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Durch die Akteur-Netzwerk-Theorie (ANT) ziehen sich seit ihren Anfängen zahlreiche Spuren einer intensiven Auseinandersetzung mit der Kunst und Visuellen Kultur. Annika Weinert-Brieger folgt diesen Spuren in ihrer Monografie erstmals systematisch durch die Schriften von Bruno Latour, John Law und Michel Callon, durch die von Latour kuratierten Ausstellungen und durch weitere Medien. Sie erschließt das umfangreiche Material in der international ersten Bestandsaufnahme zum Thema und kontextualisiert es kenntnisreich innerhalb bestehender Ansätze aus der Kunstgeschichte, -theorie und -soziologie. Damit gibt sie den Blick auf einen Arbeitsschwerpunkt eigenen Rangs innerhalb der ANT frei, der in ihrer Rezeption bislang einen blinden Fleck markierte. Im Anschluss entwickelt Weinert-Brieger die ANT zu einem eigenen kunsttheoretischen Zugang zu Kunstwerken, ihrer Produktion und Rezeption weiter. In einer Übersetzungsbewegung zwischen ANT und Kunsttheorie, die mit der jüngeren Theoriediskussion zum Verhältnis von Kunst und Handeln einsetzt, arbeitet sie die zentralen Elemente einer Akteur-Kunst-Theorie aus und zeigt deren Beiträge zu zeitgenössischen und historischen Theoriediskursen auf. Abschließend gibt die Autorin einen Ausblick auf theoretische und empirische Forschungspotentiale für die zukünftige Weiterarbeit mit den Ergebnissen der Bestandsaufnahme und mit der entwickelten Akteur-Kunst-Theorie.

Caribbean countries have had to navigate multiple crises, which have tested their collective resolve through time. In this regard, the region's landscape has been shaped by an interplay of vulnerability and resilience which has brought to the fore possibilities and contradictions. It is within this context that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic must be considered. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on COVID-19 and the Caribbean, Volume 2: Society, Education and Human Behaviour provides a comprehensive, multi- and interdisciplinary assessment of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, using the Caribbean as the site of enquiry. The edited collection mobilises critical perspectives brought to bear on research produced within and beyond the boundaries and boundedness of conventional academic disciplinary divides, in response to the multi-dimensional crises of our time. This volume is divided into four (4) parts consisting of twenty-three (23) chapters and weaves together fourbroad thematic strands: COVID-19 and Caribbean Society; COVID-19 Religion and Rights; Psycho-social Impacts of COVID-19; and Education, Innovation, and Technology. Authors working within and across the human, social, physical and life sciences consider the myriad effects of the health crisis in the region, interrogating these experiences from the granular to macro level, utilising inter and multidisciplinary lenses. Collectively, the chapters which constitute Volume II expose the fault lines in Caribbean societies, which are deeply rooted in the region's history and delineate the precise ways in which the pandemic has transformed lives and livelihoods in the region. The culmination of this collection offers a reimagining of our Caribbean contemporary futures in the hope of finding home-grown solutions, avenues and possibilities.

Dieses Buch über das Leben und Werk von Francis Huxley (1923–2016) zeichnet zugleich die Suche nach dem Verständnis der Conditio humana nach und nimmt seine Leserinnen und Leser mit auf eine biografische, philosophische, kulturelle, historische, politische und epistemologische Erkundungsreise.Als Mitglied der berühmten Huxley-Dynastie leistete Francis Huxley wichtige und innovative Beiträge zur Sozialanthropologie, zur Pflege der psychischen Gesundheit und zum Schutz indigener Völker. Seine ungewöhnliche Laufbahn und Lebensgeschichte zeigen, wie die Produktion und Verbreitung von Ideen in einem intergenerationellen und soziologischen Kontext verstanden werden kann. Das Buch reflektiert die zeitgenössische Relevanz von Huxleys Werk und stellt Verbindungen her zwischen den zentralen philosophischen, kulturellen, wissenschaftlichen und politischen Themen des turbulenten frühen 21. Jahrhunderts und den überdauernden Fragen, die die Menschen auf der Suche nach dem Verständnis ihrer selbst und ihres Platzes in der Welt antreiben. Dieses Buch ist für alle Studierenden, Forschenden und Lehrenden der Sozial- und Geisteswissenschaften von Interesse.Dieses Buch ist eine gründliche und faszinierende Darstellung des Lebens meines Onkels Francis, mit all seinen Schatten und Sonnenseiten. Die Autoren beschreiben seinen sprunghaften Charakter gut. Sie geben eine genaue Einschätzung seines Lebenswerkes und seiner Schriften Victoria Huxley, Nichte. Diese Studie über Francis Huxley ist willkommen und überfällig, denn er war einer der größten Sozialanthropologen der indigenen Völker Amazoniens. Seine Beobachtungen waren gründlich, wissenschaftlich korrekt und entsprachen den höchsten Standards seiner Disziplin. Huxley war in zweierlei Hinsicht außergewöhnlich. Sein reizvoller Schreibstil vermittelte seine Leidenschaft sowohl den allgemeinen LeserInnen als auch den WissenschaftlerInnen. Er war mir ein herzlicher Freund, den Menschen der indigenen Völker, die er studierte, wie ein dazugehöriger. Francis war fasziniert von deren Mythologien und ihren geistigen sowie spirituellen Welten. Er konnte sich gut in sie einfühlen und dachte fast wie einer von ihnen. John Hemming, Autor von Menschen des Regenwaldes Dies ist ein ungemein fesselndes und packendes Buch. Nachdenklich und gut geschrieben, vermittelt es gekonnt und mit großem Einfühlungsvermögen die vielen faszinierenden Schichten von Francis Huxley, sein reiches und vielfältiges Leben, sowie seine Vorlieben und seine Philosophie. Fiona Watson, Survival International

Das Handbuch Körpersoziologie verfolgt das Ziel, den grundlegenden Stellenwert des Körpers für soziologisches Denken zu veranschaulichen. Die Körpersoziologie begreift den Körper als bedeutsam für subjektiv sinnhaftes Handeln sowie als eine soziale Tatsache, die hilft, Soziales zu verstehen und zu erklären. Der Körper ist Produzent und Effekt des Sozialen, er ist gesellschaftliches und kulturelles Symbol wie auch Agent, Medium und Instrument sozialen Handelns. Die Körpersoziologie analysiert, wie soziale Strukturen sich in den Körper einschreiben, soziale Ordnung in körperlichen Handlungen und Interaktionen hergestellt und sozialer Wandel durch körperliche Empfindungen motiviert sowie durch körperliche Aktionen gestaltet wird. Körpersoziologie ist in diesem Sinne als verkörperte Soziologie aufzufassen. Das zweibändige Handbuch Körpersoziologie dokumentiert das breite Spektrum an körpersoziologischen Perspektiven und Ansätzen sowie den aktuellen Status Quo der Körpersoziologie. Band 2 versammelt Beiträge zu soziologischen Forschungsfeldern und methodischen Zugänge und belegt damit die soziologische Relevanz des Körpers unter erkenntnis- und sozialtheoretischen, methodologischen und methodischen Gesichtspunkten.

The focus on concepts of power and domination in societal structures has characterized sociology since its beginnings. Max Weber's definition of power as “imposing one's will on others” is still relevant to explaining processes in the arts, whether their production, imagination, communication, distribution, critique or consumption. Domination in the arts is exercised by internal and external rulers through institutionalized social structures and through beliefs about their legitimacy, achieved by defining and shaping art tastes.The complexity of how the arts relate to power arises from the complexity of the policies of artistic production, distribution and consumption—policies which serve to facilitate or hinder an aesthetic object from reaching its intended public. Curators, critics and collectors employ a variety of forms of cultural and artistic communication to mirror and shape the dominant social, economic and political conditions.Arts and Power: Policies in and by the Arts brings together diverse voices who position the societal functions of art in fields of domination and power, of structure and agency—whether they are used to impose hegemonic, totalitarian or unjust goals or to pursue social purposes fostering equal rights and grassroots democracy. The contributions in this volume are exploratory steps towards what we believe can be a more systematic, empirically and theoretically founded sociological debate on the arts and power. And they are an invitation to take further steps.

Wie gestaltet sich für Pfarrpriester unter dem Einfluss der Nutzung von Technologien zur digitalen Vernetzung die Wahrnehmung von und der Umgang mit Raum, Zeit und sozialen Beziehungen? Diese Frage versucht der Autor in dieser empirischen Arbeit zu beantworten, indem er das Zusammenspiel zwischen der Nutzung digitaler Medien und der Anwendung sozialer Praktiken im Pfarralltag untersucht. Auf Grundlage der Daten konnte für die gegenständliche Studie der Idealtypus des Reflektierten Grenzgängers entwickelt werden. Dieser Idealtypus beschreibt einen Menschen, der nach einer reflektierten Gestaltung seiner Lebensbereiche Arbeit und Freizeit strebt, um nicht wie der Idealtypus des Effizienten Menschen ein Maximum an Aufgaben, sondern die jeweiligen Aufgaben bestmöglich zu bewältigen. Eine effiziente Mediennutzung und das Grenzmanagement sind folglich nur die Voraussetzungen, um in einer von digitalen Medien durchsetzten Welt bestmögliche Arbeit leisten zu können.

Culture, cultural difference, and cultural conflict always surround us. Cultural sociologists aim to understand their role across all aspects of social life by examining processes of meaning-making. In this crisp and accessible book, Lyn Spillman demonstrates many of the conceptual tools cultural sociologists use to explore how people make meaning. Drawing on vivid examples, she offers a compelling analytical framework within which to view the entire field of cultural sociology. In each chapter, she introduces a different angle of vision, with distinct but compatible approaches for explaining culture and its role in social life: analyzing symbolic forms, meaning-making in interaction, and organized production. This book both offers a concise answer to the question of what cultural sociology is and provides an overview of the fundamental approaches in the field.

This book names and confounds the mono-mainstream assumption that invisibly frames much research, the ideologies that normalize monolingualism, monoculturalism, monoliteracy, mononationalism, and/or monomodal ways of knowing. In its place, the authors propose multi- and trans- lenses of these phenomena steeped in a raciolinguistic perspective on Bourdieu's reflexive sociology to move toward a more accurate, multidimensional view of racialized peoples'literacy and language practices. To achieve this, they first engage in a comprehensive review of literacies, languaging, and a critical sociocultural framework. Then, the distinct testimonios of four women underscore this framework in practice, followed by action steps for research, policy, and pedagogy. This book will be of particular interest to literacy and language education researchers.

This book covers the psychedelic ayahuasca tourism in Peru, with its facet-rich psychological, pharmacological, anthropological, and sociological aspects. The reader gets an interdisciplinary insight into the historical development and the current state of ayahuasca research. Findings from three empirical studies are presented, which the author has won in a 4-year field research: How do common standards develop in this particular form of psycho-spiritual tourism? Why are people from developed nations and urban centres heading to the Amazon to ingest the psychedelic beverage Ayahuasca? How do they experience such ceremonies and retreats? Which insights, personal meaning and effects do they gain and how do they integrate their experiences into the everyday life?

The thoroughly revised and updated second edition of the Routledge Handbook of Cultural Sociology provides an unparalleled overview of sociological and related scholarship on the complex relations of culture to social structures and everyday life. With 70 essays written by scholars from around the world, the book brings diverse approaches into dialogue, charting new pathways for understanding culture in our global era.Short, accessible chapters by contributing authors address classic questions, emergent issues, and new scholarship on topics ranging from cultural and social theory to politics and the state, social stratification, identity, community, aesthetics, and social and cultural movements. In addition, contributors explore developments central to the constitution and reproduction of culture, such as power, technology, and the organization of work.This handbook is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in a wide range of subfields within sociology, as well as cultural studies, media and communication, and postcolonial theory.

Die Vielfalt kultursoziologischer Ansätze, Diskurse, Arbeitsfelder und Methoden wird in diesem Handbuch kompakt dargestellt. Geboten wird damit die Möglichkeit zur Orientierung innerhalb des heterogenen Feldes der Kultursoziologie. Unterschiedliche Positionen und das mit ihnen jeweils verbundene Verständnis von ‚Kultur‘ werden sichtbar gemacht und die Leser_innen zur weiterführenden Auseinandersetzung mit diesem Forschungsfeld eingeladen.Band 2 gibt Einblick in theoretische und methodische Ansätze der Kultursoziologie und präsentiert den derzeitigen Stand kultursoziologischer Forschung zu ausgewählten Gegenstandsbereichen.

In populärer Kultur ist Männlichkeit ein vielschichtiges Thema – hörbar und sichtbar in Sounds, Performances, Medien, Moden, Biographien, Szenen und (Selbst-)Inszenierungen. Was ist Männlichkeit? Zu dieser nicht (mehr) eindeutig zu beantwortenden Frage liefern populäre Musiken, Medien und Szenen diverse Aussagen und Darstellungen, mal eher traditionell, mal eher transgressiv, wobei sich durch Hautfarbe, sexuelle Orientierung, Herkunft oder Behinderung jeweils Bedeutungsverschiebungen ergeben. Anhand vielfältiger populärkultureller Phänomene bietet der Sammelband facettenreiche Einblicke in die aktuelle Männlichkeitsforschung der Geistes-, Kultur- und Sozialwissenschaften.

Varisco's Culture Still Matters: Notes from the Field is on the relationship between ethnographic fieldwork and the culture concept in the ongoing debate over the future of anthropology, drawing on the history of both concepts. Despite being the major social science that offers a methodology and tools to understand diverse cultures worldwide, scholars within and outside anthropology have attacked this field for all manner of sins, including fostering colonialism and essentializing others. This book revitalizes constructive debate of this vibrant field's history, methods and contributions, drawing on the author's ethnographic experience in Yemen. It covers complicated theoretical concepts about culture and their critiques in readable prose, accessible to students and interested social scientists in other fields. With forewords from Bryan S. Turner and Anouar Majid.

Wer sich einen Überblick über die Geschichte der deutschsprachigen Soziologie und über soziologiehistorische Konzepte und Methoden verschaffen möchte, wird in diesem Handbuch umfassend fündig. Band 1 gibt zentrale Einblicke in die sozialen und kognitiven Dimensionen der Fachgeschichte und behandelt dabei auch Theorie- und Methodenentwicklungen, Kontroversen, internationale Rezeptionen sowie Institutionalisierungsprozesse in Form von Fachgesellschaften, -zeitschriften und Forschungseinrichtungen.

This volume critically engages with the work of the acclaimed Australian sociologist John Carroll. It makes the argument for a metaphysical sociology, which Carroll has proposed should focus on the questions of fundamental existence that confront all humans: ‘Where do I come from?', ‘What should I do with my life?'and ‘What happens to me when I die?'. These questions of meaning, in the secular modern West, have become difficult to answer. As contemporary individuals increasingly draw on their inner resources, or'ontological qualities', to pursue quests for meaning, the key challenge for a metaphysical sociology concerns the cultural resources available to people and the manner in which they are cultivated. Through wide-ranging discussions which include, film, romantic love, terrorism and video games, Metaphysical Sociology takes up this challenge. The contributors include emerging and established sociologists, a philosopher, a renowned actor and a musician. As such, this collection will appeal to scholars of social theory and sociology, and to the general reader with interests in morality, art, culture and the fundamental questions of human existence.

This book, first published in 1987, is a landmark contribution to macrosociology that extends the tradition of Sorokin, Durkheim, Marx, Weber and other founders of the discipline in new and exciting directions. Using their innovative content analysis methodology to examine American and British political documents, the authors show that the long-term dynamics of culture are subject to their own laws and are independent of the actions of'great men'and other individual actors. This comprehensive volume brings together over two decades of the authors'research on culture indicators. Key findings include the identification of two long-term cultural cycles in the United States and Great Britain: one is related to party realignments, the other to long-term economic fluctuations. In addition, the authors demonstrate how culture provides the themes that political parties use to interpret economic conditions in their appeal for votes. Other results show that organizational cultures move in opposite directions from those in the culture of the larger society. The book also includes detailed discussions of both the methodology used to analyse text content and related metatheoretical issues in the study of cultural dynamics.

The complex relationships between altruists, beneficiaries, and brokers in the global effort to fight AIDS in AfricaIn the wake of the AIDS pandemic, legions of organizations and compassionate individuals descended on Africa from faraway places to offer their help and save lives. A Fraught Embrace shows how the dreams of these altruists became entangled with complex institutional and human relationships. Ann Swidler and Susan Cotts Watkins vividly describe the often mismatched expectations and fantasies of those who seek to help, of the villagers who desperately seek help, and of the brokers on whom both Western altruists and impoverished villagers must rely.Based on years of fieldwork in the heavily AIDS-affected country of Malawi, this powerful book digs into the sprawling AIDS enterprise and unravels the paradoxes of AIDS policy and practice. All who want to do good—from idealistic volunteers to world-weary development professionals—depend on brokers as guides, fixers, and cultural translators. These irreplaceable but frequently unseen local middlemen are the human connection between altruists'dreams and the realities of global philanthropy.The mutual misunderstandings among donors, brokers, and villagers—each with their own desires and moral imaginations—create all the drama of a romance: longing, exhilaration, disappointment, heartache, and sometimes an enduring connection. Personal stories, public scandals, and intersecting, sometimes clashing fantasies bring the lofty intentions of AIDS altruism firmly down to earth.Swidler and Watkins ultimately argue that altruists could accomplish more good, not by seeking to transform African lives but by helping Africans achieve their own goals. A Fraught Embrace unveils the tangled relations of those involved in the collective struggle to contain an epidemic.

Evolution and Human Culture argues that values, beliefs, and practices are expressions of individual and shared moral sentiments. Much of our cultural production stems from what in early hominins was a caring tendency, both the care to share and a self-care to challenge others. Topics cover prehistory, mind, biology, morality, comparative primatology, art, and aesthetics. The book is valuable to students and scholars in the arts, including moral philosophers, who would benefit from reading about scientific developments that impact their fields. For biologists and social scientists the book provides a window into how scientific research contributes to understanding the arts and humanities. The take-home point is that culture does not transcend nature; rather, culture is an evolved moral behavior.

Across sociology and cultural studies in particular, the concept of authenticity has begun to occupy a central role, yet in spite of its popularity as an ideal and philosophical value authenticity notably suffers from a certain vagueness, with work in this area tending to borrow ideas from outside of sociology, whilst failing to present empirical studies which centre on the concept itself. Authenticity in Culture, Self, and Society addresses the problems surrounding this concept, offering a sociological analysis of it for the first time in order to provide readers in the social and cultural sciences with a clear conceptualization of authenticity and with a survey of original empirical studies focused on its experience, negotiation, and social relevance at the levels of self, culture and specific social settings.

This cutting-edge research volume advances the widely accepted perspective that cultural factors are central elements in shaping trajectories, organizational forms, recruitment, protest strategies and ideologies of social movements. Hank Johnston brings together international experts in cultural analysis to focus on narratives, frames, speech acts, subcultural networks, and new developments in cultural theory. By introducing innovative methodologies, this title will be of key importance to scholars across the social sciences, including sociology, political science, geography, anthropology, and women's studies. Johnston's exciting book is a significant contribution to the cultural analysis of social movements.

The work of French sociologist, anthropologist and philosopher Pierre Bourdieu has been influential across a set of cognate disciplines that can be classified as physical culture studies. Concepts such as field, capital, habitus and symbolic violence have been used as theoretical tools by scholars and students looking to understand the nature and purpose of sport, leisure, physical education and human movement within wider society.Pierre Bourdieu and Physical Culture is the first book to focus on the significance of Bourdieu's work for, and in, physical culture. Bringing together the work of leading and emerging international researchers, it introduces the core concepts in Bourdieu's thought and work, and presents a series of fascinating demonstrations of the application of his theory to physical culture studies. A concluding section discusses the inherent difficulties of choosing and using theory to understand the world around us. By providing an in-depth and multi-layered example of how theory can be used across the many and varied components of sport, leisure, physical education and human movement, this book should help all serious students and researchers in physical culture to better understand the importance of social theory in their work.

Contesting the putative'even-handedness'of many introductory social science texts, this innovative book presents strong and provocative arguments on contemporary social issues that will stimulate readers to think critically. The principal theme of the book is that social science is at its best, and most exciting, when it confronts and refutes'cultures of prejudice'—intricate systems of beliefs and attitudes that sustain many forms of social oppression and that are, themselves, sustained by ignorance and fear of the unknown and the unfamiliar. Such a critical social science, it is argued, can make an important contribution to promoting human freedom and extending human capacities. Discussions range from the personal to the political, the national to the global, encompassing social policy analysis (law, health, and welfare), the status of women, and animal liberation, as well as nationalism, racism, political ideology, the global economy, and terrorism. This passionately argued book is an excellent supplementary text for undergraduate social science students, as well as a stimulating read for all those open to hard-hitting confrontations with conventional wisdom. Beginning each chapter with an aphorism, anecdote, or quotation that reflects, illustrates, or challenges particular prejudices, the authors offer concise critical discussions of the issues, informed by some of the best research and thought in the social scientific literature.

This volume introduces and compares different concepts of culture in social movement research. It assesses their advantages and shortcomings, drawing links to anthropology, discourse analysis, sociology of emotions, narration, spatial theory, and others. Each contribution's approach is illustrated with recent cases of mobilization.

This book explores the parameters of the African Methodist Episcopal Church's dual existence as evangelical Christians and as children of Ham, and how the denomination relied on both the rhetoric of evangelicalism and heathenism.

Assembling Mass Observation Archive material with historiographies of family, house and nation from ancient-Greece to present-day Europe, China and America, this book contributes to current debates on identity, belonging, memory and material culture by exploring how power works in the small spaces of home.

A collection of original articles that explore social aspects of the phenomenon of icon. Having experienced the benefits and realized the limitations of so called'linguistic turn', sociology has recently acknowledged a need to further expand its horizons.

Since sociologists returned to the study of culture in the past several decades, a pursuit all but anathema for a generation, cultural sociology has emerged as a vibrant field. Edited by three leading cultural sociologists, The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Sociology presents the full theoretical and methodological vitality of this critically significant new area.The Handbook gathers together works by authors confronting the crucial choices all cultural sociologists face today: about analytic priorities, methods, topics, epistemologies, ideologies, and even modes of writing. It is a vital collection of preeminent thinkers studying the ways in which culture, society, politics, and economy interact in the world. Organized by empirical areas of study rather than particular theories or competing intellectual strands, the Handbook addresses power, politics, and states; economics and organization; mass media; social movements; religion; aesthetics; knowledge; and health. Allowing the reader to observe tensions as well as convergences, the collection displays the value of cultural sociology not as a niche discipline but as a way to view and understand the many facets of contemporary society. The first of its kind, The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Sociology offers comprehensive and immediate access to the real developments and disagreements taking place in the field, and deftly exemplifies how cultural sociology provides a new way of seeing and modeling social facts.'This groundbreaking, readable handbook [is] the first single volume to attempt to unify its diverse contemporary applications in a wide range of traditional genres of sociology...Valuable for college universities and libraries supporting undergraduate and graduate degree programs in sociology and history.'-CHOICE

Ce livre traite de l'échange interculturel comme solution aux conflits de culture. La démarche théorique et méthodologique présentée dans ce texte accentue la capacité créatrice des individus et des organisations à transformer un besoin ou un conflit culturel en situation d'échange. L'échange constitue une performance, une capacité de faire et d'être, permettant de désamorcer des conflits collectifs par l'apport des significations culturelles nouvelles. La valeur du changement proposé proveint de son « sens » collectif qui relève, à sont tour, des rapports entre la performance individuelle et la culture environnante. La démarche prend ainsi appui sur la dichotomie culture-performance pour établir des contextes culturels et organisationnels propices à la mise sur pied d'échanges interculturels qui contribueront à l'évolution du milieu. À cette fin, l'approche interdisciplinaire proposée cible trois compétences fondamentales : l'analyse culturelle, la communication interculturelle et le développement du processus créateur individuel et collectif. La sémiotique sert de pont entre les sciences humaines et les sciences sociales pour mettre en valeur les points de convergence théoriques et méthodologiques en matière de culture, de communication et de créativité. Des études de cas au début et à la fin du texte illustrent la genèse et la mise en application du modèle interdisciplinaire de l'échange dans des milieux culturels particuliers. Chaque chapitre se termine par un tableau synoptique qui présente des pratiques signifiantes permettant la transposition du savoir académique en savoir-faire professionnel et la mise sur pied progressive d'un projet d'échange. Du matériel pédagogique d'appui (documentaires et mallettes pédagogiques) permet la mise en application du modèle pour la formation interculturelle et la recherche appliquée.

Drawing on fieldwork with British Pakistani clients of a UK genetics service, this book explores the personal and social implications of a ‘genetic diagnosis'. Through case material and comparative discussion, the book identifies practical ethical dilemmas raised by new genetic knowledge and shows how, while being shaped by culture, these issues also cross-cut differences of culture, religion and ethnicity. The book also demonstrates how identifying a population-level elevated ‘risk'of genetic disorders in an ethnic minority population can reinforce existing social divisions and cultural stereotypes. The book addresses questions about the relationship between genetic risk and clinical practice that will be relevant to health workers and policy makers.

The biblical text and its key figures have played a prominent role in the development of religious discourse on pressing socio-political issues. Slavery and continued discrimination were given theological sanction through the Old Testament story of Ham, but what of his descendent Nimrod the hunter?

Practicing Culture seeks to revitalize the field of cultural sociology with an emphasis not on abstract theoretical debates but on showing how to put theoretical sources to work in empirical research. Culture is not just products and representations but practices. It is made and remade in countless small ways and occasional bursts of innovation. It is something people do – and do in rich variety and distinctive contexts as engaging case studies from the book reveal. For example: in Russia's most Western city, Kaliningrad, residents dig for artifacts symbolizing a German past – even though their parents only migrated to what was once Konigsberg after WWII in the USA, fans of professional wrestling pride themselves on being smart enough to know how much is trickery and how the tricks work yet still believe in the contest. Practicing Culture will reshape and invigorate the sociology of culture, not only through internal development, but through enhanced connections to the interdisciplinary social theory and to related fields like the sociology of knowledge and ethnography. It will prove an essential tool for students and researchers of cultural theory, contemporary social theory and cultural sociology.

When Gertrude Williams retired in 1998, after forty-nine years in the Baltimore public schools,The Baltimore Sun called her'the most powerful of principals'who'tangled with two superintendents and beat them both.'In this oral memoir, Williams identifies the essential elements of sound education and describes the battles she waged to secure those elements, first as teacher, then a counselor, and, for twenty-five years, as principal. She also described her own education - growing up black in largely white Germantown, Pennsylvania; studying black history and culture for the first time at Cheyney State Teachers College; and meeting the rigorous demands of the program which she graduated from in 1949. In retracing her career, Williams examines the highs and lows of urban public education since World War II. She is at once an outspoken critic and spirited advocate of the system to which she devoted her life.

This volume, Why Europe? Problems of Culture and Identity: Media, Film, Gender, Youth and Education, addresses a range of issues which underlie the notions of European identity. Among them are: what does it mean to be a European? What ideologies have shaped the political debate over the last two centuries? What place will minorities find in the Europe of the twenty-first century? What roles will women play in the future communities? Will Europe become more open to diversity, or become increasingly introspective, a'fortress Europe'?

Transcending recent attempts to pigeonhole'the information revolution', this book shows how the paradoxical aspects of new media and the Internet (is it masculine or feminine? Does it mean peace or war?) are the peculiarly intense expression of the contradictions underlying our whole society. Andrew Calcutt is an enthusiastic champion of the potential for new communications technology, and a trenchant critic of the culture of fear which prevents its realisation.

Family Fictions explores images and narratives of the family in recent Hollywood cinema. This is the first in-depth analysis of this important topic which explores how problematic representations of the family were in a period when the family was a pivotal political and social issue. Through close textual analysis of the biggest box-office hits of recent years, this book demonstrates the volatility of family representations and the instability of its narrative and ideological functions. Well-known films discussed, include Kramer versus Kramer, E.T. and Look Who's Talking.

A study that examines the relationship between tragic drama of the late 19th and 20th centuries and present-day society. The author's theories are presented with excerpts from relevant plays, such as'Look Back in Anger','The Glass Menagerie','The Iceman Cometh'and'Hedda Gabler'.