Book:
On the Edges of Development: Cultural InterventionsAuthor:
Kum-Kum BhavnaniPages:
290Format:
PDFLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
0415956218Big business, financial institutions, and capitalist powers have wreaked much havoc on the Third World in the name of development. This book re-imagines development through a careful and imaginative exploration of some of the many ways that culture – in the broadest sense of lived experience and its representation – can recenter resistance, suggest alternative models, and advance critiques of development as it is currently practiced. The diverse group of scholars and activists who contribute chapters to the volume engage with the puzzle of how best to conceptualize an alternative development that improves the living conditions of women and men in different parts of the world and simultaneously demands solutions that focus on the integration of gender, diversity, and development with the realities of people’s lives.[b]PDF from html![/b] 
Book:
Jobs Aren't Enough: Toward a New Economic Mobility for Low-Income FamiliesAuthor:
Roberta Rehner Iversen and Annie Laurie ArmstrongPages:
296Format:
PDFLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
159213355XThis unflinching examination of the obstacles to economic mobility for low-income families exposes the ugly reality that lies beneath the shining surface of the American Dream. The fact is that nearly 25% of employed adults have difficulty supporting their families today. In eye-opening interviews, twenty-five workers and nearly a thousand people who are linked to them—children, teachers, job trainers, and employers—tell wrenching stories about "trying to get ahead." Spanning five cities over five years, this study convincingly demonstrates that prevailing ideas about opportunity, merit, and "bootstraps" are outdated. As the authors show, some workers who believe the myths end up destroying their health and families in the process of trying to "move up."Jobs Aren't Enough demonstrates that the social institutions of family, education, labor market, and policy all intersect to influence—and inhibit—employment mobility. It proposes a new mobility paradigm grounded in cooperation and collaboration across social institutions, along with revitalization of the "public will."
Book:
Shamanism: An IntroductionAuthor:
Margaret StutleyPages:
192Format:
PDFLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
041527317XShamanism traces the history, ideology and rites of the shamans' fascinating belief-system in its many global manifestations. Looking at the forms and functions of shamanic practices from Siberia to China and beyond, it provides an authoritative and accessible guide to some of the most notorious and most frequently misrepresented aspects of shamanism. Answers questions such as how shamans' dual souls roam the world of the dead in search of lost souls and why the Yukaghir people wear "grandfather" amulets made of the flesh and bones of dead relatives.
Placing particular emphasis on the climatic, geographic, and cultural pressures under which shamanic traditions arose, Shaminism summarizes and clearly explains the logic of a faith whose fantastical elements have a special place in popular imagination.
Book:
Racism (Key Ideas)Author:
Robert MilesPages:
184Format:
PDFLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
0415296765Racism provides an illuminating general overview of the history and debate surrounding the concept of racism. Its objective is to argue that the concept should retain a central place in the analysis of both the historical development, and contemporary structure of, capitalist societies. This new edition brilliantly examines the war in the former Yugoslavia, the cases of Stephen Lawrence and Rodney King, and the recent wave of Islamophobia. This is intelligent and insightful reading for anyone with an interest in the study and evolution of racism in today's world.
Book:
Discrimination in an Unequal WorldAuthor:
Miguel Angel Centeno, Katherine S. NewmanPages:
320Format:
PDFLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
0199732167Is globalization making our world more equal, or less? Proponents of globalization argue that it is helping and that in a competitive world, no one can afford to discriminate except on the basis of skills. Opponents counter that globalization does nothing but pre a meritocratic patina on a consistently unequal distribution of opportunity. Yet, despite the often deafening volume of the debate, there is surprisingly little empirical work available on the extent to which the process of globalization over the past quarter century has had any effect on discrimination. Tackling this challenge, Discrimination in an Unequal World explores the relationship between discrimination and unequal outcomes in the appropriate geographical and historical context. Noting how each society tends to see its particular version of discrimination as universal and obvious, the editors expand their set of cases to include a broad variety of social relations and practices. However, since methods differ and are often designed for particular national circumstances, they set the much more ambitious and practical goal of establishing a base with which different forms of discrimination across the world can be compared. Derived from a broad array of methods, the book draws many important lessons on the new means by which the world creates social hierarchies, the democratization of inequality, and the disappearance of traditional categories.
Book:
Sociology (SparkCharts)Author:
SparkNotes EditorsPages:
4Format:
PDFLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
1586639129SparkChartsTM 2004 ed.—created by Harvard students for students everywhere—serve as study companions and reference tools that cover a wide range of college and graduate school subjects, including Business, Computer Programming, Medicine, Law, Foreign Language, Humanities, and Science. Titles like How to Study, Microsoft Word for Windows, Microsoft Powerpoint for Windows, and HTML give you what it takes to find success in school and beyond. Outlines and summaries cover key points, while diagrams and tables make difficult concepts easier to digest.This four-page chart covers:Classical sociological thinkers, including Marx, Weber, and Durkheim
Contemporary schools of sociological thought
Elements of society, including culture, social structure, social interaction, and socialization
Social stratification
Social institutions
Deviance, social control, and law
Social change
Sociological research methods
Book:
This Land: The Battle over Sprawl and the Future of AmericaAuthor:
Anthony FlintPages:
310Format:
PDFLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
0801884195Despite a modest revival in city living, Americans are spreading out more than ever -- into "exurbs" and "boomburbs" miles from anywhere, in big houses in big subdivisions. We cling to the notion of safer neighborhoods and better schools, but what we get, argues Anthony Flint, is long commutes, crushing gas prices and higher taxes -- and a landscape of strip malls and office parks badly in need of a makeover.
This Land tells the untold story of development in America -- how the landscape is shaped by a furious clash of political, economic and cultural forces. It is the story of burgeoning anti-sprawl movement, a 1960s-style revolution of New Urbanism, smart growth, and green building. And it is the story of landowners fighting back on the basis of property rights, with free-market libertarians, homebuilders, road pavers, financial institutions, and even the lawn-care industry right alongside them.
The subdivisions and extra-wide roadways are encroaching into the wetlands of Florida, ranchlands in Texas, and the desert outside Phoenix and Las Vegas. But with up to 120 million more people in the country by 2050, will the spread-out pattern cave in on itself? Could Americans embrace a new approach to development if it made sense for them?
A veteran journalist who covered planning, development, and housing for the Boston Globe for sixteen years and a visiting scholar in 2005 at the Harvard Design School, Flint reveals some surprising truths about the future and how we live in This Land.
Book:
Seven Ages of Man and Woman: A Look at Life in Britain in the Second Elizabethan EraAuthor:
Ian DiamondPages:
40Format:
PDFLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
0000000000There is no question that we are living in a very different world from the one Shakespeare knew. But there have also been dramatic changes in our society in just the past few decades.And nowadays, we have the kind of detailed information we need to try and make sense of these changes.The investments that ESRC and other funders have made in world renowned large-scale datasets like the British Household Panel Survey, the Workplace Employment Relations Survey and the three birth cohort studies are paying off handsomely in helping us to understand key social and economic issues.This report has been conceived as a way of demonstrating the value of these resources and of the top quality social science research that analyses them – a showcase of just some of the insights we are getting and their potential impact on policy and practice in a wide range of arenas. We are publishing it at the beginning of Social Science Week 2004, an ESRC initiative taking place across the UK and intended to provide everyone – from schoolchildren to politicians – with the opportunity to learn about research currently being undertaken by the country’s leading social scientists. We believe this work can and will contribute to better policy making and, ultimately, to a better society.
Book:
Political Theory In TransitionAuthor:
oel O'SullivanPages:
272Format:
PDFLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
1857288548Political Theory in Transition is essential reading for those undergraduates and postgraduates who want to make sense of the state of contemporary political theory and political philosophy.
Book:
The American Language of RightsAuthor:
Richard A. PrimusPages:
284Format:
PDFLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
0521616212Richard A. Primus examines three crucial periods in American history (the late eighteenth century, the Civil War and the 1950s and 1960s) and demonstrates how the conceptions of rights prevailing at each of these times grew out of opposition to concrete political cases. In the first study of its kind, Primus highlights the influence of totalitarianism (in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union) on the language of rights. This book will be a major contribution to contemporary political theory, of interest to scholars and students in politics and government, constitutional law, and American history.
Book:
J. M. Coetzee and the Paradox of Postcolonial AuthorshipAuthor:
Jane PoynerPages:
214Format:
PDFLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
0754654621The first comprehensive account of J. M. Coetzee's literary career, this book illuminates the author's life-long engagement with the problems of colonialism and 'post colonialism.' How successful has this member of a white South African academic elite been in accommodating his various roles as author, public intellectual, and citizen? What are the ethics of writing fiction within postcolonial and, more specifically, South African contexts? Has Coetzee's withdrawal from the public domain problematized his portrayals of a series of author-protagonists writing under apartheid and postapartheid conditions? What does Coetzee's criticism on writers like D. H. Lawrence, Samuel Beckett, and Dostoevsky tell us about his own works?From Dusklands to Disgrace and from Waiting for the Barbarians to Elizabeth Costello, Jane Poyner traces how Coetzee rehearses and revises his understanding of the ethics of intellectualism in parallel with the emergency of the 'new South Africa.' She contends that Coetzee not only introduces a singularly modernist reading of the South African situation to the field of postcolonial studies but also makes postcolonial interventions into the modernist tradition by reworking novels of this literary movement. In addition, she is attentive to the ways his writing reflects Coetzee's evolving views of the writer's proper role with respect to the changing ethical demands of contemporary political life. Both theoretically sophisticated and accessibly written, her book is a major contribution to our understanding of the Nobel Laureate and to postcolonial studies.
Book:
The Grammar of Society: The Nature and Dynamics of Social NormsAuthor:
Cristina BicchieriPages:
276Format:
PDFLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
0521573726Cristina Bicchieri examines social norms, such as fairness, cooperation, and reciprocity, in an effort to understand their nature and dynamics, generated expectations and evolution and change. Drawing on intellectual traditions and methods, including those of social psychology, experimental economics and evolutionary game theory, Bicchieri provides an integrated account of how social norms emerge and why and when we follow them. Examining the existence and survival of inefficient norms, she demonstrates how norms evolve in ways that depend upon the psychological dispositions of the individual and how such dispositions may impair social efficiency.
Book:
Society and Discourse: How Social Contexts Influence Text and TalkAuthor:
Teun A. van DijkPages:
298Format:
PDFLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
0521516900Van Dijk presents a new theory of context that explains how text and talk are adapted to their social environment. He argues that instead of the usual direct relationship being established between society and discourse, this influence is indirect and depends on how language users themselves 'define' the communicative situation. The new concept Van Dijk introduces for such definitions is that of context models. These models control all language production and understanding and explain how discourse is made appropriate in each situation. They are the missing link between language and society so far ignored in pragmatics and sociolinguistics. In this interdisciplinary book, the new theory of context is developed from a linguistic and psychological perspective. The theory is applied to the domain of politics, including the debate about the war in Iraq, where political leaders' speeches serve as a case study for detailed contextual analysis.
Book:
The Political Uses of Expert Knowledge: Immigration Policy and Social ResearchAuthor:
Christina BoswellPages:
280Format:
PDFLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
0521517419Why do politicians and civil servants commission research, and what use do they make of it in policymaking? The received wisdom is that research contributes to improving government policy. Christina Boswell challenges this view, arguing that policymakers are just as likely to value expert knowledge for two alternative reasons: as a way of lending authority to their preferences; or to signal their capacity to make sound decisions. Boswell develops a compelling new theory of the role of knowledge in policy, showing how policymakers use research to establish authority in contentious and risky areas of policy. She illustrates her argument with an analysis of European immigration policies, charting the ways in which expertise becomes a resource for lending credibility to controversial claims, underpinning high-risk decisions or bolstering the credibility of government agencies. This book will make fascinating reading for those interested in the interface between policymaking, academic research and political legitimacy.
Book:
Disposing Dictators, Demystifying Voting Paradoxes: Social Choice AnalysisAuthor:
Donald G. SaariPages:
256Format:
PDFLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
0521731607We decide by elections, but do we elect who the voters really want? The answer, as we have learned over the last two centuries, is "not necessarily." What a negative, frightening assertion about a principal tool of democracy! This negativism has been supported by two hundred years of published results showing how bad the situation can be. This expository, largely non-technical book is the first to find positive results showing that the situation is not anywhere as dire and negative as we have been led to believe. Instead there are surprisingly simple explanations for the negative assertions, and positive conclusions can be obtained.
Book:
Party Discipline and Parliamentary PoliticsAuthor:
Christopher J. KamPages:
1Format:
PDFLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
0521518296One of the chief tasks facing political leaders is to build and maintain unity within their parties. Party Discipline and Parliamentary Politics examines the relationship between party leaders and Members of Parliament in Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, showing how the two sides interact and sometimes clash. Christopher J. Kam demonstrates how incentives for MPs to dissent from their parties have been amplified by a process of partisan dealignment that has created electorates of non-partisan voters who reward shows of political independence. Party leaders therefore rely on a mixture of strategies to offset these electoral pressures, from offering MPs advancement to threatening discipline, and ultimately relying on a long-run process of socialization to temper their MPs' dissension. Kam reveals the underlying structure of party unity in modern Westminster parliamentary politics, and drives home the point that social norms and socialization reinforce rather than displace appeals to MPs' self-interest.
Book:
Strange Multiplicity: Constitutionalism in an Age of DiversityAuthor:
James TullyPages:
271Format:
PDFLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
0521476941The distinguished political philosopher James Tully addresses the demands for cultural recognition that constitute the major conflicts of today, such as nationalism and federalism, the claims of Aboriginal peoples, feminism, linguistic and ethnic minorities. Tully's survey of four hundred years of constitutional practice shows that neither modern nor postmodern constitutionalism can adjudicate such claims justly, and in Strange Multiplicity he instead develops a post-imperial philosophy of constitutionalism capable of bringing peace to the twenty-first century.
Book:
Deliberative Democracy: Essays on Reason and PoliticsAuthor:
James Bohman, William RehgPages:
477Format:
PDFLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
0262024349Ideals of democratic participation and rational self-government have long informed modern political theory. As a recent elaboration of these ideals, the concept of deliberative democracy is based on the principle that legitimate democracy issues from the public deliberation of citizens. This remarkably fruitful concept has spawned investigations along a number of lines. Areas of inquiry include the nature and value of deliberation, the feasibility and desirability of consensus on contentious issues, the implications of institutional complexity and cultural diversity for democratic decision making, and the significance of voting and majority rule in deliberative arrangements. The anthology opens with four key essays--by Jon Elster, Jurgen Habermas, Joshua Cohen, and John Rawls--that helped establish the current inquiry into deliberative models of democracy. The nine essays that follow represent the latest efforts of leading democratic theorists to tackle various problems of deliberative democracy. All the contributions address tensions that arise between reason and politics in a democracy inspired by the ideal of achieving reasoned agreement among free and equal citizens. Although the authors approach the topic of deliberation from different perspectives, they all aim to provide a theoretical basis for a more robust democratic practice.
Book:
Giving an Account of OneselfAuthor:
Judith ButlerPages:
160Format:
PDFLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
0823225038What does it mean to lead an ethical life under vexed social and linguistic conditions? In her first extended study of moral philosophy, Judith Butler offers a provocative outline for a new ethical practice-one responsive to the need for critical autonomy yet grounded in the opacity of the human subject.
Book:
The Micro-Macro LinkAuthor:
Jeffrey C. Alexander, Bernhard Giesen, Richard Munch, Neil J. SmelserPages:
400Format:
DJVULanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
0520060687The work of fifteen nationally and internationally known theorists in sociology, this volume demonstrates an exciting new trend in sociological thinking. Each essay proposes a link between the two distinguishable traditions of sociological theory--the microscopic, which stresses the self and the interaction among persons, and the macroscopic, which concentrates on the institutional, cultural, and societal levels. Each mode of analysis has had its champions, and the proponents of each have often taken positions of polemic opposition to one another.
