LibGuides: E-Books: Sociology

Overview

General Sociology
Criminal Sociology
Economic Sociology
Environmental Sociology

General Sociology

Anarchy and Society : Reflections on Anarchist Sociology Anarchy and Society constructs a tentative synthesis of sociological and anarchist thought, providing a roadmap to a future ‘anarchist sociology'.
Bearing Society in Mind : Theories and Politics of the Social Formation Political and economic models of society often operate at a level of abstraction so high that the connections between them, and their links to culture, are beyond reach. Bearing Society in Mind challenges these disciplinary boundaries and proposes an alternative framework—the social formation.
Causation and Functionalism in Sociology
Foundations of Social Inquiry : A Brief Excursion
Frontiers of Sociology
Issues in Sociology
New Frontiers in Comparative Sociology
Pendulum : How Past Generations Shape Our Present and Predict Our Future From New York Times bestselling author and speaker Roy H. Williams and business guru Michael R. Drew comes a revolutionary book outlining the surprising societal phenomenon that unlocks the secrets to success in the worlds of business, politics, advertising, entertainment, and more.
Postcolonial Sociology Postcolonial theory has enjoyed wide influence in the humanities but for social science, and in particular sociology, its implications remain elusive. This special volume brings together leading sociologists to explore the concept of'postcolonial sociology,'with brand new postcolonial readings of canonical thinkers like Karl Marx, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim and Robert Park.
Sociology : Inquiries Into the Construction of Social Forms Georg Simmel developed a'form'method for the newly revived field of sociology, drawing on the subjectivity/objectivity dialectic. While his book's organization differs from that of contemporary texts, his method remains implicit in the field to this day.
Sociology and Human Rights : A Bill of Rights for the Twenty-First Century Edited by renowned scholars, Judith Blau and Mark Frezzo, this groundbreaking anthology examines the implications that human rights have for the social sciences. The book provides readers with a wide-ranging collection of articles, each written by experts in their fields who argue for an expansion of fundamental human rights in the United States.
Sociology of Globalization : Globalizing Cultures, Economies, and Politics A diverse and engaging collection on the sociology of globalization that offers a systematic analysis of globalization and its impacts on people worldwide
The Legacy of Pierre Bourdieu : Critical Essays This volume explores the sociological legacy of the late Pierre Bourdieu through an examination of the intellectual division between his reception in the world of French social sciences and his reception in the Anglophone world.
The Sociology of Care : Exploring Theory, Policy, and Practice: the Case of Aging

Criminal Sociology

Access to Justice This volume brings together cutting-edge work from practitioners and scholars in law, political science, social psychology, sociology, and sociolinguistics. This work reflects a high degree of sophistication in empirical analysis, and, as importantly, evidences a deeper engagement with social theory than past generations of scholarship.
Economic Crisis and Crime This volume addresses a variety of issues related to economic crisis in the broadest sense of the term, involving diverse national and international contexts, historical epochs, and a range of problems related to economic life. The chapters in this volume tackle criminologically relevant questions in connection with crime/deviance and/or the control thereof, on the basis of an analysis of any aspect of economic life, in general, and economic crisis, in particular.
Immigration, Crime and Justice This volume examines the nexus between immigration and crime from all of the angles. It addresses not just the evidence regarding the criminality of immigrants but also the research on the victimization of immigrants; on human trafficking; domestic violence; the police handling of human trafficking; the exportation to crime problems via deportation; the vigilantes at the U.S. border; the role of the non-immigration police in the control of immigration; and, the criminalization of immigration policy.
Punishment and Incarceration : A Global Perspective This volume in the series Sociology of Crime, Law, and Deviance deals with aspects of punishment, including sentencing, incarceration, and prison conditions, in a variety of settings at local, national, and/or regional levels. The book brings together some 14 scholars to contribute their respective chapters, each of the authors drawn from various parts of the world, thus ensuring a global perspective.
Restorative Justice : From Theory to Practice 'Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance'is an annual series of volumes that publishes scholarly work in criminology and criminal justice studies, sociology of law, and the sociology of deviance. Each volume revolves around one central theme in any of these areas, broadly defined. Showcasing a diversity of methodological approaches, work published in the series includes theoretical contributions, critical reviews of literature, empirical research, and methodological innovations.
Social Control: Informal, Legal and Medical 'Perspectives on Social Control'is of interest not only to sociologists and criminal justice practitioners, but also to medical professionals (primarily for the focus on medical control or medicalization), as well as a wide array of scholars from a variety of disciplines concerned with the socialization process and the pressures toward conformity exerted by social groups in everyday life.
Surveillance and Governance This volume presents recent insights in the sociological study of surveillance and governance in the context of criminal justice and other control strategies.
The Sociology of Deviance : Differences, Tradition, and Stigma Sociology of Deviance: Differences, Tradition, and Stigma is dedicated to a sociological analysis of deviance, a term reframed to imply differences. Deviance is approached from the outset as meaning differences: differences in attitudes, behaviors, lifestyles, and values of people.

Economic Sociology

Economic Lives : How Culture Shapes the Economy Over the past three decades, economic sociology has been revealing how culture shapes economic life even while economic facts affect social relationships. This work has transformed the field into a flourishing and increasingly influential discipline. No one has played a greater role in this development than Viviana Zelizer, one of the world's leading sociologists. Economic Lives synthesizes and extends her most important work to date, demonstrating the full breadth and range of her field-defining contributions in a single volume for the first time.
Economic Sociology : A Systematic Inquiry The sociological study of economic activity has witnessed a significant resurgence. Recent texts have chronicled economic sociology's nineteenth-century origins while pointing to the importance of context and power in economic life, yet the field lacks a clear understanding of the role that concepts at different levels of abstraction play in its organization. Economic Sociology fills this critical gap by surveying the current state of the field while advancing a framework for further theoretical development.
Economic Sociology of Work The objective of this volume is to apply the economic sociology perspective to issues of work broadly defined. Economic sociology is a vibrant area of research investigating how social structures, power allocations and cultural understandings shape the production, consumption, distribution and exchange of goods and services.
Economy in Society : Economic Sociology Revisited This book offers an in-depth analysis of sociology, e.g. such classics as Weber, Parsons and Homans, and its adjacent social sciences with special reference to economics, including public choice theory, property rights theory, the Austrian school and others. This discussion submits many fresh observations; giving the theories under consideration their due, it at the same time exposes their flaws.
Living in a Material World : Economic Sociology Meets Science and Technology Studies This book draws on the tools of science and technology studies and economic sociology to reconceptualize the intersection of economy and technology, suggesting materiality--the idea that social existence involves not only actors and social relations but also objects--as the theoretical point of convergence.
Markets On Trial : The Economic Sociology of the U.S. Financial Crisis This double-volume brings together some of the very top scholars in the world in economic and organizational sociology to address the recent global financial crisis debates and struggles around how to organize economies and societies around the world.
Social Theory at Work This book offers a'one-stop-shop'guide to classical and contemporary perspectvies of work written by leading international experts. Schools covered include: Weberian, Marxian, Durkheimian, feminist, neo-classical economics, institutional economics, ethics, Foucauldian, postmodernist, organizational sociology and economic sociology.
Sociology of Work : An Encyclopedia How did it come about that work dominates so many parts of our lives and our psyche? This multi-disciplinary encyclopedia covers curricular subjects that seek to address that question, ranging from business and management to anthropology, sociology, social history, psychology, politics, economics, and health.
The Economic Implications of Social Cohesion The essays in The Economic Implications of Social Cohesion examine the potential influence of social cohesion on population, health, the well-being of children, macroeconomic performance, voluntary activity, the role of community institutions, aggregate investment and regional development.
The New Economic Sociology : Developments in an Emerging Field As the American economy surged in the 1990s, economic sociology made great strides as well. Economists and sociologists worked across disciplinary boundaries to study the booming market as both a product and a producer of culture, tracing the correlations they saw between economic and social phenomena. In the process, they debated the methodological issues that arose from their interdisciplinary perspectives. The New Economic Sociology provides an overview of these debates and assesses the state of the burgeoning discipline.
The New Sociology of Economic Behaviour What are the solid achievements of the sociology of economic behaviour? What have been the main failures and omissions? How will the subject develop? In this assured and timely volume, the author demonstrates how the sociology of economic behaviour was hijacked by the economic sociology which grew out of Parsons'interpretation of Weber. This development meant that the moral considerations of classical sociology only received attention as means to economic ends.
The Sociology of the Economy The new economic sociology is based on the theory that patterns of economic behavior are shaped by social factors. The Sociology of the Economy brings together a dozen path-breaking empirical studies that explore how social forces—such as shifts in political power, the influence of social networks, or the spread of new economic ideas—shape real-world economic behavior. The contributors—all leading economic sociologists—show these social forces at work in a diverse range of international settings and historical circumstances
Toward a Post-market Society This new book presents the idea that a new way of thinking about the economy may be productive, particularly one that does not rely on an unregulated market to secure economic order. In this context, the notion of a “post-market society” is introduced to describe this shift in orientation. The general theme is that markets are imperfect, despite what their advocates declare.

Environmental Sociology

Living Factories : Biotechnology and the Unique Nature of Capitalism Going beyond the usual focus on the ethics and risks surrounding genetically modified organisms, Kenneth Fish takes the emergence of living factories as an opportunity to revisit fundamental questions concerning the relation between human beings, technology, and the natural world.
Nature and Social Theory The author documents contemporary views about nature which suggest that humanity and nature have never been separate but have always co-existed. Humanity is not only more involved with non-human natures, but also seeks persistently to embed itself in the natural world through embodied, naturalised modes of engagement. This book reveals the staggering depth of this engagement in the ordinary spaces and everyday lives of contemporary societies.
New Perspectives on Environmental Justice : Gender, Sexuality, and Activism New Perspectives on Environmental Justice is the first collection of essays that pays tribute to the enormous contributions women have made in these endeavors.The writers offer varied examples of environmental justice issues such as children's environmental health campaigns, cancer research, AIDS/HIV activism, the Environmental Genome Project, and popular culture, among many others.
Resisting Global Toxics : Transnational Movements for Environmental Justice Every year, nations and corporations in the'global North'produce millions of tons of toxic waste. Too often this hazardous material -- inked to high rates of illness and death and widespread ecosystem damage -- is exported to poor communities of color around the world. In Resisting Global Toxics, David Naguib Pellow examines this practice and charts the emergence of transnational environmental justice movements to challenge and reverse it.
Society and the Environment : Pragmatic Solutions to Ecological Issues A new way to understand global environmental issues, emphasizing the interaction between the social and material worlds in order to expand students sociological imagination and to illustrate possible solutions.
Volatile Places : A Sociology of Communities and Environmental Controversies Volatile Places: A Sociology of Communities and Environmental Controversies is a thoughtful guide to the spirited public controversies that inevitably occur when environments and human communities collide. The movie'An Inconvenient Truth'based on the environmental activism of Al Gore and the devastation of Hurricane Katrina are specifically highlighted.
Who Owns America? : Social Conflict Over Property Rights Land use authority Harvey M. Jacobs has gathered a provocative collection of perspectives from eighteen contributors in the fields of law, history, anthropology, economics, sociology, forestry, and environmental studies.

Overview

Gender Sociology

History of Sociology
Political Sociology
Public Sociology
Research in Sociology
Rural Sociology
Social Change
Social Networks & Structure
Sociology of Religion
Sociology Theory
Urban Sociology

Gender Sociology

Gender, the State, and Social Reproduction : Household Insecurity in Neo-liberal Times Policies implemented in the mid to late 1990s in Ontario by Mike Harris's Conservative government have had undeniable repercussions for the population of that province. Kate Bezanson's Gender, the State, and Social Reproduction is the first study to consider the implications of those policies for gender relations.
Sexual Inequalities and Social Justice This pioneering collection of ten ethnographically rich essays signals the emergence of a new paradigm of social analysis committed to understanding and analyzing social oppression in the context of sexuality and gender.
The Declining Significance of Gender? Although there is much rhetoric about the future of gender inequality, The Declining Significance of Gender? provides a sustained attempt to consider analytically the forces that are shaping the gender revolution. Its wide-ranging analysis of contemporary gender disparities will stimulate readers to think more deeply and in new ways about the extent to which gender remains a major fault line of inequality
The Evolution of Human Sexuality Author Donald Symonds examines the differences between men and women in sexual behavior and attitudes, concluding that these differences are innate and that it is impossible to achieve identical sexualities in males and females. A central theme of this book is that, with respect to sexuality, there is a female human nature and a male human nature, and these natures are extraordinarily different, though the differences are to some extent masked by the compromises heterosexual relationships entail and by moral injunctions
The Lived Body : Sociological Themes, Embodied Issues The Lived Body takes a fresh look at the notion of human embodiment and provides an ideal textbook for undergraduates on the growing number of courses on the sociology of the body.The authors propose a new approach - an'Embodied Sociology'- one which makes embodiment central rather than peripheral.

History of Sociology

A History of the Sociology of Childhood This concise book gives a history of how the sociology of childhood has developed, contextualised in the history of sociology. It draws on the author's own experiences, considers a wide range of published documents and includes contributions on specific topics by some of the main players in the field.
African American Pioneers of Sociology : A Critical History In African American Pioneers of Sociology, Pierre Saint-Arnaud examines the lasting contributions that African Americans have made to the field of sociology. Arguing that science is anything but a neutral construct, he defends the radical stances taken by early African American sociologists from accusations of intellectual infirmity by foregrounding the racist historical context of the time these influential works were produced.
Daniel Bell In this invaluable introduction, Malcolm Waters presents Bell's arguments clearly and fairly, as well as noting the problems with his work. The three books that have made Bell famous, The End of Ideology, The Coming of Post-Capitalism are drawn upon, as well as his lesser known works on education and social forecasting. A thoroughly comprehensive account of a key, albeit highly controversial, contemporary sociological figure.
Diverse Histories of American Sociology
Max Weber in America A landmark work by a leading Weber scholar, Max Weber in America will fundamentally transform our understanding of this influential thinker and his place in the history of sociology and the social sciences.
Social Theories of History and Histories of Social Theory Representing a range of approaches and emphases, the chapters in this volume address and illustrate linkages between social theory and history; social theory and historical analysis as mutually supportive frames of analysis, and affinities between the history of social thought and the history of modern societies. Both classical and more recent theorists feature prominently, especially Durkheim and Weber, but also such central figures in the field as Bourdieu and Luhmann.
Sociology in America : A History Sociology in America is a true history of an often disparate field—and a deeply considered look at the ways sociology developed intellectually and institutionally. It explores the growth of American sociology as it addressed changes and challenges throughout the twentieth century, covering topics ranging from the discipline's intellectual roots to understandings (and misunderstandings) of race and gender to the impact of the Depression and the 1960s.
The Chicago School Diaspora : Epistemology and Substance When the University of Chicago was founded in 1892 it established the first sociology department in the United States. The department grew rapidly in reputation and influence and by the 1920s graduates of its program were heading newly formed sociology programs across the country and determining the direction of the discipline and its future research. Their way of thinking about social relations revolutionized the social sciences by emphasizing an empirical approach to research, instead of the more philosophical 'armchair' perspective that previously prevailed in American sociology. The Chicago School Diaspora presents work by Canadian and international scholars who identify with what they understand as the'Chicago School tradition.'Broadly
The Decomposition of Sociology In The Decomposition of Sociology, Professor Horowitz, for four decades a leading social scientist, offers a frank and full account of the maelstrom engulfing this field. Horowitz pulls no punches in this provocative volume. He charges that much contemporary sociological theory has degenerated into pure critique, strongly influenced by Marxist dogmatism.
The Word As Scalpel : A History of Medical Sociology Medical sociology is now an established subdiscipline in both medicine and sociology. This book traces the intellectual and institutional evolution of the field in relation to antecedents of the past 2000 years. Drawing on his own experience as a participant and witness as well as from diverse fields, the author provides an account of the ongoing search for knowledge about relationship between illness, medicine, and society.
Thorstein Veblen on Culture and Society Best known as the author of the acclaimed book, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), This inspired selection conveys the full zest and penetrating insights of Veblen's writings.The collection comes with a full-length essay which demonstrates the continuing relevance of Veblen's sociology.

Political Sociology

Breaking Down the State : Protestors Engaged In this important book, Jan Willem Duyvendak and James M. Jasper bring together an internationally acclaimed group of contributors to demonstrate the complexities of the social and political spheres in various areas of public policy. By breaking down the state into the players who really make decisions and pursue coherent strategies, these essays provide new perspectives on the interactions between political protestors and the many parts of the state—from courts, political parties, and legislators to police, armies, and intelligence services.
Building Blocs : How Parties Organize Society Do political parties merely represent divisions in society? Until now, scholars and other observers have generally agreed that they do. But Building Blocs argues the reverse: that some political parties in fact shape divisions as they struggle to remake the social order.
Teenage Citizens Too young to vote or pay taxes, teenagers are off the radar of political scientists. Yet civic identities form during adolescence and are rooted in experiences as members of families, schools, and community organizations. Flanagan helps us understand how young people come to envisage civic engagement, and how their political identities take form.
The Contemporary Theory of the Public Sphere Normative democratic theory does not lie securely above societal argumentation but is instead a crucial part of it. We need to know not just how the public should reason, but how it actually does reason, or could reason in better foreseeable circumstances

Public Sociology

Political Power and Social Theory As economic stagnation freezes the globe; capitalism is increasingly questioned; war, revolution and political instability unsettles the Middle East; and President Obama's campaign for the Presidency looms, Volume 23 of Political Power and Social Theory reflects on these and related issues.
Public Sociology : Fifteen Eminent Sociologists Debate Politics and the Profession in the Twenty-first Century In 2004, Michael Burawoy, speaking as president of the American Sociological Association, generated far-reaching controversy when he issued an ambitious and impassioned call for a'public sociology.'Burawoy argued that sociology should speak beyond the university, engaging with social movements and deepening an understanding of the historical and social context in which they exist. In this volume, renowned sociologists come together to debate the perils and the potentials of Burawoy's challenge.
Public Sociology : Research, Action, and Change This timely resource, written by a team of authors who are working at the forefront of the public sociology movement, provides a contemporary analysis of public sociology. The book highlights a variety of ways in which sociology brings about social change in community settings, assists nonprofit and social service organizations in their work, and influences policy at the local, regional, and national levels. The book also spotlights sociology that informs the general public on key policy issues through media and creates research centers that develop and carry out collaborative research.

Research in Sociology

Advances in Sociology Research
Foundations of Social Inquiry : A Brief Excursion
Open to Disruption : Time and Craft in the Practice of Slow Sociology At a time when an emphasis on productivity in higher education threatens to undermine well-crafted research, these highly reflexive essays capture the sometimes profound intellectual effects that may accompany disrupted scholarship. They reveal that over long periods of time relationships with people studied invariably change, sometimes in dramatic ways. They illustrate how world events such as 9/11 and economic cycles impact individual biographies.
Principles of Social Research Using examples from a range of settings, this book provides a clear introduction to basic principles in social research.

Rural Sociology

Habits of the Heartland : Small-Town Life in Modern America In Habits of the Heartland, Lyn C. Macgregor investigates how the residents of Viroqua, Wisconsin, population 4,355, create a small-town community together.
Remaking the Heartland : Middle America Since the 1950s For many Americans, the Midwest is a vast unknown. In Remaking the Heartland, Robert Wuthnow sets out to rectify this. He shows how the region has undergone extraordinary social transformations over the past half-century and proven itself surprisingly resilient in the face of such hardships as the Great Depression and the movement of residents to other parts of the country.
Rural America : Aspects, Outlooks and Development
Rural America in a Globalizing World : Problems and Prospects for the 2010's This fourth Rural Sociological Society decennial volume provides advanced policy scholarship on rural North America during the 2010's, closely reflecting upon the increasingly global nature of social, cultural, and economic forces and the impact of neoliberal ideology upon policy, politics, and power in rural areas.
Rural Communities : Legacy and Change This integrative textbook provides students with a framework for understanding rural society based on the concepts and explanations of social science.
Small-Town America : Finding Community, Shaping the Future In Small-Town America, we meet factory workers, shop owners, retirees, teachers, clergy, and mayors--residents who show neighborliness in small ways, but who also worry about everything from school closings and their children's futures to the ups and downs of the local economy.
The Plantation A rare classic in American social science, Edgar Thompson's 1932 University of Chicago dissertation,'The Plantation,'broke new analytic ground in the study of the southern plantation system. This first complete publication of Thompson's study makes available to modern readers one of the earliest attempts to reinterpret the history of the American South as an integral part of global processes.

Social Change

22 Ideas to Fix the World : Conversations with the World's Foremost Thinkers In this unique volume from the World Public Forum Dialogue of Civilizations and the Social Science Research Council, some of the world's greatest minds—from Nobel Prize winners to long-time activists—explore what the prolonged instability of the so-called Great Recession means for our traditional understanding of how governments can and should function
Age of Icons : Exploring Philanthrocapitalism in the Contemporary World
Agents of Change : Strategy and Tactics for Social Innovation While governments around the world struggle to maintain service levels amid fiscal crises, social innovators are improving social outcomes for citizens by changing the system from within. In Agents of Change, three cutting-edge thinkers and entrepreneurs present case studies of social innovation that have led to significant social change. Drawing on original empirical research in the United States, Canada, Japan, Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands, they examine how ordinary people accomplished extraordinary results
Connecting to Change the World : Harnessing the Power of Networks for Social Impact Drawn from the authors'deep experience with more than thirty successful network projects, Connecting to Change the World provides the frameworks, practical advice, case studies, and expert knowledge needed to build better performing networks. Readers will gain greater confidence and ability to anticipate challenges and opportunities. Easily understandable and full of actionable advice, Connecting to Change the World is an informative guide to creating collaborative solutions to tackle the most difficult challenges society faces.
Cultures and Societies in a Changing World In the Fourth Edition of Cultures and Societies in a Changing World, author Wendy Griswold illuminates how culture shapes our social world and how society shapes culture. Through this book, students will gain an understanding of the sociology of culture and explore stories, beliefs, media, ideas, art, religious practices, fashions, and rituals from a sociological perspective.
How Societies Change This book, the only brief and affordable macro-sociology text available for undergraduates, describes how societies have changed over the past five thousand years. The discussion focuses on the idea that industrial societies, despite their great success, have created a new set of recurring and unsolved problems which will serve as a major impetus for further social change. This book explores development through historical narrative and examines the globalization/development paradox through in-depth case studies.
Intersectionality and Social Change Volume 37 explores the question, what can the emerging discipline of intersectionality studies contribute to our quest to understand and analyze social movements, conflict and change? This collection is part of a continued broadening and deepening of the theoretical contributions of intersectional analysis in understanding social structures and human practices.
Leading Change in the Early Years : Principles and Practice Leading Change in the Early Years focuses on the type of leadership skill needed for leading the reform and change agendas that challenge the early years sector.
Mediations of Social Life in the 21st Century The essays included in this volume illuminate mediations of the individual-society relationship from a variety of angles, both explicitly and implicitly. They highlight the need to consider the consequences of choices made by collective decision-makers, politicians and leaders of organizations; as well as from processes that sustain the functioning and stability of individual nation-states and global society, for better or worse, and to varying degrees.
Perverse Identities : Identities in Conflict The present book considers perversion in the construction of identity and the perverse usage of identity in areas such as social cohesion – xenophobia, racism, ostracism, rejection, ageism, marginalisation – and the mismanagement of linguistic identity, language groups and associated discriminatory practise arising out of historical and culturally based discrimination.
Social Acceleration : A New Theory of Modernity Hartmut Rosa advances an account of the temporal structure of society from the perspective of critical theory. He identifies three categories of change in the tempo of modern social life: technological acceleration, evident in transportation, communication, and production; the acceleration of social change, reflected in cultural knowledge, social institutions, and personal relationships; and acceleration in the pace of life, which happens despite the expectation that technological change should increase an individual s free time.
Stepping Up : How Taking Responsibility Changes Everything Stepping Up argues that almost every problem, from personal difficulties and business challenges to social issues, can be solved if all of us look to ourselves to create change rather than looking to others. By seeing ourselves as agents of change we feel happier, less stressed, and more powerful. Izzo offers seven compelling principles that enable anyone, anywhere, anytime to effectively bring about positive change.
Voices of Resistance : Communication and Social Change This book re-presents voices of resistance from across the globe to document the communicative processes, practices, and frameworks through which neoliberal global policies are currently being defied. Based on examples, case studies, and ethnographic reports,

Social Networks & Structure

Contemporary Perspectives on Organizational Social Networks This compendium of essays points the way to contemporary issues in organizational social networks. Research in the Sociology of Organizations is an established international, peer-reviewed series that examines cutting edge theoretical, methodological and research issues in organizational studies
Eating Together : Food, Friendship and Inequality An insightful map of the landscape of social meals, Eating Together: Food, Friendship, and Inequality argues that the ways in which Americans eat together play a central role in social life in the United States. Delving into a wide range of research, Alice P. Julier analyzes etiquette and entertaining books from the past century and conducts interviews and observations of dozens of hosts and guests at dinner parties, potlucks, and buffets.
Epinets : The Epistemic Structure and Dynamics of Social Networks Epinets presents a new way to think about social networks, which focuses on the knowledge that underlies our social interactions. Guiding readers through the web of beliefs that networked individuals have about each other and probing into what others think, this book illuminates the deeper character and influence of relationships among social network participants.
From Tribe to Facebook : The Transformational Role of Social Networks When such vast numbers of individuals congregate via social networks, societies that were once imaginary become real — the virtual worlds they inhabit expand and instill in their ‘citizens'a shared desire to establish and enforce their common interests. This study charts the impact of this phenomenon in order to explore and analyze the potential outcomes of the accelerated development of social networks.
Industrial Relations : Towards A Theory of Negotiated Connectedness This unusual book is a departure from the usual theory and perspective available on the subject. The books points to some important factors that are influencing industrial relations today and makes valuable suggestions for the state of things to come. It's thoughtful and insightful interpretation of the current situation will be invaluable to students, academicians, researchers and senior management in business.
Networked : The New Social Operating System Our perpetual connectedness gives us endless opportunities to be part of the give-and-take of networking. Some worry that this new environment makes us isolated and lonely. But in Networked, Lee Rainie and Barry Wellman show how the large, loosely knit social circles of networked individuals expand opportunities for learning, problem solving, decision making, and personal interaction.
Performing Global Networks This path-breaking collection follows Graeme Thompson's rallying cry for a clearer analytical approach to the ways in which networks are ‘enacted, assembled, conducted, and performed.' In its thirteen chapters, scholars from a variety of fields – sociology, theatre and performance studies, peace studies, history, and musicology – as well as social and cultural activists, explore the multiple meanings of global networks and performance.
Social Capital : A Theory of Social Structure and Action This book places social capital in the family of capital theories (the classical and neo-capital theories), articulates its elements and propositions, presents research programs, findings, and agenda, and theorizes its significance in various moments of interactions between individual actions and social structure (for example, the primordial groups, social exchanges, organizations, institutional transformations and cybernetworks).
Social Networks and Organizations
Social Networks and Social Support in Childhood and Adolescence
Social Structures Social Structures is a book that examines how structural forms spontaneously arise from social relationships. Offering major insights into the building blocks of social life, it identifies which locally emergent structures have the capacity to grow into larger ones and shows how structural tendencies associated with smaller structures shape and constrain patterns of larger structures.
The Connect Effect : Building Strong Personal, Professional, and Virtual Networks The Connect Effect identifies three distinct kinds of networks: personal, professional, and virtual. Dulworth examines their specific characteristics and offers strategies, tools, and resources for building up and making the best use of each one.
The Power of Narrative in Environmental Networks In this book, Raul Lejano, Mrill Ingram, and Helen Ingram argue that stories, or narratives, play a key role in these networks -- that environmental communities 'narrate themselves into existence.' The authors propose the notion of the narrative-network, and introduce innovative tools to analyze the plots, characters, and events that inform environmental action.

Sociology of Religion

Exploring the Postsecular : The Religious, the Political and the Urban This book examines contemporary relations between religion, politics and urban societies from a theoretical perspective. Special attention is paid to those authors (e.g. Habermas, Taylor) who analyze new global constellations in terms of a shift from the secular to the postsecular.
Handbook of the Sociology of Religion This Handbook showcases research and thinking in the sociology of religion. The contributors, all active writers and researchers in the area, provide original chapters focusing on select aspects of their own engagement with the field. Aimed at students and scholars who want to know more about the sociology of religion, this handbook also provides a resource for sociologists in general by integrating broader questions of sociology (e.g. demography, ethnicity, life course, inequality, political sociology) into the analysis of religion.
History, Time, Meaning, and Memory : Ideas for the Sociology of Religion This volume addresses the conjoint problem of history and sociology. History has seen religion hold varied places within the timeline of the sociology of religion. The increase in world fundamentalisms, religious movements, private spiritualities and other indicators in the millennial age have today brought a renaissance to the field.
Key Thinkers in the Sociology of Religion Key Thinkers in the Sociology of Religion takes a focused look at the foremost figures in the development of the field. From the groundbreaking work of Max Weber, right up to that of contemporary writers such as Peter Berger and Niklas Luhmann, this volume is an essential companion for the student of sociology of religion. Charting the development of theory in this area, each chapter looks at the life and work of an individual theorist.
Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion publishes empirical and theoretical studies of religion from a wide range of disciplines and from all parts of the globe. A special section is devoted to the issue of psychological type and religion and especially how psychological type can increase our understanding of Christian ministry.
The Destiny of Modern Societies : The Calvinist Predestination of a New Society Applying the idea of the destiny of societies or nations, the book argues, demonstrates, and illustrates the Calvinist societal 'predestination', through the Puritan determination, of American society.
Understanding Faith : Religious Belief and Its Place in Society

Sociology Theory

A Short Introduction to Social Theory
Decentering Social Theory Social theory and research has long faced the limitations of its conventional Eurocentric focus. The essays in this volume offer new thoughts and empirical studies for transcending those limitations. A continuation of PPST's previous volume on 'Postcolonial Sociology, 'this volume, 'Decentering Social Theory, 'questions old categories, advances new postcolonial themes in social science, and debates alternative theoretical paradigms.
Encyclopedia of Sociology Research This new book presents current research and findings in the study of sociology. Topics discussed include social capital, entrepreneurial capital and economic growth; disruption of social development in children with autism spectrum disorders; children's social interactions in cultural context; everyday theorizing and the construction of knowledge; participation, pedagogy and practice in design education; community participation in formulating sustainable forest policy; increasing the economic sustainability of online communities and a comparison between theoretical and naive definitions of community.
No Social Science Without Critical Theory The chapters included in this volume of'Current Perspectives in Social Theory'highlight the problematic nature of mainstream perspectives, and the growing need to reaffirm how the specific kind of critique
Political Power and Social Theory As economic stagnation freezes the globe; capitalism is increasingly questioned; war, revolution and political instability unsettles the Middle East; and President Obama's campaign for the Presidency looms, Volume 23 of Political Power and Social Theory reflects on these and related issues.
Religion, Realism and Social Theory : Making Sense of Society Through a bold and original argument, Philip Mellor returns the human and religious aspects of social life to the centre of social theory, drawing on a vast range of contemporary social theoretical literature in the process. The book:'comprehensively reassesses what societies are 'offers a detailed critique of current failings in social theory 'draws out the religious underpinnings of social life 'throws fresh light on the religious, cultural and social conflicts that appear to herald a new period of global disorder Religion, Realism and Social Theory will stimulate debate amongst academics and students of sociology and social theory, cultural studies and the sociology of religion.
Social Theory : Central Issues in Sociology 'John Scott has provided us with an encyclopaedic tour through the foundations and development of social theory which cautions against the contemporary fragmentation of academic work and demonstrates the continued value of sociology's heritage.
The Sociology of Care : Exploring Theory, Policy, and Practice: the Case of Aging
Theory of Society This second volume of Niklas Luhmann's two-part final work was first published in German in 1997. The culmination of his thirty-year theoretical project to reconceptualize sociology, it offers a comprehensive description of modern society. Beginning with an account of the fluidity of meaning and the accordingly high improbability of successful communication, Luhmann analyzes a range of communicative media, including language, writing, the printing press, and electronic media, as well as 'success media, 'such as money, power, truth, and love, all of which structure this fluidity and make communication possible.

Urban Sociology

Accumulation by Dispossession : Transformative Cities in the New Global Order This book is a provocative examination of the contemporary urban scenario in several countries, offering South Asian, North American and European perspectives. Written by some of the most eminent theorists and social scientists of our time, the chapters cover critical empirical analyses of the contemporary transformation processes of several cities and the related socio-economic implications.
Captured by the City : Perspectives in Urban Culture Studies Captured by the City: New Perspectives in Urban Culture Studies is a collection of eighteen essays on urban places, people, and phenomena. In it, cities in North America, Europe, and Asia offer themselves as dynamic encounters to those who study them and to those who live in them on a daily basis.
Everyday Life in the Segmented City The progressive extension of the urban domain beyond the limits of the city and across diverse scales has its corollary in the progressive segmentation of the urban dimension along multiple lines of physical, social, economic, cultural and ethnic nature. This volume focuses on the perspective of the everyday to analyze how practices and policy can overcome the spin towards fragmentation and anomie, and reinforce social cohesion for a more just and livable city, endorsing the 'right to the city' as presented by the seminal work of Henri Lefebvre.
Social Justice and the City Throughout his distinguished and influential career, David Harvey has defined and redefined the relationship between politics, capitalism, and the social aspects of geographical theory. Laying out Harvey's position that geography could not remain objective in the face of urban poverty and associated ills, Social Justice and the City is perhaps the most widely cited work in the field
Sustaining Cities : Urban Policies, Practices, and Perceptions
The City : An Urban Cosmology
The Ghetto : Contemporary Global Issues and Controversies A cutting-edge collection of original essays from leading scholars examining the contemporary state of the ghetto in all its forms
The Imaginative Structure of the City Blum's distinctive form of theoretical inquiry pushes the reader to move beyond conventional ways of thinking about familiar urban issues in answering such fundamental questions as, How does a city exist? How do its inhabitants define their relationship to it? Who is entitled to speak for it? What is its symbolic nature? In what way does the city function as a focus of attempts to resolve social problems such as alienation, participation, and community?
The Lure of the City : From Slums to Suburbs In The Lure of the City Austin Williams and Alastair Donald explore the potential of cities to meet the economic, social and political challenges of the current age. This book seeks to examine the dynamics of urban life, showing that new opportunities can be maximised and social advances realised in existing and emerging urban centres.
The New Urban Question The New Urban Question is an exuberant and illuminating adventure through our current global urban condition, tracing the connections between radical urban theory and political activism.
The New Urban Sociology Now revised and updated, this groundbreaking text utilizes an integrated sociospatial paradigm to consider the role of race, class, gender, lifestyle, economics, culture, and politics on the development of metropolitan areas.
The Politics of the Encounter : Urban Theory and Protest Under Planetary Urbanization The Politics of the Encounter is a spirited interrogation of the city as a site of both theoretical inquiry and global social struggle.
The Promise of the City : Space, Identity, and Politics in Contemporary Social Thought
Urban World History : An Economic and Geographical Perspective

Related Subjects

See also Recreation and Leisure and Sociology in this Subject Guide.