In recent decades, the focus of the study of culture in sociology has been divided between the sociology of culture and cultural sociology. In the former approach, culture is seen as a reflection of the deeper and more "real" social structures.
A cultural sociology, however, begins from the premise that ideas and beliefs retain autonomy from the social structures to which they refer and illuminate. Only after the internal logics of meaning have been discovered and understood--the codes, narratives, and rhetorical techniques--can the cultural be put back into social structure, and analyzed in a multidimensional way. Edited by Jeffrey Alexander, arguably the leading cultural sociologist in the world, and two other widely respected practitioners, Ron Jacobs and Phil Smith, these essays from an international cast of the best and brightest cultural sociologists cover topics in theory and method; power, politics, and states; economics and organization; mass media; social movements; religion; aesthetics; knowledge; and health. Organized by empirical areas of study rather than particular theories or competing intellectual strands, the editors demonstrate that cultural sociology is not so much as a specialized subfield of sociology but, rather, an intellectual approach that can be generalized across all the core fields of the discipline.

Students are drawn to topics of urgent sociological concern by a need to understand the forces that shape their world and their desire to make the world better. It can be challenging, however, for students to link sociological concepts with real-world applications. Living Sociologically: Concepts and Connections, Concise Edition helps students make those connections. This brief, engaging and accessible text offers an innovative, class-tested framework for teaching sociology. The "paired concepts" approach demonstrates the interdependent ways in which social forces work, encourages students to engage with complexity and contradiction, and provides them with critical, analytical thinking tools. The built-in student study guide is a unique adaptive learning program that will enable students to assess their learning and understanding as they move through the course, and provides feedback and an individualized learning path to help students master the material.

Since sociologists returned to the study of culture in the past several decades, a pursuit all but anathema for a generation, cultural sociology has emerged as a vibrant field. Edited by three leading cultural sociologists, The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Sociology presents the full theoretical and methodological vitality of this critically significant new area.The Handbook gathers together works by authors confronting the crucial choices all cultural sociologists face today: about analytic priorities, methods, topics, epistemologies, ideologies, and even modes of writing. It is a vital collection of preeminent thinkers studying the ways in which culture, society, politics, and economy interact in the world. Organized by empirical areas of study rather than particular theories or competing intellectual strands, the Handbook addresses power, politics, and states; economics and organization; mass media; social movements; religion; aesthetics; knowledge; and health. Allowing the reader to observe tensions as well as convergences, the collection displays the value of cultural sociology not as a niche discipline but as a way to view and understand the many facets of contemporary society. The first of its kind, The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Sociology offers comprehensive and immediate access to the real developments and disagreements taking place in the field, and deftly exemplifies how cultural sociology provides a new way of seeing and modeling social facts. "This groundbreaking, readable handbook [is] the first single volume to attempt to unify its diverse contemporary applications in a wide range of traditional genres of sociology...Valuable for college universities and libraries supporting undergraduate and graduate degree programs in sociology and history."-CHOICE

This study investigates the desirability of unifying the U.S. Armed Forces into a joint military service. As the U.S. reshapes and downsizes its armed forces for the future, the primary purpose continues to be support for joint operations and a modernization strategy that focuses on increased capabilities. The organization realignment, initiated by the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Act of 1986, forced the armed services to increase joint union and cooperation. However, an over-critical hypothesis suggests that Goldwater-Nichols failed to adequately establish newly defined roles, missions, functions, and failed to properly initiate a future organization for the armed forces in a joint environment. The roles, missions, functions, and service organizations were used to highlight the similarities and differences of the U.S. Armed Forces. The Canadian Forces were also used as a comparison to give prominence to the similarities and differences of an integrated and unified military service.

Structured On - the - Job Training offers a practical, easily applicable approach to a crucial but often frustrating process. Designed for managerial, technical, and awareness training, the book offers a six - step program that combines the consistency and reliability of formal classroom training with the relevance of learning in the actual work setting. This revised and updated edition is the perfect blueprint for business success through planned training on - the - job.