Download or read book Sceptical Sociology RLE Social Theory written by John Carroll and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-08-07 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Carroll contends that since 1918 sociology has distinguished itself by making society appear as dull as it is at its worst. Using barbaric jargon, legalistic syntax and vacuous statistical tables, and driven by an obsession with the humdrum, it has exhibited some of the worst traits of the culture it should have been laying bare. Sceptical Sociology examines where sociology went wrong, and what ought to be done to transform it into a worthwhile enterprise. In a series of studies of contemporary Western society, the author puts into practice the principles of a ‘sceptical sociology’. There are enquiries into the cleanliness compulsion among housewives, the conflicting dream and reality of the tourist, the moral centrality of the car, the tactics of the latest shopping palaces. There is an allegory on fur hats, a dark portrait of a typical modern marriage, a putting of intellectuals in their place, and a pursuit of the sociology of space through the universal longing for home. The author contends that sociology ought to be the important stories about a society and its times, well told. Sceptical Sociology attempts to show that it can be well done.
Download or read book Problem Solving Sociology written by Monica Prasad and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-01 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A broad resource that offers tools for how to conduct problem-solving sociology in order to deepen and reformulate our understanding of society. Most students arrive in graduate sociology programs eager to engage with the pressing social and political issues of the day. Yet that initial enthusiasm does not always survive the professional socialization of graduate school. In Problem-Solving Sociology, Monica Prasad shows graduate students and early career sociologists how to conduct research that uses sociological theory to help solve real-world problems, and how to use problem-solving to improve sociological theory. Prasad discusses how to be objective when examining issues of injustice and oppression, and provides methodological strategies and plenty of exercises for research aimed at creating change. She gives examples throughout of problem-solving research conducted at all levels, from undergraduate theses to the major figures of the discipline. She also considers how to respond to some common objections; where problem-solving fits into the landscape of sociological practice; and how to build a life in problem-solving.
Download or read book The Oversocialized Conception of Man written by Dennis H. Wrong and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-04-17 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The chapters in this volume represent some of Dennis Wrong's best and most enduring essays. Initially published as Skeptical Sociology, this collection displays his ability to write compellingly for general intellectual audiences as well as for academic sociologists. The book is divided into sections that represent Wrong's major areas of interest and investigation: "Human Nature and the Perspective of Sociology," "Social Stratification and Inequality," and "Power and Politics." Each section is preceded by a short introduction that places the articles in context and elaborates and often sheds new light on the contents. The essays in the first section were written with polemical intent, directed against the assumptions of academic sociology that prevailed in an earlier period. Part two calls attention to the neglect by functionalists of power, group conflict, and historical change; Wrong shows that failure to consider them made functional theories of stratification especially vulnerable. The third section is more heterogeneous in subject and theme than the others; all the essays in it touch in some way on power or politics. Included in this volume is Wrong's celebrated and much-quoted article "The Oversocialized Conception of Man in Modern Sociology." Other significant essays reveal the author's views on many timely topics of sociological concern, such as the quests for "community" and for "identity"; the Freudian, Marxian, and Weberian heritages in sociology; social class in America; meritocracy; a theory of democratic politics; humanist, positivist, and functionalist perspectives; and the sociology of the future. The Oversocialized Conception of Man is an indispensable volume for sociologists, political theorists, and historians. Dennis H. Wrong is emeritus professor of sociology at New York University. He is the author of The Problem of Order, Population and Society, Class Fertility Trends in Western Nations, Power: Its Forms, Bases, and Uses (also published by Transaction), and The Modern Condition (forthcoming).
Download or read book The Practical Skeptic Core Concepts in Sociology written by Lisa McIntyre and published by McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages. This book was released on 2007-10-15 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Practical Skeptic is a concise introduction to sociology that focuses on core concepts as the central building blocks for understanding sociology. Lisa McIntyre's straightforward, lively, even humorous style and her emphasis on critical thinking make this an engaging and user-friendly text for students of all levels. Through this conversational style students are able to grasp key sociological concepts and learn the essential lesson that there is much that goes on in the social world that escapes the sociologically untrained eye.
Download or read book Public Sociology written by Lawrence T. Nichols and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-29 with total page 511 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Public Sociology features a wide-ranging discussion of the controversial model of a social science that reaches out to non-academic audiences, including both average citizens and policymakers. This approach has been greeted with enthusiasm by supporters, and with skepticism and anxiety among critics. Both perspectives are well represented in this volume.Some of the critical voices question whether public sociology is even a good idea. Others dissent, arguing for a strong program in professional sociology as an alternative. Still others express concern that public sociology promotes a liberal-left political agenda, despite its nonpartisan pretensions. Some elements of the model are queried, such as ""critical sociology."" Others are supportive--discussing personal experiences, the benefits of an engaged social science, and how it could take social science into a broader, global marketplace.Following an introduction by the editor, the contributions include: David Boyns and Jesse Fletcher, ""Public Relations, Disciplinary Identity, and the Strong Program in Professional Sociology,"" Jonathan H. Turner, ""Is Public Sociology Such a Good Idea?"" Steven Brint, ""Guide to the Perplexed,"" Vincent Jeffries, ""Piritim A. Sorokin's Integralism and Public Sociology,"" Norella M. Putney, Dawn E. Alley, and Vern L. Bengston, ""Social Gerontology as Public Sociology in Action,"" Edna Bonacich, ""Working with the Labor Movement: A Personal Journey in Organic Public Sociology,"" Christopher Chase-Dunn, ""Globabl Public Social Science,"" Neil McLauglin, Lisa Kowalchuk, and Kerry Turcotte, ""Why Sociology Does Not Need to be Saved,"" Michael Burawoy, ""Third-Wave Sociology and the End of Pure Science,"" Patricia Madoo Lengerman and Jill Niebrugge-Brantley, ""Back to the Future: Settlement Sociology, 1885i?1/2-1930,"" Sean McMahon, ""From the Platform: Public Sociology in the Speeches of Edward A. Ross,"" Chet Ballard, ""The Origin and Early History of the Association for Humanist So
Download or read book Post Philosophical Sociology written by Richard Kilminster and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-07-31 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a hyper-individualistic age and in the face of the narrowly focused, policy-oriented research ubiquitous in the social sciences, this book revisits the humanistic world-view that is integral to Norbert Elias’s pre-eminent figurational-process sociology, with the aim of increasing the fund of sociological knowledge that has the human condition as its horizon. Clarifying the contentious ‘post-philosophical’ aspects in order to supplement standard histories of sociology with new insights, it offers incisive evaluations of some of the bewildered attempts by prominent sociologists to diagnose the malaise of contemporary globalised society. It also challenges the orthodox limitation of the empirical scope of sociology to ‘modernity’. With its ominous warnings of the destructive prevalence of ‘overcritique’ in the discipline and lack of in-depth sociological psychology, Post-Philosophical Sociology will appeal to scholars of sociology, psychoanalysis, social philosophy, cultural theory and social and political theory with interests in developmental and dynamic thinking and the history of the discipline.
Download or read book Public Sociology written by Ben Agger and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2007 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Public Sociology, 2nd edition offers a fundamental enriching of method far beyond the scope of research methodology textbooks. It looks at sociology as a social act-as writing-in arguing for a public sociology that can more fully embrace and address crucial public issues. Building on the philosophy of science and recent postmodernist critiques, Agger shows how the social science text reproduces the existing social world, suppressing science's author in order to position itself as simply a mirror of nature, not a deliberate human version replete with ontology, theory, values, and politics. As such, method is an argument that polemicizes quietly for a certain view of the world. Agger peruses how science could be crafted differently, acknowledging, even embracing its authoriality while opening it to crosscurrents of other humanistic writing. Only by liberating sociology from the "secret writing" of science can its ineradicable humanity be realized. But rather than dwelling on recent critiques, this, more than any other book, looks ahead to a new way of doing science-one that is simultaneously more scientific and humanistic. Its prescient view of how social science can take the lead in building a more democratic public sphere will make it a must-read for every student and researcher.
Download or read book Rethinking Sociological Theory written by Stephen K. Sanderson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-11-17 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stephen K. Sanderson s latest book recaptures a scientific theoretical sociology, one whose fundamental aim is the formulation of real theories that can be empirically tested. Sanderson reviews the major theoretical traditions within contemporary sociology, explicating their key principles, critically evaluating these principles and their applications, and showcasing exemplars. He judges each tradition by asking whether it has generated falsifiable research programs. Although principally a work of theoretical critique, "Rethinking Sociological Theory" is also a valuable textbook for both undergraduate and graduate courses in sociological theory."
Download or read book Recent Trends in Theoretical Psychology written by Henderikus J. Stam and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 521 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I was asked and, alas, with little reflection on the magnitude of the task, thoughtlessly consented, to take on the 'simple' job of writing a preface to the collection of essays comprising this volume. That I was asked to carry out this simple task was probably due to one consideration: I was the main representative of the host institution (Clark University) for the 1991 ISTP Conference, at which the talks, foreshadowing and outlining the 'extended remarks' here printed, were originally presented, and hence, as a token of gratitude, I was vouchsafed the honor of setting the stage. It did not dawn on me, until I began piecemeal to receive and accumulate, over a period of months, the remarkably diverse and heterogeneous essays precipitated by the conference, how mind-boggling it would be to pen a preface pertinent to such an aggregate of prima/acie unrelated articles. Typically, prefaces to collections of essays from different hands are attempts by the prefator or a pride of prefators to provide an overview, a concise map, of the complex terrain which readers are invited to enter; or to direct the attention of potential readers to what the editors take to be the essential or central themes of each of the variegated articles: a practice which, not infrequently and often not unjustifiably, irritates and even enrages individual authors, who object to the complexity, profundity, and nuanced character of their thought being reduced to clicMs and editorial equivalents of sound bites.
Download or read book The Sociology philosophy Connection written by Mario Bunge and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-12 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most social scientists and philosophers claim that sociology and philosophy are disjoint fields of inquiry. Some have wondered how to trace the precise boundary between them. Mario Bunge argues that the two fields are so entangled with one another that no demarcation is possible or, indeed, desirable. In fact, sociological research has demonstrably philosophical pre-suppositions. In turn, some findings of sociology are bound to correct or enrich the philosophical theories that deal with the world, our knowledge of it, or the ways of acting upon it. While Bunge's thesis would hardly have shocked Mill, Marx, Durkheim, or Weber, it is alien to the current sociological mainstream and dominant philosophical schools. Bunge demonstrates that philosophical problematics arise in social science research. A fertile philosophy of social science unearths critical presuppositions, analyzes key concepts, refines effective research strategies, crafts coherent and realistic syntheses, and identifies important new problems. Bunge examines Marx's and Durkheim's thesis that social facts are as objective as physical facts; the so-called Thomas theorem that refutes the behaviorist thesis that social agents react to social stimuli rather than to the way we perceive them; and Merton's thesis on the ethos of basic science which shows that science and morality are intertwined. He considers selected philosophical problems raised by contemporary social studies and argues forcefully against tolerance of shabby work in academic social science and philosophy alike.
Download or read book A Reader in Sociology Christian Perspectives written by Charles P. De Santo and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2001-03-07 with total page 737 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Scholar Denied written by Aldon Morris and published by University of California Press. This book was released on 2017-01-17 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this groundbreaking book, Aldon D. Morris’s ambition is truly monumental: to help rewrite the history of sociology and to acknowledge the primacy of W. E. B. Du Bois’s work in the founding of the discipline. Calling into question the prevailing narrative of how sociology developed, Morris, a major scholar of social movements, probes the way in which the history of the discipline has traditionally given credit to Robert E. Park at the University of Chicago, who worked with the conservative black leader Booker T. Washington to render Du Bois invisible. Morris uncovers the seminal theoretical work of Du Bois in developing a “scientific” sociology through a variety of methodologies and examines how the leading scholars of the day disparaged and ignored Du Bois’s work. The Scholar Denied is based on extensive, rigorous primary source research; the book is the result of a decade of research, writing, and revision. In exposing the economic and political factors that marginalized the contributions of Du Bois and enabled Park and his colleagues to be recognized as the “fathers” of the discipline, Morris delivers a wholly new narrative of American intellectual and social history that places one of America’s key intellectuals, W. E. B. Du Bois, at its center. The Scholar Denied is a must-read for anyone interested in American history, racial inequality, and the academy. In challenging our understanding of the past, the book promises to engender debate and discussion.
Download or read book Sociology in Everyday Life written by David A. Karp and published by Waveland Press. This book was released on 2016-03-04 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over multiple successful editions, this distinctive text puts day-to-day life under the microscope of sociological analysis, providing an engaging treatment of situations and interactions that are resonant with readers’ daily experiences. Clearly written and well-researched, it reveals the underlying patterns and order of everyday life, employing both seminal classical works and contemporary analyses that define and embrace the theories and methods of symbolic interactionism. The latest edition provides fresh insights into patterns of behavior across a wide range of settings and circumstances, connecting our individual “selves” to such issues as the effects of power differentials on social situations, changing definitions of intimacy, varied experiences of aging and the life course, and the ongoing search for meaning. Boxed inserts highlight topics of related interest, while thought-provoking discussion questions encourage readers to apply chapter content to their daily experiences.
Download or read book Problem of Order written by Dennis Wrong and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1994-01-31 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the end of the twentieth century, many fear that the bonds holding civil society together have come undone. Yet, as the noted scholar Dennis Wrong shows us, our generation is not alone in fearing a breakdown of social ties and a descent into violent conflict.
Download or read book Philosophy of Science and Sociology written by Edmund Mokrzycki and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-04-15 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1983. This book concentrates on the impact of philosophy of science on sociology and other disciplines. It argues that the impact of the philosophy of science on sociology from the rise of the Vienna Circle until the mid-1980s resulted in a deep-reaching and, in the author’s view, undesirable methodological reorientation in sociology.
Download or read book Sociology And Nature written by Raymond Murphy and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-03-05 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sociology as if nature did not matter has been the sociological expression of modern societies negligent of the processes of nature. In response to this ?ecological blindness,? Raymond Murphy examines the limitations of sociology that have resulted from this neglect.Humanity's success in manipulating nature destabilizes the natural support system of society on a planetary scale and, in turn, destabilizes all of society's institutions. Because the manipulation of nature has become so central to modern society, society, Murphy argues, can now be understood only in terms of the interaction between social action and the processes of nature. The growing awareness that social constructions unleash dynamic processes of nature?processes beyond human control that bear on social action?has the potential of radically transforming sociology. Sociology and Nature proposes the reconstruction of sociology in which nature does matters, developing a novel sociological approach that situates social action in its natural context.
