an intellectual framework for understanding American social theory up to the present. Charles Lemert, a master of "finding theory where you’d least expect it," traces the roots of American theory to 16th century colonization and, since, to an enormous range of writings and writers, both influential and lesser known. He delights readers with bold discoveries and a masterful rendering of American history and social thought that completes a fuller record of the theory we need to understand today.

In this comprehensive and clear introduction to contemporary social theory, Anthony Elliott and Charles Lemert explore the major theoretical traditions from the Frankfurt School to the digital revolution and beyond. Fully revised and updated, this second edition has been expanded to consider the most recent developments in social theory, including a new chapter on the digital revolution and the increasingly significant impact of technological developments (such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics) on society, culture and politics. Introduction to Contemporary Social Theory provides the reader with a superb overview of key developments in social theory, including the Frankfurt School, American pragmatism, structuralism, post-structuralism, feminism, globalization and world-systems theory. In doing so, the textbook explores the ideas of a wide range of social theorists, including Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Talcott Parsons, Erving Goffman, Harold Garfinkel, Michel Foucault, Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida, C. Wright Mills, Anthony Giddens, Pierre Bourdieu, Julia Kristeva, Jurgen Habermas, Judith Butler, Slavoj Zizek, Manuel Castells, Cornel West, Immanuel Wallerstein and Zygmunt Bauman. This textbook provides stylish exposition with powerful social critique and original insights. It will be indispensable to students and academics alike.

For decades, Charles Lemert has been the leading voice in social theory. In Capitalism and its Uncertain Future he teams up with one of the most creative emerging social theorists, Kristin Plys, to examine how social theory imagines capitalism. This engaging and innovative book provides new perspectives on well known theorists from Adam Smith, and Frantz Fanon, to Gilles Deleuze, while also introducing readers to lesser known theorists such as Lucia Sanchez Saornil, Mohammad Ali El Hammi, and many more. The book examines theories of capitalism from four perspectives: macro-historical theories of the origins of capitalism; postcolonial theories of capitalism that situate capitalism as seen from the Global South; theories of capitalism from the perspective of labor; and prospective theories of capitalism's uncertain future. This provocative and ambitious, yet accessible, perspective on theories of capitalism will be of interest to anyone who wants to explore where we've been and where we're headed.

For decades, Charles Lemert has been the leading voice in social theory. In Capitalism and its Uncertain Future he teams up with one of the most creative emerging social theorists, Kristin Plys, to examine how social theory imagines capitalism. This engaging and innovative book provides new perspectives on well known theorists from Adam Smith, and Frantz Fanon, to Gilles Deleuze, while also introducing readers to lesser known theorists such as Lucia Sanchez Saornil, Mohammad Ali El Hammi, and many more. The book examines theories of capitalism from four perspectives: macro-historical theories of the origins of capitalism; postcolonial theories of capitalism that situate capitalism as seen from the Global South; theories of capitalism from the perspective of labor; and prospective theories of capitalism's uncertain future. This provocative and ambitious, yet accessible, perspective on theories of capitalism will be of interest to anyone who wants to explore where we've been and where we're headed.

Social Theory is more than a reader. Feminists, race theorists, decolonizing leaders, and others are thoughtfully introduced by Charles Lemert's substantial commentaries. Social Theory has always sought to keep up with the new while respecting the old-from Durkheim and Weber to Latinx and LGBTQ pioneers. When the book first appeared it was, as it remains, a collection of selections from those who have changed how we think about social things. Today, as the world is threatened by a global wave of anti-democratic movements, Social Theory adds a new early section to remind us of the origins of democratic values in the 1700s. A new concluding section focuses the theoretical mind on how, in the 2020s, social theorists are rethinking the world in order to better understand and resist the menace of anti-democratic movements.

Expected to become a classic in the field and the classroom standard for teachers and their students, this book offers the most comprehensive, engaging selection of classic and contemporary readings on globalization currently available.

Here, for the first time in print, is the full historical story of globalization ? drawn from original sources, explained by accessible introductions and biographical commentaries, and clearly organized as a comprehensive teaching text to guide students through the ins and outs of globalization. With astonishing social, political and historical depth, the book ranges from the Babylonian and Persian empires in Mesopotamia to the global electronic economy of the 21st century, from ancient Greece and imperial Rome to transformations in contemporary state power and global inequalities. From Kenichi Ohmae to Al Gore, from Osama bin Laden to Timothy Garton-Ash, from Amartya Sen to Abdou Maliq Simone: this is a dazzling collection of the most important academic and public statements on globalization.

Throughout, the Editors expertly guide the reader through the complex terrain of globalization ? its engaging histories, its transnational economies, its multiple cultures and cosmopolitan politics.

This volume is based on a detailed analysis of change in the law and in the administration of justice affecting juvenile off enders in California in the fifties and sixties. It addresses how procedural law develops on a long-term basis and under what conditions. It also examines the processes by which revolutionary changes occur in law and the extent to which social change can be directed or controlled by legislation. Social action to revise California's juvenile court law, which had remained little changed since 1915, began in 1958. Subsequently a small group of legal reformers who perceived anomalies in the law and in the underlying philosophy of the court overcame substantial resistance to effect revolutionary revisions of the law. Lemert examines their experience to determine how changes of such magnitude could take place after decades of gradual adaptations in the juvenile courts. His study also looks into the consequences of this change on the court and related agencies of law enforcement. The author sets forth a socio-legal theory of change-a conception of paradigms, normal evolution, and revolution in law. He applies this theory to data, with special attention to the resistance to legal change and the processes by which it gives way to the adaptive process of normal law. Lemert discusses the substantive aspects of juvenile law as it relates to human affect and meaning, touching on the existential elements of justice. Professionals dealing with juveniles, legal scholars, sociologists, and political scientists will find this book, with its emphasis on how to achieve more equitable administration of juvenile justice, has much to contribute to our understanding of the dynamics of social change.

Due to the importance of philosophy in the Enlightenment, European social theory has dominated discourses of theory to the present day. Yet, looking deeper, Americans have made important contributions from very different social and cultural perspectives. Drawing from Euro and American traditions alike, this new book builds, for the first time, an intellectual framework for understanding American social theory up to the present. Charles Lemert, a master of "finding theory where you’d least expect it," traces the roots of American theory to 16th century colonization and, since, to an enormous range of writings and writers, both influential and lesser known. He delights readers with bold discoveries and a masterful rendering of American history and social thought that completes a fuller record of the theory we need to understand today.

Erving Goffman (1922-82) was arguably one of the most influential American sociologists of the twentieth century. A keen observer of the interaction order of everyday life, Goffman's books, which have sold in the hundreds of thousands, continue to be widely read and his concepts have permanently entered the sociology lexicon. This volume consists of twelve original essays, all written by prominent Goffman scholars, that critically assess Goffman's many contributions to various areas of study, including functionalism, social psychology, ethnomethodology, and feminist theory.

Uncertain Worlds is the definitive presentation of the evolution of world-systems analysis from the point of view of its founder, Immanuel Wallerstein. Few theorists have offered a more systematic theory of what has become known as 'globalisation' than Wallerstein. The book includes a one-of-kind interview with Wallerstein by Carlos Rojas, a conversation between Wallerstein and Lemert about the history of the field as it has come down to the present time, a long essay by Lemert on the uncertainties of the modern world-system, as well as a preface by Rojas and a concluding essay by Wallerstein. No other book lends such biographical, historical, and personal nuance to the biography of world-systems analysis and, thus, to the history of our times. The will be a key reference book for students of global politics, economics and international relations.

In his newest book prominent sociologist Charles Lemert takes on one of social science 's most mysterious problems. How is it possible to derive general statements about the largely invisible and overwhelming grand structures of social life that we can never see clearly beyond their effects in the small movements of individual lives? Marx and Freud were the modern inventors of a solution that is given too little attention: Where Marx derived from the tiniest commodity, his large picture of the whole of the evils of the capitalist system, so too Freud diagnosed the character of psyches and cultures from the slight inferences of details of dreams, slips, and even jokes. Charles Lemert offers in this wonderfully readable and limitlessly challenging book approaches for a new social science required for global realities in which a Bluetooth can convey a world of information.

In his newest book prominent sociologist Charles Lemert takes on one of social science 's most mysterious problems. How is it possible to derive general statements about the largely invisible and overwhelming grand structures of social life that we can never see clearly beyond their effects in the small movements of individual lives? Marx and Freud were the modern inventors of a solution that is given too little attention: Where Marx derived from the tiniest commodity, his large picture of the whole of the evils of the capitalist system, so too Freud diagnosed the character of psyches and cultures from the slight inferences of details of dreams, slips, and even jokes. Charles Lemert offers in this wonderfully readable and limitlessly challenging book approaches for a new social science required for global realities in which a Bluetooth can convey a world of information.

In this comprehensive and clear introduction to contemporary social theory, Anthony Elliott and Charles Lemert explore the major theoretical traditions from the Frankfurt School to the digital revolution and beyond. Fully revised and updated, this second edition has been expanded to consider the most recent developments in social theory, including a new chapter on the digital revolution and the increasingly significant impact of technological developments (such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics) on society, culture and politics. Introduction to Contemporary Social Theory provides the reader with a superb overview of key developments in social theory, including the Frankfurt School, American pragmatism, structuralism, post-structuralism, feminism, globalization and world-systems theory. In doing so, the textbook explores the ideas of a wide range of social theorists, including Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Talcott Parsons, Erving Goffman, Harold Garfinkel, Michel Foucault, Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida, C. Wright Mills, Anthony Giddens, Pierre Bourdieu, Julia Kristeva, Jurgen Habermas, Judith Butler, Slavoj Zizek, Manuel Castells, Cornel West, Immanuel Wallerstein and Zygmunt Bauman. This textbook provides stylish exposition with powerful social critique and original insights. It will be indispensable to students and academics alike.

Expected to become a classic in the field and the classroom standard for teachers and their students, this book offers the most comprehensive, engaging selection of classic and contemporary readings on globalization currently available.

Here, for the first time in print, is the full historical story of globalization drawn from original sources, explained by accessible introductions and biographical commentaries, and clearly organized as a comprehensive teaching text to guide students through the ins and outs of globalization. With astonishing social, political and historical depth, the book ranges from the Babylonian and Persian empires in Mesopotamia to the global electronic economy of the 21st century, from ancient Greece and imperial Rome to transformations in contemporary state power and global inequalities. From Kenichi Ohmae to Al Gore, from Osama bin Laden to Timothy Garton-Ash, from Amartya Sen to Abdou Maliq Simone: this is a dazzling collection of the most important academic and public statements on globalization.

Throughout, the Editors expertly guide the reader through the complex terrain of globalization its engaging histories, its transnational economies, its multiple cultures and cosmopolitan politics.

This volume is based on a detailed analysis of change in the law and in the administration of justice affecting juvenile off enders in California in the fifties and sixties. It addresses how procedural law develops on a long-term basis and under what conditions. It also examines the processes by which revolutionary changes occur in law and the extent to which social change can be directed or controlled by legislation.

Social action to revise California's juvenile court law, which had remained little changed since 1915, began in 1958. Subsequently a small group of legal reformers who perceived anomalies in the law and in the underlying philosophy of the court overcame substantial resistance to effect revolutionary revisions of the law. Lemert examines their experience to determine how changes of such magnitude could take place after decades of gradual adaptations in the juvenile courts. His study also looks into the consequences of this change on the court and related agencies of law enforcement.

The author sets forth a socio-legal theory of change-a conception of paradigms, normal evolution, and revolution in law. He applies this theory to data, with special attention to the resistance to legal change and the processes by which it gives way to the adaptive process of normal law. Lemert discusses the substantive aspects of juvenile law as it relates to human affect and meaning, touching on the existential elements of justice. Professionals dealing with juveniles, legal scholars, sociologists, and political scientists will find this book, with its emphasis on how to achieve more equitable administration of juvenile justice, has much to contribute to our understanding of the dynamics of social change.

This is a new and revised edition of a book which has had a major impact upon the social sciences and public political debate. Anthony Elliott and Charles Lemert's THE NEW INDIVIDUALISM inspired readers with the dramatic suggestion that 'the reinvention craze' - from self-help and therapy culture to management restructurings and corporate downsizings - is central to a 'new individualism' sweeping the globe. Giving particular attention to the narratives of people seeking to define anew their lives in an age of globalization, the authors contend that an endless hunger for instant change and relentless emphasis on self-reinvention is fundamental to grasping the disorientating effects of the new individualism.

This edition contains a substantial new Introduction in which Elliott and Lemert reply to some of the standard criticisms made of the theory of the new individualism, and also addresses the escalation of new individualist thinking in the wake of recent global crises.

The voices of famous and lesser known figures in America's quest to reduce poverty are collected for the first time in this comprehensive historical anthology. The book traces the most important ideas and contributions of citizens, activists, labor leaders, scholars, politicians, and governmental agencies to ensure American citizens the basics of food, housing, employment, education, and health care.The book follows the idea of poverty reduction from Thomas Paine's agrarian justice to Josiah Quincy's proposal for the construction of poorhouses; from the Freedmen's Bureau to Sitting Bull's demand for money and supplies; from Coxey's army of the unemployed to Jane Addams's Hull House; from the Civil Works Administration to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s call for an Economic Bill of Rights; and from William Julius Wilson's universal program of reform to George W. Bush's armies of compassion.You can learn more about the book at http: //www.solvingpoverty.com.

In the eloquent style for which he has become famous, Charles Lemert writes of social theory as no one else. "Thinking the Unthinkable" is offered as text for instruction, yet it defies the prevailing assumption that social theory is a method for clarifying the facts of social life. Lemert shows how social theory began late in the 19th century as a struggle to come to terms with the failure of modern reason to solve the social problems created by the capitalist world-system. Since then, social theory has developed through twists and turns to think and rethink this Unthinkable. Hence the surprising innovations of recent years - postmodern, queer, postcolonial, third-wave feminist, risk theories, among others arising in the wake of globalization. Once again, Lemert has made the difficult clear in a book that students and other readers will treasure and keep.

The voices of famous and lesser known figures in America's quest to reduce poverty are collected for the first time in this comprehensive historical anthology. The book traces the most important ideas and contributions of citizens, activists, labor leaders, scholars, politicians, and governmental agencies to ensure American citizens the basics of food, housing, employment, education, and health care.The book follows the idea of poverty reduction from Thomas Paine's agrarian justice to Josiah Quincy's proposal for the construction of poorhouses; from the Freedmen's Bureau to Sitting Bull's demand for money and supplies; from Coxey's army of the unemployed to Jane Addams's Hull House; from the Civil Works Administration to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s call for an Economic Bill of Rights; and from William Julius Wilson's universal program of reform to George W. Bush's armies of compassion.You can learn more about the book at http: //www.solvingpoverty.com.

The Souls of W. E. B. Du Bois explores the relationship of W. E. B. Du Bois's seminal book, The Souls of Black Folk, to other works in his scholarly portfolio and to his larger project concerning race, racial identity, and the social objectives of scholarly engagement.The new, original chapters in this book, written by leading Du Bois scholars, offer a critical reading of Souls and its relevance a century later in today's world. The chapters show how Souls extends, refines, or introduces ideas developed in Du Bois's The Philadelphia Negro and Black Reconstruction, and how Souls relates to Du Bois's early considerations of social activism on the behalf of African Americans and to his thinking about the situation of African American women. The book demonstrates how significant Souls is for Du Bois's overarching objectives concerning racial theorizing, the social conditions affecting race, and the possibilities for social justice.

The Souls of W. E. B. Du Bois explores the relationship of W. E. B. Du Bois's seminal book, The Souls of Black Folk, to other works in his scholarly portfolio and to his larger project concerning race, racial identity, and the social objectives of scholarly engagement.The new, original chapters in this book, written by leading Du Bois scholars, offer a critical reading of Souls and its relevance a century later in today's world. The chapters show how Souls extends, refines, or introduces ideas developed in Du Bois's The Philadelphia Negro and Black Reconstruction, and how Souls relates to Du Bois's early considerations of social activism on the behalf of African Americans and to his thinking about the situation of African American women. The book demonstrates how significant Souls is for Du Bois's overarching objectives concerning racial theorizing, the social conditions affecting race, and the possibilities for social justice.

This book - never before published - is eminent sociologist Harold Garfinkel's earliest attempt, while at Harvard in 1948, to bridge the growing gap in U.S. sociology. This gap was generated by a Parsonsian paradigm that emphasized a scientific approach to sociological description, one that increasingly distanced itself from social phenomena in the influential ways studied by phenomenologists.It was Garfinkel's idea that phenomenological description, rendered in more empirical and interactive terms, might remedy shortcomings in the reigning Parsonsian view. Garfinkel soon gave up the attempt to repair scientific description and his focus became increasingly empirical until, in 1954, he famously coined the term 'Ethnomethodology'. However, in this early manuscript can be seen more clearly than in some of his later work the struggle with a conceptual and positivist rendering of social relations that ultimately informed Garfinkel's position. Here we find the sources of his turn toward ethnomethodology, which would influence subsequent generations of sociologists.This book is essential reading for all social theory scholars and graduate students and for a wider range of social scientists in anthropology, ethnomethodology, and other fields.