Showing papers on "Social theory published in 2001"

Making Social Science Matter: Why Social Inquiry Fails and How It Can Succeed Again

Abstract: Making Social Science Matter presents an exciting new approach to social science, including theoretical argument, methodological guidelines, and examples of practical application. Why has social science failed in attempts to emulate natural science and produce normal theory? Bent Flyvbjerg argues that the strength of social science is in its rich, reflexive analysis of values and power, essential to the social and economic development of any society. Richly informed, powerfully argued, and clearly written, this book provides essential reading for all those in the social and behavioral sciences.

Social Research: Issues, Methods and Process

Abstract: Introduction Part One: Issues in social research Perspectives on social scientific research Social theory and social research Values and ethics in the research process Part Two: Methods of social research Official statistics: Topics and resources Social surveys: Design to analysis Interviewing: Methods and process Participant observation: Perspectives and practice Documentary research: Excavations and evidence Case study research Comparative research: Potential and problems Part Three: Research in practice Reflections on Research in practice

The social model of disability: An outdated ideology?

Abstract: The papers explore the background to British academic and political debates over the social model, and argue that the time has come to move beyond this position. Three central criticisms of the British social model are presented, focusing on: the issue of impairment; the impairment/disability dualism; and the issue of identity. It is suggested that an embodied ontology offers the best starting point for disability studies, and some signposts on the way to a more adequate social theory of disability are provided.

Connell's concept of hegemonic masculinity : A critique

Abstract: The originality of Connell's "social theory of gender" has established him as one of the leading theoreticians in the general area of gender relations and more particularly in the emerging field of the sociology of masculinity. His formulation of the concept of "hegemonic masculinity" represents the most influential and popular part of his work. It has been used in empirical research ranging from the areas of sexuality and gay studies to that of criminology and prison sociology. Yet, although numerous empirical researchers have made use of this concept, there has been almost no attempt to evaluate its theoretical merit.1 This article offers a detailed theoretical exposition as well as a critique of the concept of hegemonic masculinity. In the first part, I show that the notion of hegemonic masculinity was developed in an attempt to give an account of what the sex role framework left largely untheorized, that is, the questions of patriarchal power and social change. I then suggest an alternative way of conceptualizing hegemonic masculinity that draws on Gramsci's concept of historic bloc and Bhabha's notion of hybridity. I argue that hegemonic masculinity is not a purely white or heterosexual configuration of practice but it is a hybrid bloc that unites practices from diverse masculinities in order to ensure the reproduction of patriarchy. In the third and final part of this article, I undertake a brief case study in order to show the contribution of gay masculinities to the formation of the contemporary hegemonic bloc.

Emotion, Social Theory, and Social Structure: A Macrosociological Approach

Abstract: Emotion, Social Theory, and Social Structure takes sociology in a new direction. It examines key aspects of social structure by using a fresh understanding of emotions categories. Through that synthesis emerge new perspectives on rationality, class structure, social action, conformity, basic rights, and social change. As well as giving an innovative view of social processes, J. M. Barbalet's study also reveals unappreciated aspects of emotions by considering fear, resentment, vengefulness, shame, and confidence in the context of social structure. While much has been written on the social consequences of excessive or pathological emotions, this book demonstrates the centrality of emotions to routine operations of social interaction. Dr Barbalet also re-evaluates the nature of social theory, for once the importance of emotions to social processes becomes clear, the intellectual constitution of sociology, and therefore its history, must be rethought.

Challenging Knowledge: The University in the Knowledge Society

Abstract: Drawing from current debates in social theory about the changing nature of knowledge, this book offers the most comprehensive sociological theory of the university that has yet appeared The famous philosophical conceptions of the university from the Enlightenment to postmodern thought are discussed along with the major writings in modern social theory on the university, such as those of Weber, Parsons, Habermas, Gadamer, Lyotard and Bourdieu In this far reaching contribution to the sociology of knowledge, Delanty views the university as a key institution of modernity and as the site where knowledge, culture and society interconnect He assesses the question of the crisis of the university with respect to issues such as globalization, the information age, the nation state, academic capitalism, cultural politics and changing relationships between research and teaching Arguing against the notion of the demise of the university, his argument is that in the knowledge society of today a new identity for the university is emerging based on communication and new conceptions of citizenship It will be essential reading for those interested in changing relationships between modernity, knowledge, higher education and the future of the university

Social Capital, Gentrification and Neighbourhood Change in London: A Comparison of Three South London Neighbourhoods

Abstract: Social capital has been used extensively in recent years to examine issues of social exclusion. Following Bourdieu, the concept is reintegrated into social theory alongside cultural and economic capital to examine the variations in the upgrading of gentrified areas of inner London. Three neighbourhoods in south London are compared and it is argued that their differences can, to a limited extent, be understood in terms of the differential deployment of cultural, social and economic capital by their middle-class residents. These neighbourhoods have acquired distinctive characters as a result and it is argued that the gentrification process in inner London is leading to heterogeneous middle-class neighbourhoods which contrasts with the perceived homogeneity of the traditional suburban area.

The White Architects of Black Education: Ideology and Power in America, 1865-1954

Abstract: The White Architects of Black Education: Ideology and Power in America, 1865-1954 by William H. Watkins. New York, New York: Teachers College Press, 2001. 208 pp. $22.95, paper. Reviewed by Dia Sekayi, Howard University. Author, William Watkins, is a sociologist and historian of education. He is widely pubfished in this area. This background, along with his lifetime of political activism, leaves him well positioned to discuss the history of Black education from a unique perspective. Watkins uses the metaphor of architecture to refer to the ideological construction of colonial Black education. He opens the book with a helpful overview of the two parts; the first of which places the architects' lives within a political/sociological/historical context. Time is not typically taken to provide such a detailed context. However, Watkins deftly crosses disciplines to help the reader make sense of the events and people who have affected the history of Black education. In part one, Watkins chronicles the power, politics, and reality of educating Blacks. He reviews the ideology underlying various forms of philanthropy. His discussion of scientific racism and eugenics as a backdrop is very informative. Indeed, the reader can carry away this portion of the book to interpret other historical texts that deal with the experiences of African Americans and other oppressed groups during the mid to late 19th and early 20th centuries. Part two of the book consists of seven chapters that chronicle the personal and professional lives of individuals, partners, and families described as the architects of Black education. While each of the names is familiar, the reader is provided with some extremely insightful information on persons whose names are usually only mentioned, comparatively speaking, in other texts on the same subject. Having access to a fuller history on General Samuel Armstrong, the subject of the first biographical chapter, assists the reader in interpreting the ostensible contradiction between his life as founder of Hampton Institute and as White supremacist. In poignant wording, Watkins writes: Theoretically, Armstrong brought together the powerful with the powerless. He brought racial supremacists together with those seeking equality. He brought together the lion and the lamb. It was always clear, however, that he was working for the powerful, the supremacists, and the lion. (p. 44) In Chapter 4, Watkins brings us into the philosophy of Franklin Giddings. His claim to fame is the infusion of "scientific sociology" into the curriculum. This scientific sociology justified a racial hierarchy that culminates in White supremacy. His social theory is said to have helped in framing a colonial model of segregation for America. In Chapter 5, the reader is introduced to the Phelps Stokes family. The theme of social justice coexisting side by side with deep seeded beliefs in human inequality continues. Watkins warns the reader to examine the company kept and projects funded by the Phelps Stokes family if we are to truly understand the motivation behind these leaders of scientific corporate philanthropy. In Chapter 6, the life of Thomas Jesse Jones is presented. Again, this architect accepted the concept of racial hierarchy while acting as a "champion" for so-called Negro education. Watkins analyzes his experiences with settlement houses, the Hampton Institute, and the Phelps Stokes Fund. …

Social theory and globalization: The rise of a transnational state

Abstract: Globalization is a relatively new concept in the social sciences. What this concept exactly means, the nature, extent, and importance of the changes bound up with the process, is hotly debated.1 But few would doubt that it is acquiring a critical importance for the academic as well as the political agenda of the twenty-first century, or that it poses a distinctive challenge to theoretical work in the social sciences. The historic limitations of social theory, insofar as it has been informed by the study of "national" societies and the nation-state, are brought into focus by the universalizing tendencies and transnational structural transformations bound up with globalization. To what extent is the nation-state a historically specific form of world social organization now in the process of becoming transcended by capitalist globalization? This is the question that underlies the present essay, although the matter I intend to address is more circumscribed.

False necessity : anti-necessitarian social theory in the service of radical democracy : from Politics, a work in constructive social theory

Abstract: This new edition of "False Necessity" marks the beginning of Verso's reissuing of Unger's major works in political and social thought, first published under the collective title of "Politics". This book develops a radical alternative to Marxism and a progressive alternative to the dominant ideological conceptions of neo-liberalism and social democracy. It explores new institutions that can democratize markets and empower individuals. For this new edition, Unger has written an introduction that explores the limits of our understanding of society and our practice of politics.

Modernism and the Grounds of Law

Abstract: Existing approaches to the relation of law and society have for a long time seen law as either autonomous or grounded in society. Drawing on untapped resources in social theory, Fitzpatrick finds law pivotally placed in and beyond modernity. Being itself of the modern, law takes impetus and identity from modern society and, through incorporating 'pre-modern' elements of savagery and the sacred, it comes to constitute that very society. When placing law in such a crucial position for modernity, Fitzpatrick ranges widely from the colonizations of the Americas, through the thought of the European Enlightenment, and engages finally with contemporary arrogations of the 'global'. By extending his previous work on the origins of modernity, this book makes a significant contribution to continuing developments in law and society, legal philosophy, and jurisprudence.

Social Theories of Risk Perception: At Once Indispensable and Insufficient

Abstract: This article provides a critical comparative review of Ulrich Beck's and Mary Douglas's social theories of risk. The author is particularly concerned to highlight the partiality of their favoured renditions of the social reality of risk perception in relation to the accumulated evidence of empirical research. Their contrasting (and opposing) conceptions of the social processes through which people may negotiate the meaning of `hazard' in terms of `risk' are presented as ideal-types which are both indispensable and insufficient for explaining the cultural complexity of this phenomenon. Moreover, insofar as the lived experience of complexity may be made the object of sociological concern, it is suggested that we might be in a better position to evaluate the cultural significance of risk as a product of this experience.

Representations of the social: Bridging theoretical traditions.

Abstract: Preface and Acknowledgments. List of Contributors. Part I: Framing the Issues. 1. Introduction. (Gina Philogene and Kay Deaux). 2. Why a Theory of Social Representations? (Serge Moscovici). Part II: Doing Social Representation Research. 3. A Theory of Methods. (Gina Philogene). 4. A Structural Approach to Social Representations. (Jean--Claude Abric). 5. The King is Naked. Critical Advertisement and Fashion: The Benetton Phenomenon: Annamaria Silvana de Rosa. 6. Social Positioning and Social Representations. (Alain Clemence). 7. Human Rights Studied as Normative Social Representations. (Willem Doise). 8. From Race to Culture: The Emergence of African American. (Gina Philogene). Part III: Social Representation and Social Construction. 9. Functional Aspects of Social Representation. (Saadi Lahlou). 10. Killer Tomatoes! Collective Symbolic Coping with Biotechnology. (Wolfgang Wagner and Nicole Kronberger). 11. Social Representations, Public Life and Social Construction. (Sandra Jovchelovitch). 12. Social Representations: Catching a Good Idea. (Hazel Rose Markus and Victoria C. Plaut). 13. What We Do and Dona t Know about the Functions of Social Representations. (John T. Jost and Gabriel Ignatow). Part IV: Social Representation and Social Categorization. 14. Social Categorization: Towards Theoretical Integration. (Martha Augoustinos). 15. The When and the Why of How: From Mental Representation to Social Representations. (Fabio Lorenzi--Cioldi). 16. Attitudes, Social Representations and Beyond. (George Gaskell). 17. Social Cognition, Social Representations, and the Dilemmas of Social Theory Construction. (Arie W. Kruglanski). 18. Social and Societal Pragmatism: Susan Fiske. Part V: Social Representation and Social Identification. 19. Representations, Identities, Resistance. (Gerard Duveen). 20. Social Representational Constraints upon Identity Development. (Glynis M Breakwell). 21. Identity, Language and Representations: A Natural System at Work. (Marisa Zavalloni). 22. Social Identities and Social Representations: A Question of Priority? (Marilynn B. Brewer). 23. Meaning and Making: Some Comments on Content and Process. (Kay Deaux). 24. Epilogue. (Kay Deaux and Gina Philogene). References. Index.

Directions for literacy research: analysing language and social practices in a textually-mediated world.

Abstract: This paper provides an overview of the field of Literacy Studies, describing the range of work which has been covered, identifying current unresolved issues as ways of suggesting future directions, and showing ways in which literacy can be seen as an integral part of the broader study of language. Various outstanding issues are discussed, including: the relation of print literacy to other media; questions of definitions and limits of what can be called literacy; what is meant by the key term practices and what are the components of practices; the relation of texts and practices; the relation of literacy theory to critical theory and social theory. One of the most salient aspects of contemporary life is change in communication technologies. Literacy Studies provides a way of understanding these changes by drawing attention to the changing materiality of language and by recasting the role of language in interaction. The paper concludes by arguing that much everyday activity in the contemporary world is mediated by literacy and that people act within a textually mediated social world. It is this textually mediated social world which Literacy Studies can continue to investigate, linking culture and cognition and analysing the dynamics of textually mediated communities of practice.

Knowledge and the Curriculum in the Sociology of Education: towards a reconceptualisation

Abstract: This paper argues that the question of knowledge needs to be reconceptualised if sociology is to make its potential contribution to current debates about the curriculum. It begins with a review of the dominant assumptions underlying contemporary curriculum policy: neo-conservative traditionalism and technical-instrumentalism. It then examines the relativist position on knowledge that follows from the postmodernist critiques that have recently come to dominate social theory, particularly in the sociology of education. The paper argues that, in different ways, each of these approaches avoids the question of knowledge and hence leaves unresolved epistemological and educational dilemmas. In the final section, the paper draws on recent research in the sociology of science to develop what is referred to as a social realist approach to knowledge and explores its implications both for the curriculum and the claims that we are entering a 'knowledge society'.

The Critique of the State

Abstract: What kind of political order would there be in the absence of the state? Jens Bartelson argues that we are currently unable to imagine what might lurk 'beyond', because our basic concepts of political order are conditioned by our experience of statehood. In this study, he investigates the concept of the state historically as well as philosophically, considering a range of thinkers and theories. He also considers the vexed issue of authority: modern political discourse questions the form and content of authority, but makes it all but impossible to talk about the foundations of authority. Largely due to the existing practices of political and scientific criticism, authority appears to be unquestionable. Bartelson's wide-ranging and readable discussion of the suppositions and presuppositions of statehood will be of interest to scholars and upper-level students of political theory and social theory, and philosophy of social science.

A Review of Research Perspectives on Mathematics Teacher Education

Abstract: Research on mathematics teachers and mathematics teacher education has grown substantially over the last 10 to 20 years with the recognition of the enormous influence of the teacher on children’s learning of mathematics. This chapter argues that theoretical frameworks for such studies are not always coherent, nor are they well examined in the literature, remaining largely implicit. The chapter attempts an overview of research and an investigation of the implicit assumptions about the process of teacher learning. I propose that social theories of teacher learning that draw on notions of developing identities are more relevant and fruitful for these domains of educational research.

Handbook of Social Theory

Abstract: Introduction - George Ritzer and Barry Smart Theorists, Theories and Theorizing PART ONE: CLASSICAL SOCIAL THEORY Modernity, Enlightenment, Revolution and Romanticism - John Rundell Creating Social Theory The Origins of Positivism - Jonathan H Turner The Contributions of Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer Maintaining Marx - Gregor McLennan Max Weber - Sam Whimster Work and Interpretation The Continuing Relevance of Georg Simmel - Birgitta Nedelmann Staking Out Anew the Field of Sociology Durkheim's Project for a Sociological Science - Mike Gane The Emergence of the New - Hans Joas Mead's Theory and Its Contemporary Potential Karl Mannheim and the Sociology of Knowledge - David Kettler and Volker Meja Psychoanalysis and Sociology - John O'Neill From Freudo-Marxism to Freudo-Feminism Classical Feminist Social Theory - Patricia Madoo Lengermann and Jill Niebrugge-Brantley PART TWO: CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL THEORY Functional, Conflict and Neofunctional Theories - Mark Abrahamson Talcott Parsons - Robert J Holton Conservative Apologist or Irreplaceable Icon? Nietzsche - Robert J Antonio Social Theory in the Twilight of the Millennium Critical Theory - Craig Calhoun and Joseph Karaganis J[um]urgen Habermas' Theory of Communicative Action - Richard Harvey Brown and Douglas Goodman An Incomplete Project Symbolic Interactionism at the End of the Century - Kent L Sandstrom, Daniel D Martin and Gary Alan Fine Phenomenology and Social Theory - Harvie Ferguson Fundamentals of Ethnomethodology - Wes Sharrock Theories of Social Exchange and Exchange Networks - Linda D Molm Sociological Rational Choice - Douglas D Heckathorn Contemporary Feminist Theory - Mary F Rogers Multiculturalism - Charles Lemert Social Theory and the Postmodern - Stephen Crook Michel Foucault - Mitchell Dean 'A Man in Danger' The Macro/Micro Problem and the Problem of Structure and Agency - Barry Barnes Norbert Elias and Process Sociology - Robert van Krieken PART THREE: ISSUES IN SOCIAL THEORY Positivism in the Twentieth Century - Peter Halfpenny Metatheorizing in Sociology - Shanyang Zhao Cultural Studies and Social Theory - Douglas Kellner A Critical Intervention Theories of Consumption - George Ritzer, Douglas Goodman and Wendy Wiedenhoft Sexualities - Anthony Elliott Social Theory and the Crisis of Identity The Embodied Foundations of Social Theory - Chris Shilling Globalization Theory 2000+ - Roland Robertson Major Problematics Nationalism - Gerard Delanty Between Nation and State Socialism - Peter Beilharz Modern Hopes, Postmodern Shadows Modern Societies as Knowledge Societies - Nico Stehr Sociology, Morality and Ethics - Barry Smart On Being with Others Postsocial Relations - Karin Knorr Cetina Theorizing Sociality in a Post-social Environment

Social Action: A Teleological Account

Abstract: Social action is central to social thought. This centrality reflects the overwhelming causal significance of action for social life, the centrality of action to any account of social phenomena, and the fact that conventions and normativity are features of human activity. This book provides philosophical analyses of fundamental categories of human social action, including cooperative action, conventional action, social norm governed action, and the actions of the occupants of organizational roles. A distinctive feature of the book is that it applies these theories of social action categories to some important moral issues that arise in social contexts such as the collective responsibility for environmental pollution, humanitarian intervention, and dealing with the rights of minority groups. Avoiding both the excessively atomistic individualism of rational choice theorists and implausible collectivist assumptions, this important book will be widely read by philosophers of the social sciences, political scientists and sociologists.

Sexuality and citizenship

Abstract: The tradition of thinking behind the idea of citizenship, which has become a key concept of modern social theory, has given insufficient attention to either gender or sexuality. In this paper it is...

The University in the Knowledge Society

Abstract: The university has become the subject of much critical debate in the social sciences in recent years While earlier interpretations, such as those of Weber (see Shils, 1973), Parsons (Parsons and Platt, 1973), Bourdieu (1988, 1996), emphasized the autonomy of the university within the context of a social theory of modernity, the recent appraisals are more critical and call into question the very coherence of the project of modernity in the postmodern and global age Four debates can be identified 1 The entrenched liberal critique, which can be called a cultural critique since it is primarily concerned with the university as a medium of cultural reproduction The liberal idea of the university—associated with the positions of Allan Bloom (1987), who bemoans the attack on the traditional curriculum in the name of diversity, and Russell Jacoby (1987), who regrets the decline of the public intellectual who has disappeared from the university—on the whole looks backwards to the golden age of an earlier university Despite the different positions within this broad stance that derives from the neo-humanist tradition, the tendency is to see the university in crisis because of the decline of the autonomy of culture, be it the culture of critique or, in its more conservative version, the traditional culture of the canon 2 The postmodern thesis, associated with Lyotard (1984) and recently restated by Bill Readings (1996), announces the end of the university along with the end of the nation-state It is claimed that knowledge has lost its emancipatory role and the very notion of universality, or even the very idea of a curriculum, is now impossible, given the fragmentation of knowledge, as in, for instance, the separation of teaching and research 3 The reflexivity thesis, which is best associated with claims that there is a new mode of knowledge based on a more reflexive relationship between user and producer, offers a less dramatic theory but one nevertheless that announces the obsolescence of the university (Gibbons et al, 1984) As a Mode 2 paradigm around applied knowledge emerges, the university, which is caught up in the more hierarchical and disciplinary-based Mode 1 knowledge production, becomes, it is claimed, increasingly irrelevant to the postfordist economy 4 The globalization thesis draws attention to the instrumentalization of the university as it embraces market values and information technology According to various authors, the university is far from irrelevant to capitalism, as the previous thesis would claim, but is in fact fully integrated into it and, as a new manageralism takes over the university, there is a resulting loss of academic freedom (Curie and Newson, 1998; Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff, 1997; Slaughter and Leslie, 1997) This thesis suggests that the university has become a major player in the global market and in information-based capitalism What are we to make of these announcements of crisis and even of the decline of the university? I believe a more nuanced interpretation is possible

Identities, Borders, Orders: Rethinking International Relations Theory

Abstract: Informed by current debates in social theory, Identities, Borders, Orders brings together a multinational group of respected scholars to seek and encourage imaginative adaptations and recombinations of concepts, theories, and perspectives across disciplinary lines These contributors take up a variety of substantive, theoretical, and normative issues such as migration, nationalism, citizenship, human rights, democracy, and security Together, their essays contribute significantly to our understanding of sovereignty, national identity, and borders

Planning in postmodern times

Abstract: Postmodern social theory has provided significant insights into our understanding of society and its components. Key thinkers including Foucault, Baudrillard and Lyotard have challenged existing ideas about power and rationality in society. This book analyses planning from a postmodern perspective and explores alternative conceptions based on a combination of postmodern thinking and other fields of social theory. In doing so, it exposes some of the limits of postmodern social theory while providing an alternative conception of planning in the twenty-first century.This title will appeal to anyone interested in how we think and act in relation to cities, urban planning and governance.

The Faultline of Consciousness: A View of Interactionism in Sociology

Abstract: In this compendium of related and cross-referential essays, David R. Maines draws from pragmatist/symbolic interactionist assumptions to formulate a consistent new view of the entire field of sociology. Suitable for courses in social theory, qualitative methods, social psychology, and narrative inquiry, this volume will change the way the general public looks at interpretive sociology. This book is organized as an expression of the centrality of interactionism to general sociology. Each chapter is designed to articulate this view of the field. Symbolic interactionism, the way Maines has come to understand and use it, is essentially the concerted application of pragmatist principles of philosophy to social inquiry. There are four basic elements to this characterization. First, people transform themselves: people are self-aware beings who reflexively form their conduct and thus are capable of adjusting their lines of action and creating new ones. Second, people transform their social worlds: human action takes place in contexts of situations and social worlds. People can modify the social matrices in which they act, and thus people are agents of change. Third, people engage in social dialogue: communication is generic and is at the heart of both stability and change. A fourth element is that people respond to and deal with their transformations. Humans construct situations and societies; they establish social structures and cultures. These are the consequences of human action, and once formed they reflexively function to direct and channel conduct. Maines argues that when people do things together they can create enduring group formations, such as divisions of labor, rules for inheritance, wage-labor relations, or ideologies. These are instances of group characteristics that influence human conduct and indeed are not reducible to the traits of individuals making up the group or society.