Explores the many roles of media within the fundamental political, economic and cultural changes taking place during the turbulence of 1980-85 in Eastern Europe. The author examines the central elements underlying these changes: power, the state, societal change, the economy, institutionalized racism, ethnic insurgency, secrecy and surveillance.
Too often sociology is taught as a detached system of thought and practice. Passion is regarded as something to be avoided or treated with suspicion. This text demonstrates passionate sociology. Providing an account of what sociology can achieve, this work introduces and develops a number of major themes, including identity, knowledge, metaphor, magic, desire, power, everday life and cultural mediation. It argues that students should analyze these themes through practices of reading, writing, speaking, learning, storytelling, performing and organizing. The authors bring students to the subject through a controlled engagement with practical sociological ideas and ways of seeing, and thus encourage readers to participate in the creative possibilities of sociology.
Presents a comparative analysis of affirmative action in the countries reputed to be leading the way in politics for women and draws on current social and feminist theory to present a lucid analysis of the implementation of reform. Author from the University of Adelaide.
This interpretation of nature and environmentalism: examines the destructive relationship between industrial society and nature; questions the utilitarian understanding of nature as an object through a careful analysis of symbolism, ritual and taboo; critically re-examines thinking on the environment; presents a cultural view of nature, which emphasizes how our relation with nature is socially mediated; offers a radical re-interpretation of the relation between society, culture and nature; and explains how environmentalism, and the social construction of nature, is a key index of social order and structure.
The key to improving health services in many countries today is the capacity to develop strategy and think actively about policy. This book considers the relationship between planning and policy, taking as its starting point an analysis of health care and the dynamics of the policy process. The author provides a working knowledge of the different ways policy issues can be analyzed and sets out the problems involved in assessing the views of different interest groups. She stresses the importancr of suporting an active process of policy development. Carol Barker goes on to look at key concepts in analyzing health care issues and examines some of the debates overshadowing today's health policy agenda, as set by international agencies and by developing nations. She emphasizes the importance of understanding these issues as an aid to strategic thinking on policy implications in health care. An important focus of this book is an analysis of the extent to which policies can be changed or influenced by those involved in the process. This book should enable the reader to develop an understanding of the breadth and objectives of health policy studies and the ability to assess both the need and the scope of change. It should be useful reading for students and academics of health care policy, as well as those involved in the policy process, whether as policy makers, researchers, managers or health care professionals.
Told through the fresh, sharp eyes of new organizational recruits, these sometimes comic, often traumatic, but always vivid and revealing accounts of organizations have much to say to learners and old hands alike. Grouped in sections on `images', `winning and losing' and `survival and injuries', the narratives encompass a wide gamut of themes and issue. These include: power and politics in organizations; organizational cultures and change; gender and discrimination; appearances and realities; leaders and followers; and emotion, motivation and stress. The authors also focus on the coldly competitive features of businesses where processes such as restructuring, rationalization and downsizing are increasingly commonplace. Throughout, commentaries by Stephen Fineman and Yiannis Gabriel highlight particular points of analysis and learning, while each chapter concludes with questions for discussion and a selected bibliography enabling further reading.
`This is an admirable book which can be recommended to students with confidence, and is likely also to become an indispensable source of reference for those researching fact construction' - Discourse & Society How is reality manufactured? The idea of social construction has become a commonplace of much social research, yet precisely what is constructed, and how, and even what constructionism means, is often unclear or taken for granted. In this major work, Jonathan Potter offers a fascinating tour of the central themes raised by these questions. Representing Reality overviews the different traditions in constructionist thought. Points are illustrated throughout with varied and engaging examples taken from newspaper stories, relationship counselling sessions, accounts of the paranormal, social workers' assessments of violent parents, informal talk between programme makers, political arguments and everyday conversations. Ranging across the social and human sciences, this book provides a lucid introduction to several key strands of work that have overturned the way we think about facts and descriptions, including: the sociology of scientific knowledge; conversation analysis and ethnomethodology; and semiotics, post-structuralism and postmodernism.
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.
An introduction to the notion of intersubjectivity as a central concern of philosophy, sociology, psychology and politics. The main purpose of this volume is to provide a coherent framework for this concept against which the various and contrasting debates can be more clearly understood. Beyond this, the author provides a critical discussion of intersubjectivity as an interdisciplinary concept to shed light on our understanding of selfhood, communication, citizenship, power and community. The author traces the contributions of many key thinkers engaged with the intersubjectivist tradition, including Husserl, Buber, Kojeve, Merleau-Pony, Mead, Wittgenstein, Schutz and Habermas.
