Social Theory of International Politics

Social Theory of International Politics
Author: Alexander Wendt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 264
Release: 1999-10-07
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1107268435

Drawing upon philosophy and social theory, Social Theory of International Politics develops a theory of the international system as a social construction. Alexander Wendt clarifies the central claims of the constructivist approach, presenting a structural and idealist worldview which contrasts with the individualism and materialism which underpins much mainstream international relations theory. He builds a cultural theory of international politics, which takes whether states view each other as enemies, rivals or friends as a fundamental determinant. Wendt characterises these roles as 'cultures of anarchy', described as Hobbesian, Lockean and Kantian respectively. These cultures are shared ideas which help shape state interests and capabilities, and generate tendencies in the international system. The book describes four factors which can drive structural change from one culture to another - interdependence, common fate, homogenization, and self-restraint - and examines the effects of capitalism and democracy in the emergence of a Kantian culture in the West.

Social Theory and Political Practice (RLE Social Theory)

Social Theory and Political Practice (RLE Social Theory)
Author: Brian Fay
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 107
Release: 2014-08-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317652282

This book examines the question of how our knowledge of social life affects, and ought to affect, our way of living it. In so doing, it critically discusses two epistemological models of social science – the positivist and the interpretive – from the viewpoint of the political theories which, it is argued, are implicit in these models; moreover, it proposes a third model – the critical – which is organised around an explicit account of the relation between social theory and practical life. The book has the special merit of being a good overview of the principal current ideas about the relation between social theory and political practice, as well as an attempt at providing a new and more satisfactory account of this relationship. To accomplish this task, it synthesises work from the analytic philosophy of social science with that of the neo-Marxism of the Frankfurt school.

Political Power and Social Theory

Political Power and Social Theory
Author: Diane E. Davis
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2009-12-21
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1849506671

It is time to consider changes in the field of comparative-historical sociology, as the discipline seeks to accommodate old and new trends as well as the transforming spatial scales in which political power and social theory are increasingly embedded. This title showcases articles that pursue similar themes.

Social Theory and the Politics of Identity

Social Theory and the Politics of Identity
Author: Craig Calhoun
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Total Pages: 364
Release: 1994-10-20
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9781557864734

New social movements of the post-war era have brought to prominence the idea that identity can be a crucial focus for political struggle. Linked to an increasing recognition that social theory itself must put the politics of identity on center stage, this volume impels social theorists not only to make sense of the "world out there", but also to make sense of differences within the discourse of theory.

Social Theory after the Internet

Social Theory after the Internet
Author: Ralph Schroeder
Publisher: UCL Press
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2018-01-04
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 178735122X

The internet has fundamentally transformed society in the past 25 years, yet existing theories of mass or interpersonal communication do not work well in understanding a digital world. Nor has this understanding been helped by disciplinary specialization and a continual focus on the latest innovations. Ralph Schroeder takes a longer-term view, synthesizing perspectives and findings from various social science disciplines in four countries: the United States, Sweden, India and China. His comparison highlights, among other observations, that smartphones are in many respects more important than PC-based internet uses. Social Theory after the Internet focuses on everyday uses and effects of the internet, including information seeking and big data, and explains how the internet has gone beyond traditional media in, for example, enabling Donald Trump and Narendra Modi to come to power. Schroeder puts forward a sophisticated theory of the role of the internet, and how both technological and social forces shape its significance. He provides a sweeping and penetrating study, theoretically ambitious and at the same time always empirically grounded.The book will be of great interest to students and scholars of digital media and society, the internet and politics, and the social implications of big data.

Postcolonial Sociologies

Postcolonial Sociologies
Author: Julian Go
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2016-08-26
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1786353253

How can postcolonial thought be most fruitfully translated and incorporated into sociology? This special volume brings together leading sociologists to offer some answers and examples. The chapters offer new postcolonial readings of canonical thinkers like Karl Marx, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim and Robert Park.

Thinking with Soils

Thinking with Soils
Author: Juan Francisco Salazar
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2020-06-25
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1350109584

This book presents a novel and systematic social theory of soil, and is representative of the rising interest in 'the material' in social sciences. Bringing together new modes of 'critical description' with speculative practices and methods of inquiry, it contributes to the exploration of current transformations in socioecologies, as well as in political and artistic practices, in order to address global ecological change. The chapters in this edited volume challenge scholars to attend more carefully to the ways in which they think about soil, both materially and theoretically. Contributors address a range of topics, including new ways of thinking about the politics of caring for soils; the ecological and symbiotic relations between soils; how the productive capacities and contested governance of soils are deployed as matters of political concern; and indigenous ways of knowing and being with soil.

Studies in Social and Political Theory (RLE Social Theory)

Studies in Social and Political Theory (RLE Social Theory)
Author: Anthony Giddens
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 419
Release: 2014-08-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317650646

The studies which comprise this book are essentially organized around a critical encounter with European social theory in its 'classical period' – i.e. from the middle years of the nineteenth century until the First World War – and have the aim of working out some of the implications of that encounter for the position and prospects of the social sciences today. The issues involved relate to the following series of problems: method and epistemology; social development and transformation; the origins of 'sociology' in nineteenth-century social theory; and the status of social science as critique. In each of these areas, Giddens develops views that challenge existing orthodoxies, and connects these ideas to a reconstruction of social theory in the contemporary era.

Political Communication and Social Theory

Political Communication and Social Theory
Author: Aeron Davis
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2010-09-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 1136940286

Suitable for students and scholars of political communication and mass media in democracies, this book challenges the traditional scholarship on various issues such as: comparative political and media systems; theories of democracy, representation and the public sphere; and, political party communication, marketing and elections.

Social Theory

Social Theory
Author: Roberto Mangabeira Unger
Publisher: Verso
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2004-11-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781844675159

Volume 2 of Politics, a work in constructive social theory.