Samfundsteori

This volume aims to remedy this deficit by introducing Peträycki¿s life and work specifically to an English-speaking audience.

Explores a wide range of social problems in the UK using a range of psychosocial theories to generate an understanding of various causal factors and to examine the linkages between different social problems. Government policy and legislation, remedial measures, preventive approaches, and strategies of intervention are also considered.

The world we live in today is more volatile than ever. The security of free nations is threatened by rogue states, the global economy is in flux, and the rapid advance of technology forces constant reevaluation of our society. With so many powerful forces at work and seemingly unpredictable events occurring, to many the future seems dark, and its possibilities frightening.Peter Schwartz disagrees. A world-renowned visionary in the field of scenario planning, Schwartz's startling-and accurate- predictions have been employed by government agencies and major corporations for more than twenty-five years. He argues that the future is foreseeable, and that by examining the dynamics at work today we can predict the "inevitable surprises" of tomorrow.Timely and thought-provoking, Inevitable Surprises is a book that no one with an interest in business-or the future of our society-can afford to miss.

In this brilliant work, the most influential philosopher since Sartre suggests that such vaunted reforms as the abolition of torture and the emergence of the modern penitentiary have merely shifted the focus of punishment from the prisoner's body to his soul.

In a world shattered by distrust and upheaval, "Echoes of Faith: Resonance in the Trustless Era, Rebuilding Hope and Connection" beckons readers into a mesmerizing journey of redemption and renewal. Delve into the heart of a society torn asunder by betrayal, where echoes of shattered faith reverberate through every corner. From the ashes of despair emerge tales of courage, resilience, and the unyielding power of the human spirit.Follow the intertwined destinies of Sarah, Mark, and Elena as they navigate the treacherous terrain of a world on the brink of collapse. Through their eyes, witness the tumultuous aftermath of the trustless era, where rebuilding isn't just about bricks and mortar-it's about rebuilding the very fabric of trust that binds us together.From the corridors of power to the streets of everyday life, "Echoes of Faith" explores the intricate dance of trust and betrayal, hope and despair. Journey alongside our characters as they grapple with the consequences of their choices, confront their inner demons, and ultimately find redemption in the most unexpected of places.But beware, for danger lurks in the shadows, and not everyone is who they seem. As secrets are unearthed and alliances tested, the true cost of trust becomes painfully clear. Will our heroes emerge victorious, or will they succumb to the darkness that threatens to engulf them?With its captivating storytelling, richly drawn characters, and thought-provoking themes, "Echoes of Faith" is a spellbinding tale that will leave readers breathless and yearning for more. Prepare to be transported to a world where trust is currency, and redemption is the ultimate prize.

An impassioned philosophical celebration of the multiple dimensions of contemporary cuteness.Involuntarily sucked into the forcefield of Cute, Amy Ireland and Maya B. Kronic decided to let go, give in, let the demon ride them, and make an accelerationism out of it—only to realize that Cute opens a microcosmic gate onto the transcendental process of acceleration itself.Joining the swarming e-girls, t-girls, NEETS, anons, and otaku who rescued accelerationism from the double pincers of media panic and academic buzzkill by introducing it to big eyes, fluffy ears, programming socks, and silly memes, they discover that the objects of cute culture are just spinoffs of an accelerative process booping us from the future, rendering us all submissive, breedable, helpless, and cute in our turn. Cute comes tomorrow, and only anastrophe can make sense of what it will have been doing to us.Evading all discipline, sliding across all possible surfaces, Cute Accelerationism embraces every detail of the symptomatology, aetiology, epidemiology, history, biology, etymology, topology, and even embryology of Cute, joyfully burrowing down into its natural, cultural, sensory, sexual, subjective, erotic, and semiotic dimensions in order to sound out the latent spaces of this Thing that has soft-soaped its way into human culture.Traversing tangents on natural and unnatural selection, runaway supernormalisation, the collective self-transformation of genderswarming cuties, the hyperstitional cultures of shojo and otaku, denpa and 2D love, and the cute subworlds of aegyo and meng, moé and flatmaxxing, catboys and dogon eggs, bobbles and gummies, vore machines and partial objects, BwOs and UwUs…glomping, snuggling, smooshing and squeeeeing their way toward the event horizon of Cute, donning cat ears and popping bubbles as they go, in this untimely philosophical intensification of an omnipresent phenomenon, having surrendered to the squishiest demonic possession, like, ever, two bffs set out in search of the transcendental shape of cuteness only to realize that, even though it is all around us, we do not yet know what Cute can do.Seriously superficial and bafflingly coherent, half erudite philosophical treatise, half dariacore mashup, 100 percent cutagion, this compact lil’ textual machine is a meltdown and a glow up, as well as a twizzled homage to Deleuze and Guattari’s A Thousand Plateaus. Welcome to the kawaiizome: nothing uncute makes it out of the near future, and the cute will very soon no longer be even remotely human.

Pandemics ¿ it seems that it had been the beginning of a new era, after a first shock wave a new normality commenced trying to, repress the complex challenges while living under a new Sword of Damocles. Origins and consequences of the virus had been frequently issued, but only little attention had been paid to structural problems of societies, making it difficult to cope with the exceptional situation. The present book, focusing on the German polity and its structural weakness, analysis the situation in a historical perspective. It is completed by an essayist globalist outlook on the pandemics.The provocative thesis is that the precarity of society is itself a kind of virus, in many ways as dangerous as the Corona virus. The latter one showed the weak ¿ and dangerous ¿ points of the failure of the polity that need urgent and thorough political answers.

Left Imperialism traces the origin of many standard political terms--like "left-wing" and "right-wing"--from their inception to the present through all their perturbations. It examines in distinctive detail political movements like Conservatism, Fascism, Liberalism, Marxism, Anarchism, and many more, from as far away as Cardinal Richelieu's epoch through World War II and into the present. The book's narrative has one overriding theme: the evolution of freedom.

Oligarchy is a threat to the republic. Joseph Fishkin and William Forbath show that, for most of US history, Americans saw the Constitution as responding to that threat by imposing on legislators a duty to break up oligarchy, block corporate political power, and ensure a broad distribution of wealth and political power among ordinary Americans.

This book combines pieces of work on Europe and Latin America, the two continents where football arouses the most ardent passions among its spectators. Curiously, an undertaking to compare on a large scale the forms extreme fandom takes in these two geographical areas is still lacking. A situational analysis of the scientific literature devoted to the subject over the last two or three decades represents a step in this direction, making a scattered store of knowledge accessible. It thus answers a need to clarify regional differences in identities and in the practices of supporters.

Nepotism is one of those social habits we all claim to deplore in America; it offends our sense of fair play and our pride in living in a meritocracy. But somehow nepotism prevails; we all want to help our own and a quick glance around reveals any number of successful families whose sons and daughters have gone on to accomplish objectively great things, even if they got a little help from their parents.In this wide-ranging, surprising, and eloquently argued book, Adam Bellow takes a pragmatic and erudite look at the innate human inclination toward nepotism. From ancient Chinese clans to the papal lineages of the Renaissance, to American families like the Gores, Kennedys, and Bushes, Bellow explores how nepotism has produced both positive and negative effects throughout history. As he argues, nepotism practiced badly or haphazardly is an embarrassment to all (including the incompetent beneficiary), but nepotism practiced well can satisfy a deep biological urge to provide for our children and even benefit society as a whole. In Praise of Nepotism is a judicious look at a controversial but timeless subject that has never been explored with such depth or candor, and a fascinating natural history of how families work.

For all of the technical explanations for meltdown in the financial markets during the banking crisis, the most readily accepted and almost universal explanation is the single word 'greed'. This is a subject which can at once be seen as the disease at the heart of society and the motivating force behind the progress of mankind.

Social forms of religion are communally productive at the same time as they enable individual religious experiences. The contributors to this volume test that argument by examining different social forms Christianity in Europe and the Americas has taken in past and present. They show that these social forms - the ways in which individuals and collectives coordinate to practice their religion - are expressions of religious change on the one hand, and, on the other, also set change in motion and have contributed to growth and decline of various Christian traditions in their respective broader >religious field

Interlinks Gilles Deleuze's critical philosophy with Niklas Luhmann's systems theory to unpack contemporary democratic politics as a contest for complexity-reducing orientation in sense.

How can one speak and act in ways that overcome entrenched social conflicts? In polarized societies, some insist that the survival of democracy depends on people abiding by rules of civility and mutual respect. Others argue that the political situation is so dire that one's values need to be fought for by any means necessary. Across the political spectrum, people feel like they need to choose between the morality of dialogue and the effectiveness of protest. Beyond Civility in Social Conflict makes an important intervention in this debate. Taking insights from nonviolent direct action, it provides a model for advocacy that is both compassionate and critical. Successful communicators can help their opponents by dismantling the illusions and unjust systems that impede human flourishing and pit people against one another. The final chapter turns specifically to Christian ethics, and what it means to 'love your enemies' by disagreeing with them.

The Covid-19 pandemic and the disruptions of climate change are features of post-normal times. In Sociology in Post-Normal Times, Charles Thorpe contends that the modern project of creating normalcy within the nation state has broken down. Integral to this is sociology, which is the science of social reform. Drawing from the work of seminal theorists such as Zygmunt Bauman and Anthony Giddens, Thorpe contends that sociologys ';society' is no longer viable because globalization has put an end to social reform, thus the assumptions and goals of sociology must be left behind in order to create a new global humanity. In the face of the pandemic and climate change, Sociology in Post-Normal Times demands no less than the birth of a global humanity beyond nation states as the precondition for human survival.

Tracing the complexity and contradictory nature of work throughout history

Liminality: the state of being 'betwixt and between' is one of anthropology's most influential concepts. This volume reconsiders Victor Turner's innovative extension of Arnold Van Gennep's concept of liminality from within the Manchester tradition of Social Anthropology established by Max Gluckman. Turner's work was grounded in ethnography and engaged with philosophical perspectives in varied socio-historical contexts, extending well-beyond the confines of the anthropology that initially inspired much of his work. Liminality has therefore become a concept with broad interdisciplinary reach. Engaging with topical issues across the globe - from neuroscience to open access publishing and refugee experiences in Europe - this volume launches Turner's fundamental work into the future.

Showcasing conceptually innovative work and cutting-edge methods related to the study of families, this volume presents not just a groundbreaking perspective on disability and family life, but also a new paradigm in disability scholarship.

Drawing on affect theory and the key themes of attachment, disruption and belonging, this book examines the ways in which our placed surroundings - whether urban design, border management or organisations - shape and form experiences of gender. Bringing together key debates across the fields of sociology, geography and organisation studies, the book sets out new theoretical ground to examine and consolidate shared experiences of what it means to be in or out of place. Contributors explore how our gendered selves encounter place, and critically examine the way in which experiences of gender shape meanings and attachments, as well as how place produces gendered modes of identity, inclusion and belonging. Emphasizing the intertwined dynamics of affect and being affected, the book examines the gendering of place and the placing of gender.

The book consists of four chapters. The first one contains information about the topic which introduce the project's characteristics, and, at the same time, provide the background for further theoretical and methodological reflection. The second chapter contains a list of research problems and questions, a presentation of the philosophical worldviews (research paradigms) of the project team who guided the planned research and which resulted in the adoption of research strategies compatible with them, and, consequently, procedures and techniques for obtaining source materials and their analysis. In the third chapter, we present a set of terms, ideas, and concepts which inspired the project team as useful tools for describing and analysing the phenomenon under study. The fourth chapter is a kind of ligature that binds together all the previous findings, it is a summary of integrating ideas, concepts, as well as the adopted research procedures and techniques.

This book provides solid sociological foundations to computational social science (CSS). CSS is an emerging research field, and many books with those words in the title are on the market. However, CSS has not become mainstream in sociology, for which there are two reasons. First, CSS does not necessarily solve major research questions in sociology. Second, its sociological foundations are weak. These two reasons are interrelated¿that is, CSS cannot solve major research questions because its sociological foundations are weak. Thus, even if it tries to solve those questions, its approaches seem to mainstream sociologists to miss the point. To resolve that shortcoming, this book fills the gap between CSS and sociology, shows that CSS can solve major research questions in sociology, and advances sociology by introducing to it theories and methodologies of CSS.

Putting at work a negative pedagogy centered around learning from unlearning, problematizes and boldly challenges today's culturalist discourses, camouflaged racisms, and masked fascisms.

"An exploration of how investing in relational work and transformational relationships can make us happier and healthier"--

Anthropologists working in Italy are at the forefront of scholarship on several topics including migration, far-right populism, organised crime and heritage. This book heralds an exciting new frontier by bringing together some of the leading ethnographers of Italy and placing together their contributions into the broader realm of anthropological history, culture and new perspectives in Europe.

Taking inspiration from the bold, powerful, and experimental work of black artists and activists, Natalie Wall forges an alternative narrative that strives for freedom and justice without relinquishing anything in return. It is your indispensable guide to remaining ungrateful.