Combining principles of individual rational choice with a sociological conception of collective action, James Coleman recasts social theory in a bold new way. The result is a landmark in sociological theory, capable of describing both stability and change in social systems. This book provides for the first time a sound theoretical foundation for linking the behavior of individuals to organizational behavior and then to society as a whole. The power of the theory is especially apparent when Coleman analyzes corporate actors, (...) such as large corporations and trade unions. He examines the creation of these institutions, collective decision making, and the processes through which authority is revoked in revolts and revolutions. Coleman discusses the problems of holding institutions responsible for their actions as well as their incompatibility with the family. He also provides a simple mathematical analysis corresponding to and carrying further the verbal formulations of the theory. Finally, he generates research techniques that will permit quantitative testing of the theory. From a simple, unified conceptual structure Coleman derives, through elegant chains of reasoning, an encompassing theory of society. It promises to be the most important contribution to social theory since the publication of Talcott Parsons' Structure of Social Action in 1936. (shrink)

'At last one of the most famous generalizing works in anthropology by the field's most stimulating and controversial contemporary figure has been translated, beautifully, and with the enlightening preface of the second French edition.

In eleven acute and widely ranging essays, Irigaray reconsiders the question of female sexuality in a variety of contexts that are relevant to current discussion of feminist theory and practice.

This edition contains the thirty-nine essays included in Essays, Moral, and Literary, that made up Volume I of the 1777 posthumous Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects. It also includes ten essays that were withdrawn or left unpublished by Hume for various reasons. The two most important were deemed too controversial for the religious climate of his time. This revised edition reflects changes based on further comparisons with eighteenth-century texts and an extensive reworking of the index. - Publisher.

v. 1. Editorial introduction -- v. 2. The English and Latin texts (i) -- v. 3. The English and Latin texts (ii).

Thomas Hobbes took a new look at the ways in which society should function, and he ended up formulating the concept of political science. His crowning achievement, Leviathan, remains among the greatest works in the history of ideas. Written during a moment in English history when the political and social structures as well as methods of science were in flux and open to interpretation, Leviathan played an essential role in the development of the modern world. This edition of Hobbes' landmark (...) work is based on the original text. It incorporates the author's own corrections and retains the period spelling and punctuation, offering both flavorful authenticity and the utmost clarity of expression. (shrink)

Theory of Communicative Action, Volume 2 is a Beacon Press publication.

Perhaps the foremost issue in the emerging area of inquiry known as lesbian and gay studies is the social constructionist controversy. Social constructionism is the view that the categories of sexual orientation are cultural constructs rather than naturally universal categories. ____Forms of Desire__ brings together important essays by social constructionists and their critics, representing several disciplines and approaches to this debate about the history and science of sexuality.

The book constitutes a reconsideration of her earlier view on gender performativity from Gender Trouble. In this work, the critique of gender norms is clearly situated within the framework of human persistence and survival.

Scientific Sexology--lagging behind the rest of the 'human' sciences for curious political and metaphysical reasons--has only recently undergone a paradigmatic shift from biological functionalism to cybernetic systems theory. The University of Chicago's 1994 National Health and Social Life Survey was the first major sexological survey of sexual behavior in The United States since 1950's Kinsey Institute research. The argument of The Critique of Sexual Reason concerns not only the transformation of sexual norms during the period of sexual research that spans (...) from Kinsey to the NHSLS--but examines as well, the contributions of sexual science to the cultural experience of sexual norms. The dissertation reviews the rhetoric of post-World War II American sexology in order to interrogate how the body has been given to understanding as an empirical given for historical sociology, cultural anthropology, and the philosophy of 'sexual difference' during this period. ;The late-twentieth century shift from physiological to cybernetic sexology is deeply embedded in a number of transformations regarding how the the sexual category is understood and experienced. To trace mediation between the cognitive construction of sexual reasoning and popular sexual culture, the dissertation locates the rhetoric of late-twentieth century sexology within philosophical and social-theoretical constructions of the concept of sexual 'autonomy'. Initially, I consult Frederic Jameson's framework for historiographical work on the 1960's to review the sexual articulation of the Althusserian analytic category of cultural "autonomy". Then, I compare Luce Irigaray's post-structuralist philosophy of sexual difference to the corporeal rhetoric of The Hite Report to index the emerging thematic of female sexual 'autonomy' during this period. This resonance in the intellectual trope of "autonomy" during the American 1960's and 1970's reveals a significant degree of co-implication with those social conditions that most served to isolate and formalize sexual reasoning during the period. ;Rejecting the possibility that either biological instincts or market-mechanisms can explain the well documented existence of sexual norms, The Critique of Sexual Reason uses the habitus/field construct of Pierre Bourdieu to explain how late-modern cultural institutions of intimacy--of sexology, domestic education, anti-abortion advocacy, feminism, philosophies of sexual 'difference', contraceptive technology, marriage and workplace law--have contributed to the 'autonomy' of late-twentieth century sexual judgment. Rather than locate the nexus of deliberation and negotiation within the selfish proclivities of the biophysical individual, the analytic rubric of the sexual field reveals how institutions of intimacy have culled popular sensibilities in order to codify them; so that, in turn, these institutionally coordinated sexual norms could be reabsorbed as tacit structuration within quotidian events and behaviors. (shrink)

The Protestant ethic — a moral code stressing hard work, rigorous self-discipline, and the organization of one's life in the service of God — was made famous by sociologist and political economist Max Weber. In this brilliant study (his best-known and most controversial), he opposes the Marxist concept of dialectical materialism and its view that change takes place through "the struggle of opposites." Instead, he relates the rise of a capitalist economy to the Puritan determination to work out anxiety over (...) salvation or damnation by performing good deeds — an effort that ultimately discouraged belief in predestination and encouraged capitalism. Weber's classic study has long been required reading in college and advanced high school social studies classrooms. (shrink)

One of the world's pre-eminent Max Weber scholars here presents a comprehensive analysis of Weber's ambiguous stance toward modernity considered from a normative, theoretical, and historical point of view. The book is in two parts. Part I scrutinises Weber's world view. On the basis of his thinking about the meaning and inter-relationships of science, politics, and ethics in the modern era, Weber is seen as the embodiment of a social scientist and political thinker who exposes himself to intellectual risks and (...) existential tensions while resisting final solutions. It includes a masterly analysis of Weber's two famous speeches 'Science as a Vocation' and 'Politics as a Vocation'. Part II considers Weber's unfinished project on the sociology of religion. Piecing together planned and partially completed works on Islam and Western Christianity, Schluchter locates them in the history and theory of Weber's overall work. This reconstruction of Weber's work on religion emphasises its interplay between religion, economy, politics, and law. (shrink)

This article argues that the failure of certain theories of reflexive identity transformation to consider more fully issues connected to gender identity leads to an overemphasis on the expressive possibilities thrown up by processes of detraditionalization. By ignoring certain deeply embedded aspects, some theories of reflexive change reproduce the `disembodied and disembedded' subject of masculinist thought. The issues of disembodiment and disembeddedness are explored through a study of the work of Pierre Bourdieu on `habitus' and the `field'. The idea of (...) habitus yields a more dynamic theory of embodiment central to a feminist understanding of gender identity as a durable but not immutable norm. The idea of the `field' provides a more differentiated analysis of the social context in which the reflexive transformation of gender identity unfolds. This in turn offers a way of thinking of possible transformations within gender identity as uneven and non-synchronous phenomena. (shrink)

Required reading for anyone who believes in the equality of the sexes. A long awaited, highly acclaimed new translation of Simone De Beauvoir's landmark work.

Consuming Desire investigates why a science of sex emerged when it did at the turn of the twentieth century and delivers a provocative account of the role of sexology in our contemporary culture. Examining key texts in the theories of sexuality, psychoanalysis, evolution, and economics, Lawrence Birken illuminates the intellectual heritage of sexology and the ways in which it is now being pressed into the service of sexual counterrevolutionaries from both the right and the left.

"At last! A critical look at feminist schisms that doesn't trash either side. Chancer's analysis of the sexuality vs. sexism splits is excellent and also makes for wonderful reading. I particularly liked her ideas for a 'third wave' in feminism."—Judith Lorber, CUNY Graduate Center "Reconcilable Differences brings crucial new perspectives to long-standing problems. Chancer's insights enrich our understandings of gender inequality and the policies necessary to address them."—Deborah Rhode, Stanford Law School "In this postmodern world of fractured subjectivity and incommensurabilities, (...) Lynn Chancer boldly argues for the possibility of feminist unity amidst and through our oft-noted differences. A book of rare intelligence and broad applicability, Chancer confronts the thorny debates that have kept feminists fighting each other and unable to reconcile around even the narrowest of agendas. She argues for the vitality of these debates (around sex, around the culture of beauty and, most tempestuously, around pornography) at the same time she pushes them to new places and draws out both new dilemmas and new resolutions for the late-twentieth century feminist. Clearly the work of a creative and complex mind, Chancer's book is destined to become a *must read* for feminists of all persuasions."—Suzanna Danuta Walters, author of Material Girls: making sense of feminist cultural theory. (shrink)