Critical Concepts in Sociology – serie

The concept of citizenship is central to a wide number of debates in the social sciences: juridicial (the rights and obligations of the state), political philosophy and the law (because it defines the nature of expectations relating to social contract) and questions relating to freedom, equality and rights.These two volumes provide scholars with a comprehensive guide to the concept. It outlines the history of citizenship and traces its application in various debates within the social sciences.Bryan Turner is Professor of Sociology at the University of Cambridge. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the leading sociologists in the English-speaking world. He is the author or co-author of no less than 30 books, the most recent of which have been Theories of Modernity and Postmodernity (Sage 1992) and Regulating Bodies (Routledge 1992).

The concept of power is at the centre of social science. It is surrounded with controversy and disputes however about what it really means. This collection, edited by one of the leading commentators in the field, brings together the indispensable secondary literature. It includes a major introduction which explains why power is a key concept in the social sciences and guides the reader through the contrasting attempts to understand it.

The state is one of the most important concepts in explaining the shape of modern life. It is also a concept surrounded with much dispute. What exactly is the state? How important is it in influencing personal conduct? Does it act impartially? What changes has it undergone? What are the varieties of state organization? These three volumes, edited by John Hall - one of the world's best respected commentators on the subject - provide scholars and students with a reliable and comprehensive guide to these questions. The volumes will be essential reading for anyone with a serious interest in the state.

Looking beyond the myths and headlines of Islam this text explores the religion from a social science viewpoint. The collection explores Islamic thought and institutions and represents a critical introduction to the system of Islamic belief and practice from a social science perspective, emphasizing the global nature of Islam in the twentieth century. Including a new introduction and index, the collection will prove an invaluable reference tool and teaching aid.

Class and status are both foundational themes in the study of sociology. John Scott brings together the central theoretical contributions to the debate on class and status as aspects of stratification. Using a selection of seminal pieces and commentaries on the classics, it raises central issues, for example the distinction between class and status, which are then examined by leading authorities.

For the first time the historically significant accounts of modernity have been brought together, including essays by the main thinkers, such as Marx, Parsons, Mannheim, Giddens, Bourdieu and Adorno, as well as previously unseen material by lesser known figures. Modernity: Critical Concepts provides academics, students and researchers with the most comprehensive collection of material available and is aimed at all those seeking further information both within and beyond their own areas of interest. The articles included have been arranged into four volumes:* Modernization* Cultural Modernity* Modern Systems* After ModernityThe concept of modernity is central to sociology, philosophy and cultural studies and is used as a critique of numerous traditions and disciplines including economics, politics, ethics, selfhood and knowledge.

Bringing together classic writings on sexuality from a social science perspective, this fascinating set covers topics including the history of the study of the area, theoretical approaches and issues of gender and sexuality.Focusing on the evaluations of some of the major traditions of sex research and theory dating back to the nineteenth century, volume one gives an overview of the entire field. Drawn from a broad range of sources, articles include evaluations of some of the founders of the field, survey research, anthropological fieldwork, social psychological experimentation and contemporary ethnology.Moving on to concentrate upon the main theoretical approaches to sexuality within both sociology and allied traditions, volume two includes references to Marxism, feminism, interactionalism and Freudian, Foucauldian and postmodernist thought, whilst volume three examines the politics, power and critique of sexual categories - including bisexuality, sex addiction, prostitution and sadomasochism.Finally, volume four considers the wider issues around sexualities - addressing social change, postmodernity and the shifting of sexualities, and presenting an examination of the term 'queer'. An epilogue of suggested further reading is also included.

This set brings together published articles, papers and book chapters that are central to an informed understanding of race and ethnicity today. The volumes are arranged around four key themes and will resonate with both researchers and teachers in related fields, as well as those who are engaged in policy issues directly arising from racial and ethnic structures and behaviour.With a new introduction and index, this internationally focused, multidisciplinary collection is an invaluable reference tool and teaching aid.

This international collection brings together a selection of the most influential work on the concept of the 'Family' and related issues. Introductory chapters introduce the context for the main themes and concepts in each volume, and a comprehensive index allows the reader to navigate the collection with ease.With an international spread of material, covering the USA, Europe, Canada, Australia and Asia, this collection will prove an invaluable resource for students and researchers.

The history, various usages and different meanings of 'Culture' derive from diverse areas of study, including philosophy, critical aesthetics, literary criticism, anthropology, and sociology.These volumes introduce the reader to these multi-facets of the concept and the wide and often contradictory variety of interpretations that have been and continue to be placed on it. The diverse meanings and interpretations of the concept are also reflected in the interdisciplinary nature of the articles collected.The structure of the collection places culture within a history of ideas, and also enables the reader to review different arguments and perspectives on the topic.

Containing articles on approaches to and theories of globalization, this collection addresses the making of the modern world from different disciplinary perspectives.This set investigates the major components of globalization in its most comprehensive sense: the nation-state and the system of international relations; the question of self-identity and the individual in the globalization process; human rights, citizenship and the environment; institutional questions including matters of media communication, education, tourism, multinational corporations, migration and intercultural communication.New introductions and a thorough index make this work an indispensable research tool.

Social networks as a concept was developed through social psychological work on the communication and leadership structures of small groups, and in sociological and anthropological work on kinship and community relations. From the 1960s, this idea came to be extended to a wider range of social relations (especially economic and political relations) through the formulation of mathematical models of networks. Advances in computing technology allowed the construction of more systematic and more powerful network methods.The aim of this collection is to bring together the principal sources in the development of the techniques of social network analysis, from early metaphorical statements in Simmel and Radcliffe-Brown, through the more systematic explorations in sociology and social anthropology to contemporary formalizations.A new introduction explores the history of social networks and highlights the arguments of those who treat social network analysis as a loose, qualitative approach, as well as those who see potential in its technical, mathematical uses.

This four-volume collection deals with the causes and prevention of crime as well as the treatment and punishment of its perpetrators. While taking a sociological approach to the subject, the articles gathered in this collection reflect the diversity of related fields and theoretical traditions which inform the study of crime - including economics, history, psychology and anthropology. The set provides an historical overview of the development of the study of crime and a picture of the field as it currently stands.With a new introduction and a thorough index, this collection is an invaluable resource for those studying this rapidly developing area.

Recent years have seen a rapid growth in the field of sports studies. This collection provides an invaluable resource for this burgeoning field, offering a selection of classic works and more recent, groundbreaking journal articles on the sociology of sport.Key features of this collection are:* Comprehensive and critical coverage of the field* Historical and comparative approaches detail how modern sport has developed* Articles which illustrate the international diversity of the study of the social aspects of sport and sport per se* Cross-disciplinary articlesThe four volumes cover:* Approaches to the Study of Sport* The Development and Structure of Modern Sport* Sport and Power Relations* Major Issues in Contemporary SportWith an international range of themes, contextual introductions to each volume and a comprehensive index, this will become an indispensible research tool for students and researchers.

This collection offers a uniquely comprehensive guide to the sociology of the body. With a strong historical scope and conceptual framework, it provides an indispensable reference for undergraduate and postgraduate students, and a robust source for scholars working in the area. The central focus is on understanding sociology through the body; what is often described as re-reading sociology in a 'more corporeal light'. This is an interdisciplinary process, drawing on history, feminism, cultural history, art history, anthropology, social psychology, philosophy, medical sociology and media and communications, as well as sociology. While this has been primarily a Western practice, The Body seeks to broaden the perspective to include references that draw on alternative cultural assumptions, beliefs and practices (including Japan, and South America.)

Mircea Eliade descibed shamanism as the primal religion of humanity, the 'archaic technique of ecstasy'. The books of best-selling author Carlos Castaneda made it part of popular culture. Since the 1960s shamanism has continued to attract the attention of scholars, artists, writers and the general public. The most intriguing aspect of this religion is the ability of shamans to enter into contact with spirits on behalf of their communities. The first eighteenth-century explorers of Siberia dubbed shamanism a blatant fraud. Later, academic observers stamped it as 'neurotic delusion'. In the 1960s shamans were recast as 'wounded healers', who sacrifice their lives for the spiritual well being of their communities. Many current writers and scholars treat shamanism as ancient wisdom that has much to teach us about true spirituality.This anthology tells the story of shamanism in Eurasia, North and South America, Africa and Australia. It brings together for the first time fifty-six articles and book excerpts by anthropologists, psychologists, religious scholars and historians, illustrating the variety of views on this subject.

New Religious Movements (NRMs) came into being as a distinct subfield of academic study in the 1970s in response to the explosion of non-traditional religions that took place in the waning years of the Sixties counterculture. (The designation ‘New Religion’ is a direct translation of a Japanese term coined for the many new religions that emerged in the wake of the Second World War, and was adopted by Western scholars in the late Sixties/early Seventies in preference to the pejorative term ‘cult’.) These movements, and those termed ‘sects’ and ‘cults’, initially attracted the attention of American and European sociologists of religion because of the controversy that arose in response to their expansion.Religious Studies, which at the time was still in the process of establishing itself as a legitimate discipline distinct from Theology and traditional Biblical Studies, was only too happy to leave NRMs to Sociology. This situation gradually changed, however, so that at present at least as many scholars of NRMs come from Religious Studies backgrounds as come from the social sciences.The collection consists of four volumes which together provide a one-stop source for crucial information on—and theoretical/methodological approaches to—contemporary New Religions. The set brings together thinking on a wide variety of themes associated with NRMs (e.g. apocalypticism, typologies, conversion, gender) and major works on the NRMs that have attracted the most scholarly attention (e.g. the ‘Moonies’, The Family International, Osho Rajneesh). Some influential ‘anti-cult’ articles (normally not considered part of mainstream scholarship) have also been included as well.Sects, Cults, and New Religions is fully indexed and includes a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, and is destined to be valued as a vital research resource.

This three-volume interdisciplinary collection is of use not only in Middle East studies but also in various other disciplines, including women's studies, political science, religion, cultural studies, sociology of gender and anthropology.The collection offers the most influential writings in the field by both renowned scholars as well as those by the new generation of scholars of Islam and gender and includes a wide variety of cases from Middle Eastern and Islamic societies. By including case-based articles, the collection highlights the clear links between concepts and theories and actual practices.Titles also available in this series include, Shamanism (March 2004, 3 volumes, £395) and the forthcoming titles Childhood (2005, 4 volumes, c.£495), Gender (2005, 4 volumes, c.£495) and Knowledge (2005, 4 volumes, c.£495).

Men & Masculinities is a new title in the Routledge Major Works series, Critical Concepts in Sociology. In five volumes, this set brings together canonical and cutting-edge material in the field to make sense of a rapidly expanding area of research.The sociology of masculinity began to assume real significance from the late 1980s onwards, when it emerged out of the second wave of feminist research sweeping through American, European and Australasian universities at that time. In theoretical terms, scholars in the field primarily adopt sociological and psychoanalytical perspectives, while also connecting to psychological and philosophical understandings. Over the past decade there has been a surge in the number of publications that focus on aspects of global masculinities; there is now published research into Chinese, Russian, Japanese, Mexican, Indian, Caribbean, French, Spanish and African masculinities. Within the US there is also a burgeoning literature on Black and Latino masculinities in numerous contexts.The sheer scale of this growth in research output - and the breadth of the field - makes this Routledge collection especially timely, and while it covers the primary concepts and discussions which have come to inform this field of study over the past thirty years or so, the collection also brings together material reflecting new debates and new areas of research from across the world.With examples from every key writer and researcher who has contributed to the field over the past three decades, together with a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in context, Men & Masculinities is an essential reference collection destined to be valued by scholars and students as a vital research resource.

A social movement is a collective, organized, sustained and non-institutional challenge to authorities, power holders, or cultural beliefs and practices. In the modern world, social movements are one of the main ways that people try to control their lives and articulate their moral positions. From utopian and revolutionary efforts to start society anew to reactionary attempts to resist new technologies or trends, normal people often become embroiled in titanic struggles over the world’s future. These four volumes present major statements of how scholars have understood these movements over the past century. They are essential reading for anyone interested in social change, politics and real people in action. Each volume examines a different set of dimensions behind the complex phenomenon of social movements. Volume one offers readings on the psychological dimensions of collective action, volume two on the resources and formal organizations that make most social movements possible. Volume three addresses the strategies, choices and creativity that make many movements such exciting efforts. Finally, volume four contains key readings on the meanings and feelings that propel or constrain participants.

This new Routledge Major Work is a five-volume collection of seminal and influential articles, chapters, and extracts in the sociology of religion and related disciplines. The collection uniquely brings together material ranging widely from conceptual and theoretical discussions through substantive areas, including historical religious systems, the great world religious traditions, and religion in the contemporary world. No other collection of this kind has this breadth of coverage or historical and comparative dimension. The best work of classic writers and scholars, major contributors to the discipline over its period of development, and of contemporary theorists and specialists in substantive topics has been included to give a comprehensive picture of the subdiscipline.

What is the nature of our current societies? Do we see a clash of civilizations, or the end of history? The advent of globalization, or the birth of the network society? Are we witnessing the emergence of a risk society, or the advent of the knowledge society? More fundamentally, is ‘society’ an ideological construct that should be abandoned?Coming into English from the Latin term ‘societas’ via Old French ‘société’, the etymology of ‘society,’ in the sense of a system adopted by a group of co-existing individuals for mutually beneficial purposes, can be traced back at least to the mid-sixteenth century. By the Age of Enlightenment, ‘society’ was increasingly used in intellectual discourse to characterize human relations, often in contrast to notions of ‘the state’. During the nineteenth century, the concept was subject to highly elaborate treatment in various intellectual fields, such as political economy, philosophy, and legal thought; and ‘society’ continues to be a central conceptual tool, not only for sociology, but also for many other social-science disciplines, such as anthropology, economics, political sciences, and law. The notion resonates beyond the social sciences into the humanities; it is a fundamental concept, like nature, the universe, or the economy. Moreover, ‘society’ remains a highly contested concept, as was demonstrated, for example, by the controversy surrounding the former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s pithy assertion of the neoliberal economic wisdom that ‘there is no such thing as society’ (Woman’s Own, 31 October 1987); and by the term’s rehabilitation at the turn of the twenty-first century, not least with the ascendancy of the notion of ‘civil society’.This four-volume collection, a new title in the Routledge Critical Concepts in Sociology series, brings together both canonical and the best cutting-edge research to document the intellectual origins and development of what remains a key framework within which contemporary work in the social sciences in general, and sociology in particular, proceeds. Edited by Reiner Grundmann and Nico Stehr, two leading scholars in the field, this Routledge Major Work makes available the most useful, important and representative treatments of the subject matter, and helps to make sense of the great variety of perspectives and approaches in which social scientists and other thinkers have understood, and continue to understand, society.Fully indexed and with a comprehensive introduction newly written by the editors, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, Society is an essential reference work, destined to be valued by scholars and students as a vital research resource.

Edited by a leading scholar in the field, this new title in the Routledge Major Works series, Critical Concepts in Sociology, is a four-volume collection of canonical and cutting-edge research on the intellectual origins and the development of ‘socal exclusion’, a critical concept in the social sciences in general and sociology in particular.The pervasiveness of the concept is well illustrated by the fact that it is almost impossible to access a policy document from most governments or international agencies dealing with issues of poverty, inequality, under-development, poor educational attainment, poor health, rural development, or urban regeneration, without finding ‘social exclusion’ identified as a problem and methods for including the excluded proposed as solutions. And yet the term is a protean one and has been employed in different ways by academics across a range of disciplines and fields. Moreover, it is translated into practice in different ways which reflect its complex and contested meaning. Researchers and students in all the core social science disciplines and in a range of professional programmes—including those in health, education, social work, housing, planning and training for religious ministry—must contend with the concept, the reality it seeks to describe, and the ways in which the term has influenced both the development and implementation of public policy in the widest sense of that term.This four-volume collection draws together key texts relevant to this important topic. Volume One reviews the nature and history of the term ‘social exclusion’ and examines ways in which the idea has been used in social research. Volume Two covers income distribution; the nature of class in post-industrial societies and the related dimensions of inequality in relation to gender, ethnicity and age; social exclusion in the changing city; and the general political context of post-democracy with special reference to partnership and participation. Volume Three explores the use of the term ‘social exclusion’ and programmes of social inclusion in specific policy areas including taxation and cash benefits, urban regeneration, health, education, housing, and transport. The final volume in the collection gathers together material to examine programmes specifically directed towards countering social exclusion, with particular reference to community development, and ‘joined-up’ government policy. It also considers radical alternatives to those policies.Fully indexed and with a comprehensive introduction newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, Social Exclusion will is an essential reference work, destined to be valued by scholars and students as a vital research resource. It will also be of especial interest to policy-makers and practitioners engaged with ‘social exclusion’ as a social problem.

‘The information society’ refers to a constellation of developments arising from the growing use of communication technologies in the acquisition, storage, and processing of information, and the role of information in supporting the creation and exchange of knowledge. Research on information societies really began to take off in the 1970s when Daniel Bell wrote about ‘the information age’. While there were earlier works that focused on the growing importance of information in the economy, it was not until the mid-1990s and the spread of the Internet that this field of study experienced a huge expansion across a broad range of disciplines in the social sciences and beyond. A critical mass of scholarship has now accumulated, establishing ‘the information society’ and ‘information societies’ as a terrain of substance and complexity, the exploration and understanding of which requires increasingly sophisticated navigation skills. As research in and around the area continues to flourish as never before, this new title in Routledge’s Major Works series, Critical Concepts in Sociology, meets the need for an authoritative reference work to make sense of a rapidly growing and ever more complex corpus of literature, and to provide a map of the area as it has emerged and developed over the last thirty years or so.The Information Society is fully indexed and has a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the material in its historical and intellectual context. It is an essential work of reference and is destined to be valued by scholars and students—as well as policy-makers and practitioners in the field—as a vital one-stop research resource.

Edited by two leading scholars in the field, this new title in Routledge’s Major Works series, Critical Concepts in Sociology, is a four-volume collection of canonical and cutting-edge research. Serious work on multiculturalism flourishes as never before, and this ‘mini library’ meets the need for an authoritative reference work to make sense of the subject’s vast literature and the continuing explosion in research output.Perhaps more than other critical concepts, ‘multiculturalism’ is hotly contested; there are sharply different—and perhaps ultimately irreconcilable—approaches to a variety of multicultural conceptions and projects. Rather than seek to establish some kind of consensus on classic works, this collection explicitly brings together the best and most influential work to have emerged from all sides of the debate.The first volume in the collection (‘Conceiving Multiculturalism: From Roots to Rights’) assembles key research to trace the concept of multiculturalism from long-standing arguments on tribal co-existence, humans rights and civil rights to the rights to recognition. Volume II (‘Multiculturalism and the Nation State: Who Recognizes Whom?’) collects the most important thinking to explore the tensions between national, ethnic, and religious identity politics. Volume III (‘Multiculturalism in the Public Sphere’), meanwhile, brings together the best research which examines the difficult choices to be made between ideas of social integration and contending notions of community rights, not least in schools and in the marketplace.The scholarship assembled in the final volume of the collection (‘Crises and Transformations’) juxtaposes work dealing with the most urgent crises in multiculturalism—such as the revival of virulent nationalism—with the best classic and contemporary thinking on the new realities of transnationalism.The collection is supplemented with a full index, and includes a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context. Multiculturalism is destined to be valued by scholars, students, and researchers as a vital research resource.

In recent years, the study of celebrity has developed and cohered into a flourishing field of social and cultural analysis. There is huge interest in topics such as the politics and logic of glamour; the role of the public-relations industry in manipulating television audiences; the relationship between fame and social control; and the economics of the so-called celebrity industry. And as interest in celebrity continues to explode, a variety of forerunners to its study—drawing on materials from a wide range of disciplines including sociology, cultural studies, history, psychology, organization studies, politics, film, and literary studies—have been rediscovered and reformulated. Among the lines of enquiry and critical tools that have been recuperated as pertinent to the study of celebrity are leadership, charisma, role models, heroes, role sets, ideology, manipulation, commodification, interpellation, narcissism, signification and individuality.The sheer scale of the available research exploring the many implications of the phenomenon of celebrity—and the breadth and complexity of the canon on which celebrity studies draws—makes this new Major Work from Routledge especially timely. It answers the urgent need for a wide-ranging collection which provides easy access to the key items of scholarly literature, material that is often inaccessible or scattered throughout a variety of specialist journals and books. In four volumes, Celebrity brings together the best and most influential foundational and cutting-edge research on: the aetiology and basic concepts of celebrity (including charisma, narcissism, and commodification); theoretical and methodological approaches (e.g. Marxism, structuralism, semiotics, and cultural materialism); the mechanics of celebrity (such as the sociology and psychology of showmanship); and key controversies and current debates (e.g. the politics of stardom; the superstructure of celebrity; and the interpellation of celebrity news and the media).Celebrity is supplemented with a full index, and includes a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context. It is destined to be valued by scholars, students, and researchers as a vital research resource.

This is a new title from Routledge’s Critical Concepts in Sociology series. Compiled by the editorial team behind the acclaimed International Handbook of Public Communication of Science and Technology (Routledge, 2008), this four-volume ‘mini library’ provides an easy-to-use, one-stop collection of the best foundational and cutting-edge scholarship from the fast-growing—and increasingly important—scholarly domain that is the public communication of science.As well as bringing together the major works that have shaped this field of research, the collection will be welcomed as the first mapping of an area that to date has rather lacked an authoritative interdisciplinary synthesis. The collection assembles contributions from a variety of subjects (including media and journalism studies, sociology, and the history of science), and it contrasts the perspectives of different geographical and cultural contexts. Together with the editors’ introductions, the gathered materials allow users to make sense of the wide range of approaches, theories, and concepts that have informed the public communication of science.

A term of antique provenance, ‘identity’ has developed and cohered into a critical concept in contemporary social and cultural analysis. However, the daunting quantity (and variable quality) of the available research exploring the many, often controversial, issues attendant upon identity—and the breadth and complexity of the canon on which it draws—makes it difficult to discriminate the useful from the tendentious, superficial, and otiose. That is why this new title in the highly regarded Routledge series, Critical Concepts in Sociology, is so timely. It answers the urgent need for a wide-ranging collection to provide easy access to the key items of scholarly literature, material that is often inaccessible or scattered throughout a variety of specialist journals and books.In four volumes, this new collection addresses key theories of identity, ranging from classical accounts to postmodern, psychoanalytic, and feminist approaches. Substantive sections interrogate racial, ethnic, gendered, queer, consumerist, virtual, and global identities, amongst others. Moreover, the gathered materials also make sense of the revolutionary effects that debates on identity continue to have on research agendas and ways of thinking in sociology, and across the social sciences and humanities more generally.Identity is supplemented with a full index, and includes a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editors, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context. It is destined to be valued by scholars and students, and researchers as a vital resource.

The parameters within which young people live their lives have changed radically. In particular, rapid and dizzying changes to education systems and labour markets around the world have dramatically increased the complexity of the so-called ‘youth phase’.While ‘youth’ and ‘young adulthood’ have developed and cohered into critical concepts in contemporary social and cultural analysis, the daunting quantity (and variable quality) of the available research exploring the many, often controversial, issues that the concepts throw up makes it difficult to discriminate the useful from the tendentious, superficial, and otiose. That is why this new four-volume collection in the highly regarded Routledge series, Critical Concepts in Sociology, is so timely. It answers the urgent need for a wide-ranging 'mini library' to provide easy access to the key items of scholarly literature, material that is often inaccessible or scattered throughout a variety of specialist journals and books.Youth and Young Adulthood is supplemented with a full index, and includes a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context. It is destined to be valued by scholars and students, and researchers as a vital resource.* * * * *Andy Furlong, the lead editor of this collection, is Professor of Sociology in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of Glasgow. He edits the Journal of Youth Studies and is an adviser to the Japanese Youth Cohort Survey team.