existential sociology
Children Talking Television; The Making of Television
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Buckingham, David / Buckingham, D. / David Buckingham University of London In, PUBLISHER: Routledge, Is television harmful to children? Does it destroy imagination, provode delinquency and violence, undermine family life and have other detrimental effects on children?; The author, himself a parent, teacher and researcher investigates the complex ways in which children actively make meaning and take pleasure from television. Chapters cover the popular debates about children and television from a general and academic perspective. The characteristics of children's talk about television are explored, as children interact with other children and other family members in family viewing sessions.; Key concepts which inform children's talk about television are investigated i. e. genre, narrative, character, modality, and agency. Finally, conclusions are presented and issues outlined for further research.; Drawing on theories and ideas developed within media and cultural studies, English, education, psychology, sociology, linguistics and other related areas, this book will be useful to both students and teachers in the field, and to the general reader with an interest in children and the media.
Criminal Injustice: Racism in the Criminal Justice System
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Neugebauer, Robynne, PUBLISHER: Canadian Scholars Press, This volume examines racism within the process of criminal justice. In every society criminal justice plays a key role establishing social control and maintaining the hegemony of the dominant economic classes. The contributors to this anthology argue that the differential treatment of people of colour and First Nations peoples is due to systemic racism within all levels of the criminal justice system, which serves these dominant classes. Ideological and cultural changes are preconditions for the success of anti-racist policies and practices within the criminal justice system and within other state institutions. Recommendations for transformations in justice policy and practice are provided. Robynne Neugebauer is Assistant Professor in Sociology at York University. Her research and teaching focus on criminology, policing, inequality in criminal justice, and wife assault; racism; education; and aging. Her books include Seniors and Sexuality: Experiencing Intimacy in Later Life; Aging and Inequality: Cultural Constructions of Differences; Racism and Institutional Change: Readings in Anti-Racism in Criminal Justice, Education, Health and Social Services; and Police-Community Relations (forthcoming).
Rebuilding the Ancestral Village: Singaporeans in China
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Kuaah-Pearce, Khun Eng / Kuah, Khun, PUBLISHER: Hong Kong University Press, This work illustrates the relationship between one group of Singaporean Chinese and their ancestral village in Fujian, China. It explores the reasons why the Singaporean Chinese continue to maintain ties with their ancestral village and how they reproduce Chinese culture through ancestor worship and religion in the ancestral village. In some cases, the Singaporeans feel morally obliged to assist in village reconstruction and infrastructure developments such as new roads, bridges, schools, and hospitals. Others help with small-scale industrial and retail activities. Meanwhile, officials and villagers in the ancestral home utilize various strategies to encourage the Singaporeans to revisit their ancestral village, sustain heritage ties, and help enhance the moral economy. This ethnographic study examines two geographically distinct groups of Chinese coming together to re-establish their lineage and identity through cultural and economic activities. Khun Eng Kuah-Pearce is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and honorary academic director of the Centre for Anthropological Research at the University of Hong Kong.
Toward a Sociology of the Trace
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Gray, Herman / Macarena, Gmez-Barris / Gomez-Barris, Macarena, PUBLISHER: University of Minnesota Press, Using culture as an entry point, and informed by the work of contemporary social theorists, the essays in this volume identify and challenge sites where the representational dimension of social life produces national identity through scripts of belonging, or traces. The contributors utilize empirically based studies of social policy, political economy, and social institutions to offer a new way of looking at the creation of meaning, representation, and memory. They scrutinize subjects such as narratives in the U.S. coal industry's change from digging mines to removing mountaintops; war-related redress policies in post-World War II Japan; views of masculinity linked to tequila, Pancho Villa, and the Mexican Revolution; and the politics of subjectivity in s political violence in Thailand. Contributors: Sarah Banet-Weiser, U of Southern California; Barbara A. Barnes, U of California, Berkeley; Marie Sarita Gaytan; Avery F. Gordon, U of California, Santa Barbara; Tanya McNeill, U of California, Santa Cruz; Sudarat Musikawong, Willamette U; Akiko Naono, U of Kyushu; Rebecca R. Scott, U of Missouri.
Digital Media Revisited: Theoretical and Conceptual
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Liestol, Gunnar / Morrison, Andrew / Rasmussen, Terje, PUBLISHER: MIT Press (MA), Arguing that "first encounters" have already applied traditional theoretical and conceptual frameworks to digital media, the contributors to this book call for "second encounters," or a revisiting. Digital media are not only objects of analysis but also instruments for the development of innovative perspectives on both media and culture. Drawing on insights from literary theory, semiotics, philosophy, aesthetics, ethics, media studies, sociology, and education, the contributors construct new positions from which to observe digital media in fresh and meaningful ways. Throughout they explore to what extent interpretation of and experimentation with digital media can inform theory. It also asks how our understanding of digital media can contribute to our understanding of social and cultural change. The book is organized in four sections: Education and Interdisciplinarity, Design and Aesthetics, Rhetoric and Interpretation, and Social Theory and Ethics. The topics include the effects on reading of the multimodal and multisensory aspects of the digital environment, the impact of practice on the medium of theory, how digital media are dissolving the boundaries between leisure and work, and the impact of cyberspace on established ethical principles.
Modernity - An Ethnographic Approach: Dualism and Mass
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Miller, Daniel, PUBLISHER: Berg Publishers, From cultural studies, sociology, media studies, gender studies and elsewhere there have been a spate of books recently which have attempted to characterize the state of modernity. Many of these have also argued that what is required is an ethnographic work to determine how far these supposed trends actually apply to a given population. This book explicitly accepts this challenge and, in so doing, demonstrates the potential of modern anthropology studies. It starts by summarizing some debates on modernity and then argues that the Caribbean island of Trinidad is particularly apt for such a study given the origins of its population in slavery and indentured labour, both forms of extreme social rupture.The particular focus of this book is on mass consumption and the way goods and imported images such as soap opera have been used to express and develop a number of key contradictions of modernity. It will be of interest to anthropologists looking for a new potential for the discipline, as well as students in other fields who will be interested in the new contribution of anthropology to their debates.
Forms of Power
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Poggi, Gianfranco, PUBLISHER: Polity Press, Political power is often viewed as the sole embodiment of 'social power', even while we recognize that social power manifests itself in different forms and institutional spheres. This new book by Gianfranco Poggi suggests that the three principal forms of social power - the economic, the normative/ideological and the political - are based on a group's privileged access to and control over different resources. Against this general background, Poggi shows how various embodiments of normative/ideological and economic power have both made claims on political power (considered chiefly as it is embodied in the state) and responded in turn to the latter's attempt to control or to instrumentalize them. The embodiment of ideological power in religion and in modern intellectual elites is examined in the context of their relations to the state. Poggi also explores both the demands laid upon the state by the business elite and the impact of the state's fiscal policies on the economic sphere. The final chapter considers the relationship between a state's political class and its military elite, which tends to use the resource of organized coercion for its own ends. Forms of Power will be of interest to students and scholars of sociology and politics.
Bringing Systems Thinking to Life: Expanding the Horizons
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Bregman, Ona Cohn / White, Charles M., PUBLISHER: Routledge, In a single volume, Bringing Systems Thinking to Life: Expanding the Horizons for Bowen Family Systems Theory presents the extraordinary diversity and breadth of Bowen theory applications that address human functioning in various relationship systems across a broad spectrum of professions, disciplines, cultures, and nations. Providing three chapters of never-before-published material by Dr. Bowen, the book also demonstrates the transcendent nature and versatility of Bowen theory-based social assessment and its extension into fields of study and practice far beyond the original psychiatric context in which it was first formulated including social work, psychology, nursing, education, literary studies, pastoral care and counseling, sociology, business and management, leadership studies, distance learning, ecological science, and evolutionary biology - and providing ample evidence that Bowen theory has joined that elite class of theories that have enjoyed broad application to social phenomena while lending credibility to the claim that Bowen theory is one of the previous and current centuriesa (TM) most significant social-behavioral theories. More than a a oeresource manuala for Bowen theory enthusiasts, this book helps put a new great theory on the intellectual landscape.
Family Studies Review Yearbook: Volume 2
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Olson, David H. / Miller, Brent C. / Olson, PUBLISHER: Sage Publications (CA), The field of family studies draws from many academic and applied disciplines -- from sociology to social work, economics to family therapy. Keeping up with the literature published in this field would require more reading-time than anyone could possibly have. Family Studies Review Yearbooks are designed to help the researcher and professional keep up-to-date -- not only in their own areas of expertise, but in the general family studies field. Each Yearbook collects the most important recent articles in this field and combines them in one volume, thus simplifying the task of searching through the voluminous literature each year. Extensive introductory material by the editors on the thematic areas chosen further increases the utility of this book, not only as a handy source of reference for the professional, but also as an excellent teaching tool. 'The value of the book is that it has been assembled by knowledgeable persons, and from a variety of areas affecting family life. So here is a compilation of current articles that will alert readers to the numerous ramifications of the family' - Family Relations, October (of Volume 1)
Gatekeeper
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Clifford, S. Miriam, PUBLISHER: Xulon Press, "Profound, Provoking, Prophetic. Powerful. A must read " - B. Dwayne Hardin, Millennium Masters, Inc."A profound and thought-provoking masterpiece I can't wait to share it with my spiritual leaders." -Stacy Necessary, Editor"This book brings revelatory insight in the understanding of who we are as "Gatekeepers " - Dr. Brett D. WatsonGatekeeper, Writing the WRONGS right, was written with the intention of eliminating mind spam, allowing you to be brought to higher levels of becoming and being.Gatekeeper's purpose is to awaken, inspire and empower the multitude of nations to create lasting change and deep fulfillment in their lives You will learn to maximize emotional energy, and break negative habits and patterns to clear the root cause of self-sabotage. One's outlook on life is a very important aspect of healing and well-being. The bottom line is you cannot afford the luxury of fear, anxiety, anger, guilt or depression, no matter what the cause; it has only one purpose, to zap your overall health in mind, body and spirit. The existential calamity about purpose and spiritual meaning in life is a major root cause of many illnesses and diseases of the mind.If you are searching for a deeper understanding, this book can give you the deliverance in other areas that will bring you forward on your personal path to birth your destiny. The Divine Voice of Truth calls for those who are willing to bear witness to the truth of Christ. In order to become a masterpiece, you have to know the Master.Just as when a prisoner is set free, you too will recognize that you were that prisoner in your own mind.
Demographic Methods and Concepts
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Rowland, D. T. / Rowland, Don, PUBLISHER: Oxford University Press, USA, Demographic Methods and Concepts presents the methods most commonly needed to work with statistical materials on population at national, regional, and local levels. Unlike other texts in the field, this book uses clear non-technical language throughout to make demographic techniques accessible to a diverse array of students, regardless of their background in mathematics. All the demographic techniques most relevant to the work of demographers, geographers, sociologists, and planners are covered. Demographic concepts and practical strategies important in the interpretation of population statistics are also included. The book is ideal for undergraduate courses in sociology, geography, economics, and statistics. Features Provides techniques for analysis of population at regional, local, and national scales Includes chapters on migration and applied demography Integrates computer-based learning modules--the nature of demographic concepts and visual comparisons of demographic data--throughout the text Employs spreadsheet exercises using demographic statistics at the end of every chapter to help students develop relevant skills Student CD-ROM--Packaged With Every Book Fully integrated with the text, this CD-ROM contains Excel spreadsheet modules and applications facilitating demographic studies. Companion Website http://www.oup.co.uk/best.textbooks/geography/rowland
Resilience Across Contexts: Family, Work, Culture, and
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Taylor / Taylor, Ronald D. / Wang, Margaret C., PUBLISHER: Psychology Press, A number of societal risks pose serious challenges to families' well-being, many of which cut across divisions of class and race. These challenges include: changes in the labor market and economy; the increasing participation of mothers in the labor force; the changing nature of family structure and the composition of households; and the increase in the number of immigrant families. Key institutions in the lives of families, including places of employment and schools, can play a significant role in fostering families' capacity to adapt to the potential challenges they face. "Resilience Across Contexts: Family, Work, Culture, and Community" presents papers--written by leading scholars in varied disciplines including economics, developmental and educational psychology, education, and sociology--discussing factors that influence resilience development. The authors' research focuses on emerging issues that have significant implications for policy and practice in such areas as employment and new technologies; maternal employment and family development; family structure and family life; immigration, migration, acculturation, and education of children and youth; and social and human services delivery. The book's overall goal is to take stock of what is known from research and practice on some of the challenges facing children and families for policy development and improvement of practices.
Child Poverty in Canada
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Albanese, Patrizia, PUBLISHER: Oxford University Press, USA, On 24 November the Canadian House of Commons unanimously passed an all-party resolution to eliminate poverty among Canadian children by the year . Yet in a report by UNICEF placed Canada nineteenth in a ranking of the relative poverty of children in 26 of the world's richest countries (Greece, Hungary, and Poland all had a significantly better record). How can this be? This short and engaging book provides the latest research on child poverty by Canadian sociologist Patrizia Albanese. Looking at how many of Canada's children live in poverty, Albanese explores trends over time, across provinces, and among various groups. Her research reveals which children are most vulnerable and why, and describes the physical, behavioral, and educational impact of poverty. In clear terms Albanese presents some of the ways that poverty is measured in Canada and around the world, and considers the country in a global perspective to assess why it ranks so low on the international scale. Finally, she discusses how the events of have shaped the outcome of child poverty in Canada and evaluates the theories and possible solutions to the problem. Of interest to students of sociology, social work, and early childhood studies--and concerned readers alike--this important book provides a useful introduction to a topic of key importance.
Gender, Work, and Economy: Unpacking the Global Economy
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Gottfried, Heidi, PUBLISHER: Polity Press, This engaging new text uses a feminist lens to crack open the often hidden worlds of gender and work, addressing enduring questions about how structural inequalities are produced and why they persist. Making visible the social relationships that drive the global economy, the book explores how economic transformations not only change the way we work, but how we live our lives. The full extent of changing patterns of employment and the current financial crisis cannot be fully understood in the confines of narrow conceptions of work and economy. Feminists address this shortcoming by developing both a theory and a political movement aimed at unveiling the power relations inherent in old and new forms of work. By providing an analysis of gender, work, and the economy, Heidi Gottfried brings to light the many faces of power from the bedroom to the boardroom. A discussion of globalization is threaded throughout the book to uncover the impact of increasing global interconnections, and vivid case studies are included, from industrialized countries such as the US and the global cities of New York, London, and Tokyo, as well as from developing countries and the emerging global cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Dubai. This comprehensive analysis of gender and work in a global economy, incorporating sociology, geography, and political economy perspectives, will be a valued companion to students in gender studies and across the social sciences more generally.
New Capitalism?: The Transformation of Work
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Doogan, Kevin, PUBLISHER: Polity Press, In this stimulating and highly original work, Kevin Doogan looks at contemporary social transformation through the lens of the labour market. Major themes of the day -- globalization, technological change and the new economy, the pension and demographic timebombs, flexibility and traditional employment -- are all subject to critical scrutiny. We are often told that a new global economy has emerged which has transformed our lives. It is argued that the pace of technological change, the mobility of multinational capital and the privatization of the welfare state have combined to create a more precarious world. Companies are outsourcing, jobs are migrating to China and India, and a job for life is said to be a thing of the past. The so-called 'new capitalism' is said to be the result of these profound changes. Kevin Doogan takes issue with these widely-accepted ideas and subjects the transformation of work to detailed examination through a comprehensive analysis of developments in Europe and North America. He argues that precariousness is not a natural consequence of this fast-changing world; rather, current insecurities are manufactured, emanating from government policy and the greater exposure of the economy to market forces. New Capitalism? The Transformation of Work is sure to stimulate academic debate. Kevin Doogan's account will appeal not just to scholars, but also to upper-level students across the social sciences, including the sociology of work, industrial relations, globalization, economics, social policy and business studies
The Statistical Imagination: Elementary Statistics for the
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Ritchey, Ferris, PUBLISHER: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Langua, "The Statistical Imagination," a basic social science statistics text with illustrations and exercises for sociology, social work, political science, and criminal justice courses, teaches readers that statistics is not just a mathematical exercise; it is a way of analyzing and understanding the social world. Praised for a writing style that takes the anxiety out of statistics courses, the author explains basic statistical principles through a variety of engaging exercises, each designed to illuminate the unique theme of examining society both creatively and logically. In an effort to make the study of statistics relevant to students of the social sciences, the author encourages readers to interpret the results of calculations in the context of more substantive social issues, while continuing to value precise and accurate research. Ritchey begins by introducing students to the essentials of learning statistics; fractions, proportions, percentages, standard deviation, sampling error and sampling distribution, along with other math hurdles, are clearly explained to fill in any math gaps students may bring to the classroom. Treating statistics as a skill learned best by doing, the author supplies a range of student-friendly questions and exercises to both demystify the calculation process, and to encourage the kind of proportional thinking needed to master the subject. In addition to pencil-and-paper exercises, "The Statistical Imagination" includes computer-based assignments for use with the free Student Version SPSS 9.0 CD-ROM that accompanies each new copy of the book.
Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Bagehot, Walter / Bernstein, Peter L., PUBLISHER: John Wiley & Sons, Lombard Street began as a series of articles the esteemed essayist and financial advisor, Walter Bagehot had written for The Economist during the s. First published in book form in , it is a vivid description of the money market that seamlessly brings together theoretical analyses, historical anecdotes, and incisive commentary on sociology, politics, and the Street's various personalities. Sharing his invaluable insights and unique observations, Bagehot touches on everything from the mechanics of deposit banking within a fractional reserve system to the nature of foreign deposits in Britain. Along with a clear explanation of why economic growth and rising living standards are dependent upon a well-managed financial system, he offers straightforward guidelines for the function of lender-of-last resort; a penetrating look at the consequences of uncontrolled credit and speculation; and an in-depth examination of the exchequer in the money market that includes a stimulating analysis of the interaction between the government's fiscal operations and the functioning of the Bank of England, the commercial banks, and the money market. Perhaps most importantly, Lombard Street features Bagehot's prescription for crisis management, which after nearly 150 years, remains the formula of choice for containing-and curtailing-financial crises. Filled with descriptions of Lombard Street that still ring true today, this jewel of a book has withstood the test of time to become a true investment classic-one that will appeal as much to the readers of today as it did to those of years ago.
Contemporary German Youth and Their Elders: A Generational
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Watts, Meredith W. / Fischer, Arthur / Fuchs, Werner, PUBLISHER: Praeger, Systematic research on the changing experience and social and political characteristics of German youth has been carried out in the Federal Republic of Germany on an ongoing basis since the early s. Until now, however, the results of these long-term studies have not been made available in English. Six volumes of this research--including new analyses prepared especially for this book--are distilled in the present work, which offers a comprehensive and focused portrait of German youth of succeeding postwar generations from to the present. Following an introductory survey of the scope and themes addressed in the study, the authors highlight the contrasting experiences of youth of the s and those who came of age soon after the end of World War II. They examine the fundamental constituents of youth as a developmental period, with particular reference to changes in the recent era. Attitudinal scales are developed and applied to assessments of variations in social and political orientation among generations and between distinct subgroups of contemporary youth. Differences between young women in the early postwar period and the "alternative era" of the s and s are explored. Focusing on "views of the future," the final chapter looks at the diversity of lifestyles that has become characteristic of youth over the last decade and at the increasing differentiation between generations. Providng a wealth of new material on an important body of research, this book makes a substantial contribution to the study of youth in advanced industrialized nations. An appropriate resource for courses or studies in various disciplines in sociology, geography, political science, and socialhistory.
Story Writing in a Nursing Home
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: John, Martha Tyler / John Edd, Martha A., PUBLISHER: Routledge, Based on the belief that older people have good stories to tell, Story Writing in a Nursing Home was developed as part of a volunteer teaching service to a nursing home. Graduate students who were learning to teach this special population conducted story writing activities with older adults and found that even the frail elderly who are confined to nursing centers provided a unique perspective about events that emphasize the lasting verities in life. The idea of a patchwork was derived from one of the lessons taught and was suggested by one of the older participants who said, "We're sort of like a patchwork quilt." The information, memories, and humor the elderly see in situations is worth recording. In addition, Story Writing in a Nursing Home emphasizes the way to develop the mental stimulation that is so important for physical well being. This sensitive and insightful book provides a lesson plan outline and the type of content that was used as an example. It also provides a running commentary in the form of a diary that tells how to begin a teaching program for nursing center residents. Students and professionals interested in implementing a similar program can use these ideas for planning and for organizing the use of student help to better serve the population.Fascinating reading, this book includes stories by frail elderly people, lesson plans, tips on working with administrators in a nursing center, and reasons for providing instruction. Teachers, volunteers, librarians, gerontology/sociology students, and others concerned with the well-being of the elderly will refer often to this instructive volume.
Uses and Abuses of Political Power
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Owusu, Maxwell, PUBLISHER: Ghana University Press, The first edition of this book, published in , was widely acclaimed as the best account of grassroots politics to have emerged from Africa. One of its unique features is the extent to which the author has effectively integrated historical and anthropological issues into a political frame. The book is divided into three parts: the first looks retrospectively at the first edition and its relevance to Ghana's past, present and future; the second part considers the importance of comparative political studies to the development and fostering of the growth of an informed and knowledgeable political public and opinion leadership, covering history, culture and politics; and the third part presents an intellectual overview of Ghanaian political change, from Nkrumah to the peaceful transfer of power from the National Democratic Congress government to the New Patriotic Party at the start of the new millennium. Maxwell Owusu is a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University Michigan. Educated at the London School of Economics, Harvard University, and the University of Chicago, he has taught at the University of Ghana, Legon. He was a consulting member of the Constitutional Experts Committee which drafted the constitution proposals. He is the author of numerous scholarly publications, the recipient of a US Institute of Peace Grant, and on the board of the International Union of Anthropoligical and Ethnological Sciences. Praise for the first edition:."the best available account of grassroots politics to have emerged from Africa." Political Science Quarterly."this fine and vivic piece of scholarship comes to blow away fhe cobwebs from Ghanaian political studies." AmericanPolitical Science Review "The author demonstrates an enviable ability to present his diverse material in a readily comprehensive framework and handles his written sources as deftly as his own participant observation." American Journal of Sociology
Managing Interpersonal Conflict
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Donohue, William A. / Kolt, Robert, PUBLISHER: Sage Publications (CA), Managing Interpersonal Conflict helps readers better understand and ultimately manage their routine interpersonal conflicts. Specifically, the book walks readers through the conflict process--from the initial decision of whether or not to confront differences to how to plan the actual confrontation. Donohue deals extensively with the negotiation process and, if negotiation proves unsuccessful, with third-party dispute resolution. The book emphasizes keeping conflicts under control and keeping focused on the issues. The key to managing conflict is to address differences collaboratively so parties can create better solutions and, ultimately, strengthen their relationships. Managing Interpersonal Conflict prepares and encourages the reader to stop avoiding their conflicts and start confronting them. Designed for college and university undergraduates, Donohue's text and the Interpersonal Commtext series will also interest students and professionals in management studies, sociology, organization studies, and social psychology. "They provide a very useful look at a somewhat broader than usual range of conflict issues.... Where the decision is to confront, it offers useful approaches to allowing face saving and to issue structuring that will allow the conflict, in many cases, to be readily resolved.... The second section... provides a useful and easily worked with framework for negotiating, and deals most effectively with the use of and responses to the exercise of power in the negotiation context.... The book is exceptionally readable and effective in its presentation of approaches to conflict. While it is not a traditional academic text, periodic references to the conflictliterature are used to allow the reader to examine the issues presented in more depth. The book will serve as an outstanding text for a training program in conflict management and can also be used by an individual effectively to learn these techniques." --The Alternative Newsletter
Discourse in Educational and Social Research
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Maclure, Margaret / Maclure, Maggie / Maclure Maggie, PUBLISHER: Open University Press, WINNER: AESA Critics' Choice Award ""With wonderful clarity Maggie MacLure shows how deconstructionism opens new avenues of critical inquiry and understanding for educational researchers. In exposing the hidden, ideological side of terms like clarity, certainty, mastery, and relevance she allows us to see schooling and educational policy in new ways. In so doing she allows us to imagine classrooms as liberating, pedagogical places, as places where new forms of desire, knowledge, and learning take place" Norman K. Denzin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign" This book is both practical and provocative. It demonstrates the insights and the challenges of a discourse-based orientation to educational and social research. Drawing on a variety of educational and social science 'texts' - including press articles, life history interviews, parent-teacher consultations, policy debates and ethnographies - the author shows how knowledge, power, identities and realities are constructed and problematised in discourse. The book also deals with research itself as discursive practice, examining the texts that qualitative researchers produce and consume: reports, monographs, journal articles. Practical examples are included for researchers and graduate students wishing to 'interrogate' their own data from a discourse perspective. The author develops a critical awareness of the researcher's role as writer/reader of texts. The book makes the case for 'discursive literacy' in research. While its primary allegiances are to poststructuralism and deconstruction, it draws from a wide range of disciplines, including interaction sociology, feminist ethnography, literary theory, critical discourse analysis and art history. What holds the book together is the persistent question: how to do educational research and social research within a 'crisis of representation' that has unsettled the relationship between words and worlds?
Culture and the Changing Environment: Uncertainty,
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Casimir, Michael J., PUBLISHER: Berghahn Books, "This remarkable anthology of 13 essays is a cross-cultural study on ecological anthropology, which examines the cultural construction of nature, human evaluation of environmental risks, and human action to mitigate such risks. The anthology persuasively critiques the privileging of Western rationality over culture-specific perspectives of environmental change... It] stands alone for the geographical sweep of its contributions - from Europe, Asia, and Africa - and its disciplinary eclecticism, which draws deeply on anthropology, geography, psychology, ethnography, ethnology, and sociology... Essential." Choice Today human ecology has split into many different sub-disciplines such as historical ecology, political ecology or the New Ecological Anthropology. The latter in particular has criticised the predominance of the Western view on different ecosystems, arguing that culture-specific world views and human-environment interactions have been largely neglected. However, these different perspectives only tackle specific facets of a local and global hyper-complex reality. In bringing together a variety of views and theoretical approaches, these especially commissioned essays prove that an interdisciplinary collaboration and understanding of the extreme complexity of the human-environment interface(s) is possible. Michael J. Casimir is Professor of Cultural Anthropology at the University of Cologne. He has conducted prolonged fieldwork on the ecology, economy, environmental management and nutritional and socialisation patterns among pastoral nomads in west Afghanistan and Kashmir. Together with Aparna Rao he was chairperson of the Commission on Nomadic Peoples of the International Union of Ethnological and Anthropological Sciences (), and was until one of the editors of Nomadic Peoples (Berghahn), the official journal of the Commission. His major publications include Flocks and Food. A Biocultural Approach to the Study of Pastoral Foodways (); Mobility and Territoriality (ed. ); Nomadism in South Asia (ed. ). Acquista Ora
Remaining and Becoming
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Roberts, Shelley, PUBLISHER: Routledge, "Remaining and Becoming: Cultural Crosscurrents in an Hispano School" deals with the politics of identity and the concept of boundaries during a time of rapid change. It investigates how the role of schooling for Hispanos in the Norteno School District (a pseudonym) in Northern New Mexico--a public school district, not fully consolidated until --has changed significantly over the past three generations. Today, the Hispanos, a minority in the outside world but a majority in their own, are debating how the functions of the school should respond to the changes resulting from the coming of public education to their region. But the contemporary story of education in Norteno has much deeper roots in the political, religious, and cultural history of Northern New Mexico--a region where, over a period of several centuries, Spain, Mexico, and the United States each have claimed sovereignty, with differing goals for and attitudes about the welfare of the people. This study is an analysis of the ambiguity of education, the losses and gains that are its consequences, the lingering doubts about the past, and the questions about what future education can and should serve. It is about asking: Is what the students are learning worth as much as what they are forgetting? How does schooling affect the evolving process of asserting, renegotiating, and defending an Hispano identity? By exploring historical factors and ideologies of a particular school within a particular community, Roberts seeks to understand community expectations for the school as a fitting place for its children. The goal is not to generalize from the particular to the universal, but to join others in suggesting that we move away from discussing students in a generic sense and focus instead on looking at them in relation to the community in which they live. The fascinating and largely unknown story this book tells will be of interest to educators, researchers, and students across a range of fields, including sociology of education, educational anthropology, multicultural education, ethnic studies, Chicano studies, and qualitative research in education.
Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Latour, Bruno, PUBLISHER: Oxford University Press, USA, Reassembling the Social is a fundamental challenge from one of the world's leading social theorists to how we understand society and the 'social'. Bruno Latour's contention is that the word 'social' as used by Social Scientists has become laden with assumptions to the point where it has become a misnomer. When the adjective is applied to a phenomenon, it is used to indicate a stabilized state of affairs, a bundle of ties that in due course may be used to account for another phenomenon. Latour also finds the word used as if it described a type of material, in a comparable way to an adjective such as 'wooden' or 'steely'. Rather than simply indicating what is already assembled together, it is now used in a way that makes assumptions about the nature of what is assembled. It has become a word that designates two distinct things: a process of assembling: and a type of material, distinct from others. Latour shows why "the social" cannot be thought of as a kind of material or domain, and disputes attempts to provide a "social explanation" of other states of affairs. While these attempts have been productive (and probably necessary) in the past, the very success of the social sciences mean that they are largely no longer so. At the present stage it is no longer possible to inspect the precise constituents entering the social domain. Latour returns to the original meaning of "the social" to redefine the notion and allow it to trace connections again. It will then be possible to resume the traditional goal of the social sciences, but using more refined tools. Drawing on his extensive work examining the "assemblages" of nature, Latour finds it necessary to scrutinize thoroughly the exact content of what is assembled under the umbrella of Society. This approach, a "sociology of associations" has become known as Actor-Network-Theory, and this book is an essential introduction both for those seeking to understand Actor-Network-Theory, or the ideas of one of its most influential proponents.