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On the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of The Sociological Imagination by C. Wright Mills, the 'bureaucratic ethos' that he described continues to define our world more than ever before. In Bureaucratic Culture and Escalating World Problems eleven contributors systematically continue and develop Mills' broad vision of the scientific method. They analyse escalating bureaucratic barriers that prevent us from solving our many pressing social, environmental, and economic problems.
"J. David Knottnerus compares failed and successful polar expeditions in terms of participation in ritual practices and the psychological health of crews, finding that work practices, religious activities, games, parties are all extremely important in increasing crewmembers' ability to cope with severe challenges"--
J. David Knottnerus compares failed and successful polar expeditions in terms of participation in ritual practices and the psychological health of crews, finding that work practices, religious activities, games, parties are all extremely important in increasing crewmembers' ability to cope with severe challenges.
Up to now, ritual has been under-utilised for studying human behaviour. This book narrows the gap in our understanding of the social causes and consequences of our actions by focusing on the ritualised behaviours that define much of our daily lives. Knottnerus breaks new ground by comprehensively describing structural ritualistic theory. He shows how structural reproduction has occurred throughout the world, how rituals can be strategically used and how power can influence rituals, and how the disruption and reconstitution of ritual is of crucial importance for human beings. This book shows that ritual provides a missing link in sociology and helps us better explain the extreme complexity of human action and social reality.
Polar Expeditions employs structural ritualization theory to show how rituals enriched the lives of crewmembers on 19 polar expeditions over a 100-year period. J. David Knottnerus identifies and compares failed, successful, and extremely successful missions in terms of participation in ritual practices and the social psychological health of crews, finding that that social and personal rituals, such as work practices, religious activities, games, birthday parties, special dinners, or taking walks are extremely important in increasing crewmembers' ability to cope with the challenges they face including extreme dangers, isolation, restricted environment, stress, lengthy journeys, and quite importantly the disruption of those practices that define our everyday lives. Besides contributing to our knowledge about polar expeditions, this research yields implications for our understanding of ritual dynamics in other situations such as disasters, refugee camps, nursing homes, traumatic experiences, and a new type of hazardous venture, space exploration.
Portraying people who have lived and worked in long-term nursing home facilities, Elder Care Catastrophe reveals how organizational dynamics and everyday rituals have unintentionally led to resident neglect and abuse. Backed up by research and grounded in sociological theory, this book offers alternative models for lessening the maltreatment of people living in nursing homes. It provides critical information for family members struggling with nursing home issues, nursing home employees, policy-makers, students and researchers concerned with elder care issues.
Preface p. vii Part I. Structural Analysis: Past, Present, and Future 1. History of Social Structural Analysis Charles Crothers p. 3 2. Social Structure: The Future of a Concept Douglas V. Porpora p. 43 Part II. Culture and Social Structure 3. How Are Structures Meaningful? Cultural Sociology and Theories of Structure Lyn Spillman p. 63 4. Agency, Structure, and Deritualization: A Comparative Investigation of Extreme Disruptions of Social Order J. David Knottnerus p. 85 5. Global Power, Hegemonic Decline, and Culture Narratives Albert J. Bergesen p. 107 6. Situating Hybridity: The Positional Logics of a Discourse Jonathan Friedman p. 125 Part III. History and Social Structure 7. A Structural...
Up to now, ritual has been under-utilised for studying human behaviour. This book narrows the gap in our understanding of the social causes and consequences of our actions by focusing on the ritualised behaviours that define much of our daily lives. Knottnerus breaks new ground by comprehensively describing structural ritualistic theory. He shows how structural reproduction has occurred throughout the world, how rituals can be strategically used and how power can influence rituals, and how the disruption and reconstitution of ritual is of crucial importance for human beings. This book shows that ritual provides a missing link in sociology and helps us better explain the extreme complexity of human action and social reality.
On August 9, 1965, 53 men died in the impoverished hills of rural Arkansas. Their final breaths came in a government facility deep underground while their loved ones were at home expecting their return. The incident at Launch Complex 373-4 remains the deadliest accident to occur in a U.S. nuclear facility. The 53: Rituals, Grief, and a Titan II Missile Disaster analyzes the event. It looks at causes but more importantly at how the mishap has affected daughters and sons for nearly six decades. It gives new sociological insight on technological disasters and the sorrow following them. The book also details how surviving family members managed themselves and each other while benefiting from the support of friends and strangers. It describes how institutions blame the powerless, and how powerful organizations generate distrust and secondary trauma. With an analysis of the event and post-disaster life, their children share stories on what went wrong and how they keep moving forward.
There were many little-known challenges to racial segregation before the landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). The author's oral history interviews highlight civil rights protests seldom considered significant, but that help us understand the beginnings of the civil rights struggle before it became a mass movement. She brings to light many important but largely forgotten events, such as the often overlooked 1950s Oklahoma sit-in protests that provided a model for the better-known Greensboro, North Carolina, sit-ins. This book's significance lies in its challenge to perspectives that dominate scholarship on the civil rights movement. The broader concepts illustrated-including agency, culture, social structure, and situations-throughout this book open up substantially more of the complexity of the civil rights struggle. This book employs a methodology for analyzing not just the civil rights movement but other social movements and, indeed, social change in general.