Download or read book The Meanings of Social Life written by Jeffrey C. Alexander and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2003-09-18 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Meanings of Social Life , Jeffrey Alexander presents a new approach to how culture works in contemporary societies. Exposing our everyday myths and narratives in a series of empirical studies that range from Watergate to the Holocaust, he shows how these unseen yet potent cultural structures translate into concrete actions and institutions. Only when these deep patterns of meaning are revealed, Alexander argues, can we understand the stubborn staying power of violence and degradation, but also the steady persistence of hope. By understanding the darker structures that restrict our imagination, we can seek to transform them. By recognizing the culture structures that sustain hope, we can allow our idealistic imaginations to gain more traction in the world. A work that will transform the way that sociologists think about culture and the social world, this book confirms Jeffrey Alexander's reputation as one of the major social theorists of our day.
Download or read book The Social Life of Books written by Abigail Williams and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2017-06-27 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A lively survey…her research and insights make us conscious of how we, today, use books.”—John Sutherland, The New York Times Book Review Two centuries before the advent of radio, television, and motion pictures, books were a cherished form of popular entertainment and an integral component of domestic social life. In this fascinating and vivid history, Abigail Williams explores the ways in which shared reading shaped the lives and literary culture of the eighteenth century, offering new perspectives on how books have been used by their readers, and the part they have played in middle-class homes and families. Drawing on marginalia, letters and diaries, library catalogues, elocution manuals, subscription lists, and more, Williams offers fresh and fascinating insights into reading, performance, and the history of middle-class home life. “Williams’s charming pageant of anecdotes…conjures a world strikingly different from our own but surprisingly similar in many ways, a time when reading was on the rise and whole worlds sprang up around it.”—TheWashington Post
Download or read book What Is a Person written by Christian Smith and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-11-30 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The task of understanding human beings, what we ourselves are, our constitution and condition, is a perennial problem in philosophy and related disciplines. Smith argues here that our understanding of human persons is threatened by technological development and capricious academic theories alike, seeking to deny or relativize the personhood of humanity. Smith's book puts a stake in the ground, in defense of a view of the human that is genuinely humanistic in the traditional sense and capable of sustaining with intellectual coherence things like modern human rights and universal benevolence.
Download or read book Site of the Social written by Theodore R. Schatzki and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2010-11-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A special feature of the book is its development of the theoretical argument by sustained reference to two historical examples: the medicinal herb business of a Shaker village in the 1850s and contemporary day trading on the Nasdaq market. First focusing on the relative simplicity of Shaker life to illuminate basic ontological characteristics of the social site, Schatzki then uses the sharp contrast with the complex and dynamic practice of day trading to reveal what makes this approach useful as a general account of social existence.
Download or read book The Social Life of Words written by Laura Wright and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2022-12-01 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new approach to sociolinguistics, introducing the study of the social meaning of English words over time, and offering an engaging and entertaining demonstration of lexical sociolinguistic analysis The Social Life of Words: A Historical Approach explores the rise and fall of the social properties of words, charting ways in which they take on new social connotations. Written in an engaging narrative style, this entertaining text matches up sociolinguistic theory with social history and biography to discover which kind of people used what kind of word, where and when. Social factors such as class, age, race, region, gender, occupation, religion and criminality are discussed in British and American English. From familiar words such as popcorn, porridge, café, to less common words like burgoo, califont, etna, and phrases like kiss me quick, monkey parade, slap-bang shop, The Social Life of Words demonstrates some of the many ways a new word or phrase can develop social affiliations. Detailed yet accessible chapters cover key areas of historical sociolinguistics, including concepts such as social networks, communities of practice, indexicality and enregisterment, prototypes and stereotypes, polysemy, onomasiology, language regard, lexical appropriation, and more. The first book to take a focused look at lexis as a topic for sociolinguistic analysis, The Social Life of Words: Introduces sociolinguistic theories and shows how they can be applied to the lexicon Demonstrates how readers can apply sociolinguistic theory to their own analyses of words in English and other languages Provides an engaging and amusing new look at many familiar words, inviting students to explore the sociolinguistic properties of words over time for themselves Part of Wiley Blackwell’s acclaimed Language in Society series, The Social Life of Words is essential reading for upper-level undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and linguists working in sociolinguistics, lexical semantics, English lexicology, and the history and development of modern English.
Download or read book The Drama of Social Life written by T. R. Young and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on 2016-04-30 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These essays explore the many ways theater and dramaturgy are used to shape the everyday experience of people in mass societies. Young argues that technologies combine with the world of art, music, and cinema to shape consciousness as a commodity and to fragment social relations in the market as well as in religion and politics. He sees the central problem of post-modern society as how to live in a world constructed by human beings without nihilism on the one hand or repressive dogmatism on the other. Young argues that in advanced monopoly capitalism, dramaturgy has replaced coercion as the management tool of choice for the control of consumers, workers, voters and state functionaries. Young calls this process the “colonization of desire.” Desire is colonized by the use of dramaturgy, mass media, and the various forms of art in order to generate consumers, vesting desire in ownership and display rather than in interpersonal relationships with profound consequence for marriage, kinship, friendship and community. While Young focuses his critique on capitalist societies undergoing great changes, he insists that the same developments are to be found in bureaucratically organized socialist societies. The Drama of Social Life is of interest to those who study theories of moral development, cultural studies, the uses of leisure, politics, or simply the uses of “make believe.” It is intended for the informed lay public as much as for social psychologists.
Download or read book The Presentation of Self in Contemporary Social Life written by David Shulman and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2016-04-28 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Presentation of Self in Contemporary Social Life covers the popular theories of Erving Goffman, and shows modern applications of dramaturgical analysis in a wide range of social contexts. David Shulman’s innovative new text demonstrates how Goffman’s ideas, first introduced in 1959, continue to inspire research into how we manage the impressions that others form about us. He synthesizes the work of contemporary scholars who use dramaturgical approaches from several disciplines, who recognize that many values, social norms, and laws have changed since Goffman’s time, and that contemporary society offers significant new forms of impression management that we can engage in and experience. After a general introduction to dramaturgical sociology, readers will see many examples of how Goffman’s ideas can provide powerful insights into familiar aspects of contemporary life today, including business and the workplace, popular culture, the entertainment industry, and the digital world.
Download or read book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life written by Erving Goffman and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2021-09-29 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A notable contribution to our understanding of ourselves. This book explores the realm of human behavior in social situations and the way that we appear to others. Dr. Goffman uses the metaphor of theatrical performance as a framework. Each person in everyday social intercourse presents himself and his activity to others, attempts to guide and cotnrol the impressions they form of him, and employs certain techniques in order to sustain his performance, just as an actor presents a character to an audience. The discussions of these social techniques offered here are based upon detailed research and observation of social customs in many regions.
Download or read book Emotions in Social Life written by Gillian Bendelow and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-09-11 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The development of a sociology of emotions is crucial to our understanding of social life as they hold the key to our understanding of social processes and sociological investigation. First published in 1997, Emotions in Social Life consolidates the sociology of emotions as a legitimate and viable field of enquiry. It provides a comprehensive assessment of the sociology of emotions using work from scholars of international stature, as well as newer writers in the field. It presents new empirical research in conjunction with innovative and challenging theoretical material, and will be essential reading for students of sociology, health psychology, anthropology and gender studies.
Download or read book Palaces for the People written by Eric Klinenberg and published by Crown. This book was released on 2018-09-11 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A comprehensive, entertaining, and compelling argument for how rebuilding social infrastructure can help heal divisions in our society and move us forward.”—Jon Stewart NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • “Engaging.”—Mayor Pete Buttigieg, The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) We are living in a time of deep divisions. Americans are sorting themselves along racial, religious, and cultural lines, leading to a level of polarization that the country hasn’t seen since the Civil War. Pundits and politicians are calling for us to come together and find common purpose. But how, exactly, can this be done? In Palaces for the People, Eric Klinenberg suggests a way forward. He believes that the future of democratic societies rests not simply on shared values but on shared spaces: the libraries, childcare centers, churches, and parks where crucial connections are formed. Interweaving his own research with examples from around the globe, Klinenberg shows how “social infrastructure” is helping to solve some of our most pressing societal challenges. Richly reported and ultimately uplifting, Palaces for the People offers a blueprint for bridging our seemingly unbridgeable divides. LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN NONFICTION “Just brilliant!”—Roman Mars, 99% Invisible “The aim of this sweeping work is to popularize the notion of ‘social infrastructure'—the ‘physical places and organizations that shape the way people interact'. . . . Here, drawing on research in urban planning, behavioral economics, and environmental psychology, as well as on his own fieldwork from around the world, [Eric Klinenberg] posits that a community’s resilience correlates strongly with the robustness of its social infrastructure. The numerous case studies add up to a plea for more investment in the spaces and institutions (parks, libraries, childcare centers) that foster mutual support in civic life.”—The New Yorker “Palaces for the People—the title is taken from the Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie’s description of the hundreds of libraries he funded—is essentially a calm, lucid exposition of a centuries-old idea, which is really a furious call to action.”—New Statesman “Clear-eyed . . . fascinating.”—Psychology Today
Download or read book The Social Life of Dreams written by Adriënne Heijnen and published by LIT Verlag Münster. This book was released on 2013 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores how dreams, remembered upon awakening, are turned into social action in a European society. Supported by ethnographic research of modern Iceland and examples from the historical literature, the book argues that the social meaning ascribed to the Icelandic dream has been a continuous part of Icelandic everyday life for a thousand years and is still being adapted today. (Series: European Studies in Culture and Policy - Vol. 12)
Download or read book Disparagement Humor in Social Life written by Nathan Miczo and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-09-07 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Nathan Miczo demonstrates that humor operates at different levels of identity, exploring how within- and between-group dynamics shape the creation and reception of disparagement humor. While positive forms of humor arise in interpersonal settings, negative forms reflect the activation of group-based, communal identities. Building on this dual sociality view, Miczo critiques the superiority theory of disparagement humor, rooted in Hobbes’s definition of laughter, and tied to his notion of a “war of all against all.” Miczo employs the agōn (Greek for contest) to replace the Hobbesian metaphor with a view that groups use disparagement humor to pursue rival goals. This perspective forwards the multifunctional utility of humor in social life, analyzing examples of naturally occurring interaction drawn from studies in Communication, Psychology, and Anthropology. Scholars of humor studies, communication, and anthropology, will find this book of particular interest.
Download or read book Social Life in the Movies written by James J. Dowd and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-10-27 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through an analysis of hundreds of Hollywood movies, this book examines some of the most contentious social issues of our time, including racism, social inequality, sexism, and gerontophobia. With studies of some of the most enduring film genres in Hollywood’s history, including romantic films such as Casablanca, war movies from World War II through the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, alienation films, including Five Easy Pieces and Lost in Translation, the school movie, from Goodbye, Mr. Chips to other films set in academia, including Dead Poets Society and Dangerous Minds, the book outlines and demonstrates the sociological approach to viewing films and highlights the socially conservative nature of much Hollywood movie production, which draws on common stereotypes and reinforces dominant cultural values - but is also capable of challenging and serving to change them.
Download or read book Illuminating Social Life written by Peter Kivisto and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2012-11-02 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The sixth edition of Peter Kivisto’s popular anthology, Illuminating Social Life, continues to demonstrate to students how social theories can help them make sense of the swirling events and perplexing phenomena that they encounter in their daily lives. A perfect complement for sociological theory courses, this updated edition includes 13 original essays by leading scholars in the field that help students better understand and appreciate the relevance of social theory. Once again, Peter Kivisto′s collection illuminates the connection between sociological theory and the realities that students are faced with every day —from the Internet, alcohol use, and body building to shopping malls, the working world, and fast-food restaurants. Contributor to the SAGE Teaching Innovations and Professional Development Award
Download or read book Greek Social Life written by Frederick Adam Wright and published by . This book was released on 1925 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Social Life of the Chinese written by Justus Doolittle and published by . This book was released on 1865 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Social Life of the Hebrews Routledge Revivals written by Edward Day and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-05 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1901, this study of the social life of the Hebrews considers both the time of the judges and the time of the monarchy. Written in a popularly scientific style, designed to appeal to students of ancient Middle East and biblical history as well as the general reader, this work details the social life and history of allied Semitic races, covering the period of time from the settlement of Canaan to the breakup of the Northern Kingdom in 722 BC.
