The Body and Society
The Body and Society

Author: Bryan S Turner

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2008-04-18

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 1446245500

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"This truly deserves to be considered a classic and I strongly encourage my students to read it from cover to cover. Turner′s work on the body needs to be considered in its own right within courses on the sociology of the body." - Dr Robert Meadows, Surrey University "Remains the foundational text for courses in the sociology of the body, replete with insights and a depth of analysis that has largely inspired an entire new area of studies across the social sciences." - Dr Michael Drake, Hull University "This is THE contemporary text for both academics and students exploring the sociology of the body." - Jessica Clark, University Campus Suffolk This is a fully revised edition of a book that may fairly claim to have re-opened the sociology of the body as a legitimate area of enquiry. Providing an unparalleled guide to all aspects of the subject, each chapter has been revised and updated while the book contains new material that reflects both recent changes in the field and Turner′s developing position on the centrality of vulnerability. Assured and innovative, this book provides the most authoritative statement of work on the sociology of the body by one of the leading writers in the field.

Explorations in Classical Sociological Theory
Explorations in Classical Sociological Theory

Author: Kenneth Allan

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Published: 2016-09-22

Total Pages: 512

ISBN-13: 1483356701

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Praised for its conversational tone, personal examples, and helpful pedagogical tools, the Fourth Edition of Explorations in Classical Sociological Theory: Seeing the Social World is organized around the modern ideas of progress, knowledge, and democracy. With this historical thread woven throughout the chapters, the book examines the works and intellectual contributions of major classical theorists, including Marx, Spencer, Durkheim, Weber, Mead, Simmel, Martineau, Gilman, Douglass, Du Bois, Parsons, and the Frankfurt School. Kenneth Allan and new co-author Sarah Daynes focus on the specific views of each theorist, rather than schools of thought, and highlight modernity and postmodernity to help contemporary readers understand how classical sociological theory applies to their lives.

Explorations in Social Theory
Explorations in Social Theory

Author: George Ritzer

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2001-04-10

Total Pages: 317

ISBN-13: 1473946050

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

George Ritzer is one of the leading social and cultural commentators of the present day. In this essential new book he considers some of the main tendencies in contemporary social theory. Included here are Ritzer′s latest reflections on the uses and misuses of metatheory. According to Ritzer, sociology is a multiparadigm science. The differences and intensities of rivalries between paradigms are often very confusing for students and even for professional sociologists. This book seeks to find a way out of the confusion by sketching out the lineaments of a new integrated sociological paradigm and demonstrates how this paradigm can be applied. It shows the various ways in which Ritzer has developed rationalization theory to shed light on professional integration, the shape of consumer culture, hyperrationality and the state of sociology today.

The Body and Social Theory
The Body and Social Theory

Author: Chris Shilling

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 9780761942856

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Praise for the First Edition: `Essential to any collection of work on the body, health and illness, or social theory' - Choice `Sophisticated … and acutely perceptive of the importance of the complex dialectic between social institutions, culture and biological conditions' - Times Higher Education Supplement `Chris Shilling has done us all a splendid service in bringing together and illustrating the tremendous diversity and richness of sociological thinking on the topic of human embodiment and its implications' - Sociological Review This updated edition of the bestselling text retains all the strengths of the first edition. Chris Shilling: provides a critical survey of the field; demonstrates how developments in diet, sexuality, reproductive technology, genetic engineering and sports science have made the body a site for social alternatives and individual choices; and elucidates the practical uses of theory in striking and accessible ways. In addition, new, original material: explores the latest feminist, phenomenological and action-oriented approaches to the body; examines the latest work on `body projects' and the relationship between the body and self-identity; and outlines a compelling theoretical framework that provides a radical basis for the consolidation of body studies.

Self, Social Structure, and Beliefs
Self, Social Structure, and Beliefs

Author: Jeffrey C. Alexander

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2004-09-20

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 9780520241374

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This is an exploration of the creative work done by leading sociologists who were inspired by the scholarship of Neil Smelser.

Explorations in the Sociology of Consumption
Explorations in the Sociology of Consumption

Author: George Ritzer

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2001-06-04

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 9780761971207

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In this book, one of the leading social theorists and cultural commentators of modern times, turns his gaze on consumption. George Ritzer, author of the famous McDonaldization Thesis, demonstrates the irrational consequences of the rational desire to consume and commodify. He examines how McDonaldization might be resisted, and situates the reader in the new cultural spaces that are emerging in society: shopping malls, casino hotels, Disneyfied theme parks and Las Vegas -- the new `cathedrals of consumption' as he calls them. The book shows how new processes of consumption relate to globalization theory. In illuminating discussions of the work of Thorstein Veblen and the French situationists, Ritzer unearths the roots of problems of consumption in older sociological traditions. He indicates how transgression is bound up with consumption, through an investigation of the obscene in popular and postmodern culture.

Theoretical Sociology
Theoretical Sociology

Author: Jonathan H. Turner

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Published: 2013-07-11

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 1483310825

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

What can sociological theory tell us about the basic forces that shape our world? With clarity and authority, Theoretical Sociology: A Concise Introduction to Twelve Sociological Theories, by leading theorist Jonathan H. Turner, seeks to answer this question through a brief, yet in-depth examination of twelve major sociological theories. Readers are given an opportunity to explore the foundational premise of each theory and key elements that make it distinctive. The book draws on biographical background, analysis of important works, historical influences, and other critical insights to help readers make the important connections between these monumental sociological theories and the social world in which we live. This concise resource is a perfect complement to any course that seeks to examine both classic and contemporary sociological theory.

Dynamic Embodiment for Social Theory
Dynamic Embodiment for Social Theory

Author: Brenda Farnell

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-02-27

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 113664525X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book presents a series of ontological investigations into an adequate theory of embodiment for the social sciences. Informed by a new realist philosophy of causal powers, it seeks to articulate a concept of dynamic embodiment, one that positions human body movement, and not just ‘the body’ at the heart of theories of social action. It draws together several lines of thinking in contemporary social science: about the human body and its movements; adequate meta-theoretical explanations of agency and causality in human action; relations between moving and talking; skill and the formation of knowledge; metaphor, perception and the senses; movement literacy; the constitution of space and place, and narrative performance. This is an ontological inquiry that is richly grounded in, and supported by anthropological ethnographic evidence. Using the work of Rom Harré, Roy Bhaskar, Charles Varela and Drid Williams this book applies causal powers theory to a revised ontology of personhood, and discusses why the adequate location of human agency is crucial for the social sciences. The breakthrough lies in fact that new realism affords us an account of embodied human agency as a generative causal power that is grounded in our corporeal materiality, thereby connecting natural/physical and cultural worlds. Dynamic Embodiment for Social Theory is compelling reading for students and academics of the social sciences, especially anthropologists and sociologists of ‘the body’, and those interested in new developments in critical realism.

The Sociology of the Individual
The Sociology of the Individual

Author: Athanasia Chalari

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2016-11-08

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 1473987679

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

What it socialization? What is interaction? What do we mean by identity? How can we explain the notion of self? What do we mean by intra-action? The Sociology of the Individual is an innovative and though-provoking sociological exploration of how the ideas of the individual and society relate. Expertly combining conceptual depth with clarity of style, Athanasia Chalari: explains the key sociological and psychological theories related to the investigation of the social and the personal analyses the ways that both sociology and psychology can contribute to a more complete understanding and theorising of everyday life uses a mix of international cases and everyday examples to encourage critical reflection. The Sociology of the Individual is an essential read for upper level undergraduates or postgraduates looking for a deeper and more sophisticated understanding of the connection between the social world and the inner life of the individual. Perfect for modules exploring the sociology of the self, self and society, and self and identity.

Understanding Social Theory
Understanding Social Theory

Author: Derek Layder

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 9780761944508

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Provides an introduction to the core issues in social theory. This book will be useful reading for students in sociology, social psychology, social theory, political theory and organization studies.