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Contemporary society

About: Contemporary society is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3991 publications have been published within this topic receiving 91755 citations.


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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The idea of precarity as an ontological condition in contemporary society has been a theme of considerable importance among social scientists of the past couple decades and only more recently among... as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The idea of precarity as an ontological condition in contemporary society has been a theme of considerable importance among social scientists of the past couple decades and only more recently among...

28 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Erzen et al. as discussed by the authors discuss the processes of reason, self-discovery, and subject-production at work in the terrain where conservative religion and same-sex desire overlap.
Abstract: ological study to prove to themselves that what appear to be scriptural injunctions on homosexuality actually result from human beings' own prejudicial and erroneous trans lations and interpretations. A testament to Erzen's talents as a writer and ethnographer is her ability to leave her audience feeling the constant flux and struggle that comes about when such options are wholly foreclosed. Both books will prove useful to teachers and scholars interested in religion and/or sexuality in contemporary American society, but each should appeal to a more general audience as well. Both studies address the concerns over American individualism soci ologists often puzzle over, with each point ing out how the individual testimonies culti vated in ex-gay ministries (and similar therapeutic groups) do not simply atomize individuals into anomic little cells, but help individuals to tell their own stories in the context of a broader narrative of history. After all, the individualism we have puzzled over since Tocqueville is itself a collective production, and within its contemporary manifestations, religious and therapeutic dis courses strengthen each other. Producing one's own testimony serves as initiation, per sonal healing, and an evangelistic tool for gathering more potential converts. Likewise, both studies speak to the collec tive production of selves and the discourses at work as people seek to be the kinds of peo ple they believe they should be and to feel the way they believe they should feel. If sociolo gists maintain that the self is a social con struct, and that social power can work in part through micro-level interactions, then we need to examine how intimacy, emotions, and narratives of "who we are" set the limits of what kind of person it is possible to be. Regarding the "born gay"/"it's a choice" debate, both authors acknowledge the con tradictory implications of the liberal argu ment (which implies that homosexuality is tolerable only when it cannot be avoided) and the brutal dismissiveness of the conser vative one. More significantly, both authors detail the processes of reason, self-discovery, and subject-production at work in the terrain where conservative religion and same-sex desire overlap. Each author shows how the ex-gay movement makes sense in its own terms, while shedding light on the complex and nuanced processes through which peo ple become selves in late modern society.

28 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is argued that understanding and fully supporting the musicality of persons living with dementia requires engagement with citizenship discourse, and draws on a model of relational citizenship that recognizes that corporeality is a fundamental source of self-expression, interdependence, and reciprocal engagement.

28 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a typology of social change efforts based on an analysis of their divergent root assumptions about values and the nature of reality is proposed. But, their focus is on individual change agents' images of society and of the individual, their diagnoses of contemporary society and their priorities for action.
Abstract: This paper offers a typology of social change efforts based on an analysis of their divergent root assumptions about values and the nature of reality rather than a categorization of their various activities. Analysis of change agents' images of society and of the individual, their diagnoses of contemporary society, and their priorities for action yields three perspectives of planned social change: the professional-technical, the political, and the countercultural, which the authors discuss in terms of such issues as their varying kinds of constituencies, resources, roles, and institutional bases.

28 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Nico Stehr1
TL;DR: The place of knowledge in prominent social theories of modern society as well as the place ofknowledge in major policy efforts that proceed from the assumption that knowledge plays a key role for large scale social transformations are discussed.
Abstract: In what sense, then, can it be said that contemporary societies are becoming more and more dependent on the production, dissemination and use of knowledge? Are we witnessing a change from a social world in which 'things' simply 'happened' to a world in which things are more and more 'made' to happen? Finally, what is the nature of the linkage between social transformations, the globalisation process and knowledge in the modern world? (1) I will discuss the place of knowledge in prominent social theories of modern society as well as the place of knowledge in major policy efforts that proceed from the assumption that knowledge plays a key role for large scale social transformations; (2) I will advance a sociological conception of knowledge and (3) I will apply it to the social analysis of change in modern society.

27 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
202317
202230
2021116
2020161
2019155
2018192