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"The Great Exodus from China" by Dominic Yang is a sociological study that explores the memories and identities of waishengren, or mainland Chinese who migrated to Taiwan in 1949. The book examines the meanings behind the experiences and emotions of waishengren, highlighting the significance of memory as a meaning-making process. Yang argues that memory serves a therapeutic function, helping displaced populations find solace, a sense of belonging, and reconciliation. The study resonates with the sociology of memory, which emphasizes the role of memory in understanding history, meaning-making, and theodicy, or the explanation of human suffering and injustice. The book provides valuable insights into the complex relationship between memory, trauma, and identity. [Extracted from the article]

As the discipline of the social sciences finds itself at a crossroads hedged in by the remnants of empire, with the 'decolonisation' of its conceptual and methodological foundations being the only productive path forward, the question is no longer whether to take this route, but how. In their recent book, Colonialism and Modern Social Theory, Gurminder K Bhambra and John Holmwood offer a stimulating and resourceful guide to this objective, setting forth a provocative approach in disrupting and radically reinterpreting dominant sociological understandings of modern world society. The following book review essay discusses the authors' interventions by highlighting their interrogations of the canonical figures who would shape the problematic trajectory of the discipline for generations. I assess the book's core argument of advocating for a need to recentre imperial encounters and relations at an explanatory level in the shaping of capitalist modernity, concluding with considerations for a reflexive and epistemic reconstruction of the sociological canon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this way, Illouz argues, choice can be exercised both positively, through the want and desire for love, and negatively, in the avoidance and rejection of love. As Illouz's' earlier publications have proposed ([3], [4]), modern love is characteristic of a capitalist consumer culture that favours bureaucratic rationality in pursuit of self-interest. However, Illouz justifies the choice to recruit a predominantly heterosexual sample in her explanation of the research as 'focused on gender differences, which more often than not function as gender inequalities' (p.14). [Extracted from the article]