scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Topic

Contemporary society

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


Papers
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The sociological imagination is a search for satisfactory ways of understanding the contemporary world in a rational, communicable, telling and coherent way, while also contributing to the development of the public sphere and a collective understanding of social issues.
Abstract: This article introduces the reader to the problems and the topics treated by the contributors to this special issue of the International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society. It offers a reflection on the concept of sociological imagination conceived as a key element for the task of facing the intellectual challenges of the present times. What is sociological imagination? How has it been used by the main cultivators of sociology throughout history? And particularly, how is sociological imagination being renewed nowadays by some of the most successful exponents of sociological research? These are some questions considered in this introduction. The new sociological imagination uses theory, history, empirical facts, logical formalization, systematic analysis, creativity, local knowledge, moral judgment and inspiration. What distinctively constitutes its elements is not just the search for correlations between abstract variables, but the search for pertinent relationships among facts, moral problems, structural conditions, historical concerns, personal worries and ethical values of contemporary societies. The new sociological imagination is a search for satisfactory ways of understanding the contemporary world in a rational, communicable, telling and coherent way, while also contributing to the development of the public sphere and a collective understanding of social issues.

13 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2002
TL;DR: In contemporary society it appears that speed and the "tyranny of time" are forces gathering increasing strength in all areas of social life as discussed by the authors, and subjectively we experience this as a sense of acceleration in our daily lives.
Abstract: In contemporary society it appears that speed and the ‘tyranny of time’ (Reeves, 1999) are forces gathering increasing strength in all areas of social life. Matthews (1999) notes that, subjectively, we experience this as a sense of acceleration in our daily lives (p. 44). These effects, notes Luke (1998), are ‘global in their scope and impact’ (p. 163). The speed of life has increased throughout society: objectively, as all social processes are subject to an increasing ‘Need For Speed’ (Matthews, 1999) as we try to ‘save time’, and subjectively, as we experience the sensation of speed in social life (Gleick, 1999). For Luke, the speed of life in contemporary society has now reached such intensity that it ‘recreates the world as humans have not known it’ (1998, p. 165). Davis and Meyer (1998) assure us that we are not imagining things when we experience life as ‘blur’ — the sum of electronic connectivity, speed and intangibles, which are the ‘derivatives of time, space and mass’ (p. 6). These three phenomena in combination are inexorably ‘blurring the rules and redefining our businesses and our lives’ (ibid.).

13 citations

Book
01 Jan 2000
TL;DR: The relationship between academic knowledge and political power is explored in this article, where the authors address a variety of important questions and issues: the link between politics and science, the role of the academy in contemporary society, institutional dynamics affect the relation between political power and knowledge, the implementation of political correctness on college campuses, and poetics and politics of academic texts.
Abstract: This volume offers a close look at one of the most pressing topics in academia today -- the relationship between academic knowledge and political power. Essays address a variety of important questions and issues: -- The link between politics and science -- The role of the academy in contemporary society -- How institutional dynamics affect the relation between political power and knowledge -- The implementation of political correctness on college campuses -- The poetics and politics of academic texts.

13 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Dec 1999-Ethos
TL;DR: The authors argue that enthrallment manifests itself here in a form of the first-person pronoun that occurs in the speech of the players in role-playing games, a mental state characterized by multaneous engrossment and disbelief.
Abstract: The culture of the contemporary United States is powerfully shaped by the discourses of advertising and enter- tainment; cultural anthropologists must develop ways to ana- lyze and understand these discourses. Here I suggest that the subject's engagement with advertising and entertainment may take theform of enthrallment, a mental state characterized by si- multaneous engrossment and disbelief. In this article, I describe one sort of entertainment activity, science-fiction-based, role- playing games. I argue that enthrallment manifests itself here in aform of thefirst-person pronoun that occurs in the speech of the players. iM j uch of the early concern with what came to be called post- modernism was based in the observation that, due to the ubiquity of advertising and entertainment, the charac- teristic form of experience in contemporary society may en- tail a seamless blend of fantasy and reality (Baudrillard 1983; Eco 1986; Featherstone 1991; Fjellman 1992; Jameson 1984; Luke 1989). Increasingly, in a society like that of the United States, it seems that people value commercially generated fantasies over realities; indeed some have ar- gued that in many cases, people cannot tell the difference between the two. Commentators have adopted a variety of perspectives on this situation. Many have seen dangers in the devaluation of reality, while others have cele- brated the fluidity and lack of boundaries that may be associated with the immersion in collective fantasies. Here, my goal is not so much to evaluate

13 citations


Network Information
Related Topics (5)
Social change
61.1K papers, 1.7M citations
86% related
Politics
263.7K papers, 5.3M citations
85% related
Globalization
81.8K papers, 1.7M citations
83% related
Democracy
108.6K papers, 2.3M citations
81% related
Qualitative research
39.9K papers, 2.3M citations
78% related
Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
202317
202230
2021116
2020161
2019155
2018192