Samfundsteori

This book enquires from a sociological perspective into contemporary corporeal transformations brought about by exoskeletal devices.

Drawing on archival research and exploring the correspondence of revolutionary women and activists in the long durée of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Europe and the USA, this book examines the epistolary narratives of women political theorists and activists, following traces of Hannah Arendt's philosophical approaches to love.

Drawing in part on the lived experiences of contributors who have overcome a "street life," Thug Criminology seeks to challenge the traditional scholarship on gangs and their behaviours.

Poland and Taiwan: two parts of the world distant from each other, differing culturally and socially, and yet facing kind of similar challenges in the late 1980s and early 1990s ¿ characterised by the transition from an authoritarian political system to liberal democracy. This book seeks to present the process of democratisation of Poland and Taiwan from the point of view of shared perspectives. Invoking the classical literature of transitology, it is possible to explore similarities and differences between the democratisation of Poland and Taiwan among socioeconomic factors, fragmentation in society, political culture, meso- structures (e.g. political groups, social movements), political institutions, historical and national- identity aspects, and international influences.

This book by Jonathan Turner and Anthony Roberts proposes a new theoretical approach for explaining the dynamics of inter-societal systems. The authors argue that inter-societal systems have existed since the beginning of human societies and the dynamics of these systems are a fundamental property of the social universe. However, while world-systems analysis has emphasized this latter point, the authors argue the reluctance to theorize complex abstract models and systems of explanatory propositions on the dynamics driving inter-societal systems hinders scientific explanation of inter-societal dynamics. In this context, the authors critically look at contemporary theorizing and review key theories that have been developed to explain geo-economic, geo-political, and geo-cultural dynamics, from the classic period through present-day world-systems analysis and cliometrics. The book summarizes these theories clearly, emphasizing their strengths and weakness, finally developing a theoreticalsynthesis through new models and propositions on the dynamics of premodern and modern inter-societal systems.Professor Turner¿s decades of experience writing theory books for undergraduates have ensured that this book presents abstract ideas clearly and with examples so that students can understand the arguments. This book is a must-read for all social theory researchers, academics, serious undergraduate students, graduate students, and interested laypersons.

In 1984, the celebrated sociologist and historian Norbert Elias convened a major conference on ¿Civilisations and civilising processes¿ at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research (University of Bielefeld). Participants included the most distinguished and influential scholars in historical sociology and world history. This book will make available, for the first time in one place, the papers presented by the speakers and, even more interestingly, the transcripts of discussions at the symposium. This conference brought together eminent and internationally reputed scholars of macro-history and historical sociology including Johann P. Arnason, Elias, Hans-Dieter Evers, Johan Goudsblom, Keith Hopkins, William H. McNeill, and Immanuel Wallerstein. This highly informative encounter between various leading scholars of humanity¿s global social history has never before been published, although it was completely recorded on paper and in tape recordings. Its publication in one volume should be an important event for all students of the long-term structural transformations of humanity.

Throughout the South Pacific, notions of 'culture' and 'development' are very much alive-in political debate, the media, sermons, and endless discussions amongst villagers and the urban élites, even in policy reports.

In the face of great challenges, utopian thinking is currently in vogue. The fact that utopias, with their ideas of an idealized target society, are not compatible with the basic features of an Open Society was already pointed out by Karl Popper in his book 'Die Offene Gesellschaft und ihre Feinde' (The Open Society and its Enemies) under the impression of National Socialism and Stalinism. In the present book, further forms of Closed Societies and the principal similarities (and differences) of their construction are examined. This is done by drawing on Ralf Dahrendorf's concept of life chances, in which he deals with the interaction of options and ligatures. The ambivalence of Dahrendorf's understanding of ligatures, since they restrict options on the one hand, but also give them meaning on the other, is resolved by a threefold differentiation: into ethical and moral, internally and externally directed, and explicit and implicit ligatures. While the former are capable of enabling lifechances, the latter tend to limit them. Based on this, the authors elaborate on the landscape (side) consequences of various closed societies and how ill-suited they are for dealing with current challenges.

Every society has their own social rules, norms, regulations and social orders for their smooth functioning of the society. Indian traditional society has its own Hindu social order with hierarchy of varna or caste system emerging from 'Deva Vani' (divinely ordained) enshrined in the Vedas. The framework of the Hindu social order is formed by the Brahmins. They established their position at the top category in the society and others at the bottom category forever. In fact, the position of these castes in the socio-economic and power hierarchy is, by and large, analogous to that in the ritual or religious hierarchy through an asymmetrical caste in nature that are more distinctively visible even today. Indian people practice various rules in their everyday life. But there is lack of unique and single universal social order and system for the better functioning of the society. Social order from the times of Indian traditional society till the twenty first century, the society is functioning according to Hindu social order. There is gradation in the system creating hierarchy and discrimination of the individuals at the bottom. Since Indian society is divided into numerous castes and sub castes, numbering roughly over four thousands, besides the sizable number of tribes and other religious communities. So here it becomes imperative to understand the deprivation part. Therefore sociological analysis are broadly put within the perspective from below. Endorsing the views and experiences of those placed at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Ambedkar philosophy which tries to reconstruct Indian society as egalitarian one. He deconstructed the Hindu social order because certain collectivities of the Indian society were excluded and dominated by others for centuries. And reconstructed a new social order based on democratic values. Ambedkar says ideal society should be mobile, should be full of channels for conveying change taking place in one part to other parts.

The second edition of this influential book addresses how the experiences and claims of non-European ¿others¿ have been rendered invisible to the standard narratives and analytical frameworks of sociological understandings of modernity. In challenging the dominant, Euro-centred accounts of the emergence and development of modernity, Bhambra puts forward an argument for ¿connected histories¿ in the reconstruction of historical sociology at a global level. This updated version of the original, published in 2007, adds a new preface which explores key themes that Bhambra has further developed over the intervening years: specifically, how the rethinking of modernity enables us to reconstruct sociology and a call for a 'reparatory sociology' committed to the repair of the social sciences ¿and the securing of global justice.

Identifying scientism as religion¿s secular counterpart, this collection studies contemporary contestations of the authority of science. These controversies suggest that what we are witnessing today is not an increase in the authority of science at the cost of religion, but a dual decline in the authorities of religion and science alike. This entails an erosion of the legitimacy of universally binding truth claims, be they religiously or scientifically informed. Approaching the issue from a cultural-sociological perspective and building on theories from the sociology of religion, the volume unearths the cultural mechanisms that account for the headwind faced by contemporary science. The empirical contributions highlight how the field of academic science has lost much of its former authority vis-à-vis competing social realms; how political and religious worldviews define particular research findings as favorites while dismissing others; and how much of today¿s distrust of science is directed against scientific institutions and academic scientists rather than against science per se.

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND license. This book offers a theory of trafficking and modern slavery with implications for policy. Despite economic development, modern slavery persists all around the world. The issue is not only one of crime but the regulation of the economy, better welfare, and social protections. Going beyond polarized debates on the sex trade, an original empirical analysis shows the importance of profit-taking. Although individual experience matters, the root causes lie in intersecting regimes of inequality of gender regimes, capitalism, and the legacies of colonialism. This book shows the importance of coercion and the societal complexities that perpetuate modern slavery.

What does a good prison look like? More than eleven million people are currently locked up in prisons across the world, but does that mean that prison actually works? The answer usually depends on what people believe and feel about crime, punishment and what happens inside prisons. The deep social and personal impact of prisons demands that we try to search for a better understanding of the evidence and ideas that have made prisons so ubiquitous. Hindpal Singh Bhui, with 25 years' experience of visiting and working in prisons worldwide, argues that we need to look at who is sent there and why, to disentangle reality from ideology and myth. Introducing the competing histories of prisons and allowing the voices of prisoners, prison staff and victims to be heard, he asks whether there is a better way to achieve what society wants from its prisons.

The idea of public sociology, as introduced by Michael Burawoy, was inspired by the sociological practice in South Africa known as 'critical engagement'. This volume explores the evolution of critical engagement before and after Burawoy's visit to South Africa in the 1990s and offers a Southern critique of his model of public sociology. Involving four generations of researchers from the Global South, the authors provide a multifaceted exploration of the formation of new knowledge through research practices of co-production. Tracing the historical development of 'critical engagement' from a Global South perspective, the book deftly weaves a bridge between the debates on public sociology and decolonial frameworks.

" Aux officiers de demain, dites que, s'ils ont placé leur idéal dans une carrière de guerres et d'aventures, ce n'est pas chez nous qu'il faut poursuivre ; ils ne l'y trouveront plus : arrachez-leur cette illusion avant les déceptions tardives. Mais donnez-leur cette conception féconde du rôle moderne de l'officier devenu l'éducateur de la nation entière. " Ainsi s'exprime Lyautey dans le célèbre article paru en 1891 dans la Revue des Deux Mondes. Aussitôt connues, ces pages obtiennent un écho considérable. Les principes d'action présentés sont toujours d'actualité. L'essai de Lyautey se situe dans le registre psychologique et moral de la préparation du soldat et futur combattant, en s'attachant à la dimension pédagogique de l'instruction, au rôle des cadres en vue d'augmenter la valeur de la troupe. Le principe général étant de dégager la finalité pour tous afin d'améliorer le rendement par l'adhésion raisonnée des cadres et des recrues. L'armée peut assurer pour la nation, dépassant même lors du temps de paix, la seule mission de préparation à la guerre, un rôle plus général et plus humain, celui d'une école de formation pour le pays tout entier.Pour Lyautey, c'est la finalité qui doit subordonner les moyens aux buts. Il faut élever les âmes, former les caractères, éduquer les hommes, être plus un manieur d'hommes qu'un meneur d'hommes, tendre la main aux hommes et capter, susciter leur confiance. Dans tous les domaines il faut avoir des méthodes rationnelles et souples, garder le sens de l'action et être animé par le sens du devoir social.Dans son introduction, Alain Larcan revient sur les circonstances de la publication de ce texte, sur le contexte politique et sur le retentissement important qu'il provoqua en son temps.

Despite their many disagreements when it comes to the subject of capitalism, Marxist and market-liberal perspectives seem to agree about one thing: the economic structures of capitalist market society have made direct violence against the person not only superfluous, but economically counterproductive. Heide Gerstenberger's Market and Violence does not contest the thesis that there has been, in many places, a decline in the use of violence in the pursuit of profit. But it demolishes the assumption that this can be put down to the evolution of economic rationality.By means of a deep engagement with the concrete historical reality of capitalist economies, Gerstenberger establishes that, wherever capitalism has been tamed, this has been achieved only by a combination of energetic social contestation and political intervention. First published in German in 2018, the present English-language edition makes a sweeping history of capitalist violence by one of the preeminent theorists of capitalist society working today available to a wider readership.Winner of the 2023 Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize.

Emphasizing imaginaries as an essential tool in deep understanding of social phenomena, the essays in this volume address socio-anthropological environments; collective dynamics of social integration; mass media metamorphosis; politics legitimation processes; symbolic dimension of economics and material culture; and representation of otherness.

Il mito del progresso è stata una delle più grandi invenzioni della ModernitàSolo che, a un certo punto, questo movimento sì è interrotto. Pochi hanno riflettuto su una circostanza: la capacità sì creativa, ma insieme distruttiva delle forze scatenate dai processi di modernizzazione.In questo volume collettivo, che raccoglie solo un primo punto d'arrivo, preliminare e incompleto, si cerca di render conto delle riflessioni emerse in questi anni dal dibattito su questi temi - informale, ma anche sfociato a volte nella ufficialità del discorso accademico - su cui si spera di attrarre l'attenzione da parte di altri che, come gli autori dei contributi qui raccolti, operano negli stessi campi.

A NEW PHILOSOPHY OF EMANCIPATION IN A COMMON WORLD

The Frankfurt School's own legacy is best preserved by exercising an immanent critique of its premises and the conclusions to which they often led. By distinguishing between what is still and what is no longer alive in Critical Theory, these essays seek to demonstrate its continuing relevance in the 21st century.

Five mysterious billionaires summoned Douglas Rushkoff to a desert resort for a private talk. The subject? How to survive the "Event": the societal collapse they know is coming. Rushkoff argues that these men were under the influence of The Mindset, a Silicon Valley-style certainty that they and their cohort can escape a disaster of their own making-as long as they have enough money and the right technology.Rushkoff traces the origins of The Mindset in science and technology through its current expression in missions to Mars, island bunkers, AI futurism, and the metaverse. Through fascinating characters-master programmers who want to remake the world as if redesigning a video game and bankers who return from Burning Man convinced incentivized capitalism will prevent environmental disasters-Rushkoff explains why those with the most power to change the world have no interest in doing so. He argues that the only way to survive the coming catastrophe is to ensure it doesn't happen by rediscovering community, mutual aid, and human interdependency.Anticipating the mass layoffs and institutional collapse that have recently rocked Silicon Valley, Rushkoff's Survival of the Richest is "a necessary and timely read" (Los Angeles Review of Books) with a prophetic message about the future of tech and our human community.

The monograph analyses the concept of creative society. The main themes are as follows: culture industry and creative industries, management of creativity, creative ecology, regions of creativity, political aspects of creativity, technologies in the creative society, the problems of an empirical approach towards creativity, and creative phenomenology.