Social theory Books

Book SynopsisSocial psychologist and Stanford professor Brian Lowery presents a provocative, powerful theory of identity, arguing that there is no essential "self"—our selves are social creations of those with whom we interact —exploring what that means for who we can be and who we allow others to be.Trade Review“An unusually insightful look at how our social world shapes who we become. This book will challenge you to rethink many of your assumptions about what drives your decisions, your actions, and your identity.” — Adam Grant, author of Think Again and Originals “This powerful book is guaranteed to change the way you see yourself and the world around you. Lowery masterfully weaves science and stories together to expose that we are all selfless – shaped in each moment and over years by our social situations. Selfless is a gift – an engaging and important book that will help you better understand the influence of the web of relationships you inhabit.” — Katy Milkman, author of How to Change “[Lowery] investigates many commonly held assumptions that selfhood is, for the most part, a privately malleable entity originating within us at birth, and that absolute liberty in defining it might be both possible and desirable. We know ourselves better and can improve our chances at self-improvement, the author explains convincingly, if we accept that our identities are fluid, socially determined phenomena…. An informed, thought-provoking consideration of the relational dimensions of our lives.” — Kirkus Reviews "Blending psychology, philosophy, and sociology, Lowery relays the exploration of what a self is into questions about how selfhood relates to personal autonomy, the consequences of our actions, and the desire for a meaningful life. Lowery is remarkably skillful at making these potentially heady themes clear and accessible, and engaging with them makes for a rewarding journey." — Mindful

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Book SynopsisThis is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. It is free to read at Oxford Academic and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Inclusion in Linguistics, the companion volume to Decolonizing Linguistics, aims to reinvent linguistics as a space of belonging across race, gender, class, disability, geographic region, and more. Taken together, the two volumes are the first comprehensive, action-oriented, book-length discussions of how to advance social justice in all aspects of the discipline. The volume''s introduction theorizes inclusion as fundamental to social justice and describes the extensive dialogic and collaborative process through which the volume was developed. Contributors discuss intersectional forms of exclusion in linguistics: researchers'' anti-autistic ableism; the exclusion of Deaf Global South researchers of color; the marginalization of Filipino American students and scholars; disc

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Book SynopsisThe tech elite have a plan to survive the apocalypse: they want to leave us all behindTrade Review"A hilarious and lacerating look at the elite sociopathy wrecking the world, and a call to arms for how the rest of us can fight it." -- Molly Crabapple, author of Drawing Blood"Beyond eye-opening, this book is eye-popping. A master storyteller, Rushkoff brings to life perhaps the greatest challenge of our time, The Mindset that drives so much destructive behavior, and blinds us to solutions beyond new technology and consumption. A must read." -- Frances Moore Lappé, author of Daring Democracy"Douglas Rushkoff’s keen eye as a seasoned media analyst, combined with his flair and wit as a writer and a performer, shine in this book..." -- Marina Gorbis, Executive Director, Institute for the Future"A devastating portrait of the cultures and logics underlying big tech. Rushkoff is going to make you mad enough to fight back. A vital, lucid, and enraging read." -- Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate

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Book SynopsisWe frequently hear that we live in an age of anxiety, from ''therapy culture'', the Atkins diet and child anti-depressants to gun culture and weapons of mass destruction. While Hollywood regularly cashes in on teenage anxiety through its Scream franchise, pharmaceutical companies churn out new drugs such as Paxil to combat newly diagnosed anxieties.On Anxiety takes a fascinating, psychological plunge behind the scenes of our panic stricken culture and into anxious minds, asking who and what is responsible. Putting anxiety on the couch, Renata Salecl asks some much-needed questions: Is anxiety about the absence of authority or too much of it? Do the media report anxiety or create it? Are drugs a cure for anxiety or its cause? Is anxiety about being yourself or someone else, and is anxiety really the ultimate obstacle to happiness? Drawing on vivid examples from films such as the X Files and Cyrano de Bergerac, drugs used on soldiers to combat Trade Review'Erudite and compelling, On Anxiety is essential reading for anyone interested in philosophy, psychology and the cultural phenomenon of anxiety today.' - SirReadAlot.org'A deft application of psychoanalytic insights to very everyday and quite familiar human situations ... a revealing and insightful way of looking at the contemporary world where they are imaginatively viewed through the lens of anxiety.' - Juliet Flower MacCannell, University of California'A deft application of psychoanalytic insights to very everyday and quite familiar human situations ... a revealing and insightful way of looking at the contemporary world where they are imaginatively viewed through the lens of anxiety.' - Juliet Flower MacCannell, University of CaliforniaTable of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction; Chapter 2 Anxiety at Times of War; Chapter 3 Success in Failure; Chapter 4 Love Anxieties; Chapter 5 Anxiety of Motherhood; Chapter 6 Can Testimony Offer a Cure for Anxiety?; Chapter 7 Conclusion;

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Book SynopsisAutobiographies of Transformation is a completely unique history of sociology in Central and Eastern Europe in the post-Communist era. Through the autobiographies of ten key sociological witnesses from the region, the sociological imagination is turned upon itself, resulting in a compelling and revealing account of the struggles, triumphs, and continuing challenges faced. The sociologists examined fall into three cohorts: early, mid and late career. As participants, each of the sociologists included has witnessed the intersection of history and biography in Central and Eastern Europe. As sociologists, they have tried, and continue to try, to connect the two so that they and their fellow citizens may better understand their circumstances and the futures that may follow.This revealing book, ideal for students and researchers of sociology, and Central and Eastern Europe studies, provides powerful and compelling autobiographical accounts, relating them to the current interest in this area's transformation.Table of ContentsPreface 1.Witnessing Sociological Lives in Central and Eastern Europe 2. My Life as a (Female) Sociologist 3. Hand in Hand with Sociology 4. From Totality to Pluralistic Democracy 5. Sociology in My Life and Times 6. Touched by Transformation 7. Challenges and Disillusions 8. An Accidental Encounter with the World of Sociology 9. Belonging to a Dying Species 10. Living with Discrepancies 11. Becoming a Social Researcher in Transitional Estonia 12. Conclusion References About the Editors About the Contributors

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Book SynopsisThis clear and accessible book will be of use to social theorists and politcal scholars, to all those looking for a new understanding of the complex relationship between Kant, Hegel, Marx and Engels and to those who seek an introduction to dialectical critical realism in general and its relationship to these giants of German philosophy in particular.Table of Contents1. Critcal Realism before the Dialectic 2. Dialectical Critical Realism 3. Kant 4. Hegel 5. Marx and Engels. Conclusion

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive and approachable introduction to social scientific theories of religion as they have developed in the twentieth century.Trade ReviewThis introductory textbook is both challenging and rewarding. In summarising a great number of theories and interpretations of religion it covers in three parts a wider span of academic disciplines than is usually the case ! Not only is the book useful as an undergraduate text, available as a skeleton of reliable proportion on which class and teacher can work together but many a new postgraduate would do well to read it for an overview of religious studies. -- Douglas J. Davies, Professor in the Study of Religion, University of Durham This volume should serve as a splendid textbook for an undergraduate course in religion but Kunin's writing also makes it eminently accessible to the sophisticated lay reader. All in all this is a significant contribution to the field and a major contribution to the teaching of religion. -- Neil Gilman, Professor of Jewish Philosophy, Jewish Theological Seminary, New York This introductory textbook is both challenging and rewarding. In summarising a great number of theories and interpretations of religion it covers in three parts a wider span of academic disciplines than is usually the case ! Not only is the book useful as an undergraduate text, available as a skeleton of reliable proportion on which class and teacher can work together but many a new postgraduate would do well to read it for an overview of religious studies. This volume should serve as a splendid textbook for an undergraduate course in religion but Kunin's writing also makes it eminently accessible to the sophisticated lay reader. All in all this is a significant contribution to the field and a major contribution to the teaching of religion.Table of ContentsIntroduction; Section One: Setting the Agenda; Chapter 1: Karl Marx and Cultural Materialism; Chapter 2: Emile Durkheim and Functionalism; Chapter 3: Max Weber and Joachim Wach; Chapter 4: Sigmund Freud and the Psychological Tradition; Carl Gustav Jung; Joseph Campbell; Chapter 5: Rudolf Otto: The Idea of the Holy; Section Two: Continuing the Discussion; Chapter 6: Sociology, Methodological Atheism and Secularization; Chapter 7: Psychological Approaches; Chapter 8: Phenomenology and History of Religion; Chapter 9: Feminism, Gender and Religion; Chapter 10: Anthropological Approaches to Religion; Chapter 11: Some Final Words (interim); Section Three: Taking the Discussion in Different Directions; Chapter 12: Ritual and Religious Experience; Chapter 13: Symbolism; Chapter 14: Myth; Chapter 15: Last Words; Bibliography.

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive and approachable introduction to social scientific theories of religion as they have developed in the twentieth century.Trade ReviewThis introductory textbook is both challenging and rewarding. In summarising a great number of theories and interpretations of religion it covers in three parts a wider span of academic disciplines than is usually the case ! Not only is the book useful as an undergraduate text, available as a skeleton of reliable proportion on which class and teacher can work together but many a new postgraduate would do well to read it for an overview of religious studies. -- Douglas J. Davies, Professor in the Study of Religion, University of Durham This volume should serve as a splendid textbook for an undergraduate course in religion but Kunin's writing also makes it eminently accessible to the sophisticated lay reader. All in all this is a significant contribution to the field and a major contribution to the teaching of religion. -- Neil Gilman, Professor of Jewish Philosophy, Jewish Theological Seminary, New York This introductory textbook is both challenging and rewarding. In summarising a great number of theories and interpretations of religion it covers in three parts a wider span of academic disciplines than is usually the case ! Not only is the book useful as an undergraduate text, available as a skeleton of reliable proportion on which class and teacher can work together but many a new postgraduate would do well to read it for an overview of religious studies. This volume should serve as a splendid textbook for an undergraduate course in religion but Kunin's writing also makes it eminently accessible to the sophisticated lay reader. All in all this is a significant contribution to the field and a major contribution to the teaching of religion.Table of ContentsIntroduction; Section One: Setting the Agenda; Chapter 1: Karl Marx and Cultural Materialism; Chapter 2: Emile Durkheim and Functionalism; Chapter 3: Max Weber and Joachim Wach; Chapter 4: Sigmund Freud and the Psychological Tradition; Carl Gustav Jung; Joseph Campbell; Chapter 5: Rudolf Otto: The Idea of the Holy; Section Two: Continuing the Discussion; Chapter 6: Sociology, Methodological Atheism and Secularization; Chapter 7: Psychological Approaches; Chapter 8: Phenomenology and History of Religion; Chapter 9: Feminism, Gender and Religion; Chapter 10: Anthropological Approaches to Religion; Chapter 11: Some Final Words (interim); Section Three: Taking the Discussion in Different Directions; Chapter 12: Ritual and Religious Experience; Chapter 13: Symbolism; Chapter 14: Myth; Chapter 15: Last Words; Bibliography.

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Book SynopsisCovering a wide area of political sociology and social and political theory, this Reader offers a selection of extracts incorporating both primary and secondary readings. As well as a general introduction to the concept of social theory, each section is prefaced by an introduction to the relevant theorist(s) and each reading is accompanied by a short explanatory introduction.Including a broad range of texts, the book offers a general introduction to the main writings of political sociology and social theory. While other texts tend to focus either on either traditional or contemporary figures, this Reader is unique in tracing a connecting strand from the work of Marx, Weber and Durkheim to more contemporary social theorists. And by focusing on the theories of social conflict, cohesion and consent it also acts as a guide to issues in sociological, political and cultural analysis.Includes sections on:* Marx and Engels* Gramsci* Durkheim and Parsons* Weber* The Frankfurt School (Adorno and HorkheimerTrade ReviewMost useful for undergraduate students in political science, sociology and media studies and would even fit perfectly for courses in cultural studies since it explains many notions related to power and hegemony! All contributions are fundamental and timely. The book accurately reflects current concerns and issues in the teaching of this subject area but also, more importantly, helps to establish links between classical sociology and contemporary social theory! The book is very timely. -- Dr John Roberts, University of Leeds It is important for students not only to read about theorists but to read the theorists themselves -- for students to see for themselves how what a text says about a theorist is actually exemplified in the theorist's own writing. It is also a pedagogically helpful feature of Joseph's Reader that it includes some contemporary commentary on each of the major theorists covered. -- Professor Douglas V. Porpora, Drexel University, Philadelphia Most useful for undergraduate students in political science, sociology and media studies and would even fit perfectly for courses in cultural studies since it explains many notions related to power and hegemony! All contributions are fundamental and timely. The book accurately reflects current concerns and issues in the teaching of this subject area but also, more importantly, helps to establish links between classical sociology and contemporary social theory! The book is very timely. It is important for students not only to read about theorists but to read the theorists themselves -- for students to see for themselves how what a text says about a theorist is actually exemplified in the theorist's own writing. It is also a pedagogically helpful feature of Joseph's Reader that it includes some contemporary commentary on each of the major theorists covered.Table of ContentsIntroduction; Section 1: Marx and Engels: Conflict and Consent; Introduction; MARX Preface to 'A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy'; MARX 'The Fetishism of the Commodity and its Secret' from Capital volume 1; MARX AND ENGELS 'The Communist Manifesto'; MARX 'The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte'; MARX 'Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts'; BOB JESSOP 'Recent Theories of the Capitalist State'; Section 2: Antonio Gramsci: Theorist of Hegemony; Introduction; GRAMSCI 'The Modern Prince - Brief Notes on Machiavelli's Politics'*; GRAMSCI 'The Modern Price - Analysis of Situations. Relations of Force'*; GRAMSCI 'State and Civil Society'*; GRAMSCI 'The Intellectuals'*; GRAMSCI 'Americanism and Fordism'*; PERRY ANDERSON 'Origins of the Present Crisis'; * all from Gramsci's Prison Notebooks; Section 3: Durkheim and Functionalism; Introduction; DURKHEIM from Elementary forms of the Religious Life; DURKHEIM from The Division of Labour inI Society; DURKHEIM from Suicide; IAN CRAIB 'Parsons: Theory as a Filing System' from Modern Social Theory: From Parsons to Habermas; Section 4: Max Weber and Rationalism; Introduction; WEBER 'Politics as a Vocation'; WEBER 'Bureaucracy'; WEBER 'Class, Status, Party'; DEREK SAYER 'Without Regard for Persons' from Capitalism and Modernity: An Excursus on Marx and Weber; Section 5: Culture and Communication in the Frankfurt School; Introduction; ADORNO AND HORKHEIMER 'The Concept of Enlightenment' from Dialectic of Enlightenment; ADORNO AND HORKHEIMER 'The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception' from Dialectic of Enlightenment; MARCUSE 'The New Forms of Control' from One-Dimensional Man; HABERMAS extracts from Theory of Communicative Action vol.2; Section 6: Michel Foucault: Discourse, Power and Regulation; Introduction; FOUCAULT 'The Carceral' from Discipline and Punish; FOUCAULT 'Method' from History of Sexuality Volume One; ANDREW BARRY, THOMAS OSBORNE AND NIKOLAS ROSE 'Writing the History of the Present' from Barry, Thomas and Rose (eds) Foucault and Political Reason; Bibliography; Further Reading.

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Book SynopsisIn the course of a lifetime, Jean Bodin aimed at nothing less than to encompass all the disciplines of his age in a huge encyclopedia of knowledge. In many areas, his ideas have been not only original but seminal. He made major contributions to historiography, philosophy of history, economics, political science, comparative public law and policy, religion and national philosophy. This volume brings together a selection of major articles in English, representing almost all of his intellectual interests. It is an essential collection for libraries and scholars in both humanities and social sciences.Trade Review'...the value of Franklin's book is considerable. It certainly fills a gap in secondary texts, and will serve, if not indeed help generate, future interest and scholarship by making accessible the best available work on Bodin...' Political Studies Review '...the greatest contribution of Franklin's Jean Bodin is thus to bring together in a single volume a collection of essays conveying the encyclopedic scope of Bodin's project, addressing his accomplishments and shortcomings, and discussing the controversies that continue to surround his ideas. In this respect , the volume is a very Bodinian book. Much like Bodin's writings, it demonstrates the value of assembling in a single work essays on a multiplicity of different subjects from diverse perspectives.' H-France, Vol 7, August 2007Table of ContentsContents: Series preface; Introduction. Part I Sovereignty: Jean Bodin's 'Logic of Sovereignty', J.U. Lewis; Sovereignty and the mixed constitution: Bodin and his critics, Julian H. Franklin; Bodin's early theory of sovereignty, and The shift to absolutism, Julian H. Franklin; Ramist tendencies in the thought of Jean Bodin, Kenneth D. McRae. Part II Public Law: Medieval Jurisprudence in Bodin's concept of sovereignty, Ralph E. Giesey; The development and context of Bodin's method, Donald R. Kelley; Limitations on absolute authority, Julian H. Franklin. Part III Political Economy: Jean Bodin in taxes: the sovereignty-taxes paradox, Martin Wolfe; Bodin and Locke on consent to taxation: a brief note and observation, Julian H. Franklin; Jean Bodin and the estates-general of 1576, Owen Ulph; Bodin's analysis of inflation, Denis P. O'Brien. Part IV Religion: Introduction Religious views in his [Bodin's] works and The colloquium heptaplomeres and the sixteenth century, Marion Leathers & Daniels Kuntz; Jean Bodin's daemon and his conversion to Judaism, Christopher R. Baxter; Bodin and Judaism, Maryanne Cline Horowitz; Introduction; the enigma of Bodin's religion, Paul Lawrence Rose; Dialogues of Toleration: Erasmus and Bodin, Gary Remer; Part V Natural Philosophy and method Humanist methods in natural philosophy: the commonplace book, Ann Blair; Introduction, Ann Blair . Part VI Theories of History: The major themes of the methodus, John L. Brown ; Bodin and the medieval theory of climate, Marian J. Tooley; Name Index.

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Book SynopsisMax Weber is a magisterial figure in the social sciences. His fundamental contributions to the methodological and conceptual apparatus of sociology remain of continuing relevance to contemporary debates. His astonishing range and quality of work on topics ranging from the comparative sociology of religion to political sociology, and the sociology of law to the sociology of music, have established Weber as a permanent point of reference for modern scholarship. Scholarly debates on the nature, significance and purpose of Weber''s work demonstrate a significance for sociology''s self-image that extends beyond their immediate interpretive importance. This volume, edited by one of the world''s leading Weber scholars, offers an unparalleled selection of key Weber scholarship organized thematically and spanning the range of his sociological influence.Table of ContentsContents: Introduction: the unending appeal of Max Weber within a globalized sociology; Part I Biography and General Assessments: The life and work of Max Weber, Carl Diehl; Authority and autonomy in marriage, Marianne Weber; How well do we know Max Weber after all?, Lutz Kaelber; The changing picture of Max Weber’s sociology, Richard Swedberg. Part II Early Work: Max Weber’s dissertation, Lutz Kaelber; Max Weber as rural sociologist, Q.J. Munters; Max Weber and the theory of ancient capitalism, John Love. Part III The Protestant Ethic: Part I: Calvinism and the infallible assurance of grace: the Weber thesis reconsidered, Malcolm H. MacKinnon; Part II Weber’s exploration of Calvinism: the undiscovered provenance of capitalism, Malcolm H. MacKinnon; The vanishing mediator: narrative structure in Max Weber, Fredric Jameson; Max Weber’s idea of ’puritanism’: a case study in the empirical construction of the Protestant ethic, Peter Ghosh. Part IV Methods: Max Weber, methods and the man, John Torrance; The ontology of the questionnaire: Max Weber on measurement and mass investigation, Robert Michael Brain; Instrumentum vocale: a note on Max Weber’s value-free polemics and sociological aesthetics, Thomas M. Kemple. Part V Religion: Max Weber and the comparative study of religious ethics, David Little; Max Weber’s Ancient Judaism, Tony Fahey; Max Weber and world-denying love: a look at the historical sociology of religion, Robert N. Bellah. Part VI Economics and Law: Max Weber’s 'grand sociology' :the origins and composition of Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft Soziologie, Wolfgang J. Mommsen; Max Weber: precursor of economic sociology and heterodox economics?, Helge Peukert; Max Weber and economic sociology: a response to Peukert, Stephen D. Parsons; Max Weber’s critical response to theoretical economics, Patrick Mardellat; Formal justice and the spirit of capitalism: Max Weber’s sociology of law, Sally Ewing. Part VII Culture: Flaubert and Weber: post-he

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Book SynopsisBiosocial criminology is an emerging perspective that highlights the interdependence between genetic and environmental factors in the etiology of antisocial behaviors. However, given that biosocial criminology has only recently gained traction among criminologists, there has not been any attempt to compile some of the classic articles on this topic. Beaver and Walsh''s edited volume addresses this gap in the literature by identifying some of the most influential biosocial criminological articles and including them in a single resource. The articles covered in this volume examine the connection between genetics and crime, evolutionary psychology and crime, and neuroscience and crime. This volume will be a valuable resource for anyone interested in understanding the causes of crime from a biosocial criminological perspective.Table of ContentsContents: Introduction; Part I Statements on the Biosocial Perspective: Biological perspectives in criminology, Diana H. Fishbein; Segregation and stratification: a biosocial perspective, Douglas S. Massey; Adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent anti-social behaviour: a developmental taxonomy, Terrie E. Moffitt; Behavior genetics and anomie/strain theory, Anthony Walsh; H.J. Eysenck in Fagin's kitchen: the return to biological theory in 20th-century criminology, Nicole Hahn Rafter. Part II Genetics and Crime: Behavior genetics of aggression in children: review and future directions, Lisabeth Fisher DiLalla; The new look of behavioral genetics in developmental psychopathology: gene-environment interplay in antisocial behaviors, Terrie E. Moffitt; Role of genotype in the cycle of violence in maltreated children, Avshalom Caspi, Joseph McClay, Terrie E Moffitt, Jonathan Mill, Judy Martin, Ian W. Craig, Alan Taylor and Richie Poulton; The integration of genetic propensities into social-control models of delinquency and violence among male youths, Guang Guo, Michael E. Roettger and Tianji Cai; The interaction between genetic risk and childhood sexual abuse in the prediction of adolescent violent behavior, Kevin M. Beaver; Sources of exposure to smoking and drinking friends among adolescents: a behavioral-genetic evaluation, H. Harrington Cleveland, Richard P. Wiebe and David C. Rowe. Part III Evolutionary Psychology and Crime: Gene-based evolutionary theories in criminology, Lee Ellis and Anthony Walsh; Self control, social control and evolutionary psychology: towards an integrated perspective on crime, Augustus Brannigan; A gene-based evolutionary explanation for the association between criminal involvement and number of sex partners, Kevin M. Beaver, John Paul Wright and Anthony Walsh; Women and crime: an evolutionary approach, Anne Campbell, Steven Muncer and Daniel Bibel; Why men commit crimes (and why they desist), Satoshi Kanazawa and Mary C. Still. Part IV Neuroscience and Crime: Neuroanatomical background to understanding the brain of the young psychopath, James H. Fallon; The roles of orbital frontal cortex in the modulation of antisocial behavior, R.J.R. Blair; A social neuroscience perspective on adolescent risk-taking, Laurence Steinberg; Brain abnormalities in murderers indicated by positron emission tomography, Adrian Raine, Monte Buchsbaum and Lori LaCasse; Reduced prefrontal and increased subcortical brain functioning assessed using positron emission tomography in predatory and affective murderers, Adrian Raine, J. Reid Meloy, Susan Bihrle, Jackie Stoddard, Lori LaCasse and Monte Buchsbaum; Name Index.

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Book SynopsisThe developmental and life-course perspective in criminology came to prominence during the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s a number of theories were developed to explain offending behavior over the life-course. This volume brings together theoretical statements, empirical tests and debates of these major theories within the developmental and life-course criminology perspective. In the first section of the book, original theoretical statements are provided and this is followed by a section which includes empirical tests of each of these theories conducted by researchers other than the original theorists. The final section of the book provides a summary of the major debates both within the developmental and life-course perspective and also between this perspective and others within criminology. This comprehensive volume provides an informative overview of the developmental and life-course perspective in criminology.Table of ContentsContents: Introduction. Part I Key Theoretical Papers: The social development model: an integrated approach to delinquency prevention, J. David Hawkins and Joseph G. Weis; A developmental perspective on antisocial behavior, G.R. Patterson, Barbara D. DeBaryshe and Elizabeth Ramsey; Life-course desisters? Trajectories of crime among delinquent boys followed to age 70, Robert J. Sampson and John H. Laub; Life-course-persistent versus adolescence-limited antisocial behavior, Terrie E. Moffitt; The Integrated Cognitive Antisocial Potential (ICAP) theory, David P. Farrington; Situational action theory, Per-Olof H. Wikström, Dietrich Oberwittler, Kyle Treiber and Beth Hardie. Part II Tests of Theory: Problem behavior in the middle school years: an assessment of the social development model, Christopher J. Sullivan and Paul Hirschfield; Two routes to delinquency: differences between early and late starters in the impact of parenting and deviant peers, Ronald L. Simons, Chyi-in Wu, Rand D. Conger and Frederick O. Lorenz; Residential change as a turning point in the life course of crime: desistance or temporary cessation?, David S. Kirk; Delinquent development in a sample of high-risk youth: shape, content, and predictors of delinquent trajectories from age 12 to 32, Victor van der Geest, Arjan Blokland and Catrien Bijleveld; Exploring long-term and short-term risk factors for serious delinquency, André M. van der Laan, Martine Blom and Edward R. Kleemans; Does the effect of self-control on adolescent offending vary by level of morality? A test in three countries, Robert Svensson, Lieven Pauwels and Frank M. Weerman. Part III Debates and Challenges: A life-course view of the development of crime, Robert J. Sampson and John H. Laub; Offender classifications and treatment effects in developmental criminology: a propensity/event consideration, Michael R. Gottfredson; Participation and frequency during criminal careers across the life span, Hanno Petras, Paul Nieuwbeerta and Alex R. Piquero; Generality, continuity, and change in offending, Raymond Paternoster, Charles W. Dean, Alex Piquero, Paul Mazerolle and Robert Brame; Marriage and desistance from crime in the Netherlands: do gender and socio-historical context matter?, Bianca E. Bersani, John H. Laub and Paul Nieuwbeerta; Long-term crime desistence and recidivism patterns - evidence from the Essex County convicted felon study, Megan C. Kurlychek, Shawn D. Bushway and Robert Brame. Name index.

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Book SynopsisThe readings selected for this volume reveal the historical development of social learning theory, from its origins in differential association theory, through the role played by psychological behaviorism, to contemporary social learning theory and its further incorporation of social structure as the context within which criminal behavior is learned. The volume dispels common misunderstandings of the theory and emphasizes its foundations in both symbolic interactionism and behaviorism. At its core, the theory remains true to its origins in sociology, reflecting Sutherland's admonition that a complete learning theory must include macro- and micro-sociological processes. Besides conceptual treatments of the theory's development, the volume also presents data-based entries that convey the depth and breadth of social learning theory as an explanation of deviance. Social learning theory is demonstrated to be an explanation that spans the gamut of behaviors from gang activities to drug use to coercive sex to terrorism.Table of ContentsContents: Introduction; Part I Differential Association Theory: A statement of the theory, Edwin Sutherland; Epidemiology and individual conduct: a case from criminology, Donald R. Cressey; Criminality theories and behavioral images, Daniel Glaser. Part II Behavioral and Cognitive Learning: Behaviorism at fifty, B.F. Skinner; Criminal behavior and learning theory, C. R. Jeffery; Behavior theory and the models of man, Albert Bandura. Part III Social Learning Theory: Theoretical Statements and Responses to Critiques: A differential association-reinforcement theory of criminal behavior, Robert L. Burgess and Ronald L. Akers; A social learning perspective on deviant behavior, Ronald L. Akers; The dynamics of delinquent peers and delinquent behavior, Ross L. Matsueda and Kathleen Anderson; Is differential association/social learning cultural deviance theory?, Ronald L. Akers. Part IV Empirical Tests of Social Learning Theory: Social learning and deviant behavior: a specific test of general theory, Ronald L. Akers, Marvin D. Krohn, Lonn Lanza-Kaduce and Marcia Radosevich; Parental and peer influences on adolescent drug use in Korea, Sunghyun Hwang and Ronald L. Akers; Do adolescents engage in delinquency to attract the social attention of peers? An extension and longitudinal test of the social reinforcement hypothesis, Cesar J.Rebellon; The empirical status of social learning theory: a meta-analysis, Travis C. Pratt et al. Part V The Group Context of Social Learning Theory: Social contexts and social learning in sexual coercion and aggression: assessing the contribution of fraternity membership, Scot B. Boeringer, Constance L. Shehan and Ronald L. Akers; Social learning theory, self-reported delinquency, and youth gangs: a new twist on a general theory of crime and delinquency, L. Thomas Winfree Jr, Teresa Vigil Bäckström and G. Larry Mays; Extending the boundaries of social structure/social learning theory: the case of suicide bombers in Gaza, L. Thomas Winfree and L. Keith Akins. Part VI Social Learning and Social Structure: Social structure and social learning in crime and deviance, Ronald L. Akers; Social learning and social structure: reply to Sampson, Morash, and Krohn, Ronald L. Akers; Gang membership, drug selling, and violence in neighborhood context, Paul E. Bellair and Thomas L. McNulty; Name index.

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Book SynopsisA new appreciation of Durkheim, now into its fourth decade, has extended our grasp of his intellectual ambitions beyond standard academic boundaries. Contributions to this revival of interest in Durkheim, many secreted away in obscure periodicals, are well worth being recognized for their unqualified excellence in helping us to uncover the original Durkheimian intellectual project in all its interdisciplinary complexity. Besides classic Durkheimian subjects such as religion, social solidarity and suicide, these studies bring to light Durkheim''s intellectual inquiry into political theory, comparative ethnology, social reconstruction, questions of civil society, and his articulation of an updated individualism in conversation with Marx, Hegel, Spencer and others. Authors who have helped us attain this more rounded conception of the Durkheimian project include such well-known figures as Robert N. Bellah, Robert Alun Jones, Anthony Giddens, W. S. F. Pickering and Edward Tiryakian. MoreTable of ContentsContents: Introduction; Part I History and Philosophy: Durkheim and history, Robert N. Bellah; The definition of sociology and the sociology of definition: Durkheim's Rules of Sociological Method and high school philosophy in France, John I. Brooks III; Durkheim's pragmatism lectures: a contextual interpretation, Neil Gross; Durkheim's friendship with the philosopher Octave Hamelin: together with translations of 2 items by Durkheim, D. Némedi and W.S.F. Pickering; Charles Renouvier and Emile Durkheim: Les Règles de la Méthode Sociologique, S.G. Stedman Jones; Durkheim, Hamelin and the French Hegel, Ivan Strenski. Part II Division of Labour and Suicide: Revisiting sociology's first classic: The Division of Labor in Society and its actuality, Edward A. Tiryakian; Durkheim et les femmes, ou le Suicide inachevé, Philippe Besnard; The true nature of Anomie, Philippe Besnard; Durkheim on occupational corporations: an exegesis and interpretation, M.J. Hawkins. Part III Sociology, Culture and Education: Durkheim, realism and Rousseau, Robert Alun Jones; Emile Durkheim's inaugural lecture at Bordeaux, Neville Layne; French ethnology and the Durkheimian breakthrough, Victor Karady; The uses of studying primitives: a note on the Durkheimians, 1890-1940, W. Paul Vogt; The cultural and educational influence of Durkheim, 1900-1945, W.D. Halls; Rousseau and Durkheim: the relation between the public and the private, Mark S. Cladis. Part IV Religion, the Sacred and Elementary Forms: Bergson and Durkheim as sons and assimilators: the early years, Louis M. Greenberg; On understanding a sociological classic, Robert Alun Jones; Robertson Smith, Durkheim and sacrifice: an historical context for The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, Robert Alun Jones; Durkheim's individual in society: a sacred marriage?, Mark S. Cladis. Part V Politics: Durkheim's political sociology, Anthony Giddens; La vocation originelle d'Émile Durkheim, Bernard Lacroix. Part VI From History of Science

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Book SynopsisMarx's approach to analyzing society and especially his critique of capitalist society, continues to influence the work of a large number of scholars world-wide. Unfortunately, there are relatively few clear accounts of what this approach is and how to put it to use. And, despite the many attempts to use Marx's method to study a variety of subjects, there are relatively few that can serve as useful models. In the present volume, the internationally renowned Marxist scholar, Bertell Ollman, and the social theorist Kevin B. Anderson, have brought together a sampling of the best writings of the past hundred years that illustrate and critique Marx's method as well as explain what it is and how to put it to work. Anyone wishing to understand better Marx's dialectical method (along, of course, with the theories created with its help), or to revise this method or to criticize it, or to use it in their own work will find this collection invaluable.Trade Review’This collection of articles well illustrates the relevance and depth of Marxian analysis. It is an excellent reference.... Each article stands on its own and provides the reader with superb scholarship and impressive insights.’ Marx & Philosophy Review of BooksTable of ContentsContents: Introduction; Part I Theory and Method: Reification and the consciousness of the proletariat, Georg Lukács; The age of revolutions: industrial, social-political, intellectual, Raya Dunayevskaya; Putting dialectics to work: the process of abstraction in Marx's method, Bertell Ollman; The unity of science and revolution: Marxism as critique, Peter G. Stillman; Karl Marx's Enquête Ouvriere, Hilde Weiss (and Karl Marx). Part II Political Economy: From financial crisis to world slump: accumulation, financialization and the global slowdown, David McNally; Self-sourcing: how corporations get us to work without pay!, Martha E. Gimenez; The reproduction of daily life, Fredy Perlman; The rise and future demise of the world capitalist system: concepts for comparative analysis, Immanuel Wallerstein; The 'new' imperialism: accumulation by dispossession, David Harvey. Part III State and Politics: The constitution as an elitist document, Michael Parenti; The monopolistic economy: property and contract, Franz Neumann; The worldwide class struggle, Vincent Navarro; The economic and social functions of the legal institutions, Karl Renner; The problem of the capitalist state, Nicos Poulantzas; Reply to Nicos Poulantzas, Ralph Miliband; The Marxist case for revolution today, Ernest Mandel. Part IV The Individual and Society: Psychoanalysis and sociology, Erich Fromm; The uses and abuses of 'civil society', Ellen Meiksins Wood; Labor market and penal sanction: thoughts on the sociology of penal justice, Georg Rusche; The injuries of class, Michael D. Yates; Sports and cultural politics: the attraction of modern spectator sports, Sut Jhally and Bill Livant. Part V Culture and Religion: The culture industry: enlightenment as mass deception, Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno; Museum, Inc.: inside the global art world (over-the-cliff notes), Paul Werner; The cultural logic of late capitalism, Fredric Jameson; Aroma and shadow: Marx vs Nietzsche on religion, Ishay Landa. Part VI History: Exploitation, E.P. Thompson; The feudal mode of production, Perry Anderson; The decline and fall of Rome, G.E.M. de Ste Croix. Part VII Colonialism, Race and Gender: Negroes in the Civil War: their role in the second American revolution, C.L.R. James (J.R. Johnson); Race relations - its meaning, beginning and progress, Oliver C. Cox; The feminist standpoint: developing the ground for a specifically feminist historical materialism, Nancy C.M. Hartsock; Marx's late writings on non-Western and precapitalist societies and gender, Kevin B. Anderson. Part VIII Ecology: Marx's ecology in historical perspective, John Bellamy Foster; Marx's vision of sustainable human development, Paul Burkett; Name index.

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Book SynopsisHoused in one handy volume for the first time are several of the seminal essays on W.E.B. Du Bois's contributions to sociology and critical social theory: from Du Bois as inventor of sociology of race, to Du Bois as the first sociologist of American religion; from Du Bois as a pioneer of urban and rural sociology, to Du Bois as innovator of sociology of gender and culture; and, finally, from Du Bois as groundbreaking sociologist of education and critical criminologist, to Du Bois as dialectical critic of the disciplinary decadence of sociology and the American academy. What this volume offers that is wholly innovative and distinctive is that it brings together the watershed work of classical and contemporary, male and female, black and white, national and international sociologists and social theorists with the express intent of creating critical inventories and thoroughly interrogating what has been included, and what has been excluded, when we come to W.E.B. Du Bois's contributions tTable of ContentsContents: Introduction: On Du Bois’s epistemic innovations and sociology’s intellectual amnesia; Part I Du Bois and the Disciplinary Decadence of Sociology: Exploring Issues of Intellectual Historical Amnesia and Epistemic Apartheid: W.E.B. Du Bois: a case study in the sociology of sociological negation, Dan S. Green and Edwin D. Driver; Note on a forgotten Black sociologist: W.E.B. Du Bois and the sociological profession, Elliot Rudwick; W.E.B. Du Bois between worlds: Berlin, empirical social research, and the race question, Barrington S. Edwards; W.E.B. Du Bois and the Atlanta University studies on the negro, Elliot M. Rudwick; W.E.B. Du Bois's and the Atlanta University studies on the negro, revisited, Earl Wright II. Part II Du Bois and the Early Development of Urban and Rural Sociology: The Philadelphia Negro and the Sociology of the Souls of Black Farming Folk: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Atlanta sociological laboratory, Earl Wright II; The early social science of W.E.B. Du Bois, Robert W. Williams; W.E.B. Du Bois' urban sociology: reflections on African American quality of life in Philadelphia, Robert A. Wortham; W.E.B. Du Bois's sociology: The Philadelphia Negro and social science, Tufkufu Zuberi. Part III Du Bois and the Sociology of Race: the Sociology of the Souls of Black and White (Among Other) Folk: A classic from the other side of the veil; Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk, Charles Lemert; The souls of White folk; W.E.B. Du Bois's critique of White supremacy and contributions to critical White studies, Reiland Rabaka; Four Du Boisian contributions to critical race theory, John Shuford; Remembering the gift: W.E.B. Du Bois on the unconscious and economic operations of racism, Shannon Sullivan. Part IV Du Bois and the Sociology of Gender: 'The Damnation of Women' and the Sociology of the Souls of Black Female Folk: Race, class, and gender in the work of W.E.B. Du Bois: an exploratory study, Betsy Lucal; William Edward Burghardt Du Bois and the concepts

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Book SynopsisOffers a look at how the contemporary world is characterized by an extraordinary social complexity. This book takes the reader on a journey that starts with personal relations and climbs up one scale at a time to territorial states and beyond.Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Assemblages Against Totalities; 2. Assemblages Against Essences; 3. Persons and Networks; 4. Organisations and Governments; 5. Cities and Nations.

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Book SynopsisCraig Martin is Reader in Design Studies in the School of Design at the University of Edinburgh, UK, where he teaches on the postgraduate Design for Change programme. He is the author of Deviant Design (Bloomsbury, 2022), Shipping Container (Bloomsbury, 2016) and co-editor, with J. Rugg, of Spatialities (2011).Trade ReviewIn Deviant Design, Craig Martin steps away from the high street to explore an ever-changing shadow world of knock-off products and DIY cities, where counterfeit goods, unregulated hacks and illicit innovations overlap to shape everyday life for billions. A timely and refreshing approach. -- Geoff Manaugh, writer and author of A Burglar’s Guide to the City (2016)"I look awry at design", says Craig Martin. Indeed. This book presents design as we have never seen it before, focusing on deviant and illicit practices that make part of contemporary social and economic life. The author shows how the potential of the illicit allows us to appreciate the radical ways of looking at things, processes, practices and systems. -- Constantin Boym, Chair of Industrial Design, Pratt Institute, USATable of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction: Heterodox Design 1. Expanding Design 2. ‘Social Design’ is Not Social Enough 3. Valuing the Deviant and the Illicit 4. Misusing Things 5. Illicit Design 6. Counterfeit Design Conclusion: The Ethics of Change? References Notes

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Book SynopsisThe essays selected for this volume show how radical and Marxist criminology has established itself as an influential critique since it emerged in the late 1960s. Unlike orthodox criminology which emphasizes individual level explanations of criminal behavior, radical and Marxist criminology emphasizes power inequality and structures, especially those related to class, as key factors in crime, law and justice. This collection of essays draws attention to the way in which structural forces shape and influence both individual and institutional (for example, governmental) behavior; highlights neglected crime (corporate, governmental, state-corporate and environmental) which causes more extensive damage than the street crimes examined by orthodox criminology; and discusses the ways in which law and criminal justice processes reinforce power structures and contribute to class control.Trade ReviewMichael J. Lynch, winner of the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Division on Critical Criminology, American Society of Criminology. ’...an interesting collection of papers, which gives the reader a good insight in how the strand of RMC has developed over time.’ Marx & Philosophy Review of BooksTable of ContentsContents: Introduction; Part I Definitions and Background: Social class and the definition of crime, Herman Schwendinger and Julia Schwendinger; From 'crime' to social harm?, Paddy Hillyard and Steve Tombs; Critical criminology and the critique of domination: the story of an intellectual movement, Raymond J. Michalowski; Toward a political economy of crime, William J. Chambliss; The value of quantitative analysis for a critical understanding of crime and society, Steven E. Barkan; Toward a Marxian theory of deviance, Steven Spitzer. Part II Varieties of Radical/Marxist Criminology: The tasks facing a realist criminology, Jock Young; The state of the criminology of crimes of the state, Dawn L. Rothe and David O. Friedrichs; Corporate violence against Canadian women: assessing left-realist research and policy, Walter S. DeKeseredy and Colin Goff; Rape, sexual inequality and levels of violence, Julia Schwendinger and Herman Schwendinger. Part III Explaining Crime: Class and the economics of crime, David M. Gordon; A cross-national test of Bonger's theory of criminality and economic conditions, Olena Antonaccio and Charles R. Tittle; A tale of two capitalisms: preliminary spatial and historical comparisons of homicide rates in Western Europe and the USA, Steve Hall and Craig McLean; The rate of surplus value and crime: a theoretical and empirical examination of Marxian economic theory and criminology, Michael J. Lynch, W. Byron Groves and Alan Lizotte; A critique of criminology: toward an integrated structural-Marxist theory of delinquency production, Mark Colvin and John Pauly; Delinquency and the age structure of society, David F. Greenberg; Poverty, inequality and youth violence, Ronald C. Kramer. Part IV Social Control: Policing and Punishment: Unemployment, imprisonment and social structures of accumulation: historical contingency in the Rusche-Kirchheimer hypothesis, Raymond J. Michalowski and Susan M. Carlson; The Buffalo police, 1872-1900: labor unrest, politi

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Book SynopsisThe Snowden Affair, Wikiieaks, the lone wolf terrorist, Hilary Clinton's private email account - the question of the secret is arguably the central element of our contemporary political experience. Organised as a reflection on Jacques Derrida's later writings on secrecy, Charles Barbour looks at the basic ontological question: what is a secret?

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Book SynopsisMichael Halewood uses ideas from analytic philosophy, continental philosophyand social theory to look at how language relates to the world, and the world to language. He primarily draws on the work of Alfred North Whitehead, and incorporating the ideas of Gilles Deleuze, John Dewey and Luce Irigaray, to view the world as 'in process'.

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Book SynopsisMichael Halewood uses ideas from analytic philosophy, continental philosophy and social theory to look at how language relates to the world, and the world to language. He primarily draws on the work of Alfred North Whitehead, and incorporating the ideas of Gilles Deleuze, John Dewey and Luce Irigaray, to view the world as 'in process'.

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Book SynopsisCore text for the symbolic interaction course - often called “Self and Society” or “Individual and Society” – most often taught in sociology departments. Symbolic Interaction in Society offers a systematic application of symbolic interaction to everyday life. In addition to providing an overview of the theory and methods of symbolic interaction, it includes theory and research related to all of the relevant topics in sociology today: race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, social institutions, and social change. This book is written in a way that encourages students to employ symbolic interactionist concepts and principles throughout the text. Students are asked to put themselves into particular situations and consider how they would respond to the other people in that scenario. In doing so, students are able to see that human interaction is both stable and dynamic, that people can be predictable but that they also have agency, the ability to make number of decisions in a given situation. The goal is to show students the practical value of symbolic interaction for understanding their social lives today. Key features include: ·Full review of symbolic interaction concepts and theories including a discussion of the nature of society and the role of the individual in society ·Research applications of symbolic interaction examining major sociological outcomes such as inequality (race, class, gender and sexuality), deviance and mental health, social relationships, family and other social institutions, and social change ·SI Online boxes include a review of how the principles of symbolic interaction apply to the effects of the Internet and modern communications on the individual and society ·Personal Notes boxes share real student applications in which students describe how they have employed symbolic interaction in their personal lives ·Original Work features one short excerpt from a book or journal article in every chapter ·Pedagogical devices such as chapter objectives, key terms, and end of chapter key terms and critical thinking questions guide students through each chapterTable of ContentsPreface 1 The Social Construction of Reality This Book Isn’t Real! Basic Principles Everything Is Not Relative! A Situational Approach The Construction of Society The Individual in Society Cognitive Sociology Two Schools of Symbolic Interaction Chapter Conclusion 2 Studying Symbolic Interaction Quantitative versus Qualitative Methods Verstehen Power Exploration and Inspection Studying Situations Ethnography Types of Ethnography Narrative Analysis Ethnomethodology and Natural Experiments Unobtrusive Research Going into the Field Project Planning Sampling Ethical Issues Chapter Conclusion 3 Constructing Culture Elements of Culture Statuses, Roles, and Norms Values and Beliefs American Culture American Values and Beliefs American Ideal-Type Personalities Baudrillard’s America Creating Cultures Subcultures and Idiocultures Global Culture? Cultural Change Chapter Conclusion 4 Self and Society The I, the Me, and the Self Situational Selves Self-Narratives and Possible Selves Identity Theories Identity Theory Social Identity Theory Dramaturgy Front Stage/Backstage Impressions Given/Impressions Given Off Chapter Conclusion 5 Socialization Cognitive Socialization Symbols and Language Stages of Socialization Agents of Socialization Family Peers Schools Media and Self-Socialization The Sociology of Childhood Socialization over the Life Course Our Role in History Life Stages: Presocialization to Adult Socialization Chapter Conclusion 6 Emotions, Relationships, and Society Contextualizing Emotions Dramaturgy and Emotions Emotional Scripts Emotional Socialization Relationships, Community, and Society Attraction: Starting a Relationship The Socioemotional Economy Community Relations Chapter Conclusion 7 Deviance and Mental Health Defining Normal Levels of Deviance Creating Deviance Moral Entrepreneurs Labeling and De-Labeling Primary and Secondary Deviance Deviant Subcultures Deviance over the Life Course The Myth of Mental Illness Chapter Conclusion 8 Doing Inequality Status Everywhere! Doing Difference Doing Gender Intersectionality Pride and Prejudice Categorizing Self and Other Borderwork Chapter Conclusion 9 Institutional Life The Nature of Social Institutions Institutional Types All in the Family Work and Occupations: The Economy Education Religion and Politics Institutional Intersections and Innovations Chapter Conclusion 10 Collective Behavior The Maddening Crowd Mass Hysteria Circular Reaction New Social Movements Emergent Norm Theory Value-Added Theory The Anatomy of Collective Thoughts and Behavior Collective Memory, Identity, and Imagination Collective Behaviors Chapter Conclusion References Glossary Index

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Book SynopsisDrawing from the intriguing (and sometimes unbelievable) true stories of the lives of everyday Americans, historian Julie M. Fenster traces the history of the weakening of our national ethics through the practice of cheating. From marital infidelity to financial fraud; rigged sports competitions to corruption in politics and the American education system; nuclear weaponry to beauty pageants; hospitals, TV gameshows, and charities; nothing and no one is exempt. And far from being ostracised, cheaters in every sphere continue to survive and even thrive, casting their influence over the rest of our society. And nowhere is this more obvious than in the recent tectonic shift in politics, where a revolution in our collective attitude toward fraudsters has ushered in a new kind of leadership. Part history of an all-American tradition, part dissection of an ongoing national crisis, Cheaters Always Win is irresistible reading -- a smart, sardonic, and scintillating look into the practice that made America what it is today.

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Book SynopsisGrounded in the sister disciplines of sociology and anthropology, this textbook is an accessible and critical introduction to contemporary social research. Alex Khasnabish eschews the common disciplinary silos in favour of an integrated approach to understanding and practising critical social research. Situated in the North American context, the text draws on cross-cultural examples to give readers a clear sense of the diversity in human social relations. It is organized thematically in a way that introduces readers to the core areas of social research and social organization and takes an unapologetically radical approach in identifying the relations of oppression and exploitation that give rise to what most corporate textbooks euphemistically identify as "social problems." Focusing on key dynamics and processes at the heart of so many contemporary issues and public conversations, this text highlights the ways in which critical social research can contribute to exploring, understanding and forging alternatives to an increasingly bankrupt, violent, unstable and unjust status quo.

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Book SynopsisThis book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Winner of the 2015 David Easton Prize, awarded by the American Political Science Association (APSA) Global forces are eroding the ability of states to exert sovereign control over their populations, territories, and borders. Yet when dominated subjects across the world dream of freedom, they continue to conceive of it in sovereign terms. Sovereign freedom haunts the imagination of oppressed ethnic minorities, popular masses ruled by foreign powers or homegrown tyrants, indigenous peoples, and individuals chafing under customary or governmental restrictions. On Sovereignty and Other Political Delusions draws on political theory and on two case studies – the encounter between Anglo-American settlers and Native American tribes, and the search for Jewish sovereignty in Palestine – to probe the allure of the idea of sovereign freedom and its self-defeating logic. It concludes by shifting its sights from political to economic sovereign power and by pursuing intimations of non-sovereign freedom in the contemporary age.Trade Review[D]eeply engaging. * Economic Political Science *Joan Cocks is the best writer working today in political theory. This book, striking evidence of a heartful mind, charts the abundant human costs of casting sovereignty as freedom and calls instead for a turn to ‘natural freedom’ – the freedom to ‘indulge in all the sensory delights to be had in the physical world around us, including the delights of meeting natural life forms that are entrancing because they are neither like us nor for us.’ This is a brilliant, inspiring work that I read with pleasure in one sitting. * Bonnie Honig is Nancy Duke Lewis Professor, Modern Culture and Media (MCM) and Political Science, Brown University, USA, and author of Antigone, Interrupted and Emergency Politics. *Reflecting on the twentieth century, you may have suspected that freedom through sovereignty was a snare and delusion. If so, this is the book that will ‘nail’ it for you. Joan Cocks gives us a lucid, original, and carefully argued demonstration of how the quest for sovereign freedom in the United States and Israel entailed, necessarily, the dispossession and erasure of other life worlds and cultural identities. This is political history and philosophy at its most convincing. * James C. Scott, Sterling Professor of Political Science and Anthropology, Yale University, USA *In the best tradition of political thinking and engagement, this book is a deep meditation on the concept of sovereignty. It helps us understand why this concept and the actions that follow from it need to be jettisoned. With sustained moral seriousness, it shows how the idea of mastering peoples and places is now a fantasy with dire implications for human beings and for the earth. * Uday S. Mehta, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, City University of New York, USA, and author of Liberalism and Empire *

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Book SynopsisFredric Jameson's pathbreaking essay "An American Utopia" radically questions standard leftist notions of what constitutes an emancipated society. Advocated here are-among other things-universal conscription, the full acknowledgment of envy and resentment as a fundamental challenge to any communist society, and the acceptance that the division between work and leisure cannot be overcome. To create a new world, we must first change the way we envision the world. Jameson's text is ideally placed to trigger a debate on the alternatives to global capitalism. In addition to Jameson's essay, the volume includes responses from philosophers and political and cultural analysts, as well as an epilogue from Jameson himself.Many will be appalled at what they will encounter in these pages-there will be blood! But perhaps one has to spill such (ideological) blood to give the Left a chance.Trade ReviewIn An American Utopia, Jameson affirms the critical function of utopian thinking and the efficacies of the form itself. He insists that the fundamental function of utopias is to revive a sense of the future, which requires taking aim at the forces that prevent us from venturing out from the comfortingly familiar confines of the present. -- Kathi WeeksJameson...gives us good reasons to call back utopia from obscurity. * Rain Taxi *

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Book SynopsisTen years after Libya descended into conflict, the contours of a new society are emerging. How has violence remade the country--what has happened to inter-community and inter-personal relations, to social hierarchies and elite composition? Which new groups, networks and identities have formed through conflict, and how has this transformed power structures, modes of capital accumulation and governance at the local and national levels? How has the violence contributed to create new communities, both inside the country and in exile? This volume brings together leading researchers, both foreign and Libyan, to examine the deep changes undergone by Libya's society amid civil war. These transformations are bound to shape the country for decades to come, and will influence its relations with the outside world. By addressing neglected yet crucial aspects of social change amid violence, the contributors substantially broaden the picture of Libyan society beyond the current confines of scholarship, as well as enriching wider debates in Conflict Studies.Trade Review'An outstanding set of contributors detail the complexities of the social, military and financial conflicts that have wracked Libya for the past decade, negating simplistic narratives prevalent among the international community. Essential reading for those who have not yet understood the costs and consequences of foreign backing for malign actors in Libya's tragedy.' -- Ian Martin, former Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, and author of All Necessary Measures? The United Nations and International Intervention in Libya‘A timely book featuring contributions from experts both foreign and Libyan that does much to untangle and explain the many strands at play in the Libya theatre and how they interact and engage with each other.’ -- Arab Digest'A brilliant study of the societal impact of Libya's enduring conflict. A must-read for anybody interested in understanding how wars can lacerate a country's identity and its social fabric, leaving lasting scars that have yet to heal.' -- Claudia Gazzini, Senior Analyst for Libya, International Crisis Group'An excellent review of how the turbulence and fragmentation of the last decade has upended Libyan society. Shedding light on topics normally not well covered, the chapters on the violent transformation of the cities of Sabha and Benghazi are particularly insightful and compelling.' -- Stephanie Williams, former UN Special Adviser on Libya'This up-to-date and in-depth account is a must-read for anybody who wants to look beyond day-to-day power struggles to understand the underlying social, political and generational dynamics that animate them.' -- Judith Scheele, Director of Studies, EHESS, and co-author of The Value of Disorder: Autonomy, Prosperity, and Plunder in the Chadian Sahara'An exceptionally deeply researched, pathbreaking collection which examines at a granular level the profound and understudied ways in which endemic violence has reshaped politics and society in Libya since 2011.' -- Marc Lynch, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, and Director of the Project on Middle East Political Science, George Washington University

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Book SynopsisTen years after Libya descended into conflict, the contours of a new society are emerging. How has violence remade the country--what has happened to inter-community and inter-personal relations, to social hierarchies and elite composition? Which new groups, networks and identities have formed through conflict, and how has this transformed power structures, modes of capital accumulation and governance at the local and national levels? How has the violence contributed to create new communities, both inside the country and in exile? This volume brings together leading researchers, both foreign and Libyan, to examine the deep changes undergone by Libya's society amid civil war. These transformations are bound to shape the country for decades to come, and will influence its relations with the outside world. By addressing neglected yet crucial aspects of social change amid violence, the contributors substantially broaden the picture of Libyan society beyond the current confines of scholarship, as well as enriching wider debates in Conflict Studies.Trade Review'An outstanding set of contributors detail the complexities of the social, military and financial conflicts that have wracked Libya for the past decade, negating simplistic narratives prevalent among the international community. Essential reading for those who have not yet understood the costs and consequences of foreign backing for malign actors in Libya's tragedy.' -- Ian Martin, former Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, and author of All Necessary Measures? The United Nations and International Intervention in Libya'A brilliant study of the societal impact of Libya's enduring conflict. A must-read for anybody interested in understanding how wars can lacerate a country's identity and its social fabric, leaving lasting scars that have yet to heal.' -- Claudia Gazzini, Senior Analyst for Libya, International Crisis Group'An excellent review of how the turbulence and fragmentation of the last decade has upended Libyan society. Shedding light on topics normally not well covered, the chapters on the violent transformation of the cities of Sabha and Benghazi are particularly insightful and compelling.' -- Stephanie Williams, former UN Special Adviser on Libya'This up-to-date and in-depth account is a must-read for anybody who wants to look beyond day-to-day power struggles to understand the underlying social, political and generational dynamics that animate them.' -- Judith Scheele, Director of Studies, EHESS, and co-author of The Value of Disorder: Autonomy, Prosperity, and Plunder in the Chadian Sahara'An exceptionally deeply researched, pathbreaking collection which examines at a granular level the profound and understudied ways in which endemic violence has reshaped politics and society in Libya since 2011.' -- Marc Lynch, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, and Director of the Project on Middle East Political Science, George Washington University

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Book SynopsisClassical liberalism regarded universal suffrage as a mortal threat to property. So what explains the advent of liberal democracy, and how stable today is the marriage between representative government and the continued rule of capital?Across every continent, people think inequality is a 'very big problem'. Even the Davos Economic Forum and the OECD say they are worried. And yet capitalist states don't respond. How has democracy been transformed from a popular demand for social justice into a professional power game?To dispel our worsening political malaise, Göran Therborn argues, requires a 'disruptive democracy' of radical social movements, such as the climate strike. Inequality and the Labyrinths of Democracy opens with a major new essay mapping the social fractures of the present era. There is also a compact historical survey of worldwide patterns of democratization and a landmark analysis of the OECD economies, 'The Rule of Capital and the Rise of Democracy', originally published in New Left Review and collected here in book form for the first time.Trade ReviewAt a time when historians and economists tend to retire behind the barricades of their increasingly specialized professions, answering the big comparative questions about the pathways into and out of modernity, the global processes of inequality and the forces of possible change have been largely left to the sociologists. In my view, Göran Therborn, has made more essential contributions in these fields than anyone else, by a combination of analytical lucidity, common sense and an extraordinary command of international comparative data. -- Eric Hobsbawm, author of The Age of ExtremesA tour de force. Therborn explores the complex relationship between capitalism and democracy with great originality and insight -- Colin Crouch, author of Post-Democracy After the CrisesHow much inequality can democracy withstand before it collapses? Göran Therborn addresses this fundamental question and gives us cause to hope for a more egalitarian future -- Donatella della Porta, author of Where Did the Revolution Go?One of the world's leading analysts. Therborn has given us valuable intellectual tools with which to work. -- Chris Maisano * Jacobin *

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Book SynopsisWhat if our financial system were organized to the benefit of the many rather than simply empowering the few? Robert Hockett and Fred Block argue that an entirely different financial system is both desirable and possible. They outline concrete steps that could get us there. Financial systems move the worlds savings from investment to investment, chasing the highest rates of return. They run on profit. But what if investment went to the enterprises or institutions that provided things that the majority of people would prioritize? Democratizing Finance includes six responses that seek to amend, elaborate, and challenge the arguments developed by Hockett and Block. Some of the core arguments put forward by other contributors include calls for the rapid elimination of private financial entities, the dilemmas of the politics associated with financial reforms, and the fate of parallel proposals advanced in the US in the 1930s.

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