How racist is society today? How have the patterns of discrimination and disadvantage changed over the past 20 years? This text explores the nature and extent of racial discrimination, and the successes and failures of equal opportunities programmes. Incisive analyses focus upon the operation of institutional racism in immigration law, housing, social work, employment, training and the criminal justice system. They explore changes over time and examine the interwoven strands of `race', class and gender that form the pattern of disadvantage. This provides a context for a critical discussion of the formulation, implementation and outcomes of equal opportunities policies in the local state and the private sector. The authors investigate both `liberal' and `radical' approaches to equal opportunities in the area of `race'. They analyze the political and ideological contentions that influence the ways in which issues are defined and support is mobilized. They also highlight the shortcomings of current legislation.
This book offers a contribution to the current debate over globalization. It provides a a distinctively cultural focus on the social theory of the contemporary world. The relationship between local communities and a broader social system is a long-standing concern. Recent decades, however, have seen an acceleration of the processes by which the global system impacts on localities. The result has been an increased interest in understanding the nature of global society, viewed through such conceptions as "world-systems", "restructuring" and "capitalism".
"Critical Management Studies" brings an integrated critical approach to the study of management and organizations. The contributors provide a critically oriented overview of the entire area of management studies: organization theory, organizational behaviour, marketing, accounting, information systems and operational research. They offer a state-of-the-art report on those areas which are currently most influenced by critical theory, and discuss its relevance for practitioners. The book should appeal to anyone interested in management studies from a critical perspective, and should be of particular interest to management students - including those at PhD and MBA level.
An examination of the diverse implications of the idea of global identity, which brings a sociological focus to environmental issues, whilst testing and extending globalization theory. It explains the complex interrelation between environmentalism and globalization and it investigates globalization in the contested policy arena of the environment. The book also contends that mutual suspicion and fragmentation are the outcomes of competing visions of the globe's needs, and looks critically at how the "globality" of global issues is constructed and negotiated.
By using a series of studies of contemporary mainstream Hollywood movies - Blue Velvet, Wall Street, Crimes and Misdemeanors, When Harry Met Sally, Sex Lies and Videotape, Do the Right Thing - Norman Denzin explores the tension between ideas of the postmodern, and traditional ways of analyzing society. The discussion moves between two forms of text: social theory and cinematic representations of contemporary life. Denzin analyzes the ideas of society embedded in poststructuralism, postmodernism, feminism, cultural studies and Marxism through the ideas of key theorists like Baudrillard, Barthes, Habermas, Jameson, Bourdieu and Derrida. He relates these to the problematic of the postmodern self as exposed in cinema centering on the decisive performance of race, gender and class.
"Talking Difference" is a re-evaluation of current wisdom - both academic and popular - about men's and women's language. Mary Crawford critically assesses the abundant social science research of recent years, and its representation in the mass media, from talk shows to self-help books. Why has the study of gender and language so often focused on the limitations of women's talk? How do academic practices constrain our understanding of how gender relations are re-created and maintained in language use? Why do assertiveness texts usually ignore indirect modes of speech such as humour and storytelling? Addressing such questions, the book offers a new understanding of the role of language practices in both maintaining and disrupting gender inequality. It will be interesting reading for students and lecturers in psychology, women's studies, socio-linguistics and communication studies.
`It is a clich [ac]e but this book is timely, welcome and indeed a breath of fresh air....It is of particular value for people concerned with public communications, political economy, economics and the relationship between society and technology. Moreover, this book powerfully dispels the tacit assumption, prevalent in business, politics, media and academia that a combination of technical fixes and the free market can right all social problems' - Irish Journal of Sociology Thirty years ago, one writer complained that 'to admire technology is all out of fashion'. Today excited claims are made for the impact that these technologies are having on social, political and economic life. But how are we to assess these claims? This book critically interrogates many of the prevailing ideas offers a fresh perspective on this new`digital age'. Reshaping Communications: * Provides an alternative and more grounded account of the complex interplay between new technology and information structures and changes in society * Illuminates the fundamental continuities as well as changes in socioeconomic and political processes * Draws on an interdisciplinary perspective and original empirical research. The book will be essential reading for all those concerned with the new communication technologies, including students of media and communications as well as policy-makers.
Since the work of Carl Rogers there has been an increasing recognition of the importance of the quality of attention and the sense of relatedness in therapeutic change. Sensitivity to these aspects is deepened in meditational practices, which put one in touch with the emergent self. This book considers how relationships and change can be facilitated by very subtle attention to qualities and flows within the therapeutic process. The closer we can reach into the experience of the other, the more this person may feel understood and attended to. Rosalind Pearmain brings together insights from Buddhism, Taoism and yoga with those from cognitive psychology, neuroscience and consciousness studies to provide a synthesis.
`It is a clich [ac]e but this book is timely, welcome and indeed a breath of fresh air....It is of particular value for people concerned with public communications, political economy, economics and the relationship between society and technology. Moreover, this book powerfully dispels the tacit assumption, prevalent in business, politics, media and academia that a combination of technical fixes and the free market can right all social problems' - Irish Journal of Sociology Thirty years ago, one writer complained that 'to admire technology is all out of fashion'. Today excited claims are made for the impact that these technologies are having on social, political and economic life. But how are we to assess these claims? This book critically interrogates many of the prevailing ideas offers a fresh perspective on this new`digital age'. Reshaping Communications: * Provides an alternative and more grounded account of the complex interplay between new technology and information structures and changes in society * Illuminates the fundamental continuities as well as changes in socioeconomic and political processes * Draws on an interdisciplinary perspective and original empirical research. The book will be essential reading for all those concerned with the new communication technologies, including students of media and communications as well as policy-makers.
