Controversies in Science – serie

Clothing serves as a system of signs that helps to order social interaction by identifying and locating individuals and groups within society. In the first in-depth study to analyze the communicative character of uniforms and other types of clothing, Nathan Joseph examines how clothing functions in a variety of social contexts to enforce norms, maintain institutional power, identify group membership, and express or suppress individuality.

This work examines Durkheim's concern with the sociology of morals and demonstrates the importance of this orientation of his social theory, which until now has been vastly underrated. In addition, it emphasizes the problematic relationship between sociology and philosophical ethics, which served as a motivating force in Durkheim's thought.

Far from being the bucolic paradise that is often imagined, the rural areas of this country are afflicted with chronic economic hardship, severe forms of alienation, and the lack of a foundation for community development or for the enhancement of economic, social, and educational opportunities for rural people. In this study, Kenneth P. Wilkinson examines the critical state of rural life in America, its causes and possible cure. Following a critical review of research and theories on the subject, he proposes a new theoretical perspective that focuses on community interaction as a necessary basis for social well-being.Wilkinson first looks at what rural sociologists have had to say about the meaning and consequences of community as a form of social organization. He next analyzes the profound problems of community organization that affect rural locations, especially the deficits that block the formation of the infrastructure, networks, and facilities that are necessary to community development. Focusing on community interaction, he takes issue with the popularly held theory that grassroots action holds the key to rural problems. In a concluding discussion of policy issues and research challenges, he argues instead that outside intervention will be needed to remove rural barriers to community development before progress can occur on any significant scale. This study advances our understanding of both theoretical and practical issues in rural community development and suggests an agenda for both research and policy initiatives. The Community in Rural America will be relevant to the subjects of rural sociology, resource economics, community development, and rural planning.

Perhaps no aspect of social relations has stirred more academic controversy than the subject of race and ethnicity. Theories that explain the persistence and vitality of the ethnic phenomenon--as well as commentaries on these theories--abound in sociological and anthropological literature. This study is the first, however, to critique the field as a whole. Thompson offers systematic comparisons of current theories, testing both their internal consistency and their adequacy as analytical tools. Thompson's study focuses the debate on ethnicity in a constructive and original fashion.Thompson devotes a chapter to each of the major theoretical traditions that now dominate the field of ethnicity: sociobiology, primordialism, assimilationism, world-system theory, and neo-Marxism. He describes the basic tenets of each theory and demonstrates that the facts they seek to explain are embedded within their theoretical assumptions. He attributes disagreements among the theories less to differences over facts than to the way they are interpreted within different worldviews arising from divergent philosophical and scientific presuppositions. He shows that it is not possible to critique any theory using the assumptions of another theory, arguing that theories can be internally critiqued based on the relationship between their adequacy as theories and the framework they offer for making normative choices. Thompson's study focuses the debate on ethnicity in a constructive and original fashion. The book will be of interest to scholars, teachers, and students working the areas of race and ethnic relations or theoretical criticism.

Stryjan's notable study outlines a new theoretical perspective on self-managed organizations, which is also of considerable interest to students of conventional organizations. The work describes the functioning of, and the preconditions for, successful self-management and its reproduction. Examples deal primarily with worker cooperatives and, to a lesser extent, with worker-owned enterprises and Israeli kibbutzism. All three organizational types have clear, formally defined bodies of members who take part, actually or potentially, in making and implementing their organizations' decisions. Stryjan's perception is that, in this instance, theory-making should best proceed from organizational practices as they are applied in such organizations. The theoretical perspective he outlines is derived from a literal interpretation of the democratic model and assumes that superiors in self-managed organizations reside at the bottom, and have a permanent, hands-on commitment to shaping their organization. This is the starting point for a striking theoretical synthesis of elements taken from a variety of research traditions.The comprehensive introductory chapter provides a sound basis for the study, and the theoretical groundwork is laid for outlining a model organization capable of accommodating and being directed by what its members do. Chapter 2 surveys the limitations of the concept of worker ownership, and suggests a concept of membership as a more suitable core concept for a theory of self-management. Subsequent chapters review available theoretical tools within organizational research that can be of use in dealing with links between individuals and organizations, and between organizations and their environment. A simple static model of organizational reproduction in a formally democratic organization with stable membership is presented first. Stryjan gradually expands this model to accommodate implementation failures, dissent and conflict, demographic deterioration and regeneration. The task of refining the theoretical model to approximate reality-based scenarios is completed in a thorough discussion of the self-managed organization's interaction with its environment. Impossible Organizations is a distinguished and thought-provoking contribution to sociological literature; it will prove essential for students and researchers of organizations in general and of self-managed organizations in particular.

Why should the sociologist concern himself with time? asks Franco Ferrarotti in his latest work. Temporality is, he argues, the essential fluid dimension in the study of the social. Including time as a factor in sociological analysis is the only way to reintroduce the dynamic moment of social reality as a mental construct into an analytical process otherwise reified by the limits of quantitative methods. Ultimately, Ferrarotti contends, the usual way of laying out and proceeding with sociological analysis must be decisively inverted. This book is challenging reading for the sociologist and philosopher alike.Why should the sociologist concern himself with time? asks Franco Ferrarotti in his latest work. Temporality is, he argues, the essential fluid dimension in the study of the social. Including time as a factor in sociological analysis is the only way to reintroduce the dynamic moment of social reality as a mental construct into an analytical process otherwise reified by the limits of quantitative methods. The biographical and autobiographical approaches are also rooted in time. They elicit a problematic human situation and distinguish radically between the technical problem, resolvable through the exact practical application of a given, ideally indifferent, and interchangable formula, and the human dimension. Ultimately, Ferrarotti contends, the usual way of laying out and proceeding with sociological analysis must be decisively inverted. The order of priorities in the research process now followed in the human sciences tends to encourage the loss of the sense of the problem through the crude postulation of technical and human problems as equivalent. Time, Memory, and Society will be challenging, thought provoking reading for the sociologist, social theorist, and philosopher.

One of the most original and influential thinkers of the twentieth century was Jean Gebser, whose varied writings on the philosophy of culture gave birth to postmodernist thought. In spite of his prominence internationally, much of his work has not been translated into English. This book is the first collection of essays on Gebser to appear in English. The contributors, who are experts in architecture, philosophy, modern languages, fine arts, communications studies, and other diverse fields, offer a striking examination of the pervasive and wide ranging impact of Gebser on all aspects of modern culture.The opening chapters of this multidisciplinary study provide a solid theoretical foundation by analyzing the essence of Gebser's mode of inquiry and by noting the distinguishing features of his theory of culture. The chapters that follow assess his influence on the physical sciences, popular culture, fine art, politics, and other aspects of civilization. The volume convincingly demonstrates that Gebser is among the first postmodernist theorists, and it shows that he predicted the emergence and shortcomings of postmodernism long before McLuhan, Derrida, Foucault, and others. This valuable and original text will be of great interest to anyone concerned with the phenomenology of culture and the birth of postmodernist thought.

Alway identifies and assesses new models of emancipatory politics in the Frankfurt Schools Critical Theory. She outlines the complexities of Critical Theory, and clarifies the logical connections between assumptions that inform the critical theorists' analyses of social conditions and their views on the possibilities for radical political practice.Alway examines the works of Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, and Jurgen Habermas to argue the relevance of Critical Theory to contemporary efforts to reconceptualize radical politics. Indeed Alway argues that these theorists anticipate and point to new models of emancipatory politics. Unpacking the complexities of the critical theorists' writings and outlining them in a straightforward manner, Alway identifies the assumptions about human actors and history that inform their analyses of contemporary conditions. The explication of how these background assumptions inform their analyses then allows the author to clarify and assess the critical theorists' positions concerning the possibilities for radical social change, as well as their views on the issues and agents of such change.The author concludes that to the extent that the critical theorists abandon the notion of a revolutionary subject, their work leads us toward a new conceptualization of radical politics. The first generation of critical theorists, however, never fully extricate themselves from a subject-object framework that ultimately limits their efforts. Habermas's transposition of Critical Theory onto new foundations extricates it from the subject-object framework of the philosophy of consciousness, but also fundamentally alters accepted notions of radical politics. The first generation's reconceptualization of radical politics becomes with Habermas a radical reconceptualization of politics itself.

American rituals are vital to the creation and renewal of cultural meanings and rules for social interaction. These rituals are rooted in tradition yet are rapidly changing: a contradiction of hyper-modern society. This phenomenon was first explored by Professor Deegan in her 1989 study American Ritual Dramas. The theory examines both participatory rituals and mass-media rituals to show how everyday people become attached to and alienated from other rituals. Elaborating on the critical dramaturgy theory, the essays in this collection show how patterns can be changed to create a more emancipatory and celebratory society.The topics covered in the collection include an analysis of Santa Claus, skinheads, hate crimes, and strip dancing, among other topics. Each contributor has participated in these rituals and many examine related cultural artifacts such as music, brochures, and so forth. As the essays show, postmodern theory has gratly underestimated the power and coherence of these events. An important study for scholars and other researchers involved with sociological theory, social psychology, and popular culture.

Men in India are attracted to Hindi films partly because of their attraction to depictions of modern lifestyles. Dern^D'e argues that films help men handle their ambivalence about modernity by rooting their sense of Indianness in women's acceptance of traditional food habits, clothing, and gender subordination. The book is one of the first ethnographic studies of filmgoing and one of the first to focus on mainstream male audiences.Dern^D'e considers the effects of films' eroticization of domination and submission on men's sexuality. The study provides ethnographic support for Mulvey's argument that filmgoing prompts men to make women the object of a controlling look. The book shows how films invent new ideologies of male dominance by associating Indianness with limitations on women's movements, and by portraying men as rational and modern, and women as emotional and traditional. One of the first ethnographic studies of filmgoing and one of the first to focus on mainstream male audiences, the book contributes to a rethinking of some key arguments in media studies. While media studies have rightly focused on how films prompt men to gaze at women, this study shows that films simultaneously encourage men to see themselves as the object of controlling looks. Dern^D'e exposes as one-sided the scholarly emphasis on how Indians value hierarchy and group guidance, asserting that Indian films instead celebrate individualism and love.

In an effort to shed light on recent developments in sociocybernetic research, this volume represents recent and advanced thinking in this rapidly developing field. The authors address the core problems in social science caused by increasing societal complexity and analyze the inadequacy of many of the methodological tools still used for grappling with nonlinear, self-organizing systems. Together, the 18 contributors propose elements of a new methodology based on sociocybernetic principles aimed at describing and explaining the growth of societal complexity, the contribution of autopoiesis of societal subunits to more societal complexity, and the new simulation-based methodology needed to observe complex social systems. This unique volume contributes to a greater understanding of sociocybernetics and its uses as a method for researching modern problems of increasing complexity and interdependence.The first part of the book deals with increasing societal complexity and contains chapters on its overall development, the complexity of brain-environment interaction loops, organizational change, the development of human values, and the increasing interpenetration of societal subsystems. The second part concentrates on a current issue in sociocybernetics: autopoiesis, or self-production. The chapters included in Part II concentrate on embodied cognition, on the applicability of autopoiesis to business firms, on its roots in Aristotelian philosophy, and on the possibility of societal control and steering in democratic societies. Part III, more focused on methodology, discusses the difficulties inherent in observing complex social systems. The chapters deal with the problems of cross-cultural comparative research, simulation of the evolution of social systems, longitudinal simulation of education systems, and the methodological difficulties associated with analyzing the unexpected complexities of mutually interacting nonlinear systems.

Wilke has called upon sociologists, observers as well as victims of the caste system, to describe by use of case studies and to analyze the plight of non-tenured faculty and their efforts to survive in an increasingly hostile environment. These stories reveal the human factor, too often slighted or forgotten in discussions of the precarious place of the university in today's society.

A comprehensive historical review of the debates surrounding women's contributions and roles in science, with emphasis on women's access to education, training, and professional careers.This remarkable work illuminates the debates surrounding women's involvement with science throughout history, covering a broad range of disciplines. Unlike a biographical compendium of great scientists, it examines the question posed throughout history: Are women capable of doing science? Whether people have the right to even ask the question is germane to the debate itself.The coverage discusses Hypatia, the first female scientist about whom we have information; examines the contradictory behavior of the church in the treatment of women during the medieval era; and covers the 17th century debates over women's education. It examines women physicians, discusses feminism and science, and delves into why there are so few women in science—even today. The debate that began during the time of Plato and Aristotle continues to this day.Each chapter features a central theme or controversy, such as the Querelle des Femmes, the professionalization of science, and the exclusion of women from medicineIncludes a bibliography of primary and secondary sources divided into subsections based on topic, a complete subject index, and illustrations of the major female figures throughout the history of science

Animals and Science examines the debates, from the Renaissance to the present, surrounding issues of animal rights, consciousness, and self-awareness.Animals and Science examines what science has (and has not) taught us about the nature of nonhuman animals and explores the moral, religious, social, and scientific implications of those teachings. It shows how the scientific study of animals, especially their cognitive abilities, has transformed our understanding of them. Animals and Science traces our evolving understanding of animal pain and considers its moral relevance to humans. It discusses Darwin's belief-shattering notion that species differences are not absolute, then traces its impact to the present day.Ultimately, Animals and Science is about the nature of science—the kinds of questions science can and cannot answer, and the role of theory in shaping the interpretation of evidence.12 thought-provoking essays trace the evolution of our ideas about animals and their impact on science, medicine, and societyThe book includes an extensive collection of primary source documents, ranging from Thomas Aquinas' Summa contra Gentiles to Peter Singer's Animal Liberation

This comprehensive resource explores the role of science and scientific discovery in the nature versus pathology debate surrounding homosexuality.Homosexuality and Science is the compelling history of this intense, ongoing scientific controversy. The story begins in the Victorian era, when doctors were horrified to discover that homosexuality, which they called "sexual perversion" was widespread—probably the result of childhood masturbation, they theorized, and sure to result in mental weakness and blindness for generations to come. The story progresses to a world where gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual scientists are involved in sexuality research, but where the AIDS pandemic has given rise to "reparative therapy" and ministries that claim to "cure" homosexuality.This high-interest title shows how our understanding of homosexuality has been shaped not only by theories of evolution, eugenics, endocrinology, neurobiology, molecular biology, psychology, genetics, anthropology, and sexology, but also by the values of the times.

An exciting introduction to consciousness research and its applications to our waking and sleeping moments.Once the domain of philosophers, the study of consciousness is now an exciting branch of science. Author Anthony Freeman, managing editor of the Journal of Consciousness Studies, opens Consciousness with a history of mind study, from the ancient Greeks to the present, and provides a multidisciplinary review of cognitive science. Freeman untangles the conflicting theories on the working of the brain, analyzing the techniques developed for its study over the years."Seeing" v. "believing," mind/body connections, zombies, and assembly line robots are just the beginning. Even chaos theory and quantum physics are relevant, with opposing approaches inciting disciplinary battles. This illustrated and accessible volume introduces key researchers like Wilder Penfield, who talked with his conscious sister while operating on her brain tumor.

A historical review of the most important scientific controversies that have shaped our knowledge of dinosaurs since the discovery of important fossils in the 1820s.In The Great Dinosaur Controversy: A Guide to the Debates, the major scientific disputes that have contributed to the understanding of dinosaurs come to light. Each chapter presents a major controversy then ponders the lessons learned and their impact on the scientific field.Colorful characters such as "anti-evolutionist" Robert Owen, "Darwin's bulldog," T.H. Huxley, and "dinosaur heretic" Robert Bakker, enliven the debates, which range from the origin of dinosaurs and their posture to their evolution or retrogression and whether they were warm- or cold-blooded. Two of the most recent debates concern how dinosaurs became extinct and whether or not birds are their descendents.Introductory chapter on the role of controversy in science focusing on the contributions of scientists such as Edward Cope and T. H. HuxleyIllustrations of the major figures involved in the debates