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Explorations In Social Theory
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Book Synopsis The Body and Society by : Bryan S Turner
Download or read book The Body and Society written by Bryan S Turner and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2008-04-18 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This truly deserves to be considered a classic and I strongly encourage my students to read it from cover to cover. Turner′s work on the body needs to be considered in its own right within courses on the sociology of the body." - Dr Robert Meadows, Surrey University "Remains the foundational text for courses in the sociology of the body, replete with insights and a depth of analysis that has largely inspired an entire new area of studies across the social sciences." - Dr Michael Drake, Hull University "This is THE contemporary text for both academics and students exploring the sociology of the body." - Jessica Clark, University Campus Suffolk This is a fully revised edition of a book that may fairly claim to have re-opened the sociology of the body as a legitimate area of enquiry. Providing an unparalleled guide to all aspects of the subject, each chapter has been revised and updated while the book contains new material that reflects both recent changes in the field and Turner′s developing position on the centrality of vulnerability. Assured and innovative, this book provides the most authoritative statement of work on the sociology of the body by one of the leading writers in the field.
Book Synopsis Explorations in Classical Sociological Theory by : Kenneth Allan
Download or read book Explorations in Classical Sociological Theory written by Kenneth Allan and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2016-09-22 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Praised for its conversational tone, personal examples, and helpful pedagogical tools, the Fourth Edition of Explorations in Classical Sociological Theory: Seeing the Social World is organized around the modern ideas of progress, knowledge, and democracy. With this historical thread woven throughout the chapters, the book examines the works and intellectual contributions of major classical theorists, including Marx, Spencer, Durkheim, Weber, Mead, Simmel, Martineau, Gilman, Douglass, Du Bois, Parsons, and the Frankfurt School. Kenneth Allan and new co-author Sarah Daynes focus on the specific views of each theorist, rather than schools of thought, and highlight modernity and postmodernity to help contemporary readers understand how classical sociological theory applies to their lives.
Book Synopsis Explorations in Social Theory by : George Ritzer
Download or read book Explorations in Social Theory written by George Ritzer and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2001-04-10 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: George Ritzer is one of the leading social and cultural commentators of the present day. In this essential new book he considers some of the main tendencies in contemporary social theory. Included here are Ritzer′s latest reflections on the uses and misuses of metatheory. According to Ritzer, sociology is a multiparadigm science. The differences and intensities of rivalries between paradigms are often very confusing for students and even for professional sociologists. This book seeks to find a way out of the confusion by sketching out the lineaments of a new integrated sociological paradigm and demonstrates how this paradigm can be applied. It shows the various ways in which Ritzer has developed rationalization theory to shed light on professional integration, the shape of consumer culture, hyperrationality and the state of sociology today.
Book Synopsis The Body and Social Theory by : Professor Chris Shilling
Download or read book The Body and Social Theory written by Professor Chris Shilling and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2003-03-27 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Praise for the First Edition: `Essential to any collection of work on the body, health and illness, or social theory' - Choice `Sophisticated ... and acutely perceptive of the importance of the complex dialectic between social institutions, culture and biological conditions' - Times Higher Education Supplement `Chris Shilling has done us all a splendid service in bringing together and illustrating the tremendous diversity and richness of sociological thinking on the topic of human embodiment and its implications' - Sociological Review This updated edition of the bestselling text retains all the strengths of the first edition. Chris Shilling: provides a critical survey of the field; demonstrates how developments in diet, sexuality, reproductive technology, genetic engineering and sports science have made the body a site for social alternatives and individual choices; and elucidates the practical uses of theory in striking and accessible ways. In addition, new, original material: explores the latest feminist, phenomenological and action-oriented approaches to the body; examines the latest work on `body projects' and the relationship between the body and self-identity; and outlines a compelling theoretical framework that provides a radical basis for the consolidation of body studies.
Book Synopsis Introducing Social Theory by : Pip Jones
Download or read book Introducing Social Theory written by Pip Jones and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2017-11-27 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This revised edition of this extremely popular introduction to social theory has been carefully and thoroughly updated with the latest developments in this continually changing field. Written in a refreshingly lucid and engaging style, Introducing Social Theory provides readers with a wide-ranging, well organized and thematic introduction to all the major thinkers, issues and debates in classical and contemporary social theory. Introducing Social Theory traces the development of social theorizing from the classical ideas about modernity of Durkheim, Marx and Weber, right up to a uniquely accessible review of the contemporary theoretical controversies in sociology that surround post-colonialism, gender and feminist theories, and public sociology. The ideal textbook for students of sociology at all levels, from A-level to undergraduates, Introducing Social Theory is remarkably easy to follow and understand. This new edition lives up to its predecessors' goal that students need never be intimidated by social theory again.
Book Synopsis Self, Social Structure, and Beliefs by : Jeffrey C. Alexander
Download or read book Self, Social Structure, and Beliefs written by Jeffrey C. Alexander and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2004-09-20 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is an exploration of the creative work done by leading sociologists who were inspired by the scholarship of Neil Smelser.
Book Synopsis Explorations in Economic Sociology by : Richard Swedberg
Download or read book Explorations in Economic Sociology written by Richard Swedberg and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 1993-08-19 with total page 477 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the mid-1980s, as public discourse has focused increasingly on the troubled economy, many social scientists have argued the need for more analysis of the social relationships that undergird economic life. The original essays in Explorations in Economic Sociology represent the most important work in this renewed field and employ a rich variety of research methods—theoretical, ethnographic, and historical—to illustrate its key concerns. Explorations in Economic Sociology forges innovative social theories of such economic institutions as money, markets, and industry. Although traditional economists have identified markets as driven solely by the forces of supply and demand, social factors frequently intervene. Sales at auction are determined not simply by a seller's personal knowledge of customers. Shareholder attitudes and employee organization influence everything from the way firms borrow money to the way corporate performance is measured. Firms themselves operate in social networks in which trust is a crucial factor in settling the terms for cooperation or competition. Throughout the essays in this volume, the contributors point the way to developing a more healthy economy by fostering productive industrial networks, avoiding disintegration at management levels, and anticipating the consequences of the shift from manufacturing to service industries. Explorations in Economic Sociology is a pioneering work that bridges the gap between social theory and economic analysis and demonstrates the importance of this union in achieving an effective understanding of economic issues. The book should stimulate new interest in economic sociology by bringing together many of its most fundamental voices.
Book Synopsis Social Representations by : Serge Moscovici
Download or read book Social Representations written by Serge Moscovici and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Serge Moscovici first introduced the concept of social representations into contemporary social psychology nearly forty years ago. Since then the theory has become one of the predominant approaches in social psychology, not only in Europe, but increasingly in the United States as well. While Moscovici's work has spread broadly across the discipline, notably through his contributions to the study of minority influences and the psychology of crowds, the study of social representations has continued to provide the central focus for one of the most distinctive and original voices in social psychology today.
Book Synopsis Dynamic Embodiment for Social Theory by : Brenda Farnell
Download or read book Dynamic Embodiment for Social Theory written by Brenda Farnell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-02-27 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a series of ontological investigations into an adequate theory of embodiment for the social sciences. Informed by a new realist philosophy of causal powers, it seeks to articulate a concept of dynamic embodiment, one that positions human body movement, and not just ‘the body’ at the heart of theories of social action. It draws together several lines of thinking in contemporary social science: about the human body and its movements; adequate meta-theoretical explanations of agency and causality in human action; relations between moving and talking; skill and the formation of knowledge; metaphor, perception and the senses; movement literacy; the constitution of space and place, and narrative performance. This is an ontological inquiry that is richly grounded in, and supported by anthropological ethnographic evidence. Using the work of Rom Harré, Roy Bhaskar, Charles Varela and Drid Williams this book applies causal powers theory to a revised ontology of personhood, and discusses why the adequate location of human agency is crucial for the social sciences. The breakthrough lies in fact that new realism affords us an account of embodied human agency as a generative causal power that is grounded in our corporeal materiality, thereby connecting natural/physical and cultural worlds. Dynamic Embodiment for Social Theory is compelling reading for students and academics of the social sciences, especially anthropologists and sociologists of ‘the body’, and those interested in new developments in critical realism.
Book Synopsis Explorations in the Sociology of Consumption by : George Ritzer
Download or read book Explorations in the Sociology of Consumption written by George Ritzer and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2001-06-04 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, one of the leading social theorists and cultural commentators of modern times, turns his gaze on consumption. George Ritzer, author of the famous McDonaldization Thesis, demonstrates the irrational consequences of the rational desire to consume and commodify. He examines how McDonaldization might be resisted, and situates the reader in the new cultural spaces that are emerging in society: shopping malls, casino hotels, Disneyfied theme parks and Las Vegas -- the new `cathedrals of consumption' as he calls them. The book shows how new processes of consumption relate to globalization theory. In illuminating discussions of the work of Thorstein Veblen and the French situationists, Ritzer unearths the roots of problems of consumption in older sociological traditions. He indicates how transgression is bound up with consumption, through an investigation of the obscene in popular and postmodern culture.
Download or read book On Society written by Anthony Elliott and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-08-26 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘Society' is one of the most frequently used words in public life; it is also a foundational term in the social sciences. In our own time, however, the idea has never been so much in dispute and so little understood. For some critics, society is simply too consensual for a world of intensive discord. For others, the idea of ‘society' is oppressive - the very notion, so some argue, is dismissive of the infinite social differences that shape global realities. In this erudite and original book, two of the world's leading social theorists focus on unravelling the different meanings of society as a way of introducing the reader to contemporary debates in social theory. The authors argue provocatively that all ideas of society can be assigned to one of three analytical categories, or some combination of these - structure, solidarity or creation - and develop a fresh characterization of the nature of the social as a means of understanding global transformations. By integrating abstract problems of social theory with empirical examples and political analysis, On Society provides lucid interpretations of classical and contemporary social theory. The book also critiques recent social theories that simply equate the demise of society with globalization, the communications revolution or multiculturalism, and in so doing provides an original insight into today's world.
Book Synopsis Sociological Realism by : Andrea Maccarini
Download or read book Sociological Realism written by Andrea Maccarini and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2011-03-28 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sociological Realism presents a clear and updated discussion of the main tenets and issues of social theory, written by some of the top scholars within the critical realist and relational approach. It connects such approaches systematically to other strands of thought that are central in contemporary sociology, like systems theory and rational choice theory. Divided into three parts, social ontology, sociological theory, and methodology, each part includes a systematic presentation, a comment, and a wider discussion by the editors, thereby taking on the form of a dialogue among experts. This book is a uniquely blended and consistent conversation showing the convergence of European social theory on a critical realist and relational way of thinking. This volume is extremely important both for teaching purposes and for all those scholars who wish to get a fresh perspective on some deep dynamics of contemporary sociology.
Book Synopsis Relational Sociology by : Pierpaolo Donati
Download or read book Relational Sociology written by Pierpaolo Donati and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-07-12 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘Simultaneous invention’ has become commonplace in the natural sciences, but is still virtually unknown within the sphere of social science. The convergence of two highly compatible versions of Critical Realism from two independent sources is a striking exception. Pierpaolo Donati’s Relational Sociology develops ‘upwards’ from sociology into a Realist meta-theory, unlike Roy Baskhar’s philosophy of science that works ‘downwards’ and ‘underlabours’ for the social sciences. This book systematically introduces Donati’s Relational Sociology to an English readership for the first time since he began to advance his approach thirty years ago. In this eagerly awaited book, Pierpaolo Donati shifts the focus of sociological theory onto the relational order at all levels. He argues that society is constituted by the relations people create with one another, their emergent properties and powers, and internal and external causal effects. Relational Sociology provides a distinctive variant upon the Realist theoretical conspectus, especially because of its ability to account for social integration. It will stimulate debate amongst realists themselves and, of course, with the adversaries of realism. It is a valuable new resource for students of social theory and practising social theorists.
Book Synopsis Utopia: Social Theory and the Future by : Keith Tester
Download or read book Utopia: Social Theory and the Future written by Keith Tester and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-02-17 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the light of globalization's failure provide the universal panacea expected by some of its more enthusiastic proponents, and the current status of neo-liberalism in Europe, a search has begun for alternative visions of the future; alternatives to the free market and to rampant capitalism. Indeed, although these alternatives may not be conceived of in terms of being a 'perfect order', there does appear to be a trend towards 'utopian thinking', as people - including scholars and intellectuals - search for inspiration and visions of better futures. If, as this search continues, it transpires that politics has little to offer, then what might social theory have to contribute to the imagination of these futures? Does social theory matter at all? What resources can it offer this project of rethinking the future? Without being tied to any single political platform, Utopia: Social Theory and the Future explores some of these questions, offering a timely and sustained attempt to make social theory relevant through explorations of its resources and possibilities for utopian imaginations. It is often claimed that utopian thought has no legitimate place whatsoever in sociological thinking, yet utopianism has remained part and parcel of social theory for centuries. As such, in addition to considering the role of social theory in the imagination of alternative futures, this volume reflects on how social theory may assist us in understanding and appreciating utopia or utopianism as a special topic of interest, a special subject matter, a special analytical focus or a special normative dimension of sociological thinking. Bringing together the latest work from a leading team of social theorists, this volume will be of interest to sociologists, social and political theorists, anthropologists and philosophers.
Book Synopsis Social Theory and Education by : Raymond Allen Morrow
Download or read book Social Theory and Education written by Raymond Allen Morrow and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1995-03-09 with total page 540 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book summarizes and critiques theories of social and cultural reproduction as they relate to sociology of education.
Book Synopsis Key Concepts in Classical Social Theory by : Alex Law
Download or read book Key Concepts in Classical Social Theory written by Alex Law and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2011-01-19 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book's individual entries introduce, explain and contextualise the key topics within classical social theory. Definitions, summaries and key words are developed throughout with careful cross-referencing allowing students to move effortlessly between core ideas and themes. Each entry provides: ' Clear definitions ' Lucid accounts of key issues ' Up-to-date suggestions for further reading ' Informative cross-referencing Relevant, focused and accessible this book will provide students with an...
Book Synopsis Rethinking Social Theory by : Roger Sibeon
Download or read book Rethinking Social Theory written by Roger Sibeon and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2004-03-27 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Identifies and explores unresolved controversies and ambiguities in present day sociological theorizing.