Print Titles
Society Explained by
Society Explained introduces students to key concepts in sociology through engaging narrative examples. After an overview of the history of sociology, the book walks readers through subjects that include individualism; culture; socialization and imagination; values, money, and politics; marriage and family; religious diversity; and education and social change. Nathan Rousseau engages readers with personal examples and those drawn from wider society. Each chapter covers leading thinkers and critical concepts, and chapters build on each other to helps readers acquire a holistic view of society and their role in it. This concise book is an ideal introduction to the sociological imagination.
ISBN: 9781442207103Publication Date: 2014-03-27
Harold Garfinkel by
This book is a concise intellectual biography of Harold Garfinkel, a key figure in 20th-century social science. Garfinkel is practically synonymous with ethnomethodology, an approach that since the 1960s has led to major analytic and methodological developments in sociology and other disciplines. This introduction to Garfinkel explores how he developed ethnomethodology under the influence of Talcott Parsons and Alfred Schutz, situates it within sociology generally, and demonstrates its important influence on recent developments in the discipline, particularly the sociology of science and technology, gender studies, organization studies, and the computer sciences. The book will be of wide interest in the social sciences and a useful supplement to courses on intellectual history and methodology.
ISBN: 9781611329803Publication Date: 2014-05-15
An Age of Limits by
In this ambitious and bold book, Ralph Schroeder develops a new social theory centred on the notion of limits. The current era, from the 1970s onwards, has seen a departure from the three defining trends of the modern age: the struggle for social citizenship rights, the disembedding of markets, and the transformation of nature. Based on a comparative-historical analysis, the book argues that there are now similar constraints on social development throughout the global North and beyond. These constraints include the waning of conflicts driving the extension and deepening of rights, the instability of increasing financialization, and the progressive lack of control over the exploitation of natural resources. The key challenge for social theory therefore lies in identifying the cleavages between the dominant political, economic and cultural powers, and countervailing forces that can potentially overcome them. The book explores several advanced Western democracies in depth, as well as China and India. It will fundamentally challenge our theoretical understanding of contemporary societies and their dynamics.
ISBN: 9780230360600Publication Date: 2013-07-09
Classical and Contemporary Sociological Theory by
Classical and Contemporary Sociological Theory is a "hybrid" between a core textbook and a primary source reader. This book builds on the authors' Sociological Theory in the Classical Era and Sociological Theory in the Contemporary Era, to combine the major writings of sociology's core classical and contemporary theorists with an historical and theoretical framework for understanding them. It provides not just a biographical and theoretical summary of each theorist/reading, but, in addition, an overarching scaffolding which students can use to examine, compare, and contrast each theorists' major themes and concepts. No other theory text combines such "student-friendly" explanation and analysis with original theoretical works.
ISBN: 9781412992336Publication Date: 2011-08-08
Gale eBooks
eBooks
Writing for Social Scientists by
Students and researchers all write under pressure, and those pressuresmost lamentably, the desire to impress your audience rather than to communicate with themoften lead to pretentious prose, academic posturing, and, not infrequently, writers block. Sociologist Howard S. Becker has written the classic book on how to conquer these pressures and simply write. First published nearly twenty years ago, Writing for Social Scientists has become a lifesaver for writers in all fields, from beginning students to published authors. Beckers message is clear: in order to learn how to write, take a deep breath and then begin writing. Revise. Repeat. It is not always an easy process, as Becker wryly relates. Decades of teaching, researching, and writing have given him plenty of material, and Becker neatly exposes the foibles of academia and its publish or perish atmosphere. Wordiness, the passive voice, inserting a the way in which when a simple how will doall these mechanisms are a part of the social structure of academic writing. By shrugging off such impedimentsor at the very least, putting them aside for a few hourswe can reform our work habits and start writing lucidly without worrying about grades, peer approval, or the literature.In this new edition, Becker takes account of major changes in the computer tools available to writers today, and also substantially expands his analysis of how academic institutions create problems for them. As competition in academia grows increasingly heated, Writing for Social Scientists will provide solace to a new generation of frazzled, would-be writers.
ISBN: 9780226041377Publication Date: 2007-01-01
50 Key Sociologists by
Covering the life, work, ideas and impact of some of the most significant thinkers in sociology, Fifty Key Sociologists: The Formative Theorists concentrates on figures in the field writing principally in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Including entries on Jane Addams, Theodor Adorno, George Lukács, Max Weber and Pitrim Sorokin, this practical text: is presented in an accessible A-Z format for maximum ease-of-use provides full cross-referencing and a further reading section for each entry, in order to allow the reader to broaden their understanding of the area includes biographical data for each of the figures covered. Presenting the key works and ideas of each sociologist featured, as well as providing some critical assessment of their work, this is an ideal reference guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students of sociology, cultural studies and general studies, as well as other readers interested in this important field.
ISBN: 9780203117279Publication Date: 2006-10-01
Philosophy of Anthropology and Sociology by
This volume concerns philosophical issues that arise from the practice of anthropology and sociology. The essays cover a wide range of issues, including traditional questions in the philosophy of social science as well as those specific to these disciplines. Authors attend to the historical development of the current debates and set the stage for future work. · Comprehensive survey of philosophical issues in anthropology and sociology · Historical discussion of important debates · Applications to current research in anthropology and sociology
ISBN: 9780444515421Publication Date: 2006-12-07
Making Social Sciences More Scientific by
In his challenging new book Rein Taagepera argues that society needs more from social sciences than they have delivered. One reason for falling short is that social sciences have depended excessively on regression and other statistical approaches, neglecting logical model building. Science is not only about the empirical 'What is?' but also very much about the conceptual 'How should it be on logical grounds?' Statistical approaches are essentially descriptive, while quantitativelyformulated logical models are predictive in an explanatory way. Why Social Sciences Are Not Scientific Enough contrasts the predominance of statistics in today's social sciences and predominance of quantitatively predictive logical models in physics. It shows how to construct predictive models andgives social science examples. Why Social Sciences Are Not Scientific Enough is useful to students who wish to learn the basics of the scientific method and to all those researchers who look for ways to do better social science.
ISBN: 9780191560033Publication Date: 2008-01-01
Reference book the check out!
The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Sociology by
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 thecultural 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 andbrightest 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 intellectualstrands, 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.
ISBN: 9780195377767Publication Date: 2012-01-26
Fifty Key Sociologists by
Covering the life, work, ideas and impact of some of the most significant thinkers in sociology, Fifty Key Sociologists: The Formative Theorists concentrates on figures in the field writing principally in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Including entries on Jane Addams, Theodor Adorno, George Luk¿, Max Weber and Pitrim Sorokin, this practical text: is presented in an accessible A¿Z format for maximum ease-of-use provides full cross-referencing and a further reading section for each entry, in order to allow the reader to broaden their understanding of the area includes biographical data for each of the figures covered. Presenting the key works and ideas of each sociologist featured, as well as providing some critical assessment of their work, this is an ideal reference guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students of sociology, cultural studies and general studies, as well as other readers interested in this important field.
ISBN: 9780415352604Publication Date: 2006-12-06
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