As the field of sexuality studies has become a growth area in academia and classes on sexuality studies are incorporated into various disciplines, the expanding book market has been filled with specialist oriented texts which are often theoretically focused and contain too many summaries for an undergraduate audience. Addressing this imbalance, ...
Contested Knowledge has established itself as a leading text that brings social theory into the present day by providing the most up-to-date perspectives on social theory by one of the most important thinkers of our time, Steven Seidman. The book tracks the work of the major figures in the field, from the classical sociologists - Durkheim, Marx, ...
Though attitudes toward sexuality have changed greatly over the past two centuries, it is still taken for granted that a distinction can be made between natural and unnatural manifestations of sexuality.
Steven Seidman offers the first sustained account of the post-closeted gay world. Since the Stonewall rebellions, lesbian and gay life has been understood in terms of 'being in' or 'coming out' of the closet. Seidman argues that a new configuration of gay life is taking shape, and that the closet is disappearing.
Distant Suffering examines the moral and political implications for a spectator of the distant suffering of others as presented through the media. What are the morally acceptable responses to the sight of suffering on television, for example, when the viewer cannot act directly to affect the circumstances in which the suffering takes place? Luc ...
Embattled Eros is a sophisticated analysis of the major dynamics and patterns of the contemporary debate on sexuality. Steven Seidman shows that at the root of the major conflicts within this contoversial field, are two sexual ideologies, the libertarian and the romanticist. Examining the strengths and limits of each ideology, he puts forward ...
American Cultural Sociology presents a serious challenge to British Cultural Studies and European grand theory alike. This exciting volume brings together sixteen seminal papers by leading figures in what is emerging as an important intellectual tradition. It places them in the context of related work in Sociology and other disciplines, exploring ...
Difference Troubles examines the implications for social theory and sexual politics of taking difference seriously. It explores the trouble difference makes not only for the social sciences, but also for the people - feminists, queer theorists, postmodernists - who champion difference. Seidman asks how social thinkers should conceptualize ...
Identity Without Selfhood proposes an original conception of identity and subjectivity in the context of recent post-structuralist and queer debates. The author argues that efforts to analyse and even 'deconstruct' identity and selfhood still rely on certain core Western techniques of identity such as individuality, boundedness, autonomy, self ...
This is a book about the role of culture in social change and the Spanish transition to democracy after Franco. Laura Desfor Edles takes a distinctively culturalist approach to the 'strategy of consensus' deployed by the Spanish elite and uses systematic textual interpretation (with a particular focus on Spanish newspapers) to show how a new ...
Sarah Corse's analysis of nearly two hundred American and Canadian novels offers a new theory of national literatures. Demonstrating that national canon formation occurs in tandem with nation-building, and that canonical novels play a symbolic role in this, Sarah Corse accounts for cross-national literary differences, addresses issues of mediation ...
Since the early nineteenth century, African-Americans have turned to black newspapers to monitor the mainstream media and to develop alternative interpretations of public events. Ronald Jacobs tells the stories of these newspapers, showing how they increased black visibility within white civil society and helped to form separate black public ...
This original and engaging book investigates American television viewing habits as a distinct cultural form. Based on an empirical study of the day-to-day use of television by working people, it develops a unique theoretical approach integrating cultural sociology, post modernism and the literature of media effects to explore the way in which ...
As the field of sexuality studies has become a growth area in academia and classes on sexuality studies are incorporated into various disciplines, the expanding book market has been filled with specialist oriented texts which are often theoretically focused and contain too many summaries for an undergraduate audience. Addressing this imbalance, ...
A treatise on how images of homosexuality--"queer signifiers" ranging from Greece to Stonewall--have come to assume the role of empowering forces in the gay community.
In this thought-provoking study, Ali Mirsepassi explores the concept of modernity, exposing the Eurocentric prejudices and hostility to non-Western culture that have characterized its development. Focusing on the Iranian experience of modernity, he charts its political and intellectual history and develops a new interpretation of Islamic ...
American sociology is in the midst of a cultural turn. Where sociologists once spurned culture, today they embrace and explore it, seeking to understand the construction of social forms and the way culture matters. Problems of meaning, discourse, aesthetics, value, textuality, form and narrativity, topics traditionally within the humanists' ...
What challenges are presented by the claim that diversity should be celebrated? How should equality politics respond to controversial constituencies, such as smokers and sports hunters, when they position themselves as disadvantaged? Challenging Diversity brings a new and original approach to key issues facing social, political and cultural theory ...
The Postmodern Turn gathers together some of the most important statements of the postmodern approach to human studies. Addressing the postmodern social theory that emphasizes the social role of knowledge, this book abandons the disciplinary boundaries separating the sciences and the humanities. Contributors include well-known theorists in the ...
The Unfinished Revolution compares the post-Second World War histories of the American and British gay and lesbian movements with an eye toward understanding how distinct political institutional environments affect the development, strategies, goals, and outcomes of a social movement. Stephen M. Engel utilizes an electic mix of source materials ...
From the classical sociologists (Durkheim, Marx, Weber) to contemporary social theories and movements (including feminism, poststructuralism, African-American thought, and Queer Theory), Steven Seidman presents a compelling new approach to the tradition of sociological theory and its established canon.The Second Edition includes new sections on ...
Fundamentalism, Sectarianism, and Revolution is a major comparative analysis of fundamentalist movements in cultural and political context, with an emphasis on the contemporary scene. Leading sociologist S. N. Eisenstadt examines the meaning of the global rise of fundamentalism as one very forceful contemporary response to tensions in modernity ...
This book challenges the myth that Americans' emphasis on personal fulfilment necessarily weakens commitment to the common good. Drawing on extensive participant-observation with a variety of environmentalist groups, Paul Lichterman argues that individualism sometimes enhances public, political commitment and that a shared respect for individual ...
The last decade has seen a dramatic shift in the nature of social theory as it is practised and as it is taught within the social sciences. The disciplinary divisions which used to divide the social sciences from the humanities are breaking down and the stronger engagement of social theory with social change brings into debate issues of justice, ...
The Playing Self is a groundbreaking new work from influential cultural sociologist and clinical psychologist Alberto Melucci, best known for his work on social movements and collective identities. In this book, he delves deeper into questions about the self as both a psychological and socio-cultural entity, particularly in the context of a ...
We guarantee every item's condition, as described on Alibris. If you are not satisfied that an item is as described, return your purchase for a refund.