Edward Shils was a central figure in twentieth century social thought. He held appointments both at Chicago and Cambridge and was a crucial link between British and American intellectual life. This volume collects essays by distinguished contributors which deal with the major facets of Shils' thought, including his relations with Michael Polanyi, his parallels with Michael Oakeshott, his defense of the traditional university, his fundamental philosophical anthropology, and his important work on such topics as tradition, civility, and the nation. As an introduction to this complex and original thinker, it will be of interest to scholars and students in a number of fields, including sociology and social theory, but also to anyone interested in the intellectual life as it was lived in the mid-twentieth century, in the face of the Cold War and ideological struggle. -- .

This book explores the shift in sociology away from the shared aspiration of the classical transition, of transcending partiality through the construction of a "science of society", in the face of challenges to the notion of objectivity. With the increasing subjugation of sociology to political ideologies and a growing emphasis on "policy", which casts sociology in the role of a provider of intellectual content for political programs, this volume asks whether the situation is the result of an exhaustion of ideas or might perhaps be rooted in the failure in the very program of establishing sociology as a science. Taking seriously the challenges to the classical aspiration of constructing theories that both explain and are grounded in empirical reality, The Future of Sociology asks whether the core idea of transcending ideology is still worth pursuing, and whether there remains scope for making sociology scientific. As such, it will appeal to scholars and students of sociology, social theory, and social scientific methodology.

--A timely analysis of how to make democracies more administratively effective--and true to the intentions of democracy --The lead author is a distinguished political philosopher --Valuable assigned reading for advanced courses on social theory, political theory, public administration, democracy, political sociology, and more

--A timely analysis of how to make democracies more administratively effective--and true to the intentions of democracy --The lead author is a distinguished political philosopher --Valuable assigned reading for advanced courses on social theory, political theory, public administration, democracy, political sociology, and more

This book explores the shift in sociology away from the shared aspiration of the classical transition, of transcending partiality through the construction of a "science of society", in the face of challenges to the notion of objectivity. With the increasing subjugation of sociology to political ideologies and a growing emphasis on "policy", which casts sociology in the role of a provider of intellectual content for political programs, this volume asks whether the situation is the result of an exhaustion of ideas or might perhaps be rooted in the failure in the very program of establishing sociology as a science. Taking seriously the challenges to the classical aspiration of constructing theories that both explain and are grounded in empirical reality, The Future of Sociology asks whether the core idea of transcending ideology is still worth pursuing, and whether there remains scope for making sociology scientific. As such, it will appeal to scholars and students of sociology, social theory, and social scientific methodology.

Current sociological theories appear to have lost their general persuasiveness in part because, unlike the theories of the 'classical era', they fail to maintain an integrated stance toward society, and the practical role that sociology plays in society. The authors explore various facets of this failure and possibilities for reconstructing sociological theories as integrated wholes capable of conveying a moral and political immediacy. They discuss the evolution of several concepts (for example, the social, structure, and self) and address the significant disputes (for example, structuralism versus humanism, and individual versus society) that have dominated twentieth-century sociological thought. Their ideas and analyses are directed towards an audience of students and theorists who are coming to terms with the project of sociological theory, and its relationship with moral discourses and political practice. The authors of these essays are sociological theorists from the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. They are all established, but not 'establishment' authors. The book contains no orthodoxies, and no answers. However, the essays do contribute to identifying the range of issues that will constitute the agenda for the next generation of sociological theorists.

Other People's Country thinks through the entangled objects of law - legislation, policies, institutions, treaties and so on - that 'govern' waters and that make bodies of water 'lawful' within settler colonial sites today. Informed by the theoretical interventions of cosmopolitics and political ecology, each opening up new approaches to questions of politics and 'the political', the chapters in this book locate these insights within material settler colonial 'places' rather than abstract structures of domination. A claim to water - whether by Indigenous peoples or settlers - is not simply a claim to a resource. It is a claim to knowledge and to the constitution of place and therefore, in the terms of Isabelle Stengers, to the continued constitution of the past, present and future of real worlds. Including contributions from the fields of anthropology, cultural studies, cultural geography, critical legal studies, and settler colonial studies, this collection not only engages with issues of law, water and entitlement in different national contexts - including Australia, Aotearoa/New Zealand, New Caledonia and the USA - but also from diverse disciplinary and institutional contexts. This book was originally published as a special issue of Settler Colonial Studies.

International scholarship over the last twenty years has produced a new understanding of Emile Durkheim as a thinker. It has contributed to reassembling what, for Durkheim, was always a whole: a sociological selection on morals and moral activism. This volume presents an overview of Durkheim's thought and is representative of the best of contemporary Durkheim scholarship.

The development of an international substantive environmental right has long been a contested issue. Concurrently, environmental rights have developed in a fragmented way and to a limited extent through different legal regimes. This book examines the potential for the development of a global environmental right which would create legal duties for all decision-makers relating to the environment and provide the bedrock for a new system of international environmental governance. The book analyses not only traditional international environmental law and human rights law but also the development of corporate law, the development of the GATT and the WTO. It uses this basis to build an understanding of the wider international legal architecture and why that architecture often leads to poor outcomes for the environment. The book summarizes the state of scientific knowledge, as it is this, which drives the justification for legal reform. It also analyses existing systems that have developed within the practice of decision-making processes to demonstrate the role that they can play within new systems of environmental governance. Taking a problem solving approach, the book seeks to demonstrate how straightforward and logical changes to the architecture would solve fundamental problems and argues for the development of a new environmental right that creates clear legal responsibilities for decision-makers, illustrating how governments and institutions would need to adjust to make the changes operative and successful. This problem solving approach extends to the provision of a draft treaty annexed to the book. This innovative and interdisciplinary book is of great interest to students and researchers in international environmental law, environmental politics, environmental economics, and environmental management, as well as those studying more specifically the WTO, international trade law, human rights law, constitutional law and company law.

The development of an international substantive environmental right on a global level has long been a contested issue. To a limited extent environmental rights have developed in a fragmented way through different legal regimes. This book examines the potential for the development of a global environmental right that would create legal duties for all types of decision-makers and provide the bedrock for a new system of international environmental governance. Taking a problem solving approach, the book seeks to demonstrate how straightforward and logical changes to the existing global legal architecture would address some of the fundamental root causes of environmental degradation. It puts forward a draft global environmental right that would integrate duties for both state and non-state actors within reformed systems of environmental governance and a rational framework for business and industry to adhere to in order that those systems could be made operational. It also examines the failures of the existing international climate change regime and explains how the draft global environmental right could remedy existing deficits. This innovative and interdisciplinary book will be of great interest to policy-makers, students and researchers in international environmental law, climate change, environmental politics and global environmental governance as well as those studying the WTO, international trade law, human rights law, constitutional law and corporate law.

International scholarship over the last 20 years has produced a new understanding of Emile Durkheim as a thinker. This book presents the reader with an overview of the best of this scholarship and to provide a taste of research much of which is not available in English elsewhere. Although the essays included reflect a wide range of concerns and styles of thought from the cream of the Durkheim community, there is a startling coherence in the image they present. Durkheim was, from his first reviews to his last written work, a moralist and this collection reconnects the two parts of the man that other writings have generally separated: the institutionalizer or sociologist and the moralist. "Emile Durkheim: Sociologist and Moralist" provides us with a new Durkheim hitherto known only to specialists, that of a utilizer of the insights of sociology for the purpose of intervention into moral development.

Over recent years there has been growing interest in the relations between academic intellectuals and professionals under the Nazi regime. Several works on Heidegger, Nazi doctors and Paul de Man have appeared. This book attempts to do for sociology what has been done for other fields: to demythologize the pre-war role of sociologists and provide a serious historical basis for reflection on it. The myth is simple: that the noble and clear-sighted Frankfurt School was expelled by Hitler and raised the consciousness of the west. The realities are considerably more complex. During and after the war, a consensus account of fascism emerged. But in the inter-war years sociologists misanalyzed, misunderstood or supported fascism. The book examines the historical record in Germany, Austria, Italy, Hungary, the USA and the UK.

We know a lot about the sociology of fascism, but how have sociologists responded to fascism when confronted with it in their own lives? How courageous or compromising have they been? And why has this history been shrouded in silence for so long? In this major work of historical scholarship sociologists from around the world describe and evaluate the reactions of sociologists to the rise and practice of fascism.