Social theory Books

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Book SynopsisOf interest to students and scholars of international relations theory, global history, and international organizations, this book sheds light on why international institutions remain torn between extending political equality to new actors and monopolizing political rights for an exclusive set of members - and how demands for equality can lead to new inequalities.Trade Review'In this outstanding book, Lora Ann Viola shows that inclusion and exclusion are two faces of the same coin. Institutional processes that foster equality in world politics inevitably enshrine forms of inequality in parallel. This insightful argument makes for a particularly lucid account of the tragic and antagonistic nature of international history and society.' Vincent Pouliot, James McGill Professor, Department of Political Science, McGill University'The Closure of the International System is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the broad changes in global governance since the emergence of the modern state-system. Viola skillfully builds on the Weberian idea of social closure to offer an innovative and comprehensive theoretical approach that explains simultaneous trends towards greater equality and inequality in world politics. The long historical time-frame and detailed accounts of the evolution of diplomacy, international law, and international organizations offer convincing evidence to support the study's main arguments. Through an excellent mix of theoretical analysis and empirical evidence, the book generates important insights regarding potential future developments in international relations.' Alexandru Grigorescu, Professor, Department of Political Science, Loyola University Chicago'Lora Anne Viola has written what will certainly become the go-to text for anyone interested in international clubs and social closure in the international system. Theoretically rich and historically well-grounded, this book is also an absolute pleasure to read. I have been recommending it everyone since I first came across it…' Ayşe Zarakol, Reader in International Relations, University of Cambridge'Sovereign equality and institutionalized inequality are two sides of the same coin. In this theoretically deep and historically rich book, Lora Viola shows masterfully the complex dynamics of the institutionalization of sovereignty, diplomacy and international cooperation. An excellent book.' Michael Zürn, Director of the research unit Global Governance, WZB Berlin Social Science Center, and Professor of International Relations, Freie Universität Berlin'... the book's provocative argument and wide-ranging applications provide fertile ground for studies of hierarchy in international relations, like its author intended.' Marina G. Duque, International Relations'The book develops a closure theory to explain why the rules and institutions of the international system exhibit this mix of equality and inequality of rights and privileges.' G. John Ikenberry, Foreign AffairsTable of Contents1. False promises of universalism: the interdependent logics of equality and inequality in the international system; 2. The closure thesis: social closure, club dynamics, and stratification in the international system; 3. 'The master institution': diplomacy, practices of closure, and the emergence of an international system in early modern Europe; 4. 'Dwarves and giants': international law, the monopolization of sovereign rights, and stratification in the international system; 5. International organizations: between sovereign equality and the institutionalization of inequality; 6. What remains of the promise of equality?; Index.

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Book SynopsisAstonishing lessons of social psychology that can make the world a dramatically better placeTrade Review"This book shines piercing illumination on one of today’s most timely topics—the causes and consequences of belonging to modern social groups. Importantly, it maps scientifically grounded routes to minimizing the harmful consequences while optimizing the positive ones. The world needs this book." -- Robert B. Cialdini, author of Influence and Pre-Suasion"This book is a beacon of hope for our fractured times. A leading expert on belonging offers an engaging analysis of the science and practice of breaking down the barriers between people and building bridges to a more respectful world." -- Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again"Belonging combines rich science, compelling stories, and beautiful prose to illuminate the social psychological principles behind the need to belong and how to foster belonging and connection in a fractured world. Reading this book will yield insights into your own motivation and behavior and will help you understand the source of many pressing problems of our time." -- Sonja Lyubomirsky, author of The How of Happiness"No one before Geoffrey L. Cohen has pulled together all the research relevant to diversity and inclusion in a single volume, helping us to understand belonging through a social psychological lens. The book is masterful, showcasing highly effective interventions. An inspiration!" -- Peter Salovey, president of Yale University

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Book SynopsisFrom 2016-2018, teachers and students at the State University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil found themselves at the center of a crisis. A new right-wing government suspended payment of staff salaries and student scholarships and stopped funding basic maintenance. Everyday Acts of Design tells the story of how the university's design school reacted to the crisis: not with despondency or despair, but by promoting a series of radical teaching experiments. Working together, students, alumni, teachers, and staff embraced hope as a method, demonstrating that it is possible to find positive answers even in a situation of imminent collapse. The case histories narrated in the book provide alternatives to conventional forms of design teaching, but also prove that education can be a site for democracy and the practice of freedom. Deprived of the activity of creating for an imagined future, design can still assert a way forward through practices of making and experimenting. Drawing on their persoTrade ReviewZoy Anastassakis and Marcos Martins take us on a personal journey through the challenges of leadership, management and teaching in a design school during times of uncertainty, precariousness and government neglect in Brazil. Weaving together stories of everyday experiences demonstrating at once alternative ways of thinking design acts, the resilience of educators and students, and the bonds that are developed when a situation and a state is on the brink of collapse, this book is an urgent read for all design students and educators. -- Dana Abdullah, University of the Arts London, UKIn this account of a present intensively lived, Anastassakis and Martins reveal the individual struggles and collective actions of ESDI’s prodigious community of precarious lives. Reimagining the first and foremost design education institution in Brazil, Latin America and the Portuguese language demanded shuffling functions, challenging privileges and questioning conventions. But also claiming resistance, vulnerability, care, interdependence, coexistence and solidarity as essential terms of a design lexicon they generously share with us in this momentous book. -- Frederico Duarte, University of Lisbon, PortugalHope is perhaps the element to be harnessed in a time that insists on oppressing and in which different ways of doing things are designed to circumvent the investments of domination. In these margins, scribbling is the act of imprinting life, whether it be to inscribe battles and continuity, or to strike through the logics that paint a world obsessed with a single, exclusive method. Education, when it becomes an inventive and radical stroke of life, affirms itself as an ordinary task, as everyday acts that give other contours to the margins. -- Luiz Rufino, Rio de Janeiro State University, BrazilTable of ContentsList of Figures Foreword, Timothy Ingold (University of Aberdeen, UK) Acknowledgements Historical Background Map and ESDI Ground Plan Introduction 1. Landing 2. Curriculum 3. A Land-slipping panic 4. Drawing Together 5. Crisis 6. Design Research 7. Impasses and Correspondences 8. How do you get to the university? 9. Walking barefoot Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisOffers an original contribution to the field by focusing on epistemic tensions in socio-technical systems.Table of Contents1. Introduction: Tense Thinking and the Myths of an Algorithmic New Life 2. The Pursuit of Posthuman Security 3. Overstepping and the Navigation of the Perceived Limits of Algorithmic Thinking 4. (Dreaming of) Super Cognizers and the Stretching of the Known 5. The Presences of Nonknowledge 6. Conclusion: Algorithmic Thinking and the Will to Automate

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE SABEW MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP BUSINESS BOOK AWARD''Thought-provoking'' Wall Street Journal''A must-read'' Donald C. Hambrick''Insightful . . . reminds us why and how expertise matters'' Herminia Ibarra What makes a great leader? This is the question Amanda Goodall has been asking for the last twenty years. From boardrooms and F1 race tracks to healthcare and scientific innovation, her research has proven time and again that when it comes to leadership, we need bosses with a deep understanding of the worlds in which they operate. That''s what makes the people around them feel happier, more motivated and productive.Credible identifies the key characteristics of good leaders and a new model for career success, by combining expertise with the leadership development experts need to succeed.In a world short of trust, Goodall shows us that when it comes to leadership, c

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Book SynopsisAs an African American cultural anthropologist and CEO of an urban research institute, D.B. Maroon is intimately involved with the nation’s struggle to realize its promises equally for all people. Her work is to put those stories into the big picture of American culture—past, present, and future. Intersectional, personal, and hard-hitting in places, while ultimately centering on truth, love and perseverance, Black Lives, American Love weaves the stories of America’s pursuits with Maroon’s own experiences. The result is a personal biography of America offered from the thoughtful viewpoint of a Black anthropologist. The essays take on some of the country’s fiercest debates and most profound challenges with an unflinching style: from the invention of race and debates about the 1619 project, to the rippling impacts of resurgent White Nationalism, the birth of Black Lives Matter Movement, and the ongoing traumas of police brutality. Yet within its pages is the hopeful continuance of the Black community, the striving for better, the grappling with the hurt in order to soothe it with love, and to heal it with peace.Black Lives, American Love is arelentless truth-telling about America’s failures to its Black population—yet itis also a discussion on how we might all do more to secure America’s still vastlybeautiful possibilities of liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all rather than afew.

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Book SynopsisOn The New Cosmopolitan is an exploration of cosmopolitanism and its 21st-century manifestation in Dubai. “What do I see? Neon contours of a building at night. A near-empty walkway with a flashing monitor that reads: “Dubai Digital Park”; in the morning I see a concrete expanse of flat apartment rooftops amidst a humid, sand-infused horizon, the steaming heat of the desert temperature in August. Plasma screens along a walkway show various scenes of people eating, exercising, shopping, the only people I see. I am in an area called Silicon Oasis. Dubai, a city where 70% of the world is within an 8-hour plane flight from its airport, was built to represent the geographical factuality of its being a crossroads between East and West. A contemporary city of spectacle and the spectacular, it caters to all manner of the gaze.

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Book SynopsisCrisis is a buzzword, but what does it actually mean? Many argue that multiple crises coexist, but how are they actually related? If crises are defining our time, why isn’t there a proper socialist crisis policy?This book analyses economic and ecological crises, partly to understand the crisis itself, but, even more, to understand capitalism. Crises are not exceptions to an otherwise functioning capitalism, but integral parts of the system. Still, socialists often cling to the hope that crises are ’opportunities’, and resort to Keynesianism as soon as they need concrete policies. In contrast, this book shows how capitalism produces crises and how crises reproduce capitalism.There are crucial similarities between the crises: rooted in capitalism and having similar class characters. But there are also differences. Economic crises are solved through creative destruction, and the ruling class will ensure that these crises are resolved at any cost. But neit

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Book SynopsisIn The Zone, Justinien Tribillon takes the reader on a tour of an eponymous Parisian hinterland. The site of dreams and nightmares, from Van Gogh’s paintings to the cinematic violence of La Haine, the Zone, so often misun- derstood, is the key to understanding today’s Paris, and even France itself.Originally the site of defensive walls, alongside which mushroomed makeshift housing, allotments, and dancehalls in the nineteenth century, the Zone has performed many functions and been a place of contention for two centuries. Dismantled in the 1920s, the fortifications were first replaced with gardens, stadia and homes. After the war came the Boulevard Périphérique, a ring road promising seamless travel in a futuristic car-centric Paris. With the ring road came new dreams of modernity in reinvented suburbs: new towns, high-rise architecture and social housing built at record speed. Yesterday’s Paris made way for tomorrow’s banlieue.

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Book SynopsisActing as a follow up to Volume 41 of Studies in Symbolic Interaction (2013), Symbolic Interaction and Inequality explores further the concept of Radical Interactionism, a perspective of researching domination and subordination introduced by scholar Lonnie Athens.Demonstrating advancements made in Radical Interactionism over the past decade, chapters examine the omnipresent and insidious nature of inequality as well as its social construction among family members, cisgender and gender-diverse people, as well as university students and personnel, particularly college athletes.Highlighting fruitful accomplishments achieved by a range of symbolic interactionists, this volume exhibits the significance of studying inequality, a venture that not only enriches symbolic interactionism but human life as a whole.

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Book SynopsisIn the past four or so decades, a significant amount of research efforts has been made to examine the rapid and constant social changes in China. However, most of the literature has focused on either macro- or micro-level issues, and what has not been adequately analysed is how the majority of ordinary people has reacted to and influenced the changes. This inadequacy has affected our understanding of Chinese society, its dynamics and the changing trends. Drawing upon a new perspective of competitive social repositioning, and the evidence recorded in numerous recent publications and interview data, this book seeks to re-examine the ever-changing, but under-researched, societal dynamics driving social transformations in China from 1964, when the communist heir narrative was rebranded and utilised, to 2000, when Jiang Zemin formulated the Three-Represents theory to modify the ideological political thinking of China's ruling elites. This analysis focuses on how a high proportion of aspirational citizens have kept repositioning themselves in China's changing distributions of social resources and social structure, how their attitudes and behaviours have been shaped over time, what characteristics of their choices are at different stages, and how their preferences have resulted in the zig-zag patterns of China's recent social change.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"A characteristically feisty final statement from one of the greatest anthropologists of the past century."---Jonathan Spencer, Science"Sahlins is perhaps one of the last great anthropological time travelers, unashamed of his vocation, and openly committed to immersing himself in ways of being that were not originally his own, or at least trying his hardest to do so. We may not see his like again."---Vincent P. Pecora, European Legacy"Sahlins makes his case forcefully, eloquently, and with passion. Right, wrong, partial, or not, The New Science of the Enchanted Universe is a feisty anthropological contribution that will be good to teach with within the academy and good to think with way beyond the narrow confines of anthropology."---David N. Gellner, Society

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Book SynopsisIn Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory Patricia Hill Collins offers a set of analytical tools for those wishing to develop intersectionality''s capability to theorize social inequality in ways that would facilitate social change. While intersectionality helps shed light on contemporary social issues, Collins notes that it has yet to reach its full potential as a critical social theory. She contends that for intersectionality to fully realize its power, its practitioners must critically reflect on its assumptions, epistemologies, and methods. She places intersectionality in dialog with several theoretical traditions—from the Frankfurt school to black feminist thought—to sharpen its definition and foreground its singular critical purchase, thereby providing a capacious interrogation into intersectionality''s potential to reshape the world.Trade Review“With remarkable brilliance and breadth, Patricia Hill Collins examines the theoretical dimensions of intersectionality in new ways and in dialogue with other influential social theories and resistant knowledges. Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory explains why critical social theory matters in the real world and how intersectionality can achieve its potential as a tool for social action needed to transform the world for the better. Once again, Patricia Hill Collins shines as a masterful scholar of critical inquiry, politics, and social change.” -- Dorothy Roberts, author of * Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty *“Anyone who claims the mantle of Black feminist theorist is standing in the house Patricia Hill Collins built. She is one of our most important intellectual architects. Here she continues to be at her very best, asking the thorny questions that those of us who are scholars and practitioners of intersectionality often avoid. Collins reminds us what it looks like to use ideas in service of freedom projects, demanding at every turn that we do it with integrity, rigor, and a critical attention to the high stakes nature of social justice work. This book resets our freedom compass, reminding us both of what our work is and for whom we do it.” -- Brittney Cooper, author of * Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower *"This remarkable monograph expresses the most important facets of the critical lens. . . [and] gives hope that collective social action has the potential to affect democratic change even under conditions of multiple oppressions." -- Anna Amelina & Jana Schäfer * Ethnic and Racial Studies *"Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals." -- I. Ken * Choice *“This book constitutes an extremely valuable resource for students, activists, and scholars who, while having already engaged with foundational texts on the topic, seek to deepen their understanding of intersectionality. Further, Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory also opens a door for those who wish to continue the intellectual journey of theorizing intersectionality that Collins eloquently embarks on. -- Miriam Yosef * KULT_online *“This book is more than a mere investigation of the theoretical of methodological aspects of intersectionality.... Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory is a book that cannot be missed by scholars, activists, and students of all disciplines.” -- C. Laura Lovin * Feminist Encounters *“Intersectionality as Critical SocialTheory is required reading for academics, activists and educators working across and between disciplines including feminist studies, philosophy, critical race theory, sociology, and education. Now more than ever, Professor Hill Collins is essential.” -- Adina Giannelli * Gender and Education *“Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory is a dense and exceedingly thoughtful book. Collins is careful and focused, asking hard questions about the nature of social theory and theorizing.” -- Rose M. Brewer * American Journal of Sociology *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Part I. Framing the Issues: Intersectionality and Critical Social Theory 1. Intersectionality as Critical Inquiry 21 2. What's Critical about Critical Social Theory? 54 Part II. How Power Matters: Intersectionality and Intellectual Resistance 3. Intersectionality and Resistant Knowledge Projects 87 4. Intersectionality and Epistemic Resistance 121 Part III. Theorizing Intersectionality: Social Action as a Way of Knowing 5. Intersectionality, Experience, and Community 157 6. Intersectionality and the Question of Freedom 189 Part IV. Sharpening Intersectionality's Critical Edge 7. Relationality within Intersectionality 225 8. Intersectionality without Social Justice? 253 Epilogue. Intersectionality and Social Change 286 Appendix 291 Notes 295 References 331 Notes 353

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Book SynopsisHow do childcare, healthcare, education, family life and the roles of gender, race and sexuality affect our lives under capitalism?Trade Review'Theoretically robust and empirically grounded chapters demonstrate the enduring value of a Marxist feminist approach. A welcome collection!' -- Rosemary Hennessy, L.H. Favrot Professor of Humanities and Professor of English, Rice University, and author of Profit and Pleasure: Sexual Identities in Late Capitalism'The varied and suggestive essays in this rich collection are of great value, not only to newcomers to the field, but also to those already grounded in this rich arena for inquiry and organising' -- Hester Eisenstein, author of Feminism Seduced: How Global Elites Use Women's Labour and Ideas to Exploit the World (2009)'A must read for those who want to go beyond the binaries and the 'social' conceived as an aggregation of intersecting systems or overlapping spheres. It is an ambitious project aiming for epistemologies of resistance' -- Himani Bannerji, author of The Dark Side of the Nation: Essays on Multiculturalism, Nationalism, and Gender (2000)'A marvellous new collection' -- Jordy Rosenberg, Los Angeles Review of Books'Every socialist needs to read it now' -- Socialist Action'Feminist thinking about questions of social reproduction offers a much-needed break with the impasse that mainstream feminism finds itself in - and this collection provides a fantastic weapon for that task' -- Red PepperTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Foreword by Lise Vogel 1. Introduction: Mapping Social Reproduction Theory - Tithi Bhattacharya 2. Crisis of Care? On the Social-Reproductive Contradictions of Contemporary Capitalism - Nancy Fraser 3. Without Reserves - Salar Mohandesi and Emma Teitelman 4. How Not to Skip Class: Social Reproduction of Labor and the Global Working Class - Tithi Bhattacharya 5. Intersections and Dialectics: Critical Reconstructions in Social Reproduction Theory - David McNally 6. Children, Childhood and Capitalism: A Social Reproduction Perspective - Susan Ferguson 7. Mostly Work, Little Play: Social Reproduction, Migration and Paid Domestic Work in Montreal - Carmen Teeple Hopkins 8. Pensions and Social Reproduction - Serap Saritas Oran 9. Body Politics: The Social Reproduction of Sexualities - Alan Sears 10. From Social Reproduction Feminism to the Women's Strike - Cinzia Arruzza Notes Index

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Book Synopsis* A new, fully updated edition of a now classic text. * The text has been completely revised to take into account developments of the past 14 years, since History and Social Theory was first published. * Topics which have been added and that are now treated in depth include globalization, postcolonialism and social capital.Trade Review“This remains an excellent and (still) timely call for greater cross-fertilization between two disciplines that approach the same subject from different but complementary angles. Alongside the quality of the writing and the argument this book provides many useful references on the 'classical' works that have shaped both disciplines. For the relative newcomer as for the specialist this is a reminder of how much we can glean not just from social theory and history today, but also from the social theorists and historians who preceded us.” History “A work of great clarity and wide scope, History and Social Theory offers the reader quick access to the key issues in the field with pithy and focused discussions of its problems, claims, contentions, and work yet to be done.” Herman Lebovics, SUNY Stony Brook “This is a really excellent book and should be prescribed reading for any serious student of history or social theory at any teaching level. It should also attract large numbers of admiring general readers.” Robert W. Scibner, Clare College, Cambridge Table of Contents Preface 1 THEORISTS AND HISTORIANS A Dialogue of the Deaf The Differentiation of History and Theory The Dismissal of the Past The Rise of Social History The Convergence of Theory and History 2 MODELS AND METHODS Comparisons Models Quantitative Methods The Social Microscope 3 CENTRAL CONCEPTS Roles and Performances Sex and Gender Family and Kinship Communities and Identities Class and Status Social Mobility and Social Distinction Consumption and Exchange Social and Cultural Capital Patrons and Clients Power and the Public Sphere Centres and Peripheries Hegemony and Resistance Social Protest and Social Movements Mentalities, Ideologies, Discourses Communication and Reception Postcolonialism and Cultural Hybridity Orality and Textuality Memory and Myth 4 CENTRAL PROBLEMS Rationality versus Relativism Concepts of Culture Consensus versus Conflict Facts versus Fictions Structures versus Agents Functionalism The Example of Venice Structuralism The Return of the Actor 5 SOCIAL THEORY AND SOCIAL CHANGE Spencer's Model Marx's Model A Third Way? Essays in Synthesis Patterns of Population Patterns of Culture Encounters The Importance of Events Generations 6 POSTMODERNITY AND POSTMODERNISM Destabilization Cultural Constructions Decentering Beyond Eurocentrism? Globalization To Conclude Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisWhy is our society so unequal? Why, despite their small numbers, do the rich dominate policy and politics even in democratic countries? Why is it often difficult for working people to organize around common interests? How do we begin building a more equal and democratic society? These are the questions that are answered in Confronting Capitalism.Even though political organizing can be very hard, political education does not have to be. This will be the book that a generation of socialists turn to for strategy and understanding. Combining elements of Marxism and modern social science with clear language, Chibber is able to outline the core dynamics of our economy and politics. This book provides an indispensable map of how our world works and a proposal for how socialists might overcome the odds and build a democratic and egalitarian future.Trade ReviewThis is an extraordinary book on the dynamics and politics of capitalism. I cannot think of anyone other than Chibber who could achieve such clarity and such depth. -- Anwar Shaikh, Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research and author of Capitalism: Competition, Conflict, Crises.Arriving just as we're all tempted by despair, Confronting Capitalism brilliantly illuminates our current predicament and guides us towards the only way out. Chibber reminds us that there is no way to fight injustice without confronting capital. And there is no effective confrontation of capital without a mass working-class movement. This book is both a clear primer for new leftists as well as a clarifying call to arms for seasoned veterans. -- Krystal Ball, host of Breaking Points and Krystal Kyle & FriendsA lucid and compelling account of the essential nature of capitalism, and how its shackles can be removed by a revived labor movement animated by a commitment to solidarity and the common good. -- Noam ChomskyIn this slim but mighty account, a social theorist tackles the issues of global inequality, extreme wealth, and rampant corruption in democratic countries, while explaining the structures of international capitalism and how the world can move toward a more equitable future. -- Miguel Salazar * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisGeoff Mulgan, a pioneer in the global field of social innovation, explains how it provides answers to today’s global social, economic and sustainability issues. He argues for matching R&D in technology and science with a socially focused R&D and harnessing creative imagination on a larger scale than ever before.Trade Review"Mulgan’s wide-ranging vision and extensive experience are on display in this whirlwind tour of the prospects and challenges facing social innovators. Enjoy the ride!" Mark H. Moore, Harvard UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction: the great imbalances I MAKING SENSE OF SOCIAL INNOVATION What is social innovation and how is it done? The roots of social innovation and the fragile springs of social generativity II. CHALLENGES, ROADBLOCKS AND SYSTEMS The political context for social innovation now: thesis, antithesis and synthesis Structural change and new social contracts: how innovation in welfare can address changing needs Social production systems: what is the best unit for analysis and action? Place-based systems change: how can governments, funders and civil society achieve more together? III. SOURCES, IDEAS AND WAYS OF SEEING The theoretical foundations of social innovation: sources, ideas and future directions Social science and intelligence design Observation, interpretation and activism: sociology's role in social change Understanding how cultures change A theory of belonging: how do we feel at home? The interpretation of social change IV GOOD AND BAD SOCIAL INNOVATION Know Your Impact (and in praise of better borrowing) The evolution of measures that matter: how do we know if social innovation is working? Good and bad innovation: what theory and practice do we need to distinguish them? V SOCIAL INNOVATION AND THE FUTURE Social innovation in the 2020s Thinking about the future VI FRESH THINKING

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Book SynopsisDrawing on advances in social science, evolutionary biology, genetics, neuroscience and network science, Blueprint shows how and why evolution has placed us on a humane path -- and how we are united by our common humanity. For too long, scientists have focused on the dark side of our biological heritage: our capacity for aggression, cruelty, prejudice, and self-interest. But natural selection has given us a suite of beneficial social features, including our capacity for love, friendship, cooperation, and learning. Beneath all our inventions - our tools, farms, machines, cities, nations - we carry with us innate proclivities to make a good society. In Blueprint, Nicholas A. Christakis introduces the compelling idea that our genes affect not only our bodies and behaviors, but also the ways in which we make societies, ones that are surprisingly similar worldwide. With many vivid examples -- including diverse historical and contemporary cultures, communities formed in the wake of shipwrecks, commune dwellers seeking utopia, online groups thrown together by design or involving artificially intelligent bots and even the tender and complex social arrangements of elephants and dolphins that so resemble our own - Christakis shows that, despite a human history replete with violence, we cannot escape our social blueprint for goodness. In a world of increasing political and economic polarisation, it''s tempting to ignore the positive role of our evolutionary past. But by exploring the ancient roots of goodness in civilisation, Blueprint shows that our genes have shaped societies for our welfare and that, in a feedback loop stretching back many thousands of years, societies have shaped and are still shaping, our genes today.

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Book SynopsisThe creation of the Frankfurt School of critical theory in the 1920s saw the birth of some of the most exciting and challenging writings of the twentieth century. It is out of this background that the great critic Theodor Adorno emerged. His finest essays are collected here, offering the reader unparalleled insights into Adorno's thoughts on culture. He argued that the culture industry commodified and standardized all art. In turn this suffocated individuality and destroyed critical thinking. At the time, Adorno was accused of everything from overreaction to deranged hysteria by his many detractors. In today's world, where even the least cynical of consumers is aware of the influence of the media, Adorno's work takes on a more immediate significance. The Culture Industry is an unrivalled indictment of the banality of mass culture.Trade Review'A volume of Adorno's essays is equivalent to a whole shelf of books on literature.' - Susan Sontag'Adorno expounds what may be called a new philosophy of consciousness. His philosophy lives, dangerously but also fruitfully, in proximity to an ascetic puritanical moral rage, an attachment to some items in the structure and vocabulary of Marxism, and a feeling that human suffering is the only important thing and makes nonsense of everything else ... Adorno is a political thinker who wishes to bring about radical change. He is also a philosopher, with a zest for metaphysics, who is at home in the western philosophical tradition.' - Iris Murdoch'A highly misanthropic but very funny and true analysis of the power and effect of the mass media.' - Alain de Botton, Daily TelegraphTable of ContentsA cknowledgements I ntroduction -- On the Fetish Character in Music and the Regression of Listening -- The Schema of Mass Culture -- Culture Industry Reconsidered -- Culture and Administration -- Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda -- How to Look at Television -- Transparencies on Film -- Free Time -- Resignation -- Name I ndex S ubject I ndex

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Book SynopsisBetween the years 1964 and 1974, Ethiopian post-secondary students studying at home, in Europe, and in North America produced a number of journals. In them, these students explored the relationship between social theory and social change within the project of building a socialist Ethiopia. Ethiopia in Theory examines the literature of this student movement, together with the movement 's afterlife in Ethiopian politics and society, in order to ask a vital question: what does it mean to write today about the appropriation and indigenisation of Marxist and mainstream social science ideas in an Ethiopian and African context? And, further, what does the archive of revolutionary thought in Africa teach us about the practice of critical theory more generally?Trade Review"This superb book will transform all discussions concerning the production of knowledge. Ranging through the archives, moving across philosophy and critical theory, and traversing social history, Ethiopia in Theory frames a stunningly original account of the Ethiopian student movement of the 1960s and '70s as a site for the production of radical social science. Rather than the mere reception of revolutionary theory in an African context, Zeleke shows us the dynamics of its generation. There is truly nothing in the literature that comes close to the depth of this multi-leveled, interdisciplinary study. Zeleke 's outstanding book deserves the widest possible readership in social history, African studies, post-colonial analysis, and Marxist and critical theory in general." --David McNally, Cullen Distinguished Professor of History, University of Houston, author of Monsters of the Market: Zombies, Vampires and Global CapitalismTable of ContentsForeword by Donald L. DonhamAcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsNote on CitationsIntroductionPart 1 Knowledge Production and Social Change in Ethiopia1 The Children of the Revolution: Toward an Alternative Method2 Social Science Is a Battlefield: Rethinking the Historiography of the Ethiopian Revolution3 Challenge: Social Science in the Literature of the Ethiopian Student Movement4 When Social Science Concepts Become Neutral Arbiters of Social Conflict: Rethinking the 2005 Elections in Ethiopia5 Passive Revolution: Living in the Aftermath of the 2005 ElectionsPart 2 Theory as Memoir6 The Problem of the Social Sciences in AfricaBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisIn this important new book, leading cultural theorist and philosopher Bernard Stiegler re-examines the relationship between politics and art in the contemporary world. Our hyper-industrial epoch represents what Stiegler terms a 'katastroph of the sensible'.Trade Review"What links Andy Warhol, Bela Bartok, Glenn Gould and Joseph Beuys? This, says Stiegler: each in his own way understood the decisive changes brought about in the arts by their entanglement in networks of industrial production and commercial consumption, and each also realized that this entanglement called into question whether any of us - actual or merely potential artists - could any longer be said to participate in the creation and circulation of symbols. This is the question of what Stiegler terms �symbolic misery�, and he answers it with characteristic defiance. If we are indeed excluded from such participation, then the possibility of overturning this state of affairs is everywhere around us: in precisely those technical forms we more usually experience as feeding our addiction to alienation. All that is needed is to transform these from poison into cure, which is to say: to learn how to use them! This is a work of sober, impassioned understanding." Martin Crowley, Queens� College, Cambridge "In Symbolic Misery one of Europe�s leading contemporary thinkers offers indispensable insights into modern technology and its influence on the ways we come to think and feel. Stiegler does not simply diagnose a collective malaise, however; his writing is a call to arms and a programme for a total rethinking of our relationship to technical objects." Ian James, Downing College, CambridgeTable of ContentsCall to Adventure Notice to the Reader Prologue with Chorus Sensibility’s Machinic Turn and Music’s Privilege I Sensing through Participation Or the Art of Acting Out II Setting Out From Warhol and Beuys III Us All Individuation as Trans-formation and Trans-formation as Social Sculpture IV Freud’s Repression Where the Living Seize the Dead and Vice Versa V The Disjunctive Conjunction Mais où est donc Ornicar?

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Book SynopsisA well-rounded, well-informed critique of the Pacific island nation of Japan, its society, economy, demography, and politics

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Book SynopsisWith numerous examples to supplement her rich theoretical discussion, the author builds a compelling philosophical argument for an ethics based on natural caring, as in the care of a mother for her child. She discusses the extent to which we may truly care for plants, animals, or ideas.Table of ContentsACKNOWLEDGMENTS PREFACE TO THE 2013 EDITION PREFACE TO THE 2003 EDITION INTRODUCTION 1. WHY CARE ABOUT CARING? The fundamental nature of caring What does it mean to care? Problems arising in the analysis of one-caring The cared-for Aesthetical caring Caring and acting Ethics and caring 2. THE ONE-CARING Receiving Thinking and feeling: turning points Guilt and courage Women and caring Circles and chains Asymmetry and reciprocity in caring The ethical ideal and the ethical self Rules and conflicts 3. THE CARED-FOR The one-caring's attitude and its effects Apprehension of caring necessary to the caring relationship; unequal meetings Reciprocity The ethics of being cared for 4. AN ETHIC OF CARING From natural to ethical caring Obligation Right and wrong The problem of justification Women and morality: virtue The toughness of caring 5. CONSTRUCTION OF THE IDEAL The nature of the ideal Constraints and attainability Diminished ethical capacity Nurturing the ideal Maintaining the ideal 6. ENHANCING THE IDEAL: JOY Our basic reality and affect How should we describe emotion? Perception and emotion: the object of emotion and its appraisal Emotions as reasons Joy as exalted Receptivity and joy in intellectual work Joy as basic affect 7. CARING FOR ANIMALS, PLANTS, THINGS AND IDEAS Our relation with animals Our relation to plants Things and ideas Summary 8. MORAL EDUCATION What is moral education? The one-caring as teacher Dialogue Practice Confirmation Organizing schools for caring AFTERWORD NOTES SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX

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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 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 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 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 SynopsisTrade Reviewa substantive analysis * Bernice Martin, Church Times *A thoroughly argued, intriguing book. * Michael McCallion, Catholic Books Review *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Chapter 1. History of Religion as Critique of Religion? David Hume and the Consequences Chapter 2. Religious Experience and the Theory of Signs Chapter 3. Ritual and the Sacred. On the Anthropology of Ideal Formation Chapter 4. Multiple Forms of Ideal Formation or Process of Disenchantment? Attempts at Synthesis by Ernst Troeltsch and Max Weber Chapter 5. Transcendence as Reflexive Sacredness. The 'Axial Age' as a Turning Point in Religious History Chapter 6. Fields of Tension. A New Interpretation of Max Weber's 'Intermediate Reflection' Chapter 7. The Sacred and Power. Collective Self-Sacralization and Ways of Overcoming it Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisDemocratic equality entails a principle that everyone whose basic interests are affected by policies should be included in the process of making them. Yet individuals and groups often claim that decision making processes are dominated by only some of the interests and perspectives in the society. What are the ideals of inclusion through which such criticisms should be made, and which might guide more inclusive political practice? This book considers that question from the point of view of norms of democratic communication, processes of representation and association, and how wide the scope of political jurisdictions should be. Democratic theorists have not sufficiently attended to the ways processes of debate and decision making often marginalize individuals and groups because the norms of political discussion are biased against some forms of expression. Inclusion and Democracy broadens our understanding of democratic communication by reflecting on the positive political functions of nTrade ReviewYoung advances a nuanced way of thinking about the problem of political exclusion, and its potential remedies ... Young's book is a timely intervention urging an enlargement of political vision. Inclusion and Democracy is an important text, which will rightly generate a deal of provocative debate. * Radical Philosophy *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; Democracy and Justice ; Inclusive Political Communication ; Social Difference as a Political Resource ; Representation and Social Perspective ; Civil Society and Its Limits ; Residential Segregation and Regional Democracy ; Self-Determination and Global Democracy

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Book SynopsisThe first edition of Sexual Conduct, published in 1973, swiftly became a landmark text in the sociology of sexuality. It went on to profoundly shape the ideas of several generations of scholars and has become the foundation text of what is now known as the social constructionist approach to sexuality. The present edition, revised, updated, and containing new introductory and concluding materials, introduces a classic text to a new generation of students and professionals.Traditional views of human sexuality posit models of man and woman in which biological arrangements are translated into sociocultural imperatives. This is best summarized in the phrase anatomy is destiny. Consequently, the almost exclusive concern has been with the power of biology and nature in sexual conduct as opposed to understanding the significance and impact of social life. In Sexual Conduct, Gagnon and Simon lucidly argue that sexual activities, of all kinds, may be understood as theTable of ContentsForeword: Permanence and Change: Sexual Conduct Thirty Years On Kenneth PlummerPreface to the Second Edition John H. GagnonAcknowledgments to the First Edition1. The Social Origins of Sexual Development 2. Childhood and Adolescence 3. Postadolescent Sexual Development 4. The Pedagogy of Sex 5. Homosexuality Among Men 6. A Conformity Greater than Deviance: The Lesbian 7. The Prostitution of Women 8. Homosexual Conduct in Prison 9. Pornography: Social Scripts and Legal Dilemmas 10. Social Change and Sexual ConductAfterword: The Struggle Over Sexual Change Since 1970 John H. GagnonThe Writing of Sexual Conduct: Two Recollections The Never-Ending Conversation: Two InterviewsReferences Index

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Book SynopsisHow has the way we spend our time changed over the last fifty years?Are we really working more, sleeping less and addicted to our phones?What does this mean for our health, wealth and happiness?Everything we do happens in time and it feels like our lives are busier than ever before. Yet a detailed look at our daily activities reveals some surprising truths about the social and economic structure of the world we live in. This book delves into the unrivalled data collection and expertise of the Centre for Time Use Research to explore fifty-five years of change and what it means for us today.Trade ReviewSurprising truths about modern life . . . a fascinating analysis * The Guardian *This book is brilliant at busting myths about how we spend our time . . . its insight into what we do is illuminating . . . it's impossible not to see your life - and those of your parents and children - reflected in the data . . . And that makes reading it an excellent use of time. * Literary Review *Fascinating data, revealing much about our lives in the 21st century * iNews *

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Book SynopsisThis book engages with the classic philosophical question of mind and matter, seeking to show its altered meaning and acuteness in the era of the Anthropocene. Arguing that matter, and, more broadly, the natural world, has been misconceived since Descartes, it explores the devastating impact that this has had in practice in the West. As such, alternatives are needed, whether philosophical ones such as those offered by figures such as Whitehead and Nagel, or posthumanist ones such as those developed by Barad and Latour. Drawing on recent anthropological work ignored by philosophers and sociologists alike, the author considers a radical alternative cosmology: animism understood as panpsychism in practice. This understanding of mind and matter, of culture and nature, is then turned against present-day posthumanist critiques of what the Anthropocene amounts to, showing them up as philosophically misguided, politically mute, and ethically wanting. A ground-breaking reconceptualization of the natural world and our treatment of it, Cosmologies of the Anthropocene will appeal to scholars of sociology, social theory, philosophy and anthropology with interests in our understanding of and relationship with nature.Trade Review"How ought one do philosophy in a time defined by the human impact on earthly systems and ecologies? That is, what does the Anthropocene require of philosophers? Many believe that thinking closely about human existence demands thinking closely about the environmental devastation that seems to accompany that existence. For Vetlesen (Univ. of Oslo), the best way to address the anthropocentric excesses that give rise to environmental crises is to move from anthropocentrism (as a cosmological conception and moral vision) to panpsychism. Drawing on research in anthropology, Vetlesen argues that “animism is panpsychism in practice” (p. 15). He offers substantive engagement with Thomas Nagel, Alfred North Whitehead, and the “agential realism” of Karen Barad, providing a rigorously analytic treatment that appreciates the philosophical contributions of Continental thought. Whether or not one ultimately agrees with Vetlesen’s conclusions regarding the promise of panpsychism, this book is an important contribution to debates about devoting philosophical attention to a transformed, and sustainable, relationship between humans and others (whether human or not). This is a compelling but controversial text."-J. A. Simmons, Furman UniversityTable of ContentsPreface Introduction: From Anthropocentrism to the Anthropocene 1. Getting it Right about Mind, Nature, and Cosmos 2. Panpsychism as "Inner Physics": Whitehead’s Project 3. Prospects and Pitfalls of Agential Realism 4. Animism – Panpsychism in Practice 5. Agency Posthumanist Style: Proliferation or Decimation?

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Book SynopsisTeam Human is a manifesto—a fiery distillation of preeminent digital theorist Douglas Rushkoff’s most urgent thoughts on civilisation and human nature.Trade Review"In Team Human, [Rushkoff] enumerates the ways connectedness matters, and argues that the technology we think connects us today is in fact tearing us apart... his cause is worthy: ‘The first step toward reversing our predicament is to recognize that being human is a team sport’..." -- New Scientist"Can the revolution start already? This book will help us. Thank God for Douglas Rushkoff." -- Parker Posey"[Rushkoff] paints our current predicament with infectious élan and energy." -- The Wall Street Journal"Mr Rushkoff... a vibrant thinker of the online age." -- The Economist"Rushkoff deals with heavyweight topics with a light touch, and Team Human is a joy to read – witty, accessible, and highly quotable." -- Make Wealth History"An astonishing, paradigm-shifting must-read for all inhabitants of the twenty-first century. Precisely and cogently written. Rushkoff’s best work so far." -- Grant Morrison"‘Team Human’ presents a convincing central argument and sometimes delights, particularly in Rushkoff’s roasting of the techno-solutionists who refuse to challenge antihuman values." -- Engineering and Technology"A vivid thinker, Rushkoff is an insightful and acerbic antidote to Facebook, cultural hegemony, and the corporatization of everything. " -- Seth Godin, bestselling author of The Dip, Linchpin, and What to Do When It’s Your Turn (and It’s Always Your Turn)"Team Human serves as a reminder that we do not have to surrender ourselves to technology... Joining Team Human means prioritizing the social, transcending a digital inclination and connecting as humans." -- Chris Yogerst - The Washington Post

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Book SynopsisAn essential A-Z guide to the full range of sociological thought, Sociology: The Key Concepts is an important addition to the established and successful Key Concepts series.Fully cross-referenced with an extensive glossary, this accessible text also includes: alphabetical listings of key concepts for ease of use suggestions for further reading to enhance understanding of areas covered entries on âtraditionalismâ ârace and racializationâ and âmodernityâ. Bringing together an international range of highly regarded contributors from the full spectrum of disciplines, this useful reference guide is the ideal resource for those studying or interested in this popular area.Table of ContentsContributors. Guide to the Book. The Key Concepts. Glossary of Theoretical Approaches.

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Book Synopsis*** Awarded First Place in the 2015 AJN Book of the Year Award in two categories - History and Public Policy and Professional Issues ***This anthology presents the philosophical and practice perspectives of nurse scholars whose works center on promoting nursing research, practice, and education within frameworks of social justice and critical theories. Social justice nursing is defined by the editors as nursing practice that is emancipatory and rests on the principle of praxis which is practice aimed at attaining social justice goals and outcomes that improve health experiences and conditions of individuals, their communities, and society. There is a lack in the nursing discipline of resources that contain praxis approaches and there is a need for new concepts, models, and theories that could encompass scholarship and practice aimed at purposive reformation of nursing, other health professions, and health care systems. Chapters bridge critical theoretiTable of ContentsForeword Joan M. Anderson. Introduction Paula N. Kagan, Marlaine C. Smith, and Peggy L. Chinn Section I: Philosophical and Theoretical Considerations: Innovative Frameworks for Health 1. Problematizing Social Justice Discourses in Nursing Annette J. Browne and Sheryl Reimer-Kirkham 2. Towards an "Ethics of Discomfort" in Nursing: Parrhesia as Fearless Speech Amélie Perron, Trudy Rudge and Marilou Gagnon 3. Compassion, Biopower, and Nursing Jane M. Georges 4. Social/Moral Justice From a Caring Science Cosmology Jean Watson 5. No Hiding Place: The Search for Impermeable Boundaries Beverly Malone 6. Nursing as Social Justice: A Case for Emancipatory Disciplinary Theorizing Sally Thorne Section II: Research Methodologies and Practices: Critical New Knowledge Development 7. Community-Based Collaborative Action Research: Giving Birth to Emancipatory Knowing Margaret Dexheimer Pharris and Carol Pillsbury Pavlish 8. Social Justice Nursing and Children’s Rights: A Realist and Postmodern Intersectional Feminist Analysis of Nurses’ Reflections on Child Risk and Protection Within Domestic Violence Nel Glass and Kierrynn Davis 9. The Identity, Research and Health Dialogic Interview: Its Significance for Social Justice-Oriented Research Doris M. Boutain 10. Critical Research Methodologies and Social Justice Issues: A Methodological Example Using Photovoice Robin A. Evans-Agnew, Marie-Anne Sanon and Doris M. Boutain Section III: Pedagogy of Praxis: Teaching for Social Justice 11. Social Justice: From Educational Mandate to Transformative Core Value Mary K. Canales and Denise J. Drevdahl 12. Anti-Colonial Pedagogy and Praxis: Unraveling Dilemmas and Dichotomies C. Susana Caxaj and Helene Berman 13. "And That’s Going to Help Black Women How?": Storytelling and Striving to Stay True to the Task of Liberation in the Academy JoAnne Banks 14. Social Justice in Nursing Pedagogy: A Postcolonial Approach to American Indian Health Selina A. Mohammed 15. Human Violence Interventions: Critical Discourse Analysis Praxis Debby A. Phillips 16. Teaching, Research and Service Synthesized as Postcolonial Feminist Praxis Lucy Mkandawire-Valhmu, Patricia E. Stevens and Peninnah M. Kako Section IV: Critical Practice Approaches and Methodologies 17. Cultivating Relational Consciousness in Social Justice Practice Gweneth Hartrick Doane 18. Facilitating Humanization: Liberating the Profession of Nursing from Institutional Confinement on Behalf of Social Justice Danny Willis, Donna J. Perry, Terri LaCoursiere-Zucchero and Pamela Grace 19. Promoting Social Justice and Equity by Practicing Nursing to Address Structural Inequities and Structural Violence Colleen Varcoe, Annette J. Browne and Laurie M. Cender 20. Military Sexual Trauma and Nursing Practice in the Veterans Administration Ursula A. Kelly 21. Through a Sociopolitical Lens: The Relationship of Practice, Education, Research and Policy to Social Justice Jill White 22. A Passion in Nursing for Justice: Toward Global Health Equity Afaf I. Meleis and Caroline G. Glickman. Afterword Paula N. Kagan

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Book SynopsisWendy Brown diagnoses a late-modern nihilism that trivializes values—including truth itself—and reduces politics to narcissism and power-mongering. Rereading Max Weber, who saw a similar predicament in his own time, Brown seeks to reground political action in responsibility and reorient classrooms to the critical thinking citizens need today.Trade ReviewDistinguished political theorist Wendy Brown revisits Weber’s lectures, struck by the resonance between our present moment and the plight of Weber’s audience. Universities are menaced by political and economic forces, as corrupt but charismatic demagogues reshape the social sphere. Can Weber’s stringent inspiration be a guide? -- Kieran Setiya * Los Angeles Review of Books *What makes Brown’s book especially well worth reading is her impressive ability to show how key themes in Weber’s scholarship—including his emphasis on the defining characteristics of modernity, including disenchantment, rationalization, bureaucracy, efficiency, predictability, calculability and control and on subjective meaning—speak to our own time. -- Steven Mintz * Inside Higher Ed *For Brown, scholarship and teaching are callings in the Weberian sense to the extent that they demand a range of renunciations (of political propagandizing, moral preaching, and practical payoff), but she departs from Weber in her far more optimistic assessment of scholarship’s role in ‘developing an informed, politically engaged citizenry.’ -- Len Gutkin * Chronicle of Higher Education *Presses us to think more carefully and imaginatively about the relationships among human freedom, human value, and something beyond purely human concerns, be it truth, God, or Gaia. -- Maeve Cook * Commonweal *Worth reading…A timely reminder of the nihilistic air we breathe. It’s easy to lose sight of this situation, especially if we’re caught up in defending some particular worldview or policy proposal. A well-crafted reminder of fundamental features of the contemporary human condition is always beneficial. -- Mark K. Spencer * Law & Liberty *In recent years, Brown has been best known for her critical analysis of neoliberal rationality and the way it has weakened resources for political action…What she finds most valuable in Weber’s ethos, not least in its implications both for the left and for the academy, is the willingness to face uncomfortable truths without lapsing into wishful thinking or despair. -- William Davies * London Review of Books *An exquisite meditation on Max Weber’s classic lectures on knowledge and politics as vocations. -- Samuel Moyn * Critical Inquiry *[Nihilistic Times] is a passionate book about passion. It falls into what is now a long post-Weberian tradition of works seeking a transformative solution to the apparently irresolvable dilemmas and conflicts of the moment in the form of a spiritual revolution. -- Stephen Turner * Society *In Nihilistic Times, the most important political theorist of her generation models how to think with someone else. Through a spirited engagement with Max Weber, Wendy Brown confronts the challenge of creating meaning in a disturbed age. To read this book is to rediscover what the real work of higher education is. -- Kathryn Lofton, author of Consuming ReligionDrawing inspiration from Max Weber, as well as Friedrich Nietzsche, Wendy Brown boldly and incisively argues that nihilism underpins our current social, economic, and political crises. Brown is one of the most original political theorists writing today, and her analytically astute engagement with Weber’s Vocation Lectures is essential reading for everyone who harbors hope for a democratic repair of the world. -- Robert Gooding-Williams, author of In the Shadow of Du BoisIn two luminous essays, Wendy Brown rereads Max Weber’s two iconic Vocation Lectures from a century ago. Retooling Weber’s attacks on nihilistic politics and nihilistic science, Brown helps us understand—and resist—current nihilisms, like techno-rationalism and demagoguery. She gives us back what should be our highest political value: the shared act of creating values, in a feeling–thinking way. -- Paul North, author of Bizarre-Privileged Items in the UniverseIn Max Weber, Wendy Brown finds an unexpected ally and a surprising contemporary who gives her the key to a post-nihilist strategy. It is the only chance we have of restoring meaning to politics, namely by shaping the world democratically and regaining control without destroying the world and our very sense of what is real. Both a masterful interpretation of Weber and a most urgent, necessary intervention in political discourse, Brown's book leads us to a new Weber for the left and a way out of what she calls our present-day ‘pre-apocalyptic survivalism.' A most exciting book that will change how we understand our disturbing times. -- Rahel Jaeggi, author of Critique of Forms of Life

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Book SynopsisIn this important new book, the leading cultural theorist and philosopher Bernard Stiegler re-examines the relationship between politics and aesthetics in our contemporary hyperindustrial age. Stiegler argues that our epoch is characterized by the seizure of the symbolic by industrial technology, where aesthetics has become both theatre and weapon in an economic war. This has resulted in a symbolic misery' where conditioning substitutes for experience. In today's control societies, aesthetic weapons play an essential role: audiovisual and digital technologies have become a means of controlling the conscious and unconscious rhythms of bodies and souls, of modulating the rhythms of consciousness and life. The notion of an aesthetic engagement, capable of founding a new communal sensibility and a genuine aesthetic community, has largely collapsed today. This is because the overwhelming majority of the population is now totally subjected to the aesthetic conditioning of marketTrade Review"In this decisive contribution to a critical understanding of contemporary life, Stiegler demonstrates how mass exclusion from cultural production constitutes a form of generalized impoverishment, threatening to reduce our existence to mere subsistence. Typically though, he also suggests how we might build alternatives to this 'symbolic misery'. This work forms a vital part of Stiegler's essential project." Martin Crowley, Queen�s College, University of Cambridge "Expanding on Deleuze�s idea of 'control societies', Bernard Stiegler provocatively diagnoses the 'misery' of contemporary society as a collective exclusion from the creation of symbols. A war is being waged, he argues: capitalistic marketing is the instrument of choice, the battleground is aesthetics and the fight is for the control of affect. Recommended for anyone interested in the contemporary cultural condition." N. Katherine Hayles, Duke UniversityTable of ContentsForeword Of Symbolic Misery, the Control of Affects, and the Shame that Follows As Though We Were Lacking or How to Find Weapons in Alain Resnais’s Same Old Song Allegory of the Anthill The Loss of Individuation in the Hyper-industrial Age Tiresias and the War of Time On a Film by Bertrand Bonello Afterword

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Book SynopsisThis new take on Queer Theory explores the ways in which sexuality, subjectivity and sociality have been discursively produced in various historical and cultural contexts.Trade ReviewThe book provides comprehensive coverage of the relevant issues within Queer Theory and incorporates provocative and highly contentious debates around sadomasochism, fetishism, and transgenderism. -- Linnell Secomb, Department of Gender Studies, University of Sydney A Critical Introduction to Queer Theory is a book I will be keeping on my shelves, and I would recommend it to students new to queer theory and queer textual analysis as a reference point from whence to begin their own explorations. -- Jenny Alexander, Department of Media and Film, University of Sussex Sexualities: Studies in Culture and Society The book provides comprehensive coverage of the relevant issues within Queer Theory and incorporates provocative and highly contentious debates around sadomasochism, fetishism, and transgenderism. A Critical Introduction to Queer Theory is a book I will be keeping on my shelves, and I would recommend it to students new to queer theory and queer textual analysis as a reference point from whence to begin their own explorations.Table of ContentsContents; Introduction; 1 The Social Construction of Same-Sex Desire: Sin, Crime, Sickness; 2 Assimilation or Liberation, Sexuality or Gender?; 3 Queer: A Question of Being, or A Question of Doing?; 4 Queer Race; 5 Performance, Performativity, Parody and Politics; 6 Transsexual Empires and Transgender Warriors; 7 Queering 'Straight' Sex; 8 Community and Its Discontents; 9 Sadomasochism as Resistance?; 10 Fetishism(s) and Political Perversion; 11 Queering Popular Culture; Bibliography.

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Book Synopsis`Alan Bryman has expanded on his internationally well-known work on Disney theme parks and Disneyization to create a fascinating and highly readable book. It should prove of interest to beginning students in a number of different courses and fields, as well as to scholars interested in culture and consumption. There is no question that the model created by Disney, and emulated in whole or in part by many organizations and in many settings, will continue to influence social structure and culture well into the future. This is an important book about a significant social process. And, it manages to be a fun read, as well!' - George Ritzer, author of McDonaldization and Professor of Sociology, University of Maryland`Bryman's analysis of contemporay consumption is full of detail and provides a host of examples ranging from restaurants and hotels, to theme parks, zoos and sports stadia. Without doubt students will find it an accessible text, one that should allowTrade Review"Keywords are politainment, edutainment, sportainment, evangelitainment, digitainment, branded entertainment, militainment, and so on! It is in this context that the book of Alan Bryman is to be read. It is part of an overall analysis of contemporary global phenomena and a useful, intelligent, informative contribution tot he study of modern society and its future development."—COMMUNICATION RESEARCH TRENDS -- Louis BosshartTable of ContentsDisneyization Theming Hybrid Consumption Merchandising Performative Labour Control and Surveillance Implications of Disneyization

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Book SynopsisKadji Amin challenges the idealization of Jean Genet as a paradigmatic figure within queer studies to illuminate the methodological dilemmas at the heart of queer theory, bringing the genealogy of Genet's imaginaries of attachment to bear on pressing issues within contemporary queer politics and scholarship, including prison abolition, homonationalism, and pinkwashing.Trade Review"Amin's commitment to re-evaluating the unsettling practices of Genet's life represents a serious attempt to contend with the colonial, racist, and hierarchical legacies present in queer social forms. . . . Disturbing Attachments, by investigating the traction queer theory can have in contending with the compromises and failures hidden within its own field, demonstrates the potential for critical self-inquiry." -- Rajat D. Singh * Gay & Lesbian Review *"There is no doubt that Disturbing Attachments is, first and foremost, a work of and about queer studies, a fearless and scholarly probing of its disciplinary norms, its discursive limits, and its most embarrassing relations. It should be read by all those who care about the discipline’s future . . . and, most importantly, by those who care about its past." -- Andrew Counter * French Studies *"Amin’s book offers a dizzying number of theoretical interventions, in an elegant style that makes up for the uncompromising density of the text. With refreshing currency, Disturbing Attachments displaces queer studies outside its presentist US context." -- Mehammed Amadeus Mack * Journal of Middle East Women's Studies *"Disturbing Attachments is a formidable read. It is theoretically mobile, stylistically gratifying, and conceptually probing." -- Helmut Puff * American Historical Review *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1. Attachment Genealogies of Pederastic Modernity 19 2. Light of a Dead Star: The Nostalgic Modernity of Prison Pederasty 45 3. Racial Fetishism, Gay Liberation, and the Temporalities of the Erotic 76 4. Pederastic Kinship 109 5. Enemies of the State: Terrorism, Violence, and the Affective Politics of Transnational Coalition 141 Epilogue. Haunted by the 1990s: Queer Theory's Affective Histories 176 Notes 191 Bibliography 235 Index 249

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Book SynopsisCan a human society suffer from illness like a living thing? And if so, how does such a malaise manifest itself? In this thought-provoking book, Fred Neuhouser explains and defends the idea of social pathology, demonstrating what it means to describe societies as ''ill'', or ''sick'', and why we are so often drawn to conceiving of social problems as ailments or maladies. He shows how Rousseau, Hegel, Marx, and Durkheim four key philosophers who are seldom taken to constitute a ''tradition'' deploy the idea of social pathology in comparable ways, and then explores the connections between societal illnesses and the phenomena those thinkers made famous: alienation, anomie, ideology, and social dysfunction. His book is a rich and compelling illumination of both the idea of social disease and the importance it has had, and continues to have, for philosophical views of society.Trade Review'The concept of 'social pathology' seems to be both indispensable to critical social theory and at the same time fraught with problems, as it may invoke illegitimately organicist, conservative conceptions of society. In this path-breaking new book, Frederick Neuhouser, with characteristic philosophical depth and rigor, provides the most potent analysis and defense of the legitimacy of the concept in social theory yet to have appeared.' Arash Abazari, Sharif University of Technology'Neuhouser's achievement in Diagnosing Social Pathology is an exceedingly rare one: it is at once a highly erudite examination of the ontological commitments underlying social theories of Hegel, Durkheim, and Marx (among others) that will be quite rewarding for anyone with a scholarly interest in those figures, while at the same time laying the groundwork for a thoroughly compelling and original method of social critique. This is a deeply fascinating work that will change the way its readers think about the possible modalities of social critique.' Todd Hedrick, Michigan State UniversityTable of Contents1. Can Societies Be Ill?; 2. Society as Organism?; 3. Marx: Pathologies of Capitalist Society; 4. Marx: Labor in Spiritual Life and Social Pathology; 5. Plato: Human Society as Organism; 6. Rousseau: Human Society as Artificial; 7. Durkheim's Predecessors: Comte and Spencer; 8. Durkheim: Functionalism; 9. Durkheim: Solidarity, Moral Facts, and Social Pathology; 10. Durkheim: A Science of Morality; 11. Hegelian Social Ontology I: Objective Spirit; 12. Hegelian Social Ontology II: The Living Good; 13. Hegelian Social Pathology; 14. Conclusion: On Social Ontology.

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Book SynopsisTaking Auden''s Age of Anxiety as a leitmotiv and drawing on literature from law, philosophy, political theory, international relations, and sociology, Toope argues with passion that a renewed faith in the rule of law can address troubling developments in our own anxious times: populist nationalism; globalisation; and disruptive technologies with their dominating platforms. We can address anxiety by bolstering social resilience, drawing upon a plural intellectual heritage. That heritage reveals a unique type of ''authority'' in society, ''epistemic practical authority'' built up continuously through social discourse and action, shifting focus from the state of ''being'' to the dynamic of ''becoming.'' What is law''s role in this world? The modest, yet powerful, version of the rule of law advocated here is one that draws on a wellspring of practical wisdom - prudence gleaned from pragmatic experience. It chastens power, while not disconnecting law from other sources of social action andTrade Review'One of the most brilliant books I have read on the profound sources and contemporary drivers of our current age of anxiety. Stephen J. Toope's suggestion of a practice-oriented pragmatist rule of law to contribute to remedying the predicament is sensible and normatively imperative.' Emanuel Adler, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Bronfman Chair of Israeli Studies, Emeritus, University of Toronto'In our deeply troubled world, Stephen J. Toope has performed the astonishing feat of providing an optimistic yet deeply pragmatic account of how the rule of law can, properly understood, help us to navigate the many perils that lie ahead.' David Dyzenhaus, University Professor of Law and Philosophy, University of Toronto'A wise, humble and compassionate vision of the law as a social practice committed to solve the problems facing democracies in an age of anxiety.' Michael Ignatieff, Central European University, Vienna'Considering the pressures university leaders live 24/7, especially in the last two years, it is a stupendous accomplishment. My guess is that for decades to come Professor Toope will be publicly feted and quietly hated by all university presidents and provosts.' Peter J. Katzenstein, Cornell University'Drawing on a variety of disciplines and approaches, Stephen J. Toope suggests saving the rule of law from itself and its many discontents by developing a largely procedural version, sensitive to a diversity of demands of time and place. Viewing law predominantly as a social practice involving not just lawyers but also citizens, activists, politicians, journalists and others, Toope develops a pragmatic notion of the rule of law, built around the Aristotelian idea of 'practical wisdom'. In doing so, he offers an inspiring vision on law and its importance in times of populism, digitalisation, climate change, and other profound challenges. Lucidly written, A Rule of Law for Our New Age of Anxiety is an insightful meditation by one of the most respected academic leaders worldwide.' Jan Klabbers, University of Helsinki'A lifelong exemplar of scholarship, principle, university leadership, and humble decency, Stephen J. Toope believes in simple truths, calmly held and passionately implemented. Here he argues compellingly that our answer to such disruptive anxieties as authoritarian populist nationalism and jarring technological change must be renewed commitment to the rule of law, informed by honest social discourse about lessons learned from our shared history of making progress together.' Harold Hongju Koh, Sterling Professor of International Law and former Dean, Yale Law School. Legal Adviser, United States Department of State (2009–13), Assistant Secretary of State, Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (1998–2001)'That an ideal can be at once modest and precious is a thought too rarely entertained. This intelligent, humane and wide-ranging work shows that the rule of law, conceived as a community of 'anchoring [legal] practices - a constellation of ideas, discourses and concrete actions' rather than just an instrument of power, can be both. Modest because it is only one practice among many; precious as indispensable foundation for the best of the others. A welcome tonic for an 'age of anxiety'.' Martin Krygier, AM Gordon Samuels Professor of Law and Social Theory, UNSW Sydney and Senior Research Fellow, CEU Democracy Institute, BudapestTable of ContentsIntroduction; Part I. Uncertainty, Risk and Anxiety: 1. Our Age of Anxiety; 2. Populism and Nationalism; 3. The Confounding Diversity of Globalisation; 4. The Rise of Disruptive Technologies and Dominating Platforms; Part II. Our Inheritance of Thought and Action: Addressing our Anxiety; 5. Practical Wisdom and Pragmatism; 6. Social Practices, Background Knowledge and Law; Part III. A Modest 'Rule of Law' Helps Frame a Healthier Society: 7. The Bases of Law and Challenges to Legalism; 8. Interactional Law and the Rule of Law; 9. Lawyers, Practice and Legal Education; Conclusion: That A Beginning Be Made.

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