Rethinking Sociology series – serie

This discerning book outlines the methods, assumptions and achievements of analytical sociology, presenting it as a valuable research approach in the social sciences. Daniel Little argues that analytical sociology provides an ambitious basis for understanding and explaining a range of important social phenomena, while also engaging critically with several key theoretical assumptions of the approach that limit its generality.Chapters highlight analytical sociology’s empirical successes in public health, network analysis and political applications. Little demonstrates that current thinking in the field is limited by narrow conceptions of methodological individualism and the actor, and considers social issues such as racial health disparities in the USA, the rise of far-right authoritarian movements and the organizational causes of technology disasters within a broader theoretical framework. He argues that analytical approaches can be enriched through greater engagement with other areas of contemporary sociology, ultimately emphasizing that analytical sociology is a powerful tool when it acknowledges and moves beyond its preconceived limitations.Rethinking Analytical Sociology is an essential tool for academics and students in sociology, political science, public health, public policy, and other social sciences. Its insights will also greatly benefit researchers seeking to understand new developments in the field.

This discerning book critically analyzes the key principles of symbolic interactionism, outlining their strengths and examining current weaknesses. Thomas Janoski provides novel insights into the theory, rethinking some of its foundations while adhering to its basic symbolic principles of the self. Chapters cover new perspectives on humans’ relationship with their society, emphasizing the generalized other as the central factor in symbolic interactionism. Janoski delves into underexplored applications of the framework within social mobility, organizations, elites, charisma, and the unconscious. He stresses the importance of conflict and power in strategic interaction in addition to empathetic sociation. He integrates the micro and macro aspects of sociology with interactionist and structuration theory, highlighting the need for symbolic interactionists to use multiple methodologies in their work including interviews, participant observation, surveys, and experimental research. Providing a thought-provoking approach to reconsidering current paradigms, Rethinking Symbolic Interactionism is a vital read for scholars and students of sociology, social psychology, and political theory. It is also of great benefit to researchers seeking to understand new developments in symbolic interaction theory.

In this prescient book, Klaus Dörre combines a vision of a climate-just society with a reformulation of socialist ideas that can guide the way to a ‘sustainable socialism’ for the 21st Century.Chapters cover a vast array of topics, including today’s economic-ecological meta-crisis, digital socialism, the need for an immediate, effective transition to more sustainable living, and the recent effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Recognizing modern-day politics’ aversion to the ‘s-word’, Dörre reformulates socialism for a contemporary audience and argues for the practicality and realisability of alternatives to capitalism. In a ground-breaking approach, Dörre uses the UN Sustainable Development Goals as a normative basis upon which to measure the actions and policies which will be needed to create just and resilient societies. The book outlines and recommends key transitional strategies that can serve as a compass guiding us to a sustainable world.This timely book will be a vital resource for researchers, academics and students of sociology and sociological theory, political theory and philosophy, political economy and international politics. Providing an innovative approach to many of society’s current issues, Rethinking Socialism will also be of interest to governmental policymakers and think-tank experts as well as trade unionists, climate activists, and those involved in feminist and indigenous movements.

Combining theoretical approaches with practical applications, Rethinking Social Capital delineates the meaning, uses, and problems surrounding the concept of social capital. Carl Bankston, a leading scholar in the field, offers a fresh take on the topic, presenting an original way of understanding social capital as a process.The book provides key definitions of social capital, describing its functionality, the surrounding theoretical issues, and its relationship with social structure. Examining capital in its various forms, Bankston discusses the complications of defining social relationships in a financial resource analogy as investments in future outcomes, and proposes an alternative of an original structural model that approaches social capital as a process. Chapters then explore the major applications of social capital theory: to families, communities and education; to formal organizations and informal networks; to class, race, ethnicity and inequality; and to the nation-state. This cutting-edge book is invaluable in clarifying ambiguities surrounding the concept of social capital to students and scholars of the social sciences. Its practical applications will also prove useful to policy makers and public policy institutes.

In this important new book, Paul Higgs and Chris Gilleard demonstrate how an effective sociology of later life is critical for understanding the ageing societies of the twenty-first century.Rethinking the Sociology of Ageing situates ageing firmly within the discipline of sociology. Adopting a global lens, the authors explore later life in relation to contemporary social theory as it relates to social institutions and the increasing role of forms of capital. Key topics covered include generation, households, lifestyle, ‘cosmopolitanisation’, health and risk. The book contends that the sociology of later life is a key element in the changing nature of a globalised, late, reflexive or second modernity. The social space of later life is a hitherto neglected prism through which to examine changes in contemporary society.This book will be invaluable for students and researchers specialising in sociology and sociological theory, comparative social policy, ageing studies, family and gender. Throwing a critical light on many age-based inequalities, it will also be of interest to policymakers and think tank specialists engaging with the contemporary salience of an ageing world.