Contemporary society

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

The Psychoanalysis of Race: An Introduction

Abstract: Every citizen of Europe and North America is haunted by the specter of racism.1 Despite our concern to restrict this specter to traumatic chapters of history, it revisits contemporary society in shocking and surprising forms. Is it enough to criticize increasingly conservative strains in our political climate to understand this phenomenon, or to reclaim the past in an attempt not to repeat it? What in fact can we learn from the past? This collection interprets "the tenacity of prejudice," to borrow Gertrude Selznick and Stephen Steinberg's phrase, in several literary and cultural texts. By unraveling conscious and unconscious dimensions of racism, these essays engage critically with the fantasies organizing the meaning of racial and ethnic identities. Overall,

Student Politics and Protest: International Perspectives

Abstract: Despite allegations of political disengagement and apathy on the part of the young, the last ten years have witnessed a considerable degree of political activity by young people – much of it led by students or directed at changes to the higher education system. Such activity has been evident across the globe. Nevertheless, to date, no book has brought together contributions from a wide variety of national contexts to explore such trends in a rigorous manner. Student Politics and Protest: International Perspectives offers a unique contribution to the disciplines of education, sociology, social policy, politics and youth studies. It provides the first book-length analysis of student politics within contemporary higher education comprising contributions from a variety of different countries and addressing questions such as: •What roles do students’ unions play in politics today? •How successful are students in bringing about change? •In what ways are students engaged in politics and protest in contemporary society? •How does such engagement differ by national context? Student Politics and Protest: International Perspectives explores a number of common themes, including: the focus and nature of student politics and protest; whether students are engaging in fundamentally new forms of political activity; the characteristics of politically engaged students; the extent to which such activity can be considered to be ‘globalised’; and societal responses to political activity on the part of students. Student Politics and Protest: International Perspectives does not seek to develop a coherent argument across all its chapters but, instead, illustrate the variety of empirical foci, theoretical resources and substantive arguments that are being made in relation to student politics and protest. International in scope, with all chapters dealing with recent developments concerning student politics and protest, this book will be an invaluable guide for Higher Education professionals, masters and postgraduate students in education, sociology, social policy, politics and youth studies.

Sociology and the Art of Risk

Abstract: In contemporary society, risk has become an ever-present issue that appears across a range of social domains, such as health, welfare, crime, national security and the environment. High-profile risk incidents such as 9/11, the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans have served to underscore the global significance of risk. Although risk has conventionally been approached in the natural sciences as an object to be technically mastered by mathematical probability, since the early 1980s social scientists have focussed on the subjective and social dimensions of risk. This article traces the contours of the ‘turn to risk’ within sociology, outlining the central tenets of the risk society, governmentality and sociocultural theories. Both the utility of and the limits to these theories are demonstrated through practical application. The article concludes by considering some of the problems and contradictions that arise out of the sociological turn to risk.

Awesome Families: The Promise of Healing Relationships in the International Churches of Christ

Abstract: Denounced by some as a dangerous cult and lauded by others as a miraculous faith community, the International Churches of Christ was a conservative evangelical Christian movement that grew rapidly in the 1980s and 1990s. Among its followers, promises to heal family relationships were central to the group's appeal. Members credit the church for helping them develop so-called ""awesome families"" - successful marriages and satisfying relationships with children, family of origin, and new church ""brothers and sisters."" The church engaged an elaborate array of services, including round-the-clock counseling, childcare, and Christian dating networks - all of which were said to lead to fulfilling relationships and exciting sex lives. Before the unified movement's demise in 2003-2004, the lure of blissful family-life led more than 100,000 individuals worldwide to be baptized into the church. In ""Awesome Families,"" Kathleen Jenkins draws on four years of ethnographic research to explain how and why so many individuals - primarily from middle- to upper-middle-class backgrounds - were attracted to this religious group that was founded on principles of enforced community, explicit authoritative relationships, and therapeutic ideals. Weaving classical and contemporary social theory, she argues that members were commonly attracted to the structure and practice of family relationships advocated by the church, especially in the context of contemporary society where gender roles and family responsibilities are often ambiguous. Tracing the rise and fall of this fast-growing religious movement, this timely study adds to our understanding of modern society and offers insight to the difficulties that revivalist movements have in sustaining growth.

The Sublime Now

Abstract: The Sublime now is a collection of essays dealing with the sublime in contemporary theory, culture and society. It includes papers by internationally renowned authors from the UK, America and Europe alongside the new voices of younger academics. The contributors were: Jane Bennett, Mark Bould, Eu Jin Chua, Gudrun Filipska, Cornelia Klinger, Esther Leslie, William McDonald, Laura Mulvey, Claire Pajaczkowska, Griselda Pollock, Gene Ray, Bettina Reiber, Jan Rosiek, Sherryl Vint, and Luke White. Research Questions: The book critically examines the legacy of the sublime in contemporary art, culture and society and sets out to assess the value and dangers of this concept as it is articulated in its current resurgence in thought and practice. Research Context: The book situates itself in a recent trans-disciplinary resurgence of interest in the notion of the sublime. It includes essays whose approaches come from aesthetics and ethics, ecological and political thought, psychoanalysis, feminism, film studies, literary studies, art history and popular culture. It sets out to critically reflect on, as well as contribute to this growing discourse. Its particular focus is around the visual. The collection’s origins were in a two-day conference at the Tate Britain, organised by research staff and students at Middlesex University and the London Consortium. The book selected from the papers delivered at the conference and also added other essays not presented at the conference. Findings: The book identifies key issues and themes which surround the contemporary articulation of the sublime: ecological debates and current attitudes to nature; globalisation and to the recent politics of terror; current reappraisals of Kantian thought; contemporary art and its intertwinement with legacies stretching back to the Baroque; the aesthetics of cinema. It discovers the sublime as a concept closely bound into contemporary debates around popular culture, gender, the body, nature, violence, politics and globalised capitalism. The sublime is a complexly ambivalent category which on the one had points us beyond debates of the postmodern, but which is also implicated in the ideologies of contemporary society.