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This volume presents for the first time a collection of historically important papers written on the concept of rationality in the social sciences. In 1939-40, the famed Austrian economist Joseph A. Schumpeter and the famous sociologist Talcott Parsons convened a faculty seminar at Harvard University on the topic of rationality. The first part includes their essays as well as papers by the Austrian phenomenologist Alfred Schütz, the sociologist Wilbert Moore, and the economist Rainer Schickele. Several younger economists and sociologists with bright futures also participated, including Alex Gerschenkron, John Dunlop, Paul M. Sweezy, and Wassily W. Leontief, who was later awarded the Nobel Prize for developing input-output analysis. The second part presents essays and commentaries written by today's internationally noted social scientists and addressing the topic of rationality in social action from a broad range of perspectives. The book's third and final part shares the recently discovered correspondence between the seminar principals regarding the original but failed plan to publish its proceedings. It also includes letters, not previously published, between Richard Grathoff, Walter M. Sprondel and Talcott Parsons on the rationality seminar and the exchanges between Parsons and Schütz.

This book examines the future of the social sciences and the reconstruction of society in contemporary times. Drawing on the lead piece For a New Classic Sociology, it calls for a new theoretical synthesis that overcomes the fragmentation, specialization and professionalization within the social sciences. The position paper and the responses by a team of world-class social theorists provide an alternative to utilitarianism and the colonization of the social sciences by rational choice models, propose a new articulation of social theory, and moral, social and political philosophy. It recommends a return to classical social theory and explores articulations between theories of reciprocity, care and recognition.A radical intervention in the study of the social sciences, the volume will be indispensable to scholars and researchers across the social sciences, especially social theory and sociology and social anthropology.Contributions by Frank Adloff, Jeffrey C. Alexander, Francis Chateauraynaud, Raewyn Connell, François Dubet, Philip Gorski, Nathalie Heinich, Qu Jingdong, Mike Savage, Michael Singleton and Philippe Steiner.

This book constitutes a practical guide to the important skills of both theorizing and writing in social scientific scholarship, focusing on the importance of identifying relations between concepts that are useful for explaining social entities and of producing a text that convincingly advances the theory that has been constructed. Taking as its point of departure the distinction between the research process and the reporting process – between clarifying one's ideas to oneself and writing to express these ideas clearly to others – this volume concentrates on writing when theorizing as a way of thinking, emphasizing the series of relations that exist between ontology, epistemology and rhetoric upon which successful theoretical writing depends. Richly illustrated with practical examples, the book is divided into two parts, the first of which presents techniques for theorizing based upon visualized and logical connections of ideas, concepts and empirical patterns in both free and systematic ways, and the second part providing techniques for structuring and presenting arguments in essays, papers, articles or books.As such, Methods for Social Theory offers a toolbox for the development and presentation of social thought, which will prove essential for students and teachers across the social sciences.

Volume 17 of'Political Power and Social Theory'showcases scholarship by historical, political, and economic sociologists grouped around three broad subjects with both contemporary and historical relevance. The first is the relationship between race, class, and urban politics, and specifically, how racial and class identities interact with each other to produce social and political power dynamics in 20th century American cities. The second subject, the interaction of citizens, states, and social movements in both colonial and transnational context, turns away from the sub-national level of the city and examines social and political dynamics at the level of nations and even empires, although racial identities, social movements, and citizenship concerns remain relevant in several of these papers as well. Both U.S. and European cases are examined. The final topic of inquiry is the social origins of corporate irresponsibility, a problem that is explored through the lens of organizational theory, state-society relations, and the history of labor-corporate relations. Overall, the volume aims to open new historical, methodological, and theoretical lines of inquiry for sociologists, organization theorists, political scientists, historians, and others who seek to understand some of the most pressing inequalities and injustices of our times.

This anthology originated from three conferences, which were held at Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan, on March 26-28, 1999, at the Univ- sity of Konstanz, Germany, on May 26-29, 1999 and a session at the SPHS annual meeting at the University of Oregon, USA, on October 5-7, 1999. With one exception the contributions to this volume are revised versions of papers read at these meetings. Each of these conferences took place in order to celebrate the centennial of the birthday of Alfred Schutz, who was born April 13, 1899, and died May 20, 1959. First of all we would like to thank Evelyn Schutz-Lang, the daughter of Alfred and Ilse Schutz, for her continuing support and encouragement. Moreover, Evelyn Schutz-Lang as well as Claudia Schutz, the gr- daughter of Alfred and Ilse Schutz, and the daughter of his son George, gave us the honor of visiting the Konstanz conference in 1999. Evelyn also came to the Oregon conference and sent her personal greetings to those attending the Tokyo conference. We would like to thank Waseda University, the Waseda Sociological Association, the Waseda University International Conference Center, and the Center for Research in Human Sciences in Japan for their generous financial support, as well as the German Research Council (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), the University of Konstanz, the Alfred Schutz Memorial Archives in Konstanz, and the Sparkasse Konstanz for their considerable financial assistance in making the conferences possible.

Love and Sexuality in Social Theory considers the role that love and sexuality play in private and public life. Drawing on both classical and contemporary social theory, this book presents both theoretical and empirical studies of love and sexuality as social factors, from the earliest reconstructions of modern emotional life to the most recent analyses of liquid love. With attention to the consequences that passions and desires have both on morals and behaviour, it departs from the analysis of society in terms of the division of labour and utilitarian mechanisms to consider how a society based on performances values human energy and emotional behaviour in a contradictory way. This book, therefore, presents and discusses classic authors, from Georg Simmel and Pitirim Sorokin to Marianne Weber and Simone De Beauvoir, through the work of Erving Goffman and ending with contemporary authors such as Michel Foucault, Anthony Giddens, Zygmunt Bauman, Ulrich Beck, and Eva Illouz.By presenting love as the social foundation of altruism, an essential element in modern conceptions of subjectivity, and a force shaping intimacy and contemporary social life, this book will appeal to scholars of sociology, particularly those interested in social theory and the sociology of emotions.

This book revisits social theory with a view to highlighting certain essential features of ‘good'social theory: its ability to raise certain questions, its explanatory power, its critical and reflexive interrogation of concepts, its search for objectivity, its concern to make sense of empirical data and its aim of projecting some degree of generality and abstraction. With particular attention to issues of nationalism, democracy, civil society, state, feminism, neoliberalism, minority rights, environment and North-East Indian society, it considers whether new and more relevant theoretical questions need to be asked.It will therefore appeal to scholars of social theory and political sociology with interests in new approaches to social theory and the development of local or ‘indigenous'social thought.

The second edition of Classical and Contemporary Social Theory provides wraparound coverage of the classical social theorists and influential sociological schools of thought in the contemporary period.Explained carefully and clearly throughout, Tim Delaney reviews the key concepts and contributions from brilliant classical social thinkers and recent sociological thought, spanning over 500 years of source material. He weaves together profiles of leading theorists, thorough descriptions of major academic and intellectual perspectives, and discussion of prevailing themes of interest that have concerned theorists and sociologists throughout time and will likely continue to do so in the future. The book emphasizes methods of investigation and application in its overview of the field by challenging readers to think about problems critically and in relation to key sociological theories and to also apply their sociological understanding to real, everyday events.In this new edition, Delaney revisits the classical period and highlights the special contributions of American social theorists and their impact on the diversity of thought leading into the contemporary era. He attends to later schools of thought and weaves in important updates related to critical race theory and globalization. With updated context and further applications, the second edition of Classical and Contemporary Social Theory is a perfect addition to combined courses in social theory.

We have many histories of social theory—what different authors attempted to do as they responded to previous theories. But we know precious little about how they did this in structural terms—what scaffolding they adopted and adapted to make their claims. Yet today's social thoughts largely employ structures passed down from previous generations, structures that were developed to solve problems that are no longer ours.In The True, the Good, and the Beautiful, John Levi Martin explores these structures, the resulting tensions, and their broader significance for sociological thought. By examining how thinkers mapped interpersonal to intrapersonal structures, he traces the development of the underlying architectonics of theory, focusing on one that was inherited from eighteenth-century philosophy and brought into social science in the nineteenth century. He shows that the structural tensions inherent in these theories paralleled those being worked out in practical terms by constitutional theorists as thinkers attempted to return to their most fundamental understandings of the nature of the human, the social, and the political to recraft their societies. A magisterial new interpretation of the foundations of sociological thought, The True, the Good, and the Beautiful is as ambitious a work of social theory as we have seen in generations.

Social Theory and the Political Imaginary: Practice, Critique, and History is an innovative work of synthesis, critique and analysis. It presages a social theory perspective that recognizes the constitutive significance of the political imaginary in modernity. Social theory's current dilemmas are explored through a series of interlinked assessments of recent substantial strands, specifically, Luc Boltanski's pragmatism and the wider ‘practical turn,'the perspectives of multiple modernities and global modernity, the outlook of social and political imaginaries and critical social theory. The political imaginary's reconfigurations are evident in the tensions of global modernity, and original social theory interpretations are advanced of landmark instances of twenty-first-century social contestation: the Hong Kong protests conditioned by threats to civil freedoms and a lack of self-determination, the radical democratic practices of anti-austerity movements contesting capitalist globalization's injustices and the inverted cosmopolitanism of the 2005 French Riots challenging the oppression and inequalities experienced by immigrant communities and marginalized youth. These incisive applications of social theory and complementary conceptual innovations illuminate the vicissitudes of social struggles, political forms and theoretical perspectives. Similarly, reflection on the political imaginary is found to enable a necessary rethinking of the interrelationship of practice, critique and history.

Martin Weißmann legt in diesem Open-Access-Buch theoretische Synthesen zu zentralen Themen der interdisziplinären Polizeiforschung vor und leistet damit einen Beitrag zur Integration dieser ansonsten oft empiristischen Forschung in die stärker theorieorientierte Soziologie. Er schlägt vor, (Kriminal-)Polizeien als Fall misstrauischer Sozialsysteme zu analysieren. Wie beispielsweise auch Geheimdienste oder der Investigativjournalismus sind sie auf die Gewinnung von Informationen über eine Umwelt spezialisiert, welche dies durch Prozesse des Verbergens und Täuschens erschwert.Empirisch behandelt das Buch zunächst die (Vor-)Geschichte polizeilicher Ermittlungsarbeit in Europa als Fall der Ausdifferenzierung, Professionalisierung und Organisationswerdung sozialer Kontrolle (untersucht an den Fällen Englands im 18. Jahrhundert sowie der Kriminalpolizeien in Paris um 1820 und Berlin um 1920). Die anschließenden Kapitel widmen sich der Arbeit von Polizisten mit Informanten und an Beschuldigten (in der Vernehmung) als Fall des Kontakts einer organisationalen Grenzrolle mit formal nicht zur Kooperation verpflichteten Nichtmitgliedern der Organisation. Und schließlich analysiert der Autor den polizeilichen Korpsgeist als Fall einer kollegialen Versicherungsgemeinschaft gegen die individuelle Verantwortlichkeit für Fehler bei der Arbeit.

Marxism is not just a Euro-American preoccupation. It has had vibrant articulations around the world, particularly in Latin America, Africa, the Caribbean, and amongst Black diasporas. But South Asia has been relatively neglected in efforts to register the revolutionary theoretical traditions of the Global South. Reinvigorating the study of Marxism within the South Asian context, this volume of Political Power and Social Theory highlights lesser-known thinkers to unsettle the propensity within the Marxist cannon to disproportionately fixate on white male theorists. Forging an anti-imperialist Marxism through dialectical and historical approaches, chapters demonstrate how the South Asian facet of this revolutionary tradition can contribute to and even reenergize global Marxist theory.

This book departs from approaches to truth in social science and ideas in philosophy that connect truth to the ability of language to fulfil certain ‘real-world'conditions of objectivity. Pointing to an extra-linguistic level in our cognition at which scientific creativity occurs, it highlights the manner in which epistemic communities share, work on and modify not only the world-imaginaries that they endorse, but also those world-views that they reject or which partially overlap with their own. Through the concept of the social imaginary, the author explores the theoretical interrelations among various metaphysical world-imageries by which we organise our scientific understanding of the world and our expectations of experience, thus shedding light on the manner in which social ontology can inform our practices of sharing belief. A study at the intersection of metaphysics and social theory, The Fundamental Predicament of Contemporary Philosophy and the Social Sciences will appeal to scholars of sociology and philosophy with interests in questions of ontology and epistemology.

In recent years, social scientists have turned their critical lens on the historical roots and contours of their disciplines, including their politics and practices, epistemologies and methods, institutionalization and professionalization, national development and colonial expansion, globalization and local contestations, and public presence and role in society. The Social Sciences in the Looking Glass offers current social scientific perspectives on this reflexive moment. Examining sociology, anthropology, philosophy, political science, legal theory, and religious studies, the volume's contributors outline the present transformations of the social sciences, explore their connections with critical humanities, analyze the challenges of alternate paradigms, and interrogate recent endeavors to move beyond the human. Throughout, the authors, who belong to half a dozen disciplines, trace how the social sciences are thoroughly entangled in the social facts they analyze and are key to helping us understand the conditions of our world.Contributors. Chitralekha, Jean-Louis Fabiani, Didier Fassin, Johan Heilbron, Miriam Kingsberg Kadia, Kristoffer Kropp, Nicolas Langlitz, John Lardas Modern, Álvaro Morcillo Laiz, Amín Pérez, Carel Smith, George Steinmetz, Peter D. Thomas, Bregje van Eekelen, Agata Zysiak

Perspectivism: A Contribution to the Philosophy of the Social Sciences advances the philosophy of perspectivism, showing how its capacity to assess competing views of a particular concept by approaching them as different ‘sides'of a multi-dimensional object supports a concept of ‘adequate'rather than ‘absolute'truth. Presenting four case studies – of the social scientific concepts of power, equality, crime, and sex and gender – Smith demonstrates the manner in which the perspectivist approach does not take all differing views of a concept to be equally good, but views all perspectives taken together as contributing towards the best that we can know about any given concept at the present time. An exposition and analysis of the means by which perspectivism allows for truth and objectivity in the social sciences, this volume will appeal to scholars of philosophy and across the social sciences with interests in questions of epistemology and research methodology.

The Metaphysics of Cooperation presents the intellectual achievements of the Polish associative socialist and pioneer of social sciences, Edward Abramowski. The volume is divided into five sections, each of them contains an analysis of Polish philosopher's work according to the issues he dealt with: sociology, ethics, politics, cooperativism, and psychology. Each part also contains a selection of his writings. Its intention is to show Abramowski's works in the context of global intellectual history and to include them in the current political debates. Abramowski makes fraternity or cooperation the main concepts of his social metaphysics. The Polish version of cooperativism can be inspiring both for contemporary researchers and political activists in the post-economic-crisis Europe. It also opens up a space for creating more democratic political and economic institutions.

This Palgrave Handbook showcases how the phenomenological approach, especially but not only as developed by Alfred Schutz, can make important contributions to the theoretical analysis of macro-social phenomena such as the state, history, culture and interculturality, class relations and struggles, social movements and protests, capitalism, democracy, and digitalization processes. It gathers systematically and intellectual-historically oriented chapters that deal with these macro social phenomena from a phenomenological perspective. This handbook is mainly intended for a threefold audience: sociologists and social scientists at large – both theoretically and empirically oriented –, phenomenological sociologists, and phenomenological philosophers. This book includes chapters by international renowned specialists in social theory, phenomenological sociology, and phenomenology: Hartmut Rosa (University of Jena), Michael Barber (St. Louis University), Thomas Eberle (University of St. Gallen), Roberto Walton (Universidad de Buenos Aires), Jochen Dreher (University of Konstanz), Chung-Chi YU (National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan), and George Bondor (AI.I. Cuza University of Iasi, Romania), among others.

This book explores two public sector scandals in the UK, drawing on Max Weber's thought on ‘the iron cage'to understand how these cases of patient-neglect in NHS hospitals and failures by police and social workers to address the organised sexual exploitation of young girls occurred.Through examination of the management failures and institutional vulnerabilities, and with attention to the trends of bureaucratisation and rationalisation that characterised both scandals, it reveals the explanatory power of Weber's thought, developing a theoretical model that updates and extends Weber's work in light of the cases discussed. The final chapter examines the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and highlights how the focus on a rational techno-medical solution to the pandemic offered by the vaccines together with bureaucratic expansion has created an authoritarian and totalitarian society which represents the ultimate realisation of Weber's iron cage.Showing that ordinary people, including professionals, are still trapped in the ‘iron cage', it will appeal to scholars of sociology and social theory, as well as those providing training and working within the caring and service professions of policing, social work and nursing.

This third edition of Social Theory Re-Wired is a significantly revised edition of this leading text and its unique web learning interactive programs that'allow us to go farther into theory and to build student skills than ever before,'according to many teachers. Vital political and social updates are reflected both in the text and the online supplements.'System updates'to each section offer an expanded set of contemporary theory readings that focus on the impacts of information/digital technologies on each of the text's five big themes: 1) the Puzzles of Social Order, 2) the Social Consequences of Capitalism, 3) the Darkside of Modernity, 4) Subordinated/Alternative Knowledges, and 5) Self-Identity and Society. New to this edition: The'big ideas/questions'thematic structure of the text as well as the connections between classical and contemporary theorists continues to be popular with instructors. This feature is enhanced in the new edition An expanded'Podcast Companions'series now pairs at least one podcast to every reading in the book Many new updates to the exercise platform allow students to theorize and build theory on their own New readings excerpts include such important recent work as: Shoshana Zuboff's'The Age of Surveillance Capitalism,'Ruha Benjamin's'Race After Technology,'David Graeber's'Of Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profit,'Sherry Turkle's “Always-On/Always-on-You.”

This book explores the growing attention that sociology has started to give to environmental issues in terms of peace and social justice. With a focus on sociological theory and its development, it reconstructs the long journey made by the social sciences towards the reconstruction, in a single theoretical paradigm, of the problems associated with the implementation of conditions of peace and sustainability. Beginning from the premise that environmental issues are never purely environmental, but entail political, economic and social implications, Sustainable Development and Peace offers an understanding of where we are heading and how, reflecting on present challenges and possible directions for the future. It will, therefore, appeal to scholars of sociology, social theory, development studies, politics and environmental studies.

This book proposes a reconstruction of contemporary social theory, focusing on thematic issues rather than on authors or schools of thought. In so doing, it endeavours to bridge epistemological approaches and locate critical claims shared by the main trajectories and notions of sociological theoretical debate. The book explores the current forms of social science theorization through the key themes of Agency, Anthropocene, Coloniality, Intersectionality, Othering, Singularization, Technoscience and Uncertainty. Focusing on these key themes, it highlights their usefulness for discussions of inequality, neoliberalism, eurocentrism, androcentrism or anthropocentrism – in order to examine these issues in a new light and look beyond the classic divides of social theory.Intended for an academic audience interested in social theory, scholars and post-graduate students in sociology, social sciences, anthropology, social geography, social psychology and globalization studies will find this book useful.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 4.0 license.

In times of entrenched social upheaval and multiple crises, we need the kind of social theory that is prepared to look at the big picture, analyze the broad developmental features of modern societies, their structural conditions and dynamics, and point to possible ways out of the crises we face. Over the last couple of decades, two German sociologists, Andreas Reckwitz and Hartmut Rosa, have sought to provide wide-ranging social theories of this kind. While their theories are very different, they share in common the view that the analysis of modernity as a social formation must be kept at the heart of sociology, and that the theory of society should ultimately serve to diagnose the crises of the present. In this book, Andreas Reckwitz and Hartmut Rosa join forces to examine the value and the limits of a theory of society today. They provide clear and concise accounts of their own theories of society, explicate their key concepts – including'singularization'in the case of Reckwitz,'acceleration'and “resonance” in the case of Rosa – and draw out the implications of their theories for understanding the multiple crises we face today. The result is a book that provides both an excellent introduction to the work of two of the most important sociologists writing today and a vivid demonstration of the value of the kind of bold social theory of modern societies that they espouse.

This Open-Access-book utilises Hipsterism to demonstrate modes of identity, collectivity, conceptions and a whole spectrum of activities with varying degrees of commitment in contemporary society. Analysed through the lens of Modernity, Consumerism, and the New Spirit of Capitalism, it draws on qualitative research from two subsequent field stays in Berlin and is complemented by self-reflexion within the field. Young adults and their conceptions within modernity, capitalism and consumerism constitute a fundamental building block to understanding society. Little sociological work has been done in the field of Hipsterism, although it can function as a paradigm for western, affluent societies. With tools such as conscious consumption, conversations and ethical or creative work within a politically intended lifestyle, Hipsterism emerges as an attempt to navigate between individualism and collectivity. Resulting from these circumstances are a variety of forms of action, while searching for better ways to contribute and engage at the same time. Attempts to dissolve milieus and try to construct spaces where different cultures, classes and ethnicities are welcome might fail in spatial practice, but the practices in sum still leave a trace in (consumer) culture. All these activities hint at the potential of transformative and negotiating power that Hipsterism could have.This is an open access book.

Wissenschaftlich produziertes Wissen steht nicht erst seit der Suche nach »alternativen Fakten« in der öffentlichen Kritik. Was als richtiges und wahres Wissen gilt, ist in modernen Gesellschaften häufig vom lebensweltlichen Standpunkt abhängig. Dies zwingt besonders die Sozialwissenschaften zur Selbstreflexion bezüglich ihres Erkenntnisinteresses – aber auch ihres Selbstverständnisses als Wissenschaft. Peter Fischer greift die nach wie vor kontroverse Frage nach der Logik der Sozialwissenschaften auf. Seine Darstellung verfolgt keine Präferenz für einen bestimmten Ansatz, sondern wird der Multiparadigmatik des Fachs gerecht. In den Fokus stellt er dabei die historisch-genetische Rekonstruktion sowie einen fundierten Überblick über die gegenwärtig in den Sozialwissenschaften vertretenen Ansätze.

In Planetary Sociology: Beyond the Entanglement of Identity and Social Structure, Harry F. Dahms gathers a team of interdisciplinary junior social scientists who examine their individual identity as being shaped by specific social contexts such as nationality, class, and race, to scrutinize how their interests as social scientists are responses to such contexts and culturally specific circumstances (Part II). Acknowledging the limits of economic, organizational, and technological modernization at the national level, planetary sociology delineates the type of critical social, political, cultural, and environmental reflexivity required for'progress,''health,'and'development'to be meaningful categories. Including contributions from senior scholars in the field who do not rely on the paradigm of planetary Sociology (Part III), this volume of Current Perspectives in Social Theory illustrates the importance of scrutinizing links between individual identity and social structure, without employing the paradigm of planetary sociology. Taken together, the chapters in this volume are essential reading for both undergraduate and graduate students eager to understand a rigorous social-research mindset, along with professionalization, methodology, and theoretical orientation, and related applications. Presenting an opportunity for social theorists and social scientists to learn about the challenges faced by younger sociologists, the examples of'applied theory'included here emphasize the importance of critical self-reflexivity in and for the 21st century, and the challenges it represents to social scientists, theorists, researchers, and teachers.

This book proposes, for the first time, an in-depth analysis of the Philosophie sociale, published in Paris in 1793 by Moses Dobruska (1753-1794). Dobruska was a businessman, scholar, and social philosopher, born into a Jewish family in Moravia, who converted to Catholicism, gained wide recognition at the Habsburg court in Vienna, and then emigrated to France to join the French Revolution.Dobruska, who took on the name Junius Frey during his Parisian sojourn, barely survived his book. Accused of conspiring on behalf of foreign powers, he was guillotined on April 5, 1794, at the height of The Terror, on the same day as Georges Jacques Danton.From Dobruska's ideas, which were widely used between the late eighteenth century and the first decades of the nineteenth century without attribution to their author, emerge some of the key concepts of the social sciences as we know them today. An enthusiastic and unfortunate revolutionary and sometimes a brilliant theorist, Moses Dobruska deserves a role of his own in the history of sociology. Click here for a video book presentation by the author.

Andy Blunden's Hegel Marx & Vygotsky, Essays in Social Philosophy presents his novel approach to social theory in a series of essays. Blunden aims to use the cultural psychology of Lev Vygotsky and the Soviet Activity Theorists to renew Hegelian Marxism as an interdisciplinary science. This allows psychologists and social theorists to share their insights through concepts equally valid in either domain. The work includes critical reviews of the works of central figures in Soviet psychology and other writers offering fruitful insights. Essays on topics as diverse as vaccine scepticism and the origins of language test out the interdisciplinary power of the theory, as well as key texts on historical analysis, methodology and the nature of the present conjuncture.

Interdisciplinary in approach, this book combines philosophy, sociology, history and psychology in the analysis of contemporary forms of suffering. With attention to depression, anxiety, chronic pain and addiction, it examines both particular forms of suffering and takes a broad view of their common features, so as to offer a comprehensive and parallel view both of the various forms of suffering and the treatments commonly applied to them. Highlighting the challenges and distortions of the available treatments and identifying these as contributory factors to the overall problem of contemporary suffering, Empty Suffering promises to widen the horizon of therapeutic interventions and social policies. As such, it will appeal to scholars across the social sciences and humanities with interests in mental health and disorder, social theory and social pathologies.

George Herbert Mead has long been known for his social theory of meaning and the ‘self'- an approach which becomes all the more relevant in light of the ways we develop and represent ourselves online. But recent scholarship has shown that Mead's pragmatic philosophy can help us understand a much wider range of contemporary issues including how humans and natural environments mutually influence one another, how deliberative democracy can and should work, how thinking is dependent upon the body and on others, and how social changes in the present affect our understandings of the past. Historical scholarship has also changed what we know of Mead's life, including new emphasis on his social reform efforts, his engagement with colonization and war, and critical reinterpretation of the works published after his death. This book provides an approachable introduction to Mead's contemporary relevance in the social sciences, showing how a pragmatic view of social action serves as the core of Mead's theory, offering striking insights into human agency, symbolism, politics, social change, temporality, and materiality. As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology and the social sciences more broadly, with interests in social theory and the enduring importance of the sociological classics.

Taking an innovative look at the origins of economics, this forward-thinking book relocates economics from a materialistic general theory of rational action into an idealistic theory of social organization and individual action. Adding new insightful analytical methods such as complexity theory, graph theory and computational modelling to the original insights of the Scottish Enlightenment, Richard Wagner explores economics in an ever-changing society, looking at the key civilizing processes and the important social questions. Rethinking Economics as Social Theory moves away from the traditional review of analytical exercises and associated data and illustrates an enlightening scheme of thought where human societies are heterogeneous and not homogeneous and where change is continually in motion. Furthermore, Wagner theorises that economizing is a universal form of human action that plays out in numerous substantive directions and shows cooperation and conflict to have a yin-and-yang relationship. This illuminating book will prove an excellent resource for economists interested in working outside of comparative statics as well as social scientists looking for a broader vision of economics. Philosophers and those working in the field of biological sciences will also find this an informative read.

Humor has been praised by philosophers and poets as a balm to soothe the sorrows that outrageous fortune's slings and arrows cause inevitably, if not incessantly, to each and every one of us. In mundane life, having a sense of humor is seen not only as a positive trait of character, but as a social prerequisite, without which a person's career and mating prospects are severely diminished, if not annihilated. However, humor is much more than this, and so much else. In particular, humor can accompany cruelty, inform it, sustain it, and exemplify it. Therefore, in this book, we provide a comprehensive, reasoned exploration of the vast literature on the concepts of humor and cruelty, as these have been tackled in Western philosophy, humanities, and social sciences, especially psychology. Also, the apparent cacophony of extant interpretations of these two concepts is explained as the inevitable and even useful result of the polysemy inherent to all common-sense concepts, in line with the understanding of concepts developed by M. Polanyi in the 20th century. Thus, a thorough, nuanced grasp of their complex mutual relationship is established, and many platitudes affecting today's received views, and scholarship, are cast aside.'Like Aristotle and Dewey, Arnarsson and Baruchello do not define their terms at the outset, but instead they relentlessly pursue the meanings of two ordinary words that everyone vaguely understads to arrive at a critical insight into the concepts these words represent, which are both disparate and interrelated.'- Richard Marc Rubin, President, George Santayana Society

In this comprehensive and clear introduction to contemporary social theory, Anthony Elliott and Charles Lemert explore the major theoretical traditions from the Frankfurt School to the digital revolution and beyond. Fully revised and updated, this second edition has been expanded to consider the most recent developments in social theory, including a new chapter on the digital revolution and the increasingly significant impact of technological developments (such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics) on society, culture and politics.Introduction to Contemporary Social Theory provides the reader with a superb overview of key developments in social theory, including the Frankfurt School, American pragmatism, structuralism, post-structuralism, feminism, globalization and world-systems theory. In doing so, the textbook explores the ideas of a wide range of social theorists, including Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Talcott Parsons, Erving Goffman, Harold Garfinkel, Michel Foucault, Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida, C. Wright Mills, Anthony Giddens, Pierre Bourdieu, Julia Kristeva, Jürgen Habermas, Judith Butler, Slavoj Žižek, Manuel Castells, Cornel West, Immanuel Wallerstein and Zygmunt Bauman. This textbook provides stylish exposition with powerful social critique and original insights. It will be indispensable to students and academics alike.

Mad Hazard is a memoir of the career and life of Stephen Turner, chronicling a life in social theory. Showcasing how Turner's later work on expertise, tacit knowledge, cognitive science, leadership, and liberal democracy developed out of his early interests, this volume describes the institutional and personal constraints and pressures, as well as the personal relationships, that facilitated and shaped an academic career. From Turner's childhood in the racially violent South Side of Chicago, the development of his interests in social theory, through to his education in the shadow of the war in Vietnam and a period of social and personal turmoil, this biographical work shows us not only the development of academic thinking, but the evolution of an academic career. The rebellion within sociology against the hegemonic Merton-Parsons conception of sociology and the methodological orthodoxies of the time leads through to a discussion of the philosophy of science and social science, and from there to a reassessment of the inherited view of the classics, to science studies, and to political and international relations theory – the comprehensive nature of Mad Hazard means the reader can truly understand how Turner's academic journey evolved. Revealing an academic career not dependent on prestige and academic power, but also not untouched by hierarchy and academic politics, Mad Hazard is appealing for readers interested in the field of social theory, and beyond that, those interested in the evolution of intellectual life in the present university.

The premise of The Diversity of Darkness and Shameful Behaviors is to emphasize the need for enlightened, rational thinking as a paradigm of thought as the culture of shamelessness continues to grow and cast its repulsive dark shadow over those who embrace enlightened reason and basic human rights for all.Diversity of Darkness is an innovative work and represents the third book of a trilogy written by the author that underscores the reality that there are many shamefully hateful and deadly behavioral threats that have jeopardized the very notions of civility, decency and justice around the world. This unique book utilizes evidence-based approaches in the examination of human behaviors in society that have become increasingly shameful and tolerated among a growing number of enablers. Key features include a combination of academic analyses that draw on numerous and specific examples of the diversity of darkness that encompasses the world along with a balanced practical, everyday-life approach to the study of the socio-political world we live in through the use of contemporary culture references and featured popular culture boxes.Social scientists, social thinkers and the general audience alike will be intrigued by the diversity of topics covered, including anti-civil rights movements; the rise of supremacist groups; hate crimes; mass shootings and active shootings; terrorism, war and genocide; an increase in shameful behaviors and attempts to shame others; and attacks on science, reason and rationality. We should realize that humanity has the intellect to accomplish great feats but heed the growing culture of shamelessness, irrationality and the diversity of darkness.

This book offers a critique of the present status of the concept of causality in the social sciences. “The Causality Syndrome” consists of a belief in causal studies as more important than other studies, a narrow definition of causality, and rules of thumb regarding how to make causal claims. The book argues that the present dominance of this syndrome has considerable downsides and presents a challenge to social science. The book dissects the many interconnected ideas which undergird this syndrome and offers an intellectual home for advanced students, researchers and others who are concerned about the present dominance of The Causality Syndrome. The book critically discusses whether “causality” deserves the central position in social science that its advocates desire. The text shows how methodological rules about causal inference are used to protect causal studies from critique, even in situations where these rules are not followed. It is arguedthat institutionalization of these rules as symbols of good and trustworthy social science is highly problematic and comes with a price. One of the casualties of causality is that there is less motivation to study complex and pressing issues in society which do not lend themselves to causal study designs. The sections are short. The argument unfolds in a lively, engaged form with examples from many fields, including public health, evaluation and organizational studies. The case examples include classical experiments as well as contemporary research, e.g. studies of the effectiveness of restrictions targeting the spread of coronavirus.

L'ambition de cet ouvrage collectif est de contribuer à l'élucidation de deux grands thèmes «problématiques» qui se renvoient souvent l'un à l'autre et qui posent des difficultés sérieuses tant aux étudiants des études supérieures qu'aux professionnels et chercheurs chevronnés : le thème de la «normativité» et le thème de la «critique».

Adopting a critical realist approach to morality, this book considers morality as an aspect of social reality, enquiring into the nature of moral agency and asking whether we can legitimately argue for a specific moral position and whether moral positions can be understood to apply universally. Drawing on the thought of Bhaskar, Collier and Sayer, it explores a series of ontological questions about morality, shedding light on the ways in which critical realism can be used to address them, ultimately responding to the question of whether critical realism and the moral theories that have been produced through its use can provide an explanation of morality as a feature of reality. Through a synthesis of realist thought, the author develops a comprehensive theoretical understanding of morality that can be tested for its explanatory power through subsequent practical research. As such, it will appeal to scholars of philosophy and social science with interests in critical realism, ontology and meta-ethics.

This textbook delivers a new thematic introduction to social theory that explores theoretical issues in their contemporary social contexts. Each chapter is devoted to a specific thematic area, including the state, governance, the economy, civil society, culture, language, knowledge, the self, emotions, the body, and social justice. Each chapter details the key issues for debate and the relevant theories while linking those debates and theories to everyday life. Distributed throughout the chapters are focused sections on key concepts and their research applications, alongside helpful additional detail including a glossary, further suggested readings, chapter summaries, and questions for discussion. The book also provides useful information on key theoretical movements such as feminism, Marxism, and post-structuralism, as well as biographies of key theorists. As such, it reflects the breadth of social theory and its interdisciplinary nature by drawing on thinkers not just from sociology, but also from philosophy, history, literature, geography, cultural and gender studies.The book's logical structure and clear pedagogical features make it an appealing and accessible introductory text for students new to social theory. The chapters demonstrate the relevance of social theory to everyday life, such that readers can understand and actively engage with key concepts.

In this volume, the philosophical writings of Stephen Turner on social science and the social are examined critically in essays by major scholars in philosophy and sociology from all over Europe and the United States. The topics covered include his intellectual trajectory and issues over the concepts of practices, the belief-desire model of action explanation, normativity, and collectivities. These issues form the core of the philosophy of social science and are central to the history of the social sciences. In addition, there are substantive discussions of the relation of cognitive science to economics and Weber, of ethnography, and of the legacy of Talcott Parsons. The volume includes Turner's response to these essays, which also presents a synthesis and retrospective overview. With contributions by Christopher Adair-Toteff, Alban Bouvier, David Henderson, John Holmwood, Terence Horgan, Peter Olen, Mark Risjord, Paul Roth, Theodore R. Schatzki, Karsten Stueber, Sam Whimster, Rafał Wierzchosławski and Julie Zahle; as well as Stephen Turner himself.

An understanding of the complex consequences of social processes and social design activities necessitates a holistic systemic perspective, systematised in the classic structural-functional research tradition, which is presented in Functionalist Construction Work in Social Science.In contrast to fragmented discussions of functionalism and functional analyses, the approach here covers a span ranging from ontological, epistemological and primarily methodological aspects of functionalism. The functionalist tradition in social science is placed in a historic context, and problematised from a philosophy of science perspective. Unique here is a detailed account of four classic functionalist research programmes with a discussion of functionalism, not primarily as a worldview, but as systematic knowledge-generating research strategies. In addition to descriptive and causal questions, the importance of a further research question is demonstrated, i.e., the identification of crucial problems of social organisation.Functionalist research strategies and functional analysis are of interest for social scientists and students in sociology, political science, and social anthropology. Moreover, the book is relevant for researchers and students of philosophy of science and social science methodology

The triangular relationship between the social, the political, and the cultural has opened up social and political theory to new challenges. The social can no longer be reduced to the category of society, and the political extends beyond the traditional concerns of the nature of the state and political authority.This Handbook will address a range of issues that have recently emerged from the disciplines of social and political theory, focusing on key themes as opposed to schools of thought or major theorists. It is divided into three sections which address: the most influential theoretical traditions that have emerged from the legacy of the twentieth century the most important new and emerging frameworks of analysis today the major theoretical problems in recent social and political theory The Second edition is an enlarged, revised, and updated version of the first edition, which was published in 2011 and comprised 42 chapters. The new edition consists of 50 chapters, of which seventeen are entirely new chapters covering topics that have become increasingly prominent in social and political theory in recent years, such as populism, the new materialism, postcolonialism, Deleuzean theory, post-humanism, post-capitalism as well as older topics that were not covered in the first edition, such as Arendt, the gift, critical realism, anarchism. All chapters retained from the first edition have been thoroughly revised and updated.The Routledge International Handbook of Contemporary Social and Political Theory encompasses the most up-to-date developments in contemporary social and political theory, and as such is an essential research tool for both undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as researchers working in the fields of political theory, social and political philosophy, contemporary social theory, and cultural theory.

A Balanced Epistemological Orientation for the Social Sciences challenges social researchers to rethink the epistemological assumptions grounding their work. It reviews the strengths and weaknesses of four salient epistemological orientations in the field – positivism, relativism, interpretivism, and intersubjectivism – to identify the characteristics of a theoretically-informed epistemology for social science. Relying on such an epistemology means seeking a deeper understanding of the social world without losing sight of the constructed nature of one's conceptual frames. It involves adopting a reflexive position with regard to the norms and traditions in one's area of specialization and in the field as a whole. Epistemologically-balanced social research is neither the dispassionate gathering of factual information, nor the elaboration of universal assessments formed on the basis of armchair speculation. It involves engaging in inquiry in an independent manner and being aware of the perspectival character of the claims being made in the attempt to shed new light on social phenomena. The caliber of social science can be elevated when researchers recognize the symbolic nature of their work and the significance of their conclusions in the larger social order.

This book explores the thought of – and is dedicated to – David Frisby, one of the leading sociologists of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Presenting original examinations of his unique social theory and underlining his interdisciplinary approach to the critical interpretation of modern metropolitan society and culture, it emphasises Frisby's legacy in highlighting the role of the social researcher as a collector, reader, observer, detective and archivist of the phenomena and ideas that exemplify the modern metropolis as society. With contributions from sociologists, cultural theorists, historians of the city, urban geographers and designers, and architectural historians and theorists, The Detective of Modernity constitutes a wide-ranging engagement with Frisby's profound legacy in social and cultural theory.

Temporal Regimes provides a theoretical framework for understanding the temporal structures of society; a conceptually rich, empirically nuanced and culturally embodied account of temporal phenomena in contemporary world. What does it imply temporal regimes? How the everyday life as well as the global mobilities coordination requires temporal underpinnings? The answers to these questions mean more than simply understanding the general thesis on acceleration or space-time compression on the one hand; but also, a micro-multiple-localised time experience by gender, class or age, on the other. They also mean understanding in an integrative way the very structural temporalities within the everyday lived, embodied and situated ones. They require both a robust and flexible epistemic analysis considering their material bedrock through political and technological forefront dimensions.Advancing a rigorous, well-grounded theoretical understanding, and offering a useful way to analytically conceptualise the temporal dynamics on our societies, this book will be of interest to advanced students and scholars enquiring a rich set of topics ranging from time and politics, new materialism, conceptual history as well as technology, collective action and social change.

The Routledge International Handbook of C. Wright Mills Studies brings together leading scholars of the work of radical sociologist C. Wright Mills to showcase its impact across the social sciences. Showing how Mills'thought can be taken up - and in some cases, sympathetically reformulated - to tackle problems of power and politics, it presents an authoritative state-of-the-art overview of Mills'groundbreaking ideas and his far-reaching theoretical and methodological impact. Crucially, the volume also illustrates the value of thinking with Mills in addressing the complexities of contemporary capitalist democracies. As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology, anthropology, organization studies, peace and conflict studies, criminology, politics and public administration.

The diagnosis of social pathologies has long been a central concern for social researchers working within, and on the peripheries of, Critical Theory. As this volume will elaborate, the pathology diagnosing imagination enables a “thicker” form of social critique, fostering research that pushes beyond the parameters of liberal social and political thought. Faced with impending climatic catastrophe, the accelerating inequities of neoliberalism, the ascent of authoritarian movements globally, and one-dimensional computational modes of thought, a viable form of normative social critique is now more important than ever. The central aim of this volume is thus to champion the pathology diagnosing imagination as a vehicle for conducting such timely social criticism.

The book focuses on the status and role of the social sciences in the current millennium. Drawing inspiration from a range of theorists, it critically examines the key debates on the social science stream and focuses on its ir/relevance in our times in the background of changing state-market dialectics. It specifically scrutinises knowledge politics of the global times to reveal how the neoliberal project aligns and fuses steep economic ‘conditionalities'with professional cultural parameters of higher academia to constrain autonomy and weaken radical expressions in social science pedagogy and research. Asserting that the humanistic core of social sciences has the potential to resist acts of reducing knowledge to a monochromatic form, the book argues that the social science stream can challenge and resist such hegemonic ambitions. It also identifies and analyses the contradictions, dilemmas, predicaments and false steps of social scientists, and avoids a reductive approach based on the ‘west versus non-west'binary.The volume will be of interest to scholars and researchers of the social sciences in general, and of sociology/politics of knowledge, political theory, political sociology and education in particular.

This book, which represents probably the most comprehensive discussion of the emergence of modem social science yet produced, is of far more than merely historical interest. The contributors set out to rewrite the history of the social sciences and to show the limitations of conventional conceptions of their development. These tasks they accomplish with great success and much distinction. Yet in so doing they contribute in a direct way to our understanding of the relation between social analysis and the nature of human societies today. The brilliant and distinctive perspective of the papers in this collection is to demonstrate, with many specific examples, that social science and modem institutions have helped shape each other in mutual interplay. Modem systems are in some part con­ stituted through the reflexive incorporation of developing social science knowledge; on the other hand, the social sciences organise themselves in terms of a continuing reflection upon the evolution of those systems. Such a perspective, as Wagner and Wittrock in particular make clear, does not in any way either impugn the status of knowledge claims made within social science or destroy the independent reality of social institutions. The book questions the notion that the institutionalising of the social sciences can be understood as a process of their increasing autonomy from extemal social connections.'Autonomy'forms a mode of legitima­ tion and a basis of power rather than a distinctive phenomenon as such.

Critical Theory and Social Transformation provides an exploration of the major themes in critical social theory of recent years. Delanty argues that a critical theory perspective can offer much-needed insights into the pressing socio-political challenges of our time. In this volume, he advances the need to reconnect social theory and social research and to return to the foundational concerns of critical social theory. Delanty engages with the key topics facing critical social theorists: capitalism, cosmopolitanism, modernity, the Anthropocene, and legacies of history. The connecting thread is that the topics are all contemporary challenges for critical theory and relate to major social transformations. The notions of critique, crisis, and social transformation are central to the book. Critical Theory and Social Transformation will be of interest to the broad readership in social and political theory. It will appeal to those working in sociology, political sociology, politics, and international studies and to anyone with an interest in any of the chapter-specific topics, such as public space, memory, and neo-authoritarianism.

Challenging the assumption that the capitalist transformation includes a radical break with the past, this edited volume traces how historically older forms of social inequality are transformed but persist in the present to shape the social structure of contemporary societies in the global South.Each social collective comprises an interpretation of itself – including the meaning of life, the concept of a human person, and the notion of a collective. This volume studies the interpretation that various social collectives have of themselves. This interpretation is referred to as social ontology. All chapters of the edited volume focus on the relation between social ontology and structures of inequality. They argue that each society comprises several historical layers of social ontology that correspond to layers of inequality, which are referred to as sociocultures. Thereby, the volume explains why and how structures of inequality differ between contemporary collectives in the global South, even though all of them seem to have similar structures, institutions, and economies.The volume is aimed at academics, students and the interested public looking for a novel theorization of social inequality pertaining to social collectives in the global South.