Ideas And Intervention Rle Social Theory

Author : Joe Bailey
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 167 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2014-08-13
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317651789

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Ideas and Intervention (RLE Social Theory) by Joe Bailey Pdf

Theorizing in sociology has increasingly become a self-generating and self-fulfilling activity, as sociologists absorb theory as an isolated and formalist part of their discipline. Joe Bailey believes that sociological theory should be a contribution to practical social intervention. His book presents a practical view of social theorizing as an activity at which sociologists are skilled and which they could teach to the interventionist professions. The relation between theory and practice is defined as one in which theory guides practice and makes explicit necessary choices. A description of disciplines and professions is provided as a basis for examining social intervention in three areas – law, social work and urban planning. The author considers some exemplary contributions which sociological theorizing could and should provide, and concludes by proposing a pluralist view of theory as the best strategy for a sociology relevant to practice.

Author : Joe Bailey
Publisher : Routledge & Kegan Paul Books
Page : 176 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 1980
Category : Political Science
ISBN : UOM:39015016123922

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Ideas and Intervention by Joe Bailey Pdf

Author : Miriam Glucksmann
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2014-08-21
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317650690

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Structuralist Analysis in Contemporary Social Thought (RLE Social Theory) by Miriam Glucksmann Pdf

The primary concern of this book is to investigate whether or not structuralism constitutes a distinctive framework in the social sciences. The author focuses on two major structuralist thinkers, Louis Althusser and Claude Lévi-Strauss. She analyses and compares the structure of their theory, and places them within the context of their respective disciplines. Dr Glucksmann began working on this book at a time when structuralism was at the height of its popularity in France, and was thought to be a homogenous alternative to bourgeois sociology. The progress of her study implicitly reflects the developments and divergences within structuralist thought that have emerged since then. In particular, she examines the differences between the political and philosophical thought of Althusser and Lévi-Strauss, which have become increasingly manifest.

Author : Frank Hearn
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 346 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2020-08-26
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781000155839

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Reason and Freedom in Sociological Thought (RLE Social Theory) by Frank Hearn Pdf

How has reason, believed since the Enlightenment to be the ally of freedom in the search for a better, more humanly satisfying world, been reduced to a technical rationality that has actually impoverished the bases of human freedom? What might be the options and obligations for sociologists who wish to restore reason to its proper status? Working within the tradition of C. Wright Mills and Jurgen Habermas, Frank Hearn sets out to answer these questions. He surveys the treatment of the relation between reason and freedom in both the classical tradition (especially the writings of Saint-Simon, Comte, Durkheim, Marx, Weber, and Freud) and an increasingly significant segment of social thought and criticism (and, for example, in the contrasting visions of Daniel Bell and Christopher Lasch.) He then analyses both the concrete social and historical forms of expression taken by what Mills calls 'rationality without reason' and their impact on individual autonomy and the freedoms associated with democratic politics. Finally, he develops Mills's and Habermas's claims that the cultivation of democratic publics and a critical social theory committed to a vibrant public life are indispensable to the protection and revitalization of the values of reason and freedom and of the practices they entail. This book updates and enriches Mills's influential argument by demonstrating its affinity with critical theory, by showing its contributions to a critical understanding of the classical tradition, and by showing its implications for contemporary social, political, and economic developments.

Author : Paul Halmos
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 202 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2014-08-21
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317651451

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The Personal and the Political (RLE Social Theory) by Paul Halmos Pdf

Are human misery, poverty and despair a result of personal inadequacy or social injustice? Therefore is the solution to these problems psychotherapy or political action? In one of the most important books on social work for a decade, Paul Halmos tries to resolve a dilemma which many social workers experience acutely – the conflict between a desire to help those in need and a fear that, by doing so, they merely support a political system which should, itself, be changed. Such a dilemma was highlighted during the sixties when 'casework' and personal counselling became discredited by the 'rediscovery' of widespread poverty and inequality in western society. To many the only solution seemed to be urgent and radical political action. For Professor Halmos the realities are more complex – an exclusive preoccupation with either personal or political solutions is unlikely to prove fruitful – what is needed is a dual sensitivity and balance. Yet for the author it is the political solution which carries within it the greater risk and he warns of the dangers inherent in the total politicization of social concerns. He argues that social action can become political action and ultimately political control.

Author : Stanislav Andreski
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 246 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2014-08-21
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317651925

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The Essential Comte (RLE Social Theory) by Stanislav Andreski Pdf

Auguste Comte proclaimed himself the founder of sociology and, on the whole, this claim is accepted. His most important work is the six-volume Cours de Philosophie Positive of which this present book is a selective abridgement. Comte, as this selection shows, was a methodological visionary. He was an eminently successful terminological innovator and to him we owe not only 'sociology' and 'positivism' but also 'biology' and 'altruism'. Professor Andreski, in his lucid introduction, assesses Comte's place under six headings, as scientist, philosopher, sociological theorist, sociological historian, reformer and methodologist. But this selection from Comte's works will be most welcomed because it provides a modern English translation of the main body of his thought.

Author : Ted Benton
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2014-09-19
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317651420

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Philosophical Foundations of the Three Sociologies (RLE Social Theory) by Ted Benton Pdf

An extended historical and philosophical argument, this book will be a valuable text for all students of the philosophy of the social sciences. It discusses the serious alternatives to positivist and empiricist accounts of the physical sciences, and poses the debate between naturalism and anti-naturalism in the social sciences in new terms. Recent materialist and realist philosophies of science make possible a defence of naturalism which does not make concessions to positivism and which recognizes the force of several of the anti-positivist arguments from the main anti-naturalist (neo-Kantian) tradition. The author presents a critical evaluation of empiricist and positivist theories of knowledge, and investigates some classic attempts at using them to provide the philosophical foundation for a scientific sociology. He takes the Kantian critique of empiricism as the starting point for the main anti-positivist and anti-naturalist philosophical approaches to the social studies. He goes on to investigate the inadequacy of post-Kantian arguments from Rickert, Weber, Winch and others, both against non-positivist forms of naturalism and as the possible source of a distinctive philosophical foundation for the social studies. The book concludes with a critical investigation of the Marxian tradition and an attempt to establish the possibility of a materialist and realist defence of the project of a natural science of history, which escapes the fundamental flaws of both positivist and neo-Kantian attempts at philosophical foundation.

Author : Bryan S. Turner
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 172 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2014-08-21
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317652441

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Citizenship and Capitalism (RLE Social Theory) by Bryan S. Turner Pdf

In this study of politics in capitalist society Bryan Turner explores the development of citizenship as a way of demonstrating the effective use of political institutions by the working class and other subordinate groups to promote their interests. Marxist criticisms of reformism are rejected; it is shown that subordinate groups can achieve significant advances in social and economic rights, and that democracy is not a sham but a necessary mechanism for the pursuit of interests.

Author : Hans Fink
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 130 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2014-08-07
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317651123

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Social Philosophy (RLE Social Theory) by Hans Fink Pdf

The programmes of political parties and movements are attempts to formulate policies or guidelines in relation to social change. Social philosophy concerns the fundamental issues on which those programmes divide. This introductory work gives an account of several highly influential systems of social philosophy – systems which serve as the landmarks by reference to which modern discussions still orientate themselves. The description of various stages in the history of social philosophy is set within an account of its changing social environment – from feudalism and the philosophy of Aquinas to the rise of the working class and socialism. The book confines itself to the Western tradition and one could say that it charts the rise and fall of the free market as the central institution and the key to the understanding of society.

Author : Mike Gane
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 254 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2014-08-13
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317651741

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Ideological Representation and Power in Social Relations (RLE Social Theory) by Mike Gane Pdf

This collection reflects the French influence on literary and representational theory which has been predominant in recent years. It contains stimulating essays on the fiction of Perault, Borges, James, Eco and Tournier. These are complemented by theoretical essays on power and representation which provide powerful critiques of Barthes, Derrida, Deleuze and Marin, writers central to the contemporary debate. Finally, two perceptive essays reflect upon and attempt to redirect current theory, drawing on and confronting the writings of Michel Foucault.

Author : Anthony Giddens
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 414 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2014-08-21
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317650645

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Studies in Social and Political Theory (RLE Social Theory) by Anthony Giddens Pdf

The studies which comprise this book are essentially organized around a critical encounter with European social theory in its 'classical period' – i.e. from the middle years of the nineteenth century until the First World War – and have the aim of working out some of the implications of that encounter for the position and prospects of the social sciences today. The issues involved relate to the following series of problems: method and epistemology; social development and transformation; the origins of 'sociology' in nineteenth-century social theory; and the status of social science as critique. In each of these areas, Giddens develops views that challenge existing orthodoxies, and connects these ideas to a reconstruction of social theory in the contemporary era.

Author : Hermann Strasser
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 284 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2014-08-13
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317652328

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The Normative Structure of Sociology (RLE Social Theory) by Hermann Strasser Pdf

In this provocative analysis of the central issues and developments in modern social theory, Dr Strasser contends that enquiry into the function, tasks and mission of sociology as a discipline can be understood only in relation to the subject's historical development. He believes that a discussion of the origin and intention of sociology, particularly in relation to the established social order, enables us to grasp fully the nature of sociological theory, both past and present. He maintains that a sociologist's own position in society, and consequently his views on its development and his way of expressing those views, will affect the theoretical position he takes up.

Author : Piotr Sztompka
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 295 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2014-08-21
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317652588

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Agency and Structure (RLE Social Theory) by Piotr Sztompka Pdf

A striking feature of the human condition is its dual, contradictory, inherently split character; on the one hand, autonomy and freedom; on the other, constraint and dependence on social structure. This volume addresses this central problem of the linkage between human action and social structure in sociological and social science theory. Contributions cover several different approaches to the agency-structure problematic, and represent the work of a number of leading international sociologists. Their efforts point to a reorientation of social theory, both on philosophical and methodological levels.

Author : Thomas Baumgartner,Tom R. Burns,Philippe DeVille
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 363 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2014-08-07
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317651147

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The Shaping of Socio-Economic Systems (RLE Social Theory) by Thomas Baumgartner,Tom R. Burns,Philippe DeVille Pdf

Actor-systems dynamics is an innovative, multidisciplinary methodology for investigating and analyzing social struggles over economic resources and the related interplay between economic and socio-political institutions and processes. The authors, sociologists and economists, offer a systemic perspective on contemporary socio-economic issues such as economic crisis, unemployment, inflation, economic democracy and development; in their analyses, they identify several of the key factors that drive people to interact, to initiate change and transformation as well as to resist such change. Major underlying themes in the book are: Conflict over the distribution of economic resources and economic policies and institutions; the structural bases of economic inequality and conflict; the shaping and reshaping of socio-economic institutions, and the contradictions, conflicts and instabilities evoked by such developments; the failure of orthodox economic theories, including Keynesianism, in the face of recurrent economic crises and instabilities; the development and application of an open, dynamic actor-oriented systems theory – grounded in the social sciences – addressing complex socio-economic phenomena in ways diverging substantially from conventional economics. All in all, the papers collected here deal, on the one hand, with social power, conflict, and struggle concerning economic resources and institutions and, on the other hand, the structural and other factors which drive powering initiatives, conflict, and social innovation and transformation. The book is addressed to a broad spectrum of social and managerial scientists concerned with socio-economic issues, institutions, and development.

Author : Klaus Hurrelmann,Franz-Xaver Kaufmann,Friedrich Lösel
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Page : 412 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2014-12-02
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9783110850963

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Social Intervention by Klaus Hurrelmann,Franz-Xaver Kaufmann,Friedrich Lösel Pdf