Showing papers on "Social theory published in 1997"

Realist social theory : the morphogenetic approach

Abstract: Building on her seminal contribution to social theory in Culture and Agency, in this 1995 book Margaret Archer develops her morphogenetic approach, applying it to the problem of structure and agency. Since structure and agency constitute different levels of stratified social reality, each possesses distinctive emergent properties which are real and causally efficacious but irreducible to one another. The problem, therefore, is shown to be how to link the two rather than conflate them, as has been common theoretical practice. Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach not only rejects methodological individualism and holism, but argues that the debate between them has been replaced by a new one, between elisionary theorising and emergentist theories based on a realist ontology of the social world. The morphogenetic approach is the sociological complement of transcendental realism, and together they provide a basis for non-conflationary theorizing which is also of direct utility to the practising social analyst.

Formations of Class & Gender: Becoming Respectable

Abstract: Explanations of how identities are constructed are fundamental to contemporary debates in feminism and in cultural and social theory. Formations of Class & Gender demonstrates why class should be featured more prominently in theoretical accounts of gender, identity and power. Beverley Skeggs identifies the neglect of class, and shows how class and gender must be fused together to produce an accurate representation of power relations in modern society. The book questions how theoretical frameworks are generated for understanding how women live and produce themselves through social and cultural relations. It uses detailed ethnographic research to explain how `real' women inhabit and occupy the social and cultural positions of class, femininity and sexuality. As a critical examination of cultural representation - informed by recent feminist theory and the work of Pierre Bourdieu - the book is an articulate demonstration of how to translate theory into practice.

Rethinking Genre in School and Society: An Activity Theory Analysis.

Abstract: This article attempts to expand and elaborate theories of social "context" and formal schooling, to understand the stakes involved in writing. It first sketches ways Russian activity theory in the tradition of A. N. Leont'ev may expand Bakhtinian dialogism, then elaborates the theory in terms of North American genre research, with examples drawn from research on writing in the disciplines in higher education. By tracing the relations of disciplinary genre systems to educational genre systems, through the boundary of the classroom genre system, the analyst/reformer can construct a model of the interactions of classroom practices with wider social practices. Activity theory analysis of genre systems may offer a theoretical bridge between the sociology of education and Vygotskian social psychology of classroom interaction, and contribute toward resolving the knotty problem of the relation of macro- and microstructure in literacy research based on various social theories of "context." ***** What makes one conversation more meaningful than another? For either an individual, a dyad, a collective, or even a culture? When three African American students who hope to be doctors some day sit down on one particular day to write a laboratory report in a college cell biology course, what are the stakes involved in those marks on a screen? For the students and their families and their neighborhoods and churches? For the instructor and his university and his profession of biology? For the profession of medicine and its patients and its government regulators? How can a student or teacher or researcher understand the meaningfulnessthe stakesof some (act of) writing. Vygotsky and his immediate successors did not use genre as a category of analysis. But in the last decade, a number of Vygotskian theorists have incorporated into their work various theories of genre. I will propose a synthesis of a number of elements from these theories, drawing most heavily on Charles Bazerman's (1994) analysis of genre as systems of speech acts within an overarching framework of Vygotskian activity theory (Leont'ev, 1981; Engestrom, 1987, 1993). The goal is to move toward a theory of writing useful in analyzing how students and teachers within individual classrooms use the discursive tools of classroom genres to interact (and not interact) with social practices beyond individual classroomsthose of schools, families, peers, disciplines, professions, political movements, unions, corporations, and so on. In other words, I am attempting to expand and elaborate theories of social "context" and formal schooling, to understand the stakes involved in writing. Literacy, Brandt (1990) persuasively argues, is "not the narrow ability to deal with texts but the broader ability to deal with other

Social Mindscapes: An Invitation to Cognitive Sociology

Abstract: 1. The Sociology of the Mind 2. Social Optics 3. The Social Gates of Consciousness 4. The Social Division of the World 5. Social Meanings 6. Social Memories 7. Standard Time 8. Conclusion Notes Further Reading Author Index Subject Index

Do categories have politics? The language/action perspective reconsidered

Abstract: Drawing on writings within the CSCW community and on recent social theory, this paper proposes that the adoption of speech act theory as a foundation for system design carries with it an agenda of discipline and control over organization members actions. I begin with a brief review of the language/action perspective introduced by Winograd, Flores and their colleagues, focusing in particular on the categorization of speakers intent. I then turn to some observations on the politics of categorization and, with that framework as background, consider the attempt, through THE COORDINATOR, to implement a technological system for intention-accounting within organizations. Finally, I suggest the implications of the analysis presented in the paper for the politics of CSCW systems design. No idea is more provocative in controversies about technology and society than the notion that technical things have political qualities. At issue is the claim that machines, structures, and systems of modern material culture can be accurately judged not only for their contributions to efficiency and productivity... but also for the ways in which they can embody specific forms of power and authority. Winner 1986, p. 19. By teaching people an ontology of linguistic action, grounded in simple, universal distinctions such as those of requesting and promising, we find that they become more aware of these distinctions in their everyday work and life situations. They can simplify their dealings with others, reduce time and effort spent in conversations that do not result in action, and generally manage actions in a less panicked, confused atmosphere. Flores et al 1988, p. 158. The world has always been in the middle of things, in unruly and practical conversation, full of action and structured by a startling array of actants and of networking and unequal collectives ... The shape of my amodern history will have a different geometry, not of progress, but of permanent and multi-patterned interaction through which lives and worlds get built, human and unhuman. Haraway 1991, p. 11.

Producing Guanxi: Sentiment, Self, and Subculture in a North China Village

Abstract: Throughout China the formation of guanxi, or social connections, involves friends, families, colleagues, and acquaintances in complex networks of social support and sentimental attachment. Focusing on this process in one rural north China village, Fengjia, Andrew B. Kipnis shows what guanxi production reveals about the evolution of village political economy, kinship and gender, and local patterns of subjectivity in Dengist China. His work offers a detailed description of the communicative actions - such as gift giving, being a host or guest, participating in weddings or funerals - that produce, manage, and deny guanxi in a specific time and place. Kipnis also offers a rare comparative analysis of how these practices relate to the varied and variable phenomenon of guanxi throughout China and as it has changed over time. "Producing Guanxi" combines the theory of Pierre Bourdieu and the insights of symbolic anthropology to contest past portrayals of guanxi as either a function of Chinese political economics or an unchanging Confucian social structure. In this analysis guanxi emerges as a purposeful human effort that makes use of past cultural logics while generating new ones. By exploring the role of sentiment in the creation of self, Kipnis critiques recent theories of subjectivity for their narrow focus on language and discourse, and contributes to the anthropological discussion of comparative selfhood. Navigating a path between mainstream social science and abstract social theory, Kipnis presents a more nuanced examination of guanxi than has previously been available and contributes generally to our understanding of relationships and human action. His findings will interest students of Chinese society as well as scholars across the fields of anthropology, cultural studies, gender studies, and social psychology.

Simulating Social Phenomena

Abstract: Introduction: R. Conte, R. Hegselmann, P. Terna, Social Simulation - A New Disciplinary Synthesis.- Simulating in the Social Sciences: History, Problems, and Perspectives: R. Axelrod, Advancing the Art of Simulation in the Social Sciences K.G. Troitzsch, Social Science Simulation - Origins, Prospects, Purposes K.-H. Brassel, M. Mohring, E. Schumacher, K.G. Troitzsch, Can Agents Cover all the World? P. Terna, A Laboratory for Agent Based Computational Economics: The Self-development of Consistency in Agents' Behaviour E. Bruderer, M. Maiers, From the Margin to the Mainstream: An Agenda for Computer Simulations in the Social Sciences C. Jacobsen, R. Bronson, Computer Simulated Empirical Tests of Social Theory: Lessons from 15 Years' Experience F.M. Brazier, P.A. v. Eck, J. Treur, Modelling a Society of Simple Agents: From Conceptual Specification to Experimentation.- Cooperation, Exchange, and Coalitions: K. Binmore, M. Piccione, L. Samuelson, Bargaining Between Automata D. Parisi, What to Do with a Surplus T.B. Klos, Spatially Coevolving Automata Play the Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma S. Majeski, G. Linden, C. Linden, A. Spitzer, A Spatial Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma Game Simultion with Movement A. Rossi, M. Warglien, E. Zaninotto, Cooperation as Illusory Hill-Climbing: Co-adaption and Search in Social Dilemmas G.M. Werner, J.N. Davis, Cooperation Without Memory R. Conte, M. Paolucci, Tributes or Norms? The Context-dependent Rationality of Social Control R. Pedone, D. Parisi, In What Kinds of Social Groups Can 'Altruistic' Behaviors Evolve? G. Pistolesi, V. Veneziano, C. Castelfranchi, Global vs. Local Social Search in the Formation of Coalitions M. Achterkamp, Exchange and Challenge in Collective Decision Making.- Markets, Organisations, and EconomicDynamics: G. Weisbuch, A. Kirman, D. Herreiner, Market Organisation O. Guenther, T. Hogg, B.A. Huberman, Market Organizations for Controlling Smart Matter G. Ballot, M-P. Merlateau, D. Meurs, Personnel Policies, Long Term Unemployment and Growth. An Evolutionary Model C. Bruun, Agent-Based Keynesian Economics E.S. Andersen, An Evolutionary Approach to Structural Economic Dynamics S. Zambelli, Macroeconomic Intedependence and Frequency Locking H. van den Broek, H.W. Gazendam, Organizational Actors and the Need for a Flexible World Representation L. Marengo, C. Pasquali, Concurrency and the Logic of Economic Organization L. Papini, G.A. Rabino, An Evolutionary Urban Cellular Automata: The Model and Some First Simulations B. Lomborg, Simulating Multiparty Systems.- Learning and Adaption: M. Egidi, M. Ricottili, Co-ordination and Specialisation D. Hales, Modelling Meta-Memes S.E. Phelan, Innovation and Imitation as Competitive Strategies E. Chattoe, N. Gilbert, A Simulation of Adaption Mechanisms in Budgetary Decision Making P.M. Todd, Searching for the Next Best Mate X. Vila, Adaptive Artificial Agents Play a Finitely Repeated Discrete Principal-Agent Game J. Doran, Foreknowledge in Artificial Societies S.-H. Chen, Would and Should Government Lie about Economic Statistics: Understanding Opinion Formation Processes through Evolutionary Cellular Automata.- Statistics: T. Snijders, M. van Duijn, Simulation for Statistical Inference in Dynamic Network Models L. Barabesi, L. Fattorini, Permutation Techniques for Testing Homogeneity of Social Groups form Questionnaire Results M.C. Wolfson, New Goods and the Measurement of Real Economic Growth: Summary Results Using the XEcon Experimental Economy M.C. Wolfson, Sketsching Life Paths: A New

Governmentality, criticism, politics

Abstract: The growth of the governmentality literature represents a significant development in current social theory. However, certain prominent and interlinked tendencies, which are associated with the place of politics as a subject and object of theoretical work, are queried. Most especially the concerns are with: the rejection of critique as part of the work of social theory; the rendering of government programmes as univocal and as overly coherent and systematic; and the focus on politics as “mentalities of rule” to the virtual exclusion of understanding politics as social relations. The paper explores some of these difficulties which are here seen as presenting problems for the future development of governmentality research and theory. Without aiming to systematize the literature, nevertheless the paper suggests that the time is overdue for central issues in the literature of governmentality to become the subject of more open and vigorous debate.

Structural social work : ideology, theory, and practice

Abstract: This second edition has been substantially rewritten and includes new sections on globalized capitalism, modernism and postmodernism, and a new chapter on oppression as the source of social problems and the focus of structural social work. This book is intended for introductory social work and/or social welfare courses. Upper level courses on social work theory.

Comment on Hekman's "Truth and Method: Feminist Standpoint Theory Revisited": Where's the Power?

Abstract: as an interpretive framework dedicated to explicating how knowledge remains central to maintaining and changing unjust systems of power. While the main arguments in Susan Hekman's article (in this issue) contain surface validity, because standpoint theory never was designed to be argued as a theory of truth or method, Hekman's article simply misses the point of standpoint theory overall. By decontextualizing standpoint theory from its initial moorings in a knowledge/power framework while simultaneously recontextualizing it in an apolitical discussion of feminist truth and method, Hekman essentially depoliticizes the potentially radical content of standpoint theory. First, the notion of a standpoint refers to historically shared, groupbased experiences. Groups have a degree of permanence over time such that group realities transcend individual experiences. For example, African Americans as a stigmatized racial group existed long before I was born and will probably continue long after I die. While my individual experiences with institutionalized racism will be unique, the types of opportunities and constraints that I encounter on a daily basis will resemble those confronting African Americans as a group. Arguing that Blacks as a group come into being or disappear on the basis of my participation seems narcissistic, egocentric, and archetypally postmodern. In contrast, standpoint theory places less emphasis on individual experiences within socially constructed groups than on the social conditions that construct such groups. I stress this difference between the individual and the group as units of analysis because using these two constructs as if they were interchangeable clouds understanding of a host of topics, in this case, the very notion of a group-based standpoint. Individualism continues as a taproot in Western theorizing, including feminist versions. Whether bourgeois liberalism positing notions of individual rights or postmodern social theory's celebration of human differences, market-based choice models grounded in individualism argue that freedom exists via the absence of constraints of all sorts, including those of mandatory group membership. Freedom occurs when individuals have rights of mobility in and out of groups, much as we join clubs and other voluntary associations.

Homo geographicus : a framework for action, awareness, and moral concern

Abstract: "This brilliant book, reflecting an original mind and years of preparatory research, is a major work of contemporary geographical scholarship. It is perhaps the most important theoretical work in human geography of the past thirty years. 'Homo Geographicus' provides a powerful intellectual broadside on behalf of reason as a faculty of mind that all humans share. This will be a controversial book that will stimulate much-needed debate about geographical agency, spatiality, and postmodernist claims. An exemplary book."--John Agnew, Syracuse University "Robert Sack is one of the most original theoreticians in geography today. In 'Homo Geographicus' he continues his project of identifying the geographical sources of social life, and takes an important step toward giving the geographic perspective an essential and central role in modern social theory."--J. Nicholas Entrikin, University of California at Los Angeles "Written in straightforward and unpretentious language, 'Homo Geographicus' refocuses thinking about the nature of the geographic and provides a framework for why and how the various domains of study within the discipline of geography are intimately linked." --Billie Lee Turner II, George Perkins Marsh Institute, Clark University In 'Homo Geographicus' Sack offers nothing less than a philosophy and theory of geography. He maps out how nature, culture, self, and such geographical factors as space, place, home, and world fit together, enabling us to see more clearly how we transform the world and how we are affected by that transformation. He also provides possible moral directions for us to pursue so that we can be more responsible for our actions and make better our places, our home, and the earth itself.

The New Blackwell Companion to Social Theory

Abstract: The book guides the student and scholar through the vast array of approaches and frameworks that shape contemporary analysis of social reality. The principal focus is on post-classical modern social theory, but while major post-classical thinkers such as Habermas, Foucault and Derrida are examined, they appear within the context of a classical tradition developed by figures such as Parsons, Goffman and Elias. Organized by themes rather than theorists, 18 essays by the world's leading social theorists provide insights to the traditions of classical social thought as well as the major debates and developments in contemporary social theory. Extensive bibliographies, meanwhile, provide a guide to the current literature.

The international handbook of environmental sociology

Abstract: Contents: Introduction Graham Woodgate PART I: CONCEPTS AND THEORIES IN ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIOLOGY Editorial Commentary Graham Woodgate 1. The Maturation and Diversification of Environmental Sociology: From Constructivism and Realism to Agnosticism and Pragmatism Riley E. Dunlap 2. Social Institutions and Environmental Change Frederick H. Buttel 3. From Environment Sociology to Global Ecosociology: The Dunlap - Buttel Debates Jean-Guy Vaillancourt 4. Ecological Modernization as a Social Theory of Environmental Reform Arthur P.J. Mol 5. Ecological Modernization Theory: Theoretical and Empirical Challenges Richard York, Eugene A. Rosa and Thomas Dietz 6. Postconstructivist Political Ecologies Arturo Escobar 7. Marx's Ecology and its Historical Significance John Bellamy Foster 8. The Transition Out of Carbon Dependence: The Crises of Environment and Markets Michael R. Redclift 9. Socio-ecological Agency: From 'Human Exceptionalism' to Coping with 'Exceptional' Global Environmental Change David Manuel-Navarrete and Christine N. Buzinde 10. Ecological Debt: An Integrating Concept for Socio-Environmental Change Inaki Barcena Hinojal and Rosa Lago Aurrekoetxea 11. The Emergence Model of Environment and Society John Hannigan 12. Peering into the Abyss: Environment, Research and Absurdity in the 'Age of Stupid' Raymond L. Bryant PART II: SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIOLOGY Editorial Commentary Graham Woodgate 13. Animals and Us Ted Benton 14. Science and the Environment in the Twenty-first Century Steven Yearley 15. New Challenges for Twenty-first Century Environmental Movements: Agricultural Biotechnology and Nanotechnology Maria Kousis 16. Sustainable Consumption: Developments, Considerations and New Directions Emma D. Hinton and Michael K. Goodman 17. Globalisation, Convergence and the Euro-Atlantic Development Model Wolfgang Sachs 18. Environmental Hazards and Human Disasters Raymond Murphy 19. Structural Obstacles to an Effective Post-2012 Global Climate Agreement: Why Social Structure Matters and How Addressing it Can Help Break the Impasse Bradley C. Parks and J. Timmons Roberts 20. Environmental Sociology and International Forestry: Historical Overview and Future Directions Bianca Ambrose-Oji PART III: INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY Editorial Commentary Graham Woodgate 21. The Role of Place in the Margins of Space David Manuel-Navarrete and Michael R. Redclift 22. Society, Environment and Development in Africa William M. Adams 23. Neoliberal Regimes of Environmental Governance: Climate Change, Biodiversity and Agriculture in Australia Stewart Lockie 24. Environmental Reform in Modernizing China Arthur P.J. Mol 25. Civic Engagement in Environmental Governance in Central and Eastern Europe JoAnn Carmin 26. A 'Sustaining Conservation' for Mexico? Nora Haenn Index

The Goffman reader

Abstract: "Goffman" by Charles Lemert. Goffman's Social Theory by Ann Branaman.Part I: The Production of Self: 1. Self Claims On Cooling the Mark Out: Some Aspects of Adaptation to Failure. 2. Self-Presentation The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. 3. The Self as Ritual Object The Nature of Deference and Demeanor. 4. The Self and Social Roles Role Distance. Part II: The Nature of Social Life: 5. Social Life as Drama The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. 6. Social Life as Ritual On Face-Work The Structure and Function of Situational Properties Supportive and Remedial Interchanges. 7. Social Life as Game Fun in Games Where the Action Is Strategic Interaction. Part III: The Confined Self: 8. Status, Territory, and the Self Territories of the Self. 9. The Mortified Self On the Characteristics of Total Institutions The Moral Career of the Mental Patient. 10. The Stigmatized Self Stigma. 11. The Recalcitrant Self The Underlife of a Public Institution. Part IV: Frames and the Organization of Experience: 12. Frame Analysis Frame Analysis. 13. Frame Analysis of Talk Felicitys Condition. 14. The Frame Analysis of Gender The Arrangement Between the Sexes Gender Displays. 15. Social Interaction and Social Structure. The Neglected Situation. The Interaction Order. Bibliography: Erving Goffmans Writings. Bibliography: Secondary Literature. Acknowledgements. Index.

Restructuring of Social and Political Theory in Education: Foucault and a Social Epistemology of School Practices.

Abstract: Our concern in this essay is with how Michel Foucault’s methodologies for the study of power are related to a more general reexamining and re-visioning of the “foundations” of critical traditions inherited from nineteenth century European forebears. Through his wide-ranging studies of knowledge, madness, prisons, sexuality, and governmentality, Foucault’s historical philosophy interrogates the conditions under which modern societies operate. His concern with how the subject is constituted in power relations forms an important contribution to recent social theory, providing both methodological and substantive challenges to the social sciences. These have been taken up in various projects across multiple settings, with particular implications for interdisciplinary work. The politics of “identity,” as witnessed in the theoretical and historical work within the feminist movement, is one such example, crossing nation-state barriers of European and Anglo-American intellectual work. Our essay moves between the particular contribution of Foucault and the more general intellectual movements to which he has contributed. The attention given to Foucault in the English-speaking world is part of a larger sea-migration of critical traditions of social science since the World War I1 period. By sea-migration, we mean the post-World War I1 mixing of European continental social theories that integrate historical and philosophical discourses with the more pragmatic (and philosophical/ analytic) traditions in the United States, Britain, and Australia.’ The translation and incorporation of European Marxist social philosophy such as that of the Frankfurt School of critical theory from Germany, the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci, and more recently, French “postmodern” and French and Italian feminist theories are important to the production of a “critical” space in the education arena. Social theories since World War I1 have been important grounds on which educational debates, policies, and scholarship have focused. Our use of the term

Social Science: Beyond Constructivism and Realism

Abstract: This concise and comprehensive volume provides an accessible overview of the main debates on the sociology and philosophy of the social sciences from the contemporary perspective of radical reflexivity and democratization. From its origins in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when a new system of knowledge was created around the idea of modernity, the author tracts the transformation of modern conceptions of social science as a cognitive system and as an institution. Focusing on the rise of positivism in the age of the Enlightenment to its final collapse in the twentieth century, Delanty argues how social science is today recovering its role as the critical voice of modernity and examines the positivist dispute from post-empiricist perspectives. It is argued that the conception of social science emerging today is one that involves a synthesis of radical constructivism and critical realism. The crucial challenge facing social science is a question of its public role: growing reflexivity in society has implications for the social production of knowledge and is bringing into question the separation of expert systems from other forms of knowledge. This is one of the most ambitious and wide-ranging texts in recent years on debates about the contemporary situation of social science. It will be of strong interest to undergraduates and postgraduates in the social sciences as well as to professional researchers working in the areas of the philosophy of social science, the sociology of science and knowledge, and social and political theory.

Social theory of the Scottish Enlightenment

Abstract: The Enlightenment and Scotland society and the critique of individualism science, explanation and history social diversity social history commercial history social values reading the Scottish enlightenment.

The struggle for recognition : the moral grammar of social conflicts

Abstract: In this pathbreaking study, Axel Honneth argues that "the struggle for recognition" is, and should be, at the center of social conflicts. Moving smoothly between moral philosophy and social theory, Honneth offers insights into such issues as the social forms of recognition and nonrecognition, the moral basis of interaction in human conflicts, the relation between the recognition model and conceptions of modernity, the normative basis of social theory, and the possibility of mediating between Hegel and Kant.

Critical Social Theories: An Introduction

Abstract: Praised for its clarity and accessibility, this fully updated edition of Critical Social Theories presents a comprehensive analysis of leading social and cultural theories today. Diverse perspectives are addressed from feminism and cultural studies to postmodernism and critical theory. Written accessibly for students and faculty, the second edition includes new chapters on the need for a new public sociology in the post 9/11 era--one that moves beyond both positivism and postmodernism. Agger updates and develops for today's world a model for this engaged sociology rooted in sixties activism, when C. Wright Mills and Tom Hayden framed the New Left as a vehicle for the sociological imagination.

Signs of Recognition: Powers and Hazards of Representation in an Indonesian Society

Abstract: Webb Keane argues that by looking at representations as concrete practices we may find them to be thoroughly entangled in the tensions and hazards of social existence. This book explores the performances and transactions that lie at the heart of public events in contemporary Anakalang, on the Indonesian island of Sumba. Weaving together sharply observed narrative, close analysis of poetic speech and valuable objects, and far-reaching theoretical discussion, Signs of Recognition explores the risks endemic in representational practices. An awareness of risk is embedded in the very forms of ritual speech and exchange. The possibilities for failure and slippage reveal people's mutual vulnerabilities and give words and things part of their power. Keane shows how the dilemmas posed by the effort to use and control language and objects are implicated with general problems of power, authority, and agency. He persuades us to look differently at ideas of voice and value. Integrating the analysis of words and things, this book contributes to a wide range of fields, including linguistic anthropology, cultural studies, social theory, and the studies of material culture, art, and political economy.

Modern Social Theory: Key Debates And New Directions

Abstract: Outline of the theory of social domain the contours of everday life the social fabric examined power and control in modernity understanding social interaction lifeworld and system theory creativity and constraint in social life theory and empirical research.

Social trust and human communities

Abstract: Govier offers a general account of trust in a variety of social contexts and explores the negative effects of distrust on society. For example, she examines the role of trust in relationships between doctors and patients and between politicians and constituents. With well-chosen examples ranging from the Oka crisis to Meech Lake, Govier points out that distrust in politics has been especially prevalent, and, while it may be well-founded, can have pernicious effects. Social Trust and Human Communities will be of great interest to students and scholars in the areas of applied ethics, social theory, and politics.

Editors' Introduction Escape From Politics? Social Theory and the Social Capital Debate

Abstract: This article sets the stage for the discussion of social capital, civil society, and contemporary democracy by attempting to clarify terms and set out the most promising avenues for discussion and ...

A Changing Terrain of Knowledge and Power: A Social Epistemology of Educational Research

Abstract: In the past decade, important struggles about the production of knowledge have taken place in history, the social sciences, and education. These struggles involve more than the “knowledge interests” that Habermas pointed to in the 1970s; instead, they point to important epistemological ruptures in the doctrines of “reason” that have dominated social and political debates since the late 19th century. This questioning reaches into the presuppositions of progress and power underlying intellectual work.This article explores some of the main features of the controversies about knowledge by turning first to certain assumptions that guided social theory at least since the 19th century. The assumptions relate, for example, to the focus on human action (and agents) as purpose or explanation of theory, to the conceptualization of space and time, to the introduction of change as a problem of the administration of time (the control of process and development), and to the inscription of political and social doctrines ...

Nurses' views on empowerment: a critical social theory perspective

Abstract: This is the first study which describes British nurses' views on the concept of empowerment. Despite the frequent call for nurses to empower patients there was no evidence in the literature about British nurses' views. The study was carried out prior to a course exploring empowerment for practice. Focus groups were used to gather the data. Critical social theory and the work of Paulo Freire (1972) and Jurgen Habermas (1971, 1979) was used as a theoretical framework to underpin the enquiry. Taped interview transcripts were analysed thematically. Four categories emerged from the data to provide the framework for the themes: 'empowerment', 'having personal power', 'relationships within the multidisciplinary team', and 'feeling right about oneself'. It is suggested that the nurses in this study manifested signs of being oppressed and striving for liberation. The limitations of the study are identified, but the overall conclusion is that the teaching of critical social theories as an empowerment paradigm is relevant in nurse education today.