Alain Faure and Robert Griffith. La société canadienne en débats : What holds Canada together? Paris : l’Harmattan, 2008, 224 pp. 20.90 € (2296059309)
Cette collection de chapitres rédigés par treize auteurs est le fruit d’une série de conférences tenue par des géographes français sur l’« impensé » de l’unité canadienne. La question qui figure en sous-titre de cet ouvrage, « What holds Canada together? » reçoit plusieurs réponses, qui toutes s’articulent autour de la pluralité des forces qui contribuent à l’unité canadienne. Une unité certes mythique et instable, mais construite sur des bases étonnamment pérennes : cycles politiques, culturels et géographiques récurrents, équilibres plus ou moins calculés entre groupes linguistiques majeurs, inclusion sinon réussie du moins promises aux nouveaux arrivants et groupes minoritaires, et politiques sociales égalitaires mais disputées. Lire plus
CJS Blog publishes news about the Canadian Journal of Sociology, including abstracts of forthcoming articles, and links to advance versions of book reviews.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Compte rendu: Les Assistés sociaux
Michel Messu. Les Assistés sociaux, suivi de l’Assurance d’assistance. Coll. « Res Socialis ». Fribourg : Academic Press Fribourg, 2010, 283 pp. 36,00 € (978-8271-1057-5)
Gageons que la dernière publication de Michel Messu, professeur de sociologie à l’université de Nantes et spécialiste des politiques publiques sociales, ne passera pas inaperçue dans le champ de l’assistance sociale. L’ouvrage est composé de deux parties distinctes : l'une issue de sa recherche doctorale et déjà publiée 1991, Les Assistés sociaux, et l'autre inédite, intitulée L’Assurance d’assistance, dans laquelle il critique la vision française « enchantée » de l’histoire de l’assistance sociale et défend la thèse du renforcement continu de l’État social depuis 1945. Contrairement aux discours pessimistes sur le déclin irrémédiable de l’État-providence, récurrents depuis la fin des années 1980, la protection accordée aux personnes assistées sociales serait, selon Messu, bien plus développée qu’il y a deux décennies … Lire plus
Gageons que la dernière publication de Michel Messu, professeur de sociologie à l’université de Nantes et spécialiste des politiques publiques sociales, ne passera pas inaperçue dans le champ de l’assistance sociale. L’ouvrage est composé de deux parties distinctes : l'une issue de sa recherche doctorale et déjà publiée 1991, Les Assistés sociaux, et l'autre inédite, intitulée L’Assurance d’assistance, dans laquelle il critique la vision française « enchantée » de l’histoire de l’assistance sociale et défend la thèse du renforcement continu de l’État social depuis 1945. Contrairement aux discours pessimistes sur le déclin irrémédiable de l’État-providence, récurrents depuis la fin des années 1980, la protection accordée aux personnes assistées sociales serait, selon Messu, bien plus développée qu’il y a deux décennies … Lire plus
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Compte rendu: La politique de la stupéfaction
Nicolas Carrier (2008), La politique de la stupéfaction. Pérennité de la prohibition des drogues, coll. « Le sens social », Rennes : Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 376 p., 19,00 €, ISBN 978-2-7535-0591-9
Proposer « une théorie du droit qui soit en mesure d’interpréter la pérennité de la prohibition des drogues, cela en considérant le droit pénal tant au plan de son autonomie que de celui de ses rapports de dépendance avec des formes, des logiques, des jeux de langage distincts et du juridique et du droit. » Cette formule (p. 132) dit bien l’ambition de l’ouvrage. Celui-ci est le fruit de deux démarches complémentaires. D’une part, un vaste inventaire des concepts et modèles théoriques susceptibles d’être mobilisés dans cette interprétation, Lire plus
Proposer « une théorie du droit qui soit en mesure d’interpréter la pérennité de la prohibition des drogues, cela en considérant le droit pénal tant au plan de son autonomie que de celui de ses rapports de dépendance avec des formes, des logiques, des jeux de langage distincts et du juridique et du droit. » Cette formule (p. 132) dit bien l’ambition de l’ouvrage. Celui-ci est le fruit de deux démarches complémentaires. D’une part, un vaste inventaire des concepts et modèles théoriques susceptibles d’être mobilisés dans cette interprétation, Lire plus
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Review: William Ramp on The Intellectual Pursuit of the Sacred
Alexander Tristan Riley. Godless Intellectuals: The Intellectual Pursuit of the Sacred Reinvented. New York & Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2010, 328 pp. $US 95.00 hardcover (978-1-84545-670-2)
The title of this engaging work might seem paradoxical, but while the intellectuals it describes may have been godless, they were deeply concerned with some of the central issues addressed by religion. In explaining how, Riley gives us an historical sociology of a stream of Durkheim-influenced thinking that has only recently gained recognition, and indeed, is still ignored in certain quarters. His Durkheim is one whose approach, ideas and preoccupations, mediated through the French cultural avant-garde, neglected, and re-appropriated in various ways, had a formative influence on French post-structuralist thought, and thence on the wider world of letters. Read more
The title of this engaging work might seem paradoxical, but while the intellectuals it describes may have been godless, they were deeply concerned with some of the central issues addressed by religion. In explaining how, Riley gives us an historical sociology of a stream of Durkheim-influenced thinking that has only recently gained recognition, and indeed, is still ignored in certain quarters. His Durkheim is one whose approach, ideas and preoccupations, mediated through the French cultural avant-garde, neglected, and re-appropriated in various ways, had a formative influence on French post-structuralist thought, and thence on the wider world of letters. Read more
Review: Raymond Arthur on Youth Justice Systems
Jane B. Sprott and Anthony N. Doob. Justice for Girls? Stability and Change in the Youth Justice Systems. Adolescent Development and Legal Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009, 232 pp. $US 37.50 hardcover (978-0-226-77004-8)
Sprott and Doob aim to use female juvenile offending as “a lens through which one can better observe, and thus, understand” the youth justice systems of the United States and Canada. The purpose of this comparative approach is to help in unravelling the puzzle of girls, juvenile crime and the criminal justice system. Virtually all literature on juvenile offending focuses on male participation in juvenile offending behaviour. Read more
Sprott and Doob aim to use female juvenile offending as “a lens through which one can better observe, and thus, understand” the youth justice systems of the United States and Canada. The purpose of this comparative approach is to help in unravelling the puzzle of girls, juvenile crime and the criminal justice system. Virtually all literature on juvenile offending focuses on male participation in juvenile offending behaviour. Read more
Review: Mervyn Horgan on Anthropology and Social Theory
Sherry B. Ortner. Anthropology and Social Theory: Culture, Power, and the Acting Subject. Durham: Duke University Press, 2006, 200 pp. $US 21.95 paper (0-8223-3864-5), $US 74.95 hardcover (0-8223-3811-4)
Practice theory stands as one of the most significant theoretical developments in the social sciences over the last half century. In Anthropology and Social Theory, Sherry Ortner sets out to show how, when well-grounded in original empirical research, practice theory throws new light on questions of culture, power, agency and subjectivity. Read more
Practice theory stands as one of the most significant theoretical developments in the social sciences over the last half century. In Anthropology and Social Theory, Sherry Ortner sets out to show how, when well-grounded in original empirical research, practice theory throws new light on questions of culture, power, agency and subjectivity. Read more
Review: Jim Cosgrave on The Contemporary Goffman
Michael Hviid Jacobsen, ed. The Contemporary Goffman. Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought. New York: Routledge, 2010, 396 pp. $US 95.00 hardcover (978-0-415-99681-5)
In his contribution to The Contemporary Goffman, Charles Lemert asks: “Who, in his day, would have thought that Erving Goffman’s writings would endure as long as they have?” While there is no question that sociological interest in the work of Goffman persists, The Contemporary Goffman contributes to appraising and sustaining Goffman’s oeuvre by emphasizing its contemporary significance. Appearing 50 years after the publication of The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, it also presents a case for considering Goffman’s oeuvre and sustained focus on the Interaction Order as classic within the sociological canon. Read more
In his contribution to The Contemporary Goffman, Charles Lemert asks: “Who, in his day, would have thought that Erving Goffman’s writings would endure as long as they have?” While there is no question that sociological interest in the work of Goffman persists, The Contemporary Goffman contributes to appraising and sustaining Goffman’s oeuvre by emphasizing its contemporary significance. Appearing 50 years after the publication of The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, it also presents a case for considering Goffman’s oeuvre and sustained focus on the Interaction Order as classic within the sociological canon. Read more
Review: Karen Hughes on Gender, Family and Unemployment in Ontario’s Great Depression
Lara Campbell. Respectable Citizens: Gender, Family and Unemployment in Ontario’s Great Depression. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009, 304 pp. $29.95 paper (978-0-8020-9669-2), $65.00 hardcover (978-0-8020-9974-7)
In the aftermath of the 2008 financial collapse, there has been a surge of interest in the Great Depression, with several economic history books vaulting to the top of bestseller lists. While Lara Campbell likely never anticipated such keen interest in her chosen subject, her book is certainly a welcome addition, appearing when public and scholarly interest in the events of the Great Depression is at an all time high. Campbell’s account is highly engaging and readable, offering new insights into the gendered dynamics of economic crisis as it played out in the lives of women and men living in Ontario in the 1930s. Focusing on the economic hardship faced by families, and the role of individual protest and collective action in redefining welfare and citizenship, Respectable Citizens offers a vivid, perceptive analysis of a unique period in Canadian history … Read more
In the aftermath of the 2008 financial collapse, there has been a surge of interest in the Great Depression, with several economic history books vaulting to the top of bestseller lists. While Lara Campbell likely never anticipated such keen interest in her chosen subject, her book is certainly a welcome addition, appearing when public and scholarly interest in the events of the Great Depression is at an all time high. Campbell’s account is highly engaging and readable, offering new insights into the gendered dynamics of economic crisis as it played out in the lives of women and men living in Ontario in the 1930s. Focusing on the economic hardship faced by families, and the role of individual protest and collective action in redefining welfare and citizenship, Respectable Citizens offers a vivid, perceptive analysis of a unique period in Canadian history … Read more
Review: Sally Lindsay on Freedom and Disability in a Community Group Home
Jack Levinson. Making Life Work: Freedom and Disability in a Community Group Home. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010, 304 pp. $US 22.50 paper (978-0-8166-5082-8), $US 67.50 hardcover (978-0-8166-5081-1)
Jack Levinson’s book describes a year-long ethnography of a group home for adults with intellectual disabilities. This book is important because in the sociological literature relatively little attention has been paid to people with intellectual disabilities. Most of the research on group homes focuses on homeless or troubled youth, and very little is known about the inner workings of a group home for people with intellectual disabilities. Levinson’s book addresses these gaps in the sociology and disability studies literature. Read more
Jack Levinson’s book describes a year-long ethnography of a group home for adults with intellectual disabilities. This book is important because in the sociological literature relatively little attention has been paid to people with intellectual disabilities. Most of the research on group homes focuses on homeless or troubled youth, and very little is known about the inner workings of a group home for people with intellectual disabilities. Levinson’s book addresses these gaps in the sociology and disability studies literature. Read more
Review: Hoffbauer and Ramos on Opp's Theories of Political Protest
Karl-Dieter Opp. Theories of Political Protest and Social Movements: A Multidisciplinary Introduction, Critique, and Synthesis. New York: Routledge, 2009, 448 pp. $US 45.95 paper (978-0-415-48389-6), $US 150.00 hardcover (978-0-415-48388-9)
Theories of Political Protest and Social Movements sets out to identify the explanatory power of dominant social movement theories in accounting for political protests. In doing so, the book highlights the implicit and under-theorized links between micro and macro level social movement perspectives, and identifies how they influence one another. Opp argues that current theoretical approaches should be integrated to gain a better understanding of protest actions and movement outcomes, and that such integration can be achieved by adopting a structural-cognitive model. Read more
Theories of Political Protest and Social Movements sets out to identify the explanatory power of dominant social movement theories in accounting for political protests. In doing so, the book highlights the implicit and under-theorized links between micro and macro level social movement perspectives, and identifies how they influence one another. Opp argues that current theoretical approaches should be integrated to gain a better understanding of protest actions and movement outcomes, and that such integration can be achieved by adopting a structural-cognitive model. Read more
Review: Arthur Frank on Norbert Elias
Norbert Elias. The Loneliness of the Dying AND Humana Conditio. Edited by Alan Scott and Brigitte Scott. Chester Springs PA: University College Dublin Press / Dufour Editions, 2010, 192 pp. $US 99.95 hardcover (978-1-906359-06-5)
The present volume includes one of Elias’s most frequently cited books, The Loneliness of the Dying, published in German in 1979 and in English in 1985. The other text, Humana Conditio, was published in German in 1985 as an expansion of lectures that Elias gave at the University of Bielefeld on the fortieth anniversary of the end of World War II. The present publication is the first English translation. … The Loneliness of the Dying analyzes how peculiarities of contemporary social structure have produced characteristic problems for dying. The book’s interest is not the observation that dying persons are lonely, but rather understanding why this loneliness is predictable, if not at all inevitable. Read more
The present volume includes one of Elias’s most frequently cited books, The Loneliness of the Dying, published in German in 1979 and in English in 1985. The other text, Humana Conditio, was published in German in 1985 as an expansion of lectures that Elias gave at the University of Bielefeld on the fortieth anniversary of the end of World War II. The present publication is the first English translation. … The Loneliness of the Dying analyzes how peculiarities of contemporary social structure have produced characteristic problems for dying. The book’s interest is not the observation that dying persons are lonely, but rather understanding why this loneliness is predictable, if not at all inevitable. Read more
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Review: Will van den Hoonard on Institutional Review Boards and the Social Sciences
Zachary M. Schrag. Ethical Imperialism: Institutional Review Boards and the Social Sciences, 1965–2009. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010, 264 pp. $US 45.00 hardcover (978-0-8018-9490-9)
Ethical Imperialism is about the power exercised by federal ethics regulators and ethics committees in American universities (and hospitals). This power has stymied social research through broken promises, the exclusion of social researchers from decision making, threats and suspensions, distrust, and reliance on medical and psychological practices to nullify the concerns of social researchers. Read more.
Ethical Imperialism is about the power exercised by federal ethics regulators and ethics committees in American universities (and hospitals). This power has stymied social research through broken promises, the exclusion of social researchers from decision making, threats and suspensions, distrust, and reliance on medical and psychological practices to nullify the concerns of social researchers. Read more.
Review: John Goyder on Social Status and Cultural Consumption
Tak Wing Chan, ed. Social Status and Cultural Consumption. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010, 290 pp. $US 95.00 hardcover (978-0-521-19446-4)
Social Status and Cultural Consumption is a good testament to the effectiveness of the International Sociological Association in fostering international collaboration through its research committees. As explained in the Acknowledgments page, Tak Wing Chan’s book is largely a product of RC 28 on Social Stratification and Mobility. This edited collection presents studies from Great Britain, the United States, France, Chile, Hungary and the Netherlands. I think the choice of countries reflects interest and activity levels within RC 28 more than either a random or a theoretically-informed sample of counties, but the six do present sufficient variation to convince the reader that social inequality indeed has something to do with the sorts of entertainment people seek out. Read more.
Social Status and Cultural Consumption is a good testament to the effectiveness of the International Sociological Association in fostering international collaboration through its research committees. As explained in the Acknowledgments page, Tak Wing Chan’s book is largely a product of RC 28 on Social Stratification and Mobility. This edited collection presents studies from Great Britain, the United States, France, Chile, Hungary and the Netherlands. I think the choice of countries reflects interest and activity levels within RC 28 more than either a random or a theoretically-informed sample of counties, but the six do present sufficient variation to convince the reader that social inequality indeed has something to do with the sorts of entertainment people seek out. Read more.
Review: Harris Ali on Racism, Disease and a Media Panic
Charles T. Adeyanju. Deadly Fever: Racism, Disease and a Media Panic. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, 2010, 136 pp. $15.95 paper (978-1-55266-341-7)
In this empirically detailed and theoretically informed case study, Charles T. Adeyanju demonstrates how a moral panic initiated by a potential infectious disease outbreak reveals the mechanisms, nature, and extent to which racism operates in Canada. Read more
In this empirically detailed and theoretically informed case study, Charles T. Adeyanju demonstrates how a moral panic initiated by a potential infectious disease outbreak reveals the mechanisms, nature, and extent to which racism operates in Canada. Read more
Friday, December 10, 2010
Review: Thomas Crosbie on The Culture of Military Innovation
Dima Adamsky. The Culture of Military Innovation: The Impact of Cultural Factors on the Revolution in Military Affairs in Russia, the US, and Israel. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010, 248 pp. $US 25.95 paper (978-0-8047-6952-5), $US 65.00 hardcover (978-0-8047-6951-8)
Dima Adamsky’s The Culture of Military Innovation is an account of how one intellectual paradigm, called the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA), rose and fell in the militaries of the USSR, USA and Israel. Adamsky characterizes it as an empirical and theoretical contribution to the third, constructivist wave of strategic culture scholarship. This subdiscipline has made various attempts to identify culture, instead of rationality, as “the pivotal intervening variable” in military development. The study distinguishes itself within its subdiscipline for its excellent sources (archival material from all three countries and interviews in Israel), skillful argumentation, and very intelligent case selection. Read more
Dima Adamsky’s The Culture of Military Innovation is an account of how one intellectual paradigm, called the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA), rose and fell in the militaries of the USSR, USA and Israel. Adamsky characterizes it as an empirical and theoretical contribution to the third, constructivist wave of strategic culture scholarship. This subdiscipline has made various attempts to identify culture, instead of rationality, as “the pivotal intervening variable” in military development. The study distinguishes itself within its subdiscipline for its excellent sources (archival material from all three countries and interviews in Israel), skillful argumentation, and very intelligent case selection. Read more
Review: Danielle Soulliere on Re-Thinking Men
Anthony Synnott. Re-Thinking Men: Heroes, Villains and Victims. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009, 306 pp. $US 124.95 hardcover (978-0-7546-7709-3)
Re-Thinking Men aims to broaden the traditional conceptualization of gender and gender relations through a lens of binary opposites through a more comparative perspective which reconsiders how men and women are more alike than different. Synnott addresses what he rightly perceives as a glaring gap in both feminist and masculinist research and scholarship, offering a humanist perspective on gender and gender relations. He concludes that this more balanced perspective is good for both women and men, moving us closer toward achieving true gender equality and justice. … Read more
Re-Thinking Men aims to broaden the traditional conceptualization of gender and gender relations through a lens of binary opposites through a more comparative perspective which reconsiders how men and women are more alike than different. Synnott addresses what he rightly perceives as a glaring gap in both feminist and masculinist research and scholarship, offering a humanist perspective on gender and gender relations. He concludes that this more balanced perspective is good for both women and men, moving us closer toward achieving true gender equality and justice. … Read more
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Review: Randolph Haluza-DeLay on Organizing Urban America
Heidi J Swarts. Organizing Urban America: Secular and Faith-based Progressive Movements. Social Movements, Protest, and Contention Series, volume 28. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008, 336 pp. $US 25.00 paper (978-0-8166-4839-9), $US 75.00 hardcover (978-0-8166-4838-2)
With the election of a former community organizer as President of the United States, the time is ripe for scholarly attention to local community organizing. Organizing Urban America is important for two reasons. First, it focuses on the local, whereas much social movement research has been at larger geographic scales. Second, Swarts highlights culture, with an expansive conception that shows how central it is to understanding movements’ dynamics, effectiveness, and links with political opportunities and the mobilization of resources. … Read more
With the election of a former community organizer as President of the United States, the time is ripe for scholarly attention to local community organizing. Organizing Urban America is important for two reasons. First, it focuses on the local, whereas much social movement research has been at larger geographic scales. Second, Swarts highlights culture, with an expansive conception that shows how central it is to understanding movements’ dynamics, effectiveness, and links with political opportunities and the mobilization of resources. … Read more
Review: Zohreh Bayatrizi on Suicide, Foucault, History and Truth
Ian Marsh. Suicide: Foucault, History and Truth. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010, 264 pp. $US 34.99 paper (978-0-521-13001-1), $US 95.00 hardcover (978-0-521-11254-3)
Ian Marsh’s Suicide: Foucault, History and Truth chronicles the process through which suicide, similar to motherhood, became pathological at the hands of the ‘psy’ disciplines, psychiatry in particular. Here too, hormonal imbalances and mental illness are often seen as the main culprit. Marsh’s Suicide, written in the style of a “history of the present,” begins with “mapping a contemporary ‘regime of truth’ in relation to suicide,” where the author examines how a “compulsory ontology of pathology” is produced and reproduced in professional accounts of suicide, how authority is established, objects and subjects defined, and truths disseminated. … Read more
Ian Marsh’s Suicide: Foucault, History and Truth chronicles the process through which suicide, similar to motherhood, became pathological at the hands of the ‘psy’ disciplines, psychiatry in particular. Here too, hormonal imbalances and mental illness are often seen as the main culprit. Marsh’s Suicide, written in the style of a “history of the present,” begins with “mapping a contemporary ‘regime of truth’ in relation to suicide,” where the author examines how a “compulsory ontology of pathology” is produced and reproduced in professional accounts of suicide, how authority is established, objects and subjects defined, and truths disseminated. … Read more
Review: Marion Blute on Cultural and Social Selection
W. G. Runciman. The Theory of Cultural and Social Selection. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009, 266 pp. $US 27.99 paper (978-0-521-13614-3), $US 75.00 hardcover (978-0-521-19951-3)
W. G. Runciman (Walter Garrison Runciman, 3rd Viscount Runciman of Doxford, Commander of the Order of the British Empire and Fellow of the British Academy) is an historical and comparative sociologist and social theorist. Along with Anthony Giddens and Margaret Archer, he is arguably one of the three most distinguished British social theorists of his time. He has a number of honourary degrees including from Oxford, he served as President of the British Academy from 2001-2004, and he is a Foreign Honourary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. As both an abbreviation and an extension of his three volume A Treatise on Social Theory (particularly of the second volume), The Theory of Cultural and Social Selection is a welcome addition to Runciman's corpus. … Read more
W. G. Runciman (Walter Garrison Runciman, 3rd Viscount Runciman of Doxford, Commander of the Order of the British Empire and Fellow of the British Academy) is an historical and comparative sociologist and social theorist. Along with Anthony Giddens and Margaret Archer, he is arguably one of the three most distinguished British social theorists of his time. He has a number of honourary degrees including from Oxford, he served as President of the British Academy from 2001-2004, and he is a Foreign Honourary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. As both an abbreviation and an extension of his three volume A Treatise on Social Theory (particularly of the second volume), The Theory of Cultural and Social Selection is a welcome addition to Runciman's corpus. … Read more
Friday, October 8, 2010
CFP: CJS Special Issue: “Counting and Contemporary Governance”
Special Issue of The Canadian Journal of Sociology on: “Counting and Contemporary Governance”
Guest Editor:
Michael Haan, University of New Brunswick
In 1801, one of the first modern censuses in the western world was launched in the United Kingdom, motivated in part by Prime Minister Pitt's fear that Malthus's predictions about population outstripping resources signaled impending doom. At the time, only a full headcount could settle the score, helping to establish the practice of turning to numbers to solve an issue of governance. This link still exists today, which is why nearly every country counts its population.
More recently, Canada’s Conservative government stopped collecting what had previously been the mandatory long-form census data with a voluntary National Household Survey. Prime Minister Stephen Harper justified the decision as a move to increase individual liberty; detractors say that the loss of information will affect us all.
This move and the attendant political fallout has created a space for sociological reflection on the interplay between population data collection, modern governance and the politics of numbers.
Subject Coverage
Motivated by the abolishment of the long-form census, this special issue of Canadian Journal of Sociology invites contributions that address, but are not be limited to:
• What is the role of large-scale enumerations? Are they less important today than they used to be?
• Does abolishing one data collection exercise simply encourage other forms? Do these other forms already exist?
• How does data collection limit governments? Does reliance on census data, for example, constrain governance?
• Can the Harper government's decision to abolish the long-form census be read alongside a re-negotiation between Canadians and their government? Does this signify a new social contract, or a fulfillment of the original one?
• What are the implications of the change to voluntary survey for Canadian sociology?
• What political factors motivated this change in policy?
Please note that the question of whether the shift to a voluntary survey in Canada is good or bad does not appear in the above list. Authors might inevitably touch on this question, but the purpose of this special issue is to provide a space for social scientists to use this development concerning the long-form to engage in a more reflexive dialog on how or whether data collection fits into the modern governmental episteme.
Notes for Prospective Authors
Papers for this special issue will be assessed in a two-step process. First, interested authors should submit an abstract to the guest editor for consideration. Only successful authors will be asked for a full manuscript. These papers should not have been previously published nor currently be under consideration for publication elsewhere, as they will undergo a peer-review process. An invitation to submit a full paper to CJS is not a guarantee of acceptance.
Important Dates
Abstracts are requested from interested parties by December 1, 2010, and the editor will then invite for a full paper with final manuscripts expected no later than: 1 July 2011
Editors and Notes
Please email (mhaan@unb.ca) or mail your abstracts to:
Michael Haan
135A Carleton Hall
Department of Sociology,
University of New Brunswick
Fredericton, NB E3B 5A3
Guest Editor:
Michael Haan, University of New Brunswick
In 1801, one of the first modern censuses in the western world was launched in the United Kingdom, motivated in part by Prime Minister Pitt's fear that Malthus's predictions about population outstripping resources signaled impending doom. At the time, only a full headcount could settle the score, helping to establish the practice of turning to numbers to solve an issue of governance. This link still exists today, which is why nearly every country counts its population.
More recently, Canada’s Conservative government stopped collecting what had previously been the mandatory long-form census data with a voluntary National Household Survey. Prime Minister Stephen Harper justified the decision as a move to increase individual liberty; detractors say that the loss of information will affect us all.
This move and the attendant political fallout has created a space for sociological reflection on the interplay between population data collection, modern governance and the politics of numbers.
Subject Coverage
Motivated by the abolishment of the long-form census, this special issue of Canadian Journal of Sociology invites contributions that address, but are not be limited to:
• What is the role of large-scale enumerations? Are they less important today than they used to be?
• Does abolishing one data collection exercise simply encourage other forms? Do these other forms already exist?
• How does data collection limit governments? Does reliance on census data, for example, constrain governance?
• Can the Harper government's decision to abolish the long-form census be read alongside a re-negotiation between Canadians and their government? Does this signify a new social contract, or a fulfillment of the original one?
• What are the implications of the change to voluntary survey for Canadian sociology?
• What political factors motivated this change in policy?
Please note that the question of whether the shift to a voluntary survey in Canada is good or bad does not appear in the above list. Authors might inevitably touch on this question, but the purpose of this special issue is to provide a space for social scientists to use this development concerning the long-form to engage in a more reflexive dialog on how or whether data collection fits into the modern governmental episteme.
Notes for Prospective Authors
Papers for this special issue will be assessed in a two-step process. First, interested authors should submit an abstract to the guest editor for consideration. Only successful authors will be asked for a full manuscript. These papers should not have been previously published nor currently be under consideration for publication elsewhere, as they will undergo a peer-review process. An invitation to submit a full paper to CJS is not a guarantee of acceptance.
Important Dates
Abstracts are requested from interested parties by December 1, 2010, and the editor will then invite for a full paper with final manuscripts expected no later than: 1 July 2011
Editors and Notes
Please email (mhaan@unb.ca) or mail your abstracts to:
Michael Haan
135A Carleton Hall
Department of Sociology,
University of New Brunswick
Fredericton, NB E3B 5A3
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Compte rendu: Vers la république des différences
Sophie Guérard de Latour, Vers la république des différences. Toulouse, Presses Universitaires du Mirail, 2009. 313 p., 24 € ISBN 978-2-85816-935-1
Le livre de Sophie Guérard de Latour, extrait d’une thèse de philosophie politique (Université de Bordeaux III), bousculera certainement les termes du débat intellectuel en France. Il pourra aussi contribuer aux débats internationaux sur le multiculturalisme. La question est la suivante : comment défendre « la possibilité d’un multiculturalisme républicain » ? Dans cette discussion, l’auteure ne tarde pas à choisir son camp. … lire plus
Le livre de Sophie Guérard de Latour, extrait d’une thèse de philosophie politique (Université de Bordeaux III), bousculera certainement les termes du débat intellectuel en France. Il pourra aussi contribuer aux débats internationaux sur le multiculturalisme. La question est la suivante : comment défendre « la possibilité d’un multiculturalisme républicain » ? Dans cette discussion, l’auteure ne tarde pas à choisir son camp. … lire plus
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Article on CCTV and Public Sociology
Coming soon in CJS 35, 3 (Summer 2010):
Dan Lett, Sean P. Hier, and Kevin Walby “CCTV Surveillance and the Civic Conversation: A Study in Public Sociology”
The captivating idea of ‘public sociology’ has recently been debated across the social sciences. Although the debate has raised significant questions about the status of sociological knowledge production, insufficient attention has been devoted to thinking about how sociologists concretely enter into a civic conversation through the research process. Addressing this gap in the public sociology literature, we present partial findings from a Canada-wide investigation of how public-area streetscape video surveillance systems are implemented in various communities to think through some of the implications of actually doing public sociology. Data gleaned from focused group interviews in the City of Kelowna, British Columbia are presented to explore the challenges of facilitating a civic conversation about public policy on streetscape video surveillance. Read more
Dan Lett, Sean P. Hier, and Kevin Walby “CCTV Surveillance and the Civic Conversation: A Study in Public Sociology”
The captivating idea of ‘public sociology’ has recently been debated across the social sciences. Although the debate has raised significant questions about the status of sociological knowledge production, insufficient attention has been devoted to thinking about how sociologists concretely enter into a civic conversation through the research process. Addressing this gap in the public sociology literature, we present partial findings from a Canada-wide investigation of how public-area streetscape video surveillance systems are implemented in various communities to think through some of the implications of actually doing public sociology. Data gleaned from focused group interviews in the City of Kelowna, British Columbia are presented to explore the challenges of facilitating a civic conversation about public policy on streetscape video surveillance. Read more
Article on Globalization and Labour Market Outcomes
in CJS 35, 3 (Summer 2010):
Heather Zhang and Michael R. Smith, “Exposure to Global Markets, Internal Labour Markets, and Worker Compensation: Evidence from Canadian Microdata”
Because of the fact that globalization seems, in aggregate, to be associated with rising inequality, much of the sociological literature treats the process very critically. Our results suggest a more nuanced approach. Prolonged exposure to export markets is associated with higher pay and both prolonged exposure to export markets and foreign ownership are associated with higher total compensation. Pay is substantially tied to productivity, probably through exposure to international best practices. At the same time, the presence of internal labour market traits is also associated with higher pay and higher total compensation. We conclude that it makes little sense to oppose productivity and power explanations of labour market outcomes; rather, they should be regarded as joint influences on compensation determination, consistent with the broad lesson of a "post" new structuralist sociology of labour markets. Read more
Heather Zhang and Michael R. Smith, “Exposure to Global Markets, Internal Labour Markets, and Worker Compensation: Evidence from Canadian Microdata”
Because of the fact that globalization seems, in aggregate, to be associated with rising inequality, much of the sociological literature treats the process very critically. Our results suggest a more nuanced approach. Prolonged exposure to export markets is associated with higher pay and both prolonged exposure to export markets and foreign ownership are associated with higher total compensation. Pay is substantially tied to productivity, probably through exposure to international best practices. At the same time, the presence of internal labour market traits is also associated with higher pay and higher total compensation. We conclude that it makes little sense to oppose productivity and power explanations of labour market outcomes; rather, they should be regarded as joint influences on compensation determination, consistent with the broad lesson of a "post" new structuralist sociology of labour markets. Read more
Article on Same-Sex Spouses
in CJS 35, 3 (Summer 2010):
Adam Isaiah Green, “QUEER UNIONS: Same-Sex Spouses Marrying Tradition And Innovation”
Same-sex civil marriage is a focal point of debate among social conservatives, feminists, queer critics and lesbian and gay assimilationists. In this paper, I draw on in-depth interviews of thirty same-sex married spouses to explore how actual same-sex marriages relate to these debates. Among these spouses, civil marriage is perceived to provide significant legal, social and psychological resources that, in effect, consolidate the nuclear family and the institution of marriage. Yet, conversely, these spouses do not uniformly embrace traditional norms of marriage, but, rather, adopt a range of nontraditional norms and practices that, in effect, destabilize the traditional marital form. In sociological terms, however, their complexity is not surprising, as contemporary lesbians and gay men are dually socialized in the dialectic of a dominant “meaning-constitutive” tradition (Gross 2005) that valorizes (heterosexual) marriage and kinship, on the one hand, but a queer-meaning constitutive tradition that promotes sexual freedom and nontraditional gender relations, on the other. In this sense, one important sociological question for the future is the extent to which the increasing availability of same-sex marriage will transform the dialectic, eroding the structural conditions that underpin a distinctive queer meaning-constitutive tradition and, in turn, same-sex marital innovation. Read more
Adam Isaiah Green, “QUEER UNIONS: Same-Sex Spouses Marrying Tradition And Innovation”
Same-sex civil marriage is a focal point of debate among social conservatives, feminists, queer critics and lesbian and gay assimilationists. In this paper, I draw on in-depth interviews of thirty same-sex married spouses to explore how actual same-sex marriages relate to these debates. Among these spouses, civil marriage is perceived to provide significant legal, social and psychological resources that, in effect, consolidate the nuclear family and the institution of marriage. Yet, conversely, these spouses do not uniformly embrace traditional norms of marriage, but, rather, adopt a range of nontraditional norms and practices that, in effect, destabilize the traditional marital form. In sociological terms, however, their complexity is not surprising, as contemporary lesbians and gay men are dually socialized in the dialectic of a dominant “meaning-constitutive” tradition (Gross 2005) that valorizes (heterosexual) marriage and kinship, on the one hand, but a queer-meaning constitutive tradition that promotes sexual freedom and nontraditional gender relations, on the other. In this sense, one important sociological question for the future is the extent to which the increasing availability of same-sex marriage will transform the dialectic, eroding the structural conditions that underpin a distinctive queer meaning-constitutive tradition and, in turn, same-sex marital innovation. Read more
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Review: Philippe Couton on Surviving and Thriving in the Haitian Diaspora
Margarita A. Mooney, Faith Makes Us Live: Surviving and Thriving in the Haitian Diaspora. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009, 302 pp. $US 21.95 paper (978-0-520-26036-8), $US 55.00 hardcover (978-0-520-26034-4)
Faith Makes Us Live is the result of an ambitious, multisite ethnography of the Haitian Diaspora in Miami, Paris and Montreal. The author, whose Ph.D. dissertation led to this book, spoke with 150 Haitian expatriates in those three cities. The result is an original, richly detailed study of one the world’s great diasporas, and one that makes a clear, well-supported argument about the role of ethnic and mainstream religious institutions in the lives and adaptation of immigrants in three very different social settings. … Read more
Faith Makes Us Live is the result of an ambitious, multisite ethnography of the Haitian Diaspora in Miami, Paris and Montreal. The author, whose Ph.D. dissertation led to this book, spoke with 150 Haitian expatriates in those three cities. The result is an original, richly detailed study of one the world’s great diasporas, and one that makes a clear, well-supported argument about the role of ethnic and mainstream religious institutions in the lives and adaptation of immigrants in three very different social settings. … Read more
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Review: Andrew McKinnon on The Promise of Salvation
Martin Riesebrodt, The Promise of Salvation: A Theory of Religion. Translated by Steven Rendall. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009, 228 pp. $US 37.50 hardcover (978-0-226-71391-5)
General sociological theories of religion are uncommon; good general theories of religion, even rarer. This alone means that sociologists of religion are apt to be talking about Martin Riesebrodt’s most recent book for a very long time. The most recent previous attempt at such an ambitious undertaking was Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge’s A Theory of Religion in 1987 … Read more
General sociological theories of religion are uncommon; good general theories of religion, even rarer. This alone means that sociologists of religion are apt to be talking about Martin Riesebrodt’s most recent book for a very long time. The most recent previous attempt at such an ambitious undertaking was Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge’s A Theory of Religion in 1987 … Read more
Monday, August 23, 2010
Compte rendu: La politique de la stupéfaction
Nicolas Carrier, La politique de la stupéfaction. Pérennité de la prohibition des drogues. Coll. Le sens social. Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2008. 376 p. 19 € (ISBN 978-2-7535-0591-9)
Dans un contexte de critique ouverte et abondante du régime de prohibition, la persistance de la criminalisation des usages de drogues intrigue : le système juridico-pénal tient-il compte des contestations qui lui sont adressées et, le cas échéant, comment fait-il pour s’en immuniser ? A partir de cette double question pertinente et actuelle, Nicolas Carrier, professeur à l’Institutute of Criminology and Criminal Justice de Carleton University (Canada), construit un ouvrage à la fois dense et didactique sur les grands enjeux contemporains du contrôle social, de la criminalisation, du droit et du pouvoir. … lire plus
Dans un contexte de critique ouverte et abondante du régime de prohibition, la persistance de la criminalisation des usages de drogues intrigue : le système juridico-pénal tient-il compte des contestations qui lui sont adressées et, le cas échéant, comment fait-il pour s’en immuniser ? A partir de cette double question pertinente et actuelle, Nicolas Carrier, professeur à l’Institutute of Criminology and Criminal Justice de Carleton University (Canada), construit un ouvrage à la fois dense et didactique sur les grands enjeux contemporains du contrôle social, de la criminalisation, du droit et du pouvoir. … lire plus
Review: Julie Scott Jones on Constructing Theory in the Field
Antony J. Puddephatt, William Shaffir and Steven W. Kleinknecht, eds., Ethnographies Revisited: Constructing Theory in the Field. New York: Routledge, 2009, 276pp. $US 44.95 paper (978-0-415-45221-2), $US 140.00 hardcover (978-0-415-452220-5).
Ethnographies Revisited sets out to explore and demonstrate how ethnographers generate and apply theory within the process of conducting ethnographic field research. The editors argue that there are numerous books on the “doing” of ethnographic research, particularly those that focus on what we could term “reflexivity.” Indeed, post-Writing Culture, it is de rigeur for ethnographers to engage in discussions of ethical, political, personal and other reflexive and reflective concerns. Such reflexivity provides important insights for researchers, students, and other audiences. However, Ethnographies Revisited takes the view that in this focus on the reflexive, the theoretical has become even more hidden from view. The central aim of the book then is to explore how ethnographers generate their theoretical frameworks and develop theoretical concepts … Read more
Ethnographies Revisited sets out to explore and demonstrate how ethnographers generate and apply theory within the process of conducting ethnographic field research. The editors argue that there are numerous books on the “doing” of ethnographic research, particularly those that focus on what we could term “reflexivity.” Indeed, post-Writing Culture, it is de rigeur for ethnographers to engage in discussions of ethical, political, personal and other reflexive and reflective concerns. Such reflexivity provides important insights for researchers, students, and other audiences. However, Ethnographies Revisited takes the view that in this focus on the reflexive, the theoretical has become even more hidden from view. The central aim of the book then is to explore how ethnographers generate their theoretical frameworks and develop theoretical concepts … Read more
Review: Alan Bourke on University Education and Enlightenment
Ian Angus, Love the Questions: University Education and Enlightenment. Semaphore Series, Winnipeg: Arbeiter Ring Publishing, 2009, 102 pp. $14.95 paper (978-18940337-40-2)
What is the role of the university in contemporary society? What is the purpose of a university education? What are the implications for citizenship and social awareness if their cultivation is no longer safeguarded against the market-oriented functions of the university? In keeping with the spirit of inquiry espoused throughout Love the Questions: University Education and Enlightenment, Ian Angus does not claim to have definitive answers; rather, his aim is to ensure that such questions continue being posed. Angus seeks to avoid another lament for the decline of the university … Read more
What is the role of the university in contemporary society? What is the purpose of a university education? What are the implications for citizenship and social awareness if their cultivation is no longer safeguarded against the market-oriented functions of the university? In keeping with the spirit of inquiry espoused throughout Love the Questions: University Education and Enlightenment, Ian Angus does not claim to have definitive answers; rather, his aim is to ensure that such questions continue being posed. Angus seeks to avoid another lament for the decline of the university … Read more
Review: Sylvia Peacock on Occupational Prestige in Canada since 1965
John Goyder, The Prestige Squeeze: Occupational Prestige in Canada since 1965. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2009, 236 pp. $34.95 paper (978-0-7735-3611-1), $85.00 hardcover (978-0-7735-3582-4)
The problem John Goyder depicts in The Prestige Squeeze has a long tradition in sociology, going back to Pareto, Sorokin, Marx and Weber: changes in the ranking of occupations and how they come about. With such a lot of historical baggage, new hypotheses are few and far between. Goyder offers some solid and forthright ones, befitting the current state of affairs in this field: 1. education and income are highly connected to prestige, and gender, skills, occupational presentation, and characteristics of the rater influence occupational prestige rankings; 2. higher income inequality disperses prestige ratings (while individualization caps upper echelons); 3. postmodernism has a negative impact on consensus in ratings. … Read more
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Review: Vivian Shalla on Interactive Service Employment and Workplace Identities
Linda McDowell, Working Bodies: Interactive Service Employment and Workplace Identities. Malden MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2009, 288 pp. $47.95 paper (978-1-4051-5978-4), $107.95 hardcover (978-1-4051-5977-7)
Working Bodies: Interactive Service Employment and Workplace Identities is testimony to both Linda McDowell’s own expertise as a researcher and theorist of work, and the tremendous output of quality scholarship on service sector employment over the past two decades. Between the covers of this beautifully crafted book is a thoughtful, innovative and thorough analysis of high-touch interactive service work that draws on numerous case studies and ethnographies, mostly from the United Kingdom, and on the author’s own original research. … Read more
Working Bodies: Interactive Service Employment and Workplace Identities is testimony to both Linda McDowell’s own expertise as a researcher and theorist of work, and the tremendous output of quality scholarship on service sector employment over the past two decades. Between the covers of this beautifully crafted book is a thoughtful, innovative and thorough analysis of high-touch interactive service work that draws on numerous case studies and ethnographies, mostly from the United Kingdom, and on the author’s own original research. … Read more
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Review: Jennie Haw on Genetics and Society
Paul Atkinson, Peter Glasner and Margaret Lock, eds., The Handbook of Genetics & Society: Mapping the New Genomic Era. Genetics and Society. New York: Routledge, 2009, 500 pp. $US 155.00 hardcover (978-0-415-41080-9)
Appearing a decade since the mapping of the human genome, The Handbook of Genetics & Society provides a timely survey of contemporary social science research on genomics. In contrast to the narrower focus of other recently published collections on the new genomics, this collection provides a comprehensive survey showing the breadth and diversity of the field. In their incisive introduction the editors argue the need to rethink bio-economies and innovation in the new genomic era. … Read more
Appearing a decade since the mapping of the human genome, The Handbook of Genetics & Society provides a timely survey of contemporary social science research on genomics. In contrast to the narrower focus of other recently published collections on the new genomics, this collection provides a comprehensive survey showing the breadth and diversity of the field. In their incisive introduction the editors argue the need to rethink bio-economies and innovation in the new genomic era. … Read more
Friday, August 20, 2010
Review: Bob Russell on Women in India’s Call Center Industry
Reena Patel, Working the Night Shift: Women in India’s Call Center Industry. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010, 208 pp. $US 21.95 paper (978-0-8047-6914-3), $US 60.00 hardcover (978-0-8047-6913-6)
It will be difficult for anyone who has not recently conducted research in India to appreciate the massive social changes which the outsourcing revolution has brought to that society. Reena Patel’s excellent ethnography, Working the Night Shift does, however, succeed in conveying to readers a sense of what is involved when new customer service industries originating in the West explode on the local scene. … Read more
It will be difficult for anyone who has not recently conducted research in India to appreciate the massive social changes which the outsourcing revolution has brought to that society. Reena Patel’s excellent ethnography, Working the Night Shift does, however, succeed in conveying to readers a sense of what is involved when new customer service industries originating in the West explode on the local scene. … Read more
Review: Benjamin Muller on Surveillance
Sean Hier and Joshua Greenberg, eds., Surveillance: Power, Problems, and Politics. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2009, 296 pp. $32.95 paper (978-0-7748-1612-0), $85.00 hardcover (978-0-7748-1611-3)
Surveillance studies have emerged as a vibrant interdisciplinary field of scholarship, and Canadian scholars have made significant empirical and theoretical contributions to this field. Consistently paying more than just a casual nod to Lyon’s notion of “social sorting,” Haggerty and Ericson’s “surveillant assemblage,” and Haggerty, Ericson, Hier, and others’ accounts of surveillance and “visibility,” which are essential Canadian contributions to this field of research, this collection advances Canadian surveillance studies. … Read more
Surveillance studies have emerged as a vibrant interdisciplinary field of scholarship, and Canadian scholars have made significant empirical and theoretical contributions to this field. Consistently paying more than just a casual nod to Lyon’s notion of “social sorting,” Haggerty and Ericson’s “surveillant assemblage,” and Haggerty, Ericson, Hier, and others’ accounts of surveillance and “visibility,” which are essential Canadian contributions to this field of research, this collection advances Canadian surveillance studies. … Read more
Review: Mark Stoddart on Environmental Justice in Canada
Julian Agyeman, Peter Cole, Randolph Haluza-DeLay and Pat O’Riley, eds., Speaking for Ourselves: Environmental Justice in Canada. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2009, 292 pp. $32.95 paper (978-0-7748-1619-9), $85.00 hardcover (978-0-7748-1618-2)
Speaking for Ourselves brings together scholars from across the environmental social sciences to examine the multiple forms that environmental justice takes in Canada. Prior research on environmental justice focused predominantly on the United States, where the concept gained sociological attention through research on racialized patterns of exposure to environmental risks and the social movements that organized against environmental racism. Like much American research on environmental justice, one of the recurring themes in Speaking for Ourselves is that the social justice dimensions of environmental politics often go unexamined by mainstream environmental organizations. However, the editors and contributors argue for a different understanding of environmental justice in Canada than in the United States. … Read more
Speaking for Ourselves brings together scholars from across the environmental social sciences to examine the multiple forms that environmental justice takes in Canada. Prior research on environmental justice focused predominantly on the United States, where the concept gained sociological attention through research on racialized patterns of exposure to environmental risks and the social movements that organized against environmental racism. Like much American research on environmental justice, one of the recurring themes in Speaking for Ourselves is that the social justice dimensions of environmental politics often go unexamined by mainstream environmental organizations. However, the editors and contributors argue for a different understanding of environmental justice in Canada than in the United States. … Read more
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Review: David Lyon on Varieties of Secularism in a Secular Age
Michael Warner, Jonathan VanAntwerpen and Craig Calhoun, eds., Varieties of Secularism in a Secular Age. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010, 352 pp. $US 45.00 hardcover (978-0-674-04857-7).
This book is a series of appreciative but trenchant responses to Charles Taylor’s intellectual blockbuster, A Secular Age (2007). While, like Taylor, they deal in philosophical issues, the specific perspectives include anthropology, history, political studies, sociology and theology. The challenge to sociology is profound. The new ways of conceiving the “secular,” expounded at length by Taylor, are variously explored, probed, questioned, criticized and affirmed by the authors, … Read more
This book is a series of appreciative but trenchant responses to Charles Taylor’s intellectual blockbuster, A Secular Age (2007). While, like Taylor, they deal in philosophical issues, the specific perspectives include anthropology, history, political studies, sociology and theology. The challenge to sociology is profound. The new ways of conceiving the “secular,” expounded at length by Taylor, are variously explored, probed, questioned, criticized and affirmed by the authors, … Read more
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Review: John Myles on Religion, Class Coalitions, and Welfare States
Kees van Kersbergen and Philip Manow, eds., Religion, Class Coalitions, and Welfare States. Cambridge Studies in Social Theory, Religion and Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009, 318 pp. $US 24.99 paper (978-0-521-72395-4), $US 80.00 hardcover (978-0-521-89791-4)
Religion, Class Coalitions and Welfare States is undoubtedly the most interesting and useful analysis of the formation of modern welfare states I have read in many a year. Once begun, I found it difficult to put the volume down and, for whatever reason, I find that is increasingly rare. As Andrew Gould writes in his cover blurb: “If you think you know everything about class coalitions and social policies, think again.” My reaction when I put the book down was: “How could we have ignored all this for so long?” … Read more
Religion, Class Coalitions and Welfare States is undoubtedly the most interesting and useful analysis of the formation of modern welfare states I have read in many a year. Once begun, I found it difficult to put the volume down and, for whatever reason, I find that is increasingly rare. As Andrew Gould writes in his cover blurb: “If you think you know everything about class coalitions and social policies, think again.” My reaction when I put the book down was: “How could we have ignored all this for so long?” … Read more
Review: Avi Goldberg on How Ordinary People Change the Middle East
Asef Bayat, Life as Politics: How Ordinary People Change the Middle East. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009, 320 pp. $US 21.95 paper (978-0-8047-6924-2), $US 60.00 hardcover (978-0-8047-6923-5)
In this book on social change within Arab and Muslim societies in the Middle East, Asef Bayat brings together the empirical cases and theoretical positions with which he has been engaged throughout his scholarship. Addressing debates about social development and democratization that are germane to the fields of social movements, Middle East/Islamic studies, and international relations Bayat argues that everyday social dynamics are altering societies in the Middle East in ways that are usually unacknowledged by onlookers in the West and undesired by authoritarian holders of power in the region. … Read more
In this book on social change within Arab and Muslim societies in the Middle East, Asef Bayat brings together the empirical cases and theoretical positions with which he has been engaged throughout his scholarship. Addressing debates about social development and democratization that are germane to the fields of social movements, Middle East/Islamic studies, and international relations Bayat argues that everyday social dynamics are altering societies in the Middle East in ways that are usually unacknowledged by onlookers in the West and undesired by authoritarian holders of power in the region. … Read more
Review: Axel van den Berg on Economists and Societies
Marion Fourcade, Economists and Societies: Discipline and Profession in the United States, Britain, and France, 1890s to 1990s. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009, 416 pp. $US 35.00 hardcover (978-0-691-11760-7)
Economists and Societies offers an institutionalist account of the national differences in the way economics is practiced, perceived and institutionalized in the US, Britain and France. It operates at the cross-roads of several recently flourishing research areas: neoinstitutionalism, the sociology of knowledge, the sociology of the professions, and economic sociology. With the latter it shares the fundamental commitment to offer “a critique of economics’ universalizing discourse.” But in this case the usual critique of the economists’ alleged one-size-fits-all approach to the real world is extended to the discipline’s own supposed universalism. … Read more
Economists and Societies offers an institutionalist account of the national differences in the way economics is practiced, perceived and institutionalized in the US, Britain and France. It operates at the cross-roads of several recently flourishing research areas: neoinstitutionalism, the sociology of knowledge, the sociology of the professions, and economic sociology. With the latter it shares the fundamental commitment to offer “a critique of economics’ universalizing discourse.” But in this case the usual critique of the economists’ alleged one-size-fits-all approach to the real world is extended to the discipline’s own supposed universalism. … Read more
Review: Elaine Power on Children, Food and Identity
Allison James, Anne Trine Kjørholt and Vebjørg Tingstad, eds., Children, Food and Identity in Everyday Life. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, 208 pp. $US 85.00 hardcover (978-0-230-57599-8).
Both childhood and food are the objects of considerable anxiety in the contemporary public sphere; these anxieties have been interwoven and accentuated by concerns about rising rates of childhood obesity. Public health attention has thus turned to issues such as the school food environment, children’s exposure to marketing, and children’s access to fast food. Implicit in public health debates about childhood obesity are assumptions about the nature of childhood and children’s agency (or lack thereof); the relationship between the child and the family, and the child and society; ideas of risk and responsibility; and the ways in which notions of health are implicated in contemporary constructions of identity … Read more
Both childhood and food are the objects of considerable anxiety in the contemporary public sphere; these anxieties have been interwoven and accentuated by concerns about rising rates of childhood obesity. Public health attention has thus turned to issues such as the school food environment, children’s exposure to marketing, and children’s access to fast food. Implicit in public health debates about childhood obesity are assumptions about the nature of childhood and children’s agency (or lack thereof); the relationship between the child and the family, and the child and society; ideas of risk and responsibility; and the ways in which notions of health are implicated in contemporary constructions of identity … Read more
Review: Jeff Shantz on Global Justice Networks
Paul Routledge and Andrew Cumbers, Global Justice Networks: Geographies of Transnational Solidarity. Perspectives on Democratic Practice. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2009, 224 pp. $US 84.95 hardcover (978-0-7190-7685-5)
What have been called the global justice or alternative globalization movements have been identified by numerous commentators as the most significant development in anti-capitalist or anti-systemic politics since the fall of the Berlin Wall and Soviet communism. Especially since the events of Seattle in 1999 (but dating at least to 1994's Zapatista uprising) the global justice movements have challenged the “End of History” triumphalism of neoliberal capitalism and posed prospects for an alternative global future based on justice and solidarity rather than profit and competition … Read more
What have been called the global justice or alternative globalization movements have been identified by numerous commentators as the most significant development in anti-capitalist or anti-systemic politics since the fall of the Berlin Wall and Soviet communism. Especially since the events of Seattle in 1999 (but dating at least to 1994's Zapatista uprising) the global justice movements have challenged the “End of History” triumphalism of neoliberal capitalism and posed prospects for an alternative global future based on justice and solidarity rather than profit and competition … Read more
Monday, August 16, 2010
Review: Becki Ross on Mindy S. Bradley-Engen's Naked Lives
Mindy S. Bradley-Engen, Naked Lives: Inside the Worlds of Exotic Dance. Excelsior Editions. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2009, 146 pp. $US 14.95 paper (978-1-4384-2606-8), $US 45.00 hardcover (978-1-4384-2605-1)
In this slim, 146-page volume, Mindy Bradley-Engen contributes insights to a field that has expanded swiftly over the past ten years. Now a sub-genre of sexuality studies, “exotic dance” has stirred the imagination and desire of feminist sociologists, many of whom draw on personal experiences in the strip trade. Bradley-Engen adds to recent historical works and a flurry of contemporary case studies a unique focus on interaction processes and structural features … Read more
In this slim, 146-page volume, Mindy Bradley-Engen contributes insights to a field that has expanded swiftly over the past ten years. Now a sub-genre of sexuality studies, “exotic dance” has stirred the imagination and desire of feminist sociologists, many of whom draw on personal experiences in the strip trade. Bradley-Engen adds to recent historical works and a flurry of contemporary case studies a unique focus on interaction processes and structural features … Read more
Review essay by Neil McLaughlin: Totalitarianism, Social Science and the Margins
Peter Baehr, Hannah Arendt, Totalitarianism, and the Social Sciences. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010, 248 pp. $US 55.00 hardcover (978-0-8047-5650-1)
We can always count on wide historical learning, deep theoretical insight, close textual reading, graceful writing and sensible judgments on contemporary political issues when encountering essays, articles and books by Peter Baehr. Hannah Arendt, Totalitarianism and the Social Sciences is certainly no exception. Organized around the engagement of sociologists David Riesman, Raymond Aron and Jules Monnerot with Arendt’s 1951 classic The Origins of Totalitarianism, Baehr’s concise, well-written book raises big questions about Nazism, Communism, social science and, in the final, speculative chapter, radical Islam. Read more …
We can always count on wide historical learning, deep theoretical insight, close textual reading, graceful writing and sensible judgments on contemporary political issues when encountering essays, articles and books by Peter Baehr. Hannah Arendt, Totalitarianism and the Social Sciences is certainly no exception. Organized around the engagement of sociologists David Riesman, Raymond Aron and Jules Monnerot with Arendt’s 1951 classic The Origins of Totalitarianism, Baehr’s concise, well-written book raises big questions about Nazism, Communism, social science and, in the final, speculative chapter, radical Islam. Read more …
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Review: Fiona Kay on Tamara Relis's Perceptions in Litigation and Mediation
Tamara Relis, Perceptions in Litigation and Mediation: Lawyers, Defendants, Plaintiffs and Gendered Parties. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 304 pp. $US 85.00 hardcover (978-0-521-51731-7).
Tamara Relis has crafted a profoundly astute book addressing the central question: How do professional and lay actors understand and experience litigated case processing leading up to and including mediation in legal disputes? Her book offers a wealth of empirical insight to current debates on styles of law practice, formal justice versus informalism, motivations underlying why plaintiffs sue, and dispute transformation debates … Read more
Tamara Relis has crafted a profoundly astute book addressing the central question: How do professional and lay actors understand and experience litigated case processing leading up to and including mediation in legal disputes? Her book offers a wealth of empirical insight to current debates on styles of law practice, formal justice versus informalism, motivations underlying why plaintiffs sue, and dispute transformation debates … Read more
Review: Gerardo Otero on William I. Robinson's Latin America and Global Capitalism
William I. Robinson, Latin America and Global Capitalism: A Critical Globalization Perspective. Johns Hopkins Studies in Globalization. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008, 440 pp. $US 55.00 hardcover (978-0-8018-9039-0)
William Robinson's goal in Latin America and Global Capitalism is to develop a theory of global capitalism, with Latin America as his empirical referent. Because “transnational or global space is coming to supplant national spaces” (p. 7), he treats this system as if it were a world-nation-state: a global, transnational production system … Read more
William Robinson's goal in Latin America and Global Capitalism is to develop a theory of global capitalism, with Latin America as his empirical referent. Because “transnational or global space is coming to supplant national spaces” (p. 7), he treats this system as if it were a world-nation-state: a global, transnational production system … Read more
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