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Originally published in 1981, Automatic Poverty provides a much-needed alternative to the Radical Right's analysis. The book argues that Britain's economic decline is symptomatic of an advanced stage of industrialisation in which productive processes are increasingly mechanised, but output remains static. Under these circumstances workers become redundant, the income of the working class diminishes, and dependence on the state increases. The ‘Ricardo phenomenon'has become long-term feature of the British economy, and the author shows that neither Keynesian nor monetarist policies can remedy its consequences. It reflects a critical stage in the development of capitalism.

First published in 1999, this volume examined how increasing cockpit automation in commercial fleets across the world has had a profound impact on the cognitive work that is carried out on the flight deck. Pilots have largely been transformed into supervisory controllers, managing a suite of human and automated resources. Operational and training requirements have changed, and the potential for human error and system breakdown has shifted. This compelling book critically examines how airlines, regulators, educators and manufacturers cope with these and other consequences of advanced aircraft automation.

In the years since the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit and Opportunity first began transmitting images from the surface of Mars, we have become familiar with the harsh, rocky, rusty-red Martian landscape. But those images are much less straightforward than they may seem to a layperson: each one is the result of a complicated set of decisions and processes involving the large team behind the Rovers. With Seeing Like a Rover, Janet Vertesi takes us behind the scenes to reveal the work that goes into creating our knowledge of Mars. Every photograph that the Rovers take, she shows, must be processed, manipulated, and interpreted—and all that comes after team members negotiate with each other about what they should even be taking photographs of in the first place. Vertesi's account of the inspiringly successful Rover project reveals science in action, a world where digital processing uncovers scientific truths, where images are used to craft consensus, and where team members develop an uncanny intimacy with the sensory apparatus of a robot that is millions of miles away. Ultimately, Vertesi shows, every image taken by the Mars Rovers is not merely a picture of Mars—it's a portrait of the whole Rover team, as well.

All over the world, private and public institutions have been attracted to “nudges,” understood as interventions that preserve freedom of choice, but that steer people in particular directions. The most effective nudges are often “defaults,” which establish what happens if people do nothing. For example, automatic enrollment in savings plans is a default nudge, as is automatic enrollment in green energy. Default rules are in widespread use, but we have very little information about how people experience them, whether they see themselves as manipulated by them, and whether they approve of them in practice. In this book, Patrik Michaelsen and Cass R. Sunstein offer a wealth of new evidence about people's experiences and perceptions with respect to default rules. They argue that this evidence can help us to answer important questions about the effectiveness and ethics of nudging. The evidence offers a generally positive picture of how default nudges are perceived and experienced. The central conclusion is simple: empirical findings strongly support the conclusion that, taken as such, default nudges are both ethical and effective. These findings, and the accompanying discussion, have significant implications for policymakers in many nations, and also for the private sector.

Departing from the sociological dual process model that divides thoughts into automatic and unconscious, or deliberate and conscious occurrences, this book draws on empirical cases to demonstrate the existence of “automatic deliberation.” Through research into the ways in which people address difficult subjects, such as death and dying, pedophilia, and career decision-making, the author sheds light on a mode of thinking which is both habitual and effortful, displaying a combination of habituated understandings and conscious deliberation. Advancing a blended view of cognition by which individuals draw on schemas and frames to think through complex topics, this volume will appeal to sociologists and psychologists with interests in cognition and the ways in which we make decisions.

My initial interest in sociology stemmed from the desire to see specific social change in certain areas of my native United States of America. My rather naive assumption at that time was that if the truth is known about social phenomena and presented to rational and educated persons, public opinion will bring about the desirable social change. That is, I assumed some automatic linkage between truth, rationality and social progress. Certainly some of the so-called'pioneers'of sociology also assumed this automatic linkage. Thus, the opportunity to study in Europe, on the soil of some of these'pioneers'heightened my interest and desire to learn more about the relationship between sociology and social progress. After living and studying several years in various parts of Western Europe - England, Germany, France, Holland - one finds that European sociology has remained very closely associ­ ated with social philosophy and history, has often been resisted by the universities, and is not as empirical as American sociology. The European sociologist, still quite conscious of the mistakes of the early fathers - Comte, Spencer, Marx, among others - is extremely cautious concerning problems of social progress and social action. He is aware that his science is still young and sus­ pect. He is also less sure than his predecessors about the exact role of sociology.

Common sense is the endless frontier in the development of artificial intelligence, but what exactly is common sense, can we replicate it in algorithmic form, and if we can – should we?Bauer, Schiele and their contributors from a range of disciplines analyse the nature of common sense, and the consequent challenges of incorporating into artificial intelligence models. They look at different ways we might understand common sense and which of these ways are simulated within computer algorithms. These include sensory integration, self-evident truths, rhetorical common places, and mutuality and intentionality of actors within a moral community. How far are these possible features within and of machines? Approaching from a range of perspectives including Sociology, Political Science, Media and Culture, Psychology and Computer Science, the contributors lay out key questions, practical challenges and'common sense'concerns underlying the incorporation of common sense within machine learning algorithms for simulating intelligence, socialising robots, self-driving vehicles, personnel selection, reading, automatic text analysis, and text production.A valuable resource for students and scholars of Science–Technology–Society Studies, Sociologists, Psychologists, Media and Culture Studies, human–computer interaction with an interest in the post-human, and programmers tackling the contextual questions of machine learning.

The first wide-ranging, organic analysis of the sociology of unmarkedness and taken-for-grantedness, this volume investigates the asymmetry between how we attend to the culturally emphasized features of social reality and ignore the culturally unmarked ones. Concerned with the structures of cultural invisibility, unconscious rules of irrelevance, automatic frames of meaning, and collective attention patterns, it brings together scholarship spanning sociology, anthropology, and social psychology, to cover various aspects of humdrum, unglamorous, nondescript, nothing-to-write-at-home-about social phenomena, developing the key assumptions, underpinnings, and implications of this field of study.As comprehensive analysis of unremarked features of our social existence, this book will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in social theory and the sociology of everyday life.

Some forms of human behavior make no sense in the light of evolution. Music is one of them, and it is the main subject of this book. Here, it is interpreted from a holistic perspective; music is embedded in our nature, it is embodied in our organisms, and it is emergent, a language that opens the doors of imagination for us.The first half of the book is dedicated to cognitive aspects of acoustic signalization: of learned bird song, of automatic mammal calls, and of speech and music in humans. The second part of the books deals with the culture of music in European modernity. The question of the relation of music and imagination is also addressed. The book posits that music makes it easier for us to depart from paramount reality and become creative – not bad for something that started as a spandrel of speech.

This contributed volume tells the story of the establishment of a cybersecurity awareness framework for organizations, and how it was piloted in two public sector municipal contexts. It presents a clear picture of cybersecurity issues in municipalities and proposes a socio-technical solution for creating cybersecurity awareness, how to build the solution and what the impact is on the municipal contexts. The 9 chapters for this book also provide information regarding the design, the deployment and the evaluation of the technology.This book builds on the success of the European Horizon 2020 research and innovation project CS-AWARE. The research proposes the first cybersecurity situational awareness solution for local public administrations based on an analysis of the context, provides automatic incident detection and visualization, and enables information exchange with relevant national and EU level authorities involved in legislation and network security.Cybersecurity is one of the most challenging security problems for commercial companies, NGOs, governmental institutions as well as individuals. Reaching beyond the technology focused boundaries of classical information technology (IT) security, cybersecurity includes organizational and behavioral aspects of IT systems and that needs to comply to legal and regulatory framework for cybersecurity. While large corporations might have the resources to follow those developments and bring their IT infrastructure and services in line with the requirements, the burden for smaller organizations like local public administrations will be substantial and the required resources might not be available. New and innovative solutions that would help local public administration to ease the burden of being in line with cybersecurity requirements are needed.This book targets researchers working in cybersecurity, computer scientists, social scientists and advanced level students studying computer science and other related disciplines. Cybersecurity professionals as well as professionals working in local government contexts, including policy makers, communication experts and system administrators will also benefit from this book.

What can we currently make of ‘the subject'? Under the sway of structuralism and poststructuralism, critical thinking took a distinctly negative turn, effectively disqualifying any form of subjectivity as a reference point in discussions of textual or literary meaning. Since the mid-1970s, however, throughout the human sciences, human agency has been restored as both a methodological principle and an ethical value: a phenomenon broadly designated as ‘the return of the subject'. Yet the returning subject bears the traces of its problematization...The present collection of essays explores the ways in which the subject now ‘matters', both in principle and in the variety of critical approaches in authorizes. Essays, which are both literary and theoretical in character, cover authors, texts and issues in French literature from Descartes to the present. A wide range of types of writing is examined, from established forms such as the novel to relatively marginal and generically unsystematized discursive practices such as automatic writing and the ‘récit de rêve'.Though it shuns ‘closure'in a matter which remains ultimately elusive, this book offers some account of the types of answer which remain open and of those we have learned to leave behind.

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview: #1 The term racial is used to describe a pattern of oppression of one group of people by another. It is not an automatic promotion to oppressor, and historically, racial dissimilarities have not only been artificially used, they are themselves artificial. #2 By considering racial oppression in terms of the substantive, the operative element, namely oppression, it is possible to avoid the contradictions and absurdities that result from attempts to splice genetics and sociology. #3 The attitude and behavior of Anglo-Americans towards African-Americans and American Indians is clearly racial oppression, but when racial oppression is defined in terms of its operational principles, the exclusion of the Irish case becomes clear. #4 The analogy between the English and Spanish treatment of the Irish and the American Indians and Africans was made by historians such as W. K. Sullivan, who compared the social role of the non-gentry Protestants in Ireland and the poor whites in America.

This book explores the basic dynamics that shaped the Cyprus problem, with a focus on recent decades. The author deals with the periods, nodal points and fields that produced the conditions for the normalisation of partition and also presents the Cyprus problem as viewed from the outside. The chapters approach Cyprus'division in light of power relations in society, the interaction between the political elite and society, and discuss the political and ideological dynamics as manifested in the public sphere. While analysing primarily the Greek Cypriot community, the book also refers to parallel developments in the Turkish Cypriot and international communities, arguing that the normalisation of Cyprus'partition is rooted in the political economy and political culture of Greek Cypriots. At the same time, from the perspective of the peace and reunification movement, this is an inherently contradictory and potentially unstable process that can be overturned.‘Α remarkably thorough study focusing on nationalist narratives, political and media discourses and socio-economic structures in Cyprus and their impact on the formation and transformation of political identities since the 1950s. Unlike many other books on the issue, Ioannou analyses social and political developments in both the Greek-Cypriot and the Turkish-Cypriot communities. This approach sheds light on the internal reasons of the perpetuation of the island's division, which the geopolitical and international relations approaches alone miss to grasp. Combining the analytical skills of a political scientist and his personal experience as an engaged citizen in favour of unification, Ioannou offers significant insight on a complex and traumatic conflict that remains one of Europe's black spots.'–Athena Skoulariki, Assistant Professor in Sociology of Communication, Discourse Analysis and Social Representations, University of Crete, Greece ‘The basic argument of the bookis that the consolidation of partition was neither automatic nor happened behind the backs of Greek Cypriots. The very interesting and demythologising work of Gregoris Ioannou brings to light a hidden, but common secret of the Greek Cypriots.'–Alexis Heraklides, Emeritus Professor of International Relations, Panteion University, Greece ‘Ioannou projects a multi-focal spotlight on the Cyprus problem, so as, at least for the careful reader, this becomes not only an interesting topic in itself, but, also a cognitive springboard from which to understand broader pathogenies of our common social and political life.'–Seraphim Seferiades, Associate Professor in Political Science, Panteion University, Greece

This volume offers selected papers exploring issues arising from scientific discovery in the social sciences. It features a range of disciplines including behavioural sciences, computer science, finance, and statistics with an emphasis on philosophy.The first of the three parts examines methods of social scientific discovery. Chapters investigate the nature of causal analysis, philosophical issues around scale development in behavioural science research, imagination in social scientific practice, and relationships between paradigms of inquiry and scientific fraud. The next part considers the practice of social science discovery. Chapters discuss the lack of genuine scientific discovery in finance where hypotheses concern the cheapness of securities, the logic of scientific discovery in macroeconomics, and the nature of that what discovery with the Solidarity movement as a case study. The final part covers formalising theories in social science. Chapters analyse the abstract model theory of institutions as a way of representing the structure of scientific theories, the semi-automatic generation of cognitive science theories, and computational process models in the social sciences.The volume offers a unique perspective on scientific discovery in the social sciences. It will engage scholars and students with a multidisciplinary interest in the philosophy of science and social science.

In recent years there has been a growing interest in cognition within sociology and other social sciences. Within sociology this interest cuts across various topical subfields, including culture, social psychology, religion, race, and identity. Scholars within the new subfield of cognitive sociology, also referred to as the sociology of culture and cognition, are contributing to a rapidly developing body of work on how mental and social phenomena are interrelated and often interdependent. In The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Sociology, Wayne H. Brekhus and Gabe Igantow have gathered some of the most influential scholars working in cognitive sociology to present an accessible introduction to key research areas in a diverse field. While classical sociological and newer interdisciplinary approaches have been covered separately by scholars in the past, this volume alternatively presents a broad range of cognitive sociological perspectives. The contributors discuss a range of approaches for theorizing and analyzing the'social mind,'including macro-cultural approaches, interactionist approaches, and research that draws on Pierre Bourdieu's major concepts. Each chapter further investigates a variety of cognitive processes within these three approaches, such as attention and inattention, perception, automatic and deliberate cognition, cognition and social action, stereotypes, categorization, classification, judgment, symbolic boundaries, meaning-making, metaphor, embodied cognition, morality and religion, identity construction, time sequencing, and memory. A comprehensive look at cognitive sociology's main contributions and the central debates within the field, the Handbook will serve as a primary resource for social researchers, faculty, and students interested in how cognitive sociology can contribute to research within their substantive areas of focus.

Secure message transmission is of extreme importance in today's information-based society: military, diplomatic, and corporate data transmissions must be safeguarded; so also must the account of every individual who has an automatic-teller bank account or whose purchases are subject to point-of-sale, direct account debiting. The only known way to keep all such transactions secret and authentic is by way of cryptographic techniques. But most cryptosystems in use today are not fool-proof-- their'symmetric'nature allows them to be compromised if either the sender's or the receiver's'key'(decoding algorithm) falls into the wrong hands. This book reports on the enormous amount of work that has been done in the past on the concept,'asymmetric'cryptography.

Robyn Dawes defines irrationality as adhering to beliefs that are inherently self-contradictory, not just incorrect, self-defeating, or the basis of poor decisions. Such beliefs are unfortunately common. This book demonstrates how such irrationality results from ignoring obvious comparisons, while instead falling into associational and story-based thinking. Strong emotion—or even insanity—is one reason for making automatic associations without comparison, but as the author demonstrates, a lot of everyday judgment, unsupported professional claims, and even social policy is based on the same kind of'everyday'irrationality.

This book offers a comparison of the differences between the ‘public'and ‘private'spheres, and questions the need for law enforcement to intrude upon both. Beginning with the origins of the concept of privacy, before addressing more current thinking, the authors examine the notion of privacy and policing, using both direct (e.g.'stop and search'methods) and technological interventions (e.g. telephone interceptions and Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras), privacy in the space of the court, looking at what restrictions are placed on press reporting, as well as considering whether the open court ensures fair trials. Particular forms of offending and privacy are also considered: anonymity for sexual offence defendants, for example, or weighing the terrorist's right to privacy against the safety and security of the general public. A timely discussion into the right to privacy in prison and during community sentences is also included, and Marshall and Thomas offer convin cing analysis on the importance of rehabilitation, giving consideration to police registers and the storage and maintenance of criminal records by the police and their possible future use. A diverse investigation into the many facets of privacy, this volume will hold broad appeal for scholars and students of terrorism, security, and human rights.

Gustav Le Bon's The Crowd is not only a classic, but one of the best-selling scientific books in social psychology and collective behavior ever written. Here, Le Bon analyzes the nature of crowds and their role in political movements. He presents crowd behavior as a problem of science and power, a natural phenomenon with practical implications. Originally published in 1895, Le Bon's was the first to expand the scope of inquiry beyond criminal crowds to include all possible kinds of collective phenomena. Its continuing significance is evident even in the Los Angeles riots of 1992 in which Le Bon's theories were citedin testimony.Le Bon emphasizes the various areas of modern life where crowd behavior holds sway, particularly political upheavals. He focuses on electoral campaigns, parliaments, juries, labor agitation, and street demonstrations. At the same tune, his treatment of crowds is far from complimentary. He likens crowds to'primitive beings,'social formations barkening back to the evolutionary origins of humankind. Le Bon believed that ideas and images spread through a crowd by means of contagion, an automatic process that produces a state of transitory madness in its victims, extinguishing reason and will. Yet he does more than dwell on the pathologies of crowd life; he also writes of the heroism, the generosity, and the sacrifices of crowds, of the indispensable roles they have played in erecting the pillars of modern civilization.In a new introduction to this edition, Robert Nye presents a broad analytical understanding of the relationship between power and knowledge hi crowd theory. He also discusses the historical circumstances and the various personalities who have shaped our understanding of crowds. Nye emphasizes The Crowd's continuing usefulness to cultural historians, psychologists, sociologists, and political scientists. He also places Le Bon in a rich tradition of European social theory.

Preeminent psychologist Lisa Barrett lays out how the brain constructs emotions in a way that could revolutionize psychology, health care, the legal system, and our understanding of the human mind.“Fascinating... A thought-provoking journey into emotion science.”—The Wall Street Journal“A singular book, remarkable for the freshness of its ideas and the boldness and clarity with which they are presented.”—Scientific American “A brilliant and original book on the science of emotion, by the deepest thinker about this topic since Darwin.”—Daniel Gilbert, best-selling author of Stumbling on HappinessThe science of emotion is in the midst of a revolution on par with the discovery of relativity in physics and natural selection in biology. Leading the charge is psychologist and neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett, whose research overturns the long-standing belief that emotions are automatic, universal, and hardwired in different brain regions. Instead, Barrett shows, we construct each instance of emotion through a unique interplay of brain, body, and culture. A lucid report from the cutting edge of emotion science, How Emotions Are Made reveals the profound real-world consequences of this breakthrough for everything from neuroscience and medicine to the legal system and even national security, laying bare the immense implications of our latest and most intimate scientific revolution.

A handy town - for busy people. Family services - babycare, senior care, laundrette, food and meals. Automatic transport and delivery. Real countryside and proper town. All within 100m of your front door - under cover. Does this sound useful? Time for a new kind of town.

The American founders did not endorse a citizen's right to know. More openness in government, more frankness in a doctor's communication with patients, more disclosure in a food manufacturer's package labeling, and more public notice of actions that might damage the environment emerged in our own time.As Michael Schudson shows in The Rise of the Right to Know, modern transparency dates to the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s—well before the Internet—as reform-oriented politicians, journalists, watchdog groups, and social movements won new leverage. At the same time, the rapid growth of higher education after 1945, together with its expansive ethos of inquiry and criticism, fostered both insight and oversight as public values.“One of the many strengths of The Rise of the Right To Know is its insistent emphasis on culture and its interaction with law…What Schudson shows is that enforceable access to official information creates a momentum towards a better use of what is disclosed and a refinement of how disclosure is best done.”—George Brock, Times Literary Supplement“This book is a reminder that the right to know is not an automatic right. It was hard-won, and fought for by many unknown political soldiers.”—Monica Horten, LSE Review of Books

Rural development is inherently viewed as a positive thing; it is seen as something that brings together groups of individuals with automatic positive implications and outcomes. Policy rhetoric frequently uses popular terms such as involvement, participation and power sharing to describe rural development activities. However, the reality of experience on the ground does not necessarily concur with these ideals. It is not always clear who ultimately benefits from rural development: the State, the community or rural development practitioners. This book critically analyses key concepts associated with rural development policy and practice, and using the concepts of power and micro-politics to analyze rhetoric and reality, reveals the intricacies of rural development. Challenging popular ideals associated with rural development, this book presents the notion of rural development less as a spontaneous, all-inclusive affair and more as a limited, controlled and exclusive process. Ultimately it contends that within structures of rural governance, a regeneration power elite predominates development and regeneration activities.

Atheism as a belief does not have to present intellectual credentials within academia. Yet to hold beliefs means giving reasons for doing so, ones which may be found wanting. Instead, atheism is the automatic default setting within the academic world. Conversely, religious belief confronts a double standard. Religious believers are not permitted to make truth claims but are instead forced to present their beliefs as part of one language game amongst many. Religious truth claims are expected to satisfy empiricist criteria of evidence but when they fail, as they must, religious belief becomes subject to the hermeneutics of suspicion. This book explores religious experience as a justifiable reason for religious belief. It uniquely demonstrates that the three pillars of critical realism - ontological intransitivity, epistemic relativity and judgemental rationality - can be applied to religion as to any other beliefs or theories.The three authors are critical realists by philosophical position. They seek to establish a level playing field between religion and secular ideas, which has not existed in the academic world for some generations, in order for reasoned debate to be conducted.

Neighborhood support groups have always played a key role in helping the poor survive, but combating poverty requires more than simply meeting the needs of day-to-day subsistence. Social Capital and Poor Communities shows the significant achievements that can be made through collective strategies, which empower the poor to become active partners in revitalizing their neighborhoods. Trust and cooperation among residents and local organizations such as churches, small businesses, and unions form the basis of social capital, which provides access to resources that would otherwise be out of reach to poor families. Social Capital and Poor Communities examines civic initiatives that have built affordable housing, fostered small businesses, promoted neighborhood safety, and increased political participation. At the core of each initiative lie local institutions—church congregations, parent-teacher groups, tenant associations, and community improvement alliances. The contributors explore how such groups build networks of leaders and followers and how the social power they cultivate can be successfully transferred from smaller goals to broader political advocacy. For example, community-based groups often become platforms for leaders hoping to run for local office. Church-based groups and interfaith organizations can lobby for affordable housing, job training programs, and school improvement. Social Capital and Poor Communities convincingly demonstrates why building social capital is so important in enabling the poor to seek greater access to financial resources and public services. As the contributors make clear, this task is neither automatic nor easy. The book's frank discussions of both successes and failures illustrate the pitfalls—conflicts of interest, resistance from power elites, and racial exclusion—that can threaten even the most promising initiatives. The impressive evidence in this volume offers valuable insights into how goal formation, leadership, and cooperation can be effectively cultivated, resulting in a remarkable force for change and a rich public life even for those communities mired in seemingly hopeless poverty. A Volume in the Ford Foundation Series on Asset Building

This is an open access book. What is the history and current state of play of EU law and policy covering irregularised human mobility? What has been the role and contributions of the 2019-2024 European Commission as regards EU migration policy? This book investigates how migration policies have been problematised at the EU institutional level, in particular by the European Commission. It critically assesses the assumptions lying behind the Commission's political priorities, agendas and policy outputs. Through the concept of irregularity assemblages, the book examines how EU policy professionals and bureaucracies in the relevant Commission services problematise their respective mandates/portfolios; how they interact with each other and even compete; and how they frame certain forms of human mobility as being an ‘irregular migration problem'or not. After retracing key historical developments in the framing of irregularised human mobilities at the EU level, the book identifies six policy approaches in the work and structures of the 2019-2024 European Commission. It finds that a home affairs and criminalisation approach that prioritises a law enforcement understanding of cross-border and intra-EU mobility, and pursuing a Ministry of Interior-like agenda, has prevailed. This approach stands at odds with human dignity and other legitimate public policy approaches, such as those giving priority to employment and social inclusion, non-discrimination, and fundamental rights, where the administrative migration status of the individual is not the entry point. The overriding priority driving EU migration policy has been the expulsion, policing and criminalisation of people framed or categorised as ‘irregular migrants'. The analysis shows how Commission has failed to effectively perform its role as guardian of the Treaties and unequivocally enforce and comply with EU Treaty constitutive values, EU law and Better Regulation commitments in migration policies.

Is entrepreneurship a pathway out of poverty? Does creating a business represent a means for improving one's life circumstances? Surprisingly little is known about ventures started by those in circumstances of poverty. This pioneering handbook integrates diverse perspectives from around the world regarding the poverty and entrepreneurship interface. While the tendency among many scholars, economic developers, and policymakers is to downplay these ventures, arguing they are largely inefficient, marginal enterprises that create little innovation and few jobs, the chapters in this handbook demonstrate their significant contributions, and encourage societies to invest in their development. The authors explore a range of factors affecting the ability of the poor to create enterprises that contribute to their well-being, including the role played by personal capabilities, education, family support and faith, availability of microfinance, technology, supportive community ecosystems and a munificent institutional environment. By shedding light on issues that can help nations realize the potential of these ventures, this volume demonstrates how entrepreneurship can serve as a source of empowerment, while providing direction regarding ways to surmount the obstacles that stand in the way.

This short book demystifies how the two systems of technology and capitalism work together and equips readers with practical tools to dismantle them and build a better world, bit by bit. Our society is constantly made to serve the needs of two systems: technology and capitalism. Neither exists outside humans, but both are treated as above and beyond us. The Mechanic and the Luddite offers the critical tools needed to deconstruct these systems—how they work, whom they work for, and what work they do in our lives. With signature style and energy, Jathan Sadowski presents a provocative one-stop shop for understanding the political economy of technology and capitalism. Each chapter breaks down key features of technological capitalism, offering sharp, synthetic, and authoritative analysis of topics like innovation, labor, data, and risk. It's not enough to know how the machinery of capitalism is put together and how its parts operate; we must also know whom the machines serve and when they should be taken apart, to be rebuilt for new purposes or destroyed for good. The Mechanic and the Luddite provides the political guidance needed to make these crucial decisions.

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

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

Data excess — particularly in digital media research — is inevitable. It emerges as the ‘debris'and ‘leftovers'from planning, fieldwork and writing; the words cut from drafts and copied to untouched and forgotten files; digital metadata automatically recorded to databases; the data archived but never analysed or published. What do or can we do with this excess from our research? Thinking beyond academic constraints and the constant push towards the next new fundable thing, Data Excess in Digital Media Research explicitly engages with data that has been left behind, ignored, obscured or even ‘written out'of research publications. Positioning ‘excess'as a conceptual, methodological, ethical and pragmatic challenge and opportunity, the authors in this edited collection examine what can happen when media researchers return to their surplus archives and develop new knowledge from what would otherwise be under-explored excess. Provoking an ethical reconsideration of what we do, or do not do, with excess data, this is a call to action for researchers and scholars to rethink how they conduct their research as the consequences of datafication grow ever more central to both our academic endeavours and our lives.

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

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

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

Crafted for those who dare to challenge the status quo, this is a radical guide for activists. Drawing from frontline experiences in trade unions, environmentalism, animal rights, and social justice movements, the book explores essential themes from leadership to the art of negotiation. It asks crucial questions about organising and social movements in the 21st century. Avoiding easy prescriptions, the authors uniquely guide readers to where theory meets practice. Written by two experts in activist education and community organising, this is a refreshing take on movement building, empowering changemakers of today to forge new paths towards a more just world.

The book aims to show the way magical feminism resists female marginalisation and oppression in the Americas. Dealing with multiple victimisation of women in the Americas who have suffered not only because of their gender but also their race, ethnicity, political ideology, social status, financial insecurity and such, magical feminism provides a voice to them so that they can speak about their marginalisation and victimisation. In other words, by using magical feminism, these female authors attempt to give a voice to the oppressed women, enabling them to resist and challenge the traditional female role and to raise their voices against various social and political issues. The subversive and transgressive power of magical feminism enables the oppressed women to break patriarchal constraints and to reverse the traditional power structure. By creating an imaginary realm through traditions, local beliefs and rituals, myth, magic and the spirits of the dead ancestors as guides, magical feminist technique functions as a survival strategy for women in traumatic and oppressive situations and provides them consolation. The project includes a total of eight novels from African American (Gloria Naylor's'Mama Day'), Latin American (Isabel Allende's'The House of the Spirits'), Native American (Louise Erdrich's'Tracks'), Chicana (Ana Castillo's'So Far from God'), North American (Gail Anderson-Dargatz's'The Cure for Death by Lightning'), Central American (Gioconda Belli's'The Inhabited Woman'), Hawaiian American (Kiana Davenport's'Shark Dialogues') and Cuban American (Cristina García's'Dreaming in Cuban') background.

It is written in a lucid style with the most recent advances and with theoretical discussions being supplemented with illustrations, and tables for easy understanding of the subject. This book deals with some of the emerging topics on the challenge of cultural assets conservation and the application of different scientific approaches to the common goal of the conservation of cultural heritage. This book would be an invaluable asset for the students and teachers working in the field of conservation science and museum laboratories.

This book introduces the reader to basic concepts, origin and development of Urban Sociology and its importance in present era. The book provides a detailed overview of all the aspects of the urban community and urban social movement. It elaborates on process of urbanisation and the changing facets of urban communities. This book would be immensely useful to students, teachers, researchers and sociologists working in the field of urban sociology and it is an essential resource for students of urban studies.

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

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

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

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

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

'Transnational feminist academic paradigms draw from various frameworks that investigate interlocking systems of oppression, including postcolonial feminist theories and critical race feminism (CRF). We also hope that your feminist analysis of these issues will encourage you to imagine how you might work in the world for change to create greater inclusion, equity, and social justice. The subject matter is presented in a lucid and succinct style so that even those who do not have a prerequisite knowledge of the subject can easily understand it. This book aims to fulfil the requirement of students, teachers and researchers engaged in women worldwide- transnational feminist.'

'This book is grounded vision by offering a sociological understanding of today's social problems and of possible solutions to these problems. This clear, accessible textbook guides in approaching the methodology, theory and research of social problems. This book will find many examples of how social problems have been improved and of strategies that hold great potential for solving them. This book aims to fulfil the requirement, students, teachers and researchers working on social problems within the disciplines of sociology, social policy, criminology and applied social science'

'Highlights specific current and relevant research studies. Describes real-life people whose experiences relate to chapter content. Explores the lives and work of those in careers in sociology, including the real-world issues and debates these professionals encounter on a daily basis. This book would be an invaluable asset to students, teachers and researchers in sociology.'

It is written in a lucid style with the most recent advances, and with theoretical discussions being supplemented with illustrations, and tables for easy understanding of the subject. It provides an introduction to social work students to help evaluate research for evidence-based practice and design social work research projects. The book will give readers an insight into the various research methods used in different areas of social work. The book is also supported with a comprehensive glossary and index in the end. This book would be an invaluable asset for the students of social work and also be valuable reading for social workers wishing to consolidate their understanding of social work research.

'The present book covers a wide range of topics related to gender, migration, and categorization, offering a diverse and comprehensive exploration of these interconnected themes. The book takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from fields such as history, sociology, gender studies, and political science to provide a holistic understanding of the subject matter. Each chapter delves into the intersection of gender with various aspects of migration, including refugee experiences, asylum policies, sexual orientation, family law, and more. The book is a valuable resource for scholars and researchers in the fields of migration studies, gender studies, political science, sociology, and related disciplines.'

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

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