New Directions in Social Theory

New Directions in Social Theory
Author: Kate Reed
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2006-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780761942702

'Who makes up the 'canon' of sociology - and who doesn't? Does sociology need a canon in the first place? Offers an innovative and passionate contribution to debates on the history and development of sociology and the exclusion of theorists - who are female, black, or both - from the mainstream of social theorizing.With compelling biographical sketches bringing the dynamics behind the 'canon' to life, Kate Reed focuses sharp analysis on the exclusion of theorists on race and gender from important debates on inequality.

New Directions in Sociological Theory

New Directions in Sociological Theory
Author: Paul Filmer
Publisher: MIT Press (MA)
Total Pages: 246
Release: 1973
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780262560146

Phenomenological sociology and ethnomethodolgy are two new and significant developments in modern sociological theory. Traditional sociology takes for granted that the social world has an objective existence; it does not query the commonsense assumptions that are grounded in experience. Ethnomethodological studies, on the other hand, seek to treat practical activities, practical circumstances, and practical sociological reasoning as topics of empirical study. By paying to the most commonplace activities of daily life the attention usually accorded extraordinary events, it seeks to learn about them as phenomena in their own right.New Directions in Sociological Theory is the result of a course of lectures given by the authors at Goldsmiths' College, University of London. Part I is an analysis of traditional sociology, including such topics as "Sociology and the Social World," "Varieties of Positivism," "Functionalism and Systems Theory," and "Theory, Methodology, and Conceptualization," Part II discusses phenomenological alternatives, including "Phenomenological Philosophy and Sociology," "Some Neglected Questions about Social Reality," "Methodology and Meaning," and "On Harold Garfinkel's Ethnomethodology," a study of one of the most important ethnomethodologists of today.

New Directions in Identity Theory and Research

New Directions in Identity Theory and Research
Author: Jan E. Stets
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 713
Release: 2016-07-01
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0190457554

Over the past four decades - and most especially in recent years as issues of identity continue to play out across the public stage - identity theory has developed into one of the most fascinating and active research programs within the spheres of sociological social psychology. Having emerged out of a landmark 2014 national conference that sought to integrate various research programs and to honor the groundbreaking work of Dr. Peter J. Burke, New Directions in Identity Theory and Research brings together the pioneers, scholars, and researchers of identity theory as they present the important theoretical, methodological, and substantive work in identity theory today. Edited by Dr. Jan E. Stets and Dr. Richard T. Serpe, this volume asserts that researchers and scholars can no longer rely on using samples, measures, concepts, and mechanisms that limit the overall advancement of identity theory and research. Instead, as Stets and Serpe contend in their introductory chapter, "Researchers constantly must try out new ideas, test the ideas with more refined measures, use samples that are representative yet racially and ethnically diverse, and employ methods (perhaps mixed methods) that capture the different dimensions of the identity process." This book is the truest testament to this idea. In New Directions in Identity Theory and Research, Stets, Serpe, and contributing authors urge readers to think outside the box by providing the road map necessary to guide future work and thought in this emerging field.

Critical Social Theory and Evaluation Practice

Critical Social Theory and Evaluation Practice
Author: Melissa Freeman
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
Total Pages: 116
Release: 2010-10-12
Genre: Education
ISBN:

As a practice meant to improve society, evaluation is implicated in discussions about which societal and cultural values and principles of justice will prevail and which ones will get subverted or ignored altogether. For the most part, as currently configured, the relationship of evaluators to policy makers has jeopardized evaluation's ability to provide the critical lens needed for feedback on the effects of a society's practices, policies, and structures. Many theorists believe that it is only by examining and critically assessing how knowledge is produced and reproduced in society that we can better reflect on and imagine new, more socially just, social configurations and relations. One such approach, critical theory, is a pedagogical practice that employs a systemic and historical critique of social and cultural formations and practices in a way that fosters citizens' abilities to evaluate and alter them. The intent of this issue of New Directions for Evaluation is to show the relevance of critical social theory for evaluation practice. Each of the authors in this volume addresses in a different way and from a variety of disciplinary fields what a critical theory lens might offer evaluation practice. This is the 127th volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series New Directions for Evaluation, an official publication of the American Evaluation Association.

New Directions in Social Theory, Education and Embodiment

New Directions in Social Theory, Education and Embodiment
Author: John Evans
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2014-10-29
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1317849809

This book exemplifies the nurturing spirit of inter-discursive debate with a view to opening up new theoretical and empirical insights, understanding, and engagement, with debates on issues relating to pedagogy, policy, equity and embodiment. From a variety of social science perspectives, an international force of contributors apply a multitude of concepts to research agendas which illustrate the multiple ways in which ‘the body’ both impacts culture and is simultaneously and seamlessly positioned and shaped by it, maintaining social reproduction of class and cultural hierarchies and social regulation and control. They attest that once we begin to trace the flow of knowledge and discourses across continents, countries, regions and communities by registering their re-contextualisation, both within various popular pedagogies (e.g., newspapers, film, TV, web pages, IT) and the formal and informal practices of schools, families and peers, we are compelled to appreciate the bewildering complexity of subjectivity and the ways in which it is embodied. Indeed, the chapters suggest that no matter how hegemonic or ubiquitous discursive practices may be, they inevitably tend to generate both intended and unexpected ‘affects’ and ‘effects’: people and populations cannot easily be ‘determined’, suppressed or controlled. This book was originally published as a special issue of Sport, Education and Society.

Medical Sociology on the Move

Medical Sociology on the Move
Author: William C. Cockerham
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2013-04-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9400761937

This book provides readers with a single source reviewing and updating sociological theory in medical or health sociology. The book not only addresses the major theoretical approaches in the field today, it also identifies the future directions these theories are likely to take in explaining the social processes affecting health and disease. Many of the chapters are written by leading medical sociologists who feature the use of theory in their everyday work, including contributions from the original theorists of fundamental causes, health lifestyles, and medicalization. Theories focusing on both agency and structure are included to provide a comprehensive account of this important area in medical sociology.

Disability and Social Theory

Disability and Social Theory
Author: D. Goodley
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2012-06-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1137023007

This comprehensive, interdisciplinary collection, examines disability from a theoretical perspective, challenging views of disability that dominate mainstream thinking. Throughout, social theories of disability intersect with ideas associated with sex/gender, race/ethnicity, class and nation.

Modern Social Theory

Modern Social Theory
Author: Dr Derek Layder
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2005-11-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1135365970

This book is intended for undergraduate courses in social theory for second and third year sociology students, as well as postgraduate and academic researchers. Secondary markets include social psychology, social geography, social anthopology, cultural studies.

Social Acceleration

Social Acceleration
Author: Hartmut Rosa
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 514
Release: 2013-05-14
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0231148348

Hartmut Rosa advances an account of the temporal structure of society from the perspective of critical theory. He identifies in particular 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. According to Rosa, both the structural and cultural aspects of our institutions and practices are marked by the "shrinking of the present," a decreasing time period during which expectations based on past experience reliably match future results and events. When this phenomenon combines with technological acceleration and the increasing pace of life, time seems to flow ever faster, making our relationships to each other and the world fluid and problematic. It is as if we are standing on "slipping slopes," a steep social terrain that is itself in motion and in turn demands faster lives and technology. As Rosa deftly shows, this self-reinforcing feedback loop fundamentally determines the character of modern life.

Social Theory Now

Social Theory Now
Author: Claudio E. Benzecry
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2017-08-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 022647531X

The landscape of social theory has changed significantly over the three decades since the publication of Anthony Giddens and Jonathan Turner’s seminal Social Theory Today. Sociologists in the twenty-first century desperately need a new agenda centered around central questions of social theory. In Social Theory Now, Claudio E. Benzecry, Monika Krause, and Isaac Ariail Reed set a new course for sociologists, bringing together contributions from the most distinctive?sociological?traditions?in an ambitious survey of where social theory is today and where it might be going. The book?provides a strategic window onto social theory based on current research, examining trends in classical traditions and the cutting edge of more recent approaches. From distinctive theoretical positions, contributors address questions about?how social order is accomplished; the role of materiality, practice, and meaning; as well as the conditions for the knowledge of the social world. The theoretical traditions presented include cultural sociology, microsociologies, world-system theory and post-colonial theory, gender and feminism, actor network and network theory, systems theory, field theory, rational choice, poststructuralism, pragmatism, and the sociology of conventions. Each chapter introduces a tradition and presents an agenda for further theoretical development. Social Theory Now is an essential tool for sociologists. It will be central to the discussion and teaching of contemporary social theory?for years to come.