Chris Jenks – författare

This illuminating book, which explores the idea of subcultures, traces the concept back to its foundations in the works of Tonnies and Durkheim and, to a lesser degree, Marx and Weber.

The discussion moves on to an analysis of subcultures in American urban sociology and criminology, through the traditions of the Chicago School, structural functionalism and systems theory. The ground-breaking work of Stuart Hall and the Birmingham School is evaluated and a case is made for the continuing relevance of the concept for sociology and cultural studies.

The book provides:

"An unrivalled critical guide to subculture

"An assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the concept in the study of society and culture

"A sharp assessment of its relevance and application today.

Both an appraisal and a sustained critique of the concept of subculture, the book will be of interest to students of Sociology, Cultural Studies and Urban Studies.

This illuminating book, which explores the idea of subcultures, traces the concept back to its foundations in the works of Tonnies and Durkheim and, to a lesser degree, Marx and Weber.

The discussion moves on to an analysis of subcultures in American urban sociology and criminology, through the traditions of the Chicago School, structural functionalism and systems theory. The ground-breaking work of Stuart Hall and the Birmingham School is evaluated and a case is made for the continuing relevance of the concept for sociology and cultural studies.

The book provides:

"An unrivalled critical guide to subculture

"An assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the concept in the study of society and culture

"A sharp assessment of its relevance and application today.

Both an appraisal and a sustained critique of the concept of subculture, the book will be of interest to students of Sociology, Cultural Studies and Urban Studies.

It consists of a series of specially commissioned chapters around binary or dichotomous themes. Although many sociologists are critical of dichotomous models of sociological theory and research, the device crops up again and again in the history and practice of the subject. Jenks and his colleagues use the dichotomies to situate students in current sociological arguments and topical debates. For example, by examining contradictory pairs of concepts like structure/agency, local/global, continuity/change, students are introduced to alternative explanations for aspects of human conduct over a whole series of issues.

Offering a critique of the humanist paradigm in contemporary social theory, Qualitative Complexity is the first comprehensive sociological analysis of complexity theory. Drawing from sources in sociology, philosophy, complexity theory, ''fuzzy logic'', systems theory, cognitive science and evolutionary biology, John Smith and Chris Jenks present a new series of interdisciplinary perspectives on the sociology of complex, self-organizing structures.

Offering a critique of the humanist paradigm in contemporary social theory, Qualitative Complexity is the first comprehensive sociological analysis of complexity theory. Drawing from sources in sociology, philosophy, complexity theory, ''fuzzy logic'', systems theory, cognitive science and evolutionary biology, John Smith and Chris Jenks present a new series of interdisciplinary perspectives on the sociology of complex, self-organizing structures.

The manner in which we variously come to an understanding of our world presents problems for us all, but the unified method by which we ought best to acquire such knowledge represents the particular problem of contemporary education. This important book seeks to explore some of the underlying practises and assumptions that go to produce and sustain both such sets of activities.

As a result of its concerns with the social organization of knowledge at all levels, the sociology of education has become a central form of much contemporary sociological theory. All the papers in this collection are formulations of a ‘reflexive’ method of theorizing within sociology of education. This is a mode of address, deriving partly from social phenomenology, which seeks to display the grounds of the theorists’ speech as itself an essential feature of any informative dialogue. Major themes in education and in sociology are considered in this way, including the social form of rationality, the constitution of curricula, normative beliefs about Learning, the nature of literary study as liberal education and the character of scientific knowledge in the social world.

The manner in which we variously come to an understanding of our world presents problems for us all, but the unified method by which we ought best to acquire such knowledge represents the particular problem of contemporary education. This important book seeks to explore some of the underlying practises and assumptions that go to produce and sustain both such sets of activities.

As a result of its concerns with the social organization of knowledge at all levels, the sociology of education has become a central form of much contemporary sociological theory. All the papers in this collection are formulations of a ‘reflexive’ method of theorizing within sociology of education. This is a mode of address, deriving partly from social phenomenology, which seeks to display the grounds of the theorists’ speech as itself an essential feature of any informative dialogue. Major themes in education and in sociology are considered in this way, including the social form of rationality, the constitution of curricula, normative beliefs about Learning, the nature of literary study as liberal education and the character of scientific knowledge in the social world.