Social theory Books

Book SynopsisContemporary capitalism produces more and more money, debt, and inequality. These three trends have a common cause: the privilege of private banks to create money by means of accounting - by the stroke of a key. Why was this privilege not addressed politically for so long - and who benefited from it? At the heart of the answer lies the realization that the power to create money has been hidden by the way we commonly think and talk about capitalism. The book traces the omission of money creation from theories of capitalism and maps its consequences. By expanding the manoeuvring space for the banks to use their privilege, the capitalist countries have financed a transformation of the economy known as financialization. As a result, the real economy and private households became a debt supplier to a monetary system whose returns accumulate at the top. It is not simply "the markets" but money itself that transfers economic benefits from the masses to a minority. Increasing inequality of income and wealth can therefore only be combated if one does not only correct distributive results of markets-redistribution-, but addresses predistribution: the modalities of money creation.Trade ReviewIn the money-creation privilege of private banks, Aaron Sahr discovers a precarious mechanism of inequality reinforcement to which the regulation of capitalist economic activity has paid far too little attention to date. -- Hanno Pahl, University of Bonn, Germany * Neue soziologische Beiträge zur Kapitalismusanalyse: Ein Einblick. In: Soziologische Revue 42 (3), S. 405–417. DOI: 10.1515/srsr-2019-0050 *Sahr has successfully identified the structures that privilege so few and put so many at a disadvantage. The way in which the author presents these issues, unravels the connections and structures, and elucidates the illegitimacy of the money-production privilege adds up to an outstanding piece of sociological scholarship. -- Stefan Freichel * Monetative Blog *The uncontrolled creation of money by private banks should interest us all, because it creates a permanent redistribution from the poor to the rich, says the highly interesting 'Keystroke Capitalism'. -- Mathias Sonne * Information (Newspaper), DK *This book an accessible synthesis of a good deal of the literature, with interesting although by no means final political ideas. -- Wolfgang StreeckAaron Sahr's book provides a highly accessible synthesis of the state of knowledge on modern money and how it affects the political economy. Readers learn about the nature of fiat money and fiat credit and their contribution the financialization of contemporary capitalism, the conflicts it generates, and the consequences for the state and public policy. -- Wolfgang StreeckWhy and how did a company with a huge cash pile in the bank - Apple Inc - set out to borrow $17 billion in 2013? How did the world's billionaire class accumulate $418 trillion US dollars - an amount five times world income - in the blink of an eye? The answers can be found in this admirably accessible book on the way the globalised, private financial system generates 'keystroke wealth' and 'keystroke capital gains' - but also its nemesis - 'keystroke debt'. A must-read for all those fretting about the likely next crisis in the evolution of financialised capitalism. -- Ann Pettifor

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Book SynopsisIt is impossible to understand capitalism without analyzing slavery, an institution that tied together three world regions: Europe, the Americas, and Africa. The exploitation of slave labor led to a form of proto-globalization in which violence was indispensable to the production of wealth. Against the background of this expanding circulation of capital and slave labor, the first revolution in Latin America took place: the Haitian Revolution, which began in 1791 and culminated with Haiti’s declaration of independence in 1804. Taking the Haitian Revolution as a paradigmatic case, Grüner shows that modernity is not a linear evolution from the center to the periphery but, rather, a co-production developed in the context of highly unequal power relations, where extreme forms of conquest and exploitation were an indispensable part of capital accumulation. He also shows that the Haitian Revolution opened up a path to a different kind of modernity, or “counter-modernity,” a path along which Latin America and the Caribbean have traveled ever since. A key work of critical theory from a Latin American perspective, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of critical and cultural theory and of Latin America, as well as anyone concerned with the global impact of capitalism, colonialism, and race.Trade Review“Eduardo Grüner’s remarkable book is not only a brilliant discussion of slavery and the Haitian Revolution; it is also a profound philosophical and critical reflection, from the viewpoint of the slaves’ rebellion, on the contradictions of Eurocentric Enlightenment and of Western (capitalist) modernity.”Michael Löwy, author of The Theory of Revolution in the Young Marx “What is revolutionary today about the Haitian Revolution, in which African slaves brought Napoleon's army to ignominious defeat? How does it fundamentally challenge ways of thinking not just about modern history, but about thinking itself? Read Grüner’s book to find the answers to these pertinent questions.”Michael Taussig, Professor, Columbia University, Class of 1933Table of ContentsPreface by Gisela CatanzaroPrologueChapter 1: The Category of Slavery and Modern Racism Elements for an Ethno-Historical Sociology of Ancient and Modern SlaveryThe Question of RacismRacism in “Early Modernity” The Traces of Time A Better World? Chapter 2: The Rebellion of the (Slave) Masses and the Haitian Revolution On the Combined and UnevenFrom Particularism to (False) Universalism: A “Philosophical Revolution”The (Uncertain) Logic of Slave RebellionsThe Rest of the Americas Enter Saint-Domingue/Haiti A Portrait of Saint-Domingue/Haiti in 1791An Excursus on Vodou and its Revolutionary CharacterThe Social Complexities of Saint-DomingueThe Confused Dynamic of the RevolutionThe Meaning(s) of the Haitian RevolutionOn “Creative” ViolenceChapter 3: The Disavowed “Philosophical Revolution”: From Enlightenment Thought to the Crisis of Abstract Universalism Shadows in the Enlightenment: Rousseau, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Slavery Slavery without Scare Quotes: Between Hegel and MarxThe Black Enlightenment: The Haitian “Constitutional Revolution” The Difficulties of Theorizing (Haitian) RevolutionLiterature and Art Have Their SayEpilogue

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Book SynopsisWhat objects exist in the social world and how should we understand them? Is a specific Pizza Hut restaurant as real as the employees, tables, napkins and pizzas of which it is composed, and as real as the Pizza Hut corporation with its headquarters in Wichita, the United States, the planet Earth and the social and economic impact of the restaurant on the lives of its employees and customers? In this book the founder of object-oriented philosophy develops his approach in order to shed light on the nature and status of objects in social life. While it is often assumed that an interest in objects amounts to a form of materialism, Harman rejects this view and develops instead an “immaterialist” method. By examining the work of leading contemporary thinkers such as Bruno Latour and Levi Bryant, he develops a forceful critique of ‘actor-network theory’. In an extended discussion of Leibniz’s famous example of the Dutch East India Company, Harman argues that this company qualifies for objecthood neither through ‘what it is’ or ‘what it does’, but through its irreducibility to either of these forms. The phases of its life, argues Harman, are not demarcated primarily by dramatic incidents but by moments of symbiosis, a term he draws from the biologist Lynn Margulis. This book provides a key counterpoint to the now ubiquitous social theories of constant change, holistic networks, performative identities, and the construction of things by human practice. It will appeal to anyone interested in cutting-edge debates in philosophy and social and cultural theory.Trade Review"It is rare to find academic and philosophical writing that is this clear. Harman’s explanations of not just his own position but also the other views to which he responds are thorough, concise and in a style and vocabulary that are accessible to non-experts."The British Society for Literature and ScienceTable of ContentsPart One: Immaterialism 1. Objects and Actors 2. The Dangers of Duomining 3. Materialism and Immaterialism 4. Attempts to Evolve ANT 5. The Thing-in-Itself Part Two: The Dutch East India Company 6. Introducing the VOC 7. On Symbiosis 8. Governor-General Coen 9. Batavia, the Spice Islands, and Malacca 10. The Intra-Asian VOC 11. Touching Base Again with ANT 12. Birth, Ripeness, Decadence, and Death 13. Fifteen Provisional Rules of OOO Method References

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Book SynopsisTrust is an elusive concept, meaning different things to different people, and so needs to be clearly defined. By focusing on relations within and between firms, Bart Nooteboom undertakes to produce a clearer definition of trust and its role in the economy.Trust deals with a range of questions such as: what are the roles of trust? What can we trust in? Can trust serve as an instrument for the governance of relations? Is trust a substitute, a precondition or an outcome of contracts? The author then goes on to analyse what trust is based on, what its limits are, how it grows and how it can also break down. The role of intermediaries is also discussed.Bart Nooteboom argues that trust goes beyond calculative self-interest and that blind, unconditional trust is unwise. He then examines the paradox of how trust can be non-calculative and yet, not blind. The book also reveals ways to measure and model trust, its antecedents and its consequences.Trade Review'The book is a pleasure to read, well edited, well argued, and covering much ground in only just over 200 pages. It is thoroughly introduced and has a very complete "summary and conclusions" chapter. With its extensive references and a subject and author index, it is a valuable scholarly help.' -- D.J. Bezemer, Journal of Socio-Economics'[The book] provides a well-grounded approach to the study of trust and offers a number of ways to continue empirical work on this difficult subject.' -- Peter Smith Ring, Administrative Science Quarterly'. . . the book is clear and engaging, targeted at an academic audience but suitable also for practitioners and general interest given some basic knowledge of organisation science and proclivity for concepts.' -- Guido Mollering, Personnel Review'This book provides an interesting and informative account of the nature, causes and consequences of trust. . . Nooteboom has written an interesting book which has prompted this reviewer to think fruitfully about various aspects of trust. I am confident that the book will provide other readers with similar intellectual stimulation and sustenance.' -- P.A. Lewis, The Economic Journal'. . . it is clear that this is an important work, which, with considerable erudition, breaks new ground on a hitherto little understood aspect of economic behaviour. The fact that the book is also well written and draws upon literatures that range from psychology through to organization theory and philosophy, reinforces the indubitable intellectual contribution it makes. It deserves to be widely read and discussed.' -- Gary B. Magee, Journal of Evolutionary Economics'In the past, the economic analysis of the firm has focused too exclusively on pecuniary considerations. While costs and revenues are vital, it is equally important not to ignore other essential elements, such as trust, that cannot be so readily traded or given a monetary value. Bart Nooteboom's work is an important corrective to mainstream opinion. He is one of the pioneers of the analysis of trust in organizations and this present volume is a wonderful and elegant addition to this literature.' -- Geoffrey M. Hodgson, University of Hertfordshire Business School, UKTable of ContentsContents: Preface 1. Aims and Foundations 2. Forms 3. Foundations 4. Functions 5. Failures 6. Figures 7. Summary and Conclusions References Index

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Book SynopsisTeenage cliques, jihadist cells, army units, polar expeditions, and football hooligans – on the face of it, each of these groups might seem exceptional, but the forces that bind and drive them can affect us all. In recent decades, psychologists have uncovered how and why our innate socialness holds huge sway over how we think and act, propelling us to both high achievement and unthinking cruelty. We are beholden to our peers, even when we think we’re calling the shots. This is the power of others. In this captivating work, science writer Michael Bond investigates the latest breakthroughs in social psychology to reveal how to guard against groupthink, build better teamwork, identify shared objectives, become more ethical, and survive moments of isolation. A fascinating blend of evolutionary theory, behavourial science, and remarkable case studies, The Power of Others will teach you to truly harness your collective self.Trade Review'Important and compelling. Bond drives home a fact that we all must accept – we are never alone. The people in our lives affect every aspect of our behaviour in ways that we are often not consciously aware of.' -- David McRaney, bestselling author of You Are Not So Smart'Accessible, captivating, and fun. Though we think of ourselves as free individuals, our choices are influenced by others – and the scary thing is that we don’t realise it.' -- William Poundstone, author of Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google?‘Easy to read [and] interesting’ * Press Association *

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Book SynopsisIn this incisive new study, Milan Zafirovski identifies and investigates the resurgence of capitalist dictatorship in contemporary society, especially after 2016. The book introduces the concept of capitalist dictatorship to the academic audience for the first time. It examines the capitalist dictatorship as a total social system composed of specific systems such as a coercive economy, repressive polity, illiberal civil society, and irrational culture in contrast to liberal democracy. Capitalist Dictatorship also investigates multiple dimensions, forms, and indicators of capitalist dictatorship, and calculates degrees of capitalist dictatorship for contemporary Western and comparable societies, such as OECD countries. Capitalist dictatorship, including autocracy, Zafirovski argues, is the gravest threat to contemporary democratic society post-2016.Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsList of Figures and Tables1 Introduction 1 The Concept of Capitalist Dictatorship 2 A Sociological Study of Capitalist Dictatorship—General Outlines2 Capitalist Dictatorship as an Economic System 1 Negative Definition and Specification of Capitalist Dictatorship 2 Positive Definition and Specification of Capitalist Dictatorship 3 Economic Forms and Agents of Capitalist Dictatorship  3.1 Capitalist Autocracy  3.2 Capitalist Dynasty  3.3 Capitalist Plutocracy, Oligarchy, and Aristocracy  3.4 Secondary Forms and Agents of Capitalist Dictatorship  3.5 Plutocracy and Secondary Forms and Agents of Capitalist Dictatorship 4 Economic Indicators and Proxies of Capitalist Dictatorship  4.1 Indicators and Proxies of Economic Coercion, Oppression and Non-democracy   4.1.1 Suppression of Unionization   4.1.2 Restriction of the Scope of Unionization   4.1.3 Suppression of Collective Bargaining   4.1.4 Suppression of Codetermination 4.2 Indicators and Proxies of Economic Inequality, Degradation and Deprivation   4.2.1 Extreme Concentration of Wealth   4.2.2 Extremely Unequal Income Distribution   4.2.3 Economic Degradation, Deprivation and Hardship   4.2.4 Economic Exploitation and Non-protection and Insecurity3 Capitalist Dictatorship as a Political Regime 1 Moving from Economy to Polity, Transforming Economic to Political Domination 2 Negative Definition and Specification of Capitalist Dictatorship as a Political Regime 3 Positive Definition and Specification of Capitalist Dictatorship as a Political Regime 4 Political Forms and Agents of Capitalist Dictatorship  4.1 Capitalist Autocracy as a Political Regime  4.2 Capitalist Dynasty as a Political Regime  4.3 Capitalist Plutocracy, Aristocracy and Oligarchy as a Political Regime  4.4 Secondary Forms of Capitalist Dictatorship as Political Regimes 5 Political Indicators and Proxies of Capitalist Dictatorship  5.1 Suppression of Political Freedoms and Rights   5.1.1 Suppression of Voting and Related Political Freedoms and Rights   5.1.2 Suppression of Free Political Competition for Power   5.1.3 Suppression of Political ‘Voice’  5.2 Concentration of Political Power   5.2.1 Mistreatment and Subordination of Non-capital Groups   5.2.2 Denial of Equal Political Freedoms and Rights   5.2.3 Suppression of Political Pluralism and Imposition of Ideological Monism   5.2.4 Unequal Legal Treatment  5.3 Severe Penal Repression and Punishment   5.3.1 ‘Law and Order’ for Non-capitalists, Lawlessness for Capital   5.3.2 Political Terror: Mass Imprisonment, Executions, Violations of Human Rights  5.4 Militarism   5.4.1 The Military-Capitalist Complex and Aggressive Wars   5.4.2 Militarized Political Repression4 Capitalist Dictatorship as Civil Society 1 Capitalist Dictatorship and Civil Society 2 Negative Definition and Specification of Capitalist Dictatorship as Civil Society 3 Positive Definition and Specification of Capitalist Dictatorship as Civil Society 4 Forms and Agents of Capitalist Dictatorship as Civil Society  4.1 Capitalist Autocracy and Dynasty in Civil Society  4.2 Capitalist Plutocracy, Oligarchy, and Aristocracy in Civil Society  4.3 Secondary Forms of Capitalist Dictatorship in Civil Society 5 Indicators and Proxies of Capitalist Dictatorship as Civil Society  5.1 Suppression of Individual Liberty and Other Civil Liberties   5.1.1 Denial of Personal Freedom of Moral Choice  5.2 Negation of Civil and Other Human Rights  5.3 Criminalization and Severe Sanctioning of Moral Offenses  5.4 Moralistic-Religious Terror   5.4.1 Massive Populations of Prisoners of Ethical Conscience5 Capitalist Dictatorship as a Cultural System 1 Capitalist Dictatorship and Culture 2 Negative Definition and Specification of Capitalist Dictatorship as a Cultural System 3 Positive Definition and Specification of Capitalist Dictatorship as a Cultural System 4 Forms and Agents of Capitalist Dictatorship as a Cultural System 5 Indicators and Proxies of Capitalist Dictatorship as a Cultural System  5.1 Suppression of Artistic and Cultural Liberties and Devaluation of the Arts and Culture  5.2 Extreme and Compulsory Religiosity  5.3 Obstruction and Suppression of Scientific Progress and Freedom  5.4 Persistence of Widespread Religious Superstitions6 Degrees of Capitalist Dictatorship for Contemporary Societies 1 Summary and Specification of Societal Indicators of Capitalist Dictatorship  1.1 Economic Indicators  1.2 Political Indicators  1.3 Civil-Society Indicators  1.4 Cultural Indicators 2 Measures of Capitalist Dictatorship  2.1 Economic Measures  2.2 Political Measures  2.3 Civil-Society Measures  2.4 Cultural Measures 3 Calculation of the Degrees of Capitalist Dictatorship 4 Degrees of Capitalist Dictatorship for Western and Comparable Societies7 ConclusionAppendix 1 Capitalist Dictatorship in the LiteratureAppendix 2 Data on Capitalist Dictatorship MeasuresReferencesIndex

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Book SynopsisTrade Review'A powerful, thought-provoking and timely contribution, offering new insights that will greatly enhance our understanding of well-being and its determinants.' -- Dimitris Ballas, University of Groningen, the Netherlands'Wellbeing has been a vibrant field of research across a number of disciplines for several years. However, the experience of the pandemic, which has exposed deeply ingrained inequalities and injustices, makes the concept more relevant than ever. The pandemic raises the possibility of transformational change that could lead to a refocusing of policy goals away from narrowly-defined economic indicators to those focused on a multidimensional conception of wellbeing. As such, this volume is incredibly well timed. It brings together contributions from across the social sciences to demonstrate how understanding the ways in which wellbeing is mobilised as a concept in research, practice and policy is central to these endeavours. In highlighting practice-based approaches the volume reflects on how wellbeing could form the foundation of a post-pandemic world. In doing so, it provides a rich and valuable contribution not only to wellbeing scholarship but also to practical debates on how to take this agenda forward most effectively.' -- Ian Bache, University of Sheffield, UK'An essential practical aide for charting the challenges facing us today with the ambition they merit, A Modern Guide to Wellbeing Research offers guidance for actions and policies to improve wellbeing while casting some light on the different understandings of this important, but complex concept.' -- Katherine Trebeck, Wellbeing Economy Alliance'Wellbeing is the overarching aim of social science and needs a multidisciplinary dialogue and approach. For sustainable, inclusive well-being as both a goal and process we need to draw on the strengths of all academic disciplines. You won‚Äôt agree with everything here, I don‚Äôt, but that‚Äôs the point as we work out what really matters, how we can study it and how to use that knowledge in practice.' -- Nancy Hey, Executive Director, What Works Centre for Wellbeing, UKTable of ContentsContents: Foreword xiv Katherine Trebeck, Wellbeing Economy Alliance 1 Introduction to wellbeing research 1 Beverley A Searle, Jessica Pykett and Maria Jesus Alfaro-Simmonds PART I APPROACHING WELLBEING 2 Commentary to Part I: reanimating the radical possibilities of wellbeing 23 Sarah Atkinson 3 Towards a queer epistemological framework for wellbeing research 29 Julia Zielke 4 A Marxian approach to wellbeing: human nature and use value 51 David Watson 5 Developing qualitative, biographical research into happiness and wellbeing: a sociological perspective 68 Mark Cieslik 6 Practicing wellbeing through community economies: an action research approach 84 Thomas SJ Smith and Kelly Dombroski PART II PRACTICING WELLBEING 7 Commentary to Part II: a wellbeing lens in practice 104 Neil Thin 8 Prisoners’ rehabilitation and wellbeing: a psychosocial perspective 110 Fabio Tartarini 9 Gender and wellbeing in post-war Sri Lanka 129 Fazeeha Azmi 10 Wellbeing and inclusion: a place for religion 148 Laura Kapinga and Bettina Bock 11 Children experiencing happiness in the city 164 Maria Jesus Alfaro-Simmonds 12 Housing inequalities and wellbeing: a critical analysis of narratives from stakeholders in Luxembourg 184 Magdalena Górczyńska-Angiulli, Elise Machline 13 Woodlands and wellbeing: evaluating the ‘Actif Woods Wales’ programme 205 Heli Gittins, Sophie Wynne-Jones and Val Morrison PART III WHERE NEXT FOR WELLBEING? 14 Commentary to Part III: wellbeing: a means for informed policy-making 227 Susan J Elliott 15 Who benefits and who suffers from international migration? Global evidence from the science of happiness 232 Martijn Hendriks 16 Human wellbeing in environmental management 245 Kelly Biedenweg and David J Trimbach 17 Budgeting for wellbeing 266 Arthur Grimes 18 Subjective wellbeing and transformation 282 Beverley A Searle Index

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Book SynopsisThe rich archive of twentieth-century debates on fascism can steer a path through an increasingly authoritarian present. Developing anti-fascist theory is an urgent and vital task. From the 'Great Replacement' to campaigns against critical race theory and 'gender ideology', today's global far right is launching lethal panics about the threats to traditional political, sexual and racial hierarchies.Drawing especially on Black radical and anti-colonial theories of fascism, Toscano makes clear the limits of associating fascism primarily with the kind of political violence experienced by past European regimes. Rather than looking for analogies from history, we should see fascism as a mutable process, one anchored in racial and colonial capitalism, which both predates and survives its crystallization in Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany. It is a threat that continues to evolve in the present day.Trade ReviewThere are no unearned claims here. Rather, one feels that Toscano has thought through the political stakes of every single sentence in this crucial book. Late Fascism is painstaking in accounting for, differentiating, and connecting the many historical contexts and iterations of fascism - from the onset of colonial modernity, through the mid-twentieth century, to the present day. -- Jordy Rosenberg, author of Confessions of the FoxAlberto Toscano's Late Fascism brilliantly elucidates what Adorno once called 'the meaning of working through the past' to grasp fascism's capacious aptitude for untimely reappearances to resolve crises, real or not, to save capitalism from itself and restore the necessary political order such rescue operations require. Rather than drawing upon fascism's past in his approach, Toscano 's account persuasively lays to rest an interpretative scheme that explains such unscheduled repetitions by appealing to analogical comparisons of past and present as if they were the same. His own strategy positions history and memory against the present to disturb one another, unveiling uneven historical differences and incommensurables removed from an everyday dominated by exchange. Toscano's lasting achievement is the program of watchfulness he so carefully constructs to uncover the contemporaneity of late fascism in our midst, but never too late to recognize its ever-present morbidities. -- Harry Harootunian, Emeritus Professor of History, University of ChicagoIn this bold book, Alberto Toscano argues that the old checklist for identifying and understanding contemporary fascism won't work. To apprehend its present-day manifestations, we must consult writers from the Black radical tradition and critical ethnic studies. With his characteristic erudition, Toscano combines innovative readings of Western Marxism with insightful interpretations of the genealogies of anti-racism. This is an indispensable book for a distressing time. -- Roderick A. Ferguson, Yale UniversityAlberto Toscano is one of the most significant and original political theorists of our contemporary moment. In this work on the nature and aetiology of late fascism, he moves us beyond the European interwar examples as fascism's "ideal-type," and deconstructs the alleged opposition of fascism and liberal democracy. He instead emphasizes multiple origins, locations, and temporalities of fascisms; the imbrication of fascisms within colonialism, slavery, capitalism and counter-revolution; and is precise about fascisms' libidinal claims and the weaponizing of atavistic social energies turned against racial, religious, sexual and gendered others. Toscano engages an illuminating range of anti-fascist thought: from Ernst Bloch, Georges Bataille, and Leo Löwenthal, to Angela Davis and George Jackson; from Stuart Hall and Ruth Wilson Gilmore to Jairus Banaji and Furio Jesi - with dazzling results. -- Lisa Lowe, author of The Intimacies of Four ContinentsCan we speak of fascism before fascism? Alberto Toscano believes we can. In his learned excavation of debates across the twentieth century, he revives still unanswered questions about the location of the prison, the market, and the bedroom in theories of fascism. He also reminds us to ask what late fascism is afraid of. What is it trying to prevent? In this way, a study of fascism becomes a roundabout recovery of repressed and forgotten utopias-a flashlight in the dead of night. -- Quinn Slobodian, author of The GlobalistsLate Fascism is brilliant, incisive, and right on time. We are living through a moment when the "F" word is no longer taboo and the threat of fascism lurks everywhere. And yet, so mired in debates over definitions, typologies, and analogies that our understanding of fascism remains elusive. Alberto Toscano avoids this trap by turning to anti-fascist thinkers, whose groundings in anticolonial, antiracist, and anticapitalist struggles remind us that liberalism is no enemy of fascism, and fascists flower in the hot house of capitalism. -- Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical ImaginationToscano's wide-ranging, erudite study is both theoretically satisfying and politically inspiring - an essential reference for rethinking fascism and antifascist politics today. -- Michael Hardt, author of The Subversive SeventiesIn this book, Toscano provides us with the language and analysis necessary to theorize our current moment, one in which the danger of fascism is as real as ever. -- Jake Romm * Protean *Toscano's high-octane new book on heterodox theories of fascism ... traces the myriad ways it has been deployed over the past 100 years, mining each of them for parallels with the present. -- Oliver Eagleton * The New Statesman *Concise and intellectually ambitious. -- Andrew O'Hehir * Salon *Table of Contents1. Out of Time2. Racial Fascism3. Fascist Freedom4. A Phantom with Limbs of Steel5. Rushing Forward into the Past6. Ideas without Words7. Cathedrals of Erotic Misery

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Book SynopsisThis invaluable Encyclopedia presents an interdisciplinary and comprehensive overview of the field of social innovation, providing an insightful view into potential future developments both practically and theoretically. With entries authored by prominent international scholars, the Encyclopedia outlines the theoretical foundations, concepts, types, processes and measurement of social innovation. Entries cover a variety of key themes including social innovation ecosystems, co-creation, new technologies and methods, education, governance and policies.The Encyclopedia of Social Innovation will serve as a significant reference point for both scholars and students of social entrepreneurship, sociology and management. It will also be beneficial for all those seeking to clarify various problem-solving routes in the face of contemporary societal challenges.Key Features:77 accessible and fully-referenced entriesAn interdisciplinary scope providing readers with a sound overview of social innovation in different research areasExploration of the societal, political, business and entrepreneurial ramifications of social innovationExamination of the challenges caused by modern phenomena such as rapid population growth and how these challenges have affected new social demands.Trade Review‘In recent decades, the study of social innovations has become a vibrant and increasingly specialized field of research. This Encyclopedia offers a unique journey into this research area thanks to a plurality of theoretical frameworks, disciplinary perspectives and research angles from 77 articles. An essential reference!’ -- Sylvain Lefèvre, University of Québec at Montréal, Canada‘With contributions from leading scholars and practitioners from all over the world, this comprehensive and extraordinary reference work provides a wealth of information on innovative approaches to addressing social and socio-economic challenges. Whether you're an academic, a social entrepreneur, or policymaker, the Encyclopedia of Social Innovation is a must-have for understanding and advancing social innovation.’ -- Susana Borras, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark‘The Encyclopedia of Social Innovation offers a rich set of topics and themes and insightful reflection by globally renowned scholars.’ -- Johanna Mair, Hertie School, GermanyTable of ContentsContents: Introduction to the Encyclopedia of Social Innovation xxv Jürgen Howaldt and Christoph Kaletka PART I THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS 1 Ambivalence and side-effects of social innovations 2 Stefan Böschen 2 Imagined futures and social innovation 7 Timur Ergen 3 Operationalizing social practice theories for social innovation research 11 Maria Rabadjieva and Marthe Zirngiebl 4 Resistance to social innovation 18 Tuur Ghys 5 Social innovation and the remaking of structures, systems and regimes 23 René Kemp and Bonno Pel 6 Social innovations as a repair of social order 31 Cornelius Schubert 7 Social innovation and social change 36 Jürgen Howaldt and Michael Schwarz 8 Strands of social innovation research 44 Adela McMurray, Ashokkumar Manoharan and Don Scott 9 System thinking for social innovation 49 Katharine McGowan, Michele-Lee Moore and Ola Tjörnbo PART II CONCEPTS AND TYPES 10 Exnovation 55 Rafael Ziegler 11 Joseph A. Schumpeter: innovation and society 60 Birgit Blättel-Mink 12 Open social innovation 66 Anne-Laure Fayard 13 The politics of conceptualizing social innovation 72 Michael J. Roy, Simon Teasdale and Lars Hulgård 14 Social innovation in the digital age 76 Gianluca Misuraca and Pierre Rossel 15 Social innovation and technological innovation 82 Matthias Weber 16 Social innovation research and innovation studies 88 Attila Havas 17 The South American concept of tecnologia social 94 Marlei Pozzebon, Ana Clara Souza and Fabio Prado Saldanha 18 Sustainable innovation 99 Cordula Kropp PART III SOCIAL INNOVATION PROCESSES 19 Co-creation in social innovation 106 Melanie Smallman and Cian O’Donovan 20 Democratic experimentation and social innovation 111 Carolina Andion and Graziela Alperstedt 21 Design for social innovation 117 Alessandro Deserti and Francesca Rizzo 22 Diffusion 122 Jürgen Howaldt, Ralf Kopp and Michael Schwarz 23 Grassroots innovation for transformative social change 127 Swati Banerjee, Abdul Shaban and Shrirang Chaudhary 24 The institutionalization of social innovations 132 Bonno Pel 25 Power and empowerment in social innovation 139 Flor Avelino, Julia M. Wittmayer and Adina Dumitru PART IV ECOSYSTEMS, ACTORS AND GOVERNANCE 26 Collaborative spaces for social innovation 147 Eva Wascher 27 Cross-sector collaboration for social innovation 152 Jo Barraket and Sally McGeoch 28 Ecosystems of social innovation 157 Dmitri Domanski, Christoph Kaletka and Daniel Krüger 29 Foundations and social innovations 162 Steffen Bethmann 30 Governance of social innovation 167 Diego Galego and Marleen Brans 31 Innovation systems 172 Alexander Ebner 32 Law and social innovation 177 Bronwen Morgan 33 Social innovation, civil society and democracy-building 184 Alejandra Boni, Sergio Belda-Miquel and Diana Velasco 34 Social innovation labs 189 Mónica Edwards-Schachter 35 Social movements 195 Maria da Glória Gohn and Karina Maldonado-Mariscal 36 Social networks and social innovation 203 Lina Sonne Vyas PART V SOCIAL INNOVATION IN ESTABLISHED RESEARCH AREAS 37 Futures studies and social innovation 209 Elmar Schüll 38 Social innovation to advance diversity and inclusion 214 Wendy Cukier, Zohreh Hassannezhad Chavoushi and Guang Ying Mo 39 Social innovation in education 219 Karina Maldonado-Mariscal and Antonius Schröder 40 Social innovation in energy system transformation 224 Julia M. Wittmayer and Karoline S. Rogge 41 Social innovation in the fashion industry 229 Sabine Weber 42 Social innovations and the future of mobility in times of climate change 234 Andreas Knie 43 Social innovation in health 239 Victoria Boelman 44 Social innovation through the Maker Movement 245 Massimo Menichinelli 45 Social innovation and poverty and marginalization 250 P. K. Shajahan and Dipannita Bhattacharjee 46 Social innovations in rural areas 258 Gabriela Christmann 47 Social innovation in services 263 Carla Cipolla 48 Social innovation in social work 268 Anne Parpan-Blaser and Matthias Hüttemann 49 Social innovation and territorial development 273 Alina Kadyrova 50 Social innovation research and practice for sustainable development 278 Jeremy Millard 51 Social justice and social innovation 285 Fergus Turner and Ella Scheepers 52 Welfare innovation for social cohesion 292 Benjamin Ewert 53 What ageing societies mean for social innovation 297 Ken Aoo and Fiona Henderson 54 Workplace innovation 302 Steven Dhondt PART VI BUSINESS AND ECONOMY 55 Cooperatives and social innovation 308 Gorka Espiau Idoiaga 56 Corporate social innovation 313 Philip H. Mirvis 57 Degrowth 319 Yves-Marie Abraham 58 The potential of social innovation for future employment trends 324 Antonia Caro-González and Marta Enciso-Santocildes 59 The revival of the commons 331 Tine de Moor 60 Social economy 336 Marie Bouchard and Benoît Lévesque 61 Social entrepreneurship 342 Anne de Bruin, Simon Teasdale and Michael J. Roy 62 Social value in management and social innovation research 347 Ghita Lkhoyaali and Emmanuel Raufflet 63 Socially inclusive businesses 351 Gabriel Berger and Leopoldo Blugerman PART VII SCIENCE AND RESEARCH 64 Citizen science 360 Christopher Kullenberg 65 Social innovation and its actors: the role of university research 364 Judith Sutz 66 Social innovation and social sciences 370 Klaus Schuch 67 Transformative research 376 Mandy Singer-Brodowski PART VIII INNOVATION POLICY 68 EU policy on social innovation 383 Nora Milotay 69 Next generation innovation policy 389 Jakob Edler 70 Responsible research and innovation as a social innovation 395 Lucien von Schomberg and René von Schomberg 71 Social innovation and the new role of the state 400 Uwe Cantner, Dirk Fornahl and Matthias Menter 72 Social innovation and public policy 408 Geoff Mulgan 73 Transformative innovation policy 414 Caetano C. R. Penna, Carla Alvial-Palavicino, Bipashyee Ghosh and Johan Schot PART IX RESOURCES AND MEASUREMENT 74 Impact bonds: beyond the hype? 421 Eleanor Carter and Andreea Anastasiu 75 Social impact measurement 427 Gorgi Krlev, Georg Mildenberger and Volker Then 76 Social innovation measurement 432 Judith Terstriep, Gorgi Krlev, Georg Mildenberger, Simone Strambach, Jan-Frederik Thurmann and Laura-Fee Wloka 77 Sustainable finance as a social innovation 441 Olaf Weber Index 446

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Book SynopsisDuring the last century humanity acquired the ability to destroy itself. The direct approach to destruction can be seen in such facts as the ever-present threat of nuclear war, but we have also developed the capacity to do indirect harm by altering conditions necessary for survival, including the looming cloud of climate change. How can we look forward and work past the dire position we now find ourselves in to achieve a sustainable future? This volume presents a new way of thinking about the future as it examines catastrophe and the human response. It examines different kinds of catastrophes that range from natural (e.g., earthquakes) to industrial (e.g., Chernobyl) and concludes that the traditional distinctions between them are only becoming blurrier by the day. This book aims to build a general theory of catastrophes—a new form of apocalyptic thinking that is grounded in science and philosophy. An ethics for the sake of the future is what is required, which in turn necessitates a new metaphysics of temporality. If a way out of the imminent danger in which we find ourselves is to be found, we must first look to radically alter our ethics.

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Book SynopsisInstitutional ethnography (IE) originated as a feminist alternative to sociologies defining people as the objects of study. Instead, IE explores the social relations that dominate the life of the particular subject in focus. Simply Institutional Ethnography is written by two pioneers in the field and grounded in decades of ground-breaking work. Dorothy Smith and Alison Griffith lay out the basics of how institutional ethnography proceeds as a sociology. The book introduces the concepts Discourse, Work, Text that institutional ethnographers have found to be key ideas used to organize what they learn from the study of people’s experience. Simply Institutional Ethnography builds an ethnography that makes this material visible as coordinated sequences of social relations that reach beyond the particularities of local experience. In explicating the foundations of IE and its principal concepts, Simply Institutional Ethnography reflects on the ways in wTrade Review"This book serves as a fitting legacy of the work of authors Smith and Griffith, two pioneers in the field of institutional ethnography, both of whom passed away prior to this book's publication. The authors encapsulate decades of their efforts to create and develop this particularly unique form of sociology and document its conceptual and theoretical refinement along the way. The result is a sophisticated, comprehensive overview that, although rather complex at times, nonetheless lays out for readers the promise and potential of this approach to studying human lived behavior an.d the myriad institutions in which such behavior is embedded." -- J. R. Mitrano, Central Connecticut State University * CHOICE *“In this slim volume, the authors encapsulate decades of their efforts to create and develop this particularly unique form of sociology and document its conceptual and theoretical refinement along the way. The result is a sophisticated, comprehensive overview that lays out for readers the promise and potential of this approach to studying human lived behavior and the myriad institutions in which such behavior is embedded.” -- J.R. Mitrano, Central Connecticut State University * CHOICE *Table of ContentsPreface Part I: Introducing Institutional Ethnography 1. Introduction 2. People’s Experience as the Ethnographic Resource Part II: Useful Concepts 3. Concepts but Not Theory 4. Discourse 5. Work 6. Texts Part III: The Ethnographic Dialogue 7. Transition to the Ethnography 8. Exploring Ruling Relations 9. Institutional Circuits: From Actual to Textual 10. Making Change from Below Part IV 11. In Conclusion

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Book SynopsisJeffrey B. Ferguson is remembered as an Amherst College professor of mythical charisma and for his long-standing engagement with George Schuyler, culminating in his paradigm changing book The Sage of Sugar Hill. Continuing in the vein of his ever questioning the conventions of “race melodrama” through the lens of which so much American cultural history and storytelling has been filtered, Ferguson’s final work is brought together here in Race and the Rhetoric of Resistance.Trade Review“These essays have extraordinary range, they are deeply thoughtful, and the writing has verve. It is sometimes polemical, but always braced by suggestive intelligence.” -- Uday S. Mehta * Professor of Political Theory, Graduate Center, City University of New York *"In this collection, Jeff Ferguson has given us notes toward an intellectual project, now a collective one, that may move us beyond the constant sway between the extremes of unending suffering and explosive resistance as the only means for narrating Black life." -- Farah Jasmine Griffin * author of Harlem Nocturne: Women Artists and Progressive Politics During World War II *"Jeffrey Ferguson challenges us to see America for the weird experiment it has been. Broad ranging, and probing, Race and the Rhetoric of Resistance is a testament to Ferguson’s sorely missed elegance and wit." -- Glenda Carpio * author of African American Literary Studies *"These brief, insightful essays illustrate what the world of literary scholarship lost with the tragically early passing of Jeffrey B. Ferguson. In his work, Ferguson deftly explores the limitations and complications of some key terms and concepts—race and Enlightenment, the blues, resistance and suffering, sincerity and authenticity, memory and hope—that have governed scholarship on African American literature and culture over the past quarter of a century. With wit, intelligence, and erudition Ferguson traces the lines of inquiry that have led us into the impasses that have characterized discussions of race and democracy since the colonial era, and in doing so he demonstrates how this history, if we engage it without mystifications and evasions, may yet provide us resources with which to understand our present. Framed by Werner Sollor’s preface and an afterword by George Hutchinson, Race and the Rhetoric of Resistance confronts us with what Ferguson calls the 'uncomfortable ironies, unexpected continuities, and unsettling discontinuities' that constitute the history of race and inequality in our troubled Republic." -- Kenneth W. Warren * University of Chicago *"Race and the Rhetoric of Resistance is a rich, pathbreaking book, its pages weighed down by the gravity of the problems it addresses, the significance of the solution it suggests, as well as poignant awareness that what the author began here will forever remain unfinished." * Soundings *"In this collection of complex, rich and insightful essays, Ferguson positions himself on the edge looking inside African American communities, and their literary and cultural production from a sober distance." * Ethnic and Racial Studies *"While Ferguson’s astute critical lens is acutely missed in our current political moment, his paradigm-shifting provocations, incisive critiques, philosophical ruminations, and exhilaratingly wide-ranging use of sources in this book will inspire readers to move beyond resistance, and to think critically and in nuanced ways about race, nation, and foundational American myths, discovering new “intoxicating combinations” in our own Black study." -- Raquel Kennon * European Journal of American Studies *Table of ContentsTable of Contents Foreword 1. Race and the Rhetoric of Resistance 2. Freedom, Equality, Race 3. A Blue Note on Black American Literary Criticism and the Blues 4. Of Mr. W. E. B. Du Bois and Others Notes on Escape Afterword Editor's Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisFully revised, with an updated bibliography and new, relevant illustrative examples based on work inspired by critical realism, this new edition of Explaining Society constitutes an up-to-date resource connecting methodology, theory, and empirical research. Including discussions of more recent scholarship in the field which connects critical realism with interdisciplinary research, this second edition also clarifies concepts such as retroduction and retrodiction so as to render them consistent with developments within critical realism, which are covered in a new chapter. An accessible account of the nature of society and social science, together with the methods used to study and explain social phenomena, Explaining Society will appeal to scholars of sociology, philosophy, and the social sciences more broadly.Table of Contents1. IntroductionPart I: Introduction to Critical Realism2. Science and Reality3. Conceptual Abstraction and CausalityPart II: Methodological Implications4. Social Structures and Human Agency5. Generalization, Scientific Inference and Models for Explanatory Social Science6. Theory in the Methodology of Social Science7. Critical Methodological Pluralism – Intensive and Extensive Research Design and Interdisciplinarity8. Social Science and Practice9. ConclusionGlossaryIndex

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Book SynopsisVon ihren Anfängen her ist die Vulnerabilitätsforschung stark durch eine gegenwarts- und anwendungsbezogene Orientierung geprägt. Die historisch arbeitenden Disziplinen haben das analytische Potential der verschiedenen Vulnerabilitätskonzepte dagegen bisher kaum erprobt. Die geschichtswissenschaftlichen, literarhistorischen und rhetorischen Beiträge des Bandes fragen danach, was eine solche Perspektive zum Verständnis von kulturellen und sozialen Strukturen und Praktiken beizutragen vermag. Ausgangspunkt ist das Forschungskonzept des Tübinger Sonderforschungsbereichs 923 'Bedrohte Ordnungen'. Vor dem Hintergrund dieses Konzepts reflektieren die 28 Aufsätze in deutscher und französischer Sprache beispielsweise Übergänge von einer vulnerablen zu einer bedrohten Ordnung oder rhetorisch-performative bzw. ästhetisch-literarische Besonderheiten von Bedrohungskommunikation.

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Book SynopsisMaps the demographic revolution that has taken hold of many countries around the globe in recent decades and explores the implications for the future development of the world's religions.Table of Contents Introduction 1. Fertility and Faith How Changes in Fertility Shape Religious Structures and Behavior Part 1 2. Europe's Revolution The Demographic Revolution Begins 3. Spiritual and Secular The Decline of Europe's Faith 4. The Revolution Goes Global New Patterns of Fertility and Faith Spread Rapidly around the World 5 The United States Between Two Worlds? Part 2 6. Africa High Fertility and Strong Faith 7. Two-Tier Islam Uneven Demographic Transitions 8. Go Forth and Divide Populism, Faith, and Fertility Conclusion 9. Living in a Low-Fertility World Can Religions Adapt to the New Society?

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Book SynopsisNever before have we attempted to measure as much as we do today. Why are we so obsessed with numbers? What can they really tell us?Trade Review‘A great antidote to cynicism, and a sharply witty reminder of what is important in life.’ Independent ‘Wonderfully subversive.’ Guardian.

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Book SynopsisExam Board: AQALevel & Subject: A level SociologyFirst teaching: September 2015Next exams: June 2025AQA approvedThis fourth edition of Collins' respected AQA A-level Sociology series is updated for the 2015 AQA Sociology specifications. Covering the second year of the A level course, it will help students master the knowledge and skills they need to excel in their study and engage with contemporary society.This textbook has been revised by our team of expert authors, who are practising sociologists, teachers and HE experts. It includes full coverage of Crime and Deviance with Theory and Methods; Beliefs in Society; Global Development; The Media; and Stratification and Differentiation. Tried and tested content works alongside new features to ensure that students:Understand essential theories and perspectives with up-to-date explanations and key concepts defined on the pageEngage with the latest research with in-depth explorations of new and classic research studies and accompanying ques

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Book SynopsisIn the 1960s, Stanley Milgram carried out a series of experiments in which human subjects were given progressively more painful electro-shocks in a careful calibrated series to determine to what extent people will obey orders even when they knew them to be painful and immoral. This book deals with Milgram's persuasive explanation of his methods.Trade Review“Milgram’s experiments on obedience have made us more aware of the dangers of uncritically accepting authority.” — Peter Singer, New York Times Book Review “Stanley Milgram’s experiments on obedience to malevolent authority seemed to me to be the most important social psychological research done in this generation….The quality of exposition in the book I s so high that it qualifies as literature as well as science.” — Roger Brown, Harvard University “This well-designed and brilliantly executed research study, reported in an unusually fascinating and very readable style, reveals the elusive and sometimes shocking conditions under which men obey authority regardless of the morality involved.” — Library Journal “A major contribution to our knowledge of man’s behavior. It establishes firmly in the front rank of social scientists in this generation.” — Jerome S. Brunner, Oxford University “One of the most significant books I have read in more than two decades of reviewing.” — Robert Kirsch, Los Angeles Times “The classic account of the human tendency to follow orders, no matter who they hurt or what their consequences.” — Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World “Milgrim’s experiment-based analysis is a model of systematic, sequential, patient pursuit of answers to a significant social problem. His investigations accomplish what we should expect of responsible social science: to inform the intellect without trivializing the phenomenon.” — Henry W. Reicken, Science

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Book SynopsisA New York Times New and Noteworthy BookFrom the bestselling author of Waking Up and The End of Faith, an adaptation of his wildly popular, often controversial podcast“Civilization rests on a series of successful conversations.” —Sam HarrisSam Harris—neuroscientist, philosopher, and bestselling author—has been exploring some of the most important questions about the human mind, society, and current events on his podcast, Making Sense. With over one million downloads per episode, these discussions have clearly hit a nerve, frequently walking a tightrope where either host or guest—and sometimes both—lose their footing, but always in search of a greater understanding of the world in which we live. For Harris, honest conversation, no matter how difficult or controversial, represents the only path to moral and intel

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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 SynopsisEstablishes a line of enquiry into the relationship between tourism and modernity. This book contextualizes it in terms of relationship between Logos-modernity and Eros-modernity. It focuses on the conditions of modernity that lure tourists towards pleasure travel. It also looks at the relationship between modernity and motivations of tourists.Table of ContentsPreface. Introduction. Part 1: Contextualizing Tourism. Logos-modernity, eros-modernity and tourism. Part 2: Modernity, Tourism and Motivations. Modernity and the tourism of authenticity. Modernity and nature tourism. Modernity and holiday-making. Modernity and international tourism. Part 3: Modernity, Seduction and Tourism. The lure of images. The lure of discourse. The lure of consumption. The lure of sign value. Conclusion. References. Author index. Subject index.

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Book SynopsisTalks about higher education world-wide and in all its manifestations. This work deals with three broad sub-themes: university and development: anticipating change; universities and the international knowledge enterprise; and, academic freedom and university autonomy: pre-requisites for the university meeting its responsibilities.Table of ContentsForeword (Wataru Mori). Introduction. Universities' responsibility to society: an historical exploitation of an enduring issue (G. Neave). Chapter I (G. Haddad). Chapter II (Sippanondha Ketudat). Chapter III (M.A.R. Dias). Chapter IV: University and Development: Anticipating Change (B.M. Gourley, P. Calame). University, industry and technological development (Toshio Nakamura). Universities and social development: partners and stakeholders (E. Elbaz, V.A. Shahin). Universities as actors in sustainable development (C.E. Stalvant, J.A. Omotola). Universities and graduate employment (M-L. Kearney). Chapter V: Universities and the International Knowledge Enterprise (W. Srisa-an). Universities and the information society (V. Massingue, E. Simons). Internationalization of higher education and diversity (L. Dandurand). Universities, social transformations and access to knowledge (L. Smith, V.D. Batukhtin). Chapter VI: Academic Freedom and University Autonomy: Prerequisites for the University Meeting its Responsibilities (W. Kamba, K.D. Wolff). University autonomy and external dependencies (S. Hamilton, G. Thill). Academic freedom and contract activities (R. Harris). Accountability, quality assurance and autonomy (S.M. Saifuddin, B. Deaton). Academic freedom: ethical implications and civic responsibilities (W.A. Manan). Chapter VII: Conclusion: Proposal for an International Declaration on Academic Freedom and University Autonomy (J. Thorens).

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Book Synopsis''One is not born, but rather becomes, woman''First published in Paris in 1949, The Second Sex by Simone de Beavoir was a groundbreaking, risqué book that became a runaway success. Selling 20,000 copies in its first week, the book earned its author both notoriety and admiration.Since then, The Second Sex has been translated into forty languages and has become a landmark in the history of feminism. Required reading for anyone who believes in the equality of the sexes, the central messages of The Second Sex are as important today as they were for the housewives of the forties.Trade ReviewA masterpiece * Vogue *Discovering The Second Sex was like an explosion in my skull, shattering illusions bred in a conventional fifties childhood...Re-reading the book now I realise how much of it is still entirely relevant, and that (despite advances) women are as much in need of liberation as ever -- Bel MooneyDe Beauvoir was not just a genius as a theorist. She dared to live it. Challenging conventional marriage and sexual practice, she used her own experience to explore the emotional costs of jealousy, attachment, monogamy, bohemianism, sexuality, of love -- Susie OrbachA fine piece of work, a lucid translation * Independent *A fresh, much expanded, more intelligible book which repays re-reading by adherents of the old version, and cries out for attention from young women who have not been exposed to this most powerful of feminist thinkers * Irish Times *

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Book SynopsisSimone de Beauvoir was born in Paris in 1908. In 1929 she became the youngest person ever to obtain the agrégation in philosophy at the Sorbonne, placing second to Jean-Paul Sartre. She taught at the lycées at Marseille and Rouen from 1931-1937, and in Paris from 1938-1943. After the war, she emerged as one of the leaders of the existentialist movement, working with Sartre on Les Temps Mordernes. The author of several books including The Mandarins (1957) which was awarded the Prix Goncourt, de Beauvoir was one of the most influential thinkers of her generation. She died in 1986.Trade ReviewA masterpiece * Vogue *Discovering The Second Sex was like an explosion in my skull, shattering illusions bred in a conventional fifties childhood...Re-reading the book now I realise how much of it is still entirely relevant, and that (despite advances) women are as much in need of liberation as ever -- Bel MooneyDe Beauvoir was not just a genius as a theorist. She dared to live it. Challenging conventional marriage and sexual practice, she used her own experience to explore the emotional costs of jealousy, attachment, monogamy, bohemianism, sexuality, of love -- Susie OrbachA fine piece of work, a lucid translation * Independent *A fresh, much expanded, more intelligible book which repays re-reading by adherents of the old version, and cries out for attention from young women who have not been exposed to this most powerful of feminist thinkers * Irish Times *

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Book SynopsisSimone Weil was one of the foremost thinkers of the twentieth century: a philosopher, theologian, critic, sociologist and political activist. This anthology spans the wide range of her thought, and includes an extract from her best-known work ''The Need for Roots'', exploring the ways in which modern society fails the human soul; her thoughts on the misuse of language by those in power; and the essay ''Human Personality'', a late, beautiful reflection on the rights and responsibilities of every individual. All are marked by the unique combination of literary eloquence and moral perspicacity that characterised Weil''s ideas and inspired a generation of thinkers and writers both in and outside her native France.

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Book SynopsisThe $12 billion self-help industry is under constant attack for pedaling false miracles to duped believers. But sociologist Albert Amao demonstrates that Americans eagerly support self-help books, seminars, and programs because, under the right conditions, these things work.Sociologist Albert Amao analyzes the accuracy of self-help and positive-thinking claims in this groundbreaking--and wholly unexpected--exploration of what works, what doesn't, and why. Regarding my personal experience, Amao writes, I can testify that positive thinking and positive action have worked wonderfully for me. Born in a poor Latin-American country into a very impoverished family with both parents practically illiterate, I was the oldest of five children. I started working when I was six years old, shining shoes and selling newspapers to help my family. Nobody then would have believed that I would be able to finish high school. Nevertheless, I was able to do it going to night

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Book SynopsisIf you wanted to build a machine that would distribute propaganda to millions of people, distract them from important issues, energize hatred and bigotry, erode social trust, undermine respectable journalism, foster doubts about science, and engage in massive surveillance all at once, you would make something a lot like Facebook. Of course, none of that was part of the plan. In this fully updated paperback edition of Antisocial Media, Siva Vaidhyanathan explains how Facebook devolved from an innocent social site hacked together by Harvard students into a force that, while it may make personal life just a little more pleasurable, makes democracy a lot more challenging. It''s an account of the hubris of good intentions, a missionary spirit, and an ideology that sees computer code as the universal solvent for all human problems. And it''s an indictment of how social media has fostered the deterioration of democratic culture around the world, from facilitating Russian meddling in support oTrade ReviewFortunately, finally, we seem ready to have the necessary conversations about how social media has changed our hearts and minds and politics, including the hard conversations. And this is the right book for our moment. It lays out, in crisp, compelling language, why Facebook may be good for some individuals but not good for democracy. Antisocial Media is not negative or defeatist. But it does not sugarcoat the facts. We can only remake technology to conform to new social values if we do the hard work of committing to what they are. That's a problem that Facebook can't solve. This is history, philosophy, and a call to action." -Sherry Turkle, Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology, MIT, and author of Reclaiming Conversation and Alone TogetherHello, reader. Do you use Facebook? Do you see it more times in a given day than you, say, drink a glass of water? If so, I suggest you find out from Siva Vaidhyanathan to what it is that you've given not only yourself, but also your crucial little portion of our world. He's the one who can tell you." -Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn and Fortress of SolitudeAs a San Franciscan, I've had a front-row seat for the rise of Silicon Valley as a global power, and what the glossy new oligarchs have brought us terrifies me, as has the widespread obliviousness to the consequences of their new systems of information control. It's made me enormously grateful for Siva Vaidhyanathan, who set out after the election to dissect exactly how Facebook had helped corrupt our minds, our culture, our elections, and our governments. His scathing conclusions here should both chill you and equip you to face the perils the new information megacorporations pose to each and all of us." -Rebecca Solnit, author of Hope in the DarkAn eye -opening and provocative examination of the unintended consequences that this tech giant inflicted on the global community it created. * Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor of Communication, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, and author of Cyberwar *Facebook's plan to connect the world has backfired. Democratic societies are unraveling everywhere. Conflict is trumping community, suspicion is undermining trust. Antisocial Media is the best account of how and why the world's leading tech firms have contributed to this crisis, here and across the globe. Vaidhyanathan's message is not merely necessary; it's urgent. * Eric Klinenberg, Professor of Sociology at NYU and author of Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life *Vaidhyanathan does have some solutions in mind, but they are not the simple tweaks Facebook proposes. There's no way at this point to reengineer a platform that rewards hasty, emotional, shallow engagement or moderates content to ensure two billion people behave themselves. We need to work across borders to make these steps multinational if not global. And we need to do it soon. The lamps are going out all over Europe again, and far beyond. * Barbara Fister, Inside HigherEd *In "Antisocial Media," University of Virginia professor Siva Vaidhyanathan gives a full and rigorous accounting of Facebook's sins. Much of the criticism will be familiar to anyone who has been following the news about the company. What distinguishes the book is Vaidhyanathan's skill in putting the social media phenomenon into a broader context - legal, historical and political. * Nicholas Carr, The Washington Post *In a post-Cambridge Analytica, post-Donald Trump election world, Vaidhyanathan's book [Antisocial Media] is a critique of the "Facebook machine" and the ways it operates on users in terms of "pleasure, surveillance, attention, protest, politics, and disinformation." - Express Newspaper Service, The Indian ExpressVaidhyanathan has written a structured response to the behemoth that is Facebook. He acknowledges all the rhetorically valid ways in which Facebook might offer emotionally fulfilling interactions (the author himself is a user), but he buttresses these emotive motivations with close readings of the filter bubble, monetization of all transactions on the platform, and even the inherent vice of "good" business... Verdict: Ideal for readers who live in the world of social media who want to put these platforms into context. * Jesse A. Lambertson, Library Journal *An excellent critique of the social media giant underlines the threat it poses to us all - and suggests how it can be tamed. * John Naughton, The Guardian *With 30 per cent of the world's population on Facebook, Vaidhyanathan contends that the platform could become the operating system of our lives. And while it's fun to catch up with old school friends, its "mediated cacophony" is a powerful tool for the vocal minority to quickly subvert silent majorities. Zuckerberg himself is curiously complacent. Facebook, he says, "is just too big to govern. We are victims of its success. * Nick Smith, Engineering & Technology *This thoroughly researched and persuasively argued account of social media's noxious effects on the very fabric of society is the first study of its kind: a trenchant analysis of Facebook's unwholesome side effects. It needed saying, and it's supremely well said." - Juanita Coulson, The LadyFrom propagating fake news to violating our privacy, from empowering authoritarian regimes to enabling anti-Semitic advertising, Facebook has become the social network everyone loves to hate. Vaidhyanathan, whose previous books include "The Googlization of Everything" - and "Why We Should Worry", has produced a valuable guide, written in clear, non-academic prose, to the monstrous force Facebook has become. And if his overview of what's gone wrong with Facebook will seem familiar to those of us who obsess about these things, it nevertheless serves as a worthwhile introduction to the Zuckerborg and all that it has wrought. If only Vaidhyanathan had some compelling ideas on what to do about it. If only any of us did." - Dan Kennedy, The Arts FuseVaidhyanathan has been a strenuous critic of the technology industry, and the book is best described by his own pithy summary: "The problem with Facebook is Facebook." He's spent the past several years reading and thinking with scholarly depth about not just how Facebook works, but why it was built the way that it was." - Alexis C. Madrigal, The AtlanticVaidhyanathan writes with conviction and a deep sense of history. His research is sharp and diverse and his long association with media studies and readings on the philosophy of modern technology is vividly reflected in his writing. Personally, it was a pleasure to know that Vaidhyanathan had worked with the New York University where legendary social commentator and a critic of technology, Neil Postman, taught, and his anecdotes on Postman's ideas are a social media student's delight." - Jinoy Jose P, The HinduI think your book has to be, in my mind, one of the most important nonfiction books of this year, if not in the last decade... It's extremely important for the users especially to look at the mechanics of this monster that's been created over the last decade or so." - Juan González, Daily Show Co-Host, Democracy Now!14/01/2019Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: The Pleasure Machine Chapter 2: The Surveillance Machine Chapter 3: The Attention Machine Chapter 4: The Benevolence Machine Chapter 5: The Protest Machine Chapter 6: The Politics Machine Chapter 7: The Disinformation Machine Conclusion: The Nonsense Machine Acknowledgements

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Book SynopsisFinding ways to understand the nature of social change and social order-from political movements to market meltdowns-is one of the enduring problems of social science. A Theory of Fields draws together far-ranging insights from social movement theory, organizational theory, and economic and political sociology to construct a general theory of social organization and strategic action. In a work of remarkable synthesis, imagination, and analysis, Neil Fligstein and Doug McAdam propose that social change and social order can be understood through what they call strategic action fields. They posit that these fields are the general building blocks of political and economic life, civil society, and the state, and the fundamental form of order in our world today. Similar to Russian dolls, they are nested and connected in a broader environment of almost countless proximate and overlapping fields. Fields are mutually dependent; change in one often triggers change in another. At the core of the Trade ReviewIn this bold and sweeping new work, Fligstein and McAdam make the first global contribution to sociological field theory since Bourdieu's Distinction. Finding order and turbulence not only in the semi-autonomous fields that others have investigated, but also in the complex interplay of social movements and the state, Fligstein and McAdam produce a vision that is theoretically insightful, empirically generative and will re-energize the quest for a fundamental grasp of the dynamics of large-scale social interaction. * John Levi Martin, University of Chicago *In this much-anticipated book, Neil Fligstein and Doug McAdam bring their rich and influential strands of scholarly work together to develop a provocative account of how skilled individuals upset established routines and build new political and organizational fields. The core of their argument emphasizes on how people deploy resources, build connections, and forge new practices. In so doing, they place agency in a new and analytically tractable light. This signal accomplishment will be essential reading to all political and organizational scholars. * Walter W. Powell, Stanford University *In A Theory of Fields, Neil Fligstein and Doug McAdam provide a powerful synthetic approach to the analysis of interconnected "strategic action fields" that anchor interaction and meaningful membership. This conceptual language breaches distinctions among political, economic, and other sociologies to advance a compelling general approach to the most basic sociological questions of order and change. Fligstein and McAdam have accomplished the difficult task of grappling with fundamental issues of social theory while advancing a program of social research that should both engage advanced scholars and inspire those earlier in their careers. * Elisabeth S. Clemens, University of Chicago *A Theory of Fields is certainly an abundant repertoire of good reasons for using the concept of field as a versatile tool for social research. * Angelo Salento, Sociologica *Table of ContentsChapter 1: The Gist of It ; Introduction - The Central Elements of the Theory - ; Other Perspectives - Conclusion ; Chapter 2: Micro-Foundations ; Introduction - Meaning and Membership - The Collective as Existential Refuge - ; Social Skill - Social Skill in Action - The Scope of the Theory - ; Institutional Politics - Social movements - Markets and the Economy - ; The Nonprofit Sector - Conclusion ; Chapter 3: Macro Implications ; Introduction - The <"Embeddedness>" of Strategic Action Fields - ; An Excursus on Formal Organization and Bureaucracy - The State ; as a system of strategic action fields - The Impact of State Fields on ; Non-state strategic action fields - The Dependence of States and State ; Fields on Non-state strategic action fields - Internal Governance Units - ; Higher Education and the Professions - Conclusion ; Chapter 4: Change and Stability in Strategic Action Fields ; Introduction - Current Debates - The Emergence of Strategic Action Fields ; - Sustaining a Settlement - Settlements and Ruptures - Reestablishing - ; Field Stability - The Relationship between Social Skill and the State of ; the Strategic Action Field - Social Skill and the Emergence of Fields - Social ; Skill and the Reproduction of Fields - Social Skill and the Transformation of ; Fields - Conclusion ; Chapter 5: Illustrating the Perspective ; Introduction - The Civil Rights Struggle, 1932-1980 - Setting the Stage - ; The Field of Racial Politics - Destabilizing Changes - The Episode of Contention ; and the Rise of the Civil Rights Movement - A New Settlement - The Declining ; Salience of the Cold War Dynamic - The Revenge of the Dixiecrats and the End ; of the New Deal Electoral Regime - The Rise of Black Power and the Rupture in ; the Movement strategic action fields - The Institutionalization of the Civil Rights ; Movement and Its Impact on Other Strategic Action Fields - Summing up - The ; Transformation of the U.S. Mortgage Market, 1969-2010 - The Dominant Strategic ; Action Fields of the Mortgage Market, 1934-1987 - Changes that Destabilized the ; Mortgage Market, 1969-1987 - Settlement and the new Strategic Action Field - The ; Rise of the Industrial model of the MBS market, 1993-2007 - The Causes of the ; Crisis - The Impact of the Strategic Action Field based on the Industrial model on ; other strategic action fields - Conclusion ; Chapter 6 Methods ; Introduction ; The Roadmap ; How to Tell if a Strategic Action Field Exists ; Emergence, Stability, and Crisis, Part 1 ; The Problem of the State in Relation to Strategic Action Fields ; Emergence, Stability, and Crisis, Part 2 ; Social Skill, Strategic Action, and the Question of Entrepreneurship ; Considering Different Philosophies of Science and Methodological Strategies ; A Positivist Approach to Strategic Action Fields ; Realist Approaches to Strategic Action Fields ; The Problem of Empiricism ; Conclusion ; Chapter 7 A Theory of Strategic Action Fields ; So what is new here? ; The Problem of the Accumulation of Knowledge in the Social Sciences ; The Surprising Discovery of Fields ; Toward a Collaborative Program of Theory and Research on Fields ; Bibliography

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Book SynopsisPrior to the 1960s, when African Americans had little access to formal political power, black popular culture was commonly seen as a means of forging community and effecting political change. But as Richard Iton shows in this provocative and insightful volume, despite the changes brought about by the civil rights movement, and contrary to the wishes of those committed to narrower conceptions of politics, black artists have continued to play a significant role in the making and maintenance of critical social spaces. Iton offers an original portrait of the relationship between popular culture and institutionalized politics tracing the connections between artists such as Paul Robeson, Lorraine Hansberry, Richard Pryor, Bob Marley and Erykah Badu and those individuals working in the protest, electoral, and policy making arenas. With an emphasis on questions of class, gender and sexuality-and diaspora and coloniality-the author also illustrates how creative artists destabilize modern notions of the proper location of politics, and politics itself. Ranging from theatre to film, and comedy to literature and contemporary music, In Search of the Black Fantastic is an engaging and sophisticated examination of how black popular culture has challenged our understandings of the aesthetic and its relationship to politics.Trade ReviewA fascinating history and analysis of the nexus of black popular culture and activism from the Jazz Age to the hip-hop era...a timely reminder of the significant influence African American artists and entertainers have had on the political front--not necessarily in enacting laws, but in the symbolic impact of words and actions. * Los Angeles Times *By interweaving many complex issues, In Search of the Black Fantastic moves across the disciplines with ease--politics, history, sociology, American studies, and African American studies--thereby representing one of the most thorough examinations of post-war black culture. * Political Science Quarterly *Iton's work possesses the depth of wide reading in modernist theory and the breadth of wide-open eyes and ears for the popular... challenging, illuminating and groundbreaking. For both lay reader and academician, it may well 'compel a revision of our notions of the political. * Publishers Weekly *A fresh, meticulously well researched study...The book is grounded in a solid historical base, surveying the dilemmas faced by black artists from the Cold War to the present...I strongly recommend In Search of the Black Fantastic to serious scholars of black literature and culture. By so perceptively engaging the relationship between popular art and the politics of marginalized people, it helps to clear the way to a truer, deeper understanding of an important subject which rarely gets such penetrating analysis. * African American Review *Brimming with ideas... In Search of the Black Fantastic offers thought-provoking insights throughout its 400 pages and will certainly stimulate further work in numerous areas of African American history. * American Historical Review *Table of ContentsNOTES;; ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS;; INDEX

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Book SynopsisWhat binds societies together and how can these social orders be structured in a fair way? Jeffrey C. Alexander''s masterful work, The Civil Sphere, addresses this central paradox of modern life. Feelings for others - the solidarity that is ignored or underplayed by theories of power or self-interest - are at the heart of this novel inquiry into the meeting place between normative theories of what we think we should do and empirical studies of who we actually are. Solidarity, Alexander demonstrates, creates inclusive and exclusive social structures and shows how they can be repaired. It is not perfect, it is not absolute, and the horrors which occur in its lapses have been seen all too frequently in the forms of discrimination, genocide, and war. Despite its worldly flaws and contradictions, however, solidarity and the project of civil society remain our best hope: the antidote to every divisive institution, every unfair distribution, every abusive and dominating hierarchy. This grand,Trade ReviewThe Civil Sphere offers grand theorizing in ways that remind us of both what we are and what we can be. Jeffrey Alexander offers sociology at least a place from which it may begin again. * The New Republic *The Civil Sphere is [a] crowning achievement ... that masterfully reconnects the normative and the empirical in ways that fill an important gap in our cultural discourse today ... A work of great importance, an enduring contribution to the literature on civil society and democracy. Its influence will be felt in political, cultural, and theoretical sociology for decades to come. * American Journal of Sociology *A genuine masterpiece ... America's best, and best-known, social theorist defends the project of civil society and its utopia of democratic inclusion * not only as an ideal, but also as an idea, which is already partly institutionalized.Constellations *This subtle and hugely informative work ... offers not only acute theoretical discussion of the civil society concept, but also generous and expansive accounts of social movements of race and gender, and the theory and practice of multiculturalism and assimilation (two chapters on the Jewish experience are especially compelling). * Contemporary Sociology *The Civil Sphere offers a bold and original thesis about the critically important role that civil societies play in Western democracies. Although I will challenge Alexander's thesis, it is important to state at the outset that The Civil Sphere is a valuable book packed with rich social histories, lively engagements with ancient and contemporary theories, and novel interpretations. There is much to be learned here about the historic and sociological nature of racial, gender, and ethnic oppressions, and the struggles waged to over throw them. * Aldon Morris, Sociological Quarterly *The Civil Sphere is truly a masterful and groundbreaking work, the rare and ambitious kind that does not just contribute to one of the many ongoing conversations in sociology, but brings them together and reorients them. It will undoubtedly confirm and reinforce Jeffrey Alexander's reputation as one of the foremost sociological theorists of our day. Indeed, reading The Civil Sphere generated the same sense of intellectual excitement that I experienced the first time I read Durkheim or Weber or Habermas * and for similar reasons: The Civil Sphere addresses big and important questions about freedom, inequality, and solidarity.Chad Goldberg, Sociological Quarterly *The Civil Sphere is... rich in its empirical descriptions and resourceful and suggestive in terms of its conceptual and theoretical framework. The book will challenge and shape the discussions in cultural sociology for many years to come. * Cultural Sociology *From the point of view of contemporary sociology, one of its most distinctive and welcome features is its judicious use of sociological theory and data to advance a particular vision of justice. As such it is a book about the need to place justice at the centre of the sociological enterprise. From the point of view of contemporary critical social theory, one of its most distinctive and welcome features is its insistence that good social theories have a disclosing power that is practically efficacious. As such it is also a book about the illuminating power of theory. Its most significant contribution, however, is its presentation of a strong vision of civil society and the case it makes for taking up the project of civil repair. By arguing persuasively that the civil sphere is a great achievement of Western modernity, and by encouraging us to work towards its realization, the book itself is a remarkable achievement. * Philosophy and Social Criticisms *The Civil Sphere is a major work that is going to change the state of the debate in many fields ... It aims to provide a new theory of contemporary society, based on a new interpretation of solidarity [that] is a radical challenge to political economy. * European Journal of Social Theory *A tour de force of sociology, political science, and philosophy, [its] repercussions might be felt for decades to come... This is a book worth reading by both social scientists and the general public, for its persuasiveness can inspire us to imagine that another world is possible * Mediterranean Quarterly *All sociologists, social scientists or writers probably nurture some secret ambition of writing a mega book that will immortalize them by its originality, the persuasiveness of arguments, impact, or its sheer size. For Jeffrey Alexander, this is it. A magisterial book, a contribution to social theory that will be talked about, criticized and never overlooked. * Asian Journal of Social Science *Jeffrey Alexander's The Civil Sphere is nothing less than an attempt to create a new theory of civil society for the 21st century through an almost equally ambitious attempt to reground the discipline of sociology. * Journal of Communication *A major work of cultural and political sociology, exploring the possibilities of civility as action and civil sphere as a public domain ... The Civil Sphere can taken as conclusive evidence that sociology is alive and well, and more importantly relevant to modern social action. * Citizenship Studies *The Civil Sphere is the best book in sociology that I have read in many years ... It will find its place on the shelf with the other great classics of sociology. [A] great work. * Perspectives: Newsletter of the Theory Section of the American Sociological Association *The book is an exercise in forging theory as a tool for democratic practice. * Thesis Eleven *Arguably the most probing and insightful examination of civil society in America since Tocqueville's Democracy in America. He offers a penetrating and original causal interpretation of the success of the Civil Rights Movement, and addresses with understanding and fresh perspective the question of Jewish assimilation in post-civil rights America. Alexander's long awaited book establishes a new benchmark for cultural sociology and social theory with its rigorous theoretical and historical analysis of transformative societal change. * Victor Nee, Goldwin Smith Professor of Sociology, Cornell University *Jeffrey Alexander's The Civil Sphere is the most important, effective, and readable book in his distinguished career. A powerful and provocative account of civil society, this brilliant piece of theorizing is fueled by an expansive moral vision. Alexander punctures the overblown claims of other thinkers both left and right, and stunningly combines theoretical vigor with a subtle, becoming humility in the face of the best achievements and most compelling aspirations of the civil sphere. * Michael Schudson, Professor of Communication, University of California at San Diego *An original portrait of civil society which addresses issues which must be addressed if we are to live in peace with those unlike ourselves. The Civil Sphere is remarkable for its clarity and depth of exposition. All readers will benefit from Alexander's ideas: he does not try to batter the reader into submission; instead, he embodies the very ideal of civil society, by inviting the reader to argue with him. In sum, an extraordinary and necessary book. * Richard Sennett, Professor of Sociology, The London School of Economics *This is a Herculean labor in which Alexander not only deconstructs the discourse of 'civil society' but reevaluates the entire tradition of political and social thought which attempted to establish, justify, and actualize this abstract idea. * Hayden White, Professor Emeritus of the History of Consciousness, University of California *Long recognized as one of the world's foremost intellects, in The Civil Sphere Jeffrey Alexander delivers a masterpiece. In this breathtakingly erudite tour of literature, history, philosophy, and social science scholarship, from Hannah Arendt to Woody Allen, Alexander takes on in a single volume both foundational questions of the human condition and the political exigencies of our day. The result is a book that will wholly transform the conceptual landscape; from this point forward we will recognize that the civil sphere's potential for social justice can only be an ongoing project, never a finished achievement. * Margaret R. Somers, Professor of Sociology, University of Michigan *The Civil Sphere is at once an energizing ideal for democratic society, and a source of violations of its own ethos. Jeffrey Alexander's well-argued book identifies this crucial level on which liberal democratic societies must operate and offers an insightful and non-reductive account of the struggles against such violations, for what he calls 'civil repair'. He provides fascinating analyses, among other events, of the civil rights movements, and of modern anti-Semitism. * Charles Taylor, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, McGill University *Table of ContentsPART I. CIVIL SOCIETY IN SOCIAL THEORY; 1. POSSIBILITES OF JUSTICE; 2. REAL CIVIL SOCIETIES: DILEMMAS OF INSTITUTIONALIZATION; 3. BRINGING DEMOCRACY BACK IN: REALISM, MORALITY, SOLIDARITY; PART II. STRUCTURES AND DYNAMICS OF THE CIVIL SPHERE; 4. DISCOURSES: LIBERTY AND REPRESSION; 5. COMMUNICATIVE INSTITUTIONS: PUBLIC OPINION, MASS MEDIA, POLLS, ASSOCIATIONS; 6. REGULATIVE INSTITUTIONS (1): VOTING, PARTIES, OFFICE; 7. REGULATIVE INSTITUTIONS (2): THE CIVIL FORCE OF LAW; 8. CONTRADICTIONS: UNCIVILIZING PRESSURES AND CIVIL REPAIR; PART III. SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN THE CIVIL SPHERE; 9. SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AS CIVIL TRANSLATIONS; 10. GENDER AND CIVIL REPAIR: THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD THROUGH M/OTHERHOOD; 11. RACE AND CIVIL REPAIR (1): DUALITY AND THE CREATION OF A BLACK CIVIL SOCIETY; 12. RACE AND CIVIL REPAIR (2): THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT AND COMMUNICATIVE SOLIDARITY; 13. RACE AND CIVIL REPAIR (3): CIVIL TRAUMA AND THE TIGHTENING SPIRAL OF COMMUNICATION AND REGULATION; 14. RACE AND CIVIL REPAIR (4). REGULATORY REFORM AND RITUALIZATION; PART IV. MODES OF INCORPORATION INTO THE CIVIL SPHERE; 15. INTEGRATION BETWEEN DIFFERENCE AND SOLIDARITY; 16. ENCOUNTERS WITH THE OTHER; 17. THREE PATHWAYS TO INCORPORATION; 18. THE JEWISH QUESTION: ANTI-SEMITISM AND THE FAILURE OF ASSIMILATION; 19. ANSWERING THE JEWISH QUESTION IN AMERICA: BEFORE AND AFTER THE HOLOCAUST; 20. CONCLUSION: CIVIL SOCIETY AS A PROJECT; NOTES; BIBLIOGRAPHY; INDEX

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Book SynopsisThese essays trace the evolution of British geography as an academic discipline during the last hundred years, and stress how the study of the world we live in is fundamental to an understanding of its problems and concerns. Never before has such an ambitious and wide-ranging review been attempted, and never before has it been done with so much knowledge and passion. The principal themes covered in this volume are those of environment, place and space, and the applied geography of map-making and planning. The volume also addresses specific issues such as disease, urbanization, regional viability, and ethics and social problems. This lively and accessible work offers many insights into the minds and practices of today''s geographers.Trade Reviewan impressive collection of essays penned by a star-studded cast. * Hugh Clout, Australian Geographical Studies *Each essay is scholarly, highly informative, and richly referenced ... this large tome is not a difficult read and is highly appropriate for dipping into ... most welcome. * Environment and Planning *A Century of British Geography is a finely produced and finely written volume. * Trevor Barnes, Journal of Historical Geography *Table of ContentsBritish geography 1500-1900: an imprecise review ; The institutionalisation of geography as an academic discipline ; Physical geography and geography as an environmental science ; The domestication of the earth: humans and environments in prehistoric times ; The creation of humanised landscapes ; People and the contemporary environment ; Place description, regional geography and area studies: the chorographic inheritance ; The passion of place ; Order in space: geography as a discipline in distance ; Global, national and local ; Geography displayed: maps and mapping ; ; The geographical underpinning of society and its radical transformation ; Geography applied ; Geographers and environmental change ; The geography of disease distributions ; Geographers and the urban century ; Geographers and the fragmented city ; Geographers and the regional problem ; Geographers and sexual difference: feminist contributions ; Geographers, ethics and social concern

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewWith public schools under siege, this deep-dive, elegantly written account of how three school districts dramatically boosted graduation rates and closed the racial and ethnic opportunity gap couldn't be more timely. * Deborah Meier, MacArthur "genius" award winner and author of In Schools We Trust *I love this book because it makes one thing crystal clear: You don't need to have superheroes to run successful school systems. Hard, steady work, informed by good evidence and collective professional wisdom in our schools, can take you a long way. Disrupting Disruption shows, in rich detail, how three US school districts keep transforming teaching and learning in their schools—the same principles that earlier lifted Finland's schools to the top. * Pasi Sahlberg, author of Finnish Lessons and co-author of Let the Children Play *David Kirp and his colleagues have always been ahead of the curve in identifying and explaining how successful school districts go about their work. With Kirp and company, you get painstaking methodology and crystal clarity of results. I invite the reader to read and enjoy the book, understand that district success is describable, and then realize that the devil is in the disruption. Above all, Disrupting Disruption has layers of meaning and insight read it carefully and enjoy every morsel. * Michael Fullan, Professor Emeritus and Global Consultant, The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto *Disrupting Disruption has an important and timely message. It calls into question a reform movement that, fueled by abundant self-confidence and self-righteousness, deliberately set out to rearrange the basic landscape of American education. Where the standard reform mantra offers a checklist of off-the-shelf reform cure-alls, Disrupting Disruption suggests that what matters is less the specific things a district does than the way that it does them. And by fessing up to the fact that they have no magic medications to peddle, the authors win the reader over with their forthrightness. * Jeffrey Henig, Professor of Political science & Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and the author of The End of Exceptionalism in American Education: The Changing Politics of School Reform *At a time when the American Dream is dying and quick-fix education fads are making things worse, Disrupting Disruption gives us what we need. Brilliantly analyzed and fluently written, the book offers powerful, practical lessons from three impressive school districts about what we can do to redeem the promise of public education. * Richard D. Kahlenberg, Senior Fellow, The Century Foundation *The authors have done a great service by showing how to debunk the paradigm of 'demography is destiny.' School systems can help all students succeed when they create stable, supportive learning environments where there is a relentless focus on essential ingredients: talented and supported teachers, a challenging and coherent curriculum, high-quality programs, and partnerships with parents and local organizations that reinforce the shared academic mission. These strategies and examples remind us that education is the cornerstone of our democracy—and how we can keep it that way. * Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers *Table of ContentsForeword by Pedro Noguera Introduction: Disruption Versus Steady Work Chapter 1: Union, OK: A Culture of "Us" Chapter 2: Union City, NJ: Learning America Chapter 3: Roanoke, VA: "The Whole Child" is More than a Cliché Chapter 4: The Covid Stress Test Conclusion: Slow and Steady Wins the Race Appendix: Criteria for Selecting the Three Districts Endnotes Index

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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 SynopsisIn many countries, abortion is a contentious public opinion issue. In nations like the United States, advocates on both sides of the debate have actively worked to amplify their voices and change legislation. In other parts of the world, such as China, abortion is not a major discussion topic because many residents may see it as a relatively settled issue. Legal developments often move in accordance with changes in public opinion, but not always. What explains differences in public opinion about abortion around the globe?Fetal Positions explores this question using large-scale surveys from most of the world''s population, interviews with experts from two case study countries, the US and China, and an analysis of newspaper articles from over forty countries. The book examines the factors influencing cross-national abortion rates and individual abortion decisions, investigates the relationship between attitudes and laws, and explores how personal and national characteristics shape views on abortion. In Fetal Positions, Amy Adamczyk makes the case that abortion disapproval is not randomly distributed across the world. In fact, patterns can be found across nations. Adamczyk shows that cross-national differences in public opinion can largely be explained based on a handful of factors--overall levels of religious belief, Catholic proportion, economic and educational development, type of government and government history, and gender inequality. Latin America, for example, is dominated by Catholicism, has high levels of religious belief, and low levels of abortion support. Conversely, while France and Spain have strong historical connections to the Catholic Church, the proportion who feel that religion is highly important is much lower, and attitudes are more liberal. By offering important insights that can only be gleaned through cross-national analysis, Fetal Positions provides an international focus and fresh perspective on the abortion debate.

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Book SynopsisInstitutions of Law offers an original account of the nature of law and legal systems in the contemporary world. It provides the definitive statement of Sir Neil MacCormick''s well-known ''institutional theory of law'', defining law as ''institutional normative order'' and explaining each of these three terms in depth. It attempts to fulfil the need for a twenty-first century introduction to legal theory marking a fresh start such as was achieved in the last century by H. L. A. Hart''s The Concept of Law. It is written with a view to elucidating law, legal concepts and legal institutions in a manner that takes account of current scholarly controversies but does not get bogged down in them. It shows how law relates to the state and civil society, establishing the conditions of social peace and a functioning economy. In so doing, it takes account of recent developments in the sociology of law, particularly ''system theory''. It also seeks to clarify the nature of claims to ''knowledge ofTrade ReviewMacCormick's general theory of law finds his most detailed expression in Institutions of Law. This book...is an elucidation of the concept of law as a kind of institutional normative order realised prominently...in the modern state. * Cristobal Orrego, University of the Andes, Chile, Jurisprudence *Table of ContentsPreface ; Acknowledgements ; PART I: NORM, INSTITUTION AND ORDER ; 1. On Normative Order ; 2. On Institutional Order ; 3. Law and the Constitutional State ; 4. A Problem: Rules or Habits? ; PART II: LEGAL POSITIONS AND RELATIONS ; 5. On Persons ; 6. Wrongs and Duties ; 7. Rights and Obligations ; 8. Legal Relations and Things: Property ; 9. Legal Powers and Validity ; PART III: LAW STATE AND CIVIL SOCIETY ; 10. Powers and Public Law: Law and Politics ; 11. Constraints on Power: Fundamental Rights ; 12. Criminal Law and Civil Society: Law and Morality ; 13. Private Law and Civil Society: Law and Economy ; PART IV: LAW, VALUE AND METHOD ; 14. Positive Law and Moral Autonomy ; 15. On Law and Justice ; 16. Laws and Values: Reflections on Method

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