Contemporary society

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

“Risk Society”: The Cult of Theory and the Millennium?

Abstract: The relation between theory and empirical data in sociology and social policy is explored through a critique of Ulrich Beck's influential book, Risk Society. Consideration is given to the extent to which a book that purports to describe contemporary societies in general is actually rooted in the unique circumstances of postwar Germany. The various arguments of Risk Society are reviewed and tested against relevant empirical reports from England. Many of the historical and contemporary generalizations made by Beck are shown to be questionable. The conclusion reflects on the popularity of the genre in which Beck is working and questions the consistent glumness of its attitude to contemporary societies—whether those of the 1890s or the 1990s. The new millennium might be a time for a new spirit and the rejection of the nostalgia and conservatism of humanities-oriented scholarship.

Some Reflections on Manuel Castells’ Book "Networks of Outrage and Hope. Social Movements in the Internet Age".

Abstract: This paper provides critical reflections on Manuel Castells’ (2012) book Networks of Outrage and Hope. Social Movements in the Internet Age that analyses the “nature and perspectives of networked social movements” (p. 4) and gives special focus to the role of “social media” in movements that emerged in 2011 in Tunisia, Iceland, Egypt, Spain and the United States. I situate Castells’ book in an intellectual discourse that focuses on the political implications of social media and that has involved Clay Shirky, Malcolm Gladwell and Evgeny Morozov. The article also discusses the role of social theory and empirical research in Castells’ book, presents as an alternative a theoretical model of the relationship between social movements and the media, discusses the implications that some empirical data that focus on social media in the Egyptian revolution and the Occupy Wall Street movement have for Castells’ approach, discusses how Castells positions himself towards capitalism and compares his explanation of the crisis and his political views to David Harvey’s approach. Section overview: 1. Introduction 2. Social Media and Politics: A Controversy between Clay Shirky, Malcolm Gladwell and Evgeny Morozov 3. Castells on Social Media in the Context of Protests and Revolutions: The Dimension of Social Theory 4. Social Theory Recovered: A Model of the Relationship between Social Movements and the Media 5. Castells on Social Media in the Context of Protests and Revolutions: The Dimension of Empirical Research 6. Manuel Castells and David Harvey: The Question of Political Struggle - For or against Capitalism? 7. Conclusion

Postwar Vietnam: Dynamics of a Transforming Society

Abstract: Moving beyond the standard emphasis on the Vietnam War and Vietnamese politics and economy, this volume provides a historically grounded examination of the dynamics of contemporary society and state-society relations.

Public Opinion, Political Communication and the Internet’

Abstract: In contemporary society public opinion is generally mediated by the mass media, which has come to encompass the Habermasian ‘public sphere’. This arena is now characterised by the conflict between market and democratic principles, by competing interests of politicians and the media. The presentation of information for debate becomes distorted. The opinion of the ‘public’ is no longer created through deliberation, but is constructed through systems of communication, in conflict with political actors, who seek to retain control of the dissemination of information. The expansion of the internet as a new method of communication provides a potential challenge to the primacy of the traditional media and political parties as formers of public opinion.

Play, work or activism? Broadening the connections between political and children's geographies

Abstract: Scholarship on children often fails to consider the impact of children's agency from a political perspective. Recent literature in political and children's geography has begun affording children the possibility of being political actors. Attention to the differences that children bring and make through their everyday becomings – what children often do – permits recognizing a range of children's activities as political work. Examples from children's everyday activities in Latino immigrant families along the US/Mexico border demonstrate how children often connect their families to politics at a variety of scales. They also help recognize the political possibilities that emerge out of consideration of the many spaces that children occupy and produce in contemporary societies.