1,721,008 research outputs found
Introduction : continuity and change in the preoccupations of key sociological thinkers
No full textIn the main part of this introduction to the second edition of Key Sociological
Thin"ers, I want to provide a frame within which to situate the chapters that
follow. I will do this by highlighting some of the key continuities and changes
in the themes that have preoccupied sociological thought in the past 150 years
or so. Among other things, I hope to show the importance of understanding the past preoccupations of sociological theory for grasping sociology's relationship
to the present. I will focus upon a limited number of salient themes:
modernity; consciousness and identity; values and value relevant critique; and
political commitments and their philosophical justification. I will follow this
with discussions of: the necessity of combining different themes when
addressing particular problems; sociology's civic mission; and the role of
sociological thought in the formulation of political strategy. In the final part of the chapter, I will outline the structure of the book, what it hopes to achieve, and the changes that have been made since the first edition
Introduction. Intricate webs - nature, social relations, and human needs in the writings of Ted Benton
No full textThis book had its beginnings in a one-day conference the editors organised in the summer of 2006 to mark the retirement of Ted Benton after 36 years in the Department of Sociology at the University of Essex. We were conscious both that Ted was not fully retiring, as he was to be re-employed on a partial contract, but also that his intellectual project was very much on going. It was decided that the conference should consequentlybe at one and the same time a taking stock of the past achievements of a remarkable and distinctive thinker, and a meditation on his current intellectual trajectory and potential directions for the future
Introduction : developing theoretical skills by engaging with Key Sociological Thinkers
No full textWho wouldn’t find it difficult not to be impressed by the remarkable depths of knowledge human beings have reached in manifold areas of the natural sciences, and by the conversion of this understanding into astonishing practical achievements? From the feats of architecture and civil engineering, through those of space exploration and of neuroscience, to the knowledge and fruits of the human genome project, to name just a few, human achievements are truly astounding. How is it, then, that we fall so short in even the modest aim of constructing societies where people can live together in relative harmony, safe from violence or civil war or threats from outside forces, with basic needs satisfied, with limited inequality, and with respect for each other’s values and ways of life? The contrast between human achievements in the two different fields of human endeavour is extreme
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Causality, contextual frames and international migration : combining strong structuration theory, critical realism and textual analysis
Full text linkThis paper will take its cue from recent work in international migration, particularly the writings of Ewa Morawska and Karen O’Reilly, that has explicitly placed structuration theory at its heart in analysing issues of causality. While firmly endorsing this work, I argue that it is possible to further strengthen the use of structuration in international migration studies by paying more attention to certain tenets of strong structuration theory (SST), synthesised with aspects of critical realism. This entails closer engagement with issues of epistemology and methodology, and also a more fine-grained approach to ontological concepts, the relationships between them, and their use in empirical analysis. The device of a ‘theorised contextual frame’ is introduced as a reference point that can be used to systematically evaluate the status and adequacy of individual migration studies. The device combines attention to the structural context or field relevant to a particular migration issue with the systematic focus demanded by a specific research question or objective. In sketching out the structural context, I draw out the relationship between critical realism’s emphasis on plural causal mechanisms or ‘planes of analysis’, and strong structuration theory’s emphasis on clusters of position-practice relations. The device is also designed to highlight the phenomenological and interpretative dimensions within particular causal processes, while insisting that such dimensions need to be grounded within the relevant structural aspects of the contextual frame. Two ideal types of ‘hermeneutic-structural’ text – contextualising and floating – are presented to help sharpen a sense of how to employ the theoretical model to heighten critical awareness of the status and quality of particular research accounts of international migration. Finally, I conduct a close analysis of Ewa Morawska’s recent structuration-inspired account of large-scale migration across the Atlantic from Polish villages in the longue durée from the 1870s to the 1930s. This is undertaken in order to illustrate, clarify and exemplify the strengths of the approach
Why Current Affairs Needs Social Theory
Full text linkTelevision news is frequently disparaged by thoughtful commentators for its preoccupation with drama and spectacle at the expense of serious, in-depth, engagement with the critical issues it covers. Whilst insisting these charges possess more than a small dose of truth, Rob Stones argues for more emphasis to be placed on strengthening the capacities of audiences. Drawing from major traditions in social thought, and on academic media analysis, Stones provides the conceptual tools for audiences to bring greater sophistication to their interpretations, developing their capacity to think across items and genres
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