Sociability Associations

Sociability Associations
Author: Robert A Stebbins
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 74
Release: 2019-02-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9004397906

Friendly social relations during free time, referred to here as leisure-based sociability, constitute a prominent reward of participation in groups based on voluntary membership, consisting for this review mainly of amateurs, hobbyists, volunteers, and their associations. This benefit is analyzed according to two subtypes: sociable nonprofit associations and social clubs. The goal of this issue of the Voluntaristics Review is to examine the leisure component of these two subtypes as framed in the serious leisure perspective (SLP), put nonprofit sociability in organizational context, and then review the empirical literature bearing on it. Excluded are the studies and theoretic treatises approaching nonprofit groups from another angle (e.g., organizational structure, management issues, funding sources, governmental regulation, type of employment). Specifically, this review centers on the relevant publications listed in the SLP website bearing on amateurs, hobbyists, and career volunteers (the serious pursuits), casual leisure, and project-based interests. It includes several extensions of the theory and research on leisure-related aspects of aging and retirement, arts and science administration, library and information science, positive psychology, therapeutic recreation and disability studies, and tourism and event analysis. Compared with the specialties in leisure studies, the SLP casts by far the broadest theoretical and empirical net in that interdisciplinary field. The research reviewed shows that such talk—generically known as socializing—reflects one or more of 14 themes. In general, members find sociability in these clubs and associations in and around the core activities they pursue there and on which the two subtypes have formed. The studies reviewed, taken together, provide considerable validation of the proposition that leisure-based sociability is a prominent reward of participating in a multitude of volunteer groups. Leisure-based sociability is essentially micro-analytic, but when viewed through the lens of the SLP, it can be further understood using meso and macro levels of analysis.

Sociability and Society

Sociability and Society
Author: K. Ludwig Pfeiffer
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 412
Release: 2023-03-21
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 150363485X

Today, churches, political parties, trade unions, and even national sports teams are no guarantee of social solidarity. At a time when these traditional institutions of social cohesion seem increasingly ill-equipped to defend against the disintegration of sociability, K. Ludwig Pfeiffer encourages us to reflect on the cultural and literary history of social gatherings—from the ancient Athenian symposium to its successor forms throughout Western history. From medieval troubadours to Parisian salons and beyond, Pfeiffer conceptualizes the symposium as an institution of sociability with a central societal function. As such he reinforces a programmatic theoretical move in the sociology of Georg Simmel and builds on theories of social interaction and communication characterized by Max Weber, George Herbert Mead, Jürgen Habermas, Niklas Luhmann, and others. To make his argument, Pfeiffer draws on the work of a range of writers, including Dr. Samuel Johnson and Diderot, Virginia Woolf and Marcel Proust, Dorothy Sayers, Joseph Conrad, and Stieg Larsson. Ultimately, Pfeiffer concludes that if modern societies do not find ways of reinstating elements of the Athenian symposium, especially those relating to its ritualized ease, decency and style of interaction, they will have to cope with increasing violence and decreasing social cohesion.

The Lumumba Generation

The Lumumba Generation
Author: Daniel Tödt
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 486
Release: 2021-10-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 3110709376

How and why did the Congolese elite turn from loyal intermediaries into opponents of the colonial state? This book seeks to enrich our understanding of the political and cultural processes culminating in the tumultuous decolonization of the Belgian Congo. Focusing on the making of an African bourgeoisie, the book illuminates the so-called évolués’ social worlds, cultural self-representations, daily life and political struggles. https://youtu.be/c8ybPCi80dc

Max Weber and Institutional Theory

Max Weber and Institutional Theory
Author: M. Rainer Lepsius
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 219
Release: 2016-11-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3319447084

This book presents a collection of essays on institutional theory written by the German sociologist and Weber-expert M. Rainer Lepsius. Based on Weber’s work, the author develops concepts of institutional theory, which he subsequently applies to topics such as National Socialism, democratization processes, German unification, and the institutionalization of the European Union. By showing how charismatic leadership can under certain circumstances threaten democratic structures and curtail individual freedoms, and by analyzing the structural and cultural conditions under which people develop trust in political and social structures and ultimately come to support and comply with them, the author provides a sound analytical understanding of the development of democratic institutions and a democratic political culture. This collection of essays was edited, translated and commented on by Claus Wendt.

Central and Eastern Europe

Central and Eastern Europe
Author:
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2009-09-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0230623964

The collapse of communism in 1989 paved the way for the reunification of the continent. This book analyzes the impact of the different dynamics of change since 1989 on public policy and on various economic and political sectors.

Spinoza: The political writings

Spinoza: The political writings
Author: Genevieve Lloyd
Publisher: Taylor & Francis US
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2001
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780415186216

These volumes provide a comprehensive selection of high quality critical discussions of Spinoza's philosophy published in, or translated into English since 1970. Edited by a distinguished academic panel, these volumes allow current debates on key themes to be followed through in depth, and present to readers the diversity of philosophical approach and interpretation that characterizes recent Spinoza scholarship.

Imaginary Bodies

Imaginary Bodies
Author: Moira Gatens
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 183
Release: 2013-01-11
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1134891628

Moira Gatens investigates the ways in which differently sexed bodies can occupy the same social or political space. Representations of sexual difference have unacknowledged philosophical roots which cannot be dismissed as a superficial bias on the part of the philosopher, nor removed without destroying the coherence of the philosophical system concerned. The deep structural bias against women extends beyond metaphysics and its effects are felt in epistemology, moral, social and political theory. The idea of sexual difference is contextualised in Imaginary Bodies and traced through the history of philosophy. Using her work on Spinoza, Gatens develops alternative conceptions of power, new ways of conceiving women's embodiment and their legal, political and ethical status.

Encyclopedia of Social Theory

Encyclopedia of Social Theory
Author: Austin Harrington
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 752
Release: 2006
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 0415290465

The Encyclopedia of Social Theory cuts across all relevant disciplines, theories, approaches, and schools to present the latest information and research.

Making Democratic Citizens in Spain

Making Democratic Citizens in Spain
Author: P. Radcliff
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 435
Release: 2011-03-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 0230302130

A fascinating study of the contribution of ordinary men and women to Spain's democratic transition of the 1970s. Radcliff argues that participants in neighbourhood and other associations experimented with new practices of civic participation that put pressure on the authoritarian state and made the building blocks of a future democratic citizenship