Planetary Sociology

Planetary Sociology
Author: Harry F. Dahms
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
Total Pages: 425
Release: 2023-05-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 180043510X

Including contributions from senior scholars in the field who do not rely on the paradigm of planetary Sociology, this volume of Current Perspectives in Social Theory illustrates the importance of scrutinizing links between individual identity and social structure, without employing the paradigm of planetary sociology.

Planetary Social Thought

Planetary Social Thought
Author: Nigel Clark
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2020-10-22
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1509526382

The Anthropocene has emerged as perhaps the scientific concept of the new millennium. Going further than earlier conceptions of the human–environment relationship, Anthropocene science proposes that human activity is tipping the whole Earth system into a new state, with unpredictable consequences. Social life has become a central ingredient in the dynamics of the planet itself. How should the social sciences respond to the opportunities and challenges posed by this development? In this innovative book, Clark and Szerszynski argue that social thinkers need to revise their own presuppositions about the social: to understand it as the product of a dynamic planet, self-organizing over deep time. They outline ‘planetary social thought’: a transdisciplinary way of thinking social life with and through the Earth. Using a range of case studies, they show how familiar social processes can be radically recast when looked at through a planetary lens, revealing how the world-transforming powers of human social life have always depended on the forging of relations with the inhuman potentialities of our home planet. Presenting a social theory of the planetary, this book will be essential reading for students and scholars interested in humanity’s relation to the changing Earth.

Planetary Longings

Planetary Longings
Author: Mary Louise Pratt
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2022-03-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 1478022906

In Planetary Longings eminent cultural theorist Mary Louise Pratt posits that the last decade of the twentieth century and the first decades of the twenty-first mark a turning point in the human and planetary condition. Examining the forces of modernity, neoliberalism, coloniality, and indigeneity in their pre- and postmillennial forms, Pratt reflects on the crisis of futurity that accompanies the millennial turn in relation to environmental disaster and to the new forms of thinking it has catalyzed. She turns to 1990s Latin American vernacular culture, literary fiction, and social movements, which simultaneously registered neoliberalism’s devastating effects and pursued alternate ways of knowing and living. Tracing the workings of colonialism alongside the history of anticolonial struggles and Indigenous mobilizations in the Americas, Pratt analyzes indigeneity both as a key index of coloniality, neoliberal extraction, and ecological destruction, and as a source for alternative modes of thought and being. Ultimately, Pratt demonstrates that the changes on either side of the millennium have catalyzed new forms of world-making and knowledge-making in the face of an unknowable and catastrophic future.

Space Technology & Planetary Astronomy

Space Technology & Planetary Astronomy
Author: Joseph N. Tatarewicz
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 218
Release: 1990
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780253356550

"... the book reminds us of an important lesson in the postwar era of big science: that government policy may lead initially to tremendous support for various fields of science and technology." --Science "... a triumph of historical analysis." --Choice "This is an excellent record of the beginnings of the NASA plantetary astronomy program in the years 1958-70." --American Historical Review "The historical circumstances that led to this country's great leap into space were unique, but it is clear that there are many lessons to be learnt from this enthralling tale and Tatarewicz tells the tale well." --Annals of Science When NASA went looking for expertise on the moon and planets following Sputnik, they found that astronomers had long since turned their telescopes away from our planets and toward the stars. Where were the scientists who could help the United States explore the solar system? The answer, as this important new study shows, was that NASA had to create them This story of the precipitous rise and decline of planetary astronomy is an important case study of science in an age of state-managed research and development. It demonstrates that the lines between science, technology, politics, and society are anything but fixed and impermeable.

Perspectives on Sociological Theories, Methodological Debates and Organizational Sociology

Perspectives on Sociological Theories, Methodological Debates and Organizational Sociology
Author: Medani P. Bhandari
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2023-04-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000879542

This book stands as the full body of scholarly work on western theories of social sciences. The book contents three chapters. The first part gives the overall scenario of theories, the second part provides the pathway to research destination – the research method, and the third and final part is the destination of the substantive field of study and the roles of international organizations on social, political, economic, environmental regimes creation as well as to other social and development functions of international organizations. Sociology examines the social actors’ activities in society and social problems. Western Scholars have developed many social theories, which address the underlying causes such as social conflicts and inequalities, and many formal and informal social organizations are involved to minimize the challenges of inequalities. The study of social organizations is a relatively new phenomenon in sociology. Broadly its historical root can be traced from Greek civilization (Plato, Aristotle), and it has mostly flourished since the Enlightenment Era. However, empirical studies show that the scientific study of organizations began only from the 19th and 20th century. Among the scholars of these centuries, the contributions of Karl Marx, Ferdinand Tönnies, Émile Durkheim, Ludwig Gumplovicz, Vilfredo Pareto, Max Weber, and Talcott Parsons are considered as pillars of sociology. This book intends to answer the broad and major questions of theories, methods, and the international organization studies in social sciences, particularly in sociology and to provide the basic concepts of social theories, application of methods in research (qualitative), and elaborate the factual reality "why study of international organization is also subject of sociological study". The book presents the perspectives of organizational sociology in way that scholarly readers can see the linkages political sciences, sociology and slightly economic in addressing the roles and issues of the international organizations.

Planetary Improvement

Planetary Improvement
Author: Jesse Goldstein
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2018-03-16
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0262535076

An examination of clean technology entrepreneurship finds that “green capitalism” is more capitalist than green. Entrepreneurs and investors in the green economy have encouraged a vision of addressing climate change with new technologies. In Planetary Improvement, Jesse Goldstein examines the cleantech entrepreneurial community in order to understand the limitations of environmental transformation within a capitalist system. Reporting on a series of investment pitches by cleantech entrepreneurs in New York City, Goldstein describes investor-friendly visions of incremental improvements to the industrial status quo that are hardly transformational. He explores a new “green spirit of capitalism,” a discourse of planetary improvement, that aims to “save the planet” by looking for “non-disruptive disruptions,” technologies that deliver “solutions” without changing much of what causes the underlying problems in the first place. Goldstein charts the rise of business environmentalism over the last half of the twentieth century and examines cleantech's unspoken assumptions of continuing cheap and abundant energy. Recounting the sometimes conflicting motivations of cleantech entrepreneurs and investors, he argues that the cleantech innovation ecosystem and its Schumpetarian dynamic of creative destruction are built around attempts to control creativity by demanding that transformational aspirations give way to short-term financial concerns. As a result, capitalist imperatives capture and stifle visions of sociotechnical possibility and transformation. Finally, he calls for a green spirit that goes beyond capitalism, in which sociotechnical experimentation is able to break free from the narrow bonds and relative privilege of cleantech entrepreneurs and the investors that control their fate.

Research Handbook on Urban Sociology

Research Handbook on Urban Sociology
Author: Miguel A. Martínez
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 657
Release: 2024-04-12
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1800888902

Emphasising the social, critical and situated dimensions of the urban, this comprehensive Research Handbook presents a unique collection of theoretical and empirical perspectives on urban sociology. Bringing together expert contributors from across the world, it provides a rich overview and research agenda for contemporary urban sociological scholarship.

Sociology

Sociology
Author: Ken Plummer
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2021-09-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000432211

A lively, accessible and comprehensive introduction to the diverse ways of thinking about social life, Sociology: The Basics has been translated into six languages. The volume is packed with thought-provoking summaries, questions, quotations and activities. It offers an absorbing narrative about what we mean by the social, and how we can think about it, weaving in discussions of the personal, the political and social change, along with concepts and vivid contemporary examples, and answering questions such as: What is the scope, history and purpose of sociology? How do we cultivate ways of understanding society and ‘the social’? What is the state of the world we live in today? How do we analyse suffering and inequalities? What are key methods and tools for researching and thinking about society? How has digitalism reshaped sociology and its method? How might sociology help us understand the changes brought about by Covid-19? Does sociology have values? What is the role of sociology in making a better world? In this thoroughly revised and updated Third edition the reader is encouraged to think critically about the structures, meanings, histories and cultures found in the rapidly changing world we live in. With tasks to stimulate the sociological mind and suggestions for further reading both within the text and on an accompanying website, this book is essential reading for all those studying sociology and those with an interest in how the modern world works.

Mobilities and Complexities

Mobilities and Complexities
Author: Ole B. Jensen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2018-10-25
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0429892705

The new ‘mobilities turn’ has become a powerful perspective in social theory. John Urry’s oeuvre has been very influential in the emergence of this new field and has had lasting impacts on many scholars. This collection presents originally commissioned essays from leading scholars in the field who reflect on how Urry’s writing influenced the course of their research and theorizing. This volume gathers contributions in relation to John Urry’s path-breaking work. The new ‘mobilities turn’ made a strong imprint in European social theory and is beginning to make an impact in the Americas and Asia as well. It challenges mainstream theoretical and empirical approaches that were grounded in a sedentary and bounded view of states. It propels innovative thinking about social and media ecologies, complex systems and social change. It bridges many disciplines and methodologies, leading to new approaches to existing problems while also resonating with questions about both history and the future. Mobilities research marks the rise of academic and intellectual cooperation and collaboration ‘beyond societies’, as nations around the world face the ecological limits of contemporary mobility and energy systems. The contributors represent several national contexts, including England, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Taiwan, Brazil, Canada, Australia and the USA. This book collects personal essays and gives insight into a vivid network of scientists who have connections of various degrees to the late John Urry as an academic figure, an author and a person.

Handbook of Post-Western Sociology: From East Asia to Europe

Handbook of Post-Western Sociology: From East Asia to Europe
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 1056
Release: 2023-04-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004529322

Beyond hegemonic thoughts, the Post-Western sociology enables a new dialogue between East Asia (China, Japan, Korea) and Europe on common and local knowledge to consider theoretical continuities and discontinuities, to develop transnational methodological spaces, and co-produce creolized concepts. With this new paradigm in social sciences we introduce the multiplication of epistemic autonomies vis-à-vis Western hegemony and new theoretical assemblages between East-Asia and European sociologies. From this ecology of knowledge this groundbreaking contribution is to coproduce a post-Western space in a cross-pollination process where “Western” and “non-Western” knowledge do interact, articulated through cosmovisions, as well as to coproduce transnational fieldwork practices.