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
CJS Blog publishes news about the Canadian Journal of Sociology, including abstracts of forthcoming articles, and links to advance versions of book reviews.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)