Download or read book The First Institutional Spheres in Human Societies written by Seth Abrutyn and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-03-15 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few concepts are as central to sociology as institutions. Yet, like so many sociological concepts, institutions remain vaguely defined. This book expands a foundational definition of the institution, one which locates them as the basic building blocks of human societies—as structural and cultural machines for survival that make it possible to pass precious knowledge from one generation to the next, ensuring the survival of our species. The book extends this classic tradition by, first, applying advances in biological evolution, neuroscience, and primatology to explain the origins of human societies and, in particular, the first institutional sphere: kinship. The authors incorporate insights from natural sciences often marginalized in sociology, while highlighting the limitations of purely biogenetic, Darwinian explanations. Secondly, they build a vivid conceptual model of institutions and their central dynamics as the book charts the chronological evolution of kinship, polity, religion, law, and economy, discussing the biological evidence for the ubiquity of these institutions as evolutionary adaptations themselves.
Download or read book The First Institutional Spheres in Human Societies written by SETH. TURNER ABRUTYN (JONATHAN H.) and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-12-16 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few concepts are as central to sociology as institutions. Yet, like so many sociological concepts, institutions remain vaguely defined. This book expands a foundational definition of the institution, one which locates them as the basic building blocks of human societies - as structural and cultural machines for survival that make it possible to pass precious knowledge from one generation to the next, ensuring the survival of our species. The book extends this classic tradition by, first, applying advances in biological evolution, neuroscience, and primatology to explain the origins of human societies and, in particular, the first institutional sphere: kinship. The authors incorporate insights from natural sciences often marginalized in sociology, while highlighting the limitations of purely biogenetic, Darwinian explanations. Secondly, they build a vivid conceptual model of institutions and their central dynamics as the book charts the chronological evolution of kinship, polity, religion, law, and economy, discussing the biological evidence for the ubiquity of these institutions as evolutionary adaptations themselves.
Download or read book Inter Societal Dynamics written by Jonathan H. Turner and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-04-02 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book by Jonathan Turner and Anthony Roberts proposes a new theoretical approach for explaining the dynamics of inter-societal systems. The authors argue that inter-societal systems have existed since the beginning of human societies and the dynamics of these systems are a fundamental property of the social universe. However, while world-systems analysis has emphasized this latter point, the authors argue the reluctance to theorize complex abstract models and systems of explanatory propositions on the dynamics driving inter-societal systems hinders scientific explanation of inter-societal dynamics. In this context, the authors critically look at contemporary theorizing and review key theories that have been developed to explain geo-economic, geo-political, and geo-cultural dynamics, from the classic period through present-day world-systems analysis and cliometrics. The book summarizes these theories clearly, emphasizing their strengths and weakness, finally developing a theoretical synthesis through new models and propositions on the dynamics of premodern and modern inter-societal systems. Professor Turner’s decades of experience writing theory books for undergraduates have ensured that this book presents abstract ideas clearly and with examples so that students can understand the arguments. This book is a must-read for all social theory researchers, academics, serious undergraduate students, graduate students, and interested laypersons.
Download or read book Handbook of the Sociology of Morality Volume 2 written by Steven Hitlin and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-10-25 with total page 461 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook articulates how sociology can re-engage its roots as the scientific study of human moral systems, actions, and interpretation. This second volume builds on the successful original volume published in 2010, which contributed to the initiation of a new section of the American Sociological Association (ASA), thus growing the field. This volume takes sociology back to its roots over a century ago, when morality was a central topic of work and governance. It engages scholars from across subfields in sociology, representing each section of the ASA, who each contribute a chapter on how their subfield connects to research on morality. This reference work appeals to broader readership than was envisaged for the first volume, as the relationship between sociology as a discipline and its origins in questions of morality is further renewed. The volume editors focus on three areas: the current state of the sociology of morality across a range of sociological subfields; taking a new look at some of the issues discussed in the first handbook, which are now relevant in sometimes completely new contexts; and reflecting on where the sociology of morality should go next. This is a must-read reference for students and scholars interested in topics of morality, ethics, altruism, religion, and spirituality from across the social science.
Download or read book Cultural Evolution written by Kevin McCaffree and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-03-14 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the dawn of social science, theorists have debated how and why societies appear to change, develop and evolve. Today, this question is pursued by scholars across many different disciplines and our understanding of these dynamics has grown markedly. Yet, there remain important areas of disagreement and debate: what is the difference between societal change, development and evolution? What specific aspects of cultures change, develop or evolve and why? Do societies change, develop or evolve in particular ways, perhaps according to cycles, or stages or in response to survival necessities? How do different disciplines—from sociology to anthropology to psychology and economics—approach these questions? This book provides complex and nuanced answers to these, and many other, questions. First, the book invites readers to consider the broad landscape of societal dynamics across human history, beginning with humanity’s origins in small nomadic bands of hunter gatherers through to the emergence of post-industrial democracies. Then, the book provides a tour of several prominent existing theories of cultural change, development and evolution. Approaches to explaining cultural dynamics will be discussed across disciplines and schools of thought, from "meme" theories to established cumulative cultural evolutionary theories to newly emerging theories on cultural tightness-looseness. The book concludes with a call for theoretical integration and a frank discussion of some of the most unexamined structures that drive cultural dynamics across schools of thought.
Download or read book The Dance of Innovation written by Kevin McCaffree and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-06-19 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few of us, amidst our daily chores and responsibilities, consider how mundane infrastructures—from electrical grids to sewage systems—have developed over millennia in ways that enable everything we cherish, from democracy to technological innovation to individual liberty. But what drives the evolution of this infrastructure? And why is infrastructure so critical to human flourishing? In this book, the most innovative and interdisciplinary study of cultural evolution ever produced, new concepts are explored, new histories are brought into contact and new ground-breaking insights are defended. What makes creativity unique in human societies is not only our capacity to generate and modify our diverse individual intuitions about the social and physical world, but also our capacity to form and leave groups fluidly in a dancing rhythm of oscillation across the expanse of history. This book walks the reader carefully through these processes, with clear concepts and an approachable writing style.
Download or read book Biosocial Evolutionary Analysis written by Jonathan H. Turner and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2024-01-18 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This authoritative book proposes a methodological and theoretical strategy for developing sociological explanations of the socio-cultural universe. Jonathan H. Turner and Alexandra Maryanski discuss the problems that persist in explaining the socio-cultural universe using only biological and psychological approaches and outline new strategies for understanding the evolution of human beings and their biological nature.
Download or read book Sociological Thinking in Contemporary Organizational Scholarship written by Stewart Clegg and published by Emerald Group Publishing. This book was released on 2024-09-23 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ebook edition of this title is Open Access and freely available to read online. Breathing fresh life into a once lively dialogue, this is a valuable resource for navigating of the varied sociological scholarship we witness amongst today’s organization scholars.
Download or read book Isocracy written by Nicolò Bellanca and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-03-30 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the twentieth century there were two great political and social paradigms, the liberal-democratic and the libertarian (in its various socialist, anarchist, and communist delineations). The central idea of the first approach is isonomy: the exclusion of any discrimination on the basis that legal rights are afforded equally to all people. The central idea of the second approach is rather to acknowledge and address a broader spectrum of known inequalities. Such an approach, Bellanca argues, allows the pursuit of pluralism as well as a more realistic and complex view of what equality is. Here he analyzes the main economic and political institutions of an isocratic society, and in so doing, effectively outlines how a utopian society can be structurally and anthropologically realized. This book is ideal reading for an audience interested in the critique of contemporary capitalism through a renewed perspective of democratic socialism and leftist libertarianism. Nicolò Bellanca is Associate Professor of Development Economics at the University of Florence, Italy. He is the author of a broad array of scholarly articles, books and textbooks about both the history of economic thought and development economics. His current research focuses on the theory of institutional change.
Download or read book Modernity Modernization written by Malcolm Waters and published by Taylor & Francis US. This book was released on 1999 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: V.1 Modernization -- V.2 Cultural modernity -- V.3 Odern system -- V.4 After modernity.
Download or read book Samizdat and an Independent Society in Central and Eastern Europe written by H.Gordon Skilling and published by Springer. This book was released on 1989-06-18 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study of the "independent life of society" (dissent) in Central and Eastern Europe examines the forms of independent activity at work today. Included are autonomous family life, religion and nationalism, the second economy, "samizdat" communications, the second culture and social deviance.
Download or read book Modernizing Democracy written by Matthias Freise and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-05-13 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modernizing Democracy brings together scholars focusing the role of associations and associating in contemporary societies. Organizations and associations have been identified as the “meso level of society” and as the “basic elements of democracy”. They are important providers of welfare services and play an important role between the individual and political spheres. In recent years the environment of associations and associating has changed dramatically. Individualization, commercialization and globalization are challenging both democracy and the capability of associations to fulfill the functions attributed to them by social sciences. This change provides the central question of the volume: Is being part of an organization or association becoming an outdated model? And do associations still have the capacity of modernizing societies or are they just outdated remnants of post-democracy? The contributions to Modernizing Democracy will be organized into: Studying Association and Associating in the 21st Century, Associating in Times of Post-Democracy and Associations and the Challenge of Capitalist Development. The book will be attractive to third sector researchers as well as a broader academic community of political scientists, sociologists, economists, legal scientists and related disciplines.
Download or read book Humanism in Economics and Business written by Domènec Melé and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-02-25 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers different perspectives on Humanism as developed by Catholic Social Teaching, with a particular focus on its relevance in economics and business. The work is composed of three sections, covering what is meant by Christian Humanism, how it links with economic activity, and its practical relevance in the business world of today. It reviews the historical development of Christian Humanism and discusses the arguments which justify it in the current cultural context and how it contributes to human development. The book argues that the current recognition of human dignity and the existence of innate human rights are both ultimately rooted in Christian Humanism. It sets out the importance of the concept for economic activities, and how Christian Humanism can serve as a metaphysical foundation and ethical basis for a social market economy. Applying Christian Humanism to business leads to the centrality of the person in organizations and to seeing the company as a community of persons working together for the common good. Three thought-provoking case studies illustrate the wide-reaching positive impacts of applying Christian Humanism in the organization.
Download or read book God and Globalization Volume 4 written by Max L. Stackhouse and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2007-11-15 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the fourth volume in the series God and Globalization, sponsored by the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, N.J. The 3 previous volumes were multi-authored. This volume is authored solely by Max Stackhouse, the general editor of the series, with a Foreword by the distinguished church historian Justo Gonzales. This final interpretive volume argues for a view of Christian theology that, in critical dialogue with other world religions and philosophies, is able to engage the new world situation, play a critical role in reforming the "powers" that are becoming more diverse and autonomous, and generate a social ethic for the 21st century.
Download or read book Civil Society and Democracy in Iran written by Ramin Jahanbegloo and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2011-12-30 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this timely, informative edited volume, major Iranian scholars and civic actors address some of the most pressing questions about Iranian civil society and the process of democratization in Iran. They describe the role of Iranian civil society in the process of transition to democracy in Iran and offer insight about the enduring legacy of previous social and political movements—starting with the Constitutional Revolution of 1906— in the struggle for democracy in Iran. Each contributor looks at different aspects of Iranian civil society to address the complex nature of the political order in Iran and the possibilities for secularization and democratization of the Iranian government. Various contributors analyze the impact of religion on prevailing democratic thought, discussing reformist religious movements and thinkers and the demands of religious minorities. Others provide insight into the democratic implications of recent Iranian women’s rights movements, call for secularism within government, and the pressure placed on the existing theocracy by the working class. The contributors address these and related issues in all their richness and complexity and offer a set of discussions that is both accessible and illuminating for the reader.
Download or read book Politics in the Developing World 4e written by Peter Burnell and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2014-02 with total page 485 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fourth, thoroughly updated, edition of this well-respected textbook explores the changing nature of politics in the developing world. Leading experts in the field consider theoretical approaches, society-state relations, and policies, with a series of illustrative country-based case studies.
Download or read book Constitutionalism Democracy and Religious Freedom written by Hans-Martien ten Napel and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-05-18 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In both Europe and North America it can be argued that the associational and institutional dimensions of the right to freedom of religion or belief are increasingly coming under pressure. This book demonstrates why a more classical understanding of the idea of a liberal democracy can allow for greater respect for the right to freedom of religion or belief. The book examines the major direction in which liberal democracy has developed over the last fifty years and contends that this is not the most legitimate type of liberal democracy for religiously divided societies. Drawing on theoretical developments in the field of transnational constitutionalism, Hans-Martien ten Napel argues that redirecting the concept and practice of liberal democracy toward the more classical notion of limited, constitutional government, with a considerable degree of autonomy for civil society organizations would allow greater religious pluralism. The book shows how, in a postsecular and multicultural context, modern sources of constitutionalism and democracy, supplemented by premodern, transcendental legitimation, continue to provide the best means of legitimating Western constitutional and political orders.
