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This volume takes a deep dive into the lasting legacy of stigma from the COVID-19 Pandemic. Self isolation, quarantine, face masks, hand washing, and travel restrictions are all ancient methods of pandemic management that extend past antiquity. Yet in a highly globalized pandemic, such ancient methods were the front lines of defense for a modern-day pandemic. And with such ancient methods come ancient problems, such as stigma. Based on two-years of extensive research in Nova Scotia, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia (jurisdictions that attempted to achieve Zero COVID) the book carefully outlines how with each wave of the pandemic a new group was blamed for it. When public measures were enforced, often anger was turned to groups who were assumed to have brought the virus into the country (or province). The nature of anger, and the nature of stigma evolved through the pandemic, but the impacts remain. In particular, the pandemic allowed jurisdictions to designate rights, and freedoms for people from certain places, while heavily penalizing others from away. The book argues that COVID-19 was born through globalization but the global response to it was fractured and divisive based on national and territorial identities as is reflected through targeted stigma. If another pandemic is to emerge, the book argues that a commitment to non-stigmatizing methods is needed in order to ensure compassion, dignity and respect, which are the ultimate goals of global health.

This book represents a significant intervention in human rights and its literary praxis, underscoring its paramount relevance and pressing urgency within the intricate tapestry of the Asian Pacific context. The book examines the local trauma endured within the complex geopolitical landscape of the Asian continent while also embracing a broader outlook that transcends geosocial boundaries. As a pivotal contribution to the discourse on Asian trauma studies, the chapters address a critical scholarly lacuna by delving into critical theoretical reflections and providing a robust epistemological foundation. The chapters look at human rights and trauma studies in a way that focuses not only on Europe. The volume fosters a deep comprehension of the historical and cultural facets shaping the Asian continent and its human rights challenges. The book is indispensable for educators, policymakers, and researchers engaged in the intricate realm of human rights and trauma studies.

'Viel zu wenig wird untersucht, wer weshalb mit welchen Medien Wissen auf Reisen schickt oder von Reisen mitbringt und wer auf welche Weise sich fremdes Wissen eigensinnig angeeignet, um das Eigene neu zu interpretieren. Der vorliegende Band ist ein gelungener Versuch, die Wege und Praktiken zu beleuchten, mit denen Menschen dies tun.'Jo Reichertz

In diesem Buch wird die soziologische Differenzierungstheorie dazu genutzt, Öffentlichkeiten in unterschiedlichen sozialen Einheiten zu untersuchen und damit die Grundlage für eine allgemeine Theorie der Öffentlichkeit zu entwickeln. In jedem differenzierten Sozialgebilde, so die leitende These der Arbeit, entsteht der Bedarf nach einer öffentlichen Orientierungsebene. Da es sich aber nicht nur bei der modernen Gesellschaft, sondern zum Beispiel auch bei Organisationen und Familien um differenzierte soziale Einheiten handelt, müsste folglich auch von einer organisationsinternen oder einer familieninternen Öffentlichkeit gesprochen werden. In diesem Sinne kann Öffentlichkeit als pluralistische Kategorie verstanden werden.

This book is about the urgent need to have time for health. It's about why people don't exercise, rest or eat healthy food even when they know they need to. Time has become the prescription needed to halt chronic diseases, 30 minutes of physical activity every day is a minimum, but this book argues against telling people to do more. It explains why it's not laziness, ignorance or lack of motivation that's the problem for unhealthy lifestyles, and why so many people lack time for their health. The book connects ideas from economics, sociology, political economy and public health to work-family dilemmas, gender and social inequality. It ends by canvassing interventions and actions from the personal, to the workplace, health promotion and urban design.

Dieses Open-Access-Buch knüpft an aktuelle Themen zur Transformation der Alltagsmobilität an. Es leistet einen Beitrag zur Frage, wie und wann Menschen ihre Mobilität multimodal gestalten, also verschiedene Verkehrsmittel nutzen, die unter Umständen eine umweltverträglichere Alternative zum Auto darstellen. Hierzu wird erstens untersucht, welche für multimodales Mobilitätsverhalten förderlichen oder hinderlichen Fähigkeiten und Restriktionen es gibt. Zweitens wird mithilfe von Vignettenstudien die Rangordnung bestimmter Verkehrsmittelaspekte in potenziellen Entscheidungssituationen zwischen dem Auto und den umweltverträglicheren Alternativen ÖV oder Fahrrad geprüft. Drittens widmet sich diese Arbeit auch der Frage, wie multimodales Mobilitätsverhalten in Quartierskontexte eingebettet ist. Dazu werden qualitative und quantitative Daten der Befragung „Mobilität in Bochum 2020“ ausgewertet. Den theoretischen Hintergrund bilden die Grundlagen soziologischer Handlungstheorien und das Motility Konzept.

Altruismus scheint im Alltagsverständnis seinen uneingeschränkt positiven Ruf als ebenso wünschenswerte wie seltene Tugend verloren zu haben und durch ein Ethos des Eigennutzens ersetzt worden zu sein. Angesichts globaler Krisen wie dem Klimawandel, großer Flüchtlingsbewegungen, Kriege und Armut ist die Bereitschaft zur Verhaltensänderung bzw. zum Verzicht zugunsten kommender Generationen oder hilfsbedürftiger Menschen weniger selbstverständlich als das Phänomen der psychologischen Reaktanz und die Weigerung, Einschränkungen der persönlichen Freiheit oder des Konsums hinzunehmen. Zeitgenössische Ethikerinnen und Ethiker müssen sich demnach mit der Frage nach der Motivation für ein Handeln auseinandersetzen, das in erster Linie nicht dem eigenen Wohl, sondern dem Wohl anderer dient. In diesem Sinne beleuchtet der vorliegende Band das Thema Altruismus in seinen verschiedenen, wechselseitig aufeinander verweisenden Facetten: Wie ist das Wesen altruistischen Handelns zu bestimmen? Liegt Altruismus in der Natur des Menschen? Lässt sich Altruismus widerspruchsfrei in verschiedene Ethiktypen einordnen? Wie verstehen verschiedene philosophische Traditionen und Religionen den Altruismus? In welchem Verhältnis steht der Altruismus zum guten Leben? Und: Wie ist altruistisches Handeln motiviert? Da diese Fragen in verschiedenen Fachwissenschaften und mit unterschiedlichen Perspektivierungen gestellt werden, ist dieser Sammelband interdisziplinär konzipiert: Philosophie und Religionswissenschaft kommen ebenso zu Wort wie Verhaltensökonomie und Evolutionsbiologie. Auch anthropologische, soziologische und psychologische Zusammenhänge werden beleuchtet. Dementsprechend richten sich die hier versammelten Aufsätze an ein sehr breit gefächertes akademisches Publikum, aber auch an eine interessierte öffentliche Leserschaft außerhalb des universitären Kontexts. Mit Blick auf diese Zielgruppen führen die einzelnen Beiträge in das jeweilige Thema ein und präsentieren gleichzeitig eine eigene Forschungsposition der Autorin bzw. des Autors.

This edited volume reflects on the profound effort undertaken by artists to contest settler denial and amnesia to disclose Australia's foundations in racialised violence and land theft. The book examines how First Nations creative and cultural practitioners have turned to the unique spaces of art and culture to remember and mourn the profound loss of life caused by British invasion and colonisation in the absence of official commemoration and public acknowledgement of the damage caused. It significantly focuses on a number of creative practitioners driving this powerful memory-work, containing contributions from some of the leading thinkers on truth-telling through creative practice, including Fiona Foley, Dianne Jones, Vicki Couzens, Julie Gough, r e a, Tony Birch, Paola Balla, Neika Lehman, Arlie Alizzi, Charmaine Papertalk Green, Kate Golding, Odette Kelada and Clare Land. An important contribution to scholarship on the public memorialisation of difficult histories, this significant edited collection foregrounds First Nations, female, queer, trans and gender diverse artists and scholars from the continent that is known as'Australia'. Taken together these deeply researched, considered texts, poems and conversations lend vital, critical perspectives on the ways artists are confronting settler colonial Australia's toxic colonial memorial culture of denial. This book recognises that through a range of creative means and mediums, artists and cultural practitioners are making essential contributions to truth-telling, devising evocative, sensitive ways to make the injustices committed against First Peoples not only visible and tangible, but also strongly felt and grieved.

This book centres on religious heritage-making where religion as a rich and diverse manifestation of culture and community empowerment lead to the transformation of place. Fusing heritage and religion in the novel multidisciplinary concept ‘heri-ligion', the authors illuminate the dynamics of change inherent in religious-oriented heritage-making. Grounded in empirical evidence, this rich concept integrates religious tourism, heritage tourism, and community-based empowerment for sustainable development. Applying this unique concept to the once abandoned Hakka village of Yim Tin Tsai, the authors analyse the evolving paths of the island from its Hakka origins to a Christian pilgrimage site, and more recently, to a UNESCO cultural heritage site and thriving tourist destination. The authors foreground the important role of the scattered community as a key agent of change in facilitating a sustainable environment of Hong Kong's only salt-producing place today. A dynamic example of community development and empowerment founded upon religious, cultural, industrial and natural heritage, this book uniquely contributes to tourism and heritage studies, human geography, cultural sociology, Hakka studies, Asian studies, and anthropology of religion.

This volume elucidates international biographical and narrative perspectives on how COVID-19 influenced people's daily lives across different countries and contexts. It draws together global interdisciplinary scholarly contributions and conceptualizes the lived life as a complex, multilayered and multidimensional phenomenon that is constantly unfolding both in and across time. Significantly, this volume focuses on seldom-heard groups including persons diagnosed with HIV, COVID-19 dissenters, prisoners, essential workers, waste pickers, refugees and migrants. The chapters focus on the pandemic's multifarious impacts on people's lived realities in personal and professional domains, exploring the complexity of people's relationships with family, friends, interactions with colleagues and students and the centrality of emotions, to everyday human experiences, including grief, loss and loneliness as well as moments of joy and processes of personal renewal. This volume explores innovative questions, issues and challenges on the development and utilization of rich, biographical narrative methodologies during COVID-19, addressing important issues like power and voice, and pragmatic questions of how to do biographic research whilst socially distant. Contributions to this work illuminate the multidimensionality of human experiences, adaptability to adverse circumstances and the complexity of working through unanticipated global events whilst reimagining novel social futures.

This open access novel uses fantasy and romance to pique readers'interest in understanding how AI technologies can be used for social justice across very different political and social terrains. Can you truly reach out to somebody who is in every aspect the direct opposite of yourself? Gabriel and Tilda, the two protagonists of this futuristic novel, are very different people. They work at a Berlin-based international aid company, and the only thing they can agree on is that the world is in a shambles: Scarce public resources, conflict and crises, inequalities, religious and socio-cultural belief systems that cement social injustice, have created a world as deeply divided and set apart as Gabriel and Tilda. They are sent on company business to recruit international partners for a social development project on global justice, and start travelling the world together. On their adventurous journey through many countries, they learn about the impacts of culture on social welfare systems, while trying to define their own relationship, which is intermingled with generational power games and milieu-specific worldview struggles. In Gabriel and Tilda's attempts to bridge the deep gulf between their personalities, the novel creates a metaphor for finding a cohesive model of global justice using artificial intelligence that can integrate highly contextualized, national value cultures. Gabriel and Tilda are supported by two guardian angels: Assigned to save the planet through interpersonal and intercultural integration, the angels GA and TA team up with English Benedictine monk and mystic guru Bede Griffiths who is very keen to help Tilda and Gabriel in their model pilot of unlikely love.

This best-selling textbook returns for an eighth edition with material on the most fundamental issues in sociology today. The authors continue their tradition of focusing on the big picture, with an emphasis on race, class, and gender in every chapter—building on the seventh edition's discussion of reproductive justice after the revocation of Roe v. Wade, social movements such as Black Lives Matter and #MeToo, a discussion of the COVID-19 pandemic and Donald Trump and Joe Biden.The text frames sociological debates around the major theoretical perspectives of sociology and focuses on capturing students'imaginations with cutting-edge research and real-world events. The hallmark of the book continues to be clear writing that helps students understand the intricacies of the discipline like no other textbook on the market.New to the eighth editionThinking outside the box (or inside it…)Selected chapters contain thematically linked boxed inserts aimed at bringing analytical and expositional focus to certain issues, as follows: Sociological Insights: These boxes focus on how sociology can help us better understand a variety of issues and how examples from everyday life can help us to understand sociological principles, illustrating how topics are carefully linked to that material. Global Sociology: One of the most pronounced social changes of the past century has been globalization—a transition from the dominance of nation-states and national economies to global interactions. These boxes examine how social change moves around the world. Sociological Surprises: One common criticism of sociologists is that we sometimes expend a great deal of effort to prove things that are obvious. On the contrary, the reality is that what we find often goes against what people commonly believe and even against what sociological researchers expect to find. These boxes focus on such unexpected findings, analyzing why the social reality turns out to be something different from what is expected. Understanding Race, Class, and Gender: These boxes give added emphasis to the book's focus on race, class, and gender inequality. In every issue that sociologists study, race, class, and gender play a key role—and these boxes provide students with clear and concrete examples of how this occurs. Student Life: These boxes, which discuss student life from a sociological viewpoint, show how sociology is relevant to students in their everyday lives, covering race relations to dating to paying for college, and draws out their sociological implications. Putting Sociology to Work: These boxes focus on application: How can sociology be used to solve a social problem or to make an important decision?

This textbook analyses the work of classical and contemporary sociological theorists. The first part is dedicated to Comte, Spencer, Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Pareto, and Simmel. The second part covers the major contemporary sociological perspectives: Functionalism, Marxism, Conflict Theory, Symbolic Interactionism, Phenomenological Sociology, and Rational Choice Theory. The third part is devoted to Postmodern Theory, Feminist Theory, Postcolonial Theory, and Race Theory. The author combines academic rigour with clear and accessible language, offering students an in-depth and extensive overview of the main, recurring problems that have troubled sociological theory from its origins to the present day. The textbook uses contemporary examples, analysing how sociological theory can explain the most tragic phenomena of our time, including the war in Ukraine, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, US-China competition over Taiwan, nuclear proliferation, radicalization, neofascism, white suprematism, jihadism, and terrorism. With pedagogic features aiding learning, this book helps navigate the various approaches, methods, and research that divide sociologists into distinct schools. This textbook is therefore an invaluable tool to any sociology student looking to gain a comprehensive understanding of the foundational thinkers that have shaped the discipline.

This book seeks to identify the main threads of a resolutely complex course of thought which has contributed greatly to sociology. Although he founded no “school,” Raymond Boudon certainly made original contributions to the discipline in his own time, including his theory of rationality, his interpretation of the work of the founders of sociology, and his explanation of educational inequalities. He also presented convincing arguments about how the overly narrow utilitarianism of mainstream economists was incomplete and betrayed major theoretical gaps. It is true in any case that his thought laid the groundwork for many theoretical and empirical social studies. Through an analysis of the most important parts of this thought, each of the chapters will not merely demonstrate the scientific rigor which can be associated to his work, but also show how it remains relevant to our understanding of contemporary society and how it can hence be used for future research projects. There can be no doubt, Boudon's thought has for various reasons undergone new assessments. Chapters of this book hence reflect a variety of points of view on how his work can be understood, criticized, and used for future research endeavors.

Depressivität ist nicht bloß ein individuelles Thema, sondern zeichnet sich, wie auch andere Formen psychischer Leiden, durch einen nicht vernachlässigbaren Grad an sozialer Variabilität aus. Forschung zu den sozialen Determinanten psychischer Gesundheit weist folglich insbesondere darauf hin, welche Rolle die gesellschaftliche Umwelt für die Entstehung von Erkrankungen spielt und kann somit der Konzeption neuer Präventionskonzepte dienlich sein. Das vorliegende Buch beschäftigt sich mit der Depressivität von Personen über 50 Jahren in verschiedenen europäischen Wohlfahrtssystemen. Durch einen vergleichenden Ansatz mithilfe von Daten des'Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe'(SHARE) werden regimespezifische Effektdynamiken im Hinblick auf Stressexposition, die Ausstattung mit Bewältigungsressourcen und Depressivität aufgedeckt. Hiermit soll einerseits auf die Möglichkeit wohlfahrtsstaatlicher Einflussfaktoren auf die psychische Gesundheit hingewiesen sowie auch eine Synthese von Regimetheorie und soziologischer Stressforschung vorangetrieben werden.

In diesem Buch wird der Zusammenhang zwischen sozialer Teilhabe und Mobilität auf Basis theoretischer Grundlagen und Erfahrungen aus einem Reallabor in der Region Hannover dargestellt und mithilfe von quantitativer und qualitativer Empirie untersucht. Zudem werden neu entwickelte Planungsinstrumente, wie ein Index zur Quantifizierung von Mobilitätsoptionen sowie ein durch einen sozialen Baustein erweitertes Verkehrsnachfragemodell, vorgestellt. Mobilitätsbezogene Maßnahmen zur Steigerung sozialer Teilhabe werden auf Basis der Empirie entwickelt, im Reallabor erprobt sowie mithilfe eines hierfür konzipierten Bewertungssystems beurteilt.

This book explores the connection between family structure and circumstances, parental engagement, and adolescent sexual behavior. Given that South Africa contains the highest portion of the global HIV epidemic within a single country, a comprehensive, book-length investigation into—sometimes risky—adolescent sexual behaviour is necessary. Drawing from the longitudinal Cape Area Panel Study (CAPS) of more than 4,000 adolescents between the ages of fourteen and twenty-two, as well as qualitative interviews and focus group discussions with parents and adolescents, this study pioneers empirical investigation of adolescent sexual behavior within the intricate framework of family dynamics in South Africa.

This is an open access book. The conference will focus on educational management and social studies, discussing key challenges and research directions for the development of the field, promoting the development and application of theories and methods in the field in universities and enterprises, and providing a favorable platform for innovative scholars and experts focusing on the field of research to exchange new ideas and present their research results.

Religion ist ein gesellschaftliches Feld, das starken Dynamiken unterworfen ist: Religion und Religiosität reagieren sensibel auf sozialen Wandel, treiben ihn mit ihren Eigendynamiken voran oder blockieren ihn. Der vorliegende Band entstand im Anschluss an eine Tagung anlässlich des 25-jährigen Bestehens der Sektion Religionssoziologie der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie. Die Beiträge spiegeln die lebendige soziologische Forschung zu der engen Koppelung von Religion(en) und Gesellschaft und haben eine explizit feld-historische Perspektive: Sie thematisieren sowohl Veränderungen dieser Verzahnungen als auch die theoretischen und empirischen Erforschungsperspektiven und bilden die damit verbundenen aktuellen Diskurse innerhalb der deutschen Religionssoziologie ab.

Die Herausgebenden legen mit „Globale Soziologie“ einen Band vor, der in Debatten um die Dekolonisierung der Disziplin interveniert. Sie vereinen Beiträge, die anhand dreier Fragenkomplexe die international bereits geebneten, im deutschsprachigen Raum jedoch kaum betretenen Wege zu einer Globalen Soziologie aufzeigen und erweitern. Sie stellen zunächst die Geschichte der Soziologie auf den Prüfstand und fragen, von welchen Standpunkten aus „klassische“ Theorien entworfen wurden und wessen Lebensrealitäten sie erfassen und adressieren. Insbesondere die ungleichen Voraussetzungen in der Konstruktion und Zirkulation von „Klassikern“ bei institutionell hergestellter Unsichtbarkeit anderer Werke finden Berücksichtigung. Zweitens gehen die Beiträge des Buchs der Frage nach, welche epistemologischen und methodologischen Schlüsse sich aus diesen historiographischen und theoretischen Kritiken und Rekonstruktionen ziehen lassen. Sie erarbeiten Vorschläge, die einen erkenntnistheoretischen Wandelhin zu einer reflexiven, multiperspektivischen und global verflochtenen Soziologie begründen und fortführen können. Drittens werden Schlüsselthemen identifiziert und anhand empirischer Studien aus der Arbeits-, Migrations- und Geschlechtersoziologie illustriert.

In diesem Buch wird beschrieben, wie Forscher:innen in der Zeit des Kalten Kriegs die Meinungen von Expert:innen nutzten, um Prognosen über Entwicklungen von geopolitischer Bedeutung zu konstruieren. Am Beispiel der RAND Corporation, einer US-amerikanischen Denkfabrik mit engen Beziehungen zu Militär und Pentagon, analysiert der Autor die Entwicklung von zwei Prognosetechniken, der Delphi-Befragung und dem politischen Planspiel. Auf der Grundlage von Archivrecherchen und Interviews untersuchen die Kapitel die Entwicklung dieser Techniken. Dabei wird freigelegt, wie zeitgenössische Sozialwissenschaftler:innen eine der zentralen Kategorien der Kultur des Kalten Krieges, nämlich jene der:s Expert:in, auffassten. Die damals entwickelten Methoden der Sozialprognose dienen somit als Quellen einer breiteren Erörterung des Stellenwerts von Wissen und Wissenschaft in der Gesellschaft zur Zeit des Kalten Kriegs.

Ein berühmter, immer wieder zitierter Satz von Max lautet: „Interessen (materielle und ideelle), nicht: Ideen, beherrschen unmittelbar das Handeln der Menschen. Aber: die ‚Weltbilder‘, welche durch ‚Ideen‘ geschaffen wurden, haben sehr oft als Weichensteller die Bahnen bestimmt, in denen die Dynamik der Interessen das Handeln fortbewegte.“ Die neuere Soziologie ist diesem Grundsatz allerdings nicht gerecht geworden. Werte und ihre Wirkung werden entweder als gegeben vorausgesetzt (so bei Talcott Parsons) oder überhaupt als irrelevant betrachtet (so in der Rational Choice- und Systemtheorie). Die umfangreiche, empirische Werteforschung hat vielfältige Ergebnisse erbracht, blieb jedoch weitgehend ohne theoretisches Fundament, sodass ihre Befunde vielfach anfechtbar sind. Weber selbst gab im Hinblick auf die Frage nach der Relevanz der Werte nur unbefriedigende Antworten: Die Entscheidung für bestimmte Werte sei eine rein individuelle Angelegenheit und zwischen den verschiedenenWerten gebe es einen unversöhnlichen Kampf. Im vorliegenden Buch wird diese Problematik erstmals in der deutschen Soziologie umfassend untersucht und es wird dafür (u.a. im Anschluss an Autoren wie Immanuel Kant, George H. Mead und Raymond Boudon), eine neue, konstruktive und erklärungsstarke Lösung gefunden. Unter Zuhilfenahme von Überlegungen aus Philosophie, Sozialtheorie und empirischer Sozialforschung sowie unter Einbeziehung historischer Kämpfe zur Anerkennung und Durchsetzung der Werte kann man feststellen, dass es gesellschaftliche Grundwerte gibt, dass deren Anzahl klar bestimmbar ist und dass zwischen ihnen keineswegs Konflikt, sondern Komplementarität besteht. Mit diesen Thesen und Befunden kann dieses Buch als neues soziologisches Standardwerk angesehen werden. Es hat auch für Vertreter vieler anderer geistes- und sozialwissenschaftlicher Disziplinen grundlegende Bedeutung.

Based upon the interdependencies of human beings as we cooperate and conflict with each other, how we share information, and how culture evolves, this book proposes a sociology of humanity covering three hundred millennia. Grounded in empirical findings from archaeology, history, lab experiments, and field studies – supplemented for precision with computational network models of cultural evolution, cooperation, influence, cohesion, warfare, power, social balance, and inequality – this is the first attempt at encompassing sociology of humankind. Informed by the theory of cultural evolution, it extends the notion that cultural evolution connects humans of all times in a giant sociocultural network, thereby yielding coherence between a great many empirical findings. It will therefore appeal to scholars of sociology and anthropology with interests in historical sociology, cultural evolution, and social theory.

Throughout their careers, social scientists must come up with compelling research topics, decide when and where to publish, and revise their manuscripts for publication. Despite the importance of these skills, they are seldom if ever addressed in the course of graduate training. Heavy emphasis is placed on conducting research, and other core activities such as teaching also receive attention, yet fundamental academic practices are left almost entirely in the shadows.Practicing Sociology brings together a range of leading sociologists to reflect on their work and demystify this tacit knowledge. In conversational and engaging essays, they provide practical guidance and hard-won wisdom for readers at any stage of their scholarly careers. The book's three sections explore the art of finding new research questions, best practices in publishing, and how to make the most out of the peer review process. Contributors'distinctive voices come through as they recount their frustrations and failures as well as the joys of the sociological craft. They provide a range of perspectives, underscoring that there is no one “right” way to practice sociology but a constellation of different approaches that together give the field its vitality.Practicing Sociology features a team of skilled scholars including Peter Bearman, Paul J. DiMaggio, Wendy Espeland, Marion Fourcade, Shamus Rahman Khan, Eric Klinenberg, Michèle Lamont, Jennifer Lee, Mignon Moore, Mario Small, Duncan Watts, and many more.

Utopian thinking and utopian designs ostensibly represent a belief in human progress. The starting point of utopias is almost always a bad present that is to be overcome. But in the 20th and 21st centuries, doubts are growing about a plannable future designed by enlightened reason, about the project of modernity. Utopias are answered by dystopias. This makes it clear: the basic motif of utopian thinking is the fear of an uncontrollable future, a fear that could perhaps be overcome by the principle of hope (Ernst Bloch), an amiable illusion. The Content The'contradiction'of rationality and irrationality in utopian conceptions ● Fiction and reality ● Model and myth ● Symbol and symbolic action ● Enlightenment to autonomy. The target groups ● Humanities scholars, political scientists and social scientists ● Philosophers ● Theologians Theauthor Prof. Dr. Hans-Georg Soeffner is Professor Emeritus of General Sociology at the University of Konstanz, Senior Fellow and Board Member at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities Essen (KWI) and Permanent Visiting Fellow at the Forum internationale Wissenschaft of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn.This book is a translation of an original German edition. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation.

In den Bänden dieser Reihe werden erstmalig detailliert die wichtigsten Strömungen und Themen der ungemein fruchtbaren Periode der Soziologie der Zwischenkriegszeit im deutschen Sprachraum dargelegt. Damit leisten diese Bände nicht nur einen eminent wertvollen Beitrag zur Aufarbeitung der Geschichte der Soziologie in theoretischer, empirischer und institutioneller Hinsicht, sondern vertiefen die eingehende Erörterung Spezieller Soziologien auch durch die Bezugnahme auf Nachbardisziplinen wie Sozial- und Ideengeschichte, Ökonomik, Psychologie und Ethnologie.

Questo libro presenta e discute alcuni problemi di fondo che emergono oggi nelle relazioni alimentari e che riguardano i nostri stili di vita. I primi tre capitoli si concentrano sulle questioni che concernono l'alimentazione e sul rapporto con ciò che possiamo o non possiamo mangiare, per motivi etici, religiosi o semplicemente collegati al nostro benessere. Il quarto capitolo tratta dell'atto del bere e del nostro rapporto con l'acqua, nell'ottica della sostenibilità, della giustizia, del corretto uso e dell'equa distribuzione delle risorse idriche. In generale, l'idea che viene sostenuta nel libro è che per gli esseri umani gli atti del mangiare e del bere non dipendono dalla volontà del soggetto, ma si svolgono in contesti di relazione già dati e mettono in gioco, o impediscono, ulteriori relazioni: con altri esseri viventi, con altri esseri umani, con noi stessi. Tali relazioni possono svilupparsi bene oppure male. Se sono attuate male risultano distruttive. Bisogna capire come ciò accade e agire di conseguenza. L'etica ci aiuta a farlo, facendoci riflettere su questi problemi e individuando soluzioni concrete. Scritto per studenti universitari e per studiosi di etiche applicate, il libro è una lettura stimolante e provocatoria anche per un pubblico più ampio.

This book delves into the decision-making process behind (exclusive) breastfeeding in Mexico, examining the intricate interplay of individual and institutional factors that influence this critical health choice. Positioned within the context of Mexico's complex healthcare structures and existing health inequalities, this study serves as a significant case analysis within the Latin American region. Employing a comprehensive multi-methodological approach, the research combines quantitative analysis with qualitative insights from interviews with mothers. With a focus on unraveling how Mexican mothers decide to breastfeed, the study addresses the impact of institutional and individual factors, and the personal and structural barriers faced by mothers. Key findings underscore the pivotal role of childbirth experiences, prenatal care quality, and social support systems in shaping breastfeeding decisions. This research reveals that, despite efforts to promote health literacy and individual responsibility, institutional factors exert significant influence on breastfeeding choices. By providing unique insights and practical implications, this research contributes substantially to the fields of public health and sociology of health.

This open access volume explores the impact of globalization on the contemporary study of deep-time art. The volume explores how early rock art research's Eurocentric biases have shifted with broadened global horizons to facilitate new conversations and discourses in new post-colonial realities. The book uses seven main themes to explore theoretical, methodological, ethical, and practical developments that are orienting the study of Pleistocene and Holocene arts in the age of globalization. Compiling studies as diverse as genetics, visualization, with the proliferation of increasingly sophisticated archaeological techniques, means that vast quantities of materials and techniques are now incorporated into the analysis of the world's visual cultures. Deep-Time Images in the Age of Globalization aims to promote critical reflection on the multitude of positive – and negative – impacts that globalization has wrought in rock art research. The volume brings new theoretical frameworks as well as engagement with indigenous knowledge and perspectives from art history. It highlights technical, methodological and interpretive developments, and showcases rock art characteristics from previously unknown (in the global north) geographic areas. This book provides comparative approaches on rock art globally and scrutinises the impacts of globalization on research, preservation, and management of deep-time art. This book will appeal to archaeologists, social scientists and art historians working in the field as well as lovers of rock art.

First published in 1932, Studies in Sociology consists of essays that fall into three groups, the first concerned with the scope and method of sociology and its relation to history and social philosophy; the second devoted to an analysis of the theory of evolution as applied to society, and to a number of problems in social psychology, such as the nature of social purpose, the place of instinct in social science, the relation between instinct and emotion, and the inheritance of mental characters; while the third group deals with the claims of Eugenics, and social classes and social mobility. This book will be of interest to students of sociology, history and philosophy.

This book breaks down barriers between disciplines engaging with flow, by speaking from geography into psychology to establish geographical foundations for this psychological phenomenon. It frames and works with the multiple contradictions within the extant literature as productive rather than prohibitive, thereby encouraging collaboration across discrepancies as well as across disciplines. It incorporates new materials and perspectives to research on flow, including aesthetic theory, new materialism, more-than-human geographies, and critical development geographies to broaden the theoretical and empirical landscape of future flow scholarship. It also digs more deeply into pre-existing areas of interest within flow research than has been done before, for example, with respect to ‘dark'flow, ‘flowability'and (tele)presence, to facilitate more nuanced engagement with such terms. It takes a step back from the detailed empirical work that characterizes most current flow research to pose questions as to how such divergent, even contradictory, findings can emerge from scholarship on a supposedly universal experience that is purportedly robustly constructed, and whether this contrariness is necessarily problematic or emblematic of flow itself and therefore worthy of conceptual elaboration. Finally, it evokes global scale and long-term critical perspectives on the future evolution of flow to counteract the presentism within existing work that emphasizes immediate gains (e.g., performance, wellbeing, profit), in an attempt to pre-empt the worst ramifications of the progressive commodification and strategization of flow. This innovative book is of interest to scholars from a range of fields, from psychology, to business and human resource management, leisure studies, and critical human geography.

Um den Ursachen der Klimakrise zu begegnen und deren Auswirkungen substanziell abzuschwächen, ist es eine zentrale Herausforderung, die derzeit verbreiteten ressourcenintensiven Alltagswelten zu transformieren und klimafreundliches Verhalten zur neuen Normalität werden zu lassen. Dieses Buch nimmt hierfür exemplarisch zwei klimafreundliche Alltagsroutinen der Mobilitätswende und Ressourcenwende in den Blick: das Radfahren und das Recyceln. Anhand qualitativer Interviews wird nachgezeichnet, was es in der Praxis bedeutet, in den derzeitigen infrastrukturellen und sozialen Settings mit dem Rad unterwegs zu sein und die alltäglich anfallenden Abfälle zu recyceln, welche Kompetenzen und Erfahrungen erforderlich sind und welche Ansatzpunkte für die weitere Verbreitung vielversprechend erscheinen. Übergreifend werden fünf Ansätze für die Förderung und ein tiefergreifendes Verständnis klimafreundlicher Alltagsnormalitäten abgeleitet.

This book presents a new reading of the history of French social science and religion through an investigation of early sociology's techniques for narrating the category of belief. The author argues that by looking at the history of social sciences in this manner, we gain a deeper understanding of both our present debates on post-secularity as well as our modernist past, both of which were thoroughly shaped by their reflections and critiques on the notion of belief yet failed to enter into any sort of meaningful communication with each other. This book seeks to rectify this failure by introducing the concept of ‘belief-languages', an anthropological framework designed to historicize different discussions on belief and allow for their comparative description and analysis.

“A very timely book that offers a sharp, agile, and clear tour through some of the concepts-horizons in which critical thinking and Latin American social movements converge, emphasizing the tensions, richness, and scope of Buen Vivir.” — Maristella Svampa, National University of La Plata, Argentina. and recipient of the Konex Platinum Award in 2016 “… In his new book, Ronaldo Munck addresses traditional issues in a new light and reflects on how we can tip the scales towards ‘a new dawn.'Inspiring!” — Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, Professor of Political Sociology and Critical Theory, University of Bath, UK “Ronaldo Munck discusses a cornucopia of ideas for shaping a progressive alternative world after globalization. … An engaging and student friendly text given the clarity of its exposition.” — Cristóbal Kay, Emeritus Professor, International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, Netherlands “[This book] offers a compelling heterodox political analysis of the complex turns to the left in Latin America over the last two decades. The book captures both the complexity and the possibilities of alternative projects in Latin America. … Ronaldo Munck shows the enduring importance of Latin American thinking in our struggles to ‘(re) imagine a new future, a new dawn'.” — Mo Hume, Professor of Latin American Studies, University of Glasgow, UK “For those of us who thought we knew enough about globalization and Latin America, Ronaldo Munck's wide-ranging new book will be a real eye-opener and a critical source on radical Latin American scholarship over recent decades.” — Leslie Sklair, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, London School of Economics, UK “ [This book] represents an imaginative and rigorous effort to problematize Buen Vivir as concept, contribution, myth, and emancipatory horizon but, above all, as a path to take us beyond neoliberalism.... Ronaldo Munck puts forward a radical reading of Buen Vivir, situating it in the long trajectory of critical thinking in Latin America. This is a fundamental book for understanding the theoretical, epistemic, and political possibility of a new Amerindia... ” — Alejandra Santillana Ortiz, Director and Senior Researcher, Institute of Ecuadorian Studies, Quito, Ecuador This book makes the powerful argument that Latin America needs to be a more central part of the discourse on emerging globalities and in the pursuit of an inter-civilizational focus to avoid West-centric perspectives. It deploys a cultural political economy approach that sees the global political economy as inescapably cultural and allows us to avoid the hyper-rational analysis of economics. It explores various aspects of contemporary Latin America from the revival of dependency theory, the ‘pink tide'governments since 2000 and, in particular, the potential of the Andean Buen Vivir political philosophy, to offer a distinctive paradigm for sustainable global development. The book provides a de-colonial frame and shows how many recent and new social science perspectives emerging globally are connected with Latin American scholars and Latin American social experiments: namely, dependency, decolonial and post-colonial epistemologies, post-neoliberalism, and the notion of Pluriverse. The book focuses on the cultural, the ethical, the economic and the political, and environmental dimensions of this transformation, which represents a reaction and alternative to the Western cultural, including ethical, economic, political, environmental crises. The readership for this book includes all who are fascinated by the globalization lens on the one hand, and the experience and lessons of

Questioning society and one's place in it is a common theme in both comedy and sociology. Understanding and subverting hierarchies and norms, exploring deviance and taboos, and relating lived experience to broader questions all hold a crucial place for them both.Introduction to Sociology Through Comedy teaches foundational sociological concepts using comedy, first considering the history of sociology before employing examples from comedians – including standalone comedy bits, sketches, characters, and scenes – to illustrate a specific theory, concept, or social phenomenon. The profession of comedy is then used as a case study for the application of sociological concepts, such as impression management, social stratification, racial segregation, deviance, and stigma, allowing readers to gain familiarity with the concepts while simultaneously practicing their application.This book explains why we laugh by applying theories of humor, which will bolster students'understanding of sociological principles by forcing them to question their own assumptions – helping them to put why they laugh into sociological terms.

Social Identity research has found prominence in the realm of collective action but lacks an environmental activism focus. This study gathers individuals'experiences to explore the influences on decision-making processes to join an environmental activist group – the local Extinction Rebellion (XR) group in Stuttgart, Germany. This case study is used to identify patterns in this process, to test the applicability of existing models and to explore the significance of social identity. Activists and past activists were interviewed. The results make it apparent that the existing models are not sufficient to represent social identity processes in environmental activism. The findings are visualized in a suggested adjusted model of collective action, which suggests norms and morals and (politicized) social identity as a twin core influencing collective action. Social identity retains its significance at the center of the model. Furthermore, it is suggested that collective efficacy beliefs anda sense of agency are interchangeable factors influencing the twin core and collective action directly. Injustice perceptions remain essential. Social connections, group identification, group dynamics, participatory efficacy, self-identity, and image are found to play a role occasionally but require further investigation. The convergence of collective efficacy beliefs and a sense of agency and the valuation of factors present especially relevant future research topics.

This book helps readers to understand the fast growing and timely concept of social metabolism. The authors shed a light on the different existing terms and methodologies that have been developed over the years. Through the study of history, readers will get an understanding of the main currents or schools that exist around this concept and their main findings. Also provides examples of how to apply the metabolic approach at different territorial and temporal scales and using different methodological tools. The book presents a novel socio-metabolic theory of historical change, in which biophysical and social variables are combined in an integrated way to understand the dynamics of socio-metabolic transitions.In this second edition, the authors provide valuable updates and new sections to each of the previous chapters. New insights on global phenomena like climate change and the environmental crisis are also considered. As readers will learn, a paradigm shift in almost all areas of research and society will be needed to face the challenges created by the modern industrial society. The authors use a look back in history, to explore the relationship between humans and nature from an evolutionary and thermodynamic perspective. With this approach, readers from history, environmental sciences and social sciences will get valuable insights on possible solutions.

This book provides a historical-sociological analysis of recreational scuba diving practices. Starting from a national case study, Greece, the book analyzes the gradually evolving global institutional arrangements of this version of underwater recreational activities. Based on the author's experience as a former diving instructor and on an historical and sociological research of scuba diving in Greece, the book examines the stages of institutionalization of scuba diving as a leisure practice on a global scale, from 1945 to the present day. It combines two traditions: the phenomenological approach of underwater multisensory embodied experience and tourism studies. The two main research questions that the project answers are (a) how scuba diving has historically been shaped as a leisure activity, (b) how has underwater experience been conceptually shaped as a leisure activity. This case is an excellent example for exploring the relationship between society, technology, body and modern practices of self in the late modernity world, under a phenomenological and historical perspective.

Social Theory and the Political Imaginary: Practice, Critique, and History is an innovative work of synthesis, critique and analysis. It presages a social theory perspective that recognizes the constitutive significance of the political imaginary in modernity. Social theory's current dilemmas are explored through a series of interlinked assessments of recent substantial strands, specifically, Luc Boltanski's pragmatism and the wider ‘practical turn,'the perspectives of multiple modernities and global modernity, the outlook of social and political imaginaries and critical social theory. The political imaginary's reconfigurations are evident in the tensions of global modernity, and original social theory interpretations are advanced of landmark instances of twenty-first-century social contestation: the Hong Kong protests conditioned by threats to civil freedoms and a lack of self-determination, the radical democratic practices of anti-austerity movements contesting capitalist globalization's injustices and the inverted cosmopolitanism of the 2005 French Riots challenging the oppression and inequalities experienced by immigrant communities and marginalized youth. These incisive applications of social theory and complementary conceptual innovations illuminate the vicissitudes of social struggles, political forms and theoretical perspectives. Similarly, reflection on the political imaginary is found to enable a necessary rethinking of the interrelationship of practice, critique and history.

This book presents contributions from a multidisciplinary team of researchers who analyzed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and prospects for the Caribbean region. This book examines experiences, and responses to the pandemic in the region as well as some of the lessons that can be leveraged on beyond the pandemic. The volume is organized into four parts. Part I offers perspectives on the structural factors that influenced the Caribbean's experience with the COVID-19 pandemic. Part II delves into the social and psychological dimensions of the pandemic's impact in the region, offering specific examples. Part III explores the ramifications of the pandemic on crime and violence. And Part IV is dedicated to analyzing the regional and national responses to the pandemic. Prospects and Challenges for Caribbean Societies in and beyond COVID-19 will be of interest to researchers in a wide range of disciplines within the Social and Behavioral Sciences interested in studies about the Caribbean. It also aims to serve as a source of information and inspiration for researchers, practitioners and decision makers interested in contributing to the development of the Caribbean region.

Since the nation's independence, the union and state governments of India have employed a variety of development strategies, some of which have evolved over time. The model of development implemented in Bihar in recent decades is different from its prior development strategies. Along with a number of social reform initiatives, the Bihar government implemented the “development-with-justice” model to enhance the lives and living circumstances of the most marginalized groups of the population and ensure the attainment of social justice.In light of the aforementioned context, this book offers an understanding of the various aspects of the Bihar government's “development-with-justice” model, and the effects of its implementation on lives and quality of living conditions of the state's underprivileged population. The book covers a wide spectrum of areas such as history of social reform measures, social justice in education, health, labour market, etc., caste- and gender-based discrimination, women's empowerment, migrant workers, poverty, inequality, agrarian concerns, planning for development, and so on. Besides recommending policies to improve the state's development outcomes, this book will aid researchers in identifying topics that may require additional research.Clearly researched, concise, and up-to-date, this book will be useful to the students and researchers from the fields of development economics, development studies, gender studies, sociology, political science, economic history, as well as the policy-planners in the government.

Die Beiträge dieses Bands kartographieren das soziologische und kulturwissenschaftliche Feld in Bezug auf Drogen und die mit ihnen verbundenen sozialen, gesellschaftlichen und politischen Praktiken. Die Neuauflage wurde um einen Teil über Drogen und Rassismus erweitert sowie um zahlreiche neue Beiträge ergänzt und aktualisiert. Der Inhalt Kulturgeschichtliche Zugänge zu Drogen und Rausch Drogen und Sucht Theorie der Drogen: Soziologische und kulturwissenschaftliche Perspektiven Drogenmärkte und Prohibition Drogen und Rassismus Ethnografische Streifzüge Klassische Beiträge zur Drogenforschung Die Herausgeber Dr. Robert Feustel ist am Institut für Soziologie der Universität Jena im Arbeitsbereich Wissenssoziologie und Gesellschaftstheorie tätig. Dr. Henning Schmidt-Semisch ist Professor am Fachbereich Human- und Gesundheitswissenschaften der Universität Bremen. Dr. Ulrich Bröckling ist Professor für Kultursoziologie an der Universität Freiburg im Breisgau.

Sociology: A Brief Introduction connects essential sociological theories, research, and concepts to students'daily experiences. The program highlights the distinctive ways in which sociologists explore human social behavior—and how their research findings can be used to help students think critically about the broader principles that guide their lives. In doing so, it helps students begin to think sociologically, using what they have learned to evaluate human interactions and institutions independently. With up-to-date scholarship, examples, and photos, Dr. Schaefer's market-leading, student-friendly program features thorough integration of the latest research on race, ethnicity, and globalization.

A pioneering exploration of the defining traits and contradictions of our relationship to the future through the lens of discountingForest fires, droughts, and rising sea levels beg a nagging question: have we lost our capacity to act on the future? Liliana Doganova's book sheds new light on this anxious query. It argues that our relationship to the future has been trapped in the gears of a device called discounting. While its incidence remains little known, discounting has long been entrenched in market and policy practices, shaping the ways firms and governments look to the future and make decisions accordingly. Thus, a sociological account of discounting formulas has become urgent.Discounting means valuing things through the flows of costs and benefits that they are likely to generate in the future, with these future flows being literally dis-counted as they are translated in the present. How have we come to think of the future, and of valuation, in such terms? Building on original empirical research in the historical sociology of discounting, Doganova takes us to some of the sites and moments in which discounting took shape and gained momentum: valuation of European forests in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; economic theories devised in the early 1900s; debates over business strategies in the postwar era; investor-state disputes over the nationalization of natural resources; and drug development in the biopharmaceutical industry today. Weaving these threads together, the book pleads for an understanding of discounting as a political technology, and of the future as a contested domain.

Die Studie leistet einen empirisch-rekonstruktiven Beitrag zu einer machtkritisch ausgerichteten Fachdidaktik. Sie fokussiert den Deutschunterricht und die darin stattfindenden Interaktionen als diskursive Praxis, in der ein spezifisches Wissen in, über und angesichts von Sprache relevant gemacht wird. Für Subjektivierung ist jenes Wissen hochgradig wirkmächtig und bleibt den Akteur•innen im Prozess der schulischen Enkulturation doch größtenteils unbewusst. Darin liegt ein hohes Potential für die institutionelle (Re-)Produktion von Linguizismus.Vor diesem Hintergrund eröffnet die Studie einen Blick auf sprachbezogene Adressierungen, die in charakteristischer Weise vom Fach selbst ausgehen. Sie werden in (fach)didaktischen und pädagogischen Programmatiken breit kommuniziert und zeichnen sich bis auf die Ebene unterrichtlicher Praktiken ab. Um das Zusammenspiel von fachspezifischer Adressierung und Praktiken des ‚doing language‘ möglichst eng aufeinander beziehen und in rekonstruktionslogisch plausibilisierte Zusammenhänge bringen zu können, liegt der Arbeit ein wissenssoziologisch-diskursanalytischer Ansatz zugrunde.

Within the last four years, the death of George Floyd brought a new level of urgency to understanding police violence; the world experienced two of the three hottest years on record; drug overdose deaths in the U.S. surpassed 100,000 per year for the first time; the foreign-born percentage of the population became the highest ever; and COVID-19 transformed education, work, and public health.Seeing Social Problems: The Hidden Stories Behind Contemporary Issues, Second Edition shows students how to think about social problems in a new way, by exploring the connection between their own experiences and larger social forces. The personal relevance of this book's content is at the forefront of every discussion. Chapters engage students in thinking about the world sociologically by focusing on case studies that represent broader social problems. In each chapter, learning objectives attune students to important concepts. Two sets of discussion questions— “First Impressions” and “What Do You Know Now?” — encourage students to recognize how the chapter has broadened their perspectives. An exploration of social policy at the end of each chapter shows students that how someone understands an issue influences the ways they go about addressing it.New to the Second Edition:- New chapter, “LGBTQ+ People and Their Critics,” explores different ways of understanding growing diversity in American society based on gender identity and sexual orientation- New chapter, “Education and Upward Mobility,” encourages readers to think more expansively about their schooling experiences, starting when they were very young and continuing through college- New chapter, “Immigration and Border Security,” exposes competing ways of seeing the rising influx of migrants entering the U.S. from Mexico- New chapter, “Health and the Environment,” draws on discussion about familiar topics including Covid-19, obesity, and climate change- New chapter, “Technology and Instant Pleasure” motivates students to recognize the wider societal impacts of their frequent usage of mobile devices to make life more convenient

This book uses Norbert Elias and John L. Scotson's The Established and The Outsiders to map selected established-outsiders figurations in Poland after 1989. Looking at gender and sexual orientation, nationalism and patriotism, race and class, antifeminism and homophobia, elitist and populist imaginaries, religious and political ideals and ideologies, hate speech, and the crisis of the rule of law, this book tracks how inequalities are transformed into figurations of the have and the have-nots by way of spatial, symbolic and institutional exclusion. This edited collection is rooted in a socio-historical understanding of the trajectory of Polish society before and since the fall of Communism over thirty years ago, and a critical assessment of the dramatic turn that Polish society has taken since the beginning of the democratic backsliding in 2015.

This book presents and analyses the results of the Lockdown Library Project survey, using a range of quantitative and qualitative approaches to provide a unique insight into the ways in which the first UK COVID-19 lockdown affected public reading habits. The authors begin by outlining the background to the study, the research methodology and design, and an overview of the headlines of the data, before going on to survey the literature on the relationship between pandemics, literature (especially the role played by genre and popular fiction) and reading habits. They then examine how participants reported that the lockdown period had affected the amount that they read; how they accessed books and discussed their reading with others; the use of reading as a coping strategy; and returning to re-read books that offered familiarity, reliability, and nostalgia. Finally, the concluding chapter brings together the overall findings of the project and briefly outlines future work in the field. This book will be of interest to academics in fields such as literary and genre studies, applied linguistics, corpus linguistics, stylistics, health humanities, and sociology, as well as practitioners working in education, in bibliotherapy, and in libraries.

This open access book constitutes a transnational and multidisciplinary inquiry of the most pressing challenges faced by young people Not in Employment, nor in Education or Training (NEET) in rural areas across Europe.. Rural NEETs are one of the most invisible segments of the youth population, in spite of the fact that the percentage of NEETs is higher in the countryside, compared to those in suburban and urban areas across the EU and many of the Southern and Eastern European countries. This book identifies and analyses different factors that may contribute to or hamper youth social development and social inclusion. Among them are main individual features of rural NEETs, the quality and characteristics of rural NEETs'informal social networks and support, the singularities of formal and non-formal education in rural areas and how they shape the transition from school to work, the role of employment services in providing adequate institutional support, the importance of policy package designor the role of new paradigms of rural development to uphold vulnerable young people in the European countryside. The contributions offered in this book provide a new model of analysis and comprehension of rural NEETs'personal development and social inclusion. This book therefore establishes the state of the art regarding available knowledge on rural NEETs, and represents an inspirational resource for new research agendas on the subject of vulnerable rural youth in Europe. This book also forms the policy design in areas such as education, employment, and social welfare in rural areas.

Engineers represent the (industrial) modern age like no other profession. In the German Empire and the Weimar Republic, however, the enormous numerical expansion of the profession was contrasted by comparatively unfavorable working conditions and incomes. This was particularly true of the graduate engineers, whose academization failed to meet industrial requirements. Can the völkisch, right-wing political radicalization of many technical experts on the eve of the'Third Reich'actually be fully explained by these professional-social frictions?Data on the professional-social situation, consumption, leisure time and political behaviour of engineers in the higher and academic professions, which have been made available for the first time, already reveal the contours of late-modern, contemporary society in the period under consideration. This makes more complex explanatory approaches necessary and enables general insights into the dynamics of social crises.This study of (historical) professional, inequality, and political sociology is published in its third, fully revised edition.This book is a translation of an original German edition. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation.