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In this book, Valerie Kretz utilizes examples from pop culture and everyday life to provide an examination of current research on romantic relationships and media, with an emphasis on entertainment and digitally-mediated communication. By dividing the book into two major sections – relationship trajectories and different aspects of relationships – Kretz establishes a framework through which to explore relevant theoretical and empirical findings, drawing on established literature, examples in the media, and the lived experiences of interview participants. Kretz covers a wide range of topics through these frameworks, including online dating, representations of love in film and television, social media and romantic jealousy, parasocial romance, and digital breakups, among others. Ultimately, Kretz argues that all available evidence demonstrates the complexity of this intersection, due to the separate roles that several distinct factors like medium, content, social context, frequency of use, and individual differences all play in how these intersections are constructed in the real world. Finally, the book identifies potential directions for future research as scholars continue to unpack this complex relationship.

This Open Access book shows how expert consensus pervades all areas of science. It explores, in particular, the role of consensus in establishing scientific truth, in guiding professional practice and policy and agreeing on what are acceptable scientific methodologies. For some scientific issues, a consensus forms spontaneously among scientists working on a topic, while for others, where the issues are complex, a formal deliberative consensus process is commonly needed. Deliberative consensus processes are becoming more important as scientists increasingly deal with complex multi-disciplinary issues of policy importance such as climate change due to human activity. While deliberative consensus processes are commonly used, they often lead to criticism from consensus skeptics. The book argues that deliberative consensus processes in science can be improved and proposes a number of realistic ways forward, ending with a discussion of whether communicating the scientific consensus on a topic is a good way to persuade the public.

This best-selling textbook returns for an eighth edition with material on the most fundamental issues in sociology today. The authors continue their tradition of focusing on the big picture, with an emphasis on race, class, and gender in every chapter—building on the seventh edition's discussion of reproductive justice after the revocation of Roe v. Wade, social movements such as Black Lives Matter and #MeToo, a discussion of the COVID-19 pandemic and Donald Trump and Joe Biden.The text frames sociological debates around the major theoretical perspectives of sociology and focuses on capturing students'imaginations with cutting-edge research and real-world events. The hallmark of the book continues to be clear writing that helps students understand the intricacies of the discipline like no other textbook on the market.New to the eighth editionThinking outside the box (or inside it…)Selected chapters contain thematically linked boxed inserts aimed at bringing analytical and expositional focus to certain issues, as follows: Sociological Insights: These boxes focus on how sociology can help us better understand a variety of issues and how examples from everyday life can help us to understand sociological principles, illustrating how topics are carefully linked to that material. Global Sociology: One of the most pronounced social changes of the past century has been globalization—a transition from the dominance of nation-states and national economies to global interactions. These boxes examine how social change moves around the world. Sociological Surprises: One common criticism of sociologists is that we sometimes expend a great deal of effort to prove things that are obvious. On the contrary, the reality is that what we find often goes against what people commonly believe and even against what sociological researchers expect to find. These boxes focus on such unexpected findings, analyzing why the social reality turns out to be something different from what is expected. Understanding Race, Class, and Gender: These boxes give added emphasis to the book's focus on race, class, and gender inequality. In every issue that sociologists study, race, class, and gender play a key role—and these boxes provide students with clear and concrete examples of how this occurs. Student Life: These boxes, which discuss student life from a sociological viewpoint, show how sociology is relevant to students in their everyday lives, covering race relations to dating to paying for college, and draws out their sociological implications. Putting Sociology to Work: These boxes focus on application: How can sociology be used to solve a social problem or to make an important decision?

This Handbook provides new theoretical and empirical insights into men, men's practices and masculinities across many kinds of organizations and forms of organizing. Most mainstream studies of organizations, leadership and management do not seem to notice they are often talking a lot about men and masculinities. The Handbook challenges this general tendency to avoid gendering men by bringing together a range of theoretical and methodological approaches that: engage with not only formal organizations, such as businesses and state organizations, but also processes of organizing within and beyond organizations; address emergent and future issues on men, masculinities and organizations, such as tech masculinities, men's emotions, sexualities and violences, animal advocacy and environmental issues, and men and masculinities in pandemics. Targeted at scholars, policymakers, practitioners and students interested in links between men, masculinities, organizations and organizing, this landmark Handbook is an invaluable resource for those working in and beyond such fi elds as gender studies, organization, leadership and management studies, political science, sociology, social and public policy, and social movement studies.

This book brings together studies from various locations to examine the growing social problems that have been brought to the fore by the COVID-19 outbreak. Employing both qualitative, theoretical and quantitative methods, it presents the impact of the pandemic in different settings, shedding light on political and cultural realities around the world. With attention to inequalities rooted in race and ethnicity, economic conditions, gender, disability, and age, it considers different forms of marginalization and examines the ongoing disjunctions that increasingly characterize contemporary democracies from a multilevel perspective.The book addresses original analyses and approaches from a global perspective on the COVID-19 pandemic, its governance, and its effects in different geographies. These analyses are organized around three main axes: 1) how COVID-19 pandemic worsened social, racial/ethnic, and economic inequalities, including variables such as migration status, gender, and disability; 2) how the pandemic impacted youth and how younger generations cope with public health alarms, and containment measures; 3) how the pandemic posed a challenge to democracy, reshaped the political agenda, and the debate in the public sphere. Contributions from around the world show how local and national issues may overlap on a global scale, laying the foundation for connected sociologies. Based on qualitative as well as quantitative empirical analysis on various categories of individuals and groups, this edited volume reflects on the sociological aspects of current planetary crises which will continue to be at the core of our societies.A wide-ranging, international volume that focuses on both unexpected social changes and new forms of agency in response to a period of crisis, Inequalities, Youth, Democracy and the Pandemic will appeal to scholars with interests in the sociology of health, social problems and inequalities.

Generational conflict has attracted considerable attention in the media and within academic circles during the past decade. At the center of this collection of papers analyzing various facets of that conflict lie complex issues of generational equity - issues that will remain important for the framing of public policy during the 1990s, What do the young and the middle-aged owe the elderly? In discharging that debt, to what extent are they able to provide for their own old age in a climate of changing notions of welfare? What light do the longer perspectives of history shed on these issues? What role do kinship, gender, and economic status play?The papers commissioned by Bengtson and Achenbaum are intended to give greater analytic rigor to current debates. The volume is interdisciplinary not only by theoretical intent but by the practical imperatives of gerontology. More than a dozen sociologists, economists, historians, demographers, and policy analysts discuss the meanings and ambiguities that are inherent in terms such as'generation,''equity,''compact,''contract,'and'conflict,'in order to assess how relations between the age groups seem to vary from one sociohistorical context to the next.This distinguished group of contributors raises comparative issues throughout, assessing variations in generational ties by gender, race, class, and geographic location. Several project the extent to which recent changes in the political economy, public philosophy, and demographic structure of most'modern'societies presage greater conflicts, or greater consensus, in family members'relationships and social ties.

This book offers an examination of Africa's scientific landscape based on extensive empirical data encompassing fifty-four African countries. It traces the evolution of science on the continent, highlighting research areas, global partnerships, funding sources, research capacity, and the impact of science policies. Acknowledging that Africa relies heavily on external sources, particularly from the Global North, for scientific research, the book identifies and addresses obstacles hindering self-reliance and underscores the urgent need for revitalized partnerships and cooperation to bolster Africa's scientific autonomy. It offers valuable recommendations to promote self-reliance, making it an indispensable resource for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners.

This book, as part of a two volume set, provides a broad overview of the current state of research on conflict management in law enforcement contexts globally, with a focus on training and education. They cover a wide range of interactions between police and the public. This volume (II) focusses on training and education and the learning settings that play a prominent role in providing police officers with the knowledge structures, competencies, attitutes, and values that they need to professionally tackle contemporary challenges. Volume I focusses on the contemporary challenges and opportunities in policing and ethical considerations. These books bring together leading research that is determining the state of the art in communication, de-escalation, use of force, and other contemporary issues in policing, with practical Key Takeaways in each chapter. They broaden the field by focussing on research which goes beyond the US, including in Scandinavia, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, the Republic of South Africa and Russia.

This open access book takes an original view on the social production of knowledge in and across space. It explores how people build and transfer proficiency within and beyond the bounds of social groups. Social groups, such as professions, epistemic communities, or academic disciplines, collectively organize to help individuals gain understanding of and knowledge about specific subjects of expertise. Yet, at the same time, they frame legitimate ways of thinking and learning, and they sanction other ways of knowing that are collectively seen as false, inelegant, or inappropriate etc. Acknowledging the interdependency between proficiency and professions, the interdisciplinary contributions to this volume focus on three aspects. Part I looks into the social processes of professions and what actually makes qualifications, competence and proficiency. Part II elaborates on the dynamics that transform intangible knowledge by exploring, for instance, the legitimacy of scientists withinsociety. Part III gives insights into how space influences the development of professional work, for instance, by reconstructing the historical formation of the psychology profession in Argentina. This volume provides a valuable read for scholars, students, and professionals in the fields of innovation, knowledge creation and governance.

The essays in this volume are intended to help social scientists do better comparative research and thereby to improve our possibilities for creating more satisfactory explanations or theories. These broad aims are advanced throughout the book in serval ways: (1) by an identification and assessment of the methodological strategies of exceptionally important comparativists, past and present; (2) by an explication and refinement of logics of procedure that are central to many types of comparative research; (3) by a presentation of new research models that link or bridge heretofore separate lines of comparative inquiry; and (4) by the definition of methodological criteria by which theories and conceptual frameworks can be more fruitfully related to and qualified by comparative studies. Specific problems such as comparability, causal inference, conceptualization, measurement, and sampling are addressed in various sections of particular essays. --From the Preface This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1971.

This book provides a broad view on multisensory landscapes from multiple perspectives. It includes theoretical perspectives as well as case studies. Different theoretical perspectives on landscape emerging from research in the last decades also require a differentiated approach to landscape phenomena, going beyond the visual. For example, a social constructivist approach to the social world foregrounds the processes of negotiating social ‚realities‘. This is not limited to visual aspects, and is not based on a clear physical measurability with an accompanying (purely quantitative) recording. A phenomenological approach, for example, places the synesthetic experience of landscape at the core of interest. This approach to the topic of multisensory via ‚landscape‘ is obvious for several reasons. Firstly, landscape is created (from a constructivist perspective) through the synthesis of sensory impressions on the basis of social patterns of interpretation and evaluation. Secondly, communication about ‚landscape‘ is also accessible to people who do not have any ‚expertlike special knowledge‘ in this regard. Thirdly, landscape as a changing concept is not only a concept of landscape but also of landscape itself. Fourthly, landscape as a changeable concept is particularly suitable for conceptually framing the highly fleeting non-visual stimuli.

Originating in the popular Sociología en Cuarantena blog, this volume provides a detailed and multifaceted analysis of the social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain.This book originates in the great upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic when the unprecedented announcement of global lockdowns paralysed the world and put social relations on hold. In response, a loose collective of sociologists, historians and philosophers from various Spanish universities began to share their reflections on the pandemic on the Sociología en Cuarantena blog. This book takes some of those thoughts and delves deeper into the recurring themes as they relate to the Spanish experience of the pandemic. The chapters in the first part of the book address the social and political context of the various measures put in place by the government to deal with the health, economic and social effects of the pandemic. Subsequently, several chapters examine how the pandemic led to important reflections on uncertainty and authority in processes of scientific knowledge production. Other chapters analyse the effects of the pandemic on demographics, the organisation of care, the education system, the organisation of work and the recognition of essential workers, immigration policies and the digitalisation of society. Collectively, the contributions call into question the narrative of exceptionalism that views the pandemic as a singular event that is uniquely responsible for the present situation of uncertainty and instability. They also draw attention to the fragility of social prestige and trust in neglected and weakened public institutions, as well as identifying a growing socio-political polarisation that may be highly significant in the future.This collection will appeal to students and researchers with an interest in contemporary Spain and the socio-political effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We are all aware of sexual orientation and its influence on sexual behavior, but the true nature of this complex occurrence is elusive. Despite extensive investigations there is no clear answer as to what sexual orientation is. Conjectures far outweigh proven fact. Based on extensive experience counselling clients regarding sexual orientation issues, such as discrimination and persecution, it became apparent that common perspectives are inaccurate. A major problem pertains to how theories of sexual orientation are generated, without first establishing criteria for a robust theory. Correcting this error, twelve comprehensive criteria for a robust theory of sexual orientation are presented. Major biological, evolutionary, and psychosocial perspectives are evaluated based on the theory criteria, revealing weak performance. With the goal of aligning clinical and research realities, and guided by the twelve theory criteria, a four-component approach—homoerotic and heteroerotic dimensions, activation/deactivation of these dimensions, erotic fantasy, and social construction—that comprehensively define sexual orientation, is proposed. This proposition represents the first novel theory of sexual orientation in decades, explaining many fascinating sexual orientation occurrences. It is a must read for researchers/scholars, graduate/undergraduate students, and sexual orientation counsellors.

This is the first collection of readings on computer-mediated communication focusing exclusively on interpersonal interactions. Examining messages exchanged via email, Twitter, Facebook, websites, and blogs, the authors analyze communication issues of ongoing importance in relationships including deception, disclosure, identity, influence, perception, privacy, sexual fidelity, and social support. The book examines subjects that attract intense student interest – including online performance of gender, online dating, and using computer-mediated communication to achieve family/work life balance – and will inspire further research and course development in the area of computer-mediated communication in personal relationships. Because it provides a synthesis of ideas at the nexus of interpersonal communication theory and computer-mediated communication theory, the book can serve as a textbook for advanced undergraduate as well as graduate courses.

This open access book, comprising thirty-nine chapters divided into social, cultural, economic, and political spheres, offers a unique opportunity to dive into the complex, dynamic, and sometimes contradictory transformation of Gulf societies in the last few decades. Whilst the Gulf region has at times been seen as impervious to this natural phenomenon of transformation—timeless, never changing, deeply rooted in its ancient tribal customs and traditions and able to blend past and present seamlessly without suffering the wrenching trauma of change—this is clearly not the case, and the region is not immune to the inevitable forces of social change. There is no doubt today that the social change sweeping the Gulf has been profound, affecting almost every aspect of life in the Gulf societies. This volume has an encyclopedic value as the chapters collectively offer multifaceted and multidisciplinary perspectives to understand social change inthe Gulf region. Through these chapters, the role of economic and educational transformation, and the impact of social media, migration, and urbanization have in driving social change in the Gulf societies is examined in detail with a focus on their directions, magnitudes, and relevant policy options. It also considers how COVID-19 is affecting the lives of the people in the Gulf. This book bridges gaps in the understanding of the rapid pace of social change in the Gulf, offering practical solutions for policy interventions. It is of interest to scholars and students in Middle Eastern studies, specifically, as well as sociology, media studies, migration studies, and educational policy.

The second volume of this handbook develops on and extends the discussion in the successful first volume, published in 2012. This is a timely addition to the literature, drawing on the momentum that quality of life (QOL) research in tourism has gained in the 21st century and on the boom in the tourism industry itself. It focuses on four areas of growth in QOL research in the recent past: (1) travelers/tourists, (2) host communities, (3) service providers, and (4) the role of technology. The handbook helps management of tourism firms and policy makers develop specific policies and programs to ensure the most positive impact of tourism on tourists, host communities, and service providers. The comprehensive coverage of topics in this handbook makes it a state-of-the-art reference. Academics interested in QOL research in travel and tourism, tourism practitioners interested in applying the science of QOL in the tourism industry, as well as policy makers involved in regulating the industry will view the handbook as indispensable source of recent research.

This book analyses the relationship between assimilation and fertility intentions for migrants and minorities in Europe. Building upon assimilation theory, it is argued that both migrants and minorities assimilate in the process of intercultural encounters. Given that fertility is part of the cultural dimension of assimilation, it is likely to be influenced by assimilation. Therefore, theories on assimilation and fertility are merged theoretically as well as empirically. Using data from the Generations and Gender Survey, the empirical section builds upon a comparison of Turkish migrants in Germany and the Turkish minority in Bulgaria. Building upon cluster analyses, six clusters within Germany as well as five clusters in Bulgaria are developed to account for heterogeneity of groups. Comparing these clusters in terms of assimilation and fertility intentions it becomes clear that the Turkish minority does not differ in their fertility intentions from the majority. For Germany, Turkishmigrants differ from German natives regarding their fertility intentions, but differences are explained by assimilation, especially structural characteristics. When comparing migrant and minority, differences in fertility exist and are accounted for by cultural dissimilarity.

Covering basic univariate and bivariate statistics and regression models for nominal, ordinal, and interval outcomes, Applied Statistics for the Social and Health Sciences provides graduate students in the social and health sciences with fundamental skills to estimate, interpret, and publish quantitative research using contemporary standards.Reflecting the growing importance of'Big Data'in the social and health sciences, this thoroughly revised and streamlined new edition covers best practice in the use of statistics in social and health sciences, draws upon new literatures and empirical examples, and highlights the importance of statistical programming, including coding, reproducibility, transparency, and open science.Key features of the book include: interweaving the teaching of statistical concepts with examples from publicly available social and health science data and literature excerpts; thoroughly integrating the teaching of statistical theory with the teaching of data access, processing, and analysis in Stata; recognizing debates and critiques of the origins and uses of quantitative methods.

Often identified as one of the most genuine and enduring American film genres, the road movie has never been explored in the context of experimental filmmaking. To fill this gap, Lost Highways, Embodied Travels provides the first book-length study of over eighty unique and often obscure films and videos and situates them within the corporeal turn in American avant-garde cinema, so far mostly associated with body genres and sexually explicit films. Drawing on unpublished archival materials, the book offers a fresh take on both past and current practices of the experimental film community for scholars, students, makers and film buffs.

This book presents a new step farther into the twenty-first century, for the first time truly combining a comprehensive global data analysis with social policy theory development. The theory of global ideal-typical welfare regimes, also known as the “Ten Worlds of Welfare Regime Theory”, as set forth earlier by Christian Aspalter, is now in this book tested empirically using a quantitative global data analysis for the first time. The strong and rich results fully vindicated the Ten Worlds Theory. All in all, about 150 countries are included in this test, measuring numerous variables on two main dimensions, i.e., povertization and inequality. The innovative approach of using a new indicator, Aspalter's Standardized Relative Performance Index, is applied, which facilitated the exact measurements of distances between relative performances of each variable, each dimension, each country, and each ideal-typical welfare regime (in relation to one another, respectively). In addition, oneexplanative and one normative meta-study is added to the book, to point to ways to understand and deal with the global culprit of inequality and, hence, poverty.“On the backdrop of decades of comparative theoretical and empirical research we now, for the first time, have a truly global analysis of welfare regimes.” ---- Peter Abrahamson, Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen

This book explores the interconnection of care, gender and migration regimes and their impact on ‘migrant domestic work'in Europe, in a comparative perspective. The research presented in this book aims to understand the reasons not only of the increased concentration of migrants in the domestic and care sector, but also of the significant differences between European countries. Care, gender and migration regimes are first operationalised in the form of three typologies. Then, the three typologies are used to investigate the ethnicisation of the domestic sector (the proportion of migrants in the domestic sector, compared to natives) and the domesticisation of migrants (the proportion of migrants in the domestic sector, compared to other sectors). The findings suggest that the three regimes have an effect and that this effect is greater when they are taken into account simultaneously.

The book is presented as an Atlas where the map plays a fundamental role in the study of quality of life, as it shows its progression in Argentina from the 19th to the 21st Century. In the book, it can be observed how the concept has evolved along with the dimensions and variables that better represent its spatial distribution. This is one of the original points of the book: the temporal study of the living conditions of the argentine population, empirically and spatially, emphasizing their territorial representation. Although the book maintains the same socioeconomic dimensions (education, health and housing), the tour through the different chapters offers a historical window that allows the reader to know what the forms of information collection were like in different historical moments. This book is written for geographers and members of the scientific community interested in the study of the well-being of the population. It also allows us to observe the evolution of the quality of life from the 19th century to the 21st, so it may be of interest to historians as well.

The fully revised new edition of the defining reference work in the field of medical anthropology A Companion to Medical Anthropology, Second Edition provides the most complete account of the key issues and debates in this dynamic, rapidly growing field. Bringing together contributions by leading international authorities in medical anthropology, this comprehensive reference work presents critical assessments and interpretations of a wide range of topical themes, including global and environmental health, political violence and war, poverty, malnutrition, substance abuse, reproductive health, and infectious diseases. Throughout the text, readers explore the global, historical, and political factors that continue to influence how health and illness are experienced and understood. The second edition is fully updated to reflect current controversies and significant new developments in the anthropology of health and related fields. More than twenty new and revised articles address research areas including war and health, illicit drug abuse, climate change and health, colonialism and modern biomedicine, activist-led research, syndemics, ethnomedicines, biocommunicability, COVID-19, and many others. Highlighting the impact medical anthropologists have on global health care policy and practice, A Companion to Medical Anthropology, Second Edition: Features specially commissioned articles by medical anthropologists working in communities worldwide Discusses future trends and emerging research areas in the field Describes biocultural approaches to health and illness and research design and methods in applied medical anthropology Addresses topics including chronic diseases, rising levels of inequality, war and health, migration and health, nutritional health, self-medication, and end of life care Part of the acclaimed Wiley Blackwell Companions to Anthropology series, A Companion to Medical Anthropology, Second Edition, remains an indispensable resource for medical anthropologists, as well as an excellent textbook for courses in medical anthropology, ethnomedicine, global health care, and medical policy.

This interdisciplinary volume presents a comprehensive framework to understand political awareness. Political awareness has become an important part of research on political attitudes and political behavior since the publication of John Zaller's work on political opinion. The authors elaborate on his theory and present a new conceptualization, which stipulates that political awareness is the attentiveness, knowledge, and understanding of politics. Hence, the book discusses different aspects, such as the concept of political awareness, its formation, significance, measurement, and exploration. The result is a new framework that addresses conceptual, theoretical, and methodological questions, such as: What does the concept mean? How to study political awareness? How is it connected to other orientations? How do children and youth develop political awareness? Addressing researchers and graduate students, as well as scholars in political science, sociology, and education, this book is a must-read for everybody interested in a better understanding of political awareness.

This Open Access book explores the role of morality in social movements. Morality has always been central to social movements whether it be in the form of the moral foundations of movement claims, politics and ideologies, the values motivating participation, the new moral principles envisioned and practiced among movement participants, or the overall struggle over society's moral values that movements engage in. This is evident in movements emerging from recent interlinked crises: the crisis of human rights, the climate crisis, and the developing crisis of democracy. In analyzing these current events through a variety of theoretical, methodological, and empirical lenses, this book brings morality to the forefront of the discussion, allowing for a rethinking of its role.The book is divided into five parts. The first part introduces and explores the central concept of the book, outlining the dominant existing approaches to morality and ethics in the extant movement and civil society literature. The following three parts investigate morality in relation to topics and movements that are either prominent to contemporary politics or salient to the question of morality. In these empirically informed parts, the authors apply a diverse selection of methods spanning fieldwork, historiography, traditional and novel statistical analytical methods, and big data analysis to a diverse selection of data. Topics discussed include refugee solidarity movements, male privilege and anti-feminism movement, environmental and climate justice movements, and religious activism. The fifth and closing part of the book focuses on the more abstract theoretical question of the relationship between morality and ethics and activist practices and points to future research agendas. This book will be of general interest to students, scholars and academics within the disciplines of political sociology, -science and -anthropology and of particular interest to academics in the subfieldsof social movement and civil society studies.

The field of sustainability continues to evolve as a discipline. The world is facing multiple sustainability challenges such as climate change, water depletion, ecosystem loss, and environmental racism. The Handbook of Sustainability will provide a comprehensive reference for the field that examines in depth the major themes within what are known as the three E's of sustainability: environment, equity, and economics. These three themes will serve as the main organizing body of the work. In addition, the work will include sections on history and sustainability, major figures in the development of sustainability as a discipline, and important organizations that contributed or that continue to contribute to sustainability as a field. The work is explicitly global in scope as it considers the very different issues associated with sustainability in the global north and south

Are robots taking away our jobs? Those who ask this question have misunderstood digitalisation – it is not an industrial revolution by other means. Sabine Pfeiffer searches for the actual novelties brought about by digitalisation and digital capitalism. In her analysis, she juxtaposes Marx's concept of productive force with the idea of distributive force. From the platform economy to artificial intelligence, Pfeiffer shows that digital capitalism is less about the efficient production of value, but rather about its fast, risk-free, and permanently secured realisation on the markets. The examination of this dynamic and its consequences also leads to the question of how destructive the distributive forces of digital capitalism might be.

It is often claimed that the disjunction or opposition between ‘action'theories and ‘structural'theories rests on a misunderstanding of what social structure is. A clear understanding of social structure dissolves this apparent opposition. It is argued that social structure is a real social fact but has no separate and substantive existence apart from the minds and actions of the individual and collective actors who produce and reproduce it. It is argued that it is possible to distinguish between ‘figurational structures'of interaction and the deeper ‘formational structures'. Social interaction occurs within specific social worlds to form an extensive interaction order. The pattern of interactions comprises a figurational structure that can be mapped and explored through the methods of social network analysis. A figurational structure can be partitioned into the deeper, emergent levels of a formational structure that comprises class relations, divisions of gender and ethnicity, and a range of other divisions. This book examines the use of the sociological imagination to identify and explore formational structures and suggests the formal, analytical methods that can support these explorations. The two levels of structure are seen as the spheres of microsociology and macrosociology, respectively. These levels can be theorised in terms of processes of social integration and system integration. The use of the ideas presented in the book is illustrated through a brief case study of class relations in French political history from the Revolution to the Third Republic.

This book presents interdisciplinary research and scientific outcomes in sustainable development acquired from the BHAAAS International Conference on Sustainable Development-ICSD2022 as part of the 13th Days of Bosnian-Herzegovinian American Academy of Arts and Sciences held in Sarajevo, June 23-26, 2022. The main event enabled researchers and experts from 25 countries to exchange their knowledge, ideas and experiences. The general scope of the book includes topics presented at three specialized symposia: The Quadruple Helix Approach, Sustainable Urban Development and Sustainable Civil Engineering with research topics ranging from SDGs, sustainable development education, environmental and social responsibility and consumption to sustainable retrofit strategies, urban heritage conservation, urban mobility, Space Syntax analysis, watercourse recovery, railway corridors and more. The book is recommended for fellow researchers, professionals, and students in the fields ofeconomy, politics, architecture, urban planning, civil engineering and related fields.

Das vorliegende Buch über politische Interessenvertretung behandelt anhand einer Fallstudie an der Schnittstelle zwischen EU-Verkehrs-, Klima- und Energiepolitik eine Forschungslücke der Kommunikationswissenschaft: Es wird untersucht, welche Bedeutung Informalität in der fachpolitischen EU-Interessenvertretung zukommt. Informalität wird sowohl in der öffentlichen Debatte als auch in der einschlägigen akademischen Diskussion als konstitutive Bedingung von Interessenvertretung angenommen und als funktionsspezifische Handlungs- bzw. kommunikative Sphäre vorausgesetzt. Als kommunikativer Wirkmechanismus im Lobbying-Kontext wurde Informalität bislang nicht untersucht. Die Innovation der Arbeit besteht zudem darin, dass nicht nur die Akteure der Interessenvertretung und deren Strategien zur Einflussnahme auf politische Akteure, sondern auch die sog. Outside-Dimension der Interessenvertretung betrachtet wird. Diese bezieht journalistische Akteure und die speziell auf sie abzielenden Steuerungsversuche von Interessenvertreter•innen mit in die Analyse ein.

Over the past few years there had been a dramatic increase in the number of women entering the surveying profession. Fewer than five per cent of practising surveyors were women, but women comprised twenty per cent of students. Originally published in 1991, Surveying Sisters explores the question of whether ‘more'would mean ‘better', either for women surveyors themselves, or for women as consumers of the built environment.Clara Greed investigates the experiences of individual women surveyors, as well as studying the nature of the male majority. Taking a broadly feminist perspective and using an ethnographic approach, she develops a strong theoretical basis, incorporating the gender, class, and spatial dimensions of the situation, centring round the concept that surveying has its own distinct professional subculture. She traces the historical roots of the profession, and its attitudes to women, and makes constructive suggestions for improving the position of women surveying today.This was a highly topical study, at a time when the surveying profession was eager to attract more women in order to allay the effects of declining numbers of school leavers and potential ‘manpower'shortages. It will be of interest to people concerned about issues of gender in disciplines such as sociology, management studies, higher education, urban geography, and women's studies, and to the women and men who work in the surveying and other built environment professions.

Paradise Lost. Race and Racism in Post-apartheid South Africa is about the continuing salience of race and persistence of racism in post-apartheid South Africa. The chapters in the volume illustrate the multiple ways in which race and racism are manifested and propose various strategies to confront racial inequality, racism and the power structure that underpins it, while exploring, how, through a renewed commitment to a non-racial society, apartheid racial categories can be put under erasure at exactly the time they are being reinforced.

Professor Chadwick Dearing Oliver has made major intellectual contributions to forest science and natural resources management. Over the course of his career he has actively sought to bring research and practice together through synthesis, outreach, and capacity-building. A common thread throughout his career has been complexity and how we as a society understand and manage complex systems. His work on forest stand dynamics, landscape management, and sustainability have all focused on the emergent properties of complex ecological and/or social systems. This volume celebrates a remarkable career through a diverse group of former students and colleagues who work on a wide range of subject areas related to the management of complex natural resource systems. Over the past decade there has been considerable discussion about forests as complex adaptive systems. Advances in remote sensing, social methods, and data collection and processing have enabled more detailed characterisations of complex natural systems across spatial and temporal scales than ever before. Making sense of these data, however, requires conceptual frameworks that are robust to the complexity of the systems and their inherent dynamics, particularly in the context of global change. This volume presents a collection of cutting-edge research on natural ecosystems and their dynamics through the lens of complex adaptive systems. ​It includes contributions by a wide range of authors from academia, NGOs, forest industry, and governmental organisations with diverse perspectives on forests and natural resources management. Each chapter offers new insights into how these systems can be made more resilient to ensure that they provide a diversity of ecological and social values well into the future. Together they provide a robust way of thinking about the many challenges that natural ecosystems face and how we as society may best address them.

The COVID-19 pandemic shook the world to its core. After a brief pause, organizations of all kinds had to adapt to the new circumstances given to them with very little time. The presence of the pandemic caused multiple threats that caused several disruptions to the norms, beliefs, and practices in various domains of everyday life. Both from macro and micro perspectives, individuals, households, markets, institutions, and governments developed strategies to respond to the new environment—responses that hope to eliminate or at least decrease the threats of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Handbook of Research on Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Threats and Impacts of Pandemics explores the COVID-19 pandemic from an interdisciplinary perspective and determines how future pandemics may impact society. Beginning as a health threat, the pandemic has led the way to economic, social, psychological, political, and informational crises necessitating the examination of the phenomenon from different academic disciplines. Covering topics such as distance education, human security, and predictions, this handbook of research is an essential resource for scholars, managers, media representatives, governors, health officials, government officials, policymakers, students, professors, researchers, and academicians.

Since the dawn of social science, theorists have debated how and why societies appear to change, develop and evolve. Today, this question is pursued by scholars across many different disciplines and our understanding of these dynamics has grown markedly. Yet, there remain important areas of disagreement and debate: what is the difference between societal change, development and evolution? What specific aspects of cultures change, develop or evolve and why? Do societies change, develop or evolve in particular ways, perhaps according to cycles, or stages or in response to survival necessities? How do different disciplines—from sociology to anthropology to psychology and economics—approach these questions? This book provides complex and nuanced answers to these, and many other, questions. First, the book invites readers to consider the broad landscape of societal dynamics across human history, beginning with humanity's origins in small nomadic bands of hunter gatherers through to the emergence of post-industrial democracies. Then, the book provides a tour of several prominent existing theories of cultural change, development and evolution. Approaches to explaining cultural dynamics will be discussed across disciplines and schools of thought, from'meme'theories to established cumulative cultural evolutionary theories to newly emerging theories on cultural tightness-looseness. The book concludes with a call for theoretical integration and a frank discussion of some of the most unexamined structures that drive cultural dynamics across schools of thought.

Crime is always part of a social process. In many cases that process determines the form the crime takes. In this ground-breaking book, a wide range of crimes are examined in terms of the social psychological processes that influence the participants and their relationships with each other. Crimes as diverse as fraud and hostage taking are examined from a range of social science perspectives, including broad anthropological perspectives on differences in the structure of criminal cultures as well as the detailed consideration of the roles offenders play in groups and teams of criminals. This book opens up a new area of empirical study of relevance to students of crime as well as law enforcement officers. It will also be of value and interest to all those social scientists who wish to understand how their disciplines can contribute more effectively to the investigation of crime.

Discover effective strategies for AIDS healthcare!You'll definitely want to see what's documented inside AIDS Capitation if you're affiliated in any way with current efforts to bolster and improve healthcare policies and procedures for AIDS victims and their families. With this scholarly, up-to-date guidebook, you'll find that your awareness and knowledge base concerning contemporary AIDS healthcare issues will expand and diversify, giving you a more stable information base from which you can make your own policy changes and civic organization improvements.If you're a practitioner in HIV/AIDS care, an academic in HIV/AIDS research, or one of the many public officials currently involved in healthcare reform, you'll find the guidance and proven strategies you need in AIDS Capitation. AIDS Capitation gives you a broad range of information including: descriptive and evaluative aspects of the model of care directions for implementing an innovative model of terminal home care modalities of care in end-stage treatment measurement issues in evaluative research help in measuring outcomes in community-based care funding opportunitiesWithout a doubt, the onset of HIV/AIDS has changed the way we view life. Our schools, government offices, and healthcare venues must change also. AIDS Capitation has everything you need to begin that process of change in your community.

This book examines energy transition issues within the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region. The European Union is aiming for an almost complete decarbonization of its energy sector by 2050. However, the path towards a carbon-free economy is full of challenges that must be solved by individual EU members. Across 18 chapters, leading researchers explore challenges related to energy transition and analyse individual EU members from Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the region as a whole. To further explore this complex issue, the volume also includes several countries from South East Europe in its analysis. As perspective members, these countries will be important contributors to the EU's mid- and long-term climate and energy goals. The focus on a variety of issues connected to energy transition and systematic analyses of the different CEE countries make it an ideal reference for anyone with a general interest in the region or European energy transition. It will alsobe a useful resource for students looking for an accessible overview of the field.

Known as the gold standard for research methods, Babbie's THE PRACTICE OF SOCIAL RESEARCH gives you a definitive guide to research as practiced by social scientists. Combining a straightforward approach with the author's renowned sense of humor, this student-friendly text equips you with the tools and knowledge to apply research concepts as both researcher and consumer. The author emphasizes the process by showing you how to design and construct projects, introducing today's various observation modes and answering critical questions about research methods, such as how to conduct online surveys and analyze both qualitative and quantitative data. The 15th Edition includes the latest General Social Survey findings along with new coverage of the global use of social research, the emerging role of big data, demographic analysis and more. Also available: MindTap digital learning solution.

The purpose of this book is to provide an outlet for original research articles examining the role and value of religious and spiritual constructs across the social sciences. The aim of the series is to include an international and interfaith voice to this research dialogue. An effort is made to be interdisciplinary and academically eclectic. The articles in each volume represent a wide array of perspectives and research projects. Most of the articles report the findings of quantitative or qualitative investigations, but some deal with methodology, theory, or applications of social science studies in the field of religion, and some are applied, demonstrating the relevance of the social sciences to religious organizations and their clergy. The value of the volume is that it gives to researchers in this area a broad perspective on the issues and methods of religious research across a spectrum of academic disciplines. The aim of the book is to stimulate a creative, integrative dialogue that will enhance interdisciplinary research.

This book analyses the Spanish parliamentary elites in a comparative perspective within southern Europe. What has been the impact of the Great Recession on the configuration of parliaments and the diversity of legislators? Have new parties delivered better representation of citizens in terms of demographics (gender, age, social class), ideology or political attitudes and beliefs? This original research is based on a 2018 survey on members of two national chambers and 17 regional parliaments. Comparing these data with those of a simultaneous survey carried out on Spanish citizens and with data from previous research a decade ago, the book examines the changes that have occurred in representation during the course of the Great Recession and provides evidence of the growing distance between citizens and parliamentary elites. Additionally, using data from the Comparative Candidates Survey, the book compares the ideological congruence between citizens and their representatives in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece.

This book reviews empirical and theoretical research on sustainable development in the context of leisure management for communities. Although leading research centers are pursuing interdisciplinary research on leisure in the context of sustainable development, there are still few papers that holistically address the current challenges in this area. In addition, demographic changes have made the promotion of a healthy lifestyle essential. Doing so requires responsible behavior on the part of various stakeholders in this market.This book fills an important gap in the literature and gathers contributions from an interdisciplinary and international team of authors, whose fields of expertise include human geography, management, intersections of sustainability and leisure, behavioral psychology and tourism.

This two-volume set presents the conference papers from the 1st International Conference on Economics, Development and Sustainability (EDESUS 2019), organized by the University of Economics and Business, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. The collection addresses global changes and sustainable development in Vietnam and other emerging market economies in Asia, and covers wider topics such as economics and business (e.g. economic theory, national and international income distribution, macroeconomic policies, sectors of economy, productivity developments, financial market, business governance, bank financing), development and sustainability (e.g. developing process, development policy, public policy, sustainable growth, sustainability tools, sustainable livelihood, sustainable tourism, green growth), and resources and global change (e.g. human resources, natural resources, climate change, globalization, global challenges). The books are of interest to professors, researchers, lecturers, and students in economics and geography, consultants, and decision makers interested in global changes and sustainable development. Volume 1 focuses on economic development in Vietnam and other emerging market economies in Asia. This covers topics such as economics and business (e.g. economic theory, national and international income distribution, macroeconomic policies, sectors of economy, productivity developments, financial market, business governance, bank financing) and development studies (e.g. developing process, development policy, public policy, green growth).

This book chronicles the evolution of women's participation in the labour force in Ireland over the last five decades. This was largely spearheaded by married women and mothers, leading to many related social issues including childcare, flexible working, the sharing of domestic work and work-life balance. The book presents empirical data on these topics, drawn from the author's research spanning several decades, and shows how attitudes have evolved and influenced the development of social policy. The book begins by exploring the factors which predisposed some married women to enter the workplace in the early 1970s while most did not and examines the relative well-being of housewives and employed married women. It demonstrates the effects the anti-discrimination legislation of the 1970s had on women's perceived discrimination over time, showing that women initially denied their own discrimination. The history of childcare policy is examined from the early Government Working Party reports of the 1980s to the evolution of childcare policy in Ireland. Issues of work-life balance are presented through cross-cultural comparisons from Ireland and several European countries, and key questions are asked, such as'are men who work part-time seen as less serious about their careers?'The concluding chapter focuses on how women's role in the workplace impacts on men and gender relations. Questions are posed concerning the ways in which men's roles need to adapt and the extent to which workplaces and social policy also need to change to accommodate men and women's needs for work-life balance.The book will be of interest to social scientists and to students. It will be a valuable resource for courses in the sociology of work and the family, gender studies, social psychology and Irish studies. By providing quantitative data in an accessible form, it will also provide a valuable case study for courses in social research methods.

This seven volume set reissues a collection of out-of-print titles covering a range of responses to modern culture. They include in-depth analyses of US and Australian popular culture, works on the media and television, macrosociology, and the media and ‘otherness'. Taken together, they provide stimulating and thought-provoking debate on a wide range of topics central to many of today's cultural controversies.

Drawing upon perspectives from across the globe and employing an interdisciplinary life course approach, this handbook explores the production and reproduction of different types of inequality across a variety of social contexts.Inequalities are not static, easily measurable, and essentially quantifiable circumstances of life. They are processes which impact on individuals throughout the life course, interacting with each other, accumulating, attenuating, reproducing, or distorting themselves along the way. The chapters in this handbook examine various types of inequality, such as economic, gender, racial, and ethnic inequalities, and analyse how these inequalities manifest themselves within different aspects of society, including health, education, and the family, at multiple levels and dimensions. The handbook also tackles the global COVID-19 pandemic and its striking impact on the production and intensification of inequalities.The interdisciplinary life course approach utilised in this handbook combines quantitative and qualitative methods to bridge the gap between theory and practice and offer strategies and principles for identifying and tackling issues of inequality. This book will be indispensable for students and researchers as well as activists and policy makers interested in understanding and eradicating the processes of production, reproduction, and perpetuation of inequalities.

This book offers readers critical insights into a region in crisis and explores different facets of the crisis from governance to gender to the politics of identity, the challenge of the environment and the enduring impact of demographic variables and technological change. Whilst exploring the nature of the crises, the book also explores how policy-makers have responded to these and what other alternatives there are in overcoming challenges posed. Whilst the focus is on the Middle East North Africa region as a whole, the authors are well aware of the unique characteristics of individual countries. Hence the book examines regional trends whilst also being conscious of the national specificities of each country. In combining the general with the particular, the book approaches its subject matter from both a quantitative and a qualitative perspective allowing one to understand regional trends and country specific peculiarities.