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In this exciting book Michel Maffesoli argues that the conventional approaches to understanding solidarity and society are deeply flawed. He contends that mass culture has disintegrated and that today social existence is conducted through fragmented tribal groupings, organized around the catchwords, brand-names and sound-bites of consumer culture. The book provides a rich backcloth against which to consider the rise of `identity politics′ and the `proliferation of lifestyle cultures′.
In The Contemplation of the World, eminent French theorist Michel Maffesoli pursues and extends his project of decoding contemporary societies. Here, Maffesoli questions afresh the mundane stuff of contemporary sociality, seeking to discern its primary mode of expression - its forms, style, rules, and principles - its aesthetics. The advent of postmodernity marks the beginning of "the society of the image." It is as if the fragmentation of the social has gradually and necessarily corresponded to massive crumbling of our representations of the real and resulted in their infinite refraction. Henceforward we are living in the heart of an ever-increasing entanglement of objects, signs, and image...
Thought of Sorbonne Professor Michel Maffesoli (1944- ) : Sociologist of Postmodernity
Techno music seen as an experimentation to overcome the sociocultural boundaries of the social space. Techno is one of the more spectacular and mediatized aspects of contemporary culture. But is it more than mere entertainment, more than just an escape from a world that no ideology can claim to finalize? Like any fashion phenomenon, techno is the product of the human need for experimentation and the necessity to go beyond the limits and forms imposed on human existence. In terms of how it has appropriated technology for festive and aesthetic purposes, the techno movement could be considered as a sort of artistic and political laboratory of the present.
'Postmodernity' is often claimed as a great transformation in society and culture. But is it? In this book Keith Tester casts a cautious eye on such grandiose claims. Tester draws on a series of themes and stories from European sociology and literature to show that many of the great statements from 'postmodernity' are misplaced. 'Postmodernity' is not the harbinger or expression of a new world. It is a reflection of the unresolved paradoxes and possibilities of modernity. The author establishes a clearly expressed and stimulating model of modernity to demonstrate the stakes and consequences of 'postmodernity'. This book uses a wealth of sources which are usually denigrated or ignored in the debates on 'postmodernity'. As such it sheds new light on old claims. But it never fails to acknowledge the profound insights of sociologists and other authors. The Life and Times of Post-Modernity is a continuation of the themes which Tester raised in his earlier books with Routledge, The Two Sovereigns and Civil Society .
This volume seeks to address what its contributors take to be an important lacuna in youth cultural research: a lack of interest in the phenomenon of collectivity and collective aspects of youth culture. It gathers scholars from diverse research backgrounds – ranging from contemporary subculture studies, fan culture studies, musicology, youth transitions studies, criminology, technology and work-life studies – who all address collective phenomena in young lives. Ranging thematically from music experience and festival participation, via soccer fan culture, leisure, street art, youth climate activism, to the design of EU youth policies and Australian government ‘project’ work with youn...
Maffesoli presents a powerful argument for understanding everyday life by examining the passional logic that animates the social body. He asserts that the "circulation of sexuality," as much as the circulation of goods and services or language, is a structural component of sociality. By examining the dionysian adventure (passion, bonds of shared emotion, communal feeling), he redefines the problems of sociality and the strong hedonistic ethics present in contemporary daily life.
EARLY LEARNING: FIRST WORD BOOKS. Enjoy reading first words to your baby, with beautiful illustrations of everyday objects. Your baby will love the stylish illustrations and the shiny coloured foil on every page. Black and white board books are perfect for helping your baby to identify first objects and their very first words. The eye catching foil design will ensure these books will continue to be well loved throughout their first few formative years. Age 0+
In this important and stylish book, Michel Maffesoli argues that it is impossible to reduce knowledge to a conception of science inherited from the nineteenth century. Instead, he argues, we must go beyond intellectual conformities based on limited and archaic moral or political foundations. This approach emphasizes the growing importance of information and communication in modern societies. Maffesoli suggests that sociologists have too often succumbed to the "positivist fascination" of analytical formalism and dualistic thinking. Rather than viewing society as a finished product, he develops an approach which seeks to analyse, in all their nuances and contradictions, the new forms of social life - particularly everyday life - which are beginning to emerge in the late twentieth century. A timely contribution to current debates, Ordinary Knowledge will be welcomed by students and researchers in sociology and social theory.
The Disobedient Generation collects newly written autobiographies by an international cross-section of well-known sociologists, all of them "children of the '60s". It illuminates the human experience of living through that decade as apprentice scholars and activists, encountering the issues of class, race, the Establishment, the decline of traditional religion, feminism, war, and the sexual revolution. In each case the interlinked crises of young adulthood, rapid change, and nascent professional careers shaped this generation's private and public selves.