Showing papers on "Social theory published in 1995"

Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language

Abstract: General Introduction: Section A Language, ideology and power Introduction 1. Critical and descriptive goals in discourse analysis 2. Language and ideology 3. Semiosis, mediation and ideology: a dialectical view Section B Discourse and social change Introduction 4. Critical discourse analysis and the marketization of public discourse: the universities 5. Discourse, change and hegemony 6. Ideology and identity change in political television Section C Dialectics of discourse: theoretical developments Introduction 7. Discourse, social theory and social research: the discourse of welfare reform 8. (with R Jessop, A Sayer) Critical realism and semiosis Section D Methodology 9. A dialectical-relational approach to critical discourse analysis in social research 10. (with Eve Chiapello) Understanding the new management ideology. A transdisciplinary contribution from Critical Discourse Analysis and New Sociology of Capitalism 11. Critical Discourse Analysis in researching language in the New Capitalism: overdetermination, transdisciplinarity and textual analysis 12. (with Phil Graham) Marx as a Critical Discourse Analyst: The genesis of a critical method and its relevance to the critique of global capital 13. Critical discourse analysis, organizational discourse, and organizational change Section E Political discourse Introduction 14. New Labour: a language perspective 15. Democracy and the public sphere in critical research on discourse 16. (with Simon Pardoe & Bronislaw Szerszynski) Critical discourse analysis and citizenship 17. Political correctness Section F Globalization and 'transition' Introduction 18. Language and Globalization 19. Global capitalism, terrorism and war: a discourse-analytical perspective 20. Discourse and 'transition' in Central and Eastern Europe Section G Language and education Introduction 21. Critical language awareness and self-identity in education 22. Global capitalism and critical awareness of language References Index

The politics of environmental discourse

Abstract: This path-breaking study open the way for a better understanding of the environmental conflict, showing how language can be seen to shape our view of what environmental politics is really about and how those perceptions can differ between countries. The book identifies the emergence and increasing political importance of 'ecological modernization' as a new concept in the language of environmental politics. This concept, which has come to replace the antagonistic debates of the 1970s, stresses the opportunities of environmental policy for modernizing the economy and stimulating the technological innovation. Combining abstract social theory with detailed empirical analysis, the author illustrates the social and political dynamics of ecological modernization in a detailed analysis of the acid rain controversies in Great Britain and the Netherlands. The book concludes by reflecting on the institutional challenge of the environmental politics in the years to come.

The Media and Modernity: A Social Theory of the Media

Abstract: Preface. Introduction. 1. Communication and Social Context. 2. The Media and the Development of Modern Societies. 3. The Rise of Mediated Interaction. 4. The Transformation of Visibility. 5. The Globalization of Communication. 6. The Re--mooring of Tradition. 7. Self and Experience in a Mediated World. 8. The Re--invention of Publicness. Notes. Index.

Textual Politics: Discourse And Social Dynamics

Abstract: Textual Politics: An Introduction Discourse and Social Theory Discourses in Conflict: Heteroglossia and Text Semantics Technical Discourse and Technocratic Ideology The Social Construction of the Material Subject Discourse, Dynamics, and Social Change Critical Praxis: Education, Literacy, Politics Retrospective Postscript: Making Meaning, Making Trouble.

The McUniversity: Organization, Management and Academic Subjectivity

Abstract: This paper uses elements of Weberian and Foucauldian social theory to speculate on the consequences of recent higher education change in the UK. We argue that changes in the political, institutional and funding environment have produced forms of HE organization that increase the power of management and diminish the autonomy of professional academics. These new forms of organization, which are increasingly bureaucratic and utilize sophisticated systems of surveillance, will make academics increasingly instrumental in their attitudes and behaviour. We conclude that the rationalization of HE should be resisted, but that nostalgia for a previous order should not be part of that resistance. `Mass' higher education organizations are not simply good or bad, but their rationale and consequences need to be clearly thought through if their negative aspects are to be addressed.

Rational and Social Theories as Complementary Explanations of Communication Media Choices: Two Policy-Capturing Studies

Abstract: Recent media choice research has focused on attempts to determine what theory best explains people's choices of communication media. Two within-subject policy-capturing studies support the notion t...

The romance of American psychology : political culture in the age of experts

Abstract: Psychological insight is the creed of our time. A quiet academic discipline two generations ago, psychology has become a voice of great cultural authority, informing everything from family structure to government policy. How has this fledgling science become the source of contemporary America's most potent ideology? In this groundbreaking book - the first to fully explore the political and cultural significance of psychology in post-World War II America - Ellen Herman tells the story of Americans' love affair with the behavioral sciences. It began during wartime. The atmosphere of crisis sustained from the 1940s through the Cold War gave psychological "experts" an opportunity to prove their social theories and behavioral techniques.Psychologists, sociologists, and anthropologists carved a niche within government and began shaping military, foreign, and domestic policy. Herman examines this marriage of politics and psychology, which continued through the tumultuous 1960s. Psychological professionals' influence also spread among the general public. Drawn by promises of mental health and happiness, people turned to these experts for enlightenment. Their opinions validated postwar social movements from civil rights to feminism and became the basis of a new world view. Fascinating and long overdue, this book illuminates one of the dominant forces in American society.

Modern Sociological Theory

Abstract: PART I: INTRODUCTION Chapter 1. A Historical Sketch of Sociological Theory: The Early Years Chapter 2. A Historical Sketch of Sociological Theory: The Later Years PART II: MODERN SOCIOLOGIAL THEORY: THE MAJOR SCHOOLS Chapter 3. Structural Functionalism, Neofunctionalism, and Conflict Theory Chapter 4. Varieties of Neo-Marxian Theory Chapter 5. Systems Theory Chapter 6. Symbolic Interactionism Chapter 7. Ethnomethodology Chapter 8. Exchange, Network, and Rational Choice Theories Chapter 9. Modern Feminist Theory PART III: RECENT INTEGRATIVE DEVELOPMENTS IN SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY Chapter 10. Micro-Macro and Agency-Structure Integration PART IV: FROM MODERN TO POSTMODERN SOCIAL THEORY Chapter 11. Contemporary Theories of Modernity Chapter 12. Globalization Theory Chapter 13. Structuralism, Poststructuralism, and the Emergence of Postmodern Social Theory Chapter 14. Cutting Edge Developments in Contemporary Theory Appendix: Sociological Metatheorizing and a Metatheoretical Schema for Analyzing Sociological Theory

Social Postmodernism: Feminist encounters: locating the politics of experience

Abstract: Feminist and antiracist struggles in the 1990s face some of the same urgent questions encountered in the 1970s. After two decades of engagement in feminist political activism and scholarship in a variety of sociopolitical and geographical locations, questions of difference (sex, race, class, nation), experience, and history remain at the center of feminist analysis. Only, at least in the US academy, feminists no longer have to contend as they did in the 1970s with phallocentric denials of the legitimacy of gender as a category of analysis. Instead, the crucial questions in the 1990s concern the construction, examination, and, most significantly, the institutionalization of difference within feminist discourses. It is this institutionalization of difference that concerns me here. Specifically, I ask the following question: how does the politics of location in the contemporary United States determine and produce experience and difference as analytical and political categories in feminist “cross-cultural” work? By the term “politics of location” I refer to the historical, geographical, cultural, psychic, and imaginative boundaries which provide the ground for political definition and self-definition for contemporary US feminists. Since the 1970s, there have been key paradigm shifts in Western feminist theory. These shifts can be traced to political, historical, methodological, and philosophical developments in our understanding of questions of power, struggle, and social transformation. Feminists have drawn on decolonization movements around the world, on movements for racial equality, on peasant struggles, and on gay and lesbian movements, as well as on the methodologies of Marxism, psychoanalysis, deconstruction, and poststructuralism to situate our thinking in the 1990s.

GIS and Society: Towards a Research Agenda

Abstract: Recognition that GIS is a social technology implies that the GIS research agenda should be broadened to incorporate questions of the social imbeddedness and impact of GIS. Research into these questions can draw on the complementary skills of GIS specialists and social theorists. GIS as we know it is not the only form it could have taken, but has followed a direction of development shaped by technical and social conditions. GIS represents the world in certain ways that privilege instrumental logic over other ways of knowing. GIS can have significant consequences affecting the outcome of social problems which it is employed to solve, depending on differential access to GIS and information, and on what is defined as information. Such issues suggest a rich agenda for future research.

Alternative Modernity: The Technical Turn in Philosophy and Social Theory

Abstract: In this new collection of essays, Andrew Feenberg argues that conflicts over the design and organization of the technical systems that structure our society shape deep choices for the future. A pioneer in the philosophy of technology, Feenberg demonstrates the continuing vitality of the critical theory of the Frankfurt School. He calls into question the anti-technological stance commonly associated with its theoretical legacy and argues that technology contains potentialities that could be developed as the basis for an alternative form of modern society. Feenberg's critical reflections on the ideas of Jurgen Habermas, Herbert Marcuse, Jean-Francois Lyotard, and Kitaro Nishida shed new light on the philosophical study of technology and modernity. He contests the prevalent conception of technology as an unstoppable force responsive only to its own internal dynamic and politicizes the discussion of its social and cultural construction. This argument is substantiated in a series of compelling and well-grounded case studies. Through his exploration of science fiction and film, AIDS research, the French experience with the "information superhighway," and the Japanese reception of Western values, he demonstrates how technology, when subjected to public pressure and debate, can incorporate ethical and aesthetic values.

Fin De Siecle Social Theory: Relativism, Reduction, and the Problem of Reason

Abstract: In four interwoven studies, the book identifies the central dilemma that provokes contemporary social theory, and proposes a new way to resolve it. The dream of reason that marked the previous "fin de siecle" foundered in the face of the cataclysms of the 20th century, when war, revolution and totalitarianism came to be seen as themselves products of reason. In response, there emerged the profound scepticism about rationality that has so starkly defined the present fin de siecle. From Wittgenstein through Rorty and postmodernism, relativism rejects the very possibility of universal standards, while with both positivism and new-marxists like Bourdieu, reductionism claims that ideas simply reflect their social base. This book presents an argument which develops the alternative of a "neo-modernist" position which defends reason from within a culturally-centred perspective, while remaining committed to the goal of explaining, not merely interpreting, contemporary social life. On the basis of a sweeping reinterpretation of post-war society and its intellectuals, the author suggests that both antimodernism radicalism and postmodernist resignation are now in decline; a more democratic, less ethnocentric and more historically-contingent universalizing social theory may thus emerge. Developing in his first two studies a historical approach to the problem of "absent reason", Alexander moves, via a critique of Richard Rorty, to construct his case for "present reason". Finally, focusing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, he provides a sustained critical reflection on this influential thinker. The book is a tonic intervention in contemporary debates, showing how social and cultural theory can properly take the measure of the extraordinary times in which we live.

Sociological Theory: What went Wrong?: Diagnosis and Remedies

Abstract: Social theory is open to many passing currents. Claims to originality tend to thrive and past achievements are often ignored. In Sociologiocal Theory: What Went Wrong? Mouzelis claims that "problems" currently being isolated are not really problems, and that "achievements" claimed are little more than pretensions. He argues that we have been premature to dismiss thinkers from the late 1950s and early 1960s and that we can build on their ideas to produce a more effective, more relevant social theory. Written with precision and with clarity, Sociological Theory: What Went Wrong? is a compelling analysis of the central problems of sociological theory today and of the means to resolve them.

Social Postmodernism: Beyond Identity Politics

Abstract: Introduction Part I. Critiques of Identity: 1. Interpreting gender Linda Nicholson 2. Feminist encounters: locating the politics of experience Chandra Talpade Monhanty 3. Postcolonial criticism and Indian historiography Gyan Prakash Part II. Critiques of the Deconstruction of Identity: 4. African identities Kwame Anthony Appiah 5. Deconstructing queer theory or the under-theorization of the social and the ethical Steven Seidman 6. Queer visibility in commodity culture Rosemary Hennessy Part III. Postmodern Approaches to the Social: 7. Gender as seriality: thinking about women as a social collective Iris Marion Young 8. Refiguring social space Cindy Patton 9. Just framing: ethnicities and racisms in a 'postmodern' framework Ali Rattansi 10. Politics culture and the public sphere: toward a postmodern conception Nancy Fraser Part IV. Postmodern Approaches to the Political: 11. Feminism citizenship and radical democratic politics Chantal Mouffe 12. The space of justice: lesbians and democratic politics Shane Phelan 13. Against the liberal state: ACT-UP and the emergence of postmodern politics Stanley Aronowitz 14. Democracies of pleasure: thoughts on the goals of radical sexual politics R. W. Connell.

Social Body and Embodied Subject: Bodiliness, Subjectivity, and Sociality among the Kayapo

Abstract: The meteoric rise of "the body" to the status of a primary category of social and cultural theory, replacing more collective categories of social and cultural understanding like "society" and "culture" themselves, has been one of the most salient aspects of the development of postmodern forms of cultural theory over the past two decades. The reasons for this turn to the body have remained shrouded in confusion despite the voluminous discussion it has occasioned. Even some of the main exemplars and partisans of the new body focus have been at a loss to account for it. Martin, for example, suggests that the body has come so prominently into focus because a new body, suitable to the postmodern era of "flexible accumulation," is now replacing the old, familiar body of the previous capitalist era of Fordist mass production (Martin 1992). This formulation, however, merely exemplifies the problem it sets out to solve. Why do we suddenly find it appropriate to speak of a new regime of social production in terms of a unique body it supposedly brings into being? Why did not social thinkers, cultural theorists, or just ordinary folks of the previous Fordist era conceive of their own era in such terms? Like social thinkers of most, if not all, previous historical epochs and modes of production, they would doubtless have found the characterization of their era in terms of the appearance of a new body (as distinct from a new style of representing the body) bizarre and mystifying. Martin' s formulation therefore seems to me to be part of the problem rather than part of the solution. The dimensions of the problem are suggested by juxtaposing Martin's proposition with two very different passages that express ideas and attitudes central in the turn to the body in cultural theory. The first, appropriately enough, is from an interview with Foucault, in which he suggests that his reconception of cultural and social theory in terms of a focus on the body as the site of disci

How societies remember the past

Abstract: It is argued that how societies remember the past should be a key element of social theory. The social sciences should direct attention to time, tradition, and memory. Some implications of developi...

Marx, Durkheim, Weber: Formations of Modern Social Thought

Abstract: PART ONE: INTRODUCTION The Origins and Foundations of Modern Social Theory: 1750-1920 Modern Social Theory Defined The Central Subject Matter of Social Theory PART TWO: KARL MARX The Historical Context of Karl Marx's Work The Shift to Materialism The German Ideology Marx's Economic Works: 1850-1867 Capital Volume One, Part A Economic and Social Elements of Capitalism Capital Volume One, Part B The Theory of Value Capital Volume One, Part C Theory of Surplus Value Capital Volume One, Part D The Genesis of Capitalism Theory of Alienation Marx's Theory of Alienation and the 1844 Manuscripts Marx's Political Writings Marx's Dialectical View of History The Theory of Development PART THREE: EMILE DURKHEIM The Historical Context of Emile Durkheim's Work The Division of Labor in Society The Rules of Sociological Method Durkheim's Study of Suicide The Elementary Form of the Religious Life PART FOUR: MAX WEBER The Historical Context of Max Weber's Work Weber's Theoretical Perspective and Fundamental Themes in His Work The Theme of Capitalism in Weber's Work Weber's Theory of Class, Status and Party Weber's Concept of the Status Group The Separation of Status from Class The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Weber's Methodology and the Theory of Knowledge in the Social Sciences The Theory of Legitimate Domination Weber's Political Writings Weber's Study of Bureaucracy

The Social Construction of International Society

Abstract: Metatheoretical debates, once the preserve of political and social theory, have entered the iron cage of International Relations. This article opens with a discussion of these debates, in particular the argument that the social sciences have inherited two radically different understandings of the nature of the social world: `objectivism' and `subjectivism'. The argument made in Section 2 of the article is that contemporary metatheorists like Onuf, Wendt and Hollis and Smith have consistently underestimated the `subjectivism' of theorists such as Charles Manning, Martin Wight, Hedley Bull and Adam Watson who were united in their belief that states, through their interaction, reflexively formed a society. And crucially, the very existence of that society shapes the identity of states. This leads to an examination of the `subjectivist' treatment of the institutions of international society and how this differs from the contemporary `objectivism' of neoliberalism and neorealism. Lastly, the article explores t...

Body at work: Michel Foucault and the sociology of sport

Abstract: This paper is an introduction to the topic of Michel Foucault and the sociology of sport. First, we discuss the concepts used in the works of Foucault that have had the greatest impact in sociology of sport. Second, we present a brief review of the important articles in sociology of sport that have been inspired by Foucault’s approach. This exercise allows us to provide indices of the influence of the Foucauldian perspective on the sociology of sport: directly, by allowing us to situate the body at the center of research questions, or indirectly, in the context of the development and use of contemporary social theories.

Contemporary Sociological Theory: Continuing the Classical Tradition

Abstract: Designed to teach the basic assumptions and concepts of sociological theory, this volume provides an examination of the theoretical perspectives in contemporary sociology and their roots in classical theory. It focuses specifically on the areas of functionalism, conflict theory, exchange theory, symbolic interactionism, and phenomenology, and describes the central ideas and arguments of contemporary and classical theorists working in these areas. This third edition includes new features including feminist contributions and critiques, sections on recent theories of rational choice, a social theory of emotion, and neofunctionalism, expanded discussions of Jurgen Habermas, the structuration theory of Anthony Giddens, and the contributions of Simmel, Durkheim, Thomas and Goffman. More extensive coverage of contemporary European theorists such as Bourdieu and Boudon is also included.

Politics, Sociology, and Social Theory: Encounters with Classical and Contemporary Social Thought

Abstract: Preface. Introduction. 1. Politics and Sociology in the Thought of Max Weber. 2. Marx, Weber and the Development of Capitalism. 3. Durkheima s Political Sociology. 4. Durkheim and the Question of Individualism. 5. Comte, Popper and Positivism. 6. a Powera in the Writings of Talcott Parsons. 7. The Improbable Guru: Re--reading Marcuse. 8. Garfinkel, Ethnomethodology and Hermeneutics. 9. Habermas on Labour and Interaction. 10. Foucault, Nietzsche and Marx. Notes. Index.

Private Lives, Public Spirit: Britain: 1870-1914

Abstract: Part 1 Themes and Interpretations: An Overview of British Society, 1870-19I4 - Continuity and change The impact of Empire The emergence of class Individualism and collectivism From 'Ancient Constitution' to 'Great Society' The nationalization of culture Sex and Gender 'Modernity' and the 'lost domain' Paradox and plurality Victorians and Edwardians. Part 2 Demography, Death, and Disease: People and cities Patterns of fertility Patterns of mortality Society, sickness, and medicine. Part 3 Family and Household: The 'Victorian' family Family size and structure Domestic economy Patriarchalism Motherhood Childhood Sexual relations Family life. Part 4 Property: Perceptions of property The distribution of property Aristocratic property Middle-class property Working-class property Property and politics. Part 5 Work: Work and gentility Structure, skill, and organization Alienation, leisure, and the work ethic Industrial relations Work and the 'working class' Culture and context. Part 6 Religion: The issue of 'secularization' The sociology of church attendance The churches and civic culture The structure of belief Religion and society. Part 7 Society and the State: The social bases of the state The mid-Victorian state Changing political culture Contraction and expansion Finance, bureaucracy, and social policy Crime, law, and police Ambiguities of power. Part 8 Society and Social Theory: The problem of 'society' Atomism, organicism, and social evolution Historicism and idealism Social theory and the 'social problem' The language of race Perceptions of poverty Decay and degeneration Society, liberty, and character: Echoes of Greece and Rome.

Understanding Media Cultures: Social Theory and Mass Communication

Abstract: Introduction Marxism and Mass Communication Research Habermas, Mass Culture and the Public Sphere Critical Perspectives within Audience Research Marshall McLuhan and the Cultural Medium Baudrillard's Blizzards New Media and the Information Society Conclusion

The sociology of money : economics, reason & contemporary society

Abstract: Preface. Introduction: On the Nature of Money. Part I:. 1. The Political Economy of Money. 2. Money and the State. 3. Cultural Aspects of the Mature Money Economy. 4. Money and the Social System. Part II:. 5. The Politics of International Monetary Integration. 6. Money in Postmodern Economics. 7. High Modernity, Rationality and Trust. 8. Monetary Analysis in Social Theory. Bibliography. Index.

Masculinity, Law and Family

Abstract: Masculinity, Law and Family examines the construction of masculinity in a variety of areas of law pertaining to the family. Throughout, Richard Collier integrates recent theoretical developments in legal studies with a social theory of gender, the family and the social construction of masculinity. After an overview of theoretical positions and a critique of traditional legal theory, Richard Collier focusses on the legal regulation of homosexuality and transsexualism to show how confined the view of masculine sexuality is in legal discours. These arguments are further elaborated in a discussion of non-consummation, adultery and divorce, as well as fatherhood and paternity. Masculinity, Law and Family is of central importance to our understanding of the social and political dimension of masculinity.