Routledge Handbook of Cultural Sociology


Book Description

The thoroughly revised and updated second edition of the Routledge Handbook of Cultural Sociology provides an unparalleled overview of sociological and related scholarship on the complex relations of culture to social structures and everyday life. With 70 essays written by scholars from around the world, the book brings diverse approaches into dialogue, charting new pathways for understanding culture in our global era. Short, accessible chapters by contributing authors address classic questions, emergent issues, and new scholarship on topics ranging from cultural and social theory to politics and the state, social stratification, identity, community, aesthetics, and social and cultural movements. In addition, contributors explore developments central to the constitution and reproduction of culture, such as power, technology, and the organization of work. This handbook is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in a wide range of subfields within sociology, as well as cultural studies, media and communication, and postcolonial theory.




Introduction to Sociology 2e


Book Description

"This text is intended for a one-semester introductory course."--Page 1.




Stigma and Culture


Book Description

In Stigma and Culture, J. Lorand Matory provocatively shows how ethnic identification in the United States—and around the globe—is a competitive and hierarchical process in which populations, especially of historically stigmatized races, seek status and income by dishonoring other stigmatized populations. And there is no better place to see this than among the African American elite in academia, where he explores the emergent ethnic identities of African and Caribbean immigrants and transmigrants, Gullah/Geechees, Louisiana Creoles, and even Native Americans of partly African ancestry. Matory describes the competitive process that hierarchically structures their self-definition as ethnic groups and the similar process by which middle-class African Americans seek distinction from their impoverished compatriots. Drawing on research at universities such as Howard, Harvard, and Duke and among their alumni networks, he details how university life—while facilitating individual upward mobility, touting human equality, and regaling cultural diversity—also perpetuates the cultural standards that historically justified the dominance of some groups over others. Combining his ethnographic findings with classic theoretical insights from Frantz Fanon, Fredrik Barth, Erving Goffman, Pierre Bourdieu and others—alongside stories from his own life in academia—Matory sketches the university as an institution that, particularly through the anthropological vocabulary of culture, encourages the stigmatized to stratify their own.




Social Status and Cultural Consumption


Book Description

How does cultural hierarchy relate to social hierarchy? Do the more advantaged consume 'high' culture, while the less advantaged consume popular culture? Or has cultural consumption in contemporary societies become individualised to such a degree that there is no longer any social basis for cultural consumption? Leading scholars from the UK, the USA, Chile, France, Hungary and the Netherlands systematically examine the social stratification of arts and culture. They evaluate the 'class-culture homology argument' of Pierre Bourdieu and Herbert Gans; the 'individualisation arguments' of Anthony Giddens, Ulrich Beck and Zygmunt Bauman; and the 'omnivore-univore argument' of Richard Peterson. They also demonstrate that, consistent with Max Weber's class-status distinction, cultural consumption, as a key element of lifestyle, is stratified primarily on the basis of social status rather than by social class.




Fathers in Cultural Context


Book Description

First Published in 2013. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.




Cultural-Existential Psychology


Book Description

Bridging cultural and experimental existential psychology, this book offers a synthetic understanding of how culture shapes psychological threat.




Social Psychology and Cultural Context


Book Description

"Individually and collectively, the pieces balance cross-cultural psychology′s interest in the large scale community with psychology′s traditional emphasis on small groups, interpersonal processes, and individual thought, feeling, and action. The chapters range in topic, in level of analysis, and in emphasis on theory and application, but they harmonize to map the field - identifying where it has been and how it might develop. The central theme is that culture and individual psychology are inseparable and that understanding both will lead to a more comprehensive understanding of human behavior than either perspective in isolation. The book delivers: It offers important insights on the commonalties, universality, and uniqueness of human behavior. The book is dedicated to Harry C. Triandis and is truly a tribute to his work." — John F. Dovidio, Department of Psychology, Colgate University "In this book, cross-cultural psychologists from around the world honor the discipline′s founding father, Harry C. Triandis. The book has become a perfect overview of the state of the art in cross-cultural psychology." — Geert Hofstede, Tilburg University, The Netherlands "The past 10 years or so have seen a sharp increase in the number of college and university courses throughout the world that focus on culture as a powerful force that shapes the thought and behavior of all humans. It would be most difficult to organize and teach one of these courses without mentioning Triandis′s influence numerous times. I am extremely pleased that this book has been added to the cross-cultural literature." — from the Foreword by Walter J. Lonner, Western Washington State University This book celebrates Harry Triandis′s overall contribution to culture and social psychology in general, and his most original and significant contribution to this area, the concept of subjective culture. In this volume, top cross-cultural researchers who are deeply familiar with Triandis′s work critically examine the concept of subjective culture from a number of perspectives and extend it in many new directions of basic and applied social psychology. The result is an up-to-date examination of various topics and areas of social psychology from the unique perspective of subjective culture. One significant feature of this book is an attempt at framing and situating the concept of subjective culture within the current theoretical discourse on culture and psychology. Social Psychology and Cultural Context is the first survey of social psychology to integrate cross-cultural issues. This book not only utilizes several variants of the construct of subjective culture but also reflects the current state of affairs in the social domain of cross-cultural psychology. Written by world-renowned specialists, the chapters reflect valuable insights to students and researchers in both cross-cultural and social psychology.




Inequality, Socio-cultural Differentiation and Social Structures in Africa


Book Description

This book contends that conventional class concepts are not able to adequately capture social inequality and socio-cultural differentiation in Africa. Earlier empirical findings concerning ethnicity, neo-traditional authorities, patron-client relations, lifestyles, gender, social networks, informal social security, and even the older debate on class in Africa, have provided evidence that class concepts do not apply; yet these findings have mostly been ignored. For an analysis of the social structures and persisting extreme inequality in African societies – and in other societies of the world – we need to go beyond class, consider the empirical realities and provincialise our conventional theories. This book develops a new framework for the analysis of social structure based on empirical findings and more nuanced approaches, including livelihood analysis and intersectionality, and will be useful for students and scholars in African studies and development studies, sociology, social anthropology, political science and geography.




Culture, Class, Distinction


Book Description

Drawing on the first systematic study of cultural capital in contemporary Britain, Culture, Class, Distinction examines the role played by culture in the relationships between class, gender and ethnicity. Its findings promise a major revaluation of the legacy of Pierre Bourdieu’s account of the relationships between class and culture.




Stratification in Cultural Contexts


Book Description

Now available in paperback, Stratification in Cultural Contexts is a collection drawn from research results of the East Asian Division of the Center for the Study of Social Stratification and Inequality at Tohoku University. In this book, scholars who specialize in areas of East and Southeast Asia examine how the problem of stratification manifests itself in different cultural and historical contexts, discussing when and under what circumstances the problem of stratification has become more serious, and suggesting how the tension could be eased. The topics dealt with are diversified, from religion to economic concerns. The local wisdom of traditional societies is used to analyze inequality and stratification in cases such as the phenomenon of 'religious revival' following democratization in Mongolian society, the lives of 'slaves' under the Choson dynasty in Korea, and the role of warrior-class women in early-modern Japan. This volume provides a strong step on the way to further studies of stratification and inequality in cultural contexts. (Series: Stratification and Inequality - Vol. 15)