Society and Culture

Bryan S Turner - City University of New York, USA
Chris Rojek - City, University of London, UK

Series:
Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society

Other Titles in:
Cultural Theory | Social Theory

272 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd

An important and timely contribution, Society and Culture engages crucial debates that are reshaping the core identity and future agenda of sociology. Turner and Rojek start with an insightful reconsideration of Parsons' theory of action, identify the strengths and limits of contemporary projects like those of Giddens and Beck, and offer a valuable new direction for future development – Craig Calhoun, Professor of Sociology and History, New York University Society and Culture reclaims the classical heritage, provides a clear-eyed assessment of the promise of sociology in the 21st century and asks whether the `cultural turn' has made the study of society redundant. Sociologists have objected to the rise of cultural studies on the grounds that it produces cultural relativism and lacks a stable research agenda. This book looks at these criticisms and illustrates the relevance of a sociological perspective in the analysis of human practice. The book argues that the classical tradition must be treated as a living tradition, rather than a period piece. It analyzes the fundamental principles of belonging and conflict in society and provides a detailed critical survey of the principal social theories that offer solutions to the challenges of modernism.

Discipline

Organisms

Disorder

Solidarity

Scarcity

Norms

Rights

Intimacies

Choice

Solutions

Conclusion

Sociology and Cosmopolitan Virtue

`Focusing on the ineradicable vulnerability of embodied and mortal human beings as the main spring of institution-building, and on the condition of scarcity as the postulate of solidarity and the main parameters of human responses to that condition, Turner and Rojek draw a new horizon for sociological inquiry, calling for a radical re-orientation of sociological strategy; by the same token they posit a challenge which no member of the sociological profession may leave unattended - Zygmunt Bauman

`An important and timely contribution. Society and Culture engages crucial debates that are reshaping the core identity and future agenda of sociology. Turner and Rojek start with an insightful reconsideration of Parsons' theory of action, identify the strengths and limits of contemporary projects like those of Giddens and Beck, and offer a valuable new direction for future development' - Craig Calhoun, New York University

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Bryan S Turner

Bryan S. Turner is one of the world’s leading sociologists of religion; he has also devoted significant attention to sociological theory, the study of human rights, and the sociology of the body. In Vulnerability and Human Rights (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006), he presents an interdisciplinary dialogue with the literature of economics, law, medicine, philosophy, political science, and religion. His current research involves the role of religion in contemporary Asia and the changing nature of citizenship in a globalizing world. Turner has written, coauthored, or edited more than seventy books and more than two hundred articles... More About Author

Chris Rojek

Chris Rojek is Professor of Sociology and Culture at Brunel University, West London. He is a prolific and influential author in the field of Celebrity, Leisure Studies and Popular Culture. In 2003 he was awarded the Allen V. Sapora prize for outstanding achievement in the field of Leisure and Tourism Studies. Besides lecturing in the UK he has given lectures on leisure in Australia, Canada, the USA and the Netherlands. In 2009 he was Hood Fellow at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He also writes on celebrity culture, neat capitalism and myths and realities of national identity. His current research is on popular music and... More About Author

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Society and Culture
Scarcity and Solidarity

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Bryan S Turner

Chris Rojek

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