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Whatever else they may be doing, human beings are also and always expressing themselves whenever they are in the awareness of others. As such, the metaphor of life as theater - of people playing roles to audiences who review them and then coordinate further action - is an ancient idea that has been resurrected by social scientists as an organizing simile for the analysis and understanding of social life. The Drama of Social Life examines this dramaturgical approach to social life, bringing together the latest original work from leading contemporary dramaturgical thinkers across the social sciences. Thematically organized, it explores: ¢ the work of classical and contemporary thinkers who ha...
What happens to legal thought when key terms-society, culture, power, justice, identity-become unsettled? With the boundaries defining sociolegal scholarship undergoing a profound shift, this book explores the intersections of law, culture, and identity. Sexuality, race, sports, and the politics of policing are among the topics the authors take up as they examine how law both reproduces and challenges fundamental notions of order, discipline, and identity. Contributors: Rosemary J. Coombe, U of Toronto; David M. Engel, SUNY, Buffalo; Marjorie Garber, Harvard U; Herman Gray, UC, Santa Cruz; Rona Tamiko Halualani, San Jos State U; David Harvey, CUNY; Deb Henderson; Yuen J. Huo, UCLA; S. Lily Mendoza, U of Denver; Trish Oberweis, American Justice Institute; Paul A. Passavant, Hobart and William Smith Colleges; Lisa E. Sanchez, U of Illinois; Carl F. Stychin, U of Reading; Tom R. Tyler, New York U; Christine A. Yalda.
In Be Not Deceived, Michelle Wolkomir explores the difficult dilemma that gay Christians face in their attempts to reconcile their religious and sexual identities. She introduces the ideologies and practices of two alternative and competing ministries that offer solutions for Christians who experience homosexual desire. Through careful analysis of the groups’ ideologies, interactions, and symbolic resources, Be Not Deceived goes far beyond the obvious differences between the ministries to uncover their similarities, namely that both continue to define heterosexuality as the normative and dominant lifestyle.
For many years Emmanuel Lazega has explored communication behavior and decision-making processes of small workgroups within larger organizations. To account for the knowledge claims of members of those groups, and for the ways in which such claims are legitimated collectively and translated into action, he presents a theory of the interactive elaboration of information on which decisions are based.
Although discourse theory tends to draw upon lofty examples, Discreet Indiscretions draws instead on one many consider inconsequential. Bergmann treats daily gossip, both friendly and malicious, as the genre of everyday communication and thereby in need of serious analysis. Utilizing discourse theory and ethnomethodology, this study shifts among several kinds of terrain: the sociology of language, the sociology of knowledge, and the sociology of culture. It rests on widespread individual observations on gossip in the existing literature of social science and on the investigation of real gossip recorded in conversations in the field, and reproduced here as transcribed segments. By exploring the complex relations of friendship and loyalty with respect to transmitting knowledge about the personal affairs of others, he develops his thesis: that gossip should be defined not as a control mechanism, but rather as the social organization of discreet indiscretions.
"In Blue Helmets and Black Markets, Peter Andreas traces the interaction between these formal front-stage and informal backstage activities, arguing that this created and sustained a criminalized war economy and prolonged the conflict in a manner that served various interests on all sides. Although the vast majority of Sarajevans struggled for daily survival and lived in a state of terror, the siege was highly rewarding for some key local and international players. This situation also left a powerful legacy for postwar reconstruction: new elites emerged via war profiteering and an illicit economy flourished partly based on the smuggling networks built up during wartime." "Andreas shows how a...
In The Two Finger Diet: How the Media Has Duped Women into Hating Themselves, author Benjamin Straight delivers a compelling sociological examination of how the American media advertises to women, a key marketing demographic ruthlessly targeted since 1870. The author traces the historical roots of this phenomenon and its development to the present, carefully scrutinizing the manipulative tactics companies have constructed to pitch the 'beauty myth' to American women. His research addresses myriad themes on the commodification of American women, including: What is the 'perfect' female physique and who is defining it? What institutions that have emerged to combat the 'obesity plague' and provi...
Presents an integrated theory of development and maturation focusing on the influence of childhood experience on adult women. The book draws on the theories of Mead, Habermas, and Schutz, and on narratives and group discussions to analyze case studies.
A fascinating account of the growing "Yes in My Backyard" urban movement The exorbitant costs of urban housing and the widening gap in income inequality are fueling a combative new movement in cities around the world. A growing number of influential activists aren’t waiting for new public housing to be built. Instead, they’re calling for more construction and denser cities in order to increase affordability. Yes to the City offers an in-depth look at the “Yes in My Backyard” (YIMBY) movement. From its origins in San Francisco to its current cadre of activists pushing for new apartment towers in places like Boulder, Austin, and London, Max Holleran explores how urban density, once mal...