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While money is centrally important to globalization, inequality, and social conflict, sociological globalization theories lack a macro theoretical framework for analysis of the international monetary system. Because studies of the US dollar by Hoogvelt (2010) and Vermeiren (2013) are directly relevant to the development of such a framework, in this paper I critically review their analyses in light of (A) post-Great Financial Crisis macroeconomic and sociopolitical trends, (B) recent theoretical studies of money, and (C) empirical studies of the international monetary system. My critique of Hoogvelt and Veirmeiren's analyses serves as a foundation for the development of a theoretical analysis of money that is both sociological and global in its orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Science is an ethical community whose practitioners aim to discover information about the natural world and to explain discernible patterns that might be detected. Those who pursue science generally embrace certain epistemic values that help establish the moral boundaries of the community, while the twin pillars of rationality and empiricism serve as the foundations upon which scientists establish their truth claims. Yet however robust the assertions might appear, they nevertheless are the by-products of an exclusively human endeavor directly impacted by those sociological forces that apply throughout the social universe, including the scientist's social location and the importance of enhancing one's reputation. The current paper identifies key sociological factors that help shape scientific bias and the nature of the justifications used to defend truth claims. A case study of one community committed to a sociological paradigm demonstrates the utility of the explanatory framework advanced. A more self-conscious awareness of the forces at play that create such biases can help mitigate their deleterious impacts that subvert the quest for explanatory knowledge and valid truth claims about observable phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the closing decades of the last century, Professor Akínsolá Akìwowo, in a series of seminal papers, inaugurated what Jìmí Adésíná later dubbed 'the Akíwowo project'. This project involved (1) showing that there are resources in an African culture – Yorùbá – for doing sociology in ways that are as good as the dominant tradition to be found in Western sociology; and (2) offering some original ideas regarding some explanatory framework that could enable us to make sense of social phenomena. In this essay, I advance the Akìwọwọ project by showing how, despite previous criticisms, Akìwọwọ remains a keen identifier of theoretical possibilities lurking in his Yorùbá heritage for doing not only sociology, but also philosophy and other theories with African idioms. I show how those criticisms enhance the practice of sociology in Africa that will be a powerful presence in the discipline and in the world of ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose:EU policy documents and health scholars point out that in order to understand the complexity of modern health systems, as well as to devise appropriate policy responses, considering micro, meso, and macro levels is indispensable. This article aims to develop an analytical framework for how rehabilitation as an interdisciplinary field can be framed in such a three-level framework. Methods:This is a conceptual paper based on recent contributions to the development of a theory of rehabilitation. The paper applies sociological theory to build an analytical framework for a holistic understanding of rehabilitation. Results:Three groups of agents in the field of rehabilitation are identified: individuals with disabilities, professionals, and governmental authorities. The paper systematizes how these agents are positioned and act at micro, meso, and macro levels. In the intersection between the three levels of society and the three groups of actors, a nine-cell table emerges. In the cells of the table, key examples of important social processes to study in the field of disability and rehabilitation are identified. At the micro level, individuals experience a daily life relevant to rehabilitation, professionals ask what works in therapy, and policy authorities promote a strong work ethic. At the meso level, individuals with disabilities act as service user groups, professionals develop organizational designs and the policy authorities ask for cost-effective services. At the macro level, organizations representing people with disabilities lobby, professionals negotiate authorization issues, and the policymaking authorities must identify what can count as just distribution of services. The nine cells of the table are elaborated on by presenting relevant current studies exemplifying each cell. Conclusion:To systematize societal levels and agents involved is to enhance the understanding of rehabilitation as an interdisciplinary field of research.Implications for rehabilitationRehabilitation practice and research must relate to different levels of society and identify different social agents.Service users are not only individuals receiving therapy, but also organized agents influencing the organization of rehabilitation services as well as priorities made at the level of policy development.Both the results produced by health professionals doing a clinical trial and political scientists studying rehabilitation policy disputes will improve when placed in a wide frame of knowledge production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of theLearning, Media & Technologyseries on ‘Key Thinkers and Theoretical Traditions’, this paper explores the relevance of C. Wright Mills’ much lauded book ‘The Sociological Imagination’. The argument is made that we would do well to take heed of many of the central tenets of Mills’ call to arms for a historically aware, politically focused and carefully crafted social science. These include Mills’ concerns over the dominance of abstract empiricism, being beholden to the demands of ‘bureaucratic’ research agendas, a tendency towards psychologism and/or resorting to default explanations of the apparent failings of individuals and institutions in terms of a cultural/technological ‘lag’. The paper argues how Mills’ writing should inspire researchers to think beyond the realms of their own experiences, interests and passions, to look beyond the shallow allure of the latest ‘new’ technology, and to critically engage with the social, historical, biographical and political dimensions of education and technology. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the methodological basis for empirically researching moments of major policy change. Its genesis is in the methodological challenges presented by the initial stages of an ongoing research project examining the current attempts to establish the first nation-wide Australian curriculum. We draw on Dorothy Smith’s development of institutional ethnography and Bourdieuian field analysis to outline a methodological framework for research that has at its centre a concern to understand the social and institutional processes that enable, support and discursively prepare for significant educational reform. Working with and between these two eminent contributions to sociological enquiry, our paper explores the ways in which research can trace educational governance through the production, reproduction and subsequent enactment of generations of policy texts even before they are officially released for use in schools. In particular, we suggest that examination of the day-to-day processes involved in policy production shows how policy texts are progressively invested with institutional meanings and come to instantiate and govern institutional relations. The methodology we are developing foregrounds the creation and dissemination of discourses that support specific orientations to educational practice and governance, as well as the institutional practices that embed the logics of the field. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The concept of placebo has had a long history in medicine, and has evolved over time with the introduction of randomised controlled trials for testing health treatment, the increasing research done around the psychotherapies, the development of complementary and alternative medicine approaches to health, as well as the conceptual contributions from academic disciplines like psychology and anthropology. In recent years, discourses about placebo have pursued a number of key directions, and the current review paper explores these developments. For example, psychology has looked at placebo in terms of classical conditioning and the role of anxiety. Anthropology on the other hand has focused on the role of meaning and ritual in the placebo effect and psychotherapy research has encouraged an examination of the effects of the therapeutic relationship. Our review paper concludes by outlining directions ahead for future scholarship and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is primarily concerned with examining how the current re-emergence of psychosocial theory, mainly emanating from sociology, is useful for informing social work theory. Firstly it considers two extended examples of the limitations and/or contradictions in current theory for social work (that of linguistic determinism and postmodern versions of identity), and suggests how psychosocial theory offers ways forward for understanding and practice. The paper then considers two particular strengths in psychosocial theory: the ability to offer a 'rich' conceptualisation of the subject, and the equalising of worker and service user implicit in the theory. A further section looks briefly at the recent application of psychodynamic principles in social work practice, as 'relationship-based practice'. It then briefly considers some further implications for research and 'evidence' for social work. The paper's final section offers a discussion of two potential limitations in applying psychosocial theory in practice, before concluding that overall psychosocial theory is both productive, useful and appropriate for social work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate social mobility processes affecting the lives of 15 young adults in Loughborough (aged 20-30) who experienced poverty and disadvantage as children. Using biographical narrations, the interactions between the labour market, welfare, educational institutions and familial relationships will form the framework for assessing the applicability of poverty 'transmission' theories and mechanisms. The paper's concluding comments highlight the complexity and vulnerability of young people's lives, reveal the structural and individual constraints on social mobility and address the role that institutions play in constructing the past and current life experiences of those young adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health in Western society has become viewed as an achievement: something people are supposed to work at to enhance their quality of life or risk chronic illness and premature death. This is evident in the research documenting the close connection between chronic illnesses and health lifestyles. Almost all of this research is based on Western populations and much of it treats health behaviour and lifestyles as matters of individual choice or agency. While agency is important, structural conditions can 'act back' on individuals to configure their lifestyles in particular ways. The focus of this paper is to apply a new theoretical model to an Asian context. This model features a convergence between agency and structure and is supported by studies in Western countries. If the model is to have global relevance, it needs to be representative of health lifestyles in Asia as well. Unfortunately, there very few relevant studies available in Asia. Consequently, the intent of this paper is to not only present an initial theoretical framework for such studies, but also to call attention to the need for research in Asia on this topic. Everyone has a health lifestyle and Asians are no exception, as their lifestyles undoubtedly play a decisive role in determining health in the Pacific region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introductory chapter by Rokkan and Lipset in Party Systems and Voter Alignments (1967) and the further development of Rokkan's work in Citizens, Elections, Parties (1970) provide points of departure for a discussion of the impact of Parsonian AGIL theory on Rokkan's political sociology. The AGIL theory would seem to have provided initial inspiration for Rokkan's own thinking rather than premises for strict hypothetico-deductive reasoning closely related to the Parsonian theoretical framework. The present paper, however, attempts to deductively explore certain hidden implications of the AGIL dynamic, thus arriving at notions of structural contradictions similar to those found among some structural Marxists. These notions are then related back to Rokkan's theory of sequential historical junctures and conflicts, the conclusion being that his theory can and must be further developed to take account of the internal contradictions emerging in mature capitalism not only according to Marxists but also according to the hidden implications of AGIL theory explicated in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Michael Banton's paper provides fascinating insights into his long-running intellectual disagreements with John Rex, the other major post-war figure in the sociology of ‘race relations’. Published work and personal recollections are supplemented by a series of communications by letter to flesh out the precise nature of these debates. They reveal differing views on the ontological status of ‘race’, race relations and racism, as well as a number of criticisms of Rex's work. He argues that Rex was wrong to put so much faith in the ability of classical sociology to address these concerns, and that there was a disjuncture between theory, methods and substance in his empirical work. There is also a suggestion that Rex played down the significance of racism. The greatest difference between them, however, lay in their divergent views on the role of sociology and the sociologist. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper argues that both Michael Banton and John Rex were ‘children of empire’, albeit in starkly different ways, and that these differences were at the core of their querulous exchanges over their long careers. The larger issue, however, concerns the impact of colonialism on sociology, especially in its formative years, and conversely, the role of sociology in providing erudite justification for colonialism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper draws parallels between the market trend in the English NHS and Polanyi's (1957) The Great Transformation: The political and economic origins of our time, Beacon Press: Boston (originally published in 1944 in the United States as The Great Transformation, Rinehart: and Co: New York, and in 1945 in England as Origins of our time, Gollancz: London) account of how the rise of markets provokes a self-protective counter-reaction that tries to re-embed economic relations in social relations. We report findings from a qualitative study of NHS contracting, which examines the recent move to harder-edged contracts with greater use of financial penalties and incentives. In practice, use of these techniques tended to be confined to nationally-mandated sections of the contract rather than emerging from local bilateral agreements, and when things went wrong the parties relied more on cooperative behaviour than on the provisions of the contract to find solutions. Making the current contracting system work depended more on existing relational networks than on the incentive structures created by recent 'marketisation' initiatives, but the inability of the market to evolve as expected has encouraged policy makers to publish plans for further radical reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explore the ways in which corporations have become powerful actors in the political and economic landscapes, and the role the state has played in this development. Focusing on the pharmaceutical industry, we find that revolving door practices have been a key instrument in furthering the growth of corporate power, leading us to a reconsideration of the concepts of class struggle and the role of the state in the maintenance of the dominant class' privileges. We conclude that our findings lend support to Harvey's theory of neoliberalism as a specific project to restore power to the dominant class, and also to Marx's conception of state power subordinated to capitalist economic power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary Western societies focus considerable policy and media attention on the 'epidemic of childhood obesity'. In this paper we examine the mobilisation of notions of responsibility and consumption in these discussions, and consider the implications they have for women as mothers. In particular, we are interested to explore the potential conflicts mothers face as care providers and nurturers when responsible care is framed as withholding or managing the food consumption of children. We argue that the competing discursive frameworks around mothers' food provision invite further theorisation that explicitly addresses nourishment and consumption as elements of maternal practice and care. We draw on the work of Neysmith and Reitsma-Street (2005) regarding 'provisioning' to undertake a critical examination of the discourses in the 'childhood obesity' epidemic, with particular attention to Australian media and policy discussions. According to Neysmith and Reitsma-Street, mothers are central to social 'provisioning', that is, the labour that secures the necessities of life. This provisioning framework captures paid market work and unpaid caring labour, policy settings and social locations, allowing for a rich conceptualisation of the conditions mothers negotiate as they provide for their children. Taking up the possibilities of this framework, we argue that, insofar as health risks and responsibilities are largely individualised, mothering is framed as primarily about giving, and childhood obesity is considered a disease of affluence and over-consumption, imperatives for maternal provisioning and nurture are potentially in conflict with critiques of consumption and excess. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, networking and collaboration have become increasingly popular in education. However, there is at present a lack of attention to the theoretical basis of networking, which could illuminate when and when not to network and under what conditions networks are likely to be successful. In this paper, we will attempt to sketch the theoretical background to networking drawing on work in sociology, psychology, and business studies and looking at 4 main theoretical frameworks: constructivism, social capital theory, Durkheimian network theory, and the concept of New Social Movements. We will also explore differences between networks on a number of factors such as goals, activities, density, spread, and power relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Risk' has been a fruitful seam for sociological enquiry about health and illness, generating theoretical understanding of the links between cultural analysis of modernity and the ways in which individuals makes sense of, and act in the face of, threats to their health. However, as both a topic area of research and a way of framing our understanding of how people deal with uncertainty and misfortune, it has become what could be called a 'second order' object of enquiry: we are no longer interested in risk per se (how it is managed, perceived, utilised) but in which domains it may be salient, or what the implications are of particular discursive evocations of 'risk'. Drawing on empirical work in the areas of food safety and road safety, this paper identifies some limitations of locating research within the field of risk. It may be time for the sociology of health and illness to abandon an over-reliance on theoretical accounts of risk for framing empirical studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the early fifties M.N. Srinivas's sociological imagination has defined the perspectives and methodologies that govern the contours of Indian sociology. This text, which is the seventh memorial M.N. Srinivas lecture, makes a critical assessment of Srinivas's contribution to sociology in India and to sociology of the world. It argues that Srinivas's theories and conceptual repertoire has not been able to capture the complexities of Indian society. It remains trapped in middle class, upper class and patriarchal orientations. The 'field view' that Srinivas advocated, the study of the micro (the caste system in the village) through participant observation is limiting and needs to be compensated and complemented by other methods. The paper argues for the imperative to assess the macro in order to examine the nature of contemporary polity and economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By comparing the US environmental justice movement with recent European developments, this paper suggests an environmental justice framework which is based on the idea of environmental justice as a heterogeneous process rather than an analytical or normative category. Using major debates on environmental justice particularly in the UK and Germany as a touchstone, eight dimensions of environmental justice are carved out and integrated into a processual model. It is discussed how environmental justice as a process may become robust enough to integrate and react to changing natural and social conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This paper addresses the question of whether a sociology of mental health is possible. This question raises the issue of the theoretical conditions necessary to establish a sub-field, and requires a debate about the boundaries and epistemological status of such an enterprise. Aim: To analyse the various historical building blocks and contexts relevant to understanding the contemporary expression and state of a sociological perspective on mental health in France. Method: Literature review and a current empirical research about the politics of distress and psychoanalysis as case study, used to discuss the genesis and development of French sociological influences from a historical epistemological framework. Results: The context and limitations of previous social approaches to the study of mental health and suggestions as to the future direction of a sociology of mental health in a French context are discussed, centring around relevant influences and interests. Implications: The use of an interactionist orientation combined with a critical analysis of psychoanalysis in the context of contemporary social conditions lays the foundation upon which to recapture a sociology applied to mental health. Declaration of interest: None. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes core innovations in the strategy of research on demographic behaviour. One aim is a shift of attention away from events and towards a focus on dynamic processes and their interplay: away from a preoccupation with marriage and divorce, births, deaths, migrations, and household structure towards a broader perspective that takes account of partnership and intimacy, parenthood, potential and well-being, position in society and space, and personal ties. Another aim is a much closer engagement with genetics, neuroscience, psychology, and behavioural economics. A third aim is a strategy that pays more attention to pathways within the individual, to the processes entailed when the individual interacts with various contexts, and to progressions that involve the interplay of the pathways and processes through the life course. These shifts of emphasis, which have already begun to occur, require a systematic reassessment of priorities for research on demographic behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the symposium titled Educational Research and the Necessity of Theory." The papers in the symposium arose out of the concern that educational researchers in Great Britain have neglected, and continue to neglect, and even deliberately avoid, theory. There are two opposing groups when it comes to theory. There are those of found it scary and frightening and there are those who are excited by it and believes that "theory floated their boat." The author believes that theory is an essential aspect of educational research and other research in social sciences.

Sen's capability approach has a culturally specific side, with capabilities influenced by social structures and institutions. Although Sen acknowledges this, he expresses his theory in individualistic terms and makes little allowance for culture or social structure. The present paper draws from recent social theory to discuss how the capability approach could be developed to give an explicit treatment of cultural and structural matters. Capabilities depend not only on entitlements but on institutional roles and personal relations: these can be represented openly if capabilities are disaggregated into individual, social and structural capacities. The three layers interact, and a full analysis of capabilities should consider them all. A stratified method implies that raising entitlements will not on its own be enough to enhance capabilities and that cultural and structural changes will be needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper responds to a comment by T. R. Young, who sought to intervene in the exchange between the author and Marc Wardell on the role of conceptual frameworks or paradigms in the development of theory in sociology and the social sciences. Young suggested that some of the less well known assumptions of Karl Marx could serve as uniting points between the two correspondents. The dualism of the historicist conceptualization of the transition from capitalism to socialism which appears in Young's comments underestimates the empirical complexity of the political and economic problems of the period of transition. This paper disagrees with Young's final assertion that too much Marxist theory has stood in the way of radical revolution and socialist transformation.

This paper attempts to develop a macro social systems model devoid of the many problems which plagued functionalism. I eschew concepts such as equilibrium, survival, and functional prerequisite. Instead of societal survival I utilize the more general notion of level of living (L) and attempt to derive macro correlates of L. These are the society's population size, spatial area, organization, technology, and information level. Interrelationships among the variables are analyzed, as are aggregated and distributional measures of the variables. Compared to prior formulations this framework is relatively comprehensive, facilitates the analysis of variable primacy, incorporates both ideational and materialistic components, and provides a macro context for the analysis of individual action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociology has fractured into a number of schools, each claiming to be distinct from the others and to have its own theory. The trouble with the theories is that most of them fail to make their general propositions explicit. Were they made explicit, all the theories would turn out to contain at least the general propositions of behavioral psychology, and the intellectual unification of sociology could begin. The paper discusses the reasons why many sociologists are reluctant to accept this argument. It also discusses other claimants to the status of theory, including "pattern" theories, functional theories (one of which is really behavioral), and the difficulties created by some uses of the concept, social structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper comments on the exchange between Donald McQuarie and Mark Wardell in "The Sociological Quarterly" over the role of conceptual frameworks or paradigms in the development of theory in sociology and the social sciences. It offers some friendly criticism of these two comments and suggests that some of the less well known assumptions of Karl Marx concerning the nature of theory, history and human labor may help reunite McQuarie and Wardell. Marx was concerned with the problem of human alienation. For him, history was not that which was written in textbooks, rather, what people do when they seize the moment, make revolution and gain control over their own social institutions.

This paper is a reply to the comment by T. R. Young on the exchange between Donald McQuarie and the author on the role of conceptual frameworks or paradigms in the development of theory in sociology and the social sciences. The crux of the debate may be outlined in a quotation from Henri Lefebvre which asked if dialectic materialism is both science and philosophy. The notions of method, science and praxis are the focus of this reply. For Lefebvre as for Marx, the dialectical method is a means of constructing historically grounded theory about societies; theories are the result of supplying historical correctness to the method.

This article replies to comments of David Klein on a discussion of the role of conceptual frameworks or paradigms in the development of theory in sociology and the social sciences. The three major points of the discussion are summarized, and the author claims that Klein failed to refute any of these major points. At several points Klein seems to confuse conceptual analysis with conceptual frameworks. The paper is not a blanket condemnation of conceptual frameworks or theoretical perspectives, and it does not suggest that they play no role in theoretical advances. What it suggests is that much of the work on conceptual frameworks, though couched in theoretical terms, is illusory.

The paper outlines some main features of chaos theory. Examples of chaotic systems in society and the environment are given. Spontaneous interaction of components, without being planned or directed, is known as `self-organizing behavior'. Chaos is an essential aspect of thisself organization, occurring in many forms. A chaotic system is defined as one that shows sensitivity to initial conditions. If the errors relative to the initial conditions become too great, the system will eventually collapse. Development projects are sensitive to such initial conditions. In particular, two examples in development are outlined in some detail and commented upon. One is the occurrence of a project promoting self-organizing systems among the poorest of the poor.The other outlines how rehabilitation after resettlement in a power project has transgressed the 'edge of chaos' socio-emotionally, in spite of the socio-economic development being good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]