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Social Structure: Recent Issues In Social Theory
by Charles CrothersCrothers's book provides a thorough introduction to the idea of social structure. He examines the meanings of the term, the history of its usage within sociology and looks at the more recent developments in thinking on social structure.
Social Structure: Relationships, Representations, and Rules
by Jonathan EastwoodSocial structure is arguably the central concept of sociology, and in recent years a much wider public has taken up with fresh vigor the sociological idea that persistent inequalities are rooted in social structures. Yet there seem to be as many definitions of the term as there are sociologists, and we often struggle to articulate accessible yet precise accounts of structures that can guide empirical research and other kinds of action. Jonathan Eastwood offers a set of pragmatic strategies for thinking about social structures, emphasizing ways in which we can approach them as complex lacings of relationships, representations, and rules. He then teases out a variety of implications of these strategies for qualitative and quantitative research, the analysis of social problems, and the implementation of social policies. Written for advanced undergraduate and graduate students as well as fellow scholars, this insightful book contributes to our understanding of this fundamental and dynamic ingredient of social life.
Social Structure (Routledge Revivals)
by Henry A. MessOriginally published in 1942, during the Second World War and a time of great social and economic upheaval, Henry A. Mess endeavours to give a succinct account of the main elements in social structure and of their interrelations. He offers discussions on such broad topics as human nature, the role institutions play in society, and warfare as a universal feature of societies. This title is a short and accessible introduction to sociology and will be of value to students interested in the subject.
Social Structure Adaptation to COVID-19: Impact on Humanity (The COVID-19 Pandemic Series)
by Suresh Nanwani William LoxleySocial Structure Adaptation to COVID-19 offers global, interdisciplinary perspectives that examine how the COVID-19 pandemic has altered the development trajectory of schools, public health, the workforce, and technology adoption. It explores social themes in society, economy, policy, and culture and draws on a social framework to describe key functions of societal adaptation to the pandemic.Edited by Suresh Nanwani and William Loxley, the volume is grounded in the study of system components and their objectives to improve overall well-being given the ill effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Chapters explore interconnected social networks and how sectors restructured themselves to stabilize or transform society. International contributors from 20 countries offer case studies that highlight key themes including personal connectivity, societal equality, well-being, big data, and national resilience. They predict how impactful the pandemic might be in reshaping the future and assess how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected school system shutdown, public health collapse, business closures, public policy failure, and technology-driven social media acceleration.Offering insights into how institutions and sectors work together in times of crisis, and how COVID-19 has restructured social behavior, Social Structure Adaptation to COVID-19 will be valuable reading for scholars and students of sociology, political science, anthropology, comparative international development, psychology, and education. It will also be of interest to policymakers concerned with education, work and organizations, and media and technology.The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 international license.
Social Structure and Personality in the Factory (Routledge Library Editions: Human Resource Management #23)
by Paul LafitteThis study, first published in 1958, explores the behaviour of industrial workers in a social context. By interviewing and observing workers in factories in Melbourne, the author examines the worker’s evaluation of work, work satisfaction, relationships and friendships within the workplace, and the worker’s place in society. This title will be of interest to students of psychology, sociology and business studies.
Social Structure and Social Mobility
by Neil Larry ShumskyFirst Published in 1996. Volume 7 SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND SOCIAL MOBILITY of the ‘American Cities; series. This collection brings together more than 200 scholarly articles pertaining to the history and development of urban life in the United States during the past two centuries. Volume 7 looks at social class structure and social mobility. Its articles address questions that have intrigued historians for decades. What has been the class structure of American cities during the past two centuries? How much mobility has been possible? For whom has it been possible? What has been the relationship between social and geographic mobility? Finally, how have all kinds of Americans tried to improve their social status?
Social Structure and Social Stratification in Contemporary China: Vol. 1 (China Perspectives)
by Xueyi LuWhat is the social structure of Chinese society in the 21st century? How should China address the problem of migrant workers? How can China form a modern society? These key sociological issues are some of the topics this book covers.This book is a collection of the research articles and lectures that Dr. Lu Xueyi, the former Head of the Institute of Sociology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has published since the 1980s. The author discusses the social structure, social stratification, social construction, and development of contemporary Chinese society. Arguing that the gap between economic and social development has become the major social issue facing modern China, the author advocates paying close attention to the country’s social structure and the growth of the middle class.The book will be of interest for all scholars and students of Sociology and Chinese Studies.
Social Structure and Voting in the United States
by Robert B. SmithThis bookanalyzes practical and moral influences on voting decisions. Undermining the widespreadassumption that economic self-interest is the key determinant of voting choices,it discovers that moral considerations rooted in religious traditions are oftenthe more decisive. This finding is confirmed through a close analysis oftangible problems, such as child neglect and crime, problems which one wouldexpect to trouble practical voters. Further, this book suggests that politicalideologies influence party affiliation, rather than the other way around. It definesfour categories of states in terms of human development and income equality--South,Heartland, postindustrial, and "balanced. " It then explains why politicalcolor (red, purple, or blue) and societal problems vary across thesecategories. Voters' moral ideologies, itshows, combine with a state's measure of income equality and human development toshape a state's readiness to pursue practical solutions to societal problems. Finally, it shows that moral ideologiesof the religious right and authoritarianism, two very different concepts, are in fact intertwined empirically. This book thus suggests that education--a keydriver of human development, anti-authoritarianism, and deliberative voting--shouldbegin in preschools that are both nurturant and instructive.
The Social Structure of Online Communities (Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences)
by William Sims BainbridgeWith great potential benefit and possible harm, online social media platforms are transforming human society. Based on decades of deep exploration, distinguished scholar William Sims Bainbridge surveys our complex virtual society, harvesting insights about the future of our real world. Many pilot studies demonstrate valuable research methods and explanatory theories. Tracing membership interlocks between Facebook groups can chart the structure of a social movement, like the one devoted to future spaceflight development. Statistical data on the roles played by people in massively multiplayer online games illustrate the Silicon Law: information technology energizes both freedom and control, in a dynamic balance. The significance of open-source software suggests the traditional distinction between professional and amateur may fade, whereas web-based conflicts between religious and political groups imply that chasms are opening in civil society. This analysis of online space and the divergent communities is long overdue.
Social Structure & Person
by Talcott ParsonsA Collection of essays which studies the theoretical problem of relationships between social structure and personality, and how these different relationships merit distinct treatment for particular purposes. Parsons concludes that in the larger picture, their interdependencies are so intimate that bringing them together in an interpretive synthesis is imperative if a balanced understanding of the complex as a whole is to be attained.
Social Structure, Value Orientations and Party Choice in Western Europe (Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology)
by Oddbjørn KnutsenThis book analyses the impact of socio-structural variables, such as social class, religion, urban/rural residence, age and gender, on influencing an individual’s voting preferences. There have been major changes in recent decades both to social structure and how social structure determines people’s voting behaviour. There has also been a shift in value orientations, for example from religious to secular values and from more authoritarian to libertarian values. The author addresses the questions: How do social structure and value orientations influence party choice in advanced industrial democracies?; To what extent is the impact of social structure on party choice transmitted via value orientations?; To what extent is the impact of value orientations on party choice causal effects when controlled for the prior structural variables? The book will be of use to advanced students and scholars in the fields of comparative politics, electoral politics and political sociology.
Social Structures
by John Levi MartinSocial Structures is a book that examines how structural forms spontaneously arise from social relationships. Offering major insights into the building blocks of social life, it identifies which locally emergent structures have the capacity to grow into larger ones and shows how structural tendencies associated with smaller structures shape and constrain patterns of larger structures. The book then investigates the role such structures have played in the emergence of the modern nation-state. Bringing together the latest findings in sociology, anthropology, political science, and history, John Levi Martin traces how sets of interpersonal relationships become ordered in different ways to form structures. He looks at a range of social structures, from smaller ones like families and street gangs to larger ones such as communes and, ultimately, nation-states. He finds that the relationships best suited to forming larger structures are those that thrive in conditions of inequality; that are incomplete and as sparse as possible, and thereby avoid the problem of completion in which interacting members are required to establish too many relationships; and that abhor transitivity rather than assuming it. Social Structures argues that these "patronage" relationships, which often serve as means of loose coordination in the absence of strong states, are nevertheless the scaffolding of the social structures most distinctive to the modern state, namely the command army and the political party.
The Social Structures of Global Academia (Routledge Advances in Sociology)
by Nick Osbaldiston Fabian CannizzoHigher education and research are now at the centre of economic and social policy in advanced information societies. Global networks of researchers, finance, students and policymakers invoke collaborative sociological perspectives. What it means to be an academic and to work in a technologically advanced knowledge industry has undergone transformations that cross national borders. The future of knowledge production, social development, prosperity and the freedom of ideas are caught in the swelling of global tides. The Social Structures of Global Academia exposes readers to a variety of issues that are impacting academics across the globe. The volume includes contributions by leading social scientists and innovative research from emerging scholars. Its anchoring themes include academic ethics, the affective cultures of scholarship, changing funding structures and social control of the currents of scholarly life. Giving readers an overview of the growing field of critical studies of academia, The Social Structures of Global Academia will appeal to students and scholars seeking to understand more of the burgeoning field of critical sociologies of higher education, and general readers interested in contemporary knowledge about universities, science and the people who make it their passion. It will also appeal to policymakers who are invested in trying to make universities more viable places to work.
Social Studies: Communities Around Us
by Juan R. Garcia Daniel J. Gelo Linda L. Greenow James B. Kracht Deborah Gray WhiteThis book is built up on four themes viz., Learning About Communities, Different Kinds of Places, Communities Yesterday and Today, People and Citizenship. Also included are Maps, Time Line, Graphs, Tables, and Diagrams, Skills and Literature for optional reading.
Social Suffering in the Neoliberal Age: State Power, Logics and Resistance
by Karen Soldatic Louise St GuillaumeThis book provides a rich synthesis of research and theory of nascent and emergent critically engaged work examining changing welfare structures, regimes and technologies and the social suffering that is generated in everyday lives. By rigorously examining social security restructuring with the turn to austerity governance and its daily practices of managing, regulating and subordinating individuals, peoples and communities, this collection delineates the machinery of state power and logics designed to manage, contain and control the lives of some of the most poorest and marginalized citizens who are reliant on social welfare income payments. A core strength of the book is first, its unpacking of austerity governance across diverse communities and, second, the elevation of community resistance and mobilization against the very measures of austerity. Combined, the work maps out the logics of state power and everyday practices of embedded contestation and confrontation. Using the case-study of Australia to discuss socio-legal re-categorisations, automation of welfare governance, technologies of policy design and delivery, conditionality and systems of penalisation, this book will be of interest to all scholars and students of sociology, critical theory, social policy, social work and disability studies, Indigenous studies and settler colonialism.
Social Support: A Reflection of Humanity (Death, Value and Meaning Series)
by John D. MorganNone of us could survive in the workplace, community, or even in our homes, if we allowed everyone to see how truly vulnerable we are. Yet, social support is a necessity if we are to achieve whatever it is we set out to achieve in this life. "No human being is an island unto himself." "Social Support: A Reflection of Humanity" is a "how to" book. In this work, the authors examine the nature of social support, how it can be offered, and how social support differs from other forms of therapy.
Social Support and Motherhood: The Natural History of a Research Project
by Ann OakleyDrawing on her long experience as an academic researcher and writer, Ann Oakley develops a sociology of the research process itself, telling the story of how a research project is undertaken and what happens during it, to both researchers and those who are researched. This remarkable book focuses on a topic of great importance in the provision of health services – caring and social support. Setting neglect of this topic in the wider context of an ongoing crisis in gendering knowledge, Social support and motherhood is now reissued for a contemporary audience. It has much resonance for social science researchers and others interested in the experiences of mothers, and in the relations between social research, academic knowledge and public policy.
Social Support Networks, Coping and Positive Aging Among the Community-Dwelling Elderly in Hong Kong
by Susu LiuThe dramatically increasing aging population of Hong Kong has elicited new risks and opportunities to facilitate a positive life for older adults. This book offers a holistic review of gerontological theories and literature, and constructs a conceptual framework of social support networks, coping and positive aging. In light of the implications of the convoy model of social support to depict an indigenous landscape of positive aging in Hong Kong, this is one of the very few empirical studies that adopts both quantitative research and qualitative research. The research consisted of a pilot study of in-depth interviews with 16 older Hong Kong Chinese and a main study surveying 393 older members of District Elderly Community Center. The results of the study indicate that family and peer support constitute the mainstay of support networks of the elderly, and that family and peer support are associated with positive aging. Moreover, the study shows that it is the depth of emotional closeness, namely, close interaction and intimacy with social partners that makes the greatest contribution to positive aging. Additionally, problem coping and emotion coping are found to mediate the relationship between social support networks and positive aging. There is potential in bringing more domestic helpers into elderly care and improving the service quality such that the goal of Aging in Place can be promoted in Hong Kong. Intended for researchers in social work, gerontology and positive psychology, it is also essential reading for graduates and social work professionals interested in this area. This book makes a valuable contribution to social gerontological research among Hong Kong older adults and the promotion of wellbeing in the elderly via the construct of positive aging in the culture of Chinese society.
Social Surveys (Routledge Revivals)
by D. Caradog JonesSocial Surveys (1949) examines a host of fact-finding studies, dealing mainly with working class poverty, and the associated nature and problems. To describe the structure of a community demands a close study of the people who compose it, and of the environment in which they work and spend their free time, and the primary aim of a Social Survey is to make an accurate and impartial collection and presentation of facts.
Social Sustainability: A Multilevel Approach to Social Inclusion (Routledge Advances in Sociology #101)
by Veronica Dujon Jesse Dillard Eileen M. BrennanHow can we raise the standard of living of the world’s poor and maintain high levels of social health and well-being in the developed world, while simultaneously reducing the environmental damage wrought by human activity? The social dimension of sustainability is becoming recognized as a necessary if not sufficient condition for attaining economic and environmental sustainability. The requisite dialogue requires inclusion at multi-levels. This collection of works is an ambitious and multi-disciplinary effort to indemnify and articulate the design, implementation and implications of inclusion. Included are theoretical and empirical pieces that examine the related issues at the local, national and international levels. Contributors are grounded in Sociology, Economics, Business Administration, Public Administration, Public Health, Psychology, Anthropology, Social Work, Education, and Natural Resource Management.
Social Sustainability and Good Work in Organizations (Citizenship and Sustainability in Organizations)
by Klarissa Lueg Simon JebsenThis edited research monograph collects nine unique research contributions on the concept of social sustainability and its connection to possibilities and hindrances for good work in organisations. Social sustainability, in organisational contexts, emphasizes the long-term well-being of stakeholders and communities. The authors in this book demonstrate how organisational long-term strategies should prioritise employee well-being, mental health, community engagement, and ethical supply chain management, inter alia. Readers, from undergraduate students to the research community, will learn how long-term social sustainability orientation is different from Corporate Social Responsibility, which responds to immediate stakeholder expectations. The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals have nudged many organisations to implement social sustainability, and many authors in this book relate to UN concepts such as the SDGs or Global Compact’s definition of social sustainability. However, many organisations have come under scrutiny for acting merely ceremonial to live up to the current megatrends. In consequence, readers will take away that the line between genuine corporate mission and ceremonial lip services must be critically observed, and how this can be done in different areas. Key chapters of this book explore social sustainability, e.g., in higher education (as sustainable knowledge in business students), in corporate communication (employee identification, corporate volunteering, and corporate heritage), and in sustainable human resource management practices. Workplace toxicity, especially towards minorities, is explored, highlighting both the role of bystanders, and the financial repercussions of ignoring workplace harassment. Digital transformation's social implications, employee well-being, and the importance of psychological safety in startups are addressed. The chapters, all together, signify the relevance of meaningful work for long-term societal cohesion and individual fulfilment.
Social Sustainability and the Employee: Labor, Employment Relations, and the Hospitality Industry (Routledge Research in Employment Relations)
by Piotr Zientara Joanna Adamska Monika BąkThis research monograph delves into the pressing issue of employee-centered social sustainability in the hospitality industry. Through empirical studies and content analysis of CSR reports, it highlights the significant challenges faced by frontline hospitality workers – such as low wages, job insecurity, limited union representation, and employer resistance to unionization.Offering a thorough, evidence-based examination, the monograph provides a comprehensive analysis of the employee dimension of social sustainability. It explores the critical role of organizational support, the fear of unionizing, and their impact on key outcomes like employee well-being and industry turnover intentions. The work also proposes a tailored framework for addressing employee needs at different stages of their careers, advancing the goal of "decent work" within the industry.Ideal for scholars and researchers in workforce studies, hospitality, and tourism, this volume offers valuable insights into the complex dynamics of labor practices and social sustainability. It serves as a vital resource for those seeking to foster employee-centered CSR initiatives. Policymakers, industry professionals, and advocates for improved labor conditions in hospitality will also find this book informative and thought-provoking, with actionable strategies for promoting social responsibility across the sector.
Social Synthesis: Finding Dynamic Patterns in Complex Social Systems (Complexity in Social Science)
by Philip HaynesHow is it possible to understand society and the problems it faces? What sense can be made of the behaviour of markets and government interventions? How can citizens understand the course that their lives take and the opportunities available to them? There has been much debate surrounding what methodology and methods are appropriate for social science research. In a larger sense, there have been differences in quantitative and qualitative approaches and some attempts to combine them. In addition, there have also been questions of the influence of competing values on all social activities versus the need to find an objective understanding. Thus, this aptly named volume strives to develop new methods through the practice of ‘social synthesis’, describing a methodology that perceives societies and economies as manifestations of highly dynamic, interactive and emergent complex systems. Furthermore, helping us to understand that an analysis of parts alone does not always lead to an informed understanding, Haynes presents to the contemporary researcher an original tool called Dynamic Pattern Synthesis (DPS) – a rigorous method that informs us about how specific complex social and economic systems adapt over time. A timely and significant monograph, Social Synthesis will appeal to advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students, research professionals and academic researchers informed by sociology, economics, politics, public policy, social policy and social psychology.
The Social System
by Talcott ParsonsThis book brings together, in systematic and generalized form, the main outlines of a conceptual scheme for the analysis of the structure and processes of social systems. It carries out Pareto's intention by using the "structural-functional" level of analysis.
Social Systems and Design
by Gary S. MetcalfWe live in the worlds that we help to create every day. Every activity either supports an existing system or effects some change, however small. But is it possible to consciously create the worlds in which we want to live? This volume brings together systems theorists and practitioners who have worked on that question for decades. It explores connections between design and systems ideas to explain why some efforts have been more successful than others, and what is needed if we are to move forward. It offers reflections on early and large-scale attempts at impacting societal systems, as well as proposals for taking those ideas into the future. Examples date back to the Club of Rome in the 1960s and look forward to the creation of ecologically sustainable systems in the future. They address the need for collaboration and inclusion in settings from communities to corporations. And while theories are presented as support for the examples, they are explained in practical ways meant to be accessible both to students and to general readers.