Blackwell, 2007. — 362 pages.
"Definitions are written with the general reader in mind and address discovery, typology, dating, conservation, and decoration. . This is a useful handbook for students and other lay readers interested in archaeology." (Library Journal)
"The nearly 3,000 entries are written in a style suitable for both specialists and general readers. They clarify...
Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008. 183 pages.
Social commentators have long asked whether racial categories should be conserved or eliminated from our practices, discourse, institutions, and perhaps even private thoughts. In A Theory of Race, Joshua Glasgow argues that this set of choices unnecessarily presents us with too few options.
Using both traditional philosophical tools...
Routledge, 1995. 291 pages.
This important new collection considers Jurgen Habermas's discourse theory from a variety of feminist vantage points. Feminist scholars have been drawn to Habermas's work because it reflects a tradition of emancipatory political thinking rooted in the Enlightenment and engages with the normative aims of emancipatory social movements. The essays in...
Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008. 257 pages.
This third edition builds on the international success of previous editions, offering an easy access critical introduction to social science theories of identity, for advanced undergraduates and postgraduates. All of the previous chapters have been updated and extra material has been added where relevant, for example, on...
Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009. 212 pages. The concept of gender continues to be a central issue in literary and cultural studies, with a significance that crosses disciplinary boundaries and provokes lively debate. In this fully revised and updated second edition, David Glover and Cora Kaplan offer a lucid and illuminating introduction to ’gender’ and its implications,...
Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006. — 323 p. — (International Library of Sociology).
Coping in an era of information flows, of virtual relationships and breakneck change poses challenges to one and all.
In Theories of the Information Society Frank Webster makes sense of the information explosion, taking a sceptical look at what thinkers mean when they refer to the 'Information...
Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007. 209 pages.
This uniquely engaging introduction to Jean Baudrillard’s controversial writings covers his entire career focusing on Baudrillard’s central, but little understood, notion of symbolic exchange. Through the clarification of this key term a very different Baudrillard emerges: not the nihilistic postmodernist and enemy of Marxism and...
Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006. 156 pages.
Decades after his death, the figure of Erving Goffman (1922–82) continues to fascinate. Perhaps the best-known sociologist of the second half of the twentieth century, Goffman was an unquestionably significant thinker whose reputation extended well beyond his parent discipline.
A host of concepts irrevocably linked to Goffman's name...
Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. 185 pages.
This timely book provides a concise but critical introduction to the work of a sociological phenomenon. After introducing the man, his major influences, and his special way of "thinking sociologically", Blackshaw traces the development of Bauman's project by identifying and explaining the two major shifts of emphasis in his work-the...
Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006. 247 pages.
Fifty Key Sociologists: The Contemporary Theorists covers the life, work, ideas and impact of some of the most important thinkers in this discipline.
Concentrating on figures writing predominantly in the second half of the twentieth century, such as
Louis Althusser, Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard, Zygmunt Bauman, Simone de...
Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007. 460 pages. This revised second edition from our bestselling Key Guides includes brand new entries on some of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth- and twenty-first century: Bachelard, Bakhtin, Mauss, Heidegger, Husserl, Levinas, Merleau-Ponty, Benveniste, Bourdieu, Chomsky, Dumézil, Genette, Jakobson, Lacan, Derrida, Foucault,...
Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. 138 pages.
To those who see Freud solely as a psychologist and a psychotherapist it may be surprising to find him discussed as a major contributor to sociology. Bocock demonstrates Freud's central relevance to sociological discussions about gender, sexuality, the family, religion, ideology and symbolism, political authority, and language. This...
London: Routledge, 2002. — 136 p. — (Key Sociologists). — ISBN-10 0415285364; ISBN-13 978-0415285360 Karl Marx probably had more influence on the political course of the last century than any other social thinker. There are many different kinds of Marxism, and the Twentieth Century saw two huge Marxist states in total opposition to one another. In the West, Marxism has never...
Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004. 196 pages.
Until recently little of Simmel's work was available in translation and certain key texts were unknown outside Germany. David Frisby, the eminent Simmel scholar, provides not only an introduction to the major sociological writings of this important figure, but also an argument for a reconsideration of his work. The author outlines...
Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004. 167 pages.
In investigating the major works of Michel Foucault, Barry Smart focuses on the analysis of the relations of power and knowledge and addresses controversial issues concerning the state and resistance to power. This detailed discussion of the contribution of Foucault's work to social analysis and research is sure to promote fresh...
Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. 162 pages.
This book examines Durkheim's considerable achievements and situates them in their social and intellectual contexts, with a concise account of the major elements of Durkheim's sociology. The book includes a critical commentary on the four main studies which exemplify Durkheim's contribution to sociology: The Division of Labour in...
Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. 216 pages.
Transgression is truly a key idea for our time. Society is created by constraint and boundaries, but as our culture is increasingly subject to uncertainty and flux we find it more and more difficult to determine where those boundaries lie.
In this fast moving study, Chris Jenks ranges widely over the history of ideas, the major...
Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004. 174 pages.
The term ‘social capital’ is a way of defining the intangible resources of community, shared values and trust upon which we draw in daily life. It has achieved considerable international currency across the social sciences through the very different work of Pierre Bourdieu in France and James Coleman and Robert Putnam in the United...
Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006. 233 pages.
An essential A-Z guide to the full range of sociological thought, Sociology: The Key Concepts is an important addition to the established and successful Key Concepts series.
Fully cross-referenced with an extensive glossary, this accessible text also includes:
alphabetical listings of key concepts for ease of use; suggestions for...
Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002. 238 pages.
This is the first collection of essays to be published on Durkheim's masterpiece The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. It represents the work of the most important international Durkheim scholars from the fields of anthropology, philosophy and sociology. The essays focus on key topics including:
the method Durkheim adopted in his...
Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2001. 625 pages.
The Cultural Studies Reader is the ideal introduction for students. A revised introduction explaining the history and key concerns of cultural studies brings together important articles by leading thinkers to provide an essential guide to the development, key issues and future directions of cultural studies.
The second edition...
Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. — 345 p. — (Philosophical Issues in Science).
When did psychology become a distinct discipline? What links the Continental and Analytic traditions in philosophy? Both these questions are answered by this extraordinary account of psychologism in Germany at the turn of the century.
Martin Kusch explores the origins of psychologism through the...
Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. 291 pages.
The concept of a social contract has been central to political thought since the seventeenth century. Contract theory has been used to justify political authority, to account for the origins of the state, and to provide foundations for moral values and the creation of a just society.In The Social Contract from Hobbes to Rawls, leading...
Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2001. 199 pages.
Daniel Bell is perhaps the most famous sociologist of his generation. He has been hailed as the prophet of the emergence of a new society, the postindustrial society, and as one of the leading conservative critics of contemporary culture.
In this invaluable introduction, Malcolm Waters presents Bell's arguments clearly and fairly, as...
Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. 309 pages.
Learning how to analyze qualitative data by computer can be fun. That is one assumption underpinning this introduction to qualitative analysis, which takes account of how computing techniques have enhanced and transformed the field. The author provides a practical discussion of the main procedures for analyzing qualitative data by...
Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2001. 129 pages.
Anthony Cohen makes a distinct break with earlier approaches to the study of community, which treated the subject in largely structural terms. His view is interpretive and experiential, seeing the community as a cultural field with a complex of symbols whose meanings vary among its members. He delineates a concept applicable to local...
Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. 453 pages.
Unlike most other sociology or social science dictionaries, in this translation of the Critical Dictionary of Sociology, taken from the second French edition of the Dictionary and edited by the English sociologist Peter Hamilton, the critical value of this distinctive work is at last made available for a wider audience.
Each entry...
Routledge, 1999. 222 pages.
Wittgenstein is widely considered to be amongst the greatest of modern philosophers. He both revolutionised the subject of philosophy, and made a profound impact on many disciplines across the spectrum of the humanities and the social sciences. In this book, Nigel Pleasants examines Wittgenstein's influence on, and implications for, contemporary...
Stanford University Press, 1995. 304 pages.
Politics, Sociology, And Social Theory: Encounters With Classical And Contemporary Social Theory consists of a series of critical engagements with major figures in classical and present-day social and political thought. It offers not only a challenging critique of major traditions of social and political analysis but also unique...
Polity Press, 1986. 402 pages.
Anthony Giddens has been in the forefront of developments in social theory for the past decade. In The Constitution of Society he outlines the distinctive position he has evolved during that period and offers a full statement of a major new perspective in social thought, a synthesis and elaboration of ideas touched on in previous works but...
Polity Press, 1996. 186 pages.
In this major theoretical statement, the author offers a new and provoctive interpretation of institutional transformations associated with modernity. What is modernity? The author suggests, As a first approximation, let us simply say the following: ‘modernity’ refers to modes of social life or organization which emerged in Europe from about the...
Routledge; Reprint edition, 2008. 421 pages.
First published in 1955, "The Sane Society" is widely recognized as being one of the most powerful and eloquent explorations of the human condition in modern society. Fromm argues that modern society subjects humans to continuous disenchantment from the world which they created. People in modern society are estranged from other people,...
Taylor & Francis, 2005. 216 pages.
Robert Van Krieken's book provides a concise, comprehensive guide which locates Elias' work clearly within the development of sociology and also against the background of current debates. Between the 1930s and the 1980s he developed a unique approach to social theory which is now beginning to take root in contemporary social research and...
Continuum, New York London, 2001. 258 pages. The Society of Individuals stands as testimony to the coherence of Norbert Elias's viewpoint over a long and distinguished career. Consisting of three interrelated essays, the first written in 1939, the second between 1940 and 1950, and the third in 1987, this book addresses the central question: what is the relation of the plurality...
Continuum, New York London2001. 83 pages.
Originally published in 1985, this is a short meditation by a great old man on people relating to other people who are dying, and the need for all of us to open up.
Contents: The Loneliness of the Dying; Postscript Ageing and Dying: Some Sociological Problems; Index.
The main text was first published in German in 1982. The postscript...
Oxford University Press, 1946. 516 pages. This book has been translated and edited by H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills with an introduction to the work of the greatest German sociologist and a key figure in the development of present-day sociological thought. In this book Weber argues that sociology is most clearly understood through interpretations of social stratifications and...
Taylor and Francis Group, 2005. 314 pages. "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" is considered a founding text in economic capitalism, economic sociology and sociology in general. In the book, Weber wrote that capitalism in Europe evolved when the Protestant ethic influenced large numbers of people to engage in work in the secular world, developing their own...
Columbia University Press, 2006. 336 pages.
In such works as Gender Trouble and Bodies That Matter Judith Butler broke new ground in understanding the construction and performance of identities. While Butler's writings have been crucial and often controversial in the development of feminist and queer theory, Bodily Citations is the first anthology centered on applying her...
Nordic Africa Institute, August 2004. — 276 pages. The volume brings together papers by African and Nordic /Scandinavian gender scholars and anthropologists in an attempt to investigate and critically discuss existing lines of thinking about sexuality in Africa, while at the same time creating space for alternative approaches. Issues of colonial and contemporary discourses on...
Routledge, 2008. 244 pages. Judith Butler has been arguably the most important gender theorist of the past twenty years. This edited volume draws leading international political theorists into dialogue with her political theory. Each chapter is written by an acclaimed political theorist and concentrates on a particular aspect of Butler's work. The book is divided into five...
Routledge, 2002. 192 pages.
Since the publication of Gender Trouble in 1990, Judith Butler has revolutionised our understanding of identities and the ways in which they are constructed. This volume examines her critical thought through key texts, touching upon such issues as: The subject; Gender; Sex; Language; The Psyche.
With clear discussions of the context and impact of...
Re.press Melbourne, 2008. 288 pages.
Set against the collapse of social theory into a theory of ideological discourse, Geoff Boucher sets to work a rigorous mapping of the contemporary field, targeting the relativist implications of this new form of philosophical idealism. Offering a detailed and immanent critique Boucher concentrates his critical attention on the 'postmarxism'...
Seagull Books, 2007. 126 pages.
This spirited and engaging conversation between two of America’s foremost and influential cultural critics and international theorists of the last decade explores what both Enlightenment and contemporary philosophers have to say about the idea of the nation-state, who exercises power in today’s world, whether there is such a thing as a right to...
Routledge, 2004. 284 pages.
Undoing Gender constitutes Judith Butler's recent reflections on gender and sexuality, focusing on new kinship, psychoanalysis and the incest taboo, transgender, intersex, diagnostic categories, social violence, and the tasks of social transformation. In terms that draw from feminist and queer theory, Butler considers the norms that govern-and fail...
Stanford University Press; 1 edition (May 1, 1997). 228 pages.
As a form of power, subjection is paradoxical. To be dominated by a power external to oneself is a familiar and agonizing form power takes. To find, however, that what one is, one's very formation as a subject, is dependent upon that very power is quite another. If, following Foucault, we understand power as forming...
Verso, 2006. 168 pages.
In her most impassioned and personal book to date, Judith Butler responds in this profound appraisal of post-9/11 America to the current US policies to wage perpetual war, and calls for a deeper understanding of how mourning and violence might instead inspire solidarity and a quest for global justice.
It’s clear that its author is still interested in...
University of California Press, 2009. 159 pages.
In this volume, four leading thinkers of our times confront the paradoxes and dilemmas attending the supposed stand-off between Islam and liberal democratic values. Taking the controversial Danish cartoons of Mohammad as a point of departure, Talal Asad, Wendy Brown, Judith Butler, and Saba Mahmood inquire into the evaluative...
Fordham University Press, 2005. 160 pages.
What does it mean to lead a moral life?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 and grounded in a new sense of the human subject.Butler takes as her starting point one's ability to answer the questions What...
Verso, 2009. 193 pages.
In Frames of War, Judith Butler explores the media’s portrayal of state violence, a process integral to the way in which the West wages modern war. This portrayal has saturated our understanding of human life, and has led to the exploitation and abandonment of whole peoples, who are cast as existential threats rather than as living populations in need of...
London: Routledge, 2006. — 272 p. — ISBN-10 9780415389556; ISBN-13 978-0415389556. One of the most talked-about scholarly works of the past fifty years, Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble is as celebrated as it is controversial. Arguing that traditional feminism is wrong to look to a natural, 'essential' notion of the female, or indeed of sex or gender, Butler starts by questioning...