- Table View
- List View
The Social Construction of Disease: From Scrapie to Prion (Routledge Studies in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine #Vol. 25)
by Kiheung KimA historical exploration of scientific disputes on the causation of so-called ‘prion diseases’, this fascinating book covers diseases including Scrapie, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). Firstly tracing the twentieth-century history of disease research and biomedicine, the text then focuses on the relations between scientific practice and wider social transformations, before finally building upon the sociologically informed methodological framework. Incisive and thought-provoking, The Social Construction of Disease provides a valuable contribution to that well-established tradition of social history of science, which refers primarily to the theoretical works of the sociology of scientific knowledge.
The Social Construction of Management: Texts And Identities (Routledge Studies in Management, Organizations and Society)
by Nancy HardingWhat is management and how do the people who become managers take on a managerial identity?How does text inform the manager's identity?From cultural studies we understand that the relationship between text and reader is not passive but that each one works upon the other, and that text is active in forming the identity of the reader. This books is the first to analyse how many management textbooks construct their readers. It analyses management textbooks published since the 1950s and shows they construct a world in which chaos is kept at bay only by strong management, and in which strong management is based upon the rationality of modernity. This book exposes and analyses such claims-to-truths, and theorizes their arguments using the work of Butler and Foucault, the sociology of scientific knowledge, critical legal studies, art history and queer theory. By revealing a postmodern turn in management textbooks, The Social Construction of Management is both a critical and empirical study that explores the constitution of managerial identities in the age of mass education in management. An exciting contribution to the growing body of knowledge within critical management studies, this book challenges the way we think about organizations and their management, and about management education as a whole. This is thought provoking reading for anyone studying management, or working in the managerial organization.
The Social Construction of Reality
by Peter L. Berger Thomas LuckmannThe present volume is intended as a systematic, theoretical treatise in the sociology of knowledge.
The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge
by Peter L. Berger Thomas LuckmannA watershed event in the field of sociology, this text introduced &“a major breakthrough in the sociology of knowledge and sociological theory generally&” (George Simpson, American Sociological Review). In this seminal book, Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann examine how knowledge forms and how it is preserved and altered within a society. Unlike earlier theorists and philosophers, Berger and Luckmann go beyond intellectual history and focus on commonsense, everyday knowledge—the proverbs, morals, values, and beliefs shared among ordinary people. When first published in 1966, this systematic, theoretical treatise introduced the term social construction,effectively creating a new thought and transforming Western philosophy.
The Social Construction of Sexuality (Third Edition)
by Steven SeidmanIn The Social Construction of Sexuality, Steven Seidman investigates the political and social consequences of privileging certain sexual practices and identities while stigmatizing others. Addressing a range of topics from gay and lesbian identities to sex work, Seidman delves into issues of social control that inform popular beliefs and moral standards.
The Social Construction of the US Academic Elite: A Mixed Methods Study of Two Disciplines (Routledge Advances in Sociology)
by Stephanie BeyerThis book explores the stark stratification and struggles over classifications in US academia from a relational perspective, looking beyond material differences and tracing its roots to symbolic power relations. Based on a mixed methods study drawing on both interview and quantitative data, it offers an account of the workings of academia, shedding light on the structures that permit elite departments to define categories and impose legitimate scientific definitions, to which the non-elite must adhere. With a focus on two scientific disciplines, the author shows how the translation of objective structures into mental structures establishes a relationship of power with regard to the definition of scientific categories, thus determining access to resources and opportunities to participate and move within the academic field. A study of the unequal intrusion of economic logics into the academic domain, this volume will appeal to scholars, policy makers and institutional leaders with interests in higher education, inequality within science, academic careers, power relationships and competition in the academy.
Social Constructionism
by Vivien BurrNow in its third edition, this successful book introduces students to the area of social science theory and research known as social constructionism. Using a variety of examples from everyday experience and from existing research in areas such as personality, sexuality and health, it clearly explains the basic theoretical assumptions of social constructionism. Key debates, such as the nature and status of knowledge, truth, reality and the self are given in-depth analysis in an accessible style. Drawing on a range of empirical studies, the book clearly defines the various different approaches to social constructionist research and explores the theoretical and practical issues involved. While the text is broadly sympathetic to social constructionism, it also adopts a critical perspective to the material, addressing its weaknesses and, in the final chapter, subjecting the theory itself to a more extensive critique. New to this edition: Extended coverage of the relationship between 'mainstream' psychology and social constructionism and how the two fields can engage with each other. An exploration of the rise and popularity of neuroscience and the challenge it poses to social constructionism. New material on the field of psychosocial studies. Updated coverage of existing key issues such as age and sexuality, and inclusion of more recently emerging issues (e.g. status and role of affect). Updated discussion of key social constructionist contributors, with revised references. Updated chapter on research methods, including more on narrative and critical narrative analysis, and personal construct methods. The third edition of Social Constructionism extends and updates the material covered in previous editions and will be an invaluable and informative resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students across the social and behavioural sciences.
Social Constructionism
by Vivien BurrThe fourth edition of this seminal work introduces students to social constructionism. Using a variety of examples from everyday experience and from existing research in areas such as personality, sexuality and health, it clearly explains the basic theoretical assumptions of social constructionism.Drawing on a range of empirical studies, the book clearly defines the various approaches to social constructionist theory and research and explores the theoretical and practical issues they raise. It presents and analyses key debates, such as the nature and status of knowledge, truth, reality, and the self, in an accessible style. The new edition has been updated with relevant and contemporary references to aid understanding of key theoretical and methodological issues. The author additionally utilises new illustrative examples from research and contemporary life, such as the #MeToo movement, BlackLivesMatter, and Post-Truth politics. The updated work has also been expanded to include an extended discussion of affect and embodiment and a number of exercises to help illustrate important concepts.Social Constructionism extends and updates the material covered in previous editions and will be an invaluable and informative resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Psychology, Sociology, Education, and other related disciplines.
Social Constructionism, Discourse and Realism (Inquiries in Social Construction)
by Professor Ian PatrickThis book charts a clear and accessible path through some of the key debates in contemporary psychology. Drawing upon the wider critical and discursive turn in the human sciences, Social Constructionism, Discourse and Realism explores comprehensively the many claims about what we can know of `reality' in social constructionist and discursive research in psychology. Relativist versus realist tensions go to the heart of current theoretical and methodological issues, not only within psychology but across the social and human sciences. By mapping the connections between theory, method and politics in social research and placing these within the context of the broader social constructionist and discursive debates, the internationally renowned contributors offer the reader an invaluable survey of the debates.
Social Constructions of Water Quality in South Africa: A case study of the Blesbokspruit River in the Context of Acid Mine Drainage Treatment
by Suvania NaidooThis book details how the water quality of the Blesbokspruit River in Gauteng, South Africa was socially constructed by stakeholders and key individuals in the context of acid mine drainage (AMD) and its treatment. Social constructionism is used as the framing for this research to explain how water is intrinsically social. Findings presented here show that stakeholders are aware that the changes in the physicality of the Blesbokspruit resulted from human interventions and varied uses of the water over the years. Such knowledge, among factors such as the historical context of mining, current coal mining, flows and volumes of water, technology used and processes followed, information and communication, and vested interests influence social constructions of the water quality. What counts as the truth about water varies depending on the individual’s perspective, their purpose, and their individual interests. Further, how one defines water quality influences what treatment processes are preferred in order to improve water quality. The book explains why, for example, a treatment process meant to improve water quality gained a bad reputation by the public because of the South African government’s silo approach. The book explains how these social constructions are entrenched in power relations between stakeholders regarding AMD treatment and illustrates how power was used to influence decisions to improve the water quality of the Blesbokspruit. The case presented in this book offers insights and recommendations for policymakers working in water governance, including means to influence social constructions of water quality and ways to clarify roles and responsibilities in pursuit of improved cooperative government.
Social Constructivism as Paradigm?: The Legacy of The Social Construction of Reality (Knowledge, Communication and Society)
by Michaela Pfadenhauer Hubert KnoblauchSocial constructivism is one of the most prominent theoretical approaches in the social sciences. This volume celebrates the 50th anniversary of its first formulation in Peter Berger and Luckmann’s classic foundational text, The Social Construction of Reality. Addressing the work’s contribution to establishing social constructivism as a paradigm and discussing its potential for current questions in social theory, the contributing authors indicate the various cultural understandings and theoretical formulations that exist of social construction, its different fields of research and the promising new directions for future research that it presents in its most recent developments. A study of the importance of a work that established a paradigm in the international sociology of knowledge, this book will appeal to scholars of sociology with interests in social theory, the history of the social sciences and the significance of social constructivism.
Social Context and Cognitive Performance: Towards a Social Psychology of Cognition (European Monographs in Social Psychology)
by Pascal Huguet Jean-Marc MonteilBased on twenty years of research on the social regulation of academic performances, this book offers theoretical and empirical arguments in favour of the inclusion of the social dimension of human beings as essential for their cognitive activities. We all engage in social interactions, compare ourselves with other people, belong to social groups, and are the object of a myriad of categorisations. Not only do such social experiences affect cognition, but they actually determine its form and its content. Several experiments indeed reveal that cognitive performance depends on the relationship between the individual and the social context in which cognition takes place. And this relationship is not forged directly by features of the situation, but rather by personal construals of these features (most notably social comparison). This fact alone justifies granting the individual's social experiences a psychological status and it further strengthens the key idea of this book, namely that the social context only exists through the intervention of cognitive processes of contextualization (producing a "cognitive context of the self") such as those involved in autobiographical memory. A "social psychology of cognition" is suggested, in which the fashionable distinction between cognition and social cognition makes no sense. From this innovative perspective it is indeed more the social nature of the individual rather than that of the object to be processed that defines the social nature of cognition. Well-known phenomena such as social facilitation and social loafing as well as established educational practices are also re-examined from this perspective.
The Social Context of Technological Experiences: Three Studies from India (Science and Technology Studies)
by Anant KamathThis book demonstrates how technology and society shape one another and that there are intrinsic connections between technological experiences and social relationships. It employs an array of theoretical concepts and methodological tools to examine the technology–society nexus among three urban groups in India (traditional caste-based handloom weavers, subaltern Dalit communities, and informal female labour). It provides evidence of how innovations such as industrial technologies, communication technologies, and workplace technologies are not only about strides in science and engineering but also about politics and sociology on the ground. The book contributes to the growing research in innovation studies and technology policy that establishes how technological processes and outcomes are contingent on complex sociological variables and contexts. The author offers an inclusive, holistic, and interdisciplinary approach to understanding the field of innovation and technological change and development by involving various methodologies (network analysis, archival work, oral histories, focus group discussions, interviews). The book will serve as reference for researchers and scholars in social sciences, especially those interested in development studies, science and technology policy and innovation studies, information and communication technology (ICT) policy, public policy, management, social work and research methods, economics, sociology, social exclusion and subaltern studies, women’s studies, and South Asian studies. It will also be useful to nongovernmental organisations, activists, and policymakers.
The Social Context of the School (Routledge Library Editions: Education)
by John EgglestonIn their appearance, schools often seem to be physically separated from their surroundings, cut off from the neighbouring houses and streets by high walls, by playgrounds or playing fields. Within the school, another world seems to exist, with a life of its own – its own routine, dress, rules and customs – which appears to have little relationship to the day-to-day life of the society outside. Yet despite these signs of separateness, we are becoming increasingly aware that a school’s surroundings, the local society in which it is set and whose children it educates, play an important part in determining what actually goes on in the classrooms and the playgrounds. This book looks at some of the factors in the local context of the schools and describes and analyses some of the often complex ways in which the schools interact with them.
Social Context Reform: A Pedagogy of Equity and Opportunity (Routledge Research in Education Policy and Politics #5)
by Julie Gorlewski P. L. Thomas Brad Porfilio Paul R. CarrCurrently, both the status quo of public education and the "No Excuses" Reform policies are identical. The reform offers a popular and compelling narrative based on the meritocracy and rugged individualism myths that are supposed to define American idealism. This volume will refute this ideology by proposing Social Context Reform, a term coined by Paul Thomas which argues for educational change within a larger plan to reform social inequity—such as access to health care, food, higher employment, better wages and job security. Since the accountability era in the early 1980s, policy, public discourse, media coverage, and scholarly works have focused primarily on reforming schools themselves. Here, the evidence that school-only reform does not work is combined with a bold argument to expand the discourse and policy surrounding education reform to include how social, school, and classroom reform must work in unison to achieve goals of democracy, equity, and opportunity both in and through public education. This volume will include a wide variety of essays from leading critical scholars addressing the complex elements of social context reform, all of which address the need to re-conceptualize accountability and to seek equity and opportunity in social and education reform.
Social Contexts of Radicalization and Violent Extremism in the MENA and Balkans: A Multi-Country Analysis
by Corinne Torrekens Tasnim Chirchi Lurdes Vidal BertranThis volume is a multilevel and multidisciplinary study of radicalization in the Balkans and MENA regions. It takes a dynamic approach embracing the complexity of the social, political and economic contexts under study. Moving away from unidimensional and security-centred research on the topic, each chapter adopts a participatory and inclusive perspective, engaging communities, youth and women as significant stakeholders in building a better understanding of the dynamics of the radicalization of youth in these regions. The multiple case studies presented here cover several macro drivers of radicalization to reveal the interactions and interrelations of individuals with meso-institutions and backgrounds such as family, neighbourhood, school, peer groups, religious and ethnic communities, political parties, etc. Consequently, the volume addresses several gaps in the literature regarding radicalization and violent extremism: it is based on firm empirical evidence; it allows for comparisons between social contexts in one specific country and between countries sharing macro similarities but also differences; it proposes a fruitful dialogue and collaborations between academics, researchers and civil society experts; and, finally, it offers decentralized perspectives on extremism in the West. This volume is an important addition to a topic that is of interest to researchers across the social sciences, and to think tanks and policy makers working on/in these regions.
Social Control: A Survey of the Foundations of Order
by Edward Alsworth RossSocial Control falls within social psychology, which is the branch of knowledge that deals with the psychic interplay between man and his environment. In Ross' terms, one of these branches, social ascendency, deals with the domination of society over the individual. Another, individual ascendency, embraces such topics as invention, leadership, the role of great men, and deals with the domination of the individual over society.Social ascendency is divided into social infl uence-- mob mind, fashion, convention, custom, public opinion, and the like--and social control. Th e former is occupied with social domination that is without intention or purpose. The latter is concerned with social domination that is intended and that fulfi ls a function in the life of society. At the start of the twentieth century this work played an important role in the origination of social psychology as a distinct field.Ross sought to determine how far the order we see about us is due to infl uences that reach men and women without social intervention. Investigation shows that the personality freely unfolds under conditions of healthy fellowship and may arrive at goodness on its own, and that order is explained partly by this streak in human nature and partly by the infl uence of social surroundings. Ross' book separates the individual's contribution to social order from that of society, and, brings to light everything that is considered in the social contribution of the individual. Th is classic volume is an important contribution to the history of ideas.
Social Control and Disorder in Football: Responses, Regulation, Rupture (Critical Research in Football)
by Mark Turner Jan Andre Lee LudvigsenThis is the first book to focus on the interrelated issues of social control and disorder in football. It shows how the ‘beautiful game’ illuminates our understanding of the mechanisms and techniques of social control and regulation in contemporary societies. It explores past, new, and continued responses from law enforcers, football associations, sport’s governing bodies, the media, and international organizations to issues of disorder and misbehaviour in football, and how this is highly contested by fans and fan groups. Featuring the work of an international team of leading researchers in football and sport-related studies, the book examines key contemporary trends and topics including fan activism, football-specific legislation, power, violence, fan rivalries, subcultures, the policing of crowds, social sorting, and surveillance. Featuring diverse international cases, including the Qatar World Cup, stadium protests in Portland, Oregon, spectator violence in Polish football, social media and Brazilian football, and sectarianism in Scottish football, the book also looks ahead to what the future holds for the world’s most popular sport. This is an invaluable resource for students, researchers, or the general reader with an interest in the sociology of sport, criminology, sport management, and sports law.
Social Control and Education: Class Inscription And Symbolic Control (Routledge Library Editions: Education)
by Brian DaviesSocial control is a central sociological concept which has generated many influential ‘models’ of man in society. This book examines these major models, and examines the rise of compulsory schooling in Britain and the USA and shows us which aspects of education and social control have been elaborated or neglected in the sociology of education down to the mid 1970s.
Social Control and Public Intellect: The Legacy of Edward A.Ross
by Sean McMahonAs the last presumptive founder of American sociology, Edward Alsworth Ross (1866û1951) was the first to secure its place in public discourse. Originally an economist who strongly criticized monopolies, Ross sought answers to the larger social issues of his day. His theory of social control helped to unify sociology into an independent discipline and elevate social research into an academic necessity. He implored sociologists to explain those social forces that unified people into sustainable groups. This first full analysis of Ross's intellectual legacy uses new sources to explore more broadly the scope of his influence.Throughout his career, Ross remained a controversial figure. Strong critiques of monopolies and immigration led to his dismissal from Stanford in 1900 in a landmark academic freedom case. Never satisfied with qualitative research, Ross traveled the world in search of social changes which he reported back to the American public. A 1910 trip to China yielded profound conclusions on the American economy and on the status of women. As one of the first observers of revolutionary Russia, Ross emerged at once critical of socialism and confident in the American system. Moreover, his articles reached a wide audience to demonstrate the usefulness and scope of American sociology. As Ross gained public favor, however, his academic reputation waned. By the 1920s he was left in the wake of quantitative scholarship. His concept of social control continued to engage academic theorists while new applications emerged in industrial management. After his death, scholars have debated new meanings of social control even as the disciplines of history and sociology have fragmented.In offering this examination of Ross's thought, McMahon draws on new primary materials, including interviews, to recreate the controversies that surrounded his career. The depths of his pursuits have never been so fully explored, and this new look at Ross places him among the giants of American intellectual life. Social Control and Public Intellect will be of interest to sociologists, historians, and American studies specialists.
Social Control and Socialization: A Study of Class Differences in the Language of Maternal Control (Primary Socialization, Language and Education)
by Jenny Cook-GumperzBasil Bernstein’s theory of social control was the foundation for this pioneer study of the language mothers use to socialize their children, and how it affects their understanding of social values and social attitudes as they grow older.Originally published in 1973, Dr Cook-Gumperz’s research was particularly important in that it made use of analytical methods which could measure numerically the manifestations of the three kinds of control – imperative, positional, personal – that Bernstein distinguished. Using the coding grid developed by Professor Bernstein and herself, Jenny Cook-Gumperz demonstrates clearly the relations between maternal class, maternal approach to discipline and the child’s progress. By showing that the effects of early upbringing on the educational potential of children were measurable, this significant work in the comparatively new field of sociolinguistics would form a basis for the methodological approach to further practical investigations of a similar nature at the time. Today it can be read in its historical context.
Social Control in an African Society: A Study Of The Arusha: Agricultural Masai Of Northern Tanganyika. African Studies Program, Boston University; 95 (International Library of Sociology)
by P. H. GulliverThis is Volume XV of eighteen in a series on the Sociology of Development. Originally published in 1963, this is a study of the Arusha people, the Agricultural Masai of Northern Tanganyika in Africa.
The Social Control of Cities
by Sophie Body-GendrotIn this ground-breaking study, Sophie Body-Gendrot provides a comparative analysis of the growing problem of new forms of poverty and social marginalisation in contemporary advanced societies.
Social Control of Sex Expression (Routledge Revivals)
by Geoffrey MayFirst published in 1930, Social Control of Sex Expression is a study of the control exercised by Anglo American law over voluntary sex expression. Divided into three parts the book starts with the doctrine of sex repression among primitive peoples, among the ancient Hebrews and early Christians. It then explores the doctrine in English law and the problems of sexual morality and temporal jurisdiction in the second part. The last and final part looks at the doctrine in Anglo American law from pre-revolutionary America to America today.Two facts standout in relief from this study. The one is, that the methods of legal control of sex expression have varied widely throughout Anglo-American history. The other is, that the attitude behind the law, the doctrine of sexual morality itself, has varied not at all. The author argues that though the forms of control have changed, the fact of control, less tangible, still persists. This is an interesting read for scholars and researchers of sociology, law and psychology.
Social Control of Sex Offenders
by D. Richard LawsThis book surveys the history, current status, and critical issues regarding the various mechanisms designed to control sex offenders. It shows that the social problem of sex offending is not apparently resolvable by any of the means currently employed. A large array of procedures are used in the attempt to control the difficult population of sex offenders, including: imprisonment, institutional and community treatment, community monitoring by probation and parole, electronic monitoring, registration as a sex offender, community notification of an offender's status, strict limits on behavioral movement in the community, and residence restrictions. However, these constraints on behavior are almost completely the result of public outrage regarding sensational sex crimes, overreaction of media coverage that produce inaccurate statements of potential community risk, and the efforts of the legal profession and politicians to quell this anger and foreboding by enacting legislation that supposedly confronts the risk. This book demonstrates that we have constructed a massive edifice of community control that is socially and politically driven and which has largely failed to contain sex crime.