The Metaphorical Society
The Metaphorical Society

Author: Daniel Rigney

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 0742509389

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book introduces the novice reader to modern social theory through the creative exploration of eight major metaphors that have shaped Western understandings of human society. Rigney vividly yet concisely examines each major theoretical perspective in sociology, including functionalism, conflict theory, rational choice, and symbolic interactionism. He shows how each of these theories is rooted in a particular metaphorical tradition. Over decades and centuries, Rigney argues, social theorists have variously likened societies to organisms and living systems, to machines, battlefields, legal systems, marketplaces, games, theatrical productions, and discourses. Most interestingly, Rigney deftly shows how nearly all Western social theories fit with one or more of the metaphors. He emphasizes a humanistic understanding of society with an emphasis on the creative agency of social actors and communities. The book offers students a rich understanding of social theory, yet it is simultaneously concise and broad ranging, allowing instructors to further pursue detailed exploration of any perspectives they choose.

Society and Its Metaphors
Society and Its Metaphors

Author: Jose Lopez

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2003-02-01

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1847143733

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Both classical and contemporary social theorists have created a range of frameworks to formulate and develop concepts of social structure. Focusing on the work of the key theorists, Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Talcott Parsons and Louis Althusser, Society and its Metaphors maps the linguistic basis of different theories of social structure.

Professions and Metaphors
Professions and Metaphors

Author: Andreas Liljegren

Publisher:

Published: 2016-07-22

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781315672045

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Professions and Metaphors: Understanding Professions in Society explores the way that two traditions have contributed to our understanding of both theory and society over recent decades. In the first tradition, the growing literature on metaphors has helped to guide thinking, providing insights into such phenomena as the study of organizations. In the second, there has been an increased interest in professions, from lawyers and university academics to doctors and social workers. This edited collection brings together these two traditions for the first time, providing a unique and systematic overview, at macro and micro level, of the use of metaphors in the sociology of professions. A range of professional fields are explored, from law and medicine to social work and teaching, showing how metaphors can enhance our understanding of the operation of professional groups. By demonstrating how metaphors can add to our understanding of professions in society, as well as in professional practice, this ground-breaking book makes an invaluable contribution to advanced students and researchers in fields such as the sociology of professions and work and organization - as well as informing professionals and policy makers themselves.

Metaphors We Live By
Metaphors We Live By

Author: George Lakoff

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1980-11-01

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 9780226468006

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The now-classic Metaphors We Live By changed our understanding of metaphor and its role in language and the mind. Metaphor, the authors explain, is a fundamental mechanism of mind, one that allows us to use what we know about our physical and social experience to provide understanding of countless other subjects. Because such metaphors structure our most basic understandings of our experience, they are "metaphors we live by"—metaphors that can shape our perceptions and actions without our ever noticing them. In this updated edition of Lakoff and Johnson's influential book, the authors supply an afterword surveying how their theory of metaphor has developed within the cognitive sciences to become central to the contemporary understanding of how we think and how we express our thoughts in language.

Revelation and Divination in Ndembu Ritual
Revelation and Divination in Ndembu Ritual

Author: Victor Turner

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2018-05-31

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 1501717197

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Drawing on two and a half years of field work, Victor Turner offers two thorough ethnographic studies of Ndembu revelatory ritual and divinatory techniques, with running commentaries on symbolism by a variety of Ndembu informants. Although previously published, these essays have not been readily available since their appearance more than a dozen years ago. Striking a personal note in a new introductory chapter, Professor Turner acknowledges his indebtedness to Ndembu ritualists for alerting him to the theoretical relevance of symbolic action in understanding human societies. He believes that ritual symbols, like botanists' stains, enable us to detect and trace the movement of social processes and relationships that often lie below the level of direct observation.

Understanding Global Cultures: Metaphorical Journeys Through 31 Nations, Clusters of Nations, Continents, and Diversity
Understanding Global Cultures: Metaphorical Journeys Through 31 Nations, Clusters of Nations, Continents, and Diversity

Author: Martin J. Gannon

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 681

ISBN-13: 1412995930

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In Understanding Global Cultures, Fifth Edition, authors Martin J. Gannon and Rajnandini Pillai present the cultural metaphor—any activity, phenomenon, or institution with which the members of a given culture identify emotionally or cognitively—as a method for understanding the cultural mindsets of individual nations, clusters of nations, and even continents. The book shows how metaphors are guidelines to help outsiders quickly understand what members of a culture consider important. The fully updated Fifth Edition includes 31 nation-specific chapters, including a new Part XI on popular music as cultural metaphors, two completely new chapters on Vietnam and Argentina, revisions to all retained chapters, and a more explicit linkage between each cultural metaphor and current economic and business developments in each nation.

The Prison as Metaphor
The Prison as Metaphor

Author: Michael P. Marks

Publisher: Peter Lang

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 9780820468396

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Whether wittingly or unwittingly, scholars of international relations have peppered the field with a wide range of metaphors that serve as vehicles for theorizing about world affairs. Yet as pervasive as metaphors are in international relations theory, theorists' efforts to employ metaphorical imagery to suggest new ways of thinking have been haphazard and sporadic. In this book, Michael P. Marks suggests a new metaphor with which to conceptualize international relations: the modern prison. Many of the same questions that are asked about the so-called «anarchy» of the international system are also frequently asked of life among prison inmates. Marks finds that lessons from inmate relations can be applied to the study of international affairs. This comparison between the prison and international relations reveals how the construction of human interaction in both realms is infinitely complex.

The Moral Metaphor System
The Moral Metaphor System

Author: Ning Yu

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2022-06-27

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0192691368

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book investigates moral metaphors in English and Chinese, applying conceptual metaphor theory to a comparative study of the linguistic manifestation of the moral metaphor system rooted in the domains of bodily and physical experience. Ning Yu sheds light on the metaphorical nature of moral cognition and how it is systematically manifested in language, and explores the potential commonalities that define moral cognition in general, as well as the differences that characterize distinct cultures. The work investigates moral cognition at the cultural level as reflected in language, based on linguistic evidence from both English and Chinese and, to a limited extent, multimodal evidence from the corresponding cultures. The moral metaphor system is taken to consist of three major subsystems, referred to as "physical", "visual", and "spatial". These subsystems are clusters of conceptual metaphors, whose source concepts are from domains of embodied experiences in the physical world, and which are formulated in contrastive categories with bipolar values for the target concepts of moral and immoral. The study is characterized by two keywords: system and systematicity: The former refers to the fact that metaphors (conceptual and linguistic) are connected within networks, and the latter to the need for those metaphors to be studied in such networks.

Metaphor in Specialist Discourse
Metaphor in Specialist Discourse

Author: J. Berenike Herrmann

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2015-12-15

Total Pages: 333

ISBN-13: 9027267847

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Metaphor in Specialist Discourse presents multiple perspectives on metaphor use in specialist and popularized discourse contexts. Using genre and register as starting parameters for deeper exploration, and pushing the boundaries further to open up new areas and possibilities, ten independent articles investigate metaphor use across a range of specialist domains of discourse, such as biology research articles, psychological counseling, soccer commentaries, workfloor communication, and penal policy documents. Framed by two theoretical chapters, the book is a contribution to the study of metaphor use in distinct discourse settings that will be of value to linguists and metaphor scholars of different persuasions, graduate students of linguistics and related disciplines, and practitioners of specialized areas with an interest in (verbal or gestural) language use in their areas of expertise. It shows that aspects of discourse variation are the beginning of, not an afterthought to, accurate empirical metaphor studies.

The Metaphor of the City in the Apocalypse of John
The Metaphor of the City in the Apocalypse of John

Author: Eva Maria Räpple

Publisher: Peter Lang

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 9780820470832

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Throughout history, the vision of a new city - the heavenly Jerusalem coming down from heaven - has inspired human beings to dream about community, society, and the world. Acting as an incentive to turn unsatisfied longing into utopian ideas and, ultimately, action, the language of the Apocalypse of John has long inspired human imagination in a highly effective manner. This fact has contributed to its controversial role in the history of New Testament interpretation; its bizarre, often paradoxical language seems to veil, rather than reveal, its message. Interestingly, the Apocalypse has never ceased to be an inspiration for artists: unlike conceptual language, art does not restrict interpretation, but has the power to incite the reader or audience to imagine. Using artistic expression as paradigm, this book examines a central image - the city - as metaphorical material, investigating the dynamic, interpretive process from text to imagination.