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First Published in 1995. The study of the middle classes actually poses a variety of interesting challenges. Traditionally, the social scientific gaze has been directed either downwards, to the working classes, the poor and the dispossessed, or upwards, to the wealthy and powerful. For all these reasons, a collection of original papers on various aspects of the British middle classes seems an important venture that will cast valuable light on the course of social change in Britain more generally. This book is designed to bring together a series of accessible, high-quality research papers on various aspects of the British middle classes.

First Published in 1987. In September 1985 the Social Geography Study Group of the Institute of British Geographers held a three-day conference at Coventry (Lanchester) Polytechnic on the subject of ‘Race and Racism'. The present volume is a selection of essays derived from some of the papers that were given at the conference, together with one newly commissioned paper (by Susan Smith) and an introductory essay.

Citizenship Utopias in the Global South is an edited collection of empirical research that explores emergent forms of activism in Africa, Asia, and Latin America in times of multiple crises. At the intersection of hope and disillusionment, the diverse and thought-provoking chapters investigate emerging forms of activism in the Global South – including youth activisms, anti-racism struggles, feminist initiatives, online dissent, and Indigenous movements.In the 2020s, many parts of the world are witnessing contradictory processes of popular claims to rights, livelihoods, and social justice, and subsequent forms of populist authoritarianism and the securitization of civil society. Previously hopeful calls for dignity, democracy, and social justice – through protesting, strikes, civil society campaigns, legal reforms, and elections, for example – have been met with disdain and civic disengagement. This book investigates the re-imagination and pursuit of citizen activism in such times of popular disillusionment. It explores citizenship utopias as social imaginaries that are enacted and that articulate an ideal social order or democratic polity with ideal forms of experiencing citizenship. Its chapters interrogate conventional approaches to citizenship by introducing a nuanced and empirically grounded exploration of the complex ways in which people experience, negotiate, and engage in the societal changes that they aspire towards. The examination of citizenship utopias outlines contemporary signals for transformative futures and their possibilities.The book undertakes a fresh effort at contributing to the shifting terrain of critical development studies, political anthropology, political sociology, and decolonising scholarship by engaging in discussions about citizenship, activism, disillusionment, and future societal alternatives in times of multiple global challenges.

Activist networks throughout Europe developed the concept of precarity at the turn of the 21st century. Retail chain employees, freelancers, cultural workers, caregivers and university adjuncts alike, including those labeled natives or migrants, identified and organized themselves under the umbrella notion of precarity. This ethnography tells the story of precarity activism as it originated and evolved in Southern Europe, tracing its theoretical and linguistic legacy. Highlighting the currency of precarity-inspired proposals for social change, this empirically detailed appraisal recapitulates activist debates over the prospects of flexible labor markets entangled with questions of gender and citizenship. The book's analysis offers insight into how precarity activism's visionary notions of sustainable futures speak directly to the tensions of the platform economy.This genealogy of a grassroots political concept will be of use for postgraduate students and scholars interested in anthropology, cultural studies, geography, sociology and political theory. It will appeal to interdisciplinary fields engaging processes of collective action, knowledge production and the so-called subaltern populations, such as social movements studies, gender studies, critical race and migration studies, dis/ability studies and labor studies. This book will further attract those concerned with changes in production, reproduction and mobility under platform capitalism as it further consolidates precarity as the new normal.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Dark Emotions is a book about a range of emotional experiences that are often regarded or characterized as ‘negative', ‘disturbing'or ‘dark'as contrasted with emotions that are ‘positive', ‘pleasant'or ‘light'.Each chapter in the book is devoted to introducing different ‘dark emotions'such as disappointment, betrayal, worry, regret, resentment and alienation and seeks to show – through conceptual, theoretical and empirical examples – how these emotions influence peoples'lives and their relations to self, others and society. The book thus provides an overview of some dark emotions that are recognizable in our everyday lives and culture. It contains accessible introductions and relevant theoretical and empirical research on 12 different kinds of ‘dark emotions'. The chapters are highly useful for teaching sessions and research contexts. Additionally, they provide extensive lists of references for further reading.The book will be particularly useful for students or scholars with an interest in emotion research or related areas, and the book may inspire further investigation of the often- overlooked emotions presented in this volume.

This fourth volume of The Class Structure of Capitalist Societies finishes the series by exploring how class infuses people's past and present efforts to juggle family, work and leisure.Previous volumes in the series have examined the shape, history and cultural expressions of class structures in capitalist societies as well as their typical intersections with gender, race/ ethnicity, family and more. Now, drawing on in depth interviews with men and women from the US, Sweden and Germany, this instalment endeavours to show how class actually ‘works out'in people's biographies and circumstances, and how, thereby, it is given singular form in their lives. Key to understanding how class works and how it is singularised, the book demonstrates, is its interplay with pressures and interests tied up with family, paid employment and leisure. New concepts and tools, it argues, are necessary to accommodate this multiplicity and, as a result, explain people's lives more fully, advance our understanding of class and even progress the capacities of sociology as a discipline.The volume will be of major interest to scholars of class, family, work, gender and culture, but it will also appeal to anyone interested in social theory and the progress of sociology.

Religious Satire in the Era of New Atheism presents a contemporary account of religious satire as evidenced by the modern art of stand-up comedy.Focused on the context of the post-9/11 American culture phenomenon, sometimes referred to as the New Atheism – as embodied by public intellectuals such as Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Richard Dawkins – it documents the rise of comedic satire in relation to evangelical beliefs and religious dogma. Drawing on the author's own experience of stand-up performance, it examines the comedy of figures such as Mark Maron, Bill Maher, and Ricky Gervais and presents material from interviews with comedians including Lewis Black, John Fugelsang, and Leigh Ann Lord to provide unique insights into some of the issues and definitions surrounding satire.With attention to the demonstrable rise in religious satire following the events of September 11, 2001, the author considers the clear link between this increase and the New Atheist movement, exploring shared themes and presence at specific events, such that stand-up comedy represents the Avant Garde of the New Atheists.

Using ethnographic materials and documents from East Tibetan villages, this book addresses the impact of modernization on everyday life and the ways in which it melds with traditional forms of knowledge to create a new Tibetan identity and scientific rationality.Including cases centred on meteorology, geography, and seismology, the book assesses a wide range of traditional local activities, including foraging, farming, and domestic practices, and argues that and demonstrates how science, technology, and ideas about modernity have all influenced these activities. It highlights that when inconsistencies among different knowledges emerge, modernization can create inconsistent assemblages of modern and traditional practices and reveal the multiplicity of everyday life.Using these examples of everyday life to portray the complexity of day-to-day existence in Tibet, this book will be of huge interest to students and scholars of Tibet, China, human geography, anthropology, and the sociology of science and technology.

The Class Gap in Protest Participation discusses a theoretically grounded empirical analysis of the relationship between class and protest involvement across Central Eastern and Western Europe.In recent decades, mass protests have surged in both frequency and scale, yet there remains a significant variability in citizen involvement in non-electoral politics across Europe. While affluent Western democracies often witness robust civic engagement, countries of Central and Eastern Europe exhibit comparatively limited political participation. This regional gap is particularly pronounced when examining post-socialist workers who show minimal protest activity. Addressing this phenomenon, the book starts from the following question: Why do workers in Central and Eastern Europe demonstrate disproportionately lower rates of protest engagement compared to their Western European counterparts? The study reveals that the answer lies beyond conventional explanations such as legacies of communism. Cross-regional disparities in working-class protest activism are driven by differences in labor protection and left mobilization capacity. These variations stem from the historical context and the economic dependency of post-socialist countries, which create distinct conditions for workers'political engagement in the core and (semi-)periphery.This book will be of interest to political scientists and sociologists, especially researchers interested in political participation, social inequality, and post-socialist transformations.

The book examines philosophical and sociological approaches within critical theory and more widely from the vantage point of communicative reason. It seeks to revitalize the sociological dimension of critical theory by advancing a critical sociology of reason. It does so fully in the knowledge that reason is a contentious concept in sociology and other disciplines. Nonetheless, building on Habermas's original insight, it argues that an extensively modified version of communicative reason is indispensable. This modified approach will draw extensively from Peirce's pragmatist semiotics and critical cognitive sociology. Such a focus has significant implications for meta-theoretical, theoretical-empirical, and methodological approaches in critical theory, critical sociology, and related disciplines. This book will be of interest to readers in the social sciences, humanities, and philosophy who value the importance of a social theory of a reasonable society for their disciplines and for increasingly essential interdisciplinary activities. The book will also appeal to many in critical theory and beyond who are interested in the cognitive foundations of normative orders, including unjust or pathological as well as actually or potentially just foundations. The book emphasizes both validity and critique within communicative reason and critical theory and accordingly presents a distinctive perspective on critical-reconstructive research.

“Council democracy” is a particular form of democratic socialism that strives towards democratic self-governance on the basis of active, free, and associated individuals working cooperatively within a federated council system. Both in political practice and in social theory, “council democracy” has resurfaced periodically in the past, most notably in the interwar period, in the “long 1960s,” and since the turn of the 21st century. This book offers a novel theoretical and methodological approach to the study of “council democracy.” It focuses on the processes that led to the emergence of two of the foundational and most radical instances of “council democratic” movements in Germany during the German Revolution (1918-1919) and in Italy during the biennio rosso (1919-1920). With all their diversities, ambiguities, and shortcomings, these movements, in varying degrees, sought democratic alternatives to autocratic relations, from local to state levels, and to economic relations, from workplace to national levels. The book shows how the processes through which state-led war mobilization transformed the contours of class struggle laid the ground for the emergence of “council democratic” movements with specific characteristics in Germany and Italy and not in the United Kingdom and France.

‘The Road of Excess leads to the Palace of Wisdom': Blake's line had become a slogan for the hippie generation. The dramatic differences between the hippies'way of life and that of most of the rest of society at the time made them a puzzling and alarming phenomenon. Originally published in 1973, Richard Mills describes and interprets these differences in Young Outsiders.Based on research in the Ladbroke Grove and Piccadilly areas of London, the study explores critical issues which preoccupied young people everywhere and separated them from their parents'generation. Told largely in the words of the young people themselves, the book describes their everyday life and the ways they were led to it, and looks at some of the central elements in their culture, particularly drugs and underground music. It is shown that the distinctive feature of their lives was the search for a special kind of intensified experience which they felt could give a greater sense of wholeness and identity than the conventional roles and routines from which they were alienated. Richard Mills examines some of the dilemmas into which this search could lead, and questions how far it provided the basis for a viable way of life. Today it can be read in its historical context.

This book interrogates the role of gender and class in shaping women's everyday leisure practices. Drawing on empirical research in urban Turkey, the book explores how leisure is perceived and practised by women within their communities.The book examines the relationship of women's leisure to their labour, women's access to and uses of public leisure spaces, and the dynamics of their everyday sociability within their neighbourhoods. It is the first book to apply Skegg's concept of ‘respectability'– socially recognised judgments and standards which label the ‘right'practices, that hold morality and power in a given context – as a theoretical tool with which to understand leisure in a country in which modernisation and Westernisation have been a central dynamic shaping political, social, and cultural life. This analysis reveals that two measures of gendered respectability – reproductive work and the honour code – and how they mediate with the classed measures of respectability, are essential to understanding women's leisure practices in the Turkish context. The book argues that these interactions are likely shared in many Global South countries, including Islamic societies. Therefore, this analysis shines important new light on women's experiences more broadly, and on the social, political, and cultural dynamics of traditional social structures in a modernising world.This book is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in leisure studies, women's studies, sociology, cultural studies, or Middle East studies.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

This book develops a care justice framework to critique and disrupt current policies and reframe a policy blueprint for elevating a just organization of care for unpaid family caregivers and underpaid home care workers assisting older adults. In doing so, Hooyman invites readers to envision a society that fully values the essential work of care.The book is distinctive in its analysis of the interrelationships among both types of care laborers, who often face structural constraints on their decision to care and whose work is devalued and marginalized. Their care work affects every member of society, but it is generally invisible to others, and its economic value is rarely recognized by policymakers. How care work is organized and unrewarded typically has the most financial, physical, and emotional costs for women, people of color, and immigrants across the life course. Inequities for care workers by race, immigrant status, class, and sexual orientation are rooted in systemic racism, sexism, classism, xenophobia, and homophobia. In this book, policy priorities and change strategies are reframed to attain the six core components of a care justice framework, which include fundamental structural changes to elevate care work, ensure meaningful choice to care, and reduce systemic inequities faced by care workers. This framework is informed by feminism, Black feminism, intersectionality, and care theory. By conceptualizing care justice, the author aims to stimulate new discourse and action related to the care of older adults – the most important work in society – and make the seemingly unattainable attainable.This timely book will be salient to anyone committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion and with an interest in policy, gerontology, disability studies, ethnic studies, feminist studies, social justice, social work, and social welfare.

This book uniquely reverses today's MAGA conspiratorial concept of the deep state to reveal how a very real “deeper state” is evident throughout history, back to the founding of American democracy.Class and caste-based elites and their political allies have held dominant power in the US. Large corporations, Wall Street, and other sectors of the capitalist class outsource day-to-day governance to the mainstream political parties, which can compete vigorously and create a credible veneer of civil liberties and electoral democracy, disguising and legitimating the deep state. But it is a “shallow democracy,” since the deep state sets boundaries on policies and choices to serve itself. It also denies a universal franchise and obstructs the voting rights of people of color, the poor, and other communities threatening to the deep state. Moreover, the deep state constrains civic governance in the workplace and community, denying virtually all working people democratic control over their economic and social life.Shallow democracy has a long history. Two embryonic deep states – a Northern capitalist deep state and a Southern slave-based deep state – came together in a tense and unstable union to create and govern the US. While the Confederate deep state, which we call proto-American fascism, was defeated in the Civil War, it left a deep imprint on the culture and politics of millions of Americans, and has resurged again in Trumpism. The shallow democracy of the capitalist deep state has survived previous challenges, but it lacks the deep roots that guarantees its survival.The authors point to prospects for meaningful change arising from the extreme economic chasm dividing the nation economically and racially, and from existential crises of the survival of democracy and of a sustainable planet. They discuss strategy that might finally move the nation beyond MAGA toward deep democracy.

Focusing on two concepts that were central to modernism and continue to be important, albeit in different ways, this book explores the nature of the simple and the complex, and the relationship that exists between them. With attention to trends in big data and digital media, society, politics, and culture, and the shift from groups towards networks in social life, it considers how the simple is transformed by the new realities of the internet-powered, global society, and what its role might be in helping us to understand them, both from the point of view of methods in the social sciences and humanities, and in life. Rejecting the positivist idea that the simple remains a static background against which the open-ended complexity of our world continues to expand, the author contends that the growth in complexity is mirrored in the'relativization of simplicity', a phenomenon that is highlighted by gradual social changes that the era of digital media is now making apparent.Through a series of questions raised by our new digital lives, How Digital Social Life Matters argues for significant changes in how we see the world. Focussing on the relationship between theory and methods, it offers a critical phenomenology of experiences associated with the network society and networked individualism in an era of ‘big data'. It uses an examination of the concept and phenomenon of the simple, unpacking its new dynamics, its new meanings and its new depth, as a way of demonstrating the need for new conceptions of the complex in such contexts as reality, the universe, and the cosmos. As such, it will appeal to social theorists, communication scholars, and philosophers with interests in the fields of relational sociology, digital media, and object-oriented ontology. It also engages more broadly with scholars with a sociologically-informed interest in reimagining the social roles of politics, science, nature, media, globalization, the environment, and social interaction for our new digital era.

This book explores and brings to light untold stories from the margins of Chinese society. It investigates and reveals grassroots and popular cultural beliefs, amusing anecdotes, items of lore, and accounts of the strange and the unusual. It delves into questions of identity formation, considering gender, sexuality, class, generational divides, subcultures, national minorities and online communities. It examines heritage-making practices and the persistence of marginalized memories. Bringing together views from cultural studies, literature, gender studies, cultural heritage, sociology, history and more, the book argues that neither the margins nor the centre can be understood in isolation, and that by focusing on the margins, a fuller picture of Chinese society overall emerges, including new perspectives on spatial and social marginality, on hierarchies of marginality, and on neglected spaces, voices and identities.

Everyday Silence and the Holocaust examines Irene Levin's experiences of her family's unspoken history of the Holocaust and the silence that surrounded their war experiences as non-topics.A central example of what C. Wright Mills considered the core of sociology – the intersection of biography and history – the book covers the process by which the author came to understand that notes found in her mother's apartment following her death were not unimportant scribbles, but in fact contained elements of her mother's biographical narrative, recording her parents'escape from occupied Norway to unoccupied Sweden in late 1942. From the mid-1990s, when society began to open up about the atrocities committed against the Jews, so too did the author find that her mother and the wider Jewish population ceased to be silent about their war experiences and began to talk. Charting the process by which the author traced the family's broader history, this book explores the use of silence, whether in the family or in society more widely, as a powerful analytic tool and examines how these silences can intertwine. This book provides insight into social processes often viewed through a macro-historical lens by way of analysis of the life of an'ordinary'Jewish woman as a survivor.An engaging, grounded study of the biographical method in sociology and the role played by silence, this book will appeal to readers with an interest in the Holocaust and World War II, as well as in social scientific research methods. It will be of use to both undergraduate and postgraduate scholars in the fields of history, social science, psychology, philosophy, and the history of ideas.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.

When we ponder about whether it is time to finish a degree, start a family, or retire, we often draw on age to make an assessment: When are we too young, or too old, to do something – and what age is the right one? Age, thereby, is a central social category for Western societies: more than gender, ethnicity or social status age affects our social position, networks, lifestyles and aspirations.By asking what childhood and ageing research can learn from each other, this edited volume brings both fields into a fruitful dialogue. It touches upon topics like theories and method(olog)ies, space and time, health and care, technologies and digitalization, play, work and consumption, as well as violence, well-being and childrens'and older peoples'rights.This volume will appeal to scholars and students interested in childhood studies and ageing studies/gerontology located in a range of disciplines, from sociology to social work, social and cultural anthropology, educational sciences, human geography, architecture, urban planning, architecture, health and disability studies, nursing studies, political sciences and law.

Originally published in 1988, The Rhythms of Society reflects the time-obsessed age we lived in when it was written. The contributors, drawn from a range of disciplines, develop a common sociological approach to examine time in a range of cultures, sub-cultures and historical periods. With time even more of an issue now, this can be read today with an eye to the future.

Corporate Totalitarianism reflects on the changing nature of economic, political, and social power in the global context and the ways in which this affects both individual and society.Inspired by the thought of Hannah Arendt and informed by Weber's work on rationalisation and bureaucracy, the book shows how fear and alienation are used to generate compliance in the population, shedding light on the growing state capture by capital interests. With attention to the manner in which propaganda, censorship, and surveillance are being used to monitor and disrupt dissenters through the exploitation of technology, the author considers not only the potential use and misuse of technology to enforce compliance but also its capacity to challenge corruption and protect human rights, with decentralised ledgers and blockchain technology currently offering the possibility of increased transparency, accountability, and trust in a variety of domains.An engaging study of the growth of power and control in contemporary societies, this book will appeal to scholars of social theory and political sociology with interests in the surveillance state and the social role of technology.

This book offers a discussion of the origins of Latin American dependency theories and their implications for contemporary social theory. The book explores the conditions of emergence of this intellectual movement, the trajectories of some of its main formulators, as well as the circulation of their ideas, their reception in other contexts, and their influence on other theoretical formulations and problems of the present. The book is aimed at social scientists interested in broadening the scope of social theory towards the Global South, in processes of knowledge circulation between central and semi-peripheral regions, as well as in understanding the problems of dependency, modernisation, and development processes in Latin America. The book can be used both as an introduction to these themes and to delve deeper into specific issues.

Women in Eastern European Post-Socialist Countries: Social, Scientific, and Political Lives explores the role of women in Central and Eastern Europe in bringing about social change, and the obstacles they face in fighting for equality in various areas of life such as science, politics, and reproductive rights.Against a backdrop of increasing re-traditionalisation of post-socialist societies, and the reinvigoration of patriarchal attitudes, the book presents a timely and important collection. Through chapters authored by academics with different specialities across the social sciences, the book addresses the fundamental areas in which women's determination is already initiating changes, namely politics and diplomacy, science, reproductive rights, and customs resulting from religion.Women in Eastern European Post-Socialist Countries is of interest to scholars of gender studies, political and social sciences, and contemporary central and eastern European history.

This accessible edited collection provides global context for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying the sociology of work and organisations. Composed of short, example-led chapters, this book covers a wide range of contemporary topics, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the digitalisation of work, the gig economy, and the shifting roles of women and other marginalised groups.The book's innovative approach uses case studies as diverse as work–life balance in China, gender pay inequity in Britain and Germany, and the exploitation of workers on the Mexico–US border, to incorporate perspectives from both the Global North and South and provide students with the tools to analyse new developments in the rapidly changing world of work. The book is particularly concerned with inequalities and marginalisation in the workplace, discussing discrimination against women, ethnic minorities, migrants, and older workers. The book also explores how increasing digitalisation, the rise of the gig economy and the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted working practices and how this relates to precarious employment. Other chapters are dedicated to issues of workplace organisation, including female leadership, work–life balance, and well-being. The book goes on to explore how climate change and policies such as Universal Basic Income may shape the future of work in the near future.Each chapter also includes useful pedagogical resources including practice exam questions, key concepts and definitions, and further readings. Therefore, the book will be therefore essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying the sociology of work, business management, and organisation.

Fifty Key Scholars in Black Social Thought is a collaborative volume that uplifts and explores the intellectual activism and scholarly contributions of Black social thinkers. It implores readers to integrate the research of Black scholars into their teaching and research, and fundamentally, to rethink the dominant epistemological claims and philosophical underpinnings of the Western social sciences. The volume features 50 chapters, written by 55 scholars who explore the diverse contributions of notable Black thinkers, both historical and contemporary.Four thematic areas organize this work—Black epistemology, Black geopolitics, Black oppression and resistance, and Black families and communities. Through a close analysis of the fifty thinkers presented here, the chapters explore these themes while dismantling the whitewashed disciplinary histories, methodologies, and content that obscure and/or subjugate the significance of Black social thought. In addition to offering insightful and timely analysis, each chapter offers suggested readings for readers who would like to dive deeper into the work of Black social thinkers.This volume offers an accessible starting point for exploring the work of Black scholars past and present and their contributions to sociology and the social sciences more broadly. It is useful to students, academics, practitioners, and the lay public who are curious about Black social thought.

This book presents a comprehensive analysis of China's imbalanced sex ratio at birth and marriage market, and the implications of these phenomena for population development and families.China's persistently high sex ratio at birth (SRB) since the early 1980s has led to serious gender imbalance and male marriage squeeze. After examining the quality of existing data on SRB, the authors provide their estimates of the sex-selective abortion rate, describe the trends and geographical patterns in SRB, and disaggregate changes in SRB by birth order and province. Special attention is given to the number and proportion of missing girls between 1980 and 2010. Based on the quantitative analyses, the book projects the implications of the severe gender imbalance for China's population development and the future dynamics of the marriage market, including trends in age at first marriage, the proportion of never-married, the age structure of surplus males, and the life cycle of bare branch families.The book will appeal to scholars and students of demography, sociology, and China studies, especially those interested in China's population and contemporary society.

This book explains how the Columbia model of sociology, which was based on the methodology of P.F. Lazarsfeld, became a dominant sociological school of thought in American and European postwar sociology.Providing an overview of Lazarsfeld's inventions and his methodological, organisational, and institutional innovations, it describes the means by which a particular model of sociology was gradually adopted in departments headed by Lazarsfeld and in the work of his successors. With attention to the use by Lazarsfeld of methodological texts published by prestigious publishing houses in his research and teaching, his activity in international organisations – including the UN – his collaboration with figures such as Robert K. Merton and Raymond Boudon, and his attempts to show how the roots of his empirical research methodology lay in the work of early European scholars, this volume shows how a particular sociological paradigm came to prevail over others for more than a decade.It will therefore appeal to scholars of sociology with interests in the history of the discipline and questions of research methodology.

This book uniquely demonstrates how a new combination of communities, progressive visions, and strategies provides a path to defeat fascist machinations and strengthens social justice movements. Taking the incredible twists and turns of elections as a given, the book takes the issues, grievances and solutions of social movements as its grounding.Would-be change agents, be they first-time voters, freshly minted activists, impacted communities, or veteran strategists, will find answers to questions of voting, organizing, and mobilization. In doing so, readers will find answers to activating their networks and communities not merely to vote, but how to build on their “Emergency Election” mobilizing and power-building efforts to win their agendas, regardless of who holds office.This theoretically and empirically informed handbook for activists, voters, their organizations, unions, and communities provides both mobilizing tools and talking points about the elections'most vital and contested issues.

Something must have changed in society. We weren't always this worried. Not always caught up in disastrous scenarios in our minds. What is this nagging voice in our head? Why won't it stop, and why are we so fixated on it?In Why We Worry, Roland Paulsen paints a broad picture of the cultural variations and historical evolution of anxiety. Through this lens, he invites readers to explore the paradox of how material wealth has enriched our lives in every aspect except one: our mental well-being.This book offers empirically grounded insights into the sociological underpinnings of issues relating to worry. As such, it is suitable for undergraduate students in psychology, sociology, and medicine – and anyone who has ever been trapped in rumination.The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Childhood in Animation: Navigating a Secret World explores how children are viewed in animated cinema and television and examines the screen spaces that they occupy.The image of the child is often a site of conflict, one that has been captured, preserved, and recollected on screen; but what do these representations tell us about the animated child and how do they compare to their real counterparts? Is childhood simply a metaphor for innocence, or something far more complex that encompasses agency, performance, and othering? Childhood in Animation focuses on key screen characters, such as DJ, Norman, Lilo, the Lost Boys, Marji, Parvana, Bluey, Kirikou, Robyn, Mebh, Cartman and Bart, amongst others, to see how they are represented within worlds of fantasy, separation, horror, politics, and satire, as well as viewing childhood itself through a philosophical, sociological, and global lens. Ultimately, this book navigates the rabbit hole of the ‘elsewhere'to reveal the secret space of childhood, where anything (and everything) is possible.This volume will be of great interest to scholars and students of animation, childhood studies, film and television studies, and psychology and sociology.

Drawing on rich qualitative data, this book presents a novel way of understanding the drug market-related harm of ‘cuckooing', providing a theoretically informed account of this increasingly high-profile area.Applying the framework of the ‘risk environment', the book examines why people become cuckooed, how it is responded to and how this exploitative practice is socially produced. In doing so, a diverse range of environments and features relevant to cuckooing are analysed, including the role of housing, political economy, drug policy, policing and social exclusion. By interrogating how these constrain and enable the actions of people who are affected, the book develops a critical analysis that recognises the complexity of cuckooing while eschewing superficial explanations of why it occurs. Resisting simplistic solutions, it also considers what an enabling environment capable of reducing the harms of this exploitative practice might look like.Cuckoo Land will be of interest to academic researchers in the fields of criminology, victimology, social work and drugs. It will also be essential reading for policymakers and practitioners working on the issue of cuckooing.

The Routledge International Handbook of Valuation and Society builds on the growing research interest in practices of valuation throughout contemporary society, providing an up-to-date overview of the different facets of research in the sociology of valuation.The handbook is divided into five major sections with attention to the treatment of valuation in major areas of sociological theory, as well as its key concepts, discourses, and approaches:Part I: Theoretical perspectivesPart II: Central valuation practices in societal spheresPart III: Cross-cutting valuation practicesPart IV: Valuation and societal changePart V: ReflectionsTogether, the chapters in this book characterize distinctive practices of valuation across different societal spheres, such as education and science, arts and culture, economic life, the environment or digital culture and social media. They also examine the role of valuation in contemporary society and consider the ways it effects social change.This seminal handbook aims at taking stock of the development of the study of valuation with a selection of topics that are important for understanding core perspectives and developments as well as anticipating its future orientation. It will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interest in the ubiquity of the valuation practices and its effects on social life.

Recent discussions on big data surveillance and artificial intelligence in governance have opened up an opportunity to think about the role of technology in the production of the knowledge states use to govern. The contributions in this volume examine the socio-technical assemblages that underpin the surveillance carried out by criminal justice institutions – particularly the digital tools that form the engine room of modern state bureaucracies.Drawing on ethnographic research in contexts from across the globe, the contributions to this volume engage with technology's promises of transformation, scrutinise established ways of thinking that becomeembedded through technologies, critically consider the dynamics that shape the political economy driving the expansion of security technologies, and examine how those at the margins navigate experiences of surveillance.The book is intended for an interdisciplinary academic audience interested in ethnographic approaches to the study of surveillance technologies in policing and justice. Concrete case studies provide students, practitioners, and activists from a broad range of backgrounds with nuanced entry points to the debate.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 International license.

This book explores the role of'home'in the lives of displaced people, including voluntary and forced migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced people and temporary workers. For displaced people, home is something lost, longed for and sometimes found anew. It is a community of people in an environment of relationships and a physical dwelling that provide a sense of safety, security, hope and belonging. Much of the efforts of refugees, migrants and exiles are devoted to rebuilding a home, through a combination of personal effort and collaboration with the political and social environment of the host community. Maria Sophia Aguirre and Antonio Argandoña bring together an interdisciplinary collection of contributors to analyse these challenges through the lenses of economics, law, sociology, psychology, communications, management and political science. The book offers numerous suggestions for assistance aimed not only at the short-term problems of displaced people but also at ensuring their human dignity. This volume will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of the sociology of migration and of public policy related to the handling of migrants.

Based on a three-year life story study of students from working-class backgrounds at four elite universities in China, this book offers a new way to understand and be inspired by Bourdieu.This book shows how Bourdieu's ideas can be used to go beyond the analysis of domination and imagine a positive sociology of emancipation. Drawing on life stories of high-achieving students from working-class backgrounds, who experienced extreme social mobility in the education system and beyond, this book tracks multi-scalar and multi-layered class domination while documenting vivid experiences of living with and over structural disadvantages, forms of working-class ‘intelligence', reflexive strategies, ‘failures'of social reproduction, and moments of ‘mutations'. Through constant comparisons between life stories and Bourdieu, hopes and costs of upward social mobility, and possibilities and boundaries of transcendence, this book reflects on different conceptualisations of working-class reflexivity and suggests a vision of emancipation that can allow and encourage ways and values of ‘commoning'. This book highlights a relational perspective of understanding class and class struggles, which in turn introduces a relational perspective of (re)imagining reflexivity and transcendence.This book will appeal to students and scholars of Bourdieu, sociology of education, and education in China.

This edited volume provides a holistic compilation of the diverse range of emerging scholarship in critical environmental justice studies in Nepal.This book brings together environmental justice scholarship set within a robust conceptual framework, focusing on a diversity of case studies from Nepal. Its locale-specific contextualization provides a unique analysis of the natural resource-based livelihoods common in the region, together with the health and well-being impacts of urban and industrial developments in its rapidly changing political, economic, social, and ecological environment. Centering contributions from Nepalese scholars and practitioners, this volume spans a wide range of topics, including the origins of environmental justice in Nepal, land and agriculture, conservation, infrastructure and development, Indigenous peoples, climate justice, and health equity. It reflects on the rise and development of social movements and public policy, discusses the further evolution of environmental justice, and highlights how the work of scholars, activists, and practitioners in the Nepalese context can enrich global conversations about social and environmental issues.This book will appeal to scholars, researchers, students, and activists in environmental justice, sustainable development, South Asian, and Himalayan studies.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license

Based on interviews and conversations in the Bosnian Federation with women survivors of war rape, children born of armed conflict, leaders of NGOs who work with survivors, and people who lived through the war and who experienced it in different ways, this book challenges one-dimensional representations of the Yugoslav war and subsequent peacebuilding processes. Relying on feminist ethnography and autoethnography, this volume offers systematic engagement with the politics of representation of Bosnia and survivors of war in post-war journalism and scholarship.Through rich and varied individual experiences of wartime violence and recovery that go beyond simple'us'vs'them'narratives of ethnic identity and intolerance, the book shows how public and private, individual and collective discourses actively shape one another and contribute to complex forms of engagement in recovery, healing, and rebuilding. The author draws upon archival material to undermine the fetishization of ethnicity as a determining category that often underpins journalistic and scholarly accounts of post-war Bosnia. By retracing and repairing separations between individual and collective remembrance, and by complicating linear and monolithic conception of this process, the narratives in the book actively contest reductionist and instrumentalist accounts of the civil war in Bosnia.The book will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interest in memory, peacebuilding, national identity, gendered violence, and processes of reconciliation.

This book analyses China's multidimensional rise in the context of the international political economy, drawing on Susan Strange's concept of'structural power.'Examining the sources of Chinese power along with its geopolitical, economic, and cultural reflections, the authors consider how China's rise is linked with the incremental process of multipolarization in world politics.Providing a systematic, analytical, and empirically rich account of China's surge in the international political economy, this study will appeal to scholars, policy-makers, and students with interests in China studies, international political economy, and international relations.

This book examines the transformation and the dynamic reconfiguration of borders within Korea through inter/trans-disciplinary approaches.The book offers a comprehensive synthesis for the changing geo-political, cultural, and economic dynamics among Korea's diasporas by applying the theme of “diasporas within homeland” as a theoretical lens. While diaspora remains a central theoretical perspective (often highlighting “out of home” experiences), the volume turns its gaze inward, “within homeland,” to trace internal displacement, mobility, and diversity in Korea. In addition, this volume brings diverse scholarly traditions that bridge the diaspora with a wide range of theoretical lenses and methodological approaches, such as intercultural sensitivity and adaptation, acculturation, ideology critique, alienation, national memory, and postcolonialism. The book further explores the possibilities of coalition-building between/among diverse communities. As a study of the notion of Korean identity and citizenship, this book will be of huge interest to students and scholars of Korean society and culture, Asian diasporas, cultural anthropology, and ethnicity.

Through a study of basketball in Japan, this book aims to help readers better understand the historical formation and contemporary reformation of cultural identity in Japan.This reformation includes the process of reconciling the perceived differences between basketball in Japan and basketball in the West, the process of reconciling how perceptions of one's body are shaped in a globally interconnected society, the process of reconciling what it means to be a modern man, and the process of reconciling what it means to be Japanese in a nation that is increasingly multicultural. In other words, basketball in Japan matters, not only because it has for too long been over‑simply labelled as a “minor” sport, but also because it is much more than a game.Examining the real and symbolic power which sport has on Japanese culture, and even in some instances the state, this book will be a valuable resource for scholars and students of Japanese culture and society and the sociology of sports.

This book explores the seismic shift brought about by the 2022 US Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which dramatically changed the constitutional standing of abortion decisions set in place by Roe v. Wade 50 years earlier. The authors describe the history of US Supreme Court's decision-making around abortion and some of its attendant considerations, including the constitutional right to privacy, moral obligations to protect life, and determinations about when life begins.When Dobbs was decided, legal control over abortion was returned to the states, resulting in wildly divergent access to abortion across the nation. As important, Dobbs raised a host of additional legal and moral questions that will no doubt be the focus of many future courtroom and legislative debates.This text is designed for undergraduate students across a range of academic disciplines. It lays bare the complicated moral dimensions of the competing arguments about abortion and how these considerations have fared in legal decisions, so students can make sense of them for themselves.

Why does hope appear in certain epochs and places, only at other times to disappear from people's lives and from society as a whole? This book addresses hope from a sociological perspective, offering a theoretical framework and a set of concepts to consider a range of questions. With attention to who the historical bearers of hope are, and which social groups are most inclined towards hope and why. It also considers the objects and goals towards which their hope is directed and the conditions under which hope is easier. An enquiry into the relationship between hope and social, cultural, economic and political conditions, this volume redirects the sociological gaze towards the discovery of social experiences in which hope resurrects and contributes to the imagination of a new social world. It will therefore appeal to scholars of sociology and social theory with interests in the emotions, social practices and social movements.

Kolliniati's groundbreaking book, Interpreting Human Rights: Narratives from Asylum Centers in Greece and Philosophical Values, challenges the notion that the interpretation and application of human rights primarily occur within the corridors of power in Strasbourg or official European institutions. It argues that such interpretation takes place in the grassroots settings of rural areas and neighborhoods, by actors who do not belong to the class of decision‑making elites.Focusing on the Aegean islands as exemplary sites of the European refugee crisis, this book draws on research conducted among local actors, including mayors, municipal councilors, representatives of NGOs and staff at refugee reception and identification centers. This book is divided into five distinctive sections: Methodology; Legal Framework and the Emergence of Hotspots; Empirical Research: Narratives of Local Actors; Local Narratives and Political Attitudes; and Glocalization of Human Rights. The study explores the role of human rights in narratives surrounding refugee flows, categorizing responses according to various political theory approaches such as global liberalism, egalitarianism, communitarianism and conservatism. By integrating applied political theory with localized human rights interpretations, this book offers actionable steps for addressing the challenges of migration in today's interconnected world.By amplifying the voices of those directly engaged with one of contemporary Europe's most significant challenges, Interpreting Human Rights will appeal to scholars of sociology, political theory, politics and international law, particularly those interested in migration, human rights and refugee studies.

Decades of demographic studies and applied efforts have convinced scholars, students, and social workers that young people coming of age and transitioning out of the foster care system face great challenges in health, education, income, and general well-being. Despite the wealth of research on these outcomes, we know much less about the lived experiences of young people leaving foster care.Aging Out of the Foster System: Youths'Perspectives adds to this narrative the personal experiences of young people who are aging out or have aged out of their child welfare placement. The authors center the stories of these young people and apply critical ethnographic methods to frame their accounts with attention to the encounters within which they were produced, including power imbalances, institutional contexts, and relational dynamics.By centering the experiences of youths in these contexts and attending to the larger forces at work, this book helps connect the dots between youth aging out of the foster care system, social workers in Independent Living Programs, and the professors and scholars teaching the next generations of professionals working to support the aging out process.

This book identifies the converging socio- cultural, economic, and technological conditions that have shaped, informed, and realised the identity of the contemporary virtual influencer, situating them at the intersection of social media, consumer culture, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and digital technologies.Through a critical analysis of virtual influencers and related media practices and discourses in an international context, each chapter investigates different themes relating to digitality and identity: virtual place and nationhood; virtual emotions and intimacy; im/ materialities of virtual everyday life; the biopolitics of virtual human-production; the necropolitics of pandemic virtuality; transmedial and mimetic virtualities; and the political economy of virtual influencers. The book argues that the virtual influencer represents the various ways in which contemporary identities have increasingly become naturalised with questions of virtuality, mediated by digital technologies across multiple realities.From practices relating to AI- driven, invasive data profiling needed for virtual influencer production to problematic online practices such as buying digital skin colour, the author examines how the virtual influencer's aesthetic, social, and economic value obfuscates some of the darker aspects of their role as an extractivist technology of virtuality: one which regulates, oppresses, and/ or classifies bodies and datafied bodies that serve the visual, (bio)political, and digital economies of virtual capitalism. In the process, the book simultaneously offers a critique of the virtual influencer as a representational figure existing across multiple digital platforms, spaces, and times, and of how they may challenge, complicate, and reinforce normative ideologies surrounding gender, race, class, sexuality, age, and ableism. As such, the book sheds light on some of the more troubling realities of the virtual influencer's existence, inasmuch as it celebrates their transformational potential, exploring the implications of both within an increasingly AI- driven, digital culture, society, and economy.Drawing from a wide range of disciplines, this book will appeal to scholars, researchers, and students working in the area(s) of: Popular Culture and Media; Internet, Digital and Social Media Studies; Data justice and Governance; Japanese Media Studies; Celebrity Studies; Fan Studies; Marketing and Consumer Studies; Sociology; Human– Computer Studies; and AI and Technology Studies.

This book, which is aimed at the health care and social work/care field, looks at the relationship between different levels of research projects. As the social sciences can be based on quite different assumptions or'philosophies2 about what the social world is like and how knowledge about it can be obtained, this book will help students navigate the need for consistency between empirical work, the research question, research design, values, and philosophy of science. Based on a critical realist perspective the book seeks to elucidate and to reflect on such connections, and to argue for the requirements of coherence as well as taking a critical look at the dilemmas that arise in health and social care/work research.Comprised of 13 chapters which cover theoretical frameworks, research questions, objectives of the study, research ethical considerations, values, and the question of validity, it shows how these must be interlinked if a project is to have a good design.It will be of interest to researchers, PhD candidates and master's students in the field of health care and social work/care.

People with variations of sex characteristics (VSC) are born with chromosomal, gonadal, and/or anatomical diversities that do not fit the typical definition of male or female. This book develops a social science of VSC, Intersex, and Disorders of Sex Development (DSD).Issues of bodily autonomy, sex, gender, and sexuality are highly topical. Yet, little is heard about people with VSCs, or the unique issues they face. This book is a collaborative project between intersex and endosex (nonintersex) authors that gives uninitiated readers a way into the complex debates surrounding IVSC. It breaks new ground theoretically whilst also presenting novel empirical material from a range of international sources. Issues of power, discrimination, identity, and agency are key to understanding the current situation for people with VSCs.Bridging between intersex studies, medical literatures, and broader social science debates, this text will be of interest to those working in practice and policy positions, as well as students and scholars across a range of disciplines, especially those studying social inequality, embodiment, healthcare, sex and gender, LGBTQ+ issues, disability, globalisation, and political change.

Routledge Handbook of Climate Change and Society is a comprehensive guide that provides insights into the multifaceted relationship between climate change and society and covers a wide array of topics, disciplines, and cultures, from the latest trends in weather patterns to the issue of climate (in)justice. The second edition, which is overwhelmingly comprised of all-new essays, is an indispensable resource for those interested in understanding the complexities of climate change and its societal implications.The book contains seven thematically organized sections examining the various aspects of climate change and its intersection with our society: Climate Change in the Natural and Social Sciences; Human Population, Movement, and Health; Economics, Energy, and Consumption; Urban Climate Resiliency; Technological Innovations and Pitfalls; Gender, Poverty, and Justice; and Politics and Governance. Each part provides a unique and important perspective for understanding the challenges as well as opportunities presented by climate change.Through original research findings and critical analysis, this book sheds light on the urgent need for interdisciplinary approaches to tackle climate change effectively. By examining the intersectionality of climate change with various social, economic, and political factors, it offers valuable insights for researchers, policymakers, activists, and anyone concerned about the future of our planet. With a forward-looking perspective that emphasizes optimism and resilience, this book serves as a tool for fostering hope and collective action in the face of climate change challenges.

Originally published in 1976 under the title Modernization, Exploitation and Dependency in Latin America, and again in 1988 under the current title, the author describes, examines and introduces the life and work of three of the most important figures in the development of comparative politics and political sociology: Gino Germani (Argentina), Pablo Gonzales Casanova (Mexico) and Fernando Henrique Cardoso (Brazil). At the time of its first publication, the book introduced those three Latin American sociologists to the North American social and political science community. However, as Peter Evans points out in his introduction, the book had not lost its importance in the intervening years. Rather, the subsequent developments in comparative scholarship have only highlighted the influence of the three Latin Americans. The developments in comparative and political social science can virtually only be understood in the light of the influence that the thought of Germani, Gonzales Casanova and Cardoso had on the discussions in North America.

This book investigates the politics of language in Hong Kong from a multidisciplinary perspective, showcasing original studies on language use in protest movements, written Cantonese, language attitudes, literary creation, mass media, and popular music.Representing the work of scholars of various disciplines ranging from political science and history to linguistics, communication, and cultural studies, the book offers a multifaceted and timely account on the state of language in the rapidly changing city. Proposing a conceptual framework that distinguishes between language politics and the language of politics, it effectively underscores the importance of identity and ideology in studying the politics of language across different settings and disciplines.As a study of the language issue in Hong Kong, this book is a valuable resource for scholars and students of Hong Kong studies and Chinese studies and to researchers of sociolinguistics and the politics of language.