What influence does the cinema have on visual culture and social understanding? In what ways are we products of the cinematic gaze? This timely book, written by one of the leading commentators in the sociology of culture, highlights the extent to which the cinema has contributed to the rise of voyeurism throughout society. The cinema not only turns its audience into voyeurs, eagerly following the lives of its screen characters, but repeatedly casts its key players as onlookers, spying on other people's lives. The nature of the cinematic voyeur - the obsessive outsider, the ethnic or sexual Other - is examined in depth, as are its implications for contemporary society. Denzin analyses Hollywood's manipulations of gender, race and class, and, drawing on the work of Foucault argues that the cinematic gaze must be understood as part of the machinery of surveillance and power which regulates social behaviour in the late twentieth century. The effect of the cinema in the social construction of everyday life has rarely been explored with such penetration and clarity. Ranging over a rich and varied array of material from film and film literature, and encompassing a critical interrogation of traditional realist ethnographic and cinematic texts, The Cinematic Society will be essential reading for students of social theory, sociology of culture and film studies. 'Adopting as a central premise the notion that the constitution of subjectivity occurs through the gaze of the Other, and locating the voyeur as the anti-hero of cinematic society, Denzin enters into a brilliant analysis of multiple forms of the voyeur's gaze' Peter McLaren, University of California, Los Angeles
At last a book that makes social theory for undergraduates a pleasure to teach and study. A Beginner's Guide to Social Theory offers a comprehensive overview of social theory from classical sociology to the present day. Students are guided through the work of Durkheim, Marx and Weber, functionalism, action perspectives, feminism, postmodernism and ......
French Social Theory, an extraordinarily accomplished book provides a peerless account of the French tradition. French Social Theory provides a systematic account of French social theory from the aftermath of the French Revolution (St Simon, Bazard and Comte) to the contemporary scene dominated by Kristeva, Deleuze, Bourdieu and Baudrillard; ......
Critical Perspectives on Community and "Bowling Alone"
This collection tackles the theme of isolation and the breakdown of mediating social institutions. It is, in part, a response to Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone as well as an attempt to create a broader idea of civil society.
Critical Perspectives on Community and "Bowling Alone"
This collection tackles the theme of isolation and the breakdown of mediating social institutions. It is, in part, a response to Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone as well as an attempt to create a broader idea of civil society.
Piven and Cloward and the Future of Social Science in Social Welfare
A compelling examination of the careers of Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven as well as Jane Addams demonstrates how politically-active scholarship can contribute to struggles for social justice.
Piven and Cloward and the Future of Social Science in Social Welfare
A compelling examination of the careers of Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven as well as Jane Addams demonstrates how politically-active scholarship can contribute to struggles for social justice.
Aimed at helping researchers create and evaluate scores better, this reader presents the basic concepts of classical (or 'true score') and modern ('generalizability') test theory. Beginning with a review of reliability and validity issues in measurement, Score Reliability covers score reliability, reliability induction, and reliability ......
How do we come to terms with what can't be forgotten? How do we bear witness to extreme experiences that challenge the limits of language? This remarkable volume explores the emotional, political, and aesthetic dimensions of testimonies to trauma as they translate private anguish into public space. Nancy K. Miller and Jason Tougaw have assembled a ......
